Fantasy Baseball Today - Drop Luis Castillo!? Is Patrick Corbin back? Week 8 Sleepers! (5/14 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)
Episode Date: May 14, 2021I know it was Coors Field but what the heck Luis Castillo (1:12)!? Is Patrick Corbin back? Is Rich Hill a must add? ... News and notes (19:35)! Gleyber Torres tested positive for COVID, Ronald Acuna l...eft Thursday's game with an ankle injury, and Christian Yelich is set for a rehab assignment. ... We have Week 8 two-start pitchers (26:31)! What about single-start pitchers and sleeper hitters? ... Rich Hill vs. Garrett Richards vs. Spencer Turnbull (37:10). ... Is there anything wrong with Charlie Morton, Lance Lynn or Jameson Taillon (41:36)? ... What's up with these hitters (45:40)? ... We wrap up with Thursday recap, bullpen updates, weekend streamers and Fantasy Justice For All (50:10)! ... Email us at fantasybaseball@cbsi.com. 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank, @AdamAizer Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Happy Cogamo Friday, unless of course you have Luis Castillo on your fantasy team.
Welcome into fantasy baseball today, presented by Lion and Cougall's more on their sweet variety of beverages.
Later on in the podcast, Frank Stamphle joined by Scott White and Chris Towers.
And you know, for a travel day, we had a ridiculous amount of action.
Actually, right before we started the podcast, Zach, please, I still had a no-hitter going.
No-hitter no more.
He just gave up a two-run home run.
Shoutouts gone too.
We will talk about Zach Plessack, the Baby Mariners debut,
Week 8 sleepers, pitchers, hitters, two-star pitchers.
We'll do it all today, but let's jump right into the action.
Oh, my goodness gracious.
All right, Chris, I'll let you take it away.
Your oh my goodness gracious player from Thursday.
Yeah, it's got to be Luis Castillo.
He stunk.
He gave up eight runs, eight earned runs in three and two-thirds innings,
10 hits allowed, two walks, two walks, three strikeouts.
looks like it was nine hard hit balls on the day.
He was terrible.
But having said that,
I think if your opinion changed at all about Luis Castillo
because he had a bad start at course field,
you're probably overreacting.
Like if you were out on him before,
okay,
you should continue to be out on him.
If you were on the fence about him,
I don't think this should change anything,
but I am also the person who is not out on Luis Castia.
Your mileage may vary.
All right.
So quick analysis there from Luis Castillo.
And ultimately, I do agree.
We didn't have high hopes for him in Coorsfield, obviously,
and we said that you shouldn't have started him in this spot anyway.
But I will point out that he threw his change-up
just 13% of the time in this start of 78 pitches,
which was the lowest percentage of change-ups he has ever used in a start
in his major league career.
So last time after the start, he said,
oh, we're close to figuring it out.
we've got, you know, we know what we need to fix.
Well, it sure seems like you need to fix the change up,
and so far you haven't fixed the change up.
I don't know if it was a course field thing.
I saw the home run he gave up to Josh Wentz.
There was no movement on the change up.
It was straight.
It looked like a batting practice fastball, right down the middle.
Boom, gone.
I don't, I needed to, I wanted to see something, at least, Chris,
something underlying here that give us some semblance of hope.
There was nothing.
Anything for you, Scott?
No, there was nothing positive to take out of this start.
I agree that it's concerning that it appears from usage now.
He's lost confidence in the change-up,
and he's nothing without the change-up.
That's been the pitch that has made him everything he is.
I don't think that's necessarily going to be a permanent situation for him.
That I can't predict.
I can't predict when he's going, when or if he's going to get the,
change it back. But it could
be something where he
gets a feel for it, especially if he's saying they know what's going on.
He gets the feel back and next week he's fine and he's fine for the rest of the
season. Then again, it could be next year that he gets the feel back.
You know, like it's, there's no way of predicting that.
Justin Verlander is, you know, one of the all-time great pitchers. He had like a
a three-year stretch
where he basically wasn't right
and then he got right again.
And so it's just,
it's,
it could be a pitch-tipping thing, you know?
Like, I don't know,
well, I mean,
you mentioned he didn't have much movement
on that change-up you saw,
but there are,
there are a lot of simple explanations
that could explain
what Luis Castillo,
what's wrong with him right now.
It's just,
he has to fix whatever it is
because this isn't going to work
and there's no way
you can start him until you have evidence that he's fixed.
I completely agree with that.
As the Luis Castillo defender,
I agree with everything that you're saying.
You know,
my point has always just been that the fact that he,
it's not like an injury.
You know,
his arm slot hasn't changed.
It doesn't seem like there's like some dramatic underlying thing we can point to.
It just seems like he needs to pitch better,
which is an oversimplification,
but given the available evidence,
I think that's the best explanation.
And so I just kind of assume he will start pitching better at some point.
He's got 90 starts with a 362 ERA before this season and eight with a 771 ERA.
So the question, I guess, is the distinction, and it's not even a distinction yet.
I just think it's going to become a distinction soon between maybe where Frank and I are and where you are,
is how much time do you let him occupy a spot on your business?
bench when he's unusable.
I don't think we're to the point.
Yeah, but as I talked about after his last start,
I at least thought about dropping him in one of my shallower leagues
where there's only five bench spots
and there's always good players on the way for wire.
I at least thought about it, decided not to.
And obviously, I agree that, you know,
a course field start isn't the one
where you should take the next step and do that.
But I think we're getting close to it.
I'm thinking like end of May,
I may have to think about moving on.
And in those shallower leagues,
if you're talking like a 15 team league
where there's not much good on waivers ever,
that's a different story.
And I think in particular,
what I want to see from him,
what I need to see from him
before the end of May to keep him
on my fantasy team past that
is I have to see the change up
in the slightest, come back,
see some confidence, some movement,
be the pitch that it has been before.
And we need swinging strikes.
I mean, I agree with you, Chris,
that if all the underlying numbers this year
were what he was in those 90 starts before this year,
then yes,
I would not be concerned whatsoever.
But his swinging strike rate is below 10%.
What I mean is like the like the pitch level stuff.
Like his arm slot hasn't changed.
His release point hasn't changed.
His spin rate hasn't really changed.
His velocity hasn't really changed.
Like all of those things that,
you know,
there's always different levels to components.
And,
you know,
but what I mean is like the physical,
like his physical pitching doesn't seem
different. Obviously, I'm not, you know, grinding tape and seeing whether there's some tell when he
throws his change up versus his fastball that's causing him to struggle or whether his mechanics are off.
I don't know about any of that. All I can say is from what I can tell, there doesn't appear to be
anything physically wrong with Luis Castillo. That's what I mean is that from a physical standpoint,
he looks like the same guy. He just hasn't been getting the same results, which is concerning for sure,
but it would take me longer than May to drop him.
And if you wanted to buy him before and you haven't done it yet,
now is the time to do it.
If you think he is going to come anywhere close to the pitcher he has been before,
you should have sent them out the trade offers while the start was going on.
As soon as he left the game,
you should have been sending trade offers out.
So if you want to take the shot, go ahead and do it now is the time.
His value, I don't think, will ever be lower than it is right now.
Again, that is Luis Castillo.
Let's talk about someone else who's trending in the opposite direction.
My, oh my goodness gracious player from Thursday, Patrick Corbyn, up against the Phillies.
We basically wrote this guy off completely.
We should call him The Undertaker from now on, right?
How many Undertaker gifts are there out there?
Awesome ones, right?
Where Patrick Corbin is back from the dead, man.
Seven innings, one run, zero walks, nine strikeouts,
with 18 swinging strikes on 102 pitches.
The four-seem fastball velocity in this start,
92.7 miles per hour,
his highest in a start since September 28th of 2019.
He threw his slider a ton.
50% of the time,
that was his most usage on the slider
since July 19th, 2019.
So we're now going back to 2019,
which is the last time Patrick Corbyn
was really a top 15, top 20th starting pitcher.
If you take away his first two starts,
which were coming back right after he had COVID,
he has a 3.00 ERA over his last five.
So, did we jump the gun too early?
Is Patrick Corbyn back-ish?
I mean, he might be.
This is his most encouraging start of the past two seasons.
This is the kind of start you'd expect to see him have in 2019 or 2018.
I understand just pointing out he has a low ERA in his last five starts,
but the previous four looked like he looked like he was achieving that fraudulently.
Yeah, you're right.
It was too many walks.
it was not enough strikeouts.
Yeah.
And as high, you know, it's great that the velocity was so high.
I don't think it needs to be as high as it was today.
The most encouraging thing is that he threw his slider 50% of the time
and that it was worth throwing 50% of the time.
It was responsible for 13 of the 18 whiffs.
Dave Martinez said it was the best slider he's seen from Corbyn all year.
Corbyn, he's apparently been tweaking his mechanics throughout the season.
He says he's more sad.
with the way he's using his legs.
He's finishing on his delivery better.
And he feels like he's getting back to his old self.
And I would say, at least for this one start,
the numbers would suggest so too.
I don't want to completely reverse course after one start,
but, you know, it has to start somewhere.
And this looks like the start where it may have started.
to quote
to quote
one of our great 90s
philosopher
is Zach de la Roca
it has to start somewhere
it has to start some time
what better place than here
what better time than now
Chris would you use this as an opportunity
to sell high
on Patrick Corbyn after the start
or do you think this is something
he could actually build upon
I would be surprised
if anybody was really willing
to give up much for Patrick Corbyn
I still
like even after this start
I don't feel compelled to move him up.
I think I had him around 55, maybe 60 at starting pitcher,
which even that feels high.
So I don't think anybody's going to give you much for him.
If I could get Luis Castillo for him,
I would love to do that.
I doubt I could.
I don't know, man.
Luis Castillo of fantasy managers are freaking out.
Scott, if you could do that,
if you could turn Corbyn into Castillo, would you do it?
Yeah, I'd do it to.
I probably will move Corbyn up after this start,
but I didn't have him as high as I probably had him
between like 80 and 90.
That's how much confidence I had lost in him.
Yeah, I actually had him at 65.
Yeah.
So I have Castillo in my top 40 still,
which to Chris probably sounds laughably low,
but that's obviously still must roster
and it's higher than Corbin's going to be
after just this one start.
Though, you know, well, honestly,
actually, this is a good parallel.
I mean, how had Corbyn's season gone up to this start?
It could turn around just as quickly for Castillo.
And again, we don't know for sure that it's turned around for Corbyn,
but like if Castillo goes out next time and has a start where he gets 13 whiffs on his changeup,
we're probably all going to be feeling a lot better about Castillo at that point.
And that's how quickly it can turn around.
100%.
Yeah, so pay attention to Patrick Corbyn.
I'm not going to take anything away from him,
but I did notice the past couple of days,
it seems like a lot of starting pitcher velocities have been up.
So continue to monitor that,
but it was a fantastic start for Patrick Corbyn.
Scott, your oh my goodness gracious player from Thursday.
All right, I'm going to go with somebody who's actually available here,
widely available.
I'm going to go with Richard Hill, Rich Hill,
now off the Tampa Bay Rays,
who...
Just delivered his third start and four of at least six innings,
which, remember, the first of those was a really good start.
And I said, I'm just not sure how many of these were going to see
from 41-year-old Rich Hill with the raise.
That was my take at the time.
Three starts later, the fact he's done it twice more,
I think it's time to change my stance there.
And this one was especially good.
He had nine strikeouts, three hits, no earned runs.
19 whiffs, which is, you know, even at his best,
Rich Hill succeeded in spite of a low swinging strike rate.
So that's especially impressive for him.
And, you know, obviously the track record's really strong.
The Rays have a good track record with pitching, handling pitching themselves.
If they're going to treat them like a true starter, I think, you know, he's still available in two-thirds of CBS Sports Leagues.
So that needs to change.
Yeah, even more than that, he's 22% rostered.
Go ahead, Chris.
Oh, more than, in this one, I mean, he had only thrown more than 88 pitches once in his first seven starts.
He won six innings in his start before this one, but he only threw 79 pitches.
This one, he threw 104 pitches.
I don't know, you know, he did have a full week off, I guess, between that or six days off.
So maybe that's part of it.
But, you know, if they're going to stretch him out into even like 90 to 95 pitches every start, you know,
that could be a big deal.
I would bet the under.
I would expect he averages maybe
five and a half innings per start.
But that's still good sign.
That's still good enough.
I was worried he'd be a three to four inning pitcher.
You know, it's hard to get any use out of that
as we've seen with Shane McClanahan.
And Rich Hill, Scott, you kind of touched on this,
you know, what he's done recently,
but the last four starts in particular,
21 and 2 thirds, only eight hits allowed.
Eight walks during that's been, not great,
but 27 strikeouts over 21 and 2 thirds.
A bulk of those were in this start against the Yankees.
But yeah, Richel looks like he's turning it around.
Is he like a must-add starting pitcher or how far are we going?
What should this roster rate look like by next week, Scott?
I'm forgetting the name.
Other than Logan Gilbert, sorry about that.
I was forgetting the name.
Other than Logan Gilbert,
I feel like Rich Hill is the only pickup of this entire week
that I've been genuinely excited about.
Now, pitching being what it is,
I'm not sure I can even move him into my top 70,
so it's hard to call him must-ad in that context,
but I should think his roster ship
would go over 60% after this start.
Especially when his next start is at Baltimore,
who you have as one of your sleeper starting pitchers.
We'll have more on that a little bit later on.
But yeah, Average Hill,
potentially even get him in your lineup,
I want to give an honorable mention to Austin Meadows.
This is so weird.
Whenever we talk about a player in particular,
it seems like the next day they go out and do something.
So Chris and I,
we were talking about Austin Meadows yesterday
and how worried we were about him
and goes out three for five, two doubles,
a home run, four RBI.
One of the doubles came off of a lefty.
So really nice game for Austin Meadows
and hopefully he can build off of that.
Before we get to the news and notes,
I did just want to get to these baby Mariners' debuts,
of course, Logan Gilbert and Jared Kelnick.
up against Zach Plesack, who had a no-hitter into the eighth inning.
Gilbert, final line, four innings, five hits, four runs, zero walks, five strikeouts.
He did allow two home runs, 10 swinging strikes on 71 pitches.
Chris, what did you see from Logan Gilbert?
I was surprised at how high the velocity was.
He averaged 95, 94.7 with his fastball hit 97 early on.
So that was a very good sign.
Only through three pitches.
We didn't see any of the change up today.
That's not that surprising.
It's his first time out there.
But yeah,
I think the velocity was pretty impressive.
He's a low spin rate fastball guy, relatively speaking,
21, 2,200-ish RPM's on a 95-mile-per-hour fastball.
That's not great.
But got four whiffs with it, five whiffs with the slider.
I'm excited to see what he does moving forward,
even though this wasn't necessarily the best debut.
You know, it's, there's definitely something here.
There's definitely talent here, which, you know, I think we knew going in,
but it's always nice to see that confirmed.
Yeah, I thought the biggest issue, I like the breaking stuff.
It looked really good in the debut.
I thought the biggest issue, he left a lot of his fastballs just middle, middle,
and they got crushed.
He gave up some home runs.
I mean, against professional hitters, Fran Mill Reyes, hit a homer off of him.
Jose Ramirez tagged him for a home run as well.
outside of that, I thought the breaking stuff looked pretty good.
Yeah, 93 miles per hour average X velocity allowed on the fastball.
So, you know, that's definitely an issue.
And that gets into kind of the control versus command thing where, you can get too fine trying to avoid walks and or trying to pound the strike zone and end up getting hit pretty hard.
Yeah, I don't even think, I don't even think we saw the real Logan Gilbert today because his biggest strength seemed to be the depth of his arsenal and depth and quality of the arsenal.
and depth and quality of the arsenal and the control.
Now, well, I mean, you didn't walk anybody, so that's good.
But yeah, 61 fastballs from a guy who's not even supposed to be his best pitch.
Now, you mentioned it's a low spin rate,
but part of the scouting report on Logan Gilbert, he's 6 foot 6 and apparently has a big reach
and that fastball looks even harder than it actually is.
It can sneak up on hitters like that.
So I'm not saying it's a bad fastball.
but I'm saying
the rest of his arsenal is too good
for him to be thrown 61% fastballs.
So, you know,
I think the results were good enough considering.
It's not like I'd be tempted to move on from him
unlike Daniel Lynch.
He goes.
He keeps getting crushed.
Oh, poor Daniel Lynch.
Yeah, we can,
you can drop him across the board, right, Scott?
Daniel Lynch?
Lynch, yeah.
Yeah.
Don't drop Logan Gilbert.
Keep Logan Gilbert on your team.
Jared Kellnick,
leading off in his debut for the Mariners
0 for 4 with a strikeout. He did have a batted ball
just over 100 miles per hour,
but not much to show for it here
in his first start.
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Some news and notes from Thursday, Glaver Torres has tested positive for COVID and will be out at least for the next 10 days.
Miguel Anduhar was recalled for the Yankees.
Ronald Acuna left Thursday's game with a left ankle injury after hitting his 12th home run, of course, first pitch of the game.
X-rays came back negative.
Acuna seems like he's day-to-day.
He's not out of it yet, but hopefully he's all right.
this guy's getting x-rayed too much
I'm a little worried about his radiation intake
if he needs to cool it
whenever he feels a pinch
those those big weighted
fast things I'm sure he's okay
not the part that's getting x-rayed
maybe that's why he's hitting
like the Hulk you know he's
got all this radiation going on
those are gamma rays though
even more intense
Christian Yelich will begin a rehab assignment
with AAA Nashville on Friday, which I still think is way too soon.
I guess we'll find out how his back responds to playing in minor league games.
J.T. Real Muto was placed on the COVID-IL due to an abundance of caution regarding what
appears to be a non-COVID illness.
Framber Valdez will throw a bullpen session Friday and head out on a minor league rehab
assignment next week.
We could see him before the end of May.
Really good news there for Valdez.
Some good news from Luis Severino, who threw live batting practice
on Thursday. This was the first time he faced hitters since he underwent Tommy John surgery back
in February of 2020. Casey Mize will begin to have his workload managed over the summer,
which will substantially diminish his value. So I think for the time being, before that starts
happening, but once we get into like June and July, Casey Mice probably will not have much value
in fantasy baseball. Christian Pache will be placed on the aisle with right hamstring tightness.
Lance Lynn was hit by a comebacker on Thursday.
underwent x-rays on his hand slash forearm after the game and they came back negative.
Paul DeYoung could require an aisle stint as he's dealing with a rib contusion in his left side.
Brendan Rogers began a rehab assignment with AAA Albuquerque on Thursday.
He is 27% rostered.
Scott, what league should you be rostering Brendan Rogers stashing him right now?
Because apparently we both have them in all our leagues, which...
Yeah.
How's that possible?
Yeah, we both tried to make that claim on Twitter.
But obviously 12-team points leagues, they're just too shallow for that.
Completely unproven as a major leagueer to begin with.
But I like the upside.
So the shallowest league I've had him rostered in all along is a 12-team Roto League,
where 360 players are rostered, and that's not even counting the guys on the IL.
So that's the shallowest league I have them in.
Obviously, and that's probably the shallowest league he deserves to be rostered.
And I would say any league where 350-ish players or more are rostered,
that's where you should be taking a flyer on Rogers,
who has power.
He talked about stealing a bunch of bases before he got hurt,
and he has obviously course field in his favor.
And just a top prospect pedigree.
So not ready to give up on that with all those factors working in his favor.
Yep, he could be a five category contributor.
He just needs to stay healthy.
He was looking pretty good in spring, and we were getting lots of great reports on Brendan Rogers.
I also hope that the Rockies just play him every day because they are the Rockies.
But who knows?
They have new management now, or they're in the process of getting new management.
So hopefully they play their youngsters a little bit more.
Aaron Hakes didn't start on Thursday due to wrist sorenness.
Brandon Belt was scratched on Thursday with tightness in his left side.
Nick Senzel left with a heel contusion
while Mike Moussakis left with an apparent injury.
Let's get everyone a Zach Plesack update.
He is out of the game.
This game is in the ninth.
Emmanuel Class A trying to work his way out of a jam.
Yeah, I really struggling with his command right now.
But Pleseck finishes the game.
Eight innings, two hits, two runs.
Three walks, two strikeouts.
So more walks than strikeouts.
Didn't get a lot of whiffs in this game.
But he's on a run right now.
His last, I believe it's,
pull up however many starts it is exactly.
Well, this was the second straight eight innings.
Yeah.
And two starts.
So three of his last four starts, seven and two thirds or more.
And this was the first home run he allowed.
The home run he allowed in this game was the first and three starts too.
So his home run rate for the season is actually pretty good.
He had that bad two start stretch against the White Sox.
But his ground ball rate is so high this year.
I don't know.
He keeps changing who he is every year.
He's apparently going for the ground ball specialist distinction this year.
And it's working for now.
Obviously, I want to, obviously I would prefer to have strikeouts.
I wouldn't have drafted him if he thought he was going to be a six per nine strikeout guy.
But he is pitching as deep into games as I hoped is something he showed he could do last year.
He's not walking many guys, and he's limiting damage.
And a ground ball pitcher can do that.
A ground ball pitcher can do that, especially in an environment where offense is so,
such a high percentage of offense comes on home runs.
So, yeah, I mean, I feel pretty good.
As somebody who has a lot of investment in PLEASC, yeah, I feel pretty good.
The ERA down to 3.56 for Zach PLEASC.
Meanwhile, the XFIP still stands at 4.15.
again, not getting a ton of strikeouts, but entering the start, he did have an 11.9% swinging strike rate,
which is still better than league average. So perhaps we see the strikeouts come at some point for
police act, but I read an article recently after his last start where he is consciously making
adjustments. He's kind of moved where he's standing on the rubber. He has this spike curveball.
He's calling it that he's worked with Shane Bieber to kind of learn and perfect. So he has four different
pitches he can use basically at any point in any count.
And I think it's working for him right now.
So, Chris, is your confidence growing in Zach, Plissac?
I know you were kind of, you were the lowest of him coming into the season.
No, I mean, I think he's a decent pitcher.
You know, I think it was really good to see him go eight innings and only allowed two
runs, even if it was against the Mariners, but three walks, two strikeouts, hard to get excited
about that.
I think he's, I mean, he's like 45th.
and Savale is either 44th or 46th.
I just kind of have those two guys right next to each other.
And I think they're good pitchers.
I just don't think they're necessarily special.
Fair enough.
Let's get into the week eight pitcher and hitter planners
presented by lining coogles
and we'll get it started, Scotty,
with the two start pitchers heading into week eight.
These are names that are rostered in 75% or less
of CBS leagues.
So who you got, Scott?
Who are you looking at
heading into week eight?
Well, before I get into the highly available guys,
there are some,
just kind of,
there are a lot of questionable ones,
ones that people might be hesitant to start,
even though they're making two starts,
such as James and Tyone,
who didn't make it five innings today
after going a season high,
six and a third last time out,
but he did have nine strikes.
Makeouts.
Did he have a lot of whiffs.
I still like the direction he's trending.
I know his ERA is over five.
And his matchups at Texas versus the White Sox.
I think you got to go with him.
Charlie Morton is another one who started today.
And something I pointed out earlier this week for Charlie Morton is that his home run to fly ball rate this year is about twice what it's been in the past two years,
even though the league-wide home run to fly ball rate is down.
So that in itself seemed like reason to hope for correction.
Now, he didn't allow any home runs in his start Thursday,
and the results still weren't good.
But there isn't a lot in the underlying numbers
that's really a cause for concern.
And his matchups are against the Mets and against the pirates.
So I would stick with him as well.
Patrick Corbyn is making two starts,
but one of them is against the Orioles.
I think you go ahead and cross your fingers
and trust that he's figured it out for the two-star week.
But obviously those guys are widely rostered.
Some who might be available,
Adbert Alzalai again.
I know I hyped him as a two-star sleeper last week,
but I don't know exactly what happened.
He looks like he's not going to get the two starts until next week.
He's only 59% rostered Washington
and the Cardinals are the two matchups.
Nothing special about those.
but I just think Albert Alzalai is being overlooked with that slider.
Now his most featured pitch and a big swing and miss pitch.
They've been letting him go six innings more consistently recently.
I think it's a pretty easy call to start him in a two-start week.
Not super excited about any of the others.
John Gray is right at 75%.
He keeps doing well his matchups this week at San Diego and versus Arizona.
So one of them is a core start and the others.
against a really good team.
I don't know.
In a points league,
you probably have to roll with them,
but in Categories league,
I'd be a little scared.
Casey Mize,
doing pretty good for six innings most of the time.
They're talking about reducing his workload,
but in the summer,
that's still a month away,
if we're being technical about when summer starts.
So I don't know exactly what the plan is
for when that starts.
But at Seattle,
at Kansas City,
those are two good matchups.
James Caprillion,
if you really want to,
if you really want to,
want to gamble. He's only 8%
rostered. The
matchups aren't very good, but there are two
of them. Houston and
at the Angels. Yeah,
that's about all I'd go with. Luis Castillo
is making two stars, but we just talked about how
you can't start him until he shows
signs of turning around. I think even Chris was on board with that.
The matchups are decent, giants, and
brewers, but
yeah, no, I can't go with that.
I can't recommend Luis Castillo, even with the
two starts. Chrisie Poo,
feeling great, so he has to drop off for the rest of the podcast.
So hope he's feeling all right.
And we'll be back after the weekend is over, of course.
Scott, some single start starting pitchers that you're looking at, some sleepers for next week.
Single start ones.
Okay.
So Robbie Ray is still not quite to 80%.
So I'm going to include him here.
I don't know why the roster ship is going up so slowly for him.
He looks dominant.
This looks like the best Robbie Ray we've ever seen.
And that one we saw in 2017 made us all think he was an ace.
So get on board with him against the race.
That's a fine matchup.
Richella Baltimore, who we already mentioned,
that matchup, good reason to run him out there right away after you pick him up.
Those are by far the most exciting two.
But if you need more, Andrew Heaney, if you want to spin that wheel,
Andrew Heaney versus Cleveland, it's a fine matchup.
You know, if he's doing the one start he gives up,
three home runs. The next start he gets 10 strikeouts.
He's in line for one of the good ones this next time.
That's what you want to go off of.
Matthew Boyd at Kansas City. He's technically below 80%, so I'm going to stick him in there.
Good matchup. I don't trust him overall, though.
Brady Singer versus the Tigers.
There are actually a few interesting pitchers against the Tigers this week.
In addition to Singer, there's Brad Keller, there's Chris Flexen.
There's Logan Gilbert. Maybe. Maybe.
I left them off my 10 sleeper pitchers list.
But I may revisit that before it actually gets published.
Because, you know, the underlying numbers look better than the result for Logan Gilbert today.
I see you, Scott, with the Matthew Boyd love.
All right.
It took about six, seven weeks, but you're coming around a little bit.
Listen, I have to find 10 sleeper pitchers every 10 guys you could potentially pick up off the waiver wire.
And I even push it to 80% roster ship.
And Matthew Boyd, yes, he happened to make that list.
You brought up Andrew Heaney in that mix as well.
And speaking of Cleveland, we know it's been a solid matchup all season long,
but specifically against left-handed pitching,
they struggle even more against lefties than against righties.
They are 26th and weighted on base average.
So Andrew Heaney, we'll see if he can bounce back in his next one.
Scott, let's move over to the hitter side of things.
These are names that are rostered in 75% or less of CBS leagues.
who are some sleeper hitters for next week.
Okay, so the teams who have the best two matchups in my estimation are the Dodgers and Braves.
So I got one from each leading off my list here, Austin Riley, who has looked much better in recent weeks.
And then Gavin Lux, who has also looked much better in recent weeks.
Really, his May is, if you just do a splits by month for Gavin Lux, compares April to his May.
It looks like a different player.
His strikeout rates like half of what it was in April.
and he's on a nice run at the plate.
And I think the Dodgers are facing six Ritees in their seven games too.
So that even makes it easier to justify.
So I like both of them.
The Reds have good matchups again and a bunch of varieties again.
So I'm going to recommend Tyler Naquin again.
The Angels are one of two teams playing eight games.
I believe these are the first eight game weeks we've had this year.
The Angels and twins both are playing eight games.
I don't, they happen to be facing a lot of tough pitchers in those eight games.
That's always a tricky one.
Is this a good matchup or isn't it?
But I have Justin Upton on here for the Angels.
I have David Fletcher on here for the Angels.
I have Jorge Polanco,
who's also been hitting well of late.
I have him on there for the Twins.
The Tigers, I think they're not in my top five best matches for this week,
but they didn't miss by much.
So Jamer, Candelario, and Robbie Grossman, especially, he's been hot.
They're looking like pretty good plays this week.
Yep, Robbie Grossman, for sure, is coming around.
I like that Gavin Lux call quite a bit to 54% rostered on CBS.
And in April, he hit 179 in May, up to 316 for Gavin Lux, a 15% strikeout rate.
So making a lot more contact.
The five teams with the best hitter matchups, Scott talked about a few of them,
but the Dodgers, the Braves, the Nationals, the Reds, and the Angels,
the five teams with the worst hitter matchups, the pirates, the Royals, the Rangers, the Brewers,
and the A's.
So there you have it.
the week eight pitcher and hitter planners
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And at this point, you know,
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We're going to take a quick break, but when we return,
we're going to look at some waiver wire starting pitchers.
What is going on with Charlie Martin? We spoke about them briefly.
I want to get into it a little bit more.
The rest of Thursday's action, of course,
and we have some fantasy justice for all.
We'll do it next on fantasy,
baseball today.
So we already spoke about Rich Hill Scott and he is 22% rostered.
We're pretty excited about him.
Have to see that number double at least, maybe even triple.
At least, yeah.
How would you compare him to someone like Garrett Richards who has been pitching very well
recently in his own right up against the Oakland A's on Thursday, six shutout, five hits,
three walks, four strikeouts.
He has a 2.16 ERA over his last four starts, 26 strikeouts to five walks during that span.
He is 27% rostered.
Rich Hill or Garrett Richards?
How'd go Richel, better track record.
And yeah, I know it's been four pretty good starts in a row for Richards,
but the first two that the swinging strike jumped way up,
and he talked about making mechanical changes.
The last two, it's just been eight swinging strikes in each.
Groundball rates high, which is good to see in his prime.
That was always a key to his success.
But I'm just wondering if Richard,
is going to be more than fringy in this environment.
And really the Red Sox pitching staff as a whole.
It's been weird what's been going on.
Like all of them have suddenly become single-digit swinging strikes guys.
All the ones that we thought were good at one point,
Eduardo Rodriguez, Nathan Avaldi, and now Garrett Richards.
All at once, it's happening to them.
Probably just a coincidence, but those are the three pitchers I think of when,
like, who did you think was the,
beginning to look like a real breakout and then has fallen back. Those are like three of the first
names that come to mind. Yeah, definitely Avaldi. I was excited about him early on in the season.
And he slowed up a little bit, Smeen Shrikes taking a back seat. I haven't read this anywhere,
but it could be a team philosophy thing, Scott, where they are consciously telling their pitchers to
pitch more to contact. So, you know, maybe they can work more efficiently, save their bullpen
and, you know, get deeper into their starts. So pure speculation, but could be what's going on there.
with the Boston Red Sox.
Scott's taking Rich Hill over Garrett Richards.
I would agree with that.
Spencer Turnbull, not in the same category as these guys,
but had a very good start on Thursday against the Royals,
six and a third, one earned run, one walk, seven strikeouts,
16 swinging strikes on 99 pitches.
10 of those came on the slider.
Fastball velocity up almost a mile per hour in this one.
13% rostered.
And it seems like he's in line for a pretty good matchup next week as well at Seattle.
Maybe Jared Kelnick helps the lineup.
and this isn't a great matchup anymore,
but I think in a deeper league, Scott,
I can kind of get behind Turnbull in that spot.
Yeah, it's not a bad pick.
He's had three starts this year
where he's looked really good.
I mean, this was the best one.
This was the best one.
His slider has been more effective
for some reason this year.
I'm not really sure why.
Yeah, okay, it's not even...
The success he had earlier
wasn't as good as I remembered it.
So, yeah, this start just looks like a one-off
for Spencer,
Turnbull. I'm not...
As I started talking about him, I lost a lot of interest.
Fair enough.
It's been 40 minutes into the podcast.
We haven't talked about Sean Mania,
who probably could have been one of our
oh my goodness gracious players if it wasn't for Luis Castillo
continuing to...
I was going to say something I shouldn't have there.
But anyway, Sean Mania at the Boston Red Sox,
two innings, 10 hits, seven earned runs,
just like that, the ERA,
up to 4.40, the whip is at 1.28.
I'm not going to completely back off Sean Mania, Scott,
because there's a really good lineup.
It is a tougher park to pitch in for a left-handed pitcher.
And the underlying numbers for him,
I still like that the velocity has been up,
and he hasn't really been walking anyone this year.
So the way that you kind of said,
it's a one-off for Turnbull.
I'm kind of looking at that for Sean Minia here.
Yeah, every pitcher is entitled to,
just a really bad start every now and again.
If you go through a whole season without a start like this,
you're probably contending for the Siyang.
Right.
And Mania wasn't going to sustain an ERA.
I think it was like 307 coming into this start.
Now it's up to 440, like you mentioned,
but the X-FIP, even with the results of this outing,
Manai's X-FIP is 360,
which is exactly what you'd expect for a mid-class pitcher like him.
Yeah, I'm not backing off of him after this start.
either. Is there anything wrong with these three starting pitchers? We'll start with Charlie
Morton up against the Blue Jays, four and two thirds, seven hits, three earned, two walks, four
strikeouts, but he only allowed four hit, four hard hit balls. Seems like it was just another
tough luck outing for him. He has failed to complete six in four straight starts. This is Charlie
Morton we're talking about. The ERA is up to 5.08. And I found this quote in the Atlanta Journal
Constitution. I'm trying to learn from my mistakes, but I guess,
that's the silver lining, that my stuff is still there.
There's a pitch mix element to it.
There's a mechanical element to it, just an overall approach.
But I feel like there's no reason why I can't get those things squared away
and go out there and do a good job for this team.
It's kind of a PR answer, but Scott, is there anything in the underlying numbers?
I still think Charlie Morton is one of the better bylaws right now.
Yeah, I agree.
And, you know, I talked about it when I was doing the planner for next week,
that there isn't a lot in the underlying numbers that would raise alarm.
Again, the home run to fly ball rate is insanely high for him,
especially given that it's down across the league.
So that's a good sign.
You know, it sounds like he has a pretty good read on the situation.
I was certainly more concerned at the start of last year when his velocity was down
before he went on the I.L. with a shoulder issue.
And then he came back and the velocity was fine.
And the numbers look good from that point through the playoffs.
I was more concerned then than I am now.
The velocity's been fine all year.
I think he's going to be fine.
All right, let's move on to Lance Lynn.
It's hard to really complain about someone who just had nine strikeouts and 18 swinging strikes.
But in three starts since returning from the IL,
he has nine walks in 15 innings pitched.
He has not gone more than five in any of those starts,
which it just doesn't really sound very Lanslin-esque, Scott.
Is there anything here with him?
No, I don't think so.
I've been encouraged, actually, by how overpowering he's been coming back from a lat issue.
You know, that sounds like such a serious thing.
Obviously, his was thought to be a minor issue.
111 pitches, you know, obviously he's not going to come back out for another inning if he's thrown that many.
The previous short outings, he'd thrown 90, and he had thrown 68.
and the first one off the aisle.
So obviously they were not wanting to push them too hard right away.
So, I mean, you could look at this as, hey, look, they let them throw over 100 pitches.
And normally, that's going to mean seven plus innings for Len.
Scott, last time Jameson Tyone was out, went out there and pitched.
We kind of talked about him as a player to buy.
And he goes out against the Tampa Bay raise, couldn't complete five, four and two-thirds,
four-run runs.
He did have nine strikeouts.
Not 19. 19 would be a little aggressive.
He had nine strikeouts, 17 swinging strikes against the team that does swing and miss quite a bit.
The ERA is up to 5.40 for Tyone.
The ex-fib remains 3.55.
So I still kind of like the buy situation on him.
I mean, just look at his rates.
K per 9 rate, 11.6.
B.B. Pern 9, 2.2.2.
Now, home run per 9 is also 2.2, which is very high.
But it's reminiscent of Charlie Morton.
His home run to fly ball rate is approaching 20.
And that's not something that's going to last.
Oh, his Sierra, by the way, even prior to the start,
it probably went down with today's start because he had so many strikeouts.
His Sierra is 325, even lower than the X-FIP.
Usually Sierra and X-P are pretty close,
but skill interactive ERA really likes what Tyone is doing.
And I like what Tyone's doing.
I think better days are ahead.
Let's take a look at three hitters, Scott,
that are slowing down or off to weird starts.
And every time we come on here,
it's hard to evaluate hitters right now,
but we're going to try.
Reese Hoskins, in 16 games since his two home run game,
he is batting 193.
The strikeout rate is up,
but this is the best quality of contact
in his career. Highest line drive rate
since his rookie season.
So are you worried about
Reese Hoskins or
how are you feeling? How are you feeling, Scott?
He was probably hot early on.
He's probably cold now.
He is pretty streaky.
I just wish his
plate discipline was more in line
with where it normally is because
I mean, he was
among the best walkers in baseball.
And his walk rate is
half of that.
this year. His strikeout rate is by far the worst it's been. That's not good. That's not good.
It makes it beyond just what's happening with the environment, the entire what's happening across
the league with expectations changing for hitters and Babbip, all the rules of Babbitt being
broken and not really knowing what to make of any of it. Beyond that, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I,
don't really know what to make of Hoskins because his plate discipline is so off so far.
Let's take a look under the hood here because I just pulled up his May splits and his walk rate for
May is 12%. His strikeout rate for May 24%. That was entering Thursday. I think he struck out two more
time. So that's going to go up a little bit. But those things have gone in the right direction in May.
That's good. Yeah, that's good. I mean, maybe he's not because he's stinking. I think it's good.
His bad at ball data is kind of weird because he's got a near 30% line drive rate,
but he also has a 22% infield fly ball rate.
So it seems like his battle ball data is just kind of inconsistent.
It's like when he makes contact, he's hitting it pretty hard.
Yeah, I want to say he was a, he's always been a pretty streaky hitter.
Yeah.
And coming off of a, it wasn't a Tommy John surgery, but it was a procedure like that where he, you know,
he had an elbow.
injury last year.
I think it would be perfectly fine if he got off to a slow start,
but he actually did the opposite.
He got off to a hot start.
Now he's kind of coming back down to Earth a little bit.
Yeah.
All right.
Colton Wong, Scott, he is four for 34 over his last eight games.
The batting average is down to 250.
Would you drop Colton Wong for Gavin Lux,
who he spoke about earlier?
Well, it depends how badly I needed steals, I guess.
but that's,
seems like a comparable move
if you just want to go after the hot hand.
That's fine.
All right.
Mike Yistremski,
we have basically not talked about him all year.
He has five hits over his last four games,
but he is batting just 2.27 this season.
And I kind of look under the hood to see,
you know, what was wrong with him.
Strikeouts are up.
Groundball rate is up.
Those are not great,
especially for a left end of batter.
his OPS against lefties, 485.
And he's struggling pretty bad against breaking pitches.
So what is your...
I know we liked him, especially in a points league
and OBP formats coming in.
Is he someone that you would be looking to buy
or are you actually kind of worried about this?
No, I'm pretty worried about it.
We liked him when it was a different world
than it is now.
Which isn't to say he's toast.
It's just...
I could certainly see that
being the outcome for him,
but, you know, even as good as he was in 2020 and 2019 to a lesser degree,
he wasn't somebody who hit the ball especially hard.
And, yeah, he just may not be well, he just not be as well suited for this ball.
And then the play disciplines down in addition to that.
I've dropped them in one league already, a shallower league, obviously.
I don't really think there's much incentive to drop him in like a five outfielder league,
but a three outfielder league, he's among a very large group of outfielders that I am just
cycling through, hoping that I land on somebody who'll stick.
Weird start here for Mike Yistremski.
Some Thursday leftovers. Scott, do you like leftovers?
You big leftover guy?
Oh, I'm pretty happy with leftovers.
Yeah, I mean, they're never quite as good as the first time around, of course.
but if you know my enthusiasm for eating leftovers is basically um dependent on how much i enjoyed it
the first time like if i was excited to eat at the first time i'm excited to eat at the second time i'm
not somebody who turns my nose up to leftovers just out of principle and there are some foods
oddly oddly enough that are better as leftovers than they are the first time you eat them which
oh yeah i don't really know how that i'm well give me an example i knew you were going to say that right and
so something like i'm a big pasta
I eat a lot of pasta, Scott.
I should probably be like double the size that I am.
But something, anything with like pesto or vodka sauce, I feel like is better the next day.
It becomes like oily and it's, it sounds gross, but it's actually really good.
You know what?
Chili.
Chili, I think.
Just because the longer you leave it in the pot, it the better it seems to get.
Yeah.
Like festers and all the spice kind of.
I don't know about the words you're choosing to describe this.
Probably want to be my choice.
But, yeah.
Anyway, Thursday leftovers.
I'm just going to zoom through some things here, Scott.
If there's anything you want to talk about, just stop me.
Marcus Semyon, Boba Cheshett, Teasca Hernandez, and Bobuchette each had two hits.
Teascar is now batting 360 with four home runs and a 13% strikeout rate in 13 games
since returning from the IL.
Zach Eifflin had one of his worst starts of the season, which not really.
He allowed five runs, but he had nine strikeouts.
So the ERA is 3.86.
I think he's fine.
Kyle Swarber and Josh Bell both homered on Thursday.
Andrew Benatendi had three more hits.
He is now batting 375 in the month of May,
and he has a career high, 26% line drive rate.
Tommy Edmund, haven't talked about him much,
but he's just kind of chuggling along.
He's been fine.
He won for four with two steals.
He's batting 277 with seven steals on the season.
Jack Flerty against the Brewers,
six shutout, six strikeouts,
16 swinging strikes.
The fastball velocity was down a little bit
earlier on in the season.
He is averaging just over 94 miles per hour
in three May starts.
So I think Jack Flaherty is back on track.
Corbyn Burns made his return against the Cardinals.
Five innings, one run, one walk, nine strikeouts.
He set the MLB record with 58 strikeouts
to open the season without a walk.
He only threw 78 pitches, but it's his first start back,
and he pretty much looked like Corbin Burns.
The velocity was down a tad, so we'll follow that.
Since I talked smack about Max Kepler last week, he has three home runs and six games, so thank you, Max Kepler.
Anthony Descalfani at the Pirates, five shutout, one hit, one walk, five strikeouts.
They only let him throw 76 pitches, which is kind of weird, but he's still been really good.
Hunter Renfro had two more hits.
He's betting 306 in the month of May.
He is 22% rostered, I think, in some deeper five outfielder leagues.
You can snag Hunter Renfro.
Gary Sanchez now has four hits over his last four games, including two home runs.
just grasping at any straws possible.
Scott, I need Gary Sage's just to come around.
I haven't been way too many leagues.
Why did I do this?
So there you go.
Christian Javier was fine, seven innings three runs.
I'm not going to tell you about Josh Fuentes,
because why?
Bullpen updates.
For the Atlanta Braves, Will Smith entered the ninth in a tie game.
He promptly allowed four runs on five hits.
For the Blue Jays, Jordan Romano was on the other side.
He struck out the side with a four-run lead.
The Tigers, Gregory Soto,
the ninth with a four to one lead.
He allowed two runs and was removed for who?
Michael Fulmer, who converted the save.
It was Soto's third straight day pitching.
Fulmer is 11% rostered.
He was using the eighth inning on Wednesday night.
He might be the next man up, Scott.
Are you looking to add Michael Fulmer
in any deeper category leagues?
Yeah, maybe like some of those 15 teamers.
I just, like the Tigers get save chances so infrequently
that it may be a long time
before we find out whether Fulmer has staying power.
And I'm guessing it's,
I'm guessing Soto's still the lead guy there.
He had been worked a lot recently.
I just,
I have a hard time believing Fulmer's going to get confined to that ninth inning role.
Remember, Brian Garcia got a couple saves early in the season,
but it's very clear from the usage that Soto is the leverage guy,
like the only guy,
A.J. Hinch has,
a only guy he wants in those leverage situations
and they're usually coming at the end of games
whenever the Tigers do have a lead
which is not very often.
For the Cardinals, Alex Reyes picked up his 11th save.
Liam Hendricks got his seventh for the White Sox.
Taylor Rogers entered the game down one run.
He allowed one run on two hits.
He has now allowed a run in three of his last four appearances.
Tyler Rogers picked up his third save for the Giants
with Jake McGee working back-to-back days,
so I wouldn't read too much into that,
but Rogers is very clearly the next man up.
And the last one of the night
was Emmanuel Class A,
who was coming in to close out that game for Zach Pleseck.
He recorded the first two outs,
and then he walked the bases loaded,
and was removed for Brian Shaw,
who picked up his first saves.
So, Class A little bit of...
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
James Karen Jack has been the Indian's best reliever this year.
Yeah.
You all laughed at me.
No, he has been.
I mean, Class A still has a 106 ERA, so I don't think he's lost the job.
But I think they just, just, just worth pointing out, please, that's been better.
They love Karen Jack in that role, right?
It's just they put him up against the toughest part of the lineup, and he's really gotten the control down this year.
So it looks great.
Yeah.
It's just, um, they're rocking.
with it the way it is for now. To stream or not to stream
for the weekend. We'll start with Friday.
Tyler Anderson versus the Giants.
Actually, I think he got pushback. I don't think he's pitching
on Friday anymore. I saw someone else
is pitching for the pirates. Forget about Tyler Anderson.
Griffin Canning at the Red Sox.
Jake Areetta at the Tigers, David Peterson
at the Rays, Drew Smiley at the Brewers,
and Adrian Houser
versus the Braves.
My
favorites here would be
let's say
Hauser versus the Braves
David Peterson at Tampa
and Canning
at Boston
doesn't feel great
Tyler Anderson is scheduled to start
on Saturday now
Miguel Yajure
is expected to be recalled
and start Friday's game
against the Giants at PNC Park
he was one of the pitchers they received in the
Jameson Tion trade from the Yankees.
On Saturday to stream or not to stream,
Shane McClain-Han-Vosers-Cole-Urvin
at the Twins,
Trevor Williams versus the Tigers,
Johnny Quato at the Pirates,
Dane Dunning at the Astros,
Luis Garcia versus the Rangers,
Trista McKenzie at the Mariners.
Luis Garcia against the Rangers
feels fine.
In theory, I like Johnny Guado at the Pirates.
I wish he wasn't so bad his first time off
the I.
But I'll still pick him here.
And probably...
Oh, do I want to do Cole Irvin?
I don't really believe in Cole Irvin.
He's just been on such a run lately.
I don't like the spot either at Minnesota.
Yeah.
But it's either him or McKenzie.
And I know McKenzie was decent last time out,
but he's just...
I'll pick Irvin as my third.
All right.
On Sunday to stream or not stream,
Jordan Montgomery at the Orioles,
J.T. Brubaker versus the giant.
Brady Singer at the White Sox.
Eric Fetty at the Diamondbacks.
Ryan Weathers versus the Cardinals.
And Quanghan Kim at the Padres.
Montgomery at Baltimore is an easy one.
Singer at White Sox, that's okay.
Brewbaker versus the Giants.
You know what?
I think I actually like Brewbaker over Singer.
Montgomery, then Brew Baker, then Singer.
Those Sunday ones are not bad.
The Brubs.
I really like what I've seen from Brewbaker this year.
Some fantasy justice.
I like to wrap up.
The week would, we have to serve some justice around here, Scott.
So, let's do it.
This first one's from Jerome.
Three weeks ago, Team A traded Gary Sanchez and Aaron Judge to Team B for Wilson Contreras,
Randall Gritchick, who was immediately dropped, and Cabrion Hayes.
So why didn't they just do it for Wilson Contreras and Cabrion Hayes?
Then a few days later, Team A traded Wilson Contreras back to Team B for Nick Solac.
Two weeks after that, Team A also.
also traded Cabrian Hayes back to Team B for Sean Mania.
So in the end, the trade boils down to Aaron Judge for Sean Mania and, well, and Gary Sanchez, right?
So it would be Gary Sanchez and Aaron Judge for Sean Mania and Nick Solek.
We don't have vetoes in our league, but if, uh, what do you, what do you think?
Well, this is more of like a, yeah, I didn't even read it, Scott. I just kind of threw it on here.
This is more of like a grade the trade question. Anyway, I don't know. I think vetoes should
be a thing in fantasy sports unless it is like super, super egregious. It's kind of weird that it's like
going back and forth with the same teams over and over again. I don't know. What do you think, Scott?
Yeah, I get, I get the suspicion, but like none of the trades look bad on an individual level and the
final result doesn't look bad. I mean, I think I'd much rather have the just Aaron Judge
by himself, but. I mean, maybe these two are really close and they talk
about fantasy baseball a lot and they just keep working out trades. I mean, I don't, yeah,
I don't think there's necessarily something shady going on just because you can come up with
that explanation in your mind, you know, that I don't know. I think you're right to have your
alarm raised by this, but I don't think anything has actually nothing. Nothing.
really looks wrong about it other than the fact that it's the same two guys. I've done trades before.
I've had, I've acquired players from a person and then traded them back to that person in the
same season before. Not in such close to session usually, but, but yeah. I don't think I've ever
done that. It's, I've definitely done it. I've done it more than once. Wow. Interesting. Well,
I mean, you've probably been playing fantasy more than longer than I've been alive, Scott. No, not that
long, but close.
This next one's from Ryan.
Hey guys, need a little help figuring out if this is a bad move by our commissioner.
I've been in a 10 team head-to-head dynasty points league for four years now,
and the commissioner has been the same since the start of the league.
With our COVID season last year, we realized that teams with more pitchers on their
roster ended up winning more games.
This prompted a few guys to ask for a vote in our league for a weekly start limit.
The final vote ended with seven managers saying no start.
limit, including the commissioner, and three managers saying yes. Before the season this year,
our commissioner made some trades to make his hitters better and is now opening the same vote
from last year about a start limit. He is now voting yes for the start limit to be enforced
next year. Multiple managers traded players to acquire more pitching due to the vote saying there
would be no start limit. Is this a problem? What should managers do about this?
No, it doesn't seem like a problem.
because the people who traded for more pitchers
could still vote no.
Yeah.
You know?
Yeah.
It doesn't...
I mean, it is kind of poor form by a commissioner.
And we spoke about that last week where if you're the commissioner,
I mean, you should try to do what's just, what's right.
And it's, you know, when you make all those moves and clearly, like, you're trading for hitters
and then you're...
The only reason you would bring up the vote again is because if you want it to be reversed,
it does seem kind of shady.
I guess.
I don't know.
It doesn't really bother me that much.
Because people change their minds all the time, you know?
I don't know that the first vote necessarily has to determine it forevermore.
I guess it's a little weird.
It's being brought up again so soon.
But it, you know, it lost seven to three last time.
So in theory it should lose six to four this time.
and it'll probably be fine.
I mean, Scott, if you had a rule set up in your Scott White Dynasty League and then you made a bunch of moves that would benefit a new rule or some kind of change of a rule and then you just kind of brought it up, I'd be like, I don't know, Scott, I don't like that.
I don't like that.
But you haven't done it yet, so I'll continue to trust you for now.
Okay.
For now, Scott.
All right, we're going to wrap there.
If you have a question, a fantasy league justice, this is you should.
to be the regulators back in the day, but we can no longer play their music. So if you have
something going on in your league, a little fishy with your commissioner or some other league
managers, feel free to email us in and put Fantasy Justice in the subject line. For Scott,
I am Frank, thank you all for listening. Oh, wait, I didn't play it again. Fantasy justice
has been served, I think. For Scott, I am Frank, thank you all for listening and watching
Fantasy baseball today. We'll be back again on Monday. Bye-bye.
