Fantasy Baseball Today - Crochet Crushed! Rankings Risers/Fallers & Lots of Injuries! (4/25 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 25, 2024

Garrett Crochet just got crushed again (2:22)! ... Add Andy Pages or Wilyer Abreu (11:30)? ... Just a quick reminder to be patient early in the season (16:28). ... News (22:57): we had Blake Snell, Cody Belllinger and others placed on the IL. ... Josh Naylor was one of the biggest risers in our rankings (32:55). ... Carlos Rodon and Paul Goldschmidt are falling down the rankings (39:02). ... Buy, sell or hold names like Evan Carter, Wyatt Langford and others (44:09)? ... Nick Lodolo, Jack Flaherty and Bryce Miller had underwhelming starts (51:22). ... Are we looking to add Spencer Turnbull or Dean Kremer (56:50)? ... Time to re-add Maikel Garcia (1:01:22)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:03:10). 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, @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/ 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 lead. Well, fantasy! Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Well, hello, and welcome in to Tough Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday. April 25th, Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers.

Today on the show, we've got rankings, risers, and fallers. Quite a few players went on the IL. buy seller hold, and much more, but let's get into it. In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened. All right, Scott, you are up with a negative player of the night, one that might have hit us with the old rope-a-dope. Yeah, let's talk about Garrett Crochet, who I was pretty confident was going to bounce back from his two bad starts,

given that he was facing the twins who have been kind of a doormat so far, one of those teams that you like to stream pitchers against, especially right-handers, which Crochet isn't, but even so. It didn't go well. He allowed, what did he allow? Five earn runs in four innings of work on seven hits with two walks and six strikeouts. There you go. Bad news, bad news bears for Garrett Crochet.

and that gives him a total of 17 earn runs allowed. Over his past three starts, his ERA rising from an even two to 637. Nobody likes a 637 ERA. There's a 118 whip to go with it. We'll start there. We'll continue with. Garrett Crochet entered this start with the third best K-per-9 rate of any starting pitcher. And he entered this start with the fifth best best.

expected ERA of any starting pitcher. So other than the number of earned runs that have crossed the plate, you look at most of the stats for Garrett Crochet and say, well, that is quite impressive. But the fact that it is three starts in a row that have gone sour, I think it's fair to wonder, has the word gotten out on Garrett Crochet? Was there not much of a scouting report before? and now there is, and he just doesn't, he just doesn't do something right.

You know, there isn't enough variety. He throws three pitches, but, you know, they're all kind of, there's the slider, there's the cutter, there's the fastball, similar whiff rate on all of them. Have they just kind of caught up to him? And I obviously don't know the answer to that. But I will tell you that a pitcher who enters the day with the third best K-per-9 rate

and the fifth best expected ERA, no matter what they happen to do that day, is somebody I'm going to stick with for a little longer. And maybe you don't trust my evaluation of pitchers, which is probably a wise move on your part. But we did just have Lance Brosdowski on Friday show, one of the most celebrated pitching evaluators of our day. And he gave his stamp of approval to Crochet.

He didn't share any like warning signs with any of us. Oh, here's why it's all phony baloney. He had a resounding endorsement of him. And, you know, I think there's a lot of talent there. And I wouldn't be so quick to pull the plug, despite what many out there are saying. So we just got the ability to rank Air Crochet as a starting pitcher. For those wondering, for the relievers that started this season on CBS,

they only had relief picture. They had to make five starts to gain starting pitcher eligibility. Today's focus is going to be, we're talking about rankings rises and faller. Scout, where did Garrett Crochet fall into the starting pitcher rankings? So, prior to the start, I had him 32nd. After this start, I now have him 40th. It's moving down. But 40th is still somebody who I would consider must roster in all leagues.

So that puts him in between Ryan Pepio, who we also are now able to include in the starting pitcher rankings. I have Pepio 39th. I have, well, I actually have Mason Miller 41st, but read Detmer's 42nd. So that's where I'm slotting crochet between Pepio and Detmer's Imanaga is right behind them, Nicola Dolo is right behind that. So you got a bunch of lefties there with like really good strikeout upside, but some questions lingering. And I would I would have crochet among that group. I think he's much better than a sixth third. 37 ERA is the bottom line. But I don't know exactly what he is yet.

The FIP and XFIP would agree with you, by the way, that he's better than a 637 ERA or 639, whatever it is. It's a 410 FIP and a 290 X-FIP for Gare Crochet after this start here on Wednesday. Chris, was there anything you wanted to add on him? Yeah, I've got him 45th after this start. He was 37th before, so moved the same number of spots. I was just a little lower to begin with. than Scott on Garrett Crochet. But I saw someone in the mention saying,

all of these good stats from Crochet are based on his one good start. And like, that's also not true. Like, if you don't believe in him, that's fine. I think skepticism towards any pitcher who has made six starts in their major league career is warranted. And that includes Gerard Jones, who we all really like and have as a top 22 starting pitcher, I believe, if I remember correctly, based on our rankings updates today. Gary Crochet had three really, really good starts to open the season.

He had eight strikeouts, no walks, eight strikeouts, one walk, five strikeouts, no walks, and five innings. He has had three outstanding starts and three mediocre to, yeah, bad starts. I agree with Scott. I don't think he is a six, whatever ERA pitcher. I'm not sure he's a 250 pitcher, ERA pitcher or whatever his XERA is either. I would bet against that strongly,

but I feel confident that he's probably a sub-4 ERA pitcher. We're still getting... And it might be a low three ZRA pitcher. Right, right, yeah. Like, that's possible. I think the most concerning thing from this start is only eight whiffs on 87 pitches. he's given up some hard contact as well.

Today, it was, I think, five batted balls over 95 miles per hour. All of them went for hits. Four of them went for extra bases. A 99 mile per hour batted ball is bad. And he gave up four of them between 98.9 and 100.6. You don't expect every single 100 mile per hour batted ball to go for a hit and to go for extra bases. There is probably some bad luck going on as well.

And there's probably some bad clustering going on with his very low left on base rate. But again, I think skepticism is very much warranted. Skepticism was warranted when things were going well. And now there is more skepticism around him. But who are you dropping him for? We were talking before the show and someone on Twitter said that Joe Musker have had been dropped in their league. I would drop Garrett Crochet for Joe Musk or if Garret Crochet was my worst pitcher. But if we're talking about like, I wouldn't do it for Eric

Fetty. I wouldn't do it for like Dean Kramer. I wouldn't do it for Spencer Turnbull. If he was going to be in the Phillies rotation, I might because I actually do believe in Spencer Turnbull. But no, given what we know right now, I would not do that. Um, wouldn't do it for Tyler Anderson, who's been really good so far. or Jameson. Like, it would have to be a pitcher with legitimate upside. And I just don't think there are likely to be any pitchers on most waiver wires that have as much upside as Garrette Crochet.

I want to address one other thing I've heard about Garrett Crochet. And it's been discussed on this podcast and kind of my feelings about a potential innings limit for Garrett Crochet, who obviously has not pitched much in the majors period, certainly not in the last couple years. He's been a lot of time in relief and a lot of time injured. And maybe he'll get injured again. Obviously, I can't say one way or another as far as that goes. But this isn't like a rookie.

I don't think the White Sox as bad as they are going to handle him like a rookie. And he gets to 80, 90, 100 innings and say, that's it. We've got to preserve him for all those future seasons. He's with us. He already has more than three years of service time. the place that the white socks are right now and how close Garrett Crochet is to arbitration and free agency and what like they can't like the incentives are toward

accumulating as much value for him as possible as quickly as possible so that they can then trade him off to some other team and so I think 130 to 140 innings again barring injury is what I'm expecting so it's not like they're going to shut him down in June and we're never going to hear from him again. I think he has more length than people are giving him credit for. All right, Chris, let's slide over to you, your player of the night.

My player of the night tonight is Andy Pahas outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers who hit his second home run today. He went three for five. He's up to a 903 OPS in the early going. And I think he's been, pretty much playing. I don't think he's sat any game since he got called up. And I don't see any reason he shouldn't be an everyday player, more or less for the, for the Dodgers. He was hitting really well at AAA. He came into the season,

you know, all the talk was best shape of his life. The thing that really stood out to me is 85th percentile sprint speed in the early going. I didn't think he was that kind of athlete. And so I'm very impressed by what we've seen from Andy Pahas so far. Some of the underlying stuff for Pahas has been not so great. I mean, the plate discipline at zero walks to nine strikeouts. That's a 31% strikeout rate. The average XIVor loss he was 82.5 miles per hour entering this game. But he had a 15% barrel rate.

So when he gets a pitch that he could do damage on, that's what Andy Pahas has been doing so far. And you're right, Chris, that he has not sat out a game yet. he has started all seven games since being called up to the Dodgers. And obviously, this is just cheap exposure to probably the best lineup in baseball. So 42% rostered, he's widely available. Would we rather have Andy Pahas or my player of the night? Williare a Brayu, who stayed hot, four for five with two doubles, a run and an RBI.

He is batting 322 with two homers, four steals, and a 954 OPS early on. He actually is hitting the ball quite hard, 90.9 average exit. although the expected stats don't necessarily agree with it so far. And he's even more widely available. Wili Air Abraeu 28% rostered. Scott, who would you rather pick up or speculate on? Paix or Abraeu? I like both of these guys.

I guess I would have to say Paix just because I think Abraeu is a threat to sit at risk of sitting against left-handed pitchers, even with as good as he's looked lately. since he's left an abater so that would that would lean that would side me more toward Pahas but

I think Abreu's floor is higher if that makes sense like there's a chance Pahas just strikes out to the point of sending himself back to the miners and I don't I don't think that's as likely with the

Brayu I think that's fair and Embraue does have he's demonstrated more stolen base ability. He's got seven steals and what is a 48 career major league games. 22 in what was the number. I just wrote about this.

So it should be off the top of my head. 22 homers and eight steals and 86 career games at AAA. So yeah, I think it's a pretty well-rounded skill set that should work for, for Rodo. Look, he's not going to keep hitting 318 like he currently is in his major league career. but it's a pretty interesting skill set for Williore Bray, who's betting cleanup for the Red Sox right now, which tells you something about the state of the Red Sox, but also tells you something about how well Willier-Bray is playing.

So I think they're both top 60 outfielder's right now and should probably be rostered in the majority of leagues. I would say the majority of five outfielder leagues. Maybe you can make the case in like three outfielder head-to-head category leagues. leagues. Points, probably not yet because of the plate discipline for Pahez, the lack of everyday at bats for Wiliera-A-Brayu. I like both of these guys quite a bit as well, but I will lean with Abrae. I think the fact that he is batting cleanup could maybe make up for the lack of playing time against left-handed pitching. And just, I think the skill set is maybe a little

bit more fantasy-friendly as well. Honorable mention here, I want to give a shout out to Francisco Lindor who just had his best game of the season, 4-4-5 with a double dung and 4-RBI. over his last 10 games. He is batting 359, three homers, one steal on the season. Plate discipline still looks fine. Quality of contact is down a little bit, but Lindor was a slow starter last year as well.

And here we are. Right away, he's just, boom, starting to pick things up. So just your daily reminder that it is a very long season, and for the elite players that we've seen do it year in and year out, you shouldn't have many concerns, especially with someone like Francisco Lindor. Can I read you guys a quote, from Nick Castellanos that I think is

very apt for where we are in the season. Sure, sure. It was from an MLB.com story from Todd Zalecki today. So timely and Nick Castellanos has been terrible, obviously. But the quote was, I know that last year I was pretty much worthless in the month of July, you know, I've gone through stretches where I'm out of whack.

All of a sudden it clicks. Everybody's like, holy bleep, what did you figure out? Nothing. it's just baseball the highs and lows and this is the thing that that i think we need to remind ourselves is like we have all these stats and we look at oh this guy's not hitting well and he's not hitting he's the results are bad and the underlying numbers are bad and this means he's going to be bad for and like that's not how it works sometimes francisco lindore just has a bad two and a half weeks but his last like nine games have been really good and i think he has three homers

in his last nine games now and he's He's hitting over 300 in that stretch. And it's like, Francisco Lindor has been good for a decade. Nick Castiano's obviously has been much more up and down in his career, but generally has been a really good hitter for a pretty long time. You need more than three weeks to say anything concrete about any player, good or bad. Probably need twice that long, honestly. Unless we're talking about like this pitch.

is throwing eight miles per hour harder or this pitcher is throwing eight miles per hour softer. I know it's tough because I think part of it is a lot of us play fantasy football and you have to overreact in that sport. And there is value in reacting to the early season. But Scott and I have both written this week pretty extensively about just how little April actually matters. I had a piece that came out on Tuesday or Wednesday, where I compared April production over the past five seasons to June production. June is more predictive of what a player will do over the course of a full season than April, which I think makes sense, but is also kind of counterintuitive because we think, oh, the start of the season, got to get off to a good start. And like, you don't.

All things being equal, you'd rather your players get off to good start because it sucks to be 0 and 4 right now, right? but it doesn't fundamentally change anything about a player. And people need to tell themselves this and remind themselves of this. And that's what we are here to do. And I'm sorry if it makes us sound like bummers. And I'm sorry if it's not what you want to hear. But like for the most established players especially,

what's happening right now just does not matter that much. That's my rant. It's a good rant. I came in here pretty crabby myself because I feel like I've been fighting people on Twitter all night because... Well, that was your first. It seems to be... Come on, Scott. You just keep saying these things are going to happen, and I'm not seeing them happen.

And it's like, well, the season is almost 15% done. And, like, that's nothing. That's nothing in a sport where the results are so variable from day to day. and week to week, that it takes 162 games to sort things out. And it's, yeah, I understand you want to just trust that what you're seeing so far is exactly how things are going to play out, but it really isn't. And in fact, it is surprisingly non-representative of how things are going to play out. So if I say this player who's been bad so far is still good, or this player who's been good so far is

probably still bad. You know, maybe, maybe there's something to it. Maybe I'm not just taking crazy pills, you know? That's my rant. All right, I don't have a rant, but I do have to promote a few things. You can listen to and follow both FBT and FBT and Five on Spotify, plus subscribe to the FBT newsletter if you haven't already. Let's take a break.

And when we return, lots of injuries, lots of news. We'll talk about that right after this. Chris, you're right. That was a great way to return from Breit. All right. All right, well, you get back on track. News and notes. I can't tell if he's laughing or crying. I don't know. I don't know what's going on. Go down the wrong pipe or something. All right. Are we good? We're ready to go?

I'm fine. All right. News and notes. Framber Valdez completed a 40 pitch bullpen on Wednesday and is scheduled to pitch Saturday or Sunday against the Rockies in Mexico City, do not start for Amber Valdez in daily lineup leagues. The ball flies even more in Mexico City than it does in Coresfield. So don't do that. Blake Snell was placed in the I.L. With a moderate left adductor Schrain,

manager Bob Melvin said Snell could miss beyond the minimum 15 days. And it has been a disastrous start to 2024 for Blake Snell, who not only has dealt with inconsistent production over the past couple of years, but has dealt with quite a few injuries along the way as well. Cody Bellinger was placed in the aisle with right rib fractures, not just one, multiple. The Cubs were called top prospect P. Crow Armstrong in the minors this season. He was batting 203 with two homers, five steals, and a 633 OPS. It's got anything to make of PCA or is it just a wait and see approach for now?

He has sort of the Raphaela issue where, okay, the minor league number. have looked pretty good, but there are some major questions about swing decisions. And actually, he wasn't performing that well AAA prior to this promotion. It's off to a pretty slow start there.

And I don't think they've assured us he's going to get playing time consistently. He was terrible. 0 for 14 when they called him up last year. So I'd call it a wait and see. I'm not saying Pete Crowe Armstrong will never be a fantasy asset. Maybe it'll be this year.

But it's in standard-sized leagues, not a rush out and pick-em-up sort of situation. Lane Thomas was placed on the IEL with a grade 2 MCL sprain and is without a timetable for return. The nationals were called Trey Lipscomb. No James Wood just yet. Brian Bayo was placed on the aisle with right lat tightness.

The team is optimistic. He'll be ready to return after the minimum 15 days. Jordan Walker was optioned back to AAA. He was hitting just 155 with zero. homers and zero steals in 20 games this season. He is down to 66% rostered. Chris, can you drop Jordan Walker in all leagues, in certain leagues? What do you think?

All right. So I dropped him in my overall rankings to like 280. Because I do imagine he could be back fairly quickly, which is what happened last year when he got sent down. And there are reasons to be optimistic amid what has been another very disappointing start. He is, his average depth velocity is 91.7 miles per hour. That's up more than two miles per hour from last season. His barrel rate is 11.9%.

That is 80th percentile. So like there were signs of optimism amid the struggles. But I would say in most leagues, he's certainly dropable. and you can hang on to him only if you have that luxury, but you probably don't. Yeah, I don't look, five outfielder leagues I get stashing Jordan Walker still, and he's in my top 60,

but here's what Oliver Marmolder manager had to say about it. He's got to be feeling good about where he's at swing-wise and pitch selection-wise in order to get back up here to help us, and specifically on the Cardinals team site, he's having trouble laying off low and away pitches, which is messing up, how did they put it, his swing posture. So it's causing mechanical issues, his inability to lay off that pitch specifically.

So there is something that the Cardinals need to see from Jordan Walker, and they have like, they have surplus, they have hitter surplus. For not being that good of an offensive team, they have hitter surplus. And I like that like it sounds like they're more sophisticated in their reasoning for sending Jordan Walker down this year than last year when they were just like hit the ball in the air more and they left it at that. And it's like me telling my six-year-old go do long division.

And then why aren't you doing long division yet? I told you two hours ago. Well, you kind of have to like there's more to it than that. You got to actually have to instruct them how to do that, of course. But yeah, it seems like Jordan Walker's kind of. of a mess right now. And I don't know. I'm not, I'm not counting on it being back in short order.

Corbyn Carroll was dropped down to seventh in the D-BACs lineup. And while watching the game, the broadcast said it was temporary to take some pressure off of Carroll. He went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts and is now batting 208 with one homer. Still does have eight steals, but it's a 581 OPS. Scott, how concerned are you with, I guess not just Corbyn Carroll's start, but now being dropped down in the lineup? Not especially.

I mean, there is still that lingering concern that maybe something's going on with the shoulder still. But, you know, if he gets hot and does Corbyn Carroll things, I imagine he'll move right up the lineup. So this is not something that affects my opinion of him one way or the other. Corey Seeger was removed after taking a pitch off his shin. He's off to a slow start betting 256 with just one home run. Yohan Duran is scheduled for a second rehab appearance at AAA on Friday.

Paul Seawald met with the D-Backs medical team to determine whether he needs another rehab appearance if he's ready to return from the IL and haven't heard anything just yet. So once we get an update, we'll let you know. Max Scher made his first rehab start at AAA on Wednesday. Two in a third innings, five hits, three runs, zero walks, four strikeouts. He did give up two home runs. He got up to 52 pitches in that one. Nolan Jones was out of the lineup with back stiffness.

He left Tuesday's game early. The Rockies were called Hunter Goodman, who this season in the minors was betting 298 with seven home runs and a 1042 OPS. He hit 70 home runs combined in the minors between 2022 and 2023. I don't think there's anything actionable yet here with Hunter Goodman, but there could be lots of power. So he's just a name, I think that should be on your radar. Yeah, I think in deep leagues, I'd prioritize him over P. for Armstrong amongst outfielders who got called up on Wednesday. It's the Rockies, so you can't count on them to develop their young guys or, frankly, to play their young guys. He didn't start

today. But there's a lot of really interesting stuff in his minor league numbers. And obviously, playing half your games at course field certainly helps. So yeah, I think Hunter Goodman should definitely be on your roster, at least in deeper leagues. Meryl Kelly, who was placed in the IL earlier in the week, is expected to miss at least one month with a terrorist major strain in his right shoulder. Zach Geloff was scratched due to left oblique soreness and is likely bound for the IL. Gavin Williams will receive an injection and be shut down for seven days after feeling right elbow discomfort on Wednesday.

Tyro Estrada was removed due to left hamstring tightness. Alec Marsh left his start after taking a comebacker off the forearm. X-rays came back negative. J.D. Martinez is expected to make his Mets debut on Friday. J.P. Crawford was scratched from the lineup due to right. Bleak's Orness. A.J. Puck will pitch out of the bullpen upon his return from the IL. Obviously, a situation worth monitoring because he was pretty good at the start of last year as the closer.

Though Tanner Scott has looked much better. I know he lost today. He got the loss. Yeah, but it's, I just don't really put much stock in like extra inning losses for relievers. It's just, I don't know. I just, I think the Marlins are probably like their bullpen's been really bad. far and Tanner Scott's been a big part of that and I think they have a lot of reasons to be panicking right now and I could see that move happening if puck looks good he's got to pitch

well and get healthy first so it might be a month away but I think it's still possible and he changed his mechanics to start right so he's he changed his arm slot to capture the splitter wasn't that something that was one thing he had talked about yeah that he was he was his arm slot was high and that was why he was able to throw the splitter. So that could possibly explain why he was struggling. Right. So I don't know that he's just automatically going to revert to his pre-starter form. But hopefully he does because he was a pretty good reliever.

Miguel Sineau was removed Wednesday due to left knee soreness. Kevin Kiermire was placed on the IL with left hip flexor inflammation. And Blue Jays prospect, Addison Barger was called up to make his debut in Keirmeier's place. This season in the minors was batting three. 314 with a 1021 OPS. It's got anything here with Addison Barger. Yeah. I like Addison Barger.

He had a breakout season in the minors two years ago and then took a step back last year, but he was performing well out of the gate at AAA this year, 314 with three home runs. As many walks as strikeouts, 14 to 15. So the strikeout rate is consistently becoming down with him. And that's really a sign of figuring things out, I think. Plus, his own contact rate was over 90%.

So he went from, even during that breakout season, Addison Barger went from contact issues, that being one of his biggest liabilities to now. It appears to be gone, at least at the minor league level. A left-handed hitter, so I don't imagine we'll see him every day for the Blue Jays, but they have openings in that lineup, whether it's in the outfield where it sounds like he's going to see the most work

or at third base where he also has experience. All right, let's talk rankings updates. As always, you could find our rankings up on the website, cbsports.com slash fantasy slash baseball slash rankings. You could also find them on the CBS Fantasy app. And let's start with the risers. Chris, go over to you.

Who are some of the biggest risers in your rankings this week? All right. I have moved Evan Herrera up quite a bit. I have moved Josh Naylor, Luis Garcia, Luis Garcia from the Nationals, not the one from the Padres or the Astros. Justin Turner, we have not talked, but Justin Turner's been very good. Yep.

And it's one of those ones where he just ends up buried in the rankings at the start of the season because it's like, ah, nobody wants Justin Turner. And then the season starts. And he invariably hits really well. And it's like, oh, yeah, Justin Turner. Andy Pahas, Max Scherzer. with his looming return. I moved him ahead of like Kodi Senga

and other guys who are well behind him. Sunny Gray has looked really awesome so far. Had to move Mason Miller up. He is the most electrifying man in sports entertainment right now. So I have to move him up. Do you smell what Mason Miller is cooking? He's just so much fun.

Yeah. And for those wondering, why don't you have Mason Miller ranked as a reliever? It's the same thing we spoke about earlier with Gary Crochet. He needs to make 10 appearances on the season to have relief pitcher eligibility on CBS. I think he's made eight so far, so he has to make two more appearances, and then we will obviously rank him as a reliever on the site. Scott, I know you had a big rankings update,

and there's an article on the site to accompany that. Who were some of the names that moved up for you? Well, I went ahead and moved Ellie De La Cruz past Rafael Devers in Roto Leagues, still behind Austin Riley for me. His numbers through this point of the season look remarkably similar to his numbers through a similar point after his call up last year and we all know how that turned out.

So, you know, maintaining a healthy skepticism, but at the same time, crazy high upside there. Josh Naylor is probably the one I want to focus on most because I am sold on him being a total stud. I think. It was a long and winding path to get there, filled with injuries and platoon situations and whatever else.

But now he's combining the contact skills of a Stephen Kwan with legitimate middle of the order power. And his numbers have been good against lefties for a couple of years now. So he's all the way up to seventh for me. Josh Naylor is at first base. Actually, I'm sorry. I should say he's up to six now because I just had to move Cody Bellinger down with his injury.

So he's up to six now And that is the highest ranked first baseman Beyond what I think is an impenetrable top five Of What's the top five? Matt Olson, Freddie Freeman, Bryce Harper, Pete Alonzo And Vladimir Guerrero.

The next first basement for me now is Josh Naylor. How do you like that? Good for him. I move Paul Goldschmidt down, not just behind Josh Naylor, but also behind Christian Walker and Spencer Steer. one of my preseason bus picks there.

And it's not looking good so far. Again, too early to completely tank Paul Goldschmidt, but I have a lot of faith in Walker and steer. And so I think I'm happy to say they deserve to be ahead of him now. Others that I've moved up include Jordan Westberg. He now is in my top 10 at second base. Scott, you're a liar. You're a liar.

We just got to a point where, like, I ran out of players. I ran out of second baseman to rank ahead of him because, of course, Zach Gelloff has had his issues and Louisa Rize and Nolan Gorman. They've had their struggles, and it's just like, what I really take any of those guys over Jordan Westberg? No.

So Jordan Westberg now, top 10 rest of season. Didn't take me long to get there. Also moved up his teammate, Cedric Mullins, who's shown that power speed potential again. Starling Marte could say the same for him in my pitcher rankings you say Cacucci, Ranger Suarez

and Esther Cortez have moved up for obvious reasons they've been pitching well and I guess I should specify that I moved them ahead of some upside types who I'm now

not as hopeful of the meeting their upside guys like Kyle Harrison and Carlos Rodon you know I'd take more boring quote unquote types like Akuchi, Suarez, and Cortezo for them.

And I'll just leave it at that. Yeah, I did a lot of the same things. I got Josh Naler up to seventh in my first base rankings. And I think Cedric Mullins moved inside my top 30 outfielder, stalling Marte inside the top 40. Well deserved. Lots of those similar starting pitchers. I think Kukuchi is like top 45 or top 50.

So definitely on board with a lot of those rankings risers. I did want to mention made some kind of big moves up at the top with Ellie and Gunner Henderson. I know you mentioned you moved Ellie up, Scott. Gunner Henderson is just off to a tremendous start as well. Three for three with a sock in the shoe here on Wednesday. His eighth homer, his fifth steal, 20 runs, 20 RBI. He's batting over 300, an OPS over 1,000.

And it's a really small sample size. One of my concerns with Gunner has been struggles against lefties. So far this season, he's betting 324 with two homers and an OPS over 1,000 against left-handed pitching. So I moved both Ellie and Gunner inside of my top three at third base. They are ahead of Austin Riley. They are ahead of Raphael Devers

and I think they're both top six at shortstop. So I think it's pretty drastic whenever players move up that high in the rankings. So I thought it was worth mentioning I'm in. I'm just pretty much sold here on Gunner and Ellie De LaCruz. Let's slide over to the fallers here, Chris. Anyone you'd like to point out?

I moved Raphael DeVer down, not just with Ellie Dela Cruz jumping ahead of him, but I moved him down below Gunner Henderson. He's, I still keep the overall rankings for the trade value, so he's around 30th now for me. So that's about a round drop from where he was. And it's just all these injuries. I'm just a little worried about what it's going to mean for him coming back. The fact that he hasn't been able to get through them is concerning. I moved Spencer Torkelson down.

I moved Nolan Jones and Jazz Chisholm down at Outfield. Jazz just looks really bad right now. Still can't hit lefties. Not sure he's ever going to be able to. And Carlos Rodon, who we've talked a lot about. I was shocked to see that the Fangraph Stuff Plus metric has his fastball as a top 10 fastball in baseball and his sliders like top 20 because I think those pitches have not been very good. and maybe it's just a command thing. Maybe he's just leaving them in the zone a bit too much

and they can play up. But I've been very unimpressed by what we've seen from Carlos Rodan. I think he's one of the more obvious cell high candidates right now. And I have moved him down at starting pitcher to definitely outside the top 40, 43 at starting pitcher for me. Oh, I got him 68. Oh, wow. You really hate Carlos Rodon.

Yeah, I really do. Scott just buried him too. I mean, I thought I hated Carlos Rodon. You don't hate him enough. I moved him down. I moved him down to 58, so not as low as guy. Oh, wow, I love Carlos Rodon. It wasn't really.

This is like last week when I said, I didn't know we were allowed to move Jared Jones that high. You didn't know we were allowed to move Carlos Rodon that way. Yeah, I guess not. For me, it was just moving so many pitchers ahead of Rodon. He just kept dropping down. It was just guys that have looked so good so far. Kikuchi, Ranger Suarez,

Tanner Howe, Cutter Crawford, just a lot of these names, the more you move ahead of Rodon, he just kept slipping down for me. I said last time, I'd be willing to drop Carlos Rodon for pretty much anybody who's interesting out there. And so I made sure my rankings reflected that. Scott, any other followers that you wanted to highlight? I know you mentioned Paul Gulchmidt dropped down a little bit. I know Jordan Walker has dropped down for all of us, and you wrote that article even before he was demoted. obviously it makes even more since now. Yeah, it does.

I don't know. I didn't make as much note of the fallers. They're never as fun the fallers, you know? So how far did you guys move Blake Snell down with that injury news? I moved him behind like Sunny Gray and Justin Verlander. I moved them to... I moved them to 36. I have them in kind of a mini-injury tier of Bueller, Snell, Cole, and Scherzerzer in that order.

but Scherzer's going to beat him back now, so maybe I'll move Scherzer. It was 32 for me. Yeah. Yeah, okay. So we moved him to a similar range there. Yeah, no. I mean, I talked about Goldschmidt. That was probably the big one.

That's fine. We can keep going. All right. Let's take our final break. When we return, we'll get back into Wednesday's action. We'll do that right after this. Four players from Wednesday who had interesting performances by Seller Hold. on these names. Evan Carter is off to a slow start. He went two for four. With his fourth home run,

he's betting 215. He's got 16 runs scored and a 771 OPS. He's still walking quite a bit, but the quality of contact has been bad for Evan Carter. Chris, what are you thinking about Carter right now? Buy, sell, or hold? I probably lean by. I did move like him, Jackson Cheerio, Y Langford down just a little bit. I don't know if it was actually really reflected in the outfield rankings much. They're all still in the 24 to 27 range. But I, yeah, they're all off to bad starts. And none of them have track records that you can point to to say, oh, they'll be fine.

So I'm a little worried, but I probably lean more by than anything else with Evan Carter. What about his teammate Wyatt Langford? He had his first three hit game of his career. He went three for three with a double and a walk. still has zero homers, zero steel so far. The plate discipline has been fine. Actually, I would say it's more than fine. His zone contact has been above league average already.

He is not swinging and missing. The quality of contact has been underwhelming. And there's lots of infield fly balls so far, lack of line drives. He is really fast. According to Stackcast, it's 97th percentile sprint speed for Wyatt Langford. Scott, what do you think here?

Buy seller hold on. Can I jump in and just add something here? Sure. I saw the other day that Wyatt Langford leads the majors in called strikes outside of the strike zone. I think he has 18 of them so far, at least he did as of yesterday. I think 10 of those were from Angel Hernandez in that one. Yeah, he had three and one plate appearance. Julio Rodriguez had a very, very similar issue early in his rookie season where he was just getting a ton of called strikes,

either right on the shadow of the plate or in this case outside of the strike zone. So I think if you're looking for a reason to be optimistic, that's probably one, that he's just had a little bad luck there. Sorry, go ahead, Scott. Yeah, my opinion of why Langford hasn't changed. My opinion of Evan Carter hasn't changed either for what it's worth. There's the stretch in my outfield rankings from 15 to 25 that I feel like is just frozen in time because most of those players haven't lived up to expectations yet,

but I still think they're clearly a higher impact in the long run than the guys who rank behind them at what we considered a very weak position coming into the year. I think the most encouraging thing for Langford and Carter both is how low their strikeout rates are. They're just a little over 20%. And that's a big improvement for Carter from his rookie stint last year. So the play discipline's been great for both.

I think as they see more pitches and get a feel for which ones they can have impactful contact on, we're going to see the production surge, as we saw for many high-end rookies the past couple years, whether Gunner Henderson last year, who was struggling through June or Julio Rodriguez and Bobby Witt two years ago. Let's talk about Renaldo Lopez, who is now 4-4-in-quality starts this season. He was facing that vaunted Miami-Marlin's line. up seven innings, one run, six strikeouts with 18 swinging strikes on 82 pitches, 13 of those on the slider, five on the fastball. Did allow 10 hard hits in this game, but over his past two starts,

specifically, Ronaldo Lopez has really leaned into the slider, and obviously it was amazing here, getting 13 of those 18 swinging strikes. Scott will go back to you. Ronaldo Lopez, buy, sell or hold. What are you seeing with him? Well, I guess I still lean sell, as I was saying after his first couple starts, but his last couple starts have been more dominant. They've been more dominant.

He got 18 swinging strikes in this start against the Marlins, and specifically the slider was responsible for 13 of them. He threw it 44% of the time versus the 26% that he had thrown it up to this point, this season. So leaning on it more, as you were saying. And there's a lot more movement on that pitch than there was last year when remember, of course, he was working primarily in relief.

There's a couple more inches of movement there, which might explain why he's having so much success. The quality of contact on him has been very low, apart from the increase in whiffs we've seen here recently from Raynaldo Lopez. And so I'd say,

you know, if you are going to sell them, obviously it needs to be for something pretty good. That's the whole idea of selling high. If you're just going to sell him for a pretty fringy pitcher, well, that's not selling high. So you might as well just stick with him and see if this recent uptick and whiffs continues. Because if nothing else,

he's going to get a ton of run support with the Braves and be a useful streaming option at worst because of that. Joe Ryan turned in a quality start against the White Sox. It was six innings, three runs, eight strikeouts with 19 swinging strikes on 92 pitches. He went back to a heavy fastball approach in this one. He threw it 61% of the time, and it was dominant. Ten of his 19 whiffs came on that fastball. It's a 377 ERA and a 101 whip.

Lots of strikeouts. Very little walks so far. Chris, where are we at on Joe Ryan, buy, sell, or hold? I think I lean more hold and I think you guys probably lean more sell because I know you guys both have Joe Ryan as a bust coming into the season but he has my mind

yeah I mean he's we've talked about this a few times but because he is throwing his splitter and slider much harder than he did last season it is a different version of Joe Ryan than the one we saw last year so I still think there are going to be times when the home runs are a problem

but he's doing such a good job job getting strikeouts and limiting walks right now that I'm viewing him as a top 25 starting pitcher the rest of the way I think is where I have him ranked. You have him 25, Frank and I have him 26. There you go. Yeah, so buy as top 25, sell as top 20. Yeah.

I would agree with you. I think he's a hold right now too. There's just so few pitchers that are, A, healthy and B pitching well right now. And Joe Ryan is both of those things. So while I was down on him coming into the season, I'm, you know, I'm not going to be stubborn with it. He's pitched well. He's made adjustments.

And I, yeah, I think he's a hold as well. Beyond pitching well, it's just that he's changed what kind of, he's changed who he is. Yeah. Like the velocity is up that much on your secondary pitches. You're a different pitcher. And so the prior analysis kind of goes out the window at that point for as much as we've talked this podcast about how prior analysis shouldn't go out the window. Let's talk about some breakout pitchers who underwhelmed here on Wednesday. Nick Ladolo did not have his best stuff.

Five innings, three runs, three walks to four strikeouts. Still had 16 swinging strikes. But control was a bit of an issue here. He only had one walk total in his first two starts. Obviously, had three walks in this one. Jack Flaherty was meh at the raise. It was five innings, seven hits, four runs, six strikeouts to zero walks. Still had 15 swinging strikes on 97 pitches.

I still love the fact that he is not walking anybody. this season. It's four walks and five starts for Jack Flaherty. Bryce Miller lost his control in the start at the Texas Rangers. It was four innings, two runs, four walks to five strikeouts. He gave up two home runs. Tons of hard contact, 100.4 average exit velocity against in this start for Bryce Miller. Scott, any concern?

I mean, look, any pitchers allowed to have a bad start. But these are three that we have kind of dubbed breakout pitchers this year or re-breakouts. What did you see from Bryce Miller, Flaherty, and Nick Lidolo? I saw more reasons to be encouraged than discouraged, to be honest. And I understand the stat light line wasn't great for any of them, but you obviously can't go and change the start that already happened. You're taking signals from the start that happened about what's going to happen in the future. That's what we're trying to do here.

That's why when we say this bad start was actually good, that's what we're talking about. And particularly specifically in Flaherty's case, you kind of alluded to this already, Frank, the fact that his control is so much better than we've seen in recent years. And his swinging strike rate is like he has a 15% swinging strike rate on the year. That's the best he's ever had. And you look at the previous three years for Jack Flaherty when he was bad, 10.7%, 10.4%, 11.6%. Now he's at 15. You know what it was his last good year?

It was 14.3%. So by any metric you want to look at other than ERA, Jack Flaherty is the best we've seen him in five years. And I think the ERA is going to catch up to the other numbers versus the other way around. So I would not be dropping Jack Flaherty, just like I was saying, don't drop Garrett Crochet. And stop sweating so much about a mid-4s-ZRA in April

because you know who had a mid-4s-ZRA last? April, Corbyn Burns. Just chill. Come on. All right. I also want to say something about Nicolodolo here. Obviously, the walks were kind of high in this start, and that led to the meh result as much as anything,

but still 16 swinging strikes on 98 pitches. Seven on the change-up. It had a 78% whiff rate in this game, and coming in it had a 47% whiff rate. So presumably it's over 50% for the season now. We already knew Nicola Dolo had this bananas curveball that certainly played like that in the limited time we've seen him this year. If this change up becomes a wipeout pitch too,

and certainly the whiff rates so far would suggest that. Holy cow. The upside on this guy is absurd, so I would not lose faith for this kind of mess start against the Phillies. And like stop overreacting to mess starts in general. You know, like I had all these, All these comments about, oh, Flaherty really blew it for me this week. And I'm like, oh, no, what happened?

Did he give up seven runs and three innings? And it was four and five. It's like, that's not that bad. He's only had one bad start, really. And even that, he gave up six runs and six innings. It's the only start where he's giving up more as many runs as innings. He still had five strikeouts and one walk in that one. And this one, he had six strikeouts, zero walks over five innings.

like, I don't know. Flaherty has been, he hasn't been great. And I don't think Jack Flaherty is likely to be an ace moving forward. But like his XERA is in the 3-8 range. I think that's a pretty reasonable expectation for Jack Flaherty moving forward. And I think his his ex-fip, if you prefer that is 268. Well, that, that he's given up a home run in every start. And X-FIP assumes that he will give up home runs at a roughly league average rate and maybe he will. But I don't, I think a sub three ERA is extremely unlikely for Jack Flay. I mean, I don't think he's going to have a 268 ERA. But if he has a 370 IRA, 380 RA, that's a super useful player when it's coming

with a strikeout per person. 11K per 9, 1.2 walks per 9. Like, yeah, if you know nothing else but a pitcher than that, you should be pretty excited. If you guys could turn Carlos Rodon into Flaherty, would you do it? Easily. I wouldn't, but that's mostly because I'm aiming. I'm aiming higher than that. Rodon has name value.

He has a 270 R.A. I want much more of a sure thing for Jack Flaherty. What about Rinaldo Lopez? Again. Yeah. Same thing. Wait, wait, wait, wait. I would trade Lopez for Flaherty.

I would rather have Flaherty than Lopez. Okay. Yeah, that's what I was asking. Let's look at some waiver. pitchers from Wednesday's action. Spencer Turnbull pitched well again. He was at the Reds. It was five innings, one run, eight strikeouts with ten swinging strikes. Kyle Gibson turned in a quality start against the D-backs, six innings, one run, six strikeouts, 14 swinging strikes. Out of nowhere from Kyle Gibson. Dean Kramer tied a career high with ten strikeouts at the Angels.

He had 18 swinging strikes on 101 pitches. Tyler Anderson was just okay. It was five innings, two runs, four walks to seven strikeouts, but he had himself 14 swinging strikes. And Jameson Tion was okay against the Astros. Five and two thirds, two runs allowed. Only one of those was earned with four strikeouts. Anybody on this list a priority ad, Tyone, Anderson, Kramer, Gibson, and Turnbull? I feel like we would like Turnbull. I don't know what's going to happen with Taiwan Walker returning.

I don't know. I think it sounds like he's probably not going to stay in the rotation moving forward. maybe they give him one more turn, maybe they give him two more turns, but I think they should leave him in the rotation. I think what he's done this season with the addition of that sweeper has made him really interesting

in a way that it's been a long time since Spencer Turnbull's been this interesting, if ever. So I would love to see him stay in the rotation if he was. I think he'd probably be in the 60 to 70 range of starting pitcher for me. It's just he's not. Or at least I don't think

he is so it's really hard to roster him once he loses that rotation spot so I can't say you should add him now I don't want to oversell Turnbull and maybe you disagree Chris but I don't think I don't think there are as many reasons to be encouraged and excited about Turnbull as there are for like Flaherty because yes we can point to this new sweeper

as okay we don't why is he doing so much better oh look he has a new sweeper. And yet the individual characteristics on the sweeper are kind of whatever. You know, and it's not like he's missing a ton of bats. It's a 10% swinging strike rate, which is not very good. He's allowed soft contact, a lot of soft contact. But there aren't many pitchers in the league who succeed mainly on soft contact without

missing a lot of bats. And so I think if Turnbull were to stay in the rotation, there would be major regression coming. Do I think he's better than Taiwan Walker? I think most pitchers are better than Taiwan Walker. But I don't know.

Yeah, I mean, look, the range of pitchers that I am ranking him with is like Gavin Stone and Jordan, or would rank him with if he was going to stay in the rotationar like

Gavin Stone and Jordan Hicks and Brandon Fott and Charlie Morton and guys who I think can be on your roster. I think they're also one, maybe two bad starts away from just being dropped. And so that's, I think, the range where Turnbull lives in,

where if he stay in the rotation, I think he'd be fine to have a round, but you'd have to have a short leash for him anyway. For Dean Kramer, because he had 10 strikeouts in five in a third innings, obviously out of character, 18 swinging strikes, 10 on the fastball. his fastball had two more inches of vertical movement than usual. I don't have a frame of reference for how common that is from one start to the next.

I mean, it might explain why the fastball performed better in this start. Is that something to, is that just like a flash in the pan? I would assume so, but it, I thought it was no worthy, given that he got so many whiffs on that fastball on this one. Yeah, I think that, like, two, inches is not nothing, but it doesn't seem like a, a significant enough change to me to like certainly not as an isolated event. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We'll see if it continues. And we'll see if he's featured in tomorrow's two star pitchers because it looks like he's in line

for two against the Yankees and at the red. So tough matchups don't love it, but obviously D. Kramer coming off a great start. Probably a points league only. Okay. Let's quickly run through some WaverWire hitters. Scott, shout out to you. I know Anthony Rizzo was one of your sleeper hitters this week and he's homered in back-to-back games. He is 73% rostered. That sounds about right. You know, I liked Rizzo as a sleeper this year. I still have him 26th in my first base rankings. There's just so many interesting first base options. I don't know that he needs to be more than 73% rostered. Michael Garcia is picking things back up. He went two for four with two steals and an RBI. and the average exit velocity is really good. The expected stats are actually great for Michael Garcia. Like he's batting 206. His XBA is 269. So he's been dropped in a few leagues.

He's 69% rostered. I think even in a shallower format, I would be interested in picking Garcia back up if someone dropped him. In a categories league, sure. In a Categories league, sure. In a points league, I'd be more interested in Rizzo if I'm just signing between the two and a points league. Okay. Wanted to mention Connor Wong who had a huge game, went four for four with a double dong.

He has started seven of the past eight games for the Red Sox and more of a two-catcher league play. He's 18% rostered. Any interest in Connor Wong? Yvonne Herrera is 21% rostered. So as long as those guys are even close to one another in roster rate, I'm not going to have any interest in Connor Wong. And I don't know if we mentioned this with the Jordan Walker news. That's even more reassurance that Ivan Herrera. that the plan is to play him more regularly, switch him and Wilson Contreras out between D.H.

And Catcher. He's one of the hitter. When I referred to the Cardinals hitter, Excess, Ivan Herrera was one of the players I was referring to. Contreras was back in the lineup today after he left last night's game, but Herrera is still there as DH. So I, yeah,

hard to have much interest in Conner-Rong when Yvon Herrera is just as widely available. Some hitting leftovers. We already mentioned what, Dora did. Mike Trout is the first to 10 home runs this season, and he crushed it. 11.5 exit velocity over 400 feet. Notice the batting average is 237 for Trout, but the XBA is 269, so I think that should get better for him. Welcome back to Rafi Devers, who went three for four with a double and a home run. The plate discipline is much improved

for Devers this year. We obviously haven't seen enough of him. We want to see him stay on the field. Yeah, that home run was a hundred. 109 miles per hour. So it was a healthy guy's home run. I think Devers is going to be fine. I know he's been banged up, but it's minor stuff and he's had a few days off. And I think he'll be fine.

Alec Bohm is red-hot, 4-4 with a double and 2 RBI. Over his last seven games, he's batting 556 with two homers and 11 RBI. Randy and Rosarina went 1-4 with his third home run, but also struck out three times. Is off to a pretty rough start, 158 batting average.

486 OPS. The batted ball data is just kind of out of whack right now. 21% infield fly ball rate. Have to imagine that's going to come down for Randy Rose Arena. Nico Horner starting to rack up the hits. He went two for four with a run scored. And over his last 15 games, he's betting 356. Only one stolen base.

We just need Nico Horner to run more this season. And Salvador Perez, the name we haven't talked a lot about, but he is just off to a tremendous start, two for three with a walk, and six RBI. He's betting 348, OPS over 1,000, crushing the ball. I mean, the stack has data looks closer to that,

you know, 48 home run season than it has any other year. I resent this from Salvador Perez because... Finally gave up on him. The previous two years, I was one of the most vocal Salvador Perez backers out there, and then I called him a bust this year. And look what's happening. He just needed the motivation.

He did. On the Nico Horner front, I wanted to say, oh, I thought I had it pulled up. I don't think I have it pulled up. It's supposed to be team statistics. Why are you not showing me team statistics? Well, the Cubs as a team have like no stolen bases,

and I was promised by you, Frank, that Craig Counsel would lead to them running more. Yeah, they have five stolen bases as a team. What in the world? Scott, I don't know. know if you know this, but it's April 25th. Been a long season ahead, but yeah. Then the twins have five.

No other team has fewer than eight, and it's the stinking Rockies. Yikes. Not the best. Meanwhile, the Reds have 40. They have eight times. No, it actually is updated. They have 45 stolen bases, Scott. Oh, okay.

They have nine times as many steals as the Cubs and the Minnesota twins. That is just. Nine times. Wild. Bullpen updates from Wednesday for the Orioles. Craig Kimbrel got the ninth with a two-run lead. He gave up an unearned run, but picked up his seventh save. For the Reds, Alexis Diaz, picked up his fifth save.

For the Brewers, Yoel Pyeamps, got the ninth. With a one-run lead, he had two errors behind him, but managed to pick up his fourth save. For the raise, Jason Adam entered in the seventh with a two-run lead to face the top of the Tigers lineup. He threw two perfect innings with two strikeouts. lefty, Garrett Clevenger, got the ninth. He walked one, but picked up his second save.

What are you doing, Kevin? Kevin! Yeah. I mean, I still think Jason Adam is the most likely, but he might just get the heart of the order, whatever that is late in the game. I'm just going to spend the rest of the podcast quoting movies written by John Hughes.

For the Braves, Reisel Oglacius got the ninth with a two-run lead. He gave up three hits, two runs. One of those, only one was earned. He took his first blown save. For the Cubs, Adbert Alslie entered with two outs in the sixth inning. Two-run lead, a runner on first and second.

He hit, there was a hit by pitch, and then he got Al-Tuvada fly out. Al-Slai got the first out of the seventh, and then he was taken out of the game. Mark Leiter Jr. pitched the eighth, and then it was Hector Nerris in the ninth. With a two-run lead, he gave up a solo homer, but converted his second save.

And I feel like this is how it's going to play out for at least the short term. Hector Nairus in the ninth inning. But, well, you know, the home run in the ninth inning was a familiar site. And I'm not, I'm not sure how much patience Craig counsel is going to have for that, since that was the reason for all four of Albert Alzalai's blown saves. We'll see. We'll see.

I'm a little skeptical, though. For the Royals, James MacArthur got the ninth with a one-run lead. He gave up a hit, but truck out two for his sixth save. For the twins, Griffin Jacks got the ninth with a three-run lead. He picked up his third save, but it sounds like, Yohan Duran could be back soon. And for the Padres, Robert Suarez pitched a clean ninth for his ninth save, which ties him for the league lead.

To stream or not to stream on Thursday, it's pretty rough. Pretty rough out here. Not great. I could see Mike Soroka having a good game against the twins because it's the twins, but it's also Mike Soroka. Really putting that to the test, aren't we? I could see Tristan McKenzie having a good game against Boston, although now that Raphael Devers is back,

maybe not so much. So you should not stream anybody. Yeah, wouldn't stream any of these guys. This is a disaster. Friday is not much better. And part of the reason is because there were just lots of TBDs on MLB.com.

So we'll have more options tomorrow when we talk about it. But does anybody stand out on Friday? Maybe Reese Olson. Yeah, Reese Olson against the Royals is okay. It's certainly better than anything Thursday. For sure. Yeah.

I think that's probably the best one on either day. I think it's probably the only one I would even really consider on either day. Rough, rough days of streaming there on Thursday and Friday. We're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a

five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.