Fantasy Baseball Today - Cease Trending Up, Baz Trending Down! Sell-High On These Players? (5/8 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 8, 2025

Shane Baz has struggled in three of his past four starts (2:30). ... Dylan Cease just had his best start of the season (10:15). ... TJ Friedl should be rostered in more leagues (12:32). ... News (17:47): Hunter Greene left with a groin injury. ... Lawrence Butler was moved down in the Athletics lineup (30:18). ... Should you sell-high on Max Fried, Sonny Gray and others (32:55)? ... Dylan Moore continues to run (45:55). ... Michael Wacha and Gunnar Hoglund pitched well here (51:21). ... Hold or drop Grant Holmes and Yusei Kikuchi (55:27)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (1:00:00). 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. All right, so what do we do with Shane Bosz? Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, May 8th.

I am Frank Stample, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. today on the show. Dylan Cease is trending up. Let's hope he's healthy. Shane Bos trending down. We have sell-high candidates, injury updates, and much more. Let's jump in. Holy Toledo. The element of surprise, brains supreme. All right. I hate to start on a bad note, but Chris, talk to us about Shane Boss. Yeah, oh my goodness gracious can apply to a bad performance as well. And in Shane Boss's case, it's two really, really bad performances in a row after he looked like... And three of four.

Yeah, and after he looked like one of the preeminent breakouts of the entire season. And I wish I could say I was surprised, but I'm actually not because, you know, I wrote a piece about him last week. It was three and third inning, six run runs, two walks, three strikeouts, tough matchup against the Phillies. but again, two bad starts in a row, three out of the last four. And I wrote about him last week. And my main takeaway was he's just the early season strikeouts were not sustainable because he was pitching way too much in the strike zone without getting whiffs in the strike zone. And he wasn't getting chases on pitches out of the strike zone. And well, you look at today, 61% of his pitches were in the strike zone.

the Phillies pitcher, Phillies hitters swung at 75% of those pitches and made contact on 92% of those swings. That's just not going to cut it unless you're really, really good at generating weak contact. And that's a skill set that Shane Boss has shown over the last two seasons, but we're talking about a relatively small sample size.

And that's still not going to generate strikeouts. And strikeouts have dried up lately. It's four over the last two starts. I think it's fewer than it's three or fewer in three of the last four. I'm not giving up on Shane Boss. I'm not saying you should drop him, but clearly you missed the sell high window. And I do think he very much was a sell high candidate in a way that I'm not sure I feel about Max Meyer. I'm interested to see what you guys think about that comparison.

But Max Meyer's early season success has felt more. sustainable than Shane Boz's. And Shane Boss just, I still think he's super talented. Obviously, he's averaging 97 miles per hour with his four seamer, big time prospect. But he needs something else. Whether it's throw the four seamer above the zone more often or bury the curveball and change up a little more often or work on getting that slider back. You know, that was the thing that we were talking about last season. he lost the slider after Tommy John's surgery.

I was hoping a year further removed from the injury, he'd be a little more comfortable throwing it, but that's not what we've seen. He threw it four times today. I would like to see Shane Baas come out in the next start and throw that pitch more and just see what happens because this current approach doesn't work. Yeah, I mean, so you kind of brought up a few points there.

I'm not sure which one to address first. but I would just point to first three starts. Two of them he had double-digit strikeouts. You don't see that very often, except from very talented pitchers. And so I will say in a way, the way I feel vindicated by this is going to be kind of funny because they did a stupid thing. And that's why I feel vindicated is it was like the one, the clearest small sample example of me. elevating a player, a non-elite player into elite territory. Like I did that with Boz after he had two double-digit strikeout efforts in his first

three starts and it's come back to bite me as it usually does when you do that, when you overreact to a small sample like that. Now my reasoning at the time was, yeah, two double-digit strikeout efforts in his first three starts. Top top prospect, this was the top prospect. And I was concerned about the slider. I had been concerned about the slider. I was fading Shane Boss pretty hard.

to the season because of that. But that curveball seemed like a world beater at the time. It seemed like it had effectively taken the place of the slider was doing what the slider had done earlier in his career prior to Tommy John's surgery, and it would be enough. But in recent starts, it obviously hasn't been. And he seems to be searching because the characteristics of that curveball were way different in this start.

It was up 1.3 miles per hour. It had four fewer inches of vertical break. because it was a harder, straighter curveball, which, I mean, maybe he's just lost the feel for that pitch at some point and he's trying to regain it or maybe he's realizes it's not working like it was at the start of the year. And so he's just trying different things. I'm encouraged that he's trying different things. If that's the case, I'm encouraged that like the rays are really good at diagnostics. They're a good diagnostic organization. and I think

I think Shane Boz is absolutely worth holding on to. The thought did occur to me. He has a couple of options left, and Joe Boyle is blowing up at AAA. Is there a chance? Blowing up in a good way. Yeah, in a good way. He's thrown like 70% of his pitches.

No, not that many. 65% of his pitches for strikes ever his last four starts, majors included, which is great for Joe Boyle. Like, is there a chance state option? and give him a chance to figure it out in the miners, get boil a shot. Obviously, it wouldn't be a long-term situation.

But the thought did occur to me. I don't think it's completely crazy, but I would bet against that happening. Shane Boss, still 96% rostered. You know, I tweeted out. I'm not saying drop him, by the way. Yeah, yeah. I mean, both of you guys reiterated to hold on to him.

But that was the question I kept getting is, can I drop this guy? So the answer is no. But that was after I tweeted his last four starts, the collective numbers here, 838 ERA and a 181 whip for Shane Boz. He is 72% started on CBS, and it looks like he might be in line for two starts next week, at the Blue Jays and at the Marlins.

I'm probably starting him. Me too. Yep, yep. But I don't feel great about it. Now, where did you guys fall on the Boz versus Meyer question? Oh yeah, that was the other thing. So I, I, nobody was moving Meyer into their top 20 at any point like people were doing with Bosz. No, but I had never.

As a cell high comparison, there, there is any comparison. I had never moved boss that high. You haven't. No. For me, before their most recent, I update my rankings every Thursday. That's my policy. I'm not going to, I'll do minor adjustments, but I want to do just one big one every Thursday. and really dive into it.

And my most recent one, Boss was 38, Meyer was 42. So they're already pretty close for me. Yeah. Yeah, they've gotten a lot closer. I'm not sure if it was top 20. It was at least top 24 for Bos with me. Yeah. And I did update here on Wednesday.

I moved Boz into the mid-30s, but after the start, I moved them back down a little bit to 42. So that's right behind Robbie Ray. It is still ahead of Max Meyer, who I have at 49, but they're both top 50s. starting pitchers. I just think, obviously, the team context is just so much better for Shane Bosz. But Meyer has a much better elite pitch. Like his sweeper is better than anything that Shane Boz has, the slider is better than anything that Shane Boss has if he can get those, that curveball and

that change up back on track here. Someone who is trending up, let's talk about Dylan Sees, who at his best start of the season. He took a no-hitter into the seventh inning at the Yankees, six and two-thirds, one hit, one run, nine strikeouts, 20 whiffs on 86 pitches. 14 of those coming on the slider. His velocity was up in this one. Fastball average 97.8 miles per hour. And then he left with a trainer due to a forearm cramp. So you think forearm, all right, that's a little scary.

Cramp, not the worst thing that could happen. It's not a strain. Apparently he has passed all tests. He told reporters. With flying colors. With flying colors. He told all reporters afterwards that he expects to make. make his next start, it's still a little worrisome because, you know,

velocity being up and there was a forearm thing here. But this was the best by far that Dylan Cis has looked all season. Yeah. And man, if Dylan Cis gets hurt after George Kirby and Logan Gilbert got hurt, we're just. Then we can never use the word safe in a pitching podcast ever again. And Corbyn Burns, we're just done with like, well, he has no injury history. So he's, yeah, we're just done with that, I guess.

But no, it doesn't sound like it's serious. It's concerning just because anything that happens to a pitcher is concerning. Like if he sleeps the wrong way, it's concerning because the margins for error tend to be relatively small. But I always had faith that Dillon Seas was going to get back to this. You know, this is, Dillin Seas is the right-handed Blake Snell, except he doesn't get hurt. And Blake Snell does. But as in that, they're basically the same guy. They're maddeningly inconsistent, but they always turn it around at some point.

And I was very confident Dylan Seas was going to do that. And it seemed pretty obvious at the time. I think it was last week we gave out Chris Sale and Dylan Sees as by low candidates. And what do you know? They're not by low candidates anymore. So you had your chance. It's gone now. Yep.

Yeah, maybe for C. I mean, if Cs turns around, it gives up four runs next time. think he's probably back to being a by-low candidate. And I would still buy. Sale has had like three good starts in a row, so maybe less so for him. Yeah. All right, Scott, let's go over to you, your player of the night. T.J. Friedel, somebody I know you like quite a bit.

I do like Friedel quite a bit. I had him as a sleeper coming into the year. And the basic argument was, okay, two years ago, 2023. Well, first, let me say what T.J. Friedel did today. He had two runs in Atlanta. It was the second and third home runs of the year. He's been the Reds leadoff hitter all season long, has gotten on base at a pretty good clip,

has stolen bases at a really good clip, like nearly a 40 steel pace for Friedel. So Francona's letting him run. And that's good to see because last year, Friedel missed a lot of time with a lot of injuries, but a hamstring being chief among them. them and he was less prolific of a base stealer because of it. But what he did do in 2024 was hit for power still, 13 home runs in his 85 games.

And the reason that was notable is because that was the most, the most dubious part of T.J. Friedel's 2023 breakthrough. So, 2023, T.J. Friedel, he's a top, I looked in points leagues. He was the 23rd best outfielder in fantasy that year, 3.09 points per game. must start basically 18 homers 27 steals hit 279 hit lead off most of the year big breakout the most dubious part of that was the 18 home runs because it's sort of like isaq paredes he he's one of the he makes some of the weakest contact in all of baseball so would that power translate well last year in between all the injuries the fact he had 13 homers and 85 games i think verified that that is a legitimate part of friedel skill set in spite of the

low exit velocities. So it was just a matter of keeping him healthy, getting him running again, which clearly he's doing. And I thought he could get back to those 20, 23 numbers where he's a must start out fielder in fantasy. The power hadn't been there yet, but suddenly he's up to three home runs.

And it's all coming together for T.J. Frito, looks like it's playing out exactly as I hoped. And yet his roster rate is still kind of lagging. It's around 70% now. But T.J. Friedel's been one of the, and this happens a lot of times with hitters, with the weekly sleeper hitters or streamer hitters, if you want to call them that, where I just keep having to feature the same guy over and over again

because his roster rate is not rising fast enough. And so if he has great matchups and he's at home, T.J. Friedel was very high on the sleeper hitters. If he had middling matchups and was on the road, he was still on the sleeper hitters, but he was lower. And I'm hoping with this two-homer game he can finally just remove himself from consideration because I'm tired of writing about him every Thursday. All right, Scott.

The next question, do you take T.J. Friedel over either Kyle Stowers or Andy Paez, who are seemingly the hottest waiver wire outfielder in the past week or so. Yeah, I've had him ranked ahead of those guys all year. All right, before we take our first break, just a reminder that we don't talk about

prospects often on this podcast, but we do talk about them once per week on our shorter podcast, FBT Express. So if you want to hear about prospects, that episode will be out later today on Thursday. Make sure to follow and subscribe to FBT Express wherever you listen to podcast. And thanks to those for watching us live. Make sure to hit the like button and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. Let's take a break and we'll be back right after this quick commercial break. Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today. News and No. Hunter Green left his start early due to a right groin strain. He'll undergo an MRI on Thursday.

Terry Francona said that Green felt a grab, not a pop, while warming up in the fourth inning. And before leaving, he looked great again. Three shutout innings, six strikeouts. The velocity was up yet again for Hunter Green. And what do you know? This comes on the day that I finally moved him into my top 12 starting pitchers. I moved him into my top 10, number eight, baby.

Let's hope, uh, let's hope. this doesn't lead to an IEL stand. At least it is the groin and not the, not something related to his arm. Not that a groin injury couldn't sideline him for multiple weeks. It could. But it wouldn't have the, the sort of cloud of doom hanging over it,

the sort of Damocles. And that would be good. Yeah, he averaged a hundred Hunter Green on his fastball today. After already, like, I don't feel like this has gotten enough attention. We've talked about the control. controlled the fact that he was already one of the hardest throwers in the game and his average velocity is up nearly two miles per hour this year prior to the additional increase in this game

it's great like you can understand why hunter green looks like a si young contender now but you know and and maybe this groin injury will put him on ice and it'll it'll take the pressure off his arm you know if he was already having trouble staying healthy averaging 97 how's it going to go averaging 99 that's that's the lingering in question for Hunter Green. Not enough to keep him out of my top 10 at this point, but enough to to keep me in a state of

genuine, you know, kind of perpetual concern. Yeah, I think the biggest concern, like obviously this is if Hunter Green had to get injured and he didn't, you know, it's not how it works, but if he had to get injured, you'd rather be a groin than any kind of arm injury. but the concern would be that it just knocks him off track, right?

That he just, he is fine. He's able to pitch through it, but throws the kinetic chain off a little bit, even if he's healthy, it's just not quite there and he just loses something, right? Like that would be the concern here. And it's a minor concern until we see what he looks like. And, you know, frankly, as good as he's been,

I would rather them just put him on the IL. and just make sure that he gets 15 days off and comes back at 100%. You know, I would rather that than he come back at 97% and potentially screw something up, right? Because I just, he's been so good. He's been so dominant in a way that looks sustainable where last year I think we had some questions about how sustainable the performance was because if you remember, his strike rate was actually down. year and his walk rate was up and he had this breakout because he became elite at limiting hard contact well this year all of a sudden his command as the control is the best it's ever been his strikeout rates way up and that happened at the end of last season yeah we saw we saw kind of two versions of hunter green last year to be fair it was the last like 11 starts the walk rate was was way lower his command has been really good for like the last three months that he's pitched and it might just be that that's what he is now I would rather they give him the extra time off to make sure that there's nothing here,

even if all the testing come back is fine. And he said he's going to have an MRI on Thursday to confirm. So the best case scenario, grade one or lower groin strain, put them on the aisle for 15 days. Is that kind of what you're presenting? Well, I guess the best case scenario is it was cramping. It's nothing wrong at all. But that seems like an unlikely one. I would rather, given the stakes, they,

take every precaution possible. Yes, personally. That's not up to me. I'm not the trainer. I'm not Hunter Green. That would be my preference. Joe Ryan has been scratched from a Thursday start due to an illness. Hopefully he is clear to start at some point this weekend. William Contreras was out of the lineup Wednesday after X-rays revealed a fractured middle finger on his left hand. And apparently he plans to play through the injury, which doesn't sound great. Might explain why he's off to the slow start. I don't think there's anything actionable.

I mean, it's not like you're going to move him down the rankings, right? Who would you move ahead of William Contreras? Well, Adley Rushman's off to his own bad start. Be Cow Raleigh would be the guy, but I'm not going to. That would be like a 70 spot jump in the overall rankings from the preseason, which maybe it's justified, but I feel like we know who Cow rally is. It's probably just a hot streak. You know, I don't, obviously it's not like a break with some kind of displacement or anything that would require its own medical intervention.

And he's been playing with it for a while. I would think left-handed, for right-handed guy, left-hand, the biggest concern would actually be catching, absorbing the shock on that finger over and over again. but hitting wise you know like I don't even know that you really need to have that that left middle finger on your on your weaker hand

even on the bat you know like all the strengths coming from the top hand it's kind of just there to add stability I don't even know that you need it so I yeah cut it off I'm gonna say you need it I don't think they should

amputate I think that would be an overreaction I'm just saying I don't I don't think, look, we'll know when we know. But I'm not really worried about it impacting his hitting or that it's an explanation for a slow start or anything like that. I think it could be, right? Like, I think it's unknowable. Like my stance was before this news, I was not at all concerned about Wellington Trous.

I was very confident that he was going to be who he is. Now, I'm a little bit concerned. And it's enough that like you guys don't do overall ranking. in season, but I do the trade values chart. I am going to drop him closer to the rest of the position because he's been kind of a clear standout in the trade values the first or seven weeks into the season now. I think this drags him back towards Adley-Rutchman and Salvador Perez and Yiner Diaz and Cowrally.

Yor Don Alvarez has been diagnosed with a muscle strain on the top of his right hand and is hoping to be activated when first eligible on May 3rd. Zach Eflin has been cleared to return and we'll start this weekend against the Twins. The Orioles also hope that Tyler O'Neill will return this weekend as well. Some Dodgers updates to Oscar Hernandez who went on the aisle with a left adductor strain hopes to return in two weeks. Tyler Glassnell will resume playing catch on Friday. Blake Snell will start playing catch Friday as well. And Clayton Kershaw's next rehab start on Sunday might be his last before rejoining the Dodgers.

any interest in Clayton Kirshall, who is 31% rostered? There's some interest. My expectations are low because we kind of went down this road with him last year, and it was the first time it didn't pay off. He kind of just magically returned from whatever injury and looked like more or less the same guy, at least a very good pitcher for fantasy, until last year. But he's getting older.

The injuries have accumulated. His velocity was down a bit. last year, a bit more last year, and it's down even more on his rehab assignment. He's like averaging 87 on his fastball now. So I would say the odds are against Clayton Kershaw being an impact pitcher at this point, but he's Clayton Kershaw and he's overcome odds, tremendous odds before, and he obviously has the best supporting cast in baseball. So starting pitcher, it's been a difficult position to fill off the waiver wire recently. I think if you have a spot to play with,

certainly if you have an IL spot to play with, it's not a bad idea to take a flyer on Kirsch. I'll see where it goes. I did get a request to rank all the IL pitchers, and Scott actually had an IL Stash Ranking's article come out earlier this week. And so I will quickly read off some of those names. Scott, if anything has changed for you, feel free to point it out. But those IL-Stash rankings, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby,

Spencer Shrider, Shota Imanaga, Tyler Glassnow, and Blake Snell. Those are the names of top. Next up, we have Yuri Perez, Shane McClanahan, Zach Eflin, Sean Mania, U. Darvish, and Ryan Weathers. And then the next group, Brandon Woodruff, Spencer Arrogati, Grayson Rodriguez, Jared Jones, Shane Bieber. I don't know if you had Kirchow there. Maybe he was even lower than that.

Kirshah is even lower, yeah. So you got, you were just naming the pitchers, obviously. Yeah. Bieber was 31 on the overall list and Kirshall's 40. Okay. Apparently, Jazzism revealed that he is actually dealing with three separate tears in the oblique. And that kind of makes me feel like he's not going to be back in four to six weeks like they are hoping. So I hope I'm wrong, but that doesn't sound very good.

Three tears should heal at roughly the same rate as one, right? I don't know if that's how that works. I don't know. J.C. Realemuto was removed after fouling a ball off his left foot. Nelvie Marte was placed in the aisle with a grade two left oblique strain. That sucks. It does because he was obviously hitting recently. The Red started Santiago Espinal at third base on Wednesday.

Shane McClainahan is playing catch from 60 feet. And I mentioned Brandon Woodruff earlier. It sounds like he is close to rejoining the Brewers. He's completed five innings in each of his last three rehab outings. But his velocity remains way down as well. back from shoulder surgery, major shoulder surgery, and his velocity is down around three miles per hour on all of his pitches. So I just don't know how effective he's going to be. That torn capsule is a difficult injury to make it all the way back from. In fact,

there are pretty few pitchers have. And certainly not as old as Woodruff is. It's like it's almost three miles per hour the drop on his average velocity. He's managed to put together a good BRA across the five rehab starts, but none of the other numbers look that good. And you'll notice, I mean, you just read off the names. Woodruff, given how close he is to returning, may have seemed surprisingly low on that list of injury stashes to people. Well, that's why my expectations for him are pretty low. Similar to Kershaw, I mean, he's had a great career.

He's going to get a chance on a pretty good team. But, yeah, I don't think we're going to see the branded Woodruff of all. however he turns out. The White Sox put Andrew Benintendi on the I.L. With a left cash train, the Dodgers placed Evan Phillips on the IL due to right forearm discomfort. The Blue Jays option, Alan wrote into AAA and then recalled Jonathan Clase, who had 15 steals in the miners. So in the deepest leagues, AL only if you need speed, that's Jonathan Clase. And we're getting breaking news.

The Orioles have traded for Luis F Castillo. which is just probably not even worth mentioning no I understand it's just when it came across the timeline it's like everyone's freaking out whoa Louise Castillo

to the Orioles and yeah you forget they have two Luis Castillo's on the Mariners they distinguished them with the middle initial this is not the Louise Castillo who's been a mainstay

for like the past decade this is the other one that's not very good so it's it's hopefully it's kind of sad that they're breaking them up you know hopefully Mike Elias knew what he was doing with this street

I just think it's very funny. I think that's a good bit. And I hope they did it on purpose. Just like, hey, everyone's mad at us. Everyone thinks we stink. Let's have a chuckle. Let's trade for Louise Castillo. I guess this is kind of notes related.

But I wanted to mention Lawrence Butler getting moved down in the athletics lineup. Moved down to six, fifth, sixth in the lineup here. And with Jacob Wilson leading off versus a right-handed pitcher, Butler responded by hitting his sixth home run of the season, but he's also batting 240 with a 717 OPS. Jacob Wilson went four for five with two doubles.

He's hitting 357 on the season, 8.59 OPS. So I don't know if this is something that will just be a permanent fixture in the athletics lineup, but I thought it was notable. I mean, I've been wondering where people are on Lawrence Butler because the quality of contact has been really poor so far this season. 92 mile per hour average, 111. That's the one that's been good, but like the barrel rate,

the XBA, XWBA, XWBA on contact has all collapsed from last season. It's all well below average. I feel like those are more reflections of the moment, though, than skill level. I mean, average and max both in the top quarter of the league, X velocities. So, I mean, I haven't been worried. Even with him being coldish, it's still a near 30-30 pace he's on. I mean, coldish, 717 OPS is bad. It's still a near 30-30 pace.

Yeah, he's been coldish. Like, yeah, when you're cold this early in the season, your OPS isn't going to look good. Your batting average isn't going to look good. Your OPS isn't going to look good. But if the underlying characteristics are there, he's still stealing bases. He's still finding ways to hit home runs at a decent. clip. I'm taking these as encouraging signs. Like he didn't turn back into a pumpkin. He's just cold. The really weird thing is the sprint speed is 24th percentile. That's just weird. I just wonder if

he's like not 100% healthy and he's just been playing through something. That's that's the weird thing. It was 58 last year. So yeah, that's a notable drop. It feels like maybe he's trying too hard to sell out for power. The fly ball rate is up quite a bit the season. The line drive rate is down a lot, which could explain why the batting average and the XBA is down as much as it is for Lawrence Butler here. But I mean, I'm pulling the ball very well in the air. It's at least notable, right? Like, it's on the athletics radar enough.

Yeah, I'm just wondering. It's on their radar enough where they moved him down in the lineup. So let's see where it goes. But yeah, I mean, the power and speed, obviously you'll take that. But we do need a better batting average in OBP from Lawrence Butler. Should you sell high on these pitchers? and I am going to get myself in trouble with this one. But I will just make the case.

Max Fried continues to dominate. Seven innings, one run, eight strikeouts to zero walks. He has been tremendous. There is no doubt about it. He has allowed two earned runs or fewer in all eight of his starts. He has a 105 ERA and a 0.91 whip, but this is not going to remain. So I'm just like this is the most clear like,

okay, if you can sell him for the moon, try it. before, you know, there will be some regression. I'll just bring up, you know, the forearm stuff the past couple of years. Like, it's not impossible that something can happen here. I don't want that to happen, obviously. But in the most strictest sense, like, if you want to sell high on Max Fried for, you know, a top three-round player, you can try. I'll just throw it out there. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, we all have them in our top 15 rest of season. I'm noticing now, top 15 starting pitchers. Yeah. So, you know, part of that is others have kind of eliminated themselves from top 15 consideration, like Schwellenbach and, of course, Logan Gilbert getting hurt and Shoday Minaga getting hurt, et cetera. But Freed, like, this isn't, this isn't an unfamiliar place for Freed in the rankings. And I think given the way all the top 15 candidates, how things have shaken out for them, Freed absolutely deserves to be in there. But that's top 15.

That's not top five. And I think if you can trade him more like a top five guy, absolutely. I expect that ERA to be between 275 and 325 in the end. That's the question for me is that this was a guy who people were weirdly cold on coming into the season. Like he was probably like the number 25 starting pitcher, which always felt low to me. And there were a lot of draft where he just, he would last until like the ninth or 10th. round in some 12 team leagues. People just didn't have any excitement about Freed.

So while I get the idea behind selling high on him, I do wonder if like, has the, you were the person who drafted him. So clearly you were the high guy on Max Fried coming in. You were the one who wasn't as skeptical as everyone else at least. And has the rest of the community gone from, I don't really care. Max Fried's not that good. He's just a solid veteran innings eater, right? Like, I think that's what people thought about him.

Has that shifted enough based on eight starts? I think you overestimate. How analytical most people who play fantasy baseball are. I will grant. Based on most of the comments we get of the knee-jerk reactions to the latest performance, Max-Fried's been the number one pitcher in fantasy. He's got an ERA just above one, right? And they're talking about him as like a Sy Young candidate, which might have been.

I think he's a Syong candidate. Yeah. Yeah. I think if Max Reed stays healthy and he ends up in the top five in Sa Young in any given year, I wouldn't be surprised by that. I also don't know. Elite at run prevention. Yeah, no, he like he could win Say Young, but he's not going to do it with the kind of strikeout rate that makes for a true fantasy, a fantasy stud in the truest sense, like the kind of return. Frank is saying you could fetch right now.

Yeah. I do think there is a bit of a Yankees tax, Yankees effect here too. It's just like whatever, they're always in the news, they're playing in big games, whatever. So I don't know, find a Yankee fan in your league and try and take advantage if you can. What about Sunny Gray who had one of his best starts of the season against the Pirates? Seven shutout innings, eight strikeouts. Oddly enough, only seven whiffs on 89 pitches here. There were some things that stood out to me a little weird in Sunny Gray's pro. The ground ball rate is down this year. Entering the start, he had a 478 expected ERA, and his swinging strike rate is down a little bit as well. Now, we know spring training, he was awful, and he talked about like, all right, had a shot in his forearm, I think it was earlier in the off season, so maybe that explained the slow start. But I just wonder, aloud, do you guys think Sunny Gray is a cell high or just totally fine SP3?

he had been pretty shaky leading up to this hadn't he yeah i just wonder if you could sell too bad starts sell off of his best his best start of the season you know i don't think you could because the overall you know still 350 era overall i don't we're not in on sunny gray coming into the season it's not like sunny gray with someone people were excited to draft the opposite certainly not the last what like week or two the peak of draft season because he he was uh there were the concerns over his velocity in spring training. And even, there was even talk of an injury at one point, right? Well, we learned, I think, he was sick.

And then we also learned that he had had. I don't think we had heard that he had a, was it a PRP injection in his forearm when he had a forearm injury last September? It was something like that that came out. He had it after the season or towards the end. But we didn't learn that until spring training of this year, which was crazy.

So I just don't think he's going to have much value in the trade market. I think it's much less likely you get a positive return on investment on selling gray than freed. But it's also worth saying that this is a guy who had a forearm injury last year. Yeah. At the end of the season. So it's entirely possible that things fall apart for him.

That's kind of, that that wouldn't be shocking at all. Yeah. And I'm not saying you have to sell these players by any mean. I'm just kind of presenting it as a possibility. Yeah, I mean, this is a bad way. This doesn't lead to much of a podcast discussion, but if you could get Sunny Gray for any of the, if you could trade Sunny Gray for any of the pitchers I rank ahead of Sunny Gray,

then I do that. Like, doesn't. Would you, would you rather have Shane Baws or Sunny Gray? Well, yesterday I would have said Shane Baws. Today, today I'm probably going to say sunny gray even earlier today when I updated the rankings I had gray ahead of Shane boss so I would uh I have sunny gray right at 30 so yeah you have sunny gray way

higher than I do yeah I've got him 34 so I'm a little behind you at least oh gosh I don't know I'm 48 40 what did sunny gray do to you geez the endings aren't usually there the ERA is not usually great I mean strikeouts are hit or miss he's fine I He's also just, he's a weird pitcher. Like, this is the thing that's tough about analyzing Sunny Grey in any context is like, been the bane of my existence. He's just a different pitcher every year almost. Yeah.

Like last year it was what? Irony is a strikeout rate. I still think he's a rock solid. He's a rock solid SP3. I think so, yeah. You guys weren't touching him during that period where everybody was scared of him. So I kept, I kept drafting him because you guys won it. Once that news came out, I already had a few shares too.

And I took, I have, I have a. I have a lot of sunny gray, but once that came out, I was like, no more. I've got to limit my exposure after hearing that. All right, let's talk about Kodi Senga, who was effectively wild at the D-BAC, six shutout innings, five walks to four strikeouts, only seven whiffs on 89 pitches. And, you know, the walks are really starting to creep up. Now he has eight walks combined in his last two outings here. He's managed a 116 ERA, 116 whip.

It's interesting because I think obviously, yes, you can try and sell high on him. but like we talked about with the other two, Chris, like nobody really wanted to draft Kodi Senga in the offseason. So I don't really know if you can sell high on him. I will say this feels like the most true sell high, because this is actually one. A lot of the times we do the sell high conversation. We always couch it with like sell high.

You know, we make a point to emphasize, put italics underlying under high. Senga does feel like one where the bottom could just totally fall out at any point. The stuff doesn't look nearly as good. His fastball velocity down a mile per hour from where it was in 2023. Forkball still looks very good, but hasn't been quite as dominant as a swing and miss pitch as it was in 20203. The cutter doesn't look quite as good either. I just, I don't know, I feel like there's a chance.

Kodi Senga actually does turn into a pumpkin moving forward because the control has always been bad and I think it still is and the strikeouts just have not been there. So I think there's a chance Kodi Senga is not a must roster pitcher at some point this season. I'm not saying he's there or that you should drop him, but I think that's a realistic possibility. I'm with you every week when I'm updating my rankings doing my thorough eight hour update or however long it takes. I look at Kodi-Sanga's ERA and I'm like, man, I got to get them inside the top 40, don't I? And then every week I'm like, no, I really don't. Yeah, 116 ERA for Kodi-Sanga, but, oh, yeah.

And I think the next guy's in a similar category. Is X-FIPs 394? Maybe we should just look at X-FIPs more. I don't know. X-E-R-A and FIP are better, but. Not near 116, obviously. Let's talk about Tyler Malley, who did not have a single strikeout at the Red Sox. Five innings, two runs, one walk.

He allowed two homers in this start, only four whiffs on 88 pitches. He has either one strikeout or zero in two of his last three outings. I don't know if you can, but man, if anyone in your league just sees a 148 ERA. 0.98 whip, yeah, sell Tyler Malley for a top 50 starting pitcher or top, I don't know, top 100 hitter or anything like that. So earlier this week on Monday, it was I wrote about a few standouts that may be fakeouts. Ones I wasn't buying it to. It included Geraldo Perdomo and included a few other guys I won't name because we don't need to go down that road again.

It included Tyler Malley, though. He was the one starting pitcher on there. And it was interesting at first because he was getting a lot of whiffs with his fastball, which was also true during that great 2021 season with the Reds, and it had a high-induced vertical break. It still does, but the WIFs have totally dried up on it. And zero strikeouts in this one. I think two turns ago, didn't he have just one strikeout, Tyler Malley?

Yeah. So he is on dangerous footing right now. And I think if you can get anything that you for sure won't be dropping in the next foreseeable. future than you should. All right, let's take our final break. And when we return, we'll talk WaverWire players from Wednesday's action right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Waiverwire hitters from Wednesday. We already spoke about T.J. Friedel. Dylan Moore has come off the IL and just keeps on running two for four with his seventh steal. He has a steal in each

game since returning. He's hitting 295, 896 OPS. Does feel like he's just really hot to start this season, 65% rostered with four different position eligibility. Should that be higher for Dylan Moore? 65%. I don't think so. Yeah, that's probably right, because I do think he needs to be rostered in all

roto leagues with that kind of versatility. But I don't see much reason to roster him in head-to-head leagues, which tend to have the shallow rosters, only three outfields, there's no middle-line field, et cetera, et cetera. I don't think there may be something

to this breakout. I mean, the, the K rate is significantly lower for Dylan Moore. It had always run very high. And the fly ball rate was also ridiculously high for him, which a high fly ball rate can be a good thing, but there's diminishing returns with that. If it gets so high, particularly with a high strikeout rate, you're going to be a 198 hitter.

And that's basically what Dylan Moore was. He also has a really good hitting coach. now. I am, I have long, even before he would, even before the 15 years or however long he was the brave city coach, back when he was with the Royals, I thought Kevin Siteser was one of the best. And he presided over a record setting offense in 2023. A lot of Mariners, hitters, who we didn't think much of, are suddenly performing well. And Dylan Moore is one of them. I'm not saying it's a for sure breakout. And I'm, I think the odds are against it being a breakout, given his track record, but I'm at least open to the idea that Dylan Moore could sustain career best

production. Worth mentioning quadruple eligible in Points League, six-touple eligible in Roto leagues, which is not a term we get to use very often, so that's fun, which gives him like a tiebreaker if you have a similar option on waivers or on your roster, but I just don't think he's very useful in points, even with the four positions. and eligibility. How would you guys rank these four hitters that are really just utility options? I mean, you could move them all around a bunch of different positions. Dylan Moore, Willie Castro, Josh Smith, and Javier Baez. I would rank those four.

Dylan Moore. I guess I got to give the edge to Smith over Castro right now. Yeah. And then who was the fourth one? Hobby bias. Javier bias. Yeah. I don't, I know he had another good game today, but I don't really see it with bias. Yeah, the quality of contact stuff is not there. Yeah, I do. The long air rate is higher for Baez. I want it to work out. I mean, the underlying numbers are not great, but I am rooting for him. I wanted to work out. Yeah. Speaking of that game on the other side of the Tigers was the Rockies, who we got some big games from Ryan McMahon and Michael Tolia, McMahon 4 for 4 with his fourth home run. Michael Tolia, 3 for 4 with two doubles and his fourth home run. Both of these gentlemen are hitting under 220 on the C-C-S.

And so I don't think there's anything yet. But maybe at some point, any interest? Ryan McMahon, Michael Tolia? We know who McMahon is, right? Yeah. Not a lot of mystery there. I'm more interested in Tolia. Yeah, there's more upside there.

First base has obviously been an abundant position this year. And so I don't think many people are searching for more options. but, you know, somebody out there might be. I would say if somebody dropped Ryan Mountcastle in your league, I'd still find him more interesting than Tolia. And I know he's pretty widely available at this point. But yeah, I mean, Tolia could go on a home run binge. We saw it happen last year.

All right. Three names in deeper leagues. Gabriel Arias, four for five with a double. Yohan Moncada. He's been back for two games. He has homered in two games. And then Zach Dezenzo, one for two, with two walks, a double, and two runs. I think there might be a player there.

I'm excited for him to get more playing time, hopefully with the Astros. But any interest in those three in deeper leagues, Arias, Moncada, and DeZenzo. Arias, there have been signs that there's some real underlying improvement here. He was a big bat speed gainer this spring that has carried over.

Quality of contact has been a little better. I think he set a new max exit Velo in spring. He might have already topped that as well. So I don't think there's nothing there, but it's not someone that I think should be rostered in most leagues. And then Moncada, I have no idea. What's dead. What's dead may never die, Chris.

28% roster feels way too high. Yeah, I don't know how. Maybe, like, yeah, maybe he's healthy and it's just been held back by injuries for the last half decade. But he hasn't been any good since 2019. Yeah. So it's pretty unlikely. I'm not going to say it's impossible, but there's just. there's no evidence for it.

Completely agree. I mean, it's the same Javier biasing. Like, I'm rooting for the guy. I want him to figure it out, but. Yeah. Bet against it, I would say. Waiberwire pitchers, Michael Waka was great against the White Sox, seven shutout innings with five strikeouts.

And if this is correct, looks like he might be in line for two starts next week against the Cardinals and at the Astros. And then Gunner Hoagland was solid in his second outing, this time against the Mariners. five in a third, two runs, only three strikeouts, but had 13 whiffs on 99 pitches. He threw a lot more sweepers,

and that sweeper looked awesome. It wasn't even there really the first start. You say he threw a lot more, he threw like three in his first start. Yeah, it was all fastball and change up the first start, right? Yeah. So apparently he has this sweeper to go along with a fastball that has 20 inches of induced vertical break.

And it didn't get nearly as many whiffs this time, but the sweeper was making up for it. So I remain interested in Hoagland. I'm perplexed, but interested, just taking it start by start. I think you have to be. And then Waka, like, you know, he seems so underwhelming at first. Now he's three-three-quality starts down to a 290-A-R-A, 115 whip. He probably just needs to be rostered regardless of two-start status next week.

If he's below 80% rostered, I imagine he'll be number one on the sleeper pitchers list for me. I don't think so. He's over it now? Or you think there's somebody better? We're talking about Gunnar Hoagland, right? No, we're talking about Waka. Oh, okay. Sorry.

Okay. You're right. You're right. Okay. I zoned out for a second thought. You were still talking about Gunner Hoagland. He's got the doctors next week. That's the, that's the biggest hurdle towards making him worth adding.

Waka, he just. feels under-rastered. I don't really have a good explanation for why it is. He's not exciting. Never has been. But it's like-ERA is always low threes. Yeah, it's been like a 3.30 ERA like four years in a row. So at some point, that's just what he is.

He's boring. But if you've got CIS or Green and you're a little worried and you've got a roster spot to play with, go add Michael Walker as a stabilizer. You know what it is? And this is dumb, but I'm sure this is part of it. one and four record coming into this start for Michael Walker. If that was a four and one record, he'd be rostered everywhere. Yeah, probably.

Some names in deeper leagues here. Michael Soroko returned with a solid outing against the Guardians. Five plus innings, four runs, eight strikeouts. The four runs, not great. He actually had five shutout and then came out for the six and everything kind of unraveled after that. Landon Nack pitched well at the Marlins, five shutout, five strikeouts. Not sure if he'll stick around for another start.

Clayton Kershaw could be back. And Valente Beiozo, I just wanted to mention that. Five and a third shutout, seven strikeouts against the Dodgers. So good start. And he looked completely different. Like, threw a new splitter. His velocity was up in the start. I don't know if it means anything.

It probably doesn't, but just kind of surprised me. I'll be honest. I didn't look that hard at him because he's Valenti Biozo. So you're kind of presenting me with brand new information here. I don't know. I'll look. If he has another good start next time, Matt, I'll look and do it more. I will say I was watching it, and I didn't see anything that looked super outstanding from him.

So I'm not rushing out to add. I don't know if you mentioned it, but the AAA numbers were 140 ERA, 12% swinging strike rate, which is not bad. Yeah. Yeah, outside of in a lonely leagues, I don't think you need to look into Beoso yet. but we'll see what happens next time out. Hey, I started him in the Dynasty League, which is a 24-24. Yeah.

With Soroka, I'll just mention Spark, so name to pay attention to in points leagues, might line up for two starts next week, at the Braves, at the Orioles. Probably don't want to do it, but he has a name to watch. That's fine in points league, yeah. What do we do with these starting pitchers,

hold or drop at this point? Grant Holmes, I mean, you know, coming off that strong start against the Dodgers and then takes a step back here against the Reds, five and a third, seven hits, four runs, five strikeouts. It's just been up and down season, mostly down, if we're being honest. And then you say Kikuchi, a strong outing against the Blue J, six innings, one run, six strikeouts, 11 whiffs on 91 pitches.

But it's a 146 whip. Underline numbers don't look great. Frank. Frank, this was a big one for Kikuchi, because I think it was as simple, his struggles early this year were as simple as he just wasn't throwing his artist last year across the board, all the pitches. He was thrown the slider enough. Remember, that was the breakthrough in Houston.

And he actually threw the slider even more than that in this start, 46% of the time, I believe it was. We'd be happy with 35% on that pitch for Kukuchi. But the velocity was down on everything. Well, suddenly, velocity back to last year. across the board in this start, and he has his best start of the season. So I don't know if it's just back permanently and Kukuchi's back to throwing that hard again,

averaging, what is it on his fastball, like 95? Yeah, it was 95.2. It was like 0.3 miles per hour down from last year. Yeah, so basically got all the way back and he got great results. So that's encouraging, I think. And we'll see what happens next time out for him. The slider just still wasn't that great, though.

I mean, it had three whiffs, 18% whiff rate. I don't know. I think the biggest thing is his arm angle is still lower than it was last year. So he's not getting, he's getting more run on the FFoursemer as opposed to rise. And he's not really getting as much sweep on the slider. So I remain a little discouraged. by Kakucci overall, which, you know, it's kind of the story of his career is being mostly discouraged and then getting bought in for a few months.

So there will probably be a couple of months where he's really good and we'll buy in and then he'll change something and it won't work and we'll be back to square one. He's a very, very frustrating pitcher. Grant Holmes, I'm kind of out. I'm not saying I'm dropping him across the board, but I just don't really expect big things. I think his fastball command is not very good. The curveball that looked really, really good last year in somewhat limited sample size

was new for him, and it has not played nearly as well so far this season. So I'm pretty discouraged by what we're seeing from Grant Holmes. And in... As long as he keeps getting whiffs at a high rate with that slider. Because it was eight this time I believe it was nine last time I'm gonna give him a chance

Like I'm gonna give him a chance over like a gunner Hoagland or somebody I could reasonably pick See I think he's right in that I think he's just in that same range I think he's like if you want to put him ahead of Hougland and and I'm blanking on the other guys who were talking about Liberator and add like I think I'd rather have

Liberator at this point I think he's been more impressive I moved Liberator tour right up next to Grant Holmes. Like they're back to back in the rankings. They're close for me too. But I can't help but be encouraged because the main thing I was discouraged about early on with Holmes is what happened to all the whiffs

he was getting last year and suddenly they're back. And it's not everything, but it's the single most important thing. Yeah. I would say. They're there on the slider. He just like looking at his individual pitch characteristics, it feels like he's just a one pitch pitcher right now. Like he has the slider working.

But last year, the fastball and the curve were much better. And maybe that's just because we saw him in smaller samples and, like, he was a relief pitcher. But those two pitches just haven't been as good this year. They haven't yet. Yeah. But I think if you have that one amazing pitch to work with and it's looked amazing recently, and the alternative, part of this is just what else is out there, you know? And for the most part, it's not that exciting.

I would take that slider for Holmes being more exciting than the high-induced vertical break on Gunner Hoagland's fastball. All right, some leftovers here. And starting with hitters, Jeremy Pena quietly has had a nice season, two for five with his fifth home run, added four RBI consistently leading off for the Astros. New York sluggers coming alive, Juan Soto, two for four with a double dung. And in May, he's hitting 3.46 with four home runs and a 1340 OPS. Cody Bellinger, last eight games, hitting 286 with three homers and a steel.

and then some other names, CJ Abrams, three for six with his eighth stolen base. Freddie Freeman just will not stop hitting three for four with a triple and four RBI. Bregman, great start with the Red Sox, hit his ninth home run. Willierreou continues his breakout season,

added two homers here. Trey Turner hit a home run and good to see because the power has been lacking early on. Jackson Merrill, back with a nice game, two for four with his fourth homer. And Byron Buxton has homered in three straight and he is on an absolute heater right now.

now. Any thing to add? Any names stand out? I love what we're seeing from C.J. Abrams so far, which, you know, wasn't a guarantee after the way his season ended last year. I will also point out that I was looking at last year's April stats, and I think he was 12th in the league and Wobah, and like the underlying numbers backed it up. And obviously he didn't end up doing that. So, you know, there's some concern that that remains. the case for him, but play discipline looks a little better across the board. He's hitting the ball to the pole side in the air more often that pulled air rate up from 22% last year to 26%. This year, and his expected numbers look phenomenal. I almost called him JJ Abrams. Their names are so close.

Yeah, CJ Abrams, not the lens flare guy. I'm surprised it doesn't come up more often, to be honest. I think we're just all still trying to forget the rise of Skywalker is why. But yeah, CJ Abrams looks phenomenal, which was not a guarantee after the way last season ended. So I'm really happy to see that. And yeah, Peña, I don't know. He looks great. The underlying numbers are really good.

Expected batting average is like $290, which is surprising for him. So I don't know how real that is, but obviously hitting at the top of that lineup, Who are we talking about? Jeremy Panyan. Oh, I didn't see him on the list here. Yeah.

I got a couple guys I want to talk about here. Talk about him. If you don't mind. So Alex Bregman. Monster. He's been so good. His, he had obviously 2024, 2023. He was fine, but it was disappointing.

Lowest pull air rate of his career, about 21% those years. Which is not a bad pull air. rate in a vacuum, but it was bad for Alex Bregman and he got bad results. His pole air rate this year is the highest it's been since 2019. And you know what happened in 2019?

Alex Bregman hit 41 home runs. Now he's not going to hit 41 home runs because that was the height of the juice ball era also. But I think it explains a lot of what's going on right now, particularly since hitting the ball in the air to his

pole side at his home park is going to mean it's hitting off the green monster, if not over it. Oh, yeah. And I think it's very encouraging. I've been really tempted to move him up to break into that elite four at third base, break the wall there, move Alex Bregman into it. But I haven't done it yet, but I'm tempted. I mean, move him ahead of Jazz Chisholm for sure.

Yeah, Jazz Chisholm's obviously dropped out because of the injury. Yeah, but yeah, like the other, is there, There's four apart from. Yeah, Ramirez, Riley, Machado, and Devers. Yeah. I think he's still a step below those guys, but like, you know, he was drafted behind junior Camerrano. Well, you'd obviously rather have Bregman at this point.

He's doing what we hope Camerro would do. I think you'd rather have him than Westberg, even if Westberg was healthy. So, yeah, I'm, I think he's kind of in a tier of his own at third base right now. The other thing I wanted to say, I think Willier or Braves. a dude. I think he's legit. Now, sitting against left-handers is obviously going to constrain his value. He hasn't sat against every left-hander. It's worth noting, but he sat against most. And maybe that'll change at some point. I hope it does. But the walk rate is 91st percentile. His pull-air rate is way up also 27 percent. And the exit velocity is like everything looks great.

And I, you know, I kind of liked him as a prospect who's pretty productive down in the minors. So I always struggle with the platoon players, the platoon bats, because how much do you dock them for that? But in a vacuum, I really like William Bray. And I think he's more or less legit. Some pitching leftovers. We got great starts from Framber Valdez, Robbie Ray, Christopher Sanchez. And Jose Burrios had a weird start. I'm not going to call it a great one. He had five walks. He had nine strikeouts, 18 whiffs on 89 pitches. Thank you, Angels. That will happen

when you've pitched against them. But anything to add on Berrios, Christopher Sanchez, Robbie Ray, Frambervaldez. I don't understand how you get nine strikeouts, five walks, over six innings, and only throw 89 pitches. Like, I actually don't understand how was like every other

played appearance of one pitch at bat? Like, what happened there? That's just confusing. Robbie Ray, love to see him bouncing back the three whiffs on the curveball. He wasn't really throwing the curve in his first few starts. He added this change up and then just stopped throwing the curveball, which in a limited sample last year was really good for him.

So I'm glad to see him incorporating that a little more over the past couple of starts. And then Christopher Sanchez. It's two starts since he came back from the forum issue and three walks and both. and less than a strikeout per inning both, I believe. It's also like, well, if he had one fewer walk in each outing, it's two walks in six innings, and that's barely even worth commenting on. So I don't want to say it's a concern.

It's just something I'm watching right now, I guess. I don't know how else to put that, right? Where I'm not worried about Christopher Sanchez, but that was always, like, if things were going to go wrong for him without an injury, it would be that the walk rate climbs up like it used to. And that's just something that put my antenna up, I guess. All right. There wasn't too much with bullpins here on Wednesday.

I wanted to mention the Yankees, because obviously it is a hot topic right now. But Luke Weaver entered with one out in the eighth inning, two runners on in a tie game to face the heart of the Padres lineup. He gave up an RBI single and then a sack fly. The Yankees are down two at that point. They tied it up in the bottom of the eighth inning. And then they go into extras where Devin Williams pitched in the 10th inning, the Manfred Man on second base. He allowed a walk and a hit by pitch.

He had paces loaded. He struck out three without allowing a run. And he picked up his first win. So it was, oof. It was walking a tightrope. It was very scary as a fan watching that game. But he got through it and he got whiffs. So I actually thought he looked pretty sharp.

I do want to point out, I agree. That was encouraging for Devin Williams. And he may be getting close to regaining the role for the Yankees. I also wanted to point out that for the Tigers, Tommy Canley worked the eighth, put three runners on, got out of it, but it was a shaky eighth. Will Vest worked a scoreless ninth and tenth. They ended up winning.

So advantage may be leaning a little more toward VIII, best again, but we may be doing this for a long time. It's just going to be one of those like balance beams where it's just like, all right, one week it's this way and it's just going to probably like even out as the course of the season goes on. To stream or not to stream on Thursday, not much. Jose Soriano up against the Blue Jays, Brian Beio facing the Rangers, Jack Leiter at the Red Sox. Soriano versus Toronto is fine.

Bayo versus Texas is okay. I don't like any of them. I don't want to, I don't want to recommend any of them. Works for me. I never do. And then on Friday, we have Nick Martinez at the Astros.

James and Tyone is at the Mets. Jose Katana at the raise. Probably Kentana, especially it's a left-hander. You get a Ronda out. That obviously worked out. Who was pitching against the raise today? Some left-mander.

It was Christopher Sanchez, So pitch me. Oh, okay. Yeah. Fetty could have a good start. And Lattel could have a good start. He's had a few. Yeah.

Man, it's... I don't love any of these options. You know what? Nick Martinez at the Astros with no Yoron-Alvarez in the lineup. Yeah. That's probably my second choice. And I like the way his last start went. So it's more like I'm curious to see if he can build on it than I trust Nick

Martinez again. But if you're forcing me to pick a second name after Kenton, I think I'd pick Martinez. I agree. We are going to wrap there for Scott, Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to 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.