Fantasy Baseball Today - Christian Yelich Is Hot! Buy-High Trades, Rankings Movers & Berrios Struggles (5/11 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 12, 2022

Christian Yelich hit another cycle, the third of his career (1:00)! Shane McClanahan looks like an ace. ... Whit Merrifield is alive (11:22) while Tylor Megill got destroyed. ... Should you buy-high on Gleyber Torres, Willson Contreras or Tyler Stephenson (14:52)? ... Should you buy-low on Kyle Schwarber (22:30)? ... We answer your latest trade questions (25:35). ... News and notes (33:06): Ronald Acuña was held out with a groin issue. ... Which players are moving up and down the rankings (36:30)? ... What's up with Jose Berrios and Logan Gilbert (43:45)? ... Add Tommy Pham or Alek Thomas (51:08)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (57:52). Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. With fantasy! Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. I think it's official. Christian Gelich is hot.

Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, May 12th. Frank Stamphill joined by Chris Towers, and we've got a whole bunch on the show today. by high candidates, rankings movers, Jose Barrios might just stink this season, and much more. But let's jump right in. Oh my goodness gracious! All right, Chris.

Oh, my goodness gracious. I'll let you do it. For the brand. Oh, oh, me? Yeah, you're up. Oh, okay. Yeah, Christian Yelich. Turns out he's pretty good probably.

He hit for the cycle today for the third time in his career. He's the fifth player in major league history to hit for the cycle. Sixth. Sixth player in major league history to hit for the cycle three times. First player, second player to do it three times against one team?

I think it was the second. When I saw that, that was wild. Three times against the Cincinnati Reds. Also, all three times that he's hit for the cycle, he needed a triple in his last plate appearance, I believe, and got it. Or got the triple last, at least.

That's awesome. If Christian Yelich gets a double a single on a home run, he's going to hustle to get that triple. Yeah, no, I mean, there have been positive signs for Christian Yelich, you know, for much of the season. The numbers haven't always looked quite all that good, but the average exit velocity, hard hit rates, all that stuff has mostly been pretty good.

And right now his average exit velocity sits at 89th percentile, 92.3 miles per hour. That is the fourth best mark of his career, which, you know, I guess fourth best in the Stacast era, that's only eight seasons, but Christian Yelch has run up some pretty impressive average exit velocities in his career. So 92.3 would be most players career high.

He's got a 56.3% hard hit rate. That's 98th percentile, 95th percentile, max exit velocity. Has the second highest average launch angle of his career, 8.9 degrees. Strikeout rate down to 22.8%. It's pretty much all looking like Christian Yelich is very, very good. I don't want to say he's going to be the MVP level version of Christian Yelich because one, you can't expect anyone to be a 3.30 hitter with 50 home runs and a 30 stolen base pace. That's a little unrealistic. But he's looking really good right now. He's looking like

one of the better outfielders in baseball. I've got him in my top 20 at outfield now. I'm not sure, Frank, if you've got him in that same range. And frankly, I'm not sure if I should have him higher at this point because the guys ahead of him, J.D. Martinez, Chris Bryant, Whitmerfield, it wouldn't take much to surpass those guys, although it was nice to see what Marifield have a good game. Feeling pretty good about all of my Christian Yelts shares right now.

As you should. And yes, I have him inside of my top 20 outfielders as well. He's at 20 exactly. Scott went ahead and moved him all the way up to 15. You know, you can always count on Scott to be like skeptical about someone. And then just like once he decides he's in, he's all the way in. There's no, there's no half measures. I love that.

I know towards the end of draft season, Scott jumped on board with Christian Yelich. He kind of flipped from Bellinger to Yelich and he was in. He drafted a few shares. So, yeah, he's got him up at 15. And like you said, I think that you can kind of make that argument that Yellis should be ahead of Reynolds and Catelle Marte and J.D. Martinez. So, you know, a couple more games like this than I could see making that move as well. Scott has already gone ahead and made that move. I agree with you, Chris.

I think that he is so far this season, he's looked much better than he has in years past. Please, please, please just stay healthy, Christian Yellich. But you shouldn't expect MVP numbers. If we can get an 850 OPS, 850 plus OPS out of Yelich, I mean, look, an 850 OPS might be like the 15th highest OPS in baseball in this season based on what we've seen so far. Now, look, the, like right now he's on roughly a 30 homer 15 stolen base pace. And I think that that's awesome is pretty reasonable. And I think he's probably going to hit 270 plus. And, yeah, I'm, I think.

you should be really happy about Christian Yelich right now. All right. I was going to save this for a little bit later on, Chris, but buy high or no thanks, Guy. What do you think? If you can, it's probably going to take a lot now after the cycle game, obviously, but would you be looking to buy high on Christian Yelch right now? Yeah, look, it depends. Like, if someone's viewing Christian Yelch as a top 12 outfielder, if someone is, you know, like, I still have T. Oscar Hernandez a decent amount ahead of Christian Yelot. So if someone's asking for a similar return to what they would want for Teosker or Starling Marte or something like that. I would probably be pumping the brakes, but I feel like there are probably still a decent amount

of people who are like, well, Yelich still has that back injury. And even if he's healthy right now, you never know. And like, sure, that might be the case. But it's also the case that he has talked about having played through this back injury for a while. And so I don't necessarily know if it's something that we should be concerned about. Like, yeah, he has to stay healthy, but I don't know if he's that much more of an injury risk than Chris Bryant's currently on the IL. J.D. Martinez is 34.

So I, yeah, I think Christian Yelich, I'm buying high right now. You know what I think is a fun trade right now, Chris? I don't know if the Yelich manager would take this or obviously they would need pitching, but swapping Pablo Lopez for Christian Yelich. It just seems like it kind of, make sense on both sides. There's injury risk, but, you know, while they're healthy this season,

they both have looked really good. So again, I think most trades right now are probably going to be pitcher for hitter, if you can pull that off. So maybe like a Pablo Lopez or, I don't know, would you give up Dylan Cs for Yalich right now the way that he's pitched? Oh, man, that's a tough one. I let me check. I did do the trade values chart today. And I would think that I have Yalach just a little bit. they're basically the same range. So yeah, I think that. That makes sense. I've got Yelich.

I think he's 14 and C's 13 in the chart, something like that. So I think that makes sense. All right. Chris is staying on brand for his, oh my goodness gracious player. You know I am too. Here comes the money. Here we go. Here we go. Nice little pitcher's duel out on the West Coast.

Shane McClainahan going up against Shohei Otani. Shane O'Mack was. amazing. I will point out that there was no Mike Trout or Taylor Ward in the lineup, but nonetheless, seven shutout innings for McClanahan, three hits, one walk, 11 strikeouts. He had 24 swinging strikes on 100 pitches, and the way that he distributes these swinging strikes, it is just awesome. 10 on the fastball, six on the changeup, four on the curve, four on the slider. He has four legitimate pitches. This was the second seven inning start of the season, the ERA down to 2.52.

all the numbers just look like McClanahan is a legitimate SP1. So I think as long as he's working this deep into games and they're not really holding him back, like the Ray's like to do at times, I think that we might have an SP1 on our hands here, Chris. I'm not ranking him that way. I moved him up to SP20 in the rankings. He's just behind Robbie Ray and Freddie Peralta.

I kind of feel like that's the range he should be in right now. But a couple of more starts like this. I think Shane McClan's not. knocking on like the top 12th. Yeah, I mean, he's SP 26 for me, but that's me giving a lot of benefit of the doubt to Charlie Morton still. And, you know, I think like the Dylan sees Clayton

Kirshall Pablo Lopez range makes sense, but he might be better than all of them. You know, the, they're, the ERA is, I mean, 306, we usually think that's borderline ace material. This season, it's like pretty good. which tells you a lot about where we're at. And he still gives up some hard contact, but look,

if he's going to be a 30 plus percent strikeout rate guy and the stuff is certainly there for him to do it, then I don't think it really matters how hard he's going to get hit. You know, that's kind of that Robbie Ray, Shane Bieber territory. We're like, yeah, you can struggle with giving up hard contact, but when you're striking out a third of the opposing hitters, it doesn't really matter all that much. And so, yeah, McClanhan absolutely has ace potential.

And he's showing it right now. And you know what also helps, Chris, when you're allowing hard contact, but a lot of that contact is on the ground. 61% ground bowl rate for Shane McClan. Again, everything is lining up, the strikeouts, a swinging strike rate. He only has 10 walks over his first 39 and a third innings pitched this season. And then, of course, the ground balls, which I just mentioned. So I would not be looking to sell high.

I know some people might have that question. He just looks like a legitimate ace. And, you know, the ranking is kind of weird, Chris. Rankings in general are kind of weird because I have Shane Bieber ranked ahead of McClan. But if someone offered me Bieber for my McClanahan right now, there's no way that I'm taking that trade just personally. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing with rankings is like we can say, well, this player is ranked X and this player's ranked Y. And even the trade values chart, like, this player is worth that. But like, there's still a psychological factor to it.

And there's still like, I don't feel like you would need to give up Shane McClainahan to get Shane Bieber right now. You know, like that, that, that, it just, it might like the way I rank it, I think that would work out for you. But I don't think you should necessarily do that because I think you can do a better trade than that, given what we've seen from those two right now. You know, there's also the, the marketplace aspect of making. trades where it's not just what you think this player is worth. It's also what you think other people think they're worth, you know? Yeah, for sure. On the other side, Shohei Otani looked great once again, six innings, two hits, one run, five strikeouts to two walks. He's got 46 strikeouts to seven walks on the season over 32 and a third. Endings pitched. 2.78 ERA. The ex-fip for Otani is

2.00. So he has been tremendous as well. Ultimately, both guys, wind up with a no decision in this start. Bonus, oh my goodness gracious. You wanted Whitmerryfield, you got him. Easily, his best game of the season. He went three for four with a sock and a shoe. His first home run, his fourth stolen base. He doubled his season-long run total in one game.

He had four runs scored entering this start, and he added four runs in this game. So I'm going to guess this is one of the last times we see him bat each. That would make sense. I mean, overall, the Royals lineup in general. has just been dreadful, so stream your pitchers against them right now. But again, we're preaching patience with a lot of hitters right now, and I know a lot of fantasy managers don't want to hear that,

but look, these guys are proven. And just like we said yesterday, you know, your window to buy Whitmeryfield probably just closed. One more bonus, oh my goodness gracious, of the bad variety. I mean, Tyler McGill saw Corey Kluber yesterday, and he's like, well, hold my beer. ERA goes from 2.43 to 4.41 in one start. He recorded just four outs at the Nationals.

He gave up eight hits, eight earned runs, two home runs allowed. That is a 54.00 ERA in this start. Negative 18 and a half fantasy points over on CBS. Could not locate his fastball, didn't have the slider. I think he was unlucky, too. I know he gave up two home runs, so it's hard to say he was unlucky, but he had a 667 Babbip on three hard hit balls. If anyone in your league is trying to spite drop Tyler McGill

or just spite trade him because they're so frustrated with this, obviously Chris, I would still be looking to buy him. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting. Like, the velocity has not returned quite to where it was last season, but it's not, he's not averaging 96, 97 with the fastball. Like he was early in the season. And I mean, I guess it's still early in the season. But, you know, early for early.

His strikeout rate is down to 27.7%. It was 26% last season. So I don't know. There are reasons to think that maybe we overreacted with Tyler McGill early on. And he's a player who I've had some trouble ranking because I've kept him in like the 40 to 50 range. And it feels low. But after this start, like I've got him just behind Eric Lauer and just. and just behind Mike Clevenger and Zach Allen and Jesus Lazzardo,

who didn't have a great start in his most recent one as well. And I kind of feel like that makes sense. And so, yeah, I don't know, maybe this is a buy low opportunity if someone is really worried about him. But, you know, if someone still views Tyler McGill as like a top 35 starting pitcher, maybe there's room to buy. I don't know. All right.

Yeah, I mean, I agree. I have him ranked in that same range, SP 42 for me. and it's in a similar range as Breakout Hopefuls who have kind of had some hiccups recently Jesus Lazzardo Kyle Wright is in that range for me Joe Ryan is right there

just behind Tyler McGill So that is the right range I move Eric Lauer ahead of all those I have him at SP 37 He was one of my biggest risers In my most recent update Because he really hasn't had that kind of blow-up start or any kind of hiccup

He's just looked ridiculous so And I'm moving Alex Cobb ahead of him now too. Oh, all right. Yeah, Alex Cobb, solid once again. We'll talk about him a little bit later on. Let's get back to buy high or no thanks guy. A few other candidates here.

Glaver Torres went two for four with his fifth home run of the season. It was another kind of Yankee Stadium special, so I'll point that out. He had five RBI in this game. He accounted for all the Yankees runs, actually. And overall, the numbers don't look great right now. But over the last 15 games, Glaver Torres batting 260 with four home runs. And Chris, you know, you look at the underlying numbers here.

The fly ball rate is up to 48% this year. Average exit velocity for Glaber Torres, 92.6 miles per hour. By far, a career best. This isn't somebody who's ever really hit the ball all that hard, even in his breakout season back in 2019. And speaking of that breakout season, what I noticed is he was really aggressive that year. His swing rate, he was chasing more pitches,

and he's gotten back to doing that this year. The past couple of years, I thought he was too passive at times and maybe just being too patient at the plate. but he's being more aggressive and it's working out for him. Glaver actually might be available in some leagues, some shallow leagues. He's 73% rostered. But in some deeper ones, I'm looking to buy.

I really like what I see under the hood here. Yeah, and the nice thing is, you know, his swing rate is up to 52.8%. That's a career high. His career high prior was 51.8% in 2019. So, you know, anytime you're pointing back towards that range, or that time period, I think you view that.

as a positive, or at least not a negative. And the other thing is, despite the fact that he's swinging more than ever, his whiff rate is down. So he's making more contact. And typically what you'll see when a player is being more aggressive and making more contact is they're sacrificing quality of contact. And that's not what we're seeing from Glaber Torres. Like you said, eggs of velocity higher than it's ever been, 92.6 miles per hour. Hard hit rate, 50.7% percent. that's an 89th percentile mark.

That's really, really good. And so, yeah, I, based on what we're seeing from Glaber Torres, that there are definitely reasons to be optimistic about him. I didn't expect to be optimistic about him when I was looking at it. But, no, I think this is, this is all good signs for Glabrotores. It doesn't mean that he's back to, you know, being a 38 homer guy. I don't think it was ever realistic to expect him to be a 38 homer guy again. But I like what we're seeing for sure.

Yeah, and I don't think he needs to be, Chris. If in this environment, if he hits 260 to 270 with 25 home runs as a middle infielder, that's awesome right now. So yeah, I think we're both in there by high on Gleber Torres. And hopefully playing better will make him an everyday player because he hasn't been so far. He's sitting like every third or fourth or fifth game. Yeah. So, you know, hopefully if he continues to hit the ball well, he'll be in the line. I'll point out in general, Aaron Boone has done that with all the Yankees hitters this season.

Josh Donaldson, I think he's doing it as a way to keep them healthy. I mean, he's even done it with Judge. Judge, as great as he's been, he's sat out a few games, but Stanton, Josh Donaldson, these guys are all getting regular days off. And I think it's just part of their plan as like a team philosophy. Yeah, given the guys that they have, it probably makes sense. Yeah, for sure. I'm going to throw two catchers your way here. Chris, Wilson Contreras, he went two for four with his fourth home run on Wednesday. He's batting 304. He's low-key been awesome. He's got a 935 OPS. His strikeout rate is down this year. His average exit velocity way up as well, 93.1 miles per hour. I noticed he's crushing it whenever he D.Hs this season too. He's batting 4-74 with two homers as a D.H. And coming into the season, it's something I also noticed that he liked doing batting as a D.H. And of course, Wilson Contreras, in a contract year. The other one is Tyler Stevenson. He went three for five with

two doubles, four more RBI. He's betting 322 with a 956 OPS himself. Chris, what do you think about buying high on Wilson Contreras or Tyler Stevenson? There's got to be teams out there that need a catcher. I know that. I mean,

all but like whoever has Travis Darnow is probably feeling pretty good about catcher other than that, you know, there's probably not a lot. Dalton Farr Show. He's been awesome too. I wrote a tweet today, you know, saying, well, maybe I was wrong about Tyler Stevenson. And then I was like, well, let me do some research before I take an L publicly. And I looked at Tyler Stevenson's underlying data and it stinks.

It's really bad. His average exit velocity, 85.4 miles per hour, his hard hit rate, 32.5.5.5. percent. Obviously, we know the expected stats aren't quite as useful right now because they haven't been calibrated to this new offensive environment. However, his expected Wobah is 305 compared to a 396 Wobah. The reason that expected stats this year wouldn't typically be all that useful relative to the past would be that they're overstating offensive production.

So I'm not at all ready to take an out. on Tyler Stevenson. I know he's got a 956 OPS. I know he's got three home runs. And his barrel rate is higher than it has been in the past, although still, you know, not great. But I'm not too concerned about being wrong about Tyler Stevenson yet.

So that's what I will say. Does that also mean that you are looking? Sell high. Sell high. No thanks, guy, comma. I will sell high. All right. Well, I hope you have a good backup plan.

I catcher because if you sell Tyler Stevenson. Oh, you don't. Yeah, I mean, you can pick up someone. Alejandro Kirk is coming around. He's, I think he's. Yeah, he had a couple hard hit balls today. I like what we're seeing from him. But Wilson Contreras, I don't know if I would say buy high just because he's, because the landscape is so bad and because he carries a lot of name value, I don't necessarily know that you're, you're going to pay full freight for full freight for, full freight for, for Wilson Contreras, and I don't think he's going to continue to be a 400 expected Woba player. You know, throughout his career, he's pretty steadily been in the 340 to 350 range, and I think that's probably what he'll be moving forward,

just like with Whitmerfield and Cote, where, you know, we talked yesterday about betting on their track record. Wilson Contreras is another guy. I think you can bet on his track record, and he's probably just hot right now. That being said, that track record is one of the best hitting catchers in baseball, and he's playing pretty much every day. I think he's started 25 of 30 games for the Cubs so far. So there are actually a handful of catchers who are playing a ton right now, which is a good sign, Don Varsho, chief among them.

But Vladimir Guerrera, J.T. Raumuto, has also played a bunch of games. So, you know, if Rauluto and Salvador Perez could start hitting, that would be great. But yeah, I think Wilson Contrera, Like, I didn't really move him up in my rankings this time, but I feel very solid about him. I just don't think he's going to keep this up. Fair enough. All right, so we are looking to sell high on Tyler Stevenson. Don't buy Wilson Contreras because it's probably going to take too much.

I have one by-low candidate here, Chris. Kyle Schwabweb went 0-4 with three more strikeouts on Wednesday. He's now 0-4 with seven strikeouts in this series against the Seattle Mariners. he's batting 185. The strikeout rate is up to 31.7%. There's some weird things going on right now. The average exit velocity is down, the barrel rate, the hard hit rate, basically the same.

But you look at the batted ball distribution. I know this is something you spoke about recently, Chris, where line drive rate is kind of hard to trust this early in the season. He has a 7, 7% line drive rate. League average is probably like 18, 20%, something like that. 7%. That's very bad. His fly balls are way up.

His infield fly balls are way up. Chris, what do you think about buying low on Kyle Schwerber? I think you probably should. Yeah, just because, again, it's like we talked about

with Whitmerfield, where the track record is long enough of him being a very solid player and, you know, the last couple of seasons, especially Kyle Schwerver, has been a really, really high-end power option.

So I think you should probably buy low because, yeah, the line drive rate is way, down and that's the primary culprit for his struggles right now. That and he's hitting a ton of pop-ups. His pop-up rate is 16.2%. He's had about 50% more pop-ups than line drives so far. That's really bad pop-ups almost always turn into outs, line drives almost always turn into hits. So you generally want those two things to be moving in the opposite direction. But it's still early. He's not 34 to where you would think, oh, he's just cratered.

So I think this is probably just a rough stretch for Kyle Schwerber. Okay. And I'll point out, through May 31st last season, Kyle Swarber was batting 230 with a 766 OPS. Strikeout rate was 29%. So that was actually lower. But if you were right in the same range. If you remember what happened after that is that he hit 16 home runs embedded 280 in the month of June so he's one of those guys that could just get hot Chris we talked about with Brandon Lau yesterday yeah like you know Kyle Schwaber streaky like his career has been defined by hot streaks and cold streaks and that's true of every player to a certain degree but

cow Schwaber has tend to be pretty pronounced and so I just I don't think you can sell I don't think there's any reason to sell a guy come on a hot on a cold streak you know like I mentioned with jazz Chisholm the other day where I want to see what he looks like after a cold streak. I want to see what happens when pitchers have made adjustments to him and he's made adjustments to pitchers and where he settles. And Kyle Schwerber has a much longer track record, so it's even less of a concern to me. But yeah, you're selling him at what is likely to be his lowest point. So I just don't think it makes any sense.

I would absolutely try to buy low. All right, some recent trade questions that we received. This was an email from Gonzalo, grade the trade, 8 by 8 head-to-head categories with hits, Wox OPS, as the added ones for hitting, and Wox Strikeouts, K-per-9, quality starts added for pitchers. I dealt Zach Gallen for Brandon Lau. Grade the trade.

I think that's probably an A. As much as I like Allen, pitching's really easy to find right now, and guys who could potentially hit 40 home runs are not. Brandon Loud hit 39 last year. And he hit 39 last year, despite being just about as bad to this point in the season as he has been so far.

So another guy that you know can get hot and you know he can put together, you know, the kind of stretches that'll really change his outlook. So I'm perfectly fine. Are you highlighting those names because you don't know who they are? No, I just wanted to make sure. I had a good idea.

who they were, but I had to make sure. This next one is an email from Peyton Deere, Brian, Nick, Kevin, AJ, and Howie. Tell me why. There you go, the Backstreet Boys. All right, grade the trade in a 12-team head-to-head points leading. I gave Jose Al-Tuve, Connor Joe, and Miles Michaelis, receiving Ozzy Albies, Teaska Hernandez, and Sean Maniah.

Yeah, I don't know what the person who accepted this trade was thinking, because I think you got the better version of every type of player here. Ozzy Albaes is better than Jose Altuve. Teasca Hernandez, I like Connor Joe, but Teosker Hernandez is better than Connor Joe. And Shamanai is better than Miles Michaelis. So I think that's great. There's a bit of a sell-high, buy-low aspect to this trade in moving Connor Joe and Miles Michaelis for Teosker Hernandez and Shamanai.

And if that's all the trade was, I think that'd be great. The fact that you were able to get Ozia Albi's four. or Jose Altuve on top of that, I think just puts it over the top. I think it's an A. All right. And I received a tweet on Wednesday asking if we should sell high on Tommy Edmund. And I hadn't really thought about it. I just know that he's been crushing it.

Tommy Edmund batting 293 homers, 18 runs scored, 14 RBI, 7 seals. A true five category contributor, which I was not expecting in the least. So look, between like Dalton Varshot, Tommy Edmund, those are probably probably been my biggest L's so far this season. I noticed the walk rate way up for Tommy Edmund this year. Oddly enough, he's hitting more ground balls and more infield fly balls. And the quality of contact is up slightly. What do you think, Chris?

Would you look to sell high on Tommy Edmund right now? Yeah. I mean, if someone's going to look at Tommy Edmund and say, wow, this is a, you know, potential 15 to 20 homer, 35 plus stolen base guy and, you know, with really good run and RBI numbers, then yeah, I would be willing to sell him. But I don't know. He's not that much different than he was last season, at least in terms of the projected, the pace for the counting stats.

And I was skeptical that he was going to repeat the 30 stolen bases especially, and that was where a lot of his values seemed to be laying. But he's on pace for it. And they're letting him run again, and he's really fast. There's definitely some good luck involved in what he's. doing so far. I don't think he's a 290 hitter, but I don't know, he's probably like a 270 hitter. And, you know, I don't, if you set the over under at nine and a half home runs from here on out, I think that'd be a tough one. I think I might take the under, but the stolen

bases look sustainable. And that's going to be the hardest thing to, to replace, especially if he's not a zero anywhere else. I mean, we're talking about a world in which Alberto Modesi is already done for the season. So one of the premier stolen base guys is off the board. I don't, there's not a lot of guys who are going to give you what Tommy Edmund can. So yeah, like, based on what he's doing right now, I would take the under on his current OPS. I would take an under on 818 OPS moving forward, but I would have trouble. The league that I'm in, I would have trouble moving him because I do think the stolen

bases are legitimate. It's so hard because he's one of the only players that's contributing offensively right now. Like, also that. I think the idea of selling high on Tommy Edmund is the correct one for all the reasons that you laid out. It's just, it's so hard to give up a player this valuable right now. So would you flip him for Teoska Hernandez if you could? Sure. Yes. I have Teosker Hernandez ranked quite a bit ahead of him. How about Whitmerfield? This is an interesting one because they seem so similar. When everything is going right for both, they're kind of similar players. I don't think it makes sense.

That is, that's a good point. I mean, they both might just be 270 hitters with single to low double-digit home run totals and 30-plus steals. And probably two of the better bets for 30-plus steals. So that's a really tough one. I have what Merrifield ranked quite a bit higher right now. but maybe I'm just deferring too much to Whitmeryfield's experience in that regard. Maybe I am overreacting to this, but I have moved Tommy Edmund ahead of Whitmery Fields at both second base and outfield.

I've got him 19th at the outfield position just because there's so many outfielders that are not producing. So I don't know, maybe I'm just overreacting too much, but he's been awesome so far. that's one that my knee-jerk reaction didn't quite hold up to a second thought. All right, we'll see what happens. Tommy Edmund, before we hit the break, make sure to sign up for our fantasy baseball today newsletter if you haven't already. Dan Schneier, he does a great job for it,

and it's free, so why wouldn't you sign up? CBSports.com slash newsletters, and of course you can sign up for our fantasy football today newsletter, which Chris does. So if you want to support Chris and support our buddy Dan, again, FBT and FFT newsletters, they are free. CBSSports.com slash newsletters. Let's take a quick break and when we return, news and notes here on fantasy baseball today. The news and notes, Ronald Acuna, was held out of the lineup Wednesday due to a sore groin.

The Braves don't sound too worried as they expect Acuna to return on Friday. Please, we don't need this right now. Ronald Acuna just returned, and he's stolen five bases in 10. 10 games. He's been amazing. So, I mean, I get it. Although your team only has three of them, I guess, in all likelihood, because two of them came in that first game back. Yes. That's fair. But still, you love to see how he's playing so far. And you would hate to see it slow down. Look, I guess take all the time you need to get right. Don't rush him back into the lineup.

But we need him. We need Ronald Lecuna. Zach Wheeler is scheduled to return from the COVID-I-L and start Thursday against the Dodgers. Chris, would you start him in daily lineup leagues? Yeah, I would. I guess there's always the chance that he's dealing with some, I don't know, he's winded, I guess, as a result of it, but I would say you probably have to start him. Speaking of COVID, the White Sox and Guardians game was postponed

Wednesday due to multiple positive COVID tests within the Cleveland organization. I believe Terry Francona was one of them, so I hope everything is all right there with the Guardians. Vado will likely require a rehab assignment before rejoining the Reds. He has been on the COVID-I-L since May 3rd. Taylor Ward has not started three straight games with a hamstring injury, but said he will, quote, absolutely be back in the lineup on Friday. And in fact, he actually pinch hit on Wednesday, late in the game, and he hit a game-tying home run off of Andrew Kittridge in the eighth inning of that game. So if you bench Taylor Ward in a daily lineup league because he didn't start, I am sorry, because

He is just on fire right now. He's been awesome. Ryan Moucassel was held out of the lineup Wednesday due to left wrist soreness. Garrett Whitlock will make another start for the Red Sox on Monday against the Houston Astros. Steven Strasbourg is scheduled

to throw another simulated game at extended spring training this weekend. The Nationals will reassess after that. Evan Longoria was reinstated and batting third in the lineup. He went 0 for 5 with three strikeouts. Mandy Margot has missed the past two games. with that hamstring injury, but expects to return on Friday.

Nico Horner was diagnosed with a right ankle sprain after x-rays came back negative. The Cubs say Horner may require a couple days off, but isn't expected to require a trip to the injured list. Brandon Rogers, the guy was hot. Scott puts him on the sleeper list, and now he's dealing with a hand injury. He hasn't played the past two days and is expected to return Friday against the Royals. Randall Gritcher has not played the past two days dealing with a

stomach bug. Jake McGee placed on the IL with lower back tightness. Lower back tightness. I think he's just been terrible. They're trying to like, I don't know, get his mind right right now, but he hasn't been good. He's got a 9.58 ERA. And in case you needed any more confirmation, Camillo Doval is the closer for the Giants

for the time being. The Twins pitcher, Bailey Ober through a 20 pitch bullpen session on Wednesday. He is on the IL with a groin issue. Rich Hill will return from the COVID-IL and start Saturday. at the Rangers and Joey Wendell, who has surprisingly been really good, left Wednesday's game with right hamstring tightness. Let's talk about some rankings movers.

Chris's latest trade chart is out on the site, and if you ever want to just see our rankings, follow along, they are updated, and you can find them, CBSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball slash rankings. The biggest risers for Chris, Carlos Rodon, Christian Yelich, Jazz Chish, Chisham, and Julio Rodriguez. Chris, I know we were talking beforehand,

and you're buying. You're buying high on Julio Rodriguez right now. Yeah, that's what I wrote about with the trade chart. And, you know, he kind of looks like another one of the high-end rookies who's struggling. He's only, he entered today 255, 317, 345 triple slash line with a 33% strikeout rate. But I don't know. Like, one, the fact that he's got 10 stolen bases and he's 99th percentile in sprint speed. like the fact that he's got 10 steals despite not hitting the ball all that well so far I feel like is a really good sign

the fact that they've just given him a green light and I haven't seen any reason to think that there's like anything weird or fluky with it I know sometimes you'll I think Ramon laureano last year had like seven steals in the first two weeks of the season but like four of them were effectively defensive indifference like the there was no throw on them and so I haven't seen any reason to think that that's the case with Julio Rodriguez, but the reason I'm buying is culminating on April 24th, he had struck out 22 of his first 48 play appearances. That's a 46% strikeout rate.

That was a four strikeout game on April 21st. Since then, he's down to 24%. And I think that might be sustainable. There's some swing and miss in his game. He's a big dude and he's young and he's aggressive, but eight of those first 22 strikeouts, we talked about this a handful of times early on in the season, but eight of those first 22 strikeouts were on-called strikes

that were outside of the strike zone. Holy Rodriguez just, I think there was some bad luck involved. And he also had the third lowest swing rate on two strike counts, which he's raised since then. But he's been a little more aggressive overall, but the biggest thing is that his contact rate has jumped from 65% in that first 12 games to 75% in 18 games since then. And that's basically going from worst in baseball last year to middle of the pack.

And given how well he's hitting the ball, I think that's a really good thing. He doesn't have to be an elite contact guy. He just has to be good enough with how well he hits the ball. And even then, he doesn't have to hit the ball that well if he's going to steal 40 bases. I don't know if he's going to steal 40 bases. he's on about a 50 steel pace right now. So, yeah, I'm buying Julio Rodriguez. The overall numbers are not great.

And so if someone in your league doesn't realize how valuable he has been and is going to be, I would absolutely be trying to buy him. And even what, who was, J.P. Crawford was out of the lineup a couple of days and Holyro Rodriguez was batting third for the Mariners over the weekend. So that's also a good sign. They've got faith in it. He's not going to hit third moving forward forever, but he's a potential superstar with a lot of value right now.

I don't know, Chris. He might just be batting third now because he has done it four games in a row. Three of the past four? Four games in a row. Oh, okay. No, three of the past four. You're right about that. The fonts on my computer is so small.

I'm also just losing my eyesight. So if you ever see me looking to the side, I have another monitor over here where I'm trying to see things, but the eyes are just kind of going on me right now. Though risers for me, of course, Julio Rodriguez was one of them, Christian Yelich, Dalton Varsho, I moved. I moved Varsho up to my number four catcher.

I think I moved him up to three. I think I now have him ahead of Will Smith. Will Smith. Not unreasonable. Will Smith's been, I mean, him and J.D. Romuta have actually both been pretty bad this season. Look at it, Scott. So aggressive.

He's got Varshot. I had forgotten. J.D. Romuta has kind of been terrible for like a year straight now. He's got a 674 OPS right now. And let me pull it up. His last 365 days, he's hitting 251 with a 727 OPS, 15 homers, 13 steals and 129 games. That's not for a catcher. That's not bad. But it's not special. No, it's not. And I was just going to mention Scott moved Varshow up to his second rank catcher ahead of JT. Real Muto, only behind Salvador Perez. Let's see how long it takes for Scott to actually move Varsho ahead of

Salvador Perez. I think it's going to take quite some time. Obviously, he loved Perez coming into the season. Rizers for me again, Yelich, Julio Rodriguez, Varsho. Routy Tellez, I moved inside my top, I think, 18 at first base. Josh Naler, I moved up to my 59th ranked outfielder. So inside the top 60 there, if you play in five outfielder leagues. Terik Scoubel, I moved inside my top 60 starting pitchers. Nestor Cortez, I moved up to my 50th ranked starting pitcher. Chris, a few fallers for you. Shane Bieber, Marcus Semyon, and Javier Baez.

And like you, I dropped Bieber down to my SP 14. So down a little bit. Yeah, he's down to 16 for me, I'm pretty sure. And look, we are 17. I actually, after Robbie Ray's most recent start, I actually just put Robbie Wright ahead of him. And we've talked about the, the Shane Bieber thing quite a bit, but the velocity's way down.

He's averaging below 90 miles per hour with his fastball, the spin rate way down, and that's something that we didn't really see last season because of the shoulder injury. We didn't see how the sticky stuff ban affected him. And I don't know, I think there's a chance Shane Bieber's just like an average to below average ERA guy who gets a decent number of innings and strikeouts. But the early returns are pretty, pretty not great for Shane Bieber. so far. Yeah, a few other fallers for me, outside of Bieber, I've got Yulee Gurriel, just kind of looking, just kind of looking old right now. I don't, I don't know if he's

going to get back on track. I didn't include Gurriel in my list just because I was going off of players who are in my trade values chart and I think he just fell out of the trade values chart, so I just didn't even see him on that list of fallers. So that, that's its own version of falling. Mm-hmm. Jorickson pro far. I moved way down. and no surprise here, but Joey Gallo is now at number 60 in my outfield rank. So I will take Josh Naylor over Joey Gallo. I stop Gallo on my top 40. He's falling.

He's falling, Chris. Let's take a closer look at Jose Burrios. I mentioned facetiously at the top of the show that Jose Burrios might stink. Well, what's going on with him? Two rough outings in a row. His ERA is up to 5.82, and he gave up five hits, five, runs over five and a third innings at the Yankees, eight more hard

hit balls. Chris, he is getting crushed right now. His stat cast expected ERA entering Wednesday was 7.75. That is just, that's abysmal. And now his swinging strike rate is 8.4%. It's now sub 10% two straight seasons.

I don't know. I dropped him a little bit. You know, more so I moved pitchers ahead of him. I didn't just drop Berrios. It's just like other pitchers around him that are pitching better right now. But what do you think? Are you actually concerned over what's going on with him? Yeah, I mean, the thing is, it's been really easy so far to move guys ahead of Jose

Barrios. And he, I think he was like 19 or 20 for me to start the season. And it's just been like every week, it's just like, yeah, I'll move Papa Lopez ahead of him. I'll move Clayton Kershaw. And it's just like now he's all the way down to 29. And even that might be a little too high. I will say, I wonder if he's tipping his pitches.

because it's just so bad right now in a way that almost like beggars belief like he's a fastball velocity and spin rate and everything looks mostly like it usually does and he's just getting crushed with every single pitch I mean his lowest exit velocity allowed on a pitch right now

is his curveball and that's 89 miles per hour last season he his highest average or eggs of velocity allowed in a pitch was 89.7 with his fastball. So Barrios has always been one of those guys who's been pretty good at limiting contact. And this season he's just been absolutely abysmal. 49.5% hard hit rate before he gave up what eight hard hit balls today. So it just, it kind of, it feels like Luis Castillo at this time last year, where there doesn't seem to be an obvious physical explanation for why he's struggling so,

so much to the point. where I almost have to wonder, I almost have to think that there's just something mechanically wrong that he'll fix and be fine. So I'm not saying you should be panic selling Jose Beres. And I think he's probably a buy low. Fair enough. How about these other two pitchers, Chris?

What have you seen from these two? Logan Gilbert, two mixed starts in a row now. He allowed four runs on three hits, three walks on Wednesday, over five innings. He had nine strikeouts, which was a season high. But he has three or more walks in four straight starts. And he's just overall a weird pitcher.

His swinging strike rate below 10%, not getting a lot of whiffs. He allows hard contact. He allows a lot of fly balls. The control has been lacking. But overall, the results have been there for Logan Gilbert. So what are you seeing with him? Yeah, the biggest thing that I've noticed with Logan Gilbert

and the thing that is most confounding based on what we typically understand about pitchers is his called plus swinging strike rate is pretty middling. In this start it was 25%. I think it's been below 28% for the season. And that typically would make you think that a guy who has a really good ERA is going to suffer some regression. But today, this is illustrative of how the season has. has gone so far for Logan Gilbert. Today he had 24 foul balls with his fastball.

He's been running foul ball rates north of 20% for much of the season. And that is, I don't know if that's sustainable, I guess is the way I would put it. It's really hard to be a really good strikeout pitcher without like a good called plus swinging strike rate. I'm looking at a piece from Al Melchior, actually, from the athletic. I think it was two days yesterday, actually. And there's a very strong correlation historically between strikeout rate and called plus swinging strike rate. And he's one of the outliers, Logan Gilbert. So I, it's a weird profile, and I don't know how sustainable it is.

It is weird, man. Yeah. I have trouble. saying to sell high, Chris, just because the pedigree is there. And you watch him pitch, like, he has good stuff. But I've noticed it. He just, he struggles with consistency on his secondary pitches. It was something I noticed last year. You know, there's just starts where either his changeup isn't working or his slider isn't working or they're both not working. And then he has to be fastball heavy. And, you know, last year was the results weren't great. He kind of ran bad. And

this year so far, he's kind of running hot. So I don't, he's a weird one. I don't think I would sell high. I mean, unless someone's really willing to overpay for him. But yeah, I think it depends on like, is someone view, I don't know where you and Scott have Logan Gilbert rank, but he's 37 for me at starting pitcher. So I'm still a little iffy on him. So if someone's viewing him as like a top 24 starting pitcher, then yeah, I think there's a chance to sell him.

And I think there might be people who do view him as that, because Logan Gomer is a highly touted prospect. He had a lot of hype coming into the season and, you know, maybe someone does view him that way, in which case, yeah, I would sell high. But it's not a get-out while the getting's good kind of situation

because I do think there's, one, there's room for his swing and miss rates on his secondary pitches to improve. You know, right now he has swing, his whiff rate on every pitch is below 25%. That's pretty bad. Last year, his slider and change-up were both about 38%. So if you can get back to that, then there's room for the strike out rate to grow even more

than what we've seen. So, you know, that's, I think, I think I'm holding steady on Logan Gilbert as like an SP3, SP4. All right. A few other pitchers I wanted to mention. Miles Michaelis lowers his ERA to 1.49. He allows just one run over seven innings at the Orioles. Lean into the slider in this one, 37% and overall he's throwing his slider more this season. He's got a 1.49 ERA, which I don't think is sustainable, but I will point out he's doing a great job limiting hard contact and the ground ball rate has slowly been climbing throughout the year. So I think this is close to the breakout 2018 we saw from Michaelis. I also think that he's just healthy again. So I look if you could tell high, of course, but I kind of like Michaelis. That awesome defense behind him. Obviously

a great division to pitch in as well. James and Tyone, two solid starts in a row, both against the Blue Jays. He allowed two runs over five and a third, and he has two starts next week. So if you want to beat the waiver wire, he's 72% roster. He's got the White Sox, and he's at the Orioles. Started throwing a new cutter about three starts ago, and he's using it 25 plus percent in two straight starts. The results have been good for Tyone, so I kind of like what I've seen from him as well. Let's move over to some waiver wire hitters.

Alejandro Kirk, we mentioned earlier. He went two for four. He's betting 360 over his last seven games. He's 57% rostered if you need a catcher. Tommy Fam, three for four with a walk, two run scored, two RBI. Chris, he's betting 315 over his last 15 games. I feel like I say it every day. I still think he's the most under-roastered hitter right now in CBS.

He's 46% rostered. Problem is he only has five road games next week. Yeah, he was a big riser for him. me. I moved him into the top 50 at outfielder as well. And yeah, I think he's one of those guys where the expected stats suggest that he's like a stud, and I

don't think he's going to be that for a lot of reasons. I mentioned last week, he's someone who doesn't really pull the ball at all. He hits everything like sprayed or to the gaps and it's just you're not going to get as much out of each batted ball. You know, a 380 football to

to left field is a home run every time. You know, that's Nolan around. That's Nolan Aronado's whole thing at this point in his career. It's just hitting 380 foot home runs. But if you hit a 380 football to left center, there's a decent chance it's going to be caught. Maybe not in Cincinnati every time, but a lot of the time. So I do think, like, if you look at the underlying numbers

and you see like, wow, Tommy Fam is a star. I don't think he's that. But yeah, he's clearly a must-start outfielder right now. Chris, would you rather have Tommy Fam or Alec Thomas, the prospect for the Diamondbacks, who went two for three on Wednesday, on Wednesday, rather, hit his first career home run off of Sandy. Sandy Alcantara, Alec Thomas is 49% rostered. He's got eight games next week.

Would you rather have Fam or Thomas? I would rather have Thomas. It is, you know, I will just not relevant to that question necessarily, but I will say that a promising start from Sandy Alcantra. He looked really good. Oh, yeah. Kind of made the one mistake, I think, so that was good and Alec Thomas made him pay for the one mistake So I think I want both

I mean I've got room for both Alec Thomas and Tommy Fam in most of my outfields But if you did have to pick one for some reason I would take the flyer on Alec Thomas having more upside There's also just the fact that Tommy Fam's been awesome for two straight weeks and he's still 46% rostered so so clearly people aren't buying it. So you've got a better chance of picking up Alec Thomas and maybe being able to pick up Tommy Fam tomorrow, you know, if you want to.

Fair enough. That is the right answer, by the way, Chris. I mean, we need offense. Pick up both of these guys, Tommy Fam and Alec Thomas. Which one of these first basemen would you rather have, Chris? I know you liked Luke Void coming into the season. Finally gets on the board. Double Dong on Wednesday, his first two home runs with the Padres. He's 56% rostered.

Or would you rather have Juan Yippez, who went two for five with his second, home run. He has now started all seven games since being called up and has a hit, at least one hit in each of them. He is 41% rostered Luke Voigt or Juan Ypres. You are muted, sir. It would be Voigt for me. I am muted. I was. Just because my, my expectation for Voigt were so high coming in. And I think the, you know, what, two walks in his first game back from the IL and then the three hit game with two home runs. That sounds to me like someone who's figured it out,

and Luke Voight, when he's been healthy, he's crushed the ball throughout his career. So I'm pretty confident he's going to crush the ball now. But, you know, Yves has been pretty impressive so far. So it might be a situation where maybe the answer is both. You should probably try to add both. Because, again, I've got plenty of leagues where I could use a corner or infielder and potentially an out

first baseman so yeah at all of them fam Thomas Luke Voigt Wanya I mean at this point like we had there was a guy on Twitter who was like getting on Scott's case because he said

Rowdy Telez was a must add and it's like that's not to say that these guys are all going to be stars like if someone's available in 50% of leagues on May 12th they're probably the most likely outcome is they're not good. Like that's just like okay you have the the random prospect or the guy who just gets

overlooked but like generally speaking most of the guys you're adding on the waiver wire are not going to be good but offense is at such a premium right now that these guys are showing the kind of potential that makes them you know potentially difference makers and I you can't pass that up right now just because like you shouldn't drop a really good player for them even if they're struggling You shouldn't drop Whitmerfield you know, for any of these guys. Right. But you should be trying to get

as many bites at the apple as you can with guys who are showing upside when offense is so hard to find. In deeper leagues, if you need a middle infielder, Seizade Hernandez, went three for four with two runs scored. His last 15 games, he's betting 3.44 with 10 runs, two stolen bases.

He's 22% rostered. Just the name to watch. Brendan Donovan with the Cardinals, he went two for two with two walks, two doubles, three runs scored, two RBI on Wednesday. That's one day after hitting his first career home run and he has started both games at shortstop. So you hit, I think you're going to play.

Brendan Donovan, a name to watch. Sandy Alcantara, some leftovers here, Chris. I know you mentioned he got back on track, seven innings, one run, six strikeouts, leaned all the way into the change-up in this one. Threw at a season high 44% and it has been his best pitch this season. So if that's what's going to work, let's do it.

I'm all for it. When you can throw a change-up 95-miles an hour, you know, it's kind of like you don't need a fastball every time if you can throw your change-up like that. Yeah, he looked awesome. And I think the change-up is his best pitch. I think it's been his best pitch since the start of last season. So I have no problem with him throwing it more.

Alex Cobb was solid again. Two starts in a row, five-and-a-third, one-run, six strikeouts. but he's at Colorado next week, Chris. So you might want to get Cobb out of your lineups for that one. Yeah, I mean, look, his ground ball rate is super high. It's crazy. It's not out of the question that he could have a good start. But yeah, one-star week at Colorado, generally speaking,

you're sitting all but the best pitchers. So I'm okay with that. All right. Some hitting leftovers. Trevor's story off the Schneid hits his first Red Sox home run on May 11th. Who would have thunk it? Bobauchette went three for five with a double. He's batting 290 over his last 15 games.

Hunter Renfro hit a double dong. He's now up to eight homers. Reese Hoskins went two for five with his fifth homer. It was his third home run in as many days. So three straight days with a home run. Gene Seguro went one for two with two walks and his second steal, crushing it in May. He's batting 452, three homers, one steel.

Gene Seguer's average exit velocity in May is 96 miles per hour. So that is awesome. Eric Hosmer, he heard you, Chris. He heard you on yesterday's podcast, and he said, acknowledge me. Three for four with his fourth home run. He is batting 367. Pete Alonzo went two for four with his eighth home run.

He's off to a great start in May. Juan Soto hit his seventh homer. He has 10 RBI. I think that might just be a problem for him this season. Nationals lineup. Not very good. Nelson Cruz went one for three with his fourth homer. Corey Seeger hit his seventh home.

home run. He has three homers over the past two days. And Francisco Lindor, I'll always be transparent with you. Obviously, I was bragging. He's off to this MVP start and he's gone ice cold in May. He's betting 146, the hard contact, the line drive rate. It's fine. It's fine. I need you. I moved him up. I have a lot of Lindoror. I need it. I need him to. Yeah, I mean, look, the slump is not helping you right now personally, but he's fine. All right. Call to the bullpen some Bullpen updates for the Pirates. David Bednar was perfect for the Pirates final two innings, striking out three

for his fifth save, and Bednar has the Pirates last four saves overall, so kind of just think he's the guy, and he should be. For the Yankees, A Rollis Chapman gave up a walk, a hit and a run, but picked up his eighth save. For the Phillies, Corey Kinebel, final four outs for his

sixth save of the season. For the Diamondbacks. Chris, I know you added Ian Kennedy in a few leagues last week. Might work out, because Mark Alanson. He entered in a tie game. He gave up a walk, three hits, four runs. I think the Marlins had an eight run, ninth inning. The Marlins

were winning three-one heading into the bottom of the eighth. I don't want to talk about this, Chris. Then the Diamondback scored twice, and then the Marlins won 11-3. That is wild. I was so frustrated for the way that game went for multiple reasons, because

obviously I have a lot of Sandy Alconsohnter shares. The guy just cannot buy a win. It's so frustrating. And I bet the under in the game. So it was seven and a half total runs. This game is cruising along. It looked real good for a while. 3 to 1 in the 8th inning.

I'm like, yeah, I got this. Money in the bank. Next thing you know, 11 to 3. I'm like, are you kidding me? This is... It's tough. For the Cubs, David Robertson is on the COVID aisle. Row and Wick pitched a final two innings

against the Padres for his second save. And then for Tampa Bay, they've kind of been doing Tampa Bay things recently. Andrew Kittridge, he entered in the eighth inning with a two-run lead. to face the bottom of the lineup. He gave up two runs on three hits. He might have stayed in for a two-ending save.

I don't know. He's done that a few times already this year. But after that, Brooks Raleigh picked up the save in extra endings. It's his third save of the season. Andrew Kitchrich has four. So Raleigh is actually someone I've picked up in a few deeper category leagues.

Yeah, it would have to be a deeper league. Yeah, 15-team Roto. I've picked up a few Brooks Raleigh shares. He's been getting some saves. To stream or not to stream, let's start with. Thursday, Luis Heel. at the White Sox, Taiwan Walker at the Nationals,

James Caprillion at the Tigers, Josh Winder versus the Astros, Jordan Hicks versus the Orioles, and Tyler Anderson versus the Phillies. I think Winders probably the only guy I would trust in a standard 12-team league. But Anderson is okay in deeper formats. Is that a revenge game for Tyler Anderson?

I think so. Did he pitch for the Phillies? I don't know. No, he didn't. I thought he did for some reason. It's Kyle Gibson, Tyler Anderson, you know, once Friday, once Friday. But they're kind of the same guy, right?

Right? Right. Yeah. Anyway, Friday, we've got Mitch Keller versus the Reds. It feels like every start Mitch Keller has made has come against the Reds this year. It is uncanny. Doesn't make you feel more confident about Mitch Keller's production so far? No. Marco Gonzalez at the Mets. Aaron Savali at the Twins. Drew Smiley at the Diamondbacks.

Zach Davies versus the Cubs. That being said, Keller's probably the best of the options. I wouldn't want to start him, but... Big yikes. If I had to pick one, if you were forcing me to pick one, don't do it. I would go with Mitch Keller. I would say none.

That would be my preference. Yeah, this is... I guess I would go with Keller too, but, man, Friday, not great. Probably don't want to stream. We're going to wrap there. For Chris, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching. Fantasy Baseball.

We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.