Fantasy Baseball Today - Edward Cabrera or Ben Brown? Sell-High on Jackson Chourio? (4/16 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 16, 2024

Edward Cabrera returned with a bang (2:51)! ... Add Cabrera or Ben Brown (9:45)? ... George Kirby got back on track Monday (13:15). ... News (16:58): Seiya Suzuki went on the IL with an oblique injury. ... Esteury Ruiz is back with the A's (24:43). ... Could Joey Loperfido join the Astros soon (29:32)? ... Jackson Merrill and Jackson Chourio both had big games against each other (33:20). ... Reese Olson had a big start against the Rangers (43:42). ... Jordan Westburg just keeps hitting (47:30). ... Buy-low on Joe Musgrove (52:52)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (55:38). 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. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Hey there, welcome in Tough Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, April 16th. I am Frank Stamphle joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, Edward Cabrera returned with a bang.

Lots of fun rookie performances. from Ben Brown, Jackson Churio, among others, and much more. But let's start with our players of the night. Yankees win. The Yankees win. Now it's weird because the Yankees did not win on Monday, but it was very emotional day. John Sterling has retired,

and he will no longer be calling Yankees games from the radio broadcast booth. But I thought I would honor my guy, John Sterling. Sterling there. But we will start with Scott. You were up. Player of the night. All right.

I'm taking the Olive Garden breadstick here with Edward Cabrera. One of the stallions, the new stallions. I tried to save the Olive Garden breadstick for Chris, but he politely refused. So I'm taking it. I try to cut back on carbs, you know. Yeah, I hear you. What Edward Cabrera did here in his season debut was the sort of thing. we've seen Edward Cabrera do before.

Against the Giants, he struck out 10 and six innings, one run aloud, only one walk, which is nice to see. 17 swinging strikes on 91 pitches, and he really showed off the full arsenal in doing it.

He had six of those who have on the changeup, four on the curveball, six on the slider, one on the fast ball, but the fastball is not really, not really the selling point for Edward Cabrera. He throws it very hard, he doesn't locate it very well, and that's always been the problem for him.

And it makes it hard for me to say this year's going to be any different just because he had a good start like this. He's kind of, he was kind of the initial Charazard, right? Where he'll either destroy your enemies or he will destroy you. And he destroyed your enemies today. He probably didn't start him today, but hopefully he has more of these good starts than bad going forward. It's just we've said that so many times in the past. I can say he threw 68% of his pitches for strikes in this one, which is great. If he can keep doing that, then Edward Cabrera is going to be awesome.

His fastball was only his third most used pitch, which is probably the right approach when your secondary arsenal is that good and your fastball's a problem. but I just have no reason to believe right now that he's going to continue with this because he never has before. Doesn't mean you can't pick him up. There's a lot of upside here clearly. We just saw it on display. But it's a bit of a wild card

and it could wind up frustrating you. You could, like Ash Ketchum, you could wind up charred and regretful. I will say I am I'm not going to rank him with, you know, Garra Crochet and the rest of those guys that we've talked a lot about so far this season because they've done it for more than one start.

But I will say, as with Garrettoch after his first start, I do think Edward Cabrera is probably someone that if you have daily fat runs right now, you should add him in any format, just in case he has figured something up because we saw in spring training, He was throwing strikes more often.

The rehab assignment was iffy. The first couple of starts were pretty bad. I believe the last one was really, really good. Only one walk in that one, I think. And then in this one, you know, he ditched the sinker. He only threw the four-scene fastball 19% of the time or 21% of the time. And the weird thing about Edward Cabrera has always been that his command of his three bendy slow pitches, has always been pretty good.

And it's been the fastball that has primarily gotten him in trouble and that he's struggled to throw for strikes and that he's struggled to repeat. And so I kind of think this approach might just work for him. And the fastballs aren't particularly great. He's really tall. He doesn't have a great approach angle, all those things. So it might just be that like treating the fastball like a secondary and treating his change up.

Well, and treating his. changing up with more velocity. Kind of like treating his 93 mile an hour change up as his primary pitch and his 46 mile an hour four seamer as a change up. That might actually, that kind of pitching backwards is not something you see very often, but it might be an answer for a pitcher as talented and infuriatingly inconsistent as Edward Cabrera. So while I think the likeliest outcome is his next start is five walks and three innings, there aren't, I think, a lot of pitchers who you can say,

if he just fixes this one thing, he's a top 30 pitcher. And I do think that's true of Edward Capraere. He does a great job limiting hard contact. He gets a lot of strikeouts, gets a lot of swings and misses. It's just the walks. And so I think there's a lot to be optimistic about from this start. And he's only 40% rostered.

I mean, you could swap out a Louis heel for him. I would drop Max Meyer for him. I'm more excited about Edward Cabrera than I was about Max Meyer yesterday. We should probably bring that up since we were raving about Max Meyer yesterday, is that he did get sent down to make room for Edward Cabrera, just when you thought he was safe. The Marlins said, no, sir, Max Meyer, we need to preserve those innings. It's going to be pitching like three innings once a week in the minor or something like that.

So a reprieve for AJ Puck, if you care about him. And Braxton Garrett is. His timeline's been pushed back and looks like so. Yeah. But yeah, Edward Cabrera, highly available, you know, a lottery ticket, a lottery ticket. I'm not, I'm not itching to get him in my lineup.

If you miss out on him in waivers, I don't think it's the end of the world, but an interesting pitcher as has long been true. So you guys would make that swap. You would drop Max Meyer for Edward Cabrero. I absolutely would, yeah. We're not going to see Max Meyer for a while. One would think,

though life does find a while. way. Yes, it certainly is. I think this whole thing is so stupid. The Max Myers thing. The fact that they made Skip Schumacher go out there, the guy who they voided the option year on his contract. So we know he's a lame duck manager. The fact that they made him go out there and say, oh, yeah, he's got to work on his two seam fastball. You know, that's really like, that's so embarrassing. What a, what a minor league organization. What a joke the Marlins are. I'm sorry. That's all. That's all I'm going to say. Yeah, I think the timing is definitely weird, and using his two-seem fastball as an excuse is definitely weird. From an organizational standpoint,

it kind of does make some sense because he is coming back from the time of John's limiting his innings. Yes, and they're probably going to trade some of their pitchers later this year. There are going to be injuries, so... They're not going to be playing in October. No. I don't think I'm being unfair when I say that the 3 and 15 Marlins or whatever they are are not going to make the playoffs this year.

Just let him throw 100 innings and then end his season. Who cares? They could do that. They certainly could have done that, but that will not be the case for Max Meyer, who you could drop for Edward Cabrera. Who would you rather have between Edward Cabrera and my player of the night?

That would be Ben Brown, who turned in his first quality start of his career. Six innings, one hit, one run, two walks, four strikeouts, only had six swinging strikes on 84 pitches. Allowed some hard contact in this one for sure. nine hard hits allowed, 93.1 average exit velocity. Basically a two-pitch pitcher, but he's looked pretty good in his past three outings. So that first relief appearance came at the Texas Rangers.

It's his first time pitching in the majors. So there could be some jitters. He's nervous. He's going up against a really tough lineup. He gave up six earned runs. He only recorded five outs. In three outings since then, it's 14 and two-thirds innings. two runs allowed, four walks to 14 strikeouts.

So Ben Brown has looked much better. This is someone who has prospect pedigree. 18% rostered, widely available. Chris, who would rather have Cabrera or Ben Brown? Oh, Cabrera fairly easily. Brown, I think, is kind of interesting. I wrote him up in the Waverware column yesterday, so it was good to see him get off to a good start.

But he's a two-pitch pitcher in that he throws two pitches. technically he has thrown three changeups also, but it's really just the curveball that looks appealing. And it looks like a really good pitch. He's got like a 45% whiff rate with it. It's just, I don't know if that's enough. And he throws the fastball.

He threw the fastball 75% of the time in this one. Yeah. But the bigger issue for me is his, Ben Brown's control was terrible at AAA last year. It was good at AA in the Southern League, where they had the tacky baseballs. But then once he got to AAA, all the early season hype kind of fell apart on.

Ben Brown is their new early season hype for this year with a solid start two's major league career. I could see it being legit, but my hunch is it's kind of phony, and it may all end suddenly, because James and Tyone's coming back this week. And who's being removed from the rotation? It's either going to be Ben Brown

or it's going to be Jordan Wicks, I guess. but I presume it would be Ben Brown over Jordan Wicks. Yeah, I agree on that. All right, would you guys drop either Luis Heel, who had a tough go at it here on Monday, major control issue, seven walks to six strikeouts, still had 16 swinging strikes on 99 pitches. It was five innings, three runs.

He has 14 walks through three starts, still 69% rostered. And Frankie Montas, a rough outing at the Mariners, two innings, five runs allowed, five walks, would you be right dropping either Heel or Montas for Cabrera or Ben Brown? Yeah, I wasn't sure if you were going to mention

Montas and I was going to add him to the list of pitchers I would drop for Edward Cabrera, absolutely. His velocity's been down. He hasn't looked great even when the results have been okay. So, yeah, both Montas and Luis Heel, I think it's fine to drop for Edward Cabrera. If you

have Michael Lorenzen and Edward Cabrera's available, go ahead and drop him as well. Yeah. I don't know that I'd drop either Montas or heel for Brown, mostly because I don't think Brown's long for his job. But yeah, I agree. I drop either one of them for Edward. Yeah, I was just referring to Cabrera. For Brown, I don't think that's a priority. But for Cabrera for sure. All right, Chris, you are up your player of the night. George Kirby, who looked really good after looking really, really bad in his most recent start.

I think the Mariners are listening to the podcast because I was on the broadcast on Monday night. They were talking about how the pitching coach was telling him, it's okay to throw the ball out of the strike zone. When you have two strikes especially, it's actually good to do. And lo and behold, George Kirby did that. He threw the ball in the strike zone. Only 52% of the time in this start, it was 58% in his most recent start. and look at that.

He got 12 swinging strikes. He got six strikeouts and six solid innings. I remain unconvinced that George Kirby is like an elite elite ace. I don't know if he's going to miss enough bats, but he needed to make some changes to his approach, and that's what we saw here. And so I think that's really promising, and I'm excited to see it.

Scott, anything to add on George Kirby? Nope. All right, fair enough. Well, we should mention that. Michael Bush has homered in five straight. He is the honorable mention for tonight. One more. And what do we get, Chris?

That would be a six pack of Bushlight. Oh, there you go. Sorry. I didn't want to steal your joke because technically you said it yesterday. I'll be honest. I was reading something and I wasn't listening. I'm sorry. Well, Michael Bush has been awesome.

Homered in five straight. He will look to break the Cubs record on Tuesday if he can homer in a sixth straight game. Let's quickly promote a few things. as you heard early on and just throughout the season. I like to play some fun baseball calls up at the top as we lead into our player of the night. So if you hear an awesome call during a game

or if there's a great historical call that you would love to hear as part of our oh my goodness gracious player of the night, you could tweet it at me at Roto underscore Frank or email frank. Frank.stampful at paramount.com and a reminder to subscribe to the FBT newsletter. If you have it already,

scan the QR code if you're watching on you. or head to cbsports.com slash newsletters. Click on that FBT logo, punch in your email address, and it's easy as that. Let's take our first break, and when we return, we'll get to the news and notes right after this. Welcome back in news and notes. We had a few players randomly placed on the IEL on Monday.

Saya Suzuki with a right oblique strain, Caber Ruiz with an illness that's retroactive to April 12th. Obviously, sucks for both of them, but especially Sayas Suzuki, who was off. to a nice start. He was batting over 300. He had three homers. Alexander Canario was recalled from AAA and it was Mike Talkman who started in right field here on Monday night. Remember, oh yes, I was going to say everything we said about Max Meyer yesterday. Doesn't matter anymore, but we already spoke about Max Meyer. And Braxton Garrett was supposed to be back this week. We

kind of mentioned that. Turns out that Braxton Garrett has experienced a quote, dead arm period that he's dealing with. That happened after his last bullpen session, not related to his previous shoulder injury, but could prevent his debut this week. Rafael Devers returned to the lineup Monday. He missed four games with a lingering left shoulder issue. He actually wound up having a pretty nasty collision

with Tyler O'Neill on a pop-up to short left field. Tyler O'Neill wound up needing eight stitches above his left eye and will go through concussion protocol. So hopefully he's all right. We'll see maybe he gets a couple of days off, but. Yeah, that was to an awesome story. Yeah. And, yeah, like all three guys, because Raphael, I think was at shortstop, all three guys were in the vicinity. Like, nobody called off. I don't know what happened there. But yeah, that was not great to see.

Not that I want to add insult to injury literally, but the Red Sox defense was a major problem last year, and it already is a major problem again this season. For Amber Valdez played some light catch on Monday, his first time doing so since landing on the IL, Walker Bueller is set for another rehab start Thursday. Dave Roberts said if Bueller is able to reach 80 to 90 pitches, then he could be a candidate to return to the Dodgers rotation by next week. We also found out earlier in the day that the Dodgers are expected to recall Kyle Hurt and promote Landon Nack.

So when Bobby Miller went on the IL, we were speculating yesterday, who's going to come up, who's going to get that spot in the rotation? Scott, these are interesting pitchers, Kyle Hurt and Landon Nack, But if Walker Bueller is ready to go by next week, my guess is those guys won't be around for very long. Yeah, that's my guess too. I'm an especially big fan of Kyle Hurt. He has a killer two pitch, you know, high 90s fastball up in the zone with the rising action. And a change up is the other pitch.

And it had a better than 20% swinging strike rate in the minors, which is elite. And I'd like to see Kyle Hurd get a chance in the rotation, but I don't think he's going to this time. I mean, the Dodgers have only used him as a reliever so far. And yeah, I think Walker Bueller's eventually going to fill that opening eventually. But I mean, sooner than later. For what it's worth, Bueller's velocity has been down a little bit. In his minor league rehab assignment,

the last start he made in front of the stack house cameras was 1.4 miles per hour down on his fastball. So, you know, wouldn't be a surprise if he wasn't quite the ace that he once was because it is his second Tommy John surgery. But I'm still very excited to see Walker Beeler. It sounds like everything that I've heard and read, the success rate after a second Tommy John surgery, basically a coin flip. It's much lower. 50% whether or not you're going to return to the pitcher you once were. So we'll see what happens with Walker Beeler.

Christian Yelich has missed three straight with that back. injury. Pat Murphy said pregame that Yelich is quote about the same. Kodi Senga is throwing from 120 feet and should begin playing catch off a mound this week. Jordan Romano will be activated soon and will immediately regain his closer job. The strong indication is that he'll be back on Tuesday. Yohan Duran will throw another bullpen session Tuesday if all goes well. He could be cleared for live batting practice. Kyle Bradish will begin a rehab assignment at AA on Tuesday and my guess is he'll probably use most, if not all of that 30-day rehab window to get his arm right. Salvador Perez had an MRI that revealed a grade one groin train,

but he hopes to play on Tuesdays. He's like the bionic man. We've seen this a few too many times from Salvador Perez over the last few years in particular where he tries to gut it out playing through an injury that he probably shouldn't. Yeah. And it's kind of wrecked a couple of seasons, so I hope it doesn't do the same here. because he's off to a really good start. I think he's the number two catcher, I think, in Roto right now.

Paul Sewell, will throw a second bullpen session Tuesday. Jake Berger was officially moved to the IL with a left intercastle strain. Otto Lopez was recalled and in the lineup for the Marlins, a career 301 hitter in the minors, but doesn't offer much outside of batting average. Again, that is Otto Lopez. Eloy Jimenez was activated Monday, but wasn't in the lineup. He hasn't played since March 31st due to a left adductor strain.

JD Martinez is expected to resume his minor league rehab assignment later this week. He recently had an injection due to back tightness. Alex Cora said Monday that he plans to begin playing Williare-Abreu every day against right-handed pitchers. He has 9% rostered. Scott, any interest in Williare-A-Brayu in, let's say, five outfieler leagues? Well, I like him in a broad sense. He was successful in a late season call-up for the Red Sox last year. good on base skills, good trajectory on his fly balls for maximizing power.

I know he struck out a ton this spring, and that's part of the reason why I say Don Rafael was included on the Major League roster, I think, as they didn't feel like they could count on. Willi Arbrew to play a huge role. He struck out 12 times in 29 plate appearances. At least that was the case going into Monday's action here. So it's kind of a wait-and-see, I guess is what I'm saying. I think there is potential for Willi or Brayu,

but between spring and the start of the regular season, he hasn't looked quite like himself. Yeah, the thing that I'm interested in seeing is what this looks like when Von Grissom's back, because Raphaelah did play shortstop today. I think for the, well, it wasn't the first time. I think it was his first start at shortstop.

And obviously Grissom was expected to be their everyday second baseman before the Trevor Story injury, but he has experienced a shortstop. So does this put, does Grissom coming back create a crowded outfield? Raphaelah hasn't been good himself with the bat. Or do they play Grissom at second base and keep Raphael at shortstop? I think that's what we prefer to see because I don't think any of the alternative middle

infield options on the Red Sox are particularly interesting. But it could cause some some playing time concerns. What Alex Corr has said so far is that, they're going to mix in a bunch of guys at shortstop. Grissom among them, Raphaella among them. But I don't think they want to commit to either of those guys at shortstop because Raphael's defense is too good in center field and Grissom's defense is too bad at shortstop. But if none of the other options are hitting,

then their hand may be forced at some point. I just don't think it's going to happen anytime soon. Danny Jans was activated by the Blue Jays but was not in the lineup Monday. My guess is that, Tim and Kirk will split catcher duties moving forward. Robert Stevenson was removed from a rehab appearance over the weekend due to right elbow soreness. J.D. Davis was placed on the IL and Estuary Ruiz is back with the A's.

He entered as a pinch hitter and he hit a home run. His first at bat. 106.8 exit velocity, 406 feet. 11 games in the minors this season. 326 batting average. Three home runs. 7 steals. 89.4 average exit velocity.

which doesn't sound great in the grand scheme. It's not. But for him, it's really good. That's the thing with Estrear Aries is like he did hit for a little power. Once he got to double A and triple A. And I assume it was of the Lane Thomas T.J. Friedel variety where he wasn't hitting him more than a few rows deep. But this was the hardest hit fly ball of Estuary's major league career,

106.9 miles an hour, I believe. Fifth hardest ball period for him as a major leaguer. So it was a good sign. He crushed that one. I mean, that was a legit, it was a legit home run. Yeah. And they talked about how his exit velocities were up in spring training too. We don't have a lot of data to look at for that, but that's what they said.

So, you know, we're not counting on them for power anyway. It would be a nice bonus. If it gets them in the lineup more often, obviously we'll take it. But I imagine they wouldn't bring him back up unless they had a role in mind for him. I don't know if it's going to be quite every day. But I would say in five outfielder roto leagues, you should plan on getting Estuary Ruiz back in your lineup. Yeah, the thing for him is just like, hit 270, hit eight home runs,

and it's going to be hard to take you out of the lineup. Like, that's how low the bar has to be. And he's a must-star fantasy player, at least in categories leagues. So we'll take any signs we can get, I think. Yeah, he is, Ruiz is 54% rostered on CBS. He's 51% rostered on Yahoo. And I would say any category leagues, even head-to-categories with three outfielders, probably should be rostered because he's someone that could just win you

the stolen base category every single week. So, yeah, again, that is Estheri Ruiz. The White Sox signed Tommy Fam to a minor league contract. We'll get $3 million if he makes it to the majors by April 25th. He is 3% rostered. Last year, hit 256 with 16 homers, 22 steals, over 129 games. Chris, any interest in Tommy Fan? Sure.

I don't think he's someone you absolutely have to go out and add, and I think it's unlikely he matters much in any head to add points leagues with three outfielders. But, you know, your deeper 15-team rhodo leagues, absolutely go out and add Tommy Fam, yeah. Would you rather speculate on him or, Willie Ara Breu. Tommy Fam's definitely going to play more, right? There seems to be some doubt as to whether he'll be on the Major League roster by April 25th, judging by the terms of the contract.

But I would suspect so. Yeah. And the good thing about him signing with the White Sox is he's not replacing anybody we care about. Correct. Not at all. Nick Sincel was activated from the IL. Trey Lipscomb was optioned back to AAA. The Mariners placed Dominic Canzon on the IEL

with a sprained AC joint in his left shoulder. And while that is not the most fantasy relevant news, as a result, they recalled outfield prospect Jonathan Clase, who was a 21-year-old outfielder with massive speed. Last year, in 129 games, he hit 242 with 20 homers and 79 steals. He is 11% rostered.

I guess this is kind of a running theme here today, Scott, like deeper five outfielder leagues. There are names emerging here between Tommy Fam and Wiliya Arbrew. Jonathan Class A. Any interest here? Massive speed. So he was in the lineup here for the Mariners against the Reds Monday, a right-hander, which, oh, he's a switch-hitter. Okay. I've only seen him bat left-handed, as is often the case with switch-hitters.

So, yeah, we'll see how much he ends up playing. for the Mariners, that'll be a big hurdle. I'm also not totally sold on the bat for Jonathan Class A. He got off to a hot start at high A last year, but at AA where he spent the majority of last season. He hit 222 with a high strikeout rate. So, you know, obviously, AL only, you're rushing to pick them up. Deeper roto leagues, if you need steals, you're intrigued.

But I don't know that Jonathan, Class A is a priority pickup yet. Let's continue on. Just want to bring up a prospect. People have been asking me about it. I saw he got added in my Tout Wars League, which is a 15-team mixed roto league. And that is Joey Loperfeito of the Houston Astros. He was just named the PCL player of the week. He's 24 years old.

He's off to a tremendous start betting 333, 10 homers, two steals, a 1324 OPS. That does come with a 34% strikeout rate. But there is a decent amount of power and speed here. He's played all over the diamond, all three outfield spots, first base, second base. It's got anything here because it seems to be gaining some traction, at least in some deeper leagues and receiving some questions about Joey Loperfito. Yeah, he's one of those players who I would have been more excited about like five years ago when it didn't seem like,

it didn't seem like the threshold for, it didn't seem like the major league jump was as big of a hurdle to clear. I mean, Loperfeito seems to have some power, some speed, some on-based skills, but he strikes out a lot.

And I don't have the exit velocity data in front of me, but I don't recall him impacting the ball especially hard. I'll have to double check that because I could just be completely wrong about that. but I don't even think he's going to get the kind of playing time right away that his average X velocity last year was 87 miles per hour his max was 107.6 he does pull the ball in the air a lot but there's some swing and miss in the game as well so yeah it

it's it's a profile that has worked like I could see Elaine Thomas like outcome. Yeah, it could work, but it's since the end of the juice ball era, it's the kind of profile I've learned to bet against. So, you know, a lot of prospect people will just look at the minor league numbers and say, hey, low perfido, big deal. Look at those home runs. Look at those steals.

I'm a skeptic. If there was a clearer path to regular playing time, maybe I'd feel differently. But to me, this is kind of reminiscent of Ian, not Ian. Kinsler was amazing. It's kind of reminiscent of Justin Foske getting called up. We'll just point out the exit velocity this year at AAA 95.8 miles per hour. The max is 113.9. Whoa. That's a big improvement. That does change

things and he's raised the launch angle. He's hitting a lot more fly balls this season. Again, this is Joey Loper Fido. We're talking about. So we only had 10 home runs in 14 games. If he's if he could play all three field positions. Gosh. I think there's a chance he can get a shot with the Astros.

Yeah, I feel like a total jerk for saying it. That's a lot. That seems transformative. I don't know what's gotten into him. That's a massive change.

And if it sticks, that's impressive. But I also don't think he's someone that even in like a 15 team league, you need to run out. add. It's not like, I mean, he might get called up tomorrow. I don't know, but yeah. Yeah. I don't know. All right. Well, these is, I got to, I got to write him in bat him in the

prospects report this week. I was just going to say, keep an eye out for Scott's prospect report. Maybe, just maybe, Joey Loperfeetal will find his way into that article this week. Let's just continue on with prospects and rookies. And we had some really fun rookie versus rookie action on Monday. Jackson Merrill versus Jackson Trio. Both had pretty big games here. Jackson Merrill, three for five with two RBI. That's back-to-back. Three hit games for him. He is batting 356 early on in the season. One homer, three steals, an 874 OPS. The plate discipline looks great. It's eight walks to 11 strikeouts. He's hitting the ball decently hard so far. The expected numbers look great, according to Stackast. What stands out to me early on, Chris, is the

It's a 0.085 ISO and looking at the batted ball distribution for Jackson Merrill, lots of line drives to center field. And I remember many of our conversations the past couple of years is hitting to those power alleys, you know, the gaps. It hasn't been the best for power the past couple of seasons. So while I love what I've seen from Jackson Merrill, I just kind of wonder if that's his approach. maybe the power upside is kind of limited, which I think is what we were expecting anyway with X and Merrill. Yeah, that shouldn't be surprising. Even like the optimistic projections, I think,

we're hoping for 15 homers and, you know, maybe 15 to 20 stolen bases. And the case for drafting him was less the most likely outcome and more what if he's just one of those guys. And right now, he looks really good, if not necessarily a guy who's an impact fantasy player right away as a 20-year-old, but it's worth in keeping in mind he is 20 and is going to continue to grow and may not be a great fantasy option this season, but he is more than keeping his head above water right now. 314 expected batting average shows that it's not just a fluke. He's hitting the ball pretty hard, pretty consistently. So, I mean, it's not a difference-making fantasy profile yet, but he's not someone that I'm worried about having in my lineup either.

Well, if Jackson Merrill is hitting the ball that hard, couldn't the home runs just start coming? I mean, if he. I think he would have to- He's hitting the ball hard enough to hit home runs. I think he would have to pull it more. He would have to pull them. Yeah. And then that's what he started doing a little more once he got to double A last year.

Yeah. but I guess it's just you know it wouldn't be surprising if it happened if it started happening in May or June like it doesn't have to be next year necessarily sure think with the stola base contributions with the potential for batting average I I it you can't really put Jackson Merrill among your top 15 short stops yet or I guess outfield is the position where he'd be more likely to start him you can't put him among your top 30 outfielders yet but he's not far enough out of that group, you know, I might still give him

preferential treatment for the upside among players outside of that group. And again, it's incredibly impressive the fact that he is, he has this level of plate discipline right away and he's hitting as many line drives as he is. So I didn't want to like downplay the start that he's off to because it's been a great start

for Jackson Merrill. It's also been a great start for Jackson Churio who went two for four with a sock and a shoe, his third home run, his third steel of the season. he had four hard hits in this game. He's betting 259 early on, 749 OPS. The plate discipline is lacking. I think to some extent we were expecting that coming into the season.

Statcast tells us, Scott, Jackson Trio might be a sell high. Now, I don't want to go too crazy with that because he's a rookie prospect with amazing pedigree, and it might just turn out that he's one of these players that can outperform what Stackcast is telling us. But for the sake of transparency, entering Monday, his expected batting average was 179, and his expected slug was 2.95. Do either of those things matter to you when it comes to Jackson Trio? Oh, it's making me nervous. I'm highly invested in Jackson Tchoreo. And, yeah, I mean, the three home runs, three stolen bases, you can't complain about that.

But the home running hit today was hit only 97.2 miles per hour. It bounced over the left field fence, you know, the shallower part of the left field fence. It was not an impressive home run. And you give the overall exit velocity readings there for Jackson Shore, you eight fifth percentile for average exit velocity. And that's curious to me because normally when you get a prospect as hyped as he is at age 17, I mean, people were calling him a top five overall prospect at a very young age. Before he had even really started putting up numbers in the minors, it was like,

this guy is can't miss top of the scales prospect. And so you'd think the one thing you could count on him to do is hit the ball hard. Now, he wasn't at a level of the miners last year where he could get any kind of exit velocity readings. So I had nothing to refer to. But certainly the production was there in the high. was extreme and I thought if Jack Centurio struggled with anything, it would be making consistent enough contact, not the quality of the contact. And it's worth noting, like maybe he's just not squaring up the ball yet.

Like, he may be having trouble making contact. Raw power versus game power. Yeah, you could put it that way. Sure. Like, your timing could be bad and it doesn't necessarily. translate to a whiff, it just translates to a poorly struck baseball. But it's making me nervous. It's making me nervous. And I don't, it was unexpected that this would be the thing I would be nervous about for chore you. Would I trade him for like Tristan

Kossis? Sure, but Tristan Kossis was being drafted ahead of him, right? So I don't even know that that. I don't think I would trade you could pull off. I don't think I would do that in a Categories league though. You would have on draft day. Yeah. I don't know. Like Tristan Kossis got up around like pick 75 80 and I feel higher than choreo based on ADP yes but didn't you have Trio in like the 80 range of your overall rank I never drafted him in the 80 range would you trade him for Cody Bellinger uh yeah I would I think so man Cody belliger's underlying numbers look almost exactly the same as last year so maybe last year was totally phony that was some of the arguments people were making but

I don't know. It's easier for me to just say, yeah, it's low star for Cody Ballinger. Would you trade him for O'Neill Cruz? Chorio for O'Neill Cruz, not with O'Neill Cruz. I think I would, yeah. He's straighting out about 40% of the time right now. It's been rough. Oh, I was thinking Tyler O'Neill.

I had the wrong O'Neill. Yes, I would trade Jackson Chorio for O'Neill Cruz. Would you trade him for Jazz Chisholm? For Nolan Jones. I was going to say Nolan Jones. I would do all of it. These are choices I would have made all along. Right.

But that's what I'm saying. I think that's what you have to aim for. Is a buy low. With churried. Well, I just think it's you have to sell high. You have to get up. I think you have to sell high. Because I don't want to give up on the talent because I don't want to give up on the skill set, even though it hasn't been good so far.

And I think all of that is correct. The fact that the quality of contact is as bad as it is is especially bad seeing as he's striking out 28% of the time. But if I'm going to trade a player with that kind of upside, I'm going to have to take advantage of the fact that the surface level numbers are very, very good and trade him for a player who I think has similar upside. I think Nolan Jones and Jazz Chisholm and all these guys we're talking about have similar upside and are more, have proven they can play at that level at the major league level. That's, I think, the way you have to look at it for him. Yeah. I think we're all in agreement.

Let's take our final break. When we return, I've got a few other waiver wire pitchers. We'll talk about those right after this. We had ourselves a little pitchers duel out in Detroit. Michael Lorenzen in his debut up against Reese Olson. Michael Lorenzen, five shutout innings. Five walks to four strikeouts. Maybe I kind of stretched the definition of pitchers duel here.

But he was all right in his debut at the Tigers. Reese Olson, much more impressive on the other side, up against the Texas Rangers, six and a third innings. One run aloud, one walk, eight strikeouts, 16 swinging strikes on 95 pitches, 10 of those on the change-up, five on the slider, one on the curve. He is 53% rostered.

Chris, how would you rank all four of the waiver wire names we've talked about today? Reese Olson, Lorenzen is only 28% rostered. I don't know. Maybe you just don't really care about adding him. Ben Brown and Edward Cabrera. How do you rank those four? I think it's Cabrera at the top.

clearly. Then I'd go Reese Olson. Then there's a gap. And then I'd probably go Ben Brown ahead of Michael Lorenzen just because I think Michael Lorenzen is pretty replaceable. And Ben Brown maybe isn't. But I think Ben Brown is one pretty replaceable and also likely to be replaced in his own rotation. So, uh, yeah. Realistically, the only two I want to add, if it's not like a desperation situation are Olson and Cabrera. I think I'd actually prefer Reese Olson over Cabrera. The fact Olson did this against the Rangers after getting crushed by the pirates last time,

A is frustrating, but B is reassuring because Rees Olson looked pretty bankable going into that pirate start last time. That's why I had him as the top sleeper pitcher for that week. It really blew up in my face. but he was great down the stretch for the Tigers last year had a in September

Reese Olson had a two I'm sorry a 144 ERA and a big reason why is he started featuring his change up more his slider was a great pitch for him from the beginning like a 40% whiff rate but he started mixing in this change up more in September had the 144 ERA and the one thing the thing that his two good starts this year

I've had in common is high change-up usage. He kind of went away from it and that second start against the pirates and got crushed. So to see him get back to featuring that change-up prominently 29% of the time it was responsible for 10 of his 16 whiffs

and the fact it was against the Rangers lineup, I'm going to try to treat the blip for Olson as a blip because that's, That's what it seems to be with him bouncing back with these results. And I feel pretty good about him. I do think it's a bit of an upside versus floor thing where I feel like Resoulson's, I feel better about starting him in his next start.

But I don't think he has the same upside Cabrera does. Maybe I'm underrating Resolson. I know the changeup and slider are both pretty good pitches for him. But I just, yeah. I can't see a path to a top 30 finish for him. I can see it for Cabrera. I think they both have considerable upside. but I would probably agree that I think Cabreras is probably higher.

But Cabrera's floor is also lower. Yes. I think all the Tigers pitchers, Reese Olson has the third most upside after Terrick Scouble, obviously, and Jack Flaherty. I don't think I'm forgetting anyone there. I think Olson's the third most interesting. I could put him ahead of Flaherty pretty easily. I just think Cabrera has higher upside than both of them.

Okay. Would you guys be a right dropping heel or muscle? Don't toss for Reese Olson? Yes. Mm-hmm. Yep. All right, let's slide over to some waiver wire hitters. What does Jordan Westberg have to do to get Scott White to buy in?

Outside of being traded away from the Orioles, because that's what it might take. Three for four with a double two RBI just keeps hitting. Had four hard hits in this game. 3-0-2 batting average, three homers, 10 runs, 12 RBI, 2 steals, a 920 OPS early on. not striking out pretty much. It's an 18% strikeout rate, 93.1 average exit velocity. He's 64% rostered.

Scott, what does Jordan Westberg have to do? Well, I felt like a fraud because after our podcast yesterday, I realized I wanted to upgrade at second base in the podcast listeners league. That's the 12-te-to-head points league. So on the shallower end of the spectrum. My second baseman was Jorge Polanco,

because I drafted Matt McLean for second base, obviously that's not happening. Jorge Polanco off to a terrible start. I actually had a good game here Monday, but we're getting sidetracked. I picked up Jordan Westberg. I picked up Jordan Westberg and dropped Jorge Polanco, so I'm now starting him in one of my shallower leagues at second base.

So there must be a level of comfort I have with him there. And so I think it's probably, as always, it has to be framed properly, right? I tend to think of prospects who are as highly regarded as Westberg what do they have to do to be successful like what do they have to be majorly successful in fantasy and I think in terms of

well they have to be must start in all formats and I think Westberg is going to struggle to become must start in all formats as a right-handed hitter playing in one of the worst power venues for right-handed hitters, Camden Yards. But I don't have a problem with him being 64% rostered. I think he could be useful, particularly if he's

going to make some kind of contribution in steals, be a double-digit base stealer. If he hits 15 to 20 home runs with 12 to 15 steals, it's going to be a pretty useful player. But I don't see him hitting 30 home runs. Yeah, I can... Top 10 second baseman. I can see him not being a must-start guy. and a 12 team had to head points league because that's a pretty shallow format. The bar is

pretty high. That being said, I do think given the caliber of prospect he was, given like, what does Jordan Westbrook need to do to be a must start player? 93 mile per hour average X velocity, he'd probably do it. Right? Like if he could sustain that, I think it's probably going to work out because as good as Ryan Mountcastle's quality of contact metrics have been, they've never been that good. And so I don't expect Westberg, Westberg to, sustain that level of production. But given that he's currently doing it, given that he has the prospect pedigree,

I do think it's probably like someone in every 12 team points league probably has a player with less upside than Jordan Westberg on their roster. And they should go add him just in case this is what it looks like when he figures it out. Right? Like it's very fitting that on Sunday night, Colton Couser was the Orioles prospect or young prospect. young player that everybody was beating down the door for and dropping $300 and fab and all that because Jordan Westberg's kind of just been lost in the shuffle a little bit

among Orioles prospects for like three years now. But I think he absolutely deserves to be rostered everywhere just in case this is him figuring it out. What about Mitch Hanager who had a nice game here, two for three with his third home run? He's betting 286. He's got 11 RBI and 875. he is 41% rostered and I brought up four outfielders yesterday as Waverbier adds Lars Neupar, Sal Freel, Brenton Doyle, Dalton Varsho. Would you take Metanager over any or all of those names? So I prefer Freelick and what was the first one he said? Newpar. Yeah I prefer

Freelick and Neupar to him but it's probably a close call between Varsho and Hanager who who's my third favorite on that list? I did have Hanager as a sleeper hitter for this week, so we're off to a good start with that call. Obviously, he's not going to provide speed like Varsha will. I suspect he'll provide more home runs. So it kind of depends on what you need there. I guess Varsha may be a safer bet to stay healthy.

So I'll go ahead and put Hanigur slightly behind Varsho if all category needs are equal. But they're in a similar range of that. outfield rankings for me. I think it comes down to category need. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's fair. Two of the most added outfielder's right now,

right around 50% rostered. So similar range to Mitch Hanager, Brandon Marsh and Connor Joe. Would you take Mitch Hanigar? I'd much rather have Mitch Hanigar than either of those guys. It's not even close. Especially Connor Joe. That Connor Joe go.

No, Scott, come on, man. Do we really want to start the week like this? We do. By that Permanakon, Roger. Buy low or heck no. Joe Musgrove turned in his second quality start of the season. Six innings, three runs allowed. More walks than strikeouts.

That's four walks, three Ks in this one. Only six swinging strikes on 94 pitches. I've had some people ask me, what's going on with Joe Musgrove? As far as I could see, the fastball is down one mile per hour compared to last year. The main problems have been walks and hard contact. and both were issues again in this start with the four walks, nine hard hits allowed in this game. I will point out that the first five starts of last season,

Joe Musgrove had a 675 ERA and a 158 whip. He was awesome from that point forward. Chris, buy low or heck no, Joe Musgrove? Yeah, yeah, I think you can buy low on Joe Musgrove. He's got a long enough track record of being a, that's a good, not great pitcher, good pitcher for a lot for relatively long time that I'm not willing to write him off after four bad starts but that being said I guess it's five bad starts now um yeah same as same

length as his bad start to last year but I you know Scott said this on Twitter and I'll just kind of echo that he did miss time at the end of last season with a shoulder injury it did sound like he could have come back if they had had something to play for and they just opted to to play it safe and not have him rush back. So, you know, it didn't seem like it was too serious of an injury, but that lingers in the mind and could explain why even though the velocity is mostly there, he hasn't been quite as sharp. But I tend to just give him the benefit of the doubt that he'll figure it out.

He's not an ace, but if someone views him as an outside the top 40 starting pitcher, then I think you can go out and buy him. He's not far from being an ace. You know, his numbers last year, the reason we keep bringing up the slow start is because a couple months later, he didn't even get a full season to correct his numbers. He only got a couple months

because then the shoulder injury kicked in. And it only took a couple months to get Joe Musk, Groves, ERA, back in the low threes, his whip to back barely over one. He's not an ace, but he's been an underdog his whole career, and he's figured out how to make himself,

that good. And I think it might be a little bit of an Aaronnola thing where if he's missing a little, he tends to get hit harder. But we've seen him write that often enough that I would call Joe, like I just have, I just have an underlying faith in Joe Musgrove. And I'd consider him a bylaw for that reason. We had some rookie pitchers on the mound here on Monday night. And do any of these pitchers matter for fantasy? Nick Nistrini had a successful major league debut up against the Royals, five innings, two runs loud, five strikeouts with 11 swinging strikes on 74 pitches. Darius Vines was solid at the Astros, four and two-thirds innings, one run, four strikeouts. And that one, Spencer Arrogati bounced back with a solid effort against the Braves, four

innings, two runs, five strikeouts with 15 swinging strikes on 87 pitches. That's a pretty damn good mark for him. And Mitchell Parker, be honest, I didn't know who that was before this start, but he made his debut. for the Nationals. He was at the Dodgers. Pretty rough spot to be in. And he pitched well. Five innings, two runs, four strikeouts,

the zero walks. Scott, do any of these names matter? Mitchell Parker, Aragutti, Darius Vines, Nick Nishrini. So I have notes on all of them, but I just don't think we have time to get into it that much.

Probably not. They probably don't matter. Nick Nistrini has the best chance of mattering because the White Sox need all the help they can get. And I think he's the highest end of prospect. of the group two. So I was impressed by him having a good three pitch mix right away.

His carp ball's supposed to be good too and he hardly threw it. He threw like two of them. So he may have held something back, but 11 whiffs on 74 pitches, including three plus on three different pitches. I'm intrigued. Not enough to go pick up Nick Nistrini,

but of these four, I would say he has the best chance of mattering for fantasy. Eight percent rostered is Nick Nistrini. just a name to watch here early on in the season. Some leftovers will start with the pitchers. Part one. Cutter Crawford continues to pitch well, this time up against the

Guardians, five and two-thirds, shutout innings with six strikeouts to zero walks. Aranola had his best start of the season up against the Rockies, seven and a third innings, one run, nine strikeouts, 12 swinging strikes, all of which came on the curveball. Kyle Harrison turned in a quality start at the Marlins. It was six innings, three runs, one walk to two strikeouts

and Zach Eflin had another bounce back this time up against the Angels six and a third shutout innings, five strikeouts to zero walks. Chris, anything to add on Eflin, Harrison, Nola,

and Cutter Crawford. Good to see Nolan, Eflin pitching well. Nola got the Rockies on the road, so you know, don't expect nine strikeouts and seven innings every time out, but good to see because he's struggled even with good matchups at times the last couple seasons.

And the V-Lo was back. He had some cold weather starts early on, but the V-Low was back to normal in this. And the results were back to normal. But the two I want to focus on are Cutter Crawford and Kyle Harrison in sort of opposite directions for me. I don't know where are you guys at on Kyle Henderson. Kyle Harrison. I've been pretty underwhelmed by what he's produced so far. It's so weird that he was like a 14K per 9 guy from the beginning in the miles.

And he gets to the majors. And it just, it looks like he doesn't have anything but a fastball. Yeah, it doesn't get any lifts. Yeah. Yeah, it's a problem.

I'm treating him as pretty fringy. I'd be willing to drop Kyle Harrison for Edward Cabrera. Okay. I thought about dropping that one. And I wasn't sure if I wanted to go that far. So I'm sort of like a 12 teamer. you can sell out harder for upside. It might be harder to do in a 15-teamer,

but I imagine the Brerer is already rostered there anyway. No, I'm in agreement. I've been kind of underwhelmed with Kyle Harrison, and it looked like that slur, breaking pitch, was supposed to be his best secondary, and he's not even throwing it anymore. So it's just a weird start. It's weird because he's so fastball-heavy,

and then you go over to the Red Sox side with Cutter Crawford. Andrew Bailey is the Red Sox pitching coach. He was the Giants pitching coach last season. And I believe the Giants in the Stacast era had the lowest fastball usage of any team last year, of any team during the Stackast era. And now the Red Sox are even lower. And what was interesting by Carter Crawford in this one was he didn't have the feel for his sweeper at all. It didn't seem like.

I think he only threw it nine. times. It had been his most used pitch coming into this start. He had thrown it 35% of the time. That was a relatively new pitch for him. He's really been featuring it. He didn't have it. And it was still a pretty good start because he's got other pitches to fall back on. He's got that cutter with a K, obviously. He threw the forcing fastball, a little more 29% in this one. Didn't get a lot of whiffs. I think if he doesn't have the sweeper, that might be a problem. But the fact that he was able to you know, keep the damage off the board, limit hard contact, limit walks.

I think it's a really good sign on a day when he clearly didn't have his best stuff. Carter Crawford has allowed six hits in 15 and a third innings this year. I'm going to guess that pace will go up. Yeah, that won't remain, but... It has to, yes, but it's... I think it's indicative of something.

Mm-hmm. something good. Yeah. No, I don't know quite how high I want to rank him because I start to move him up into like the 60 to 50 range and I start to bump up against where I have, you say Kikuchi and Jack Flaherty. And I don't know if I like him more than those guys,

but I think there's a lot to like about Cutter Crawford so far. I think that's a good range though, Chris. I think he's clearly behind the early season breakout names that we've talked a lot about, the Detmer's, the Jared Jones, the Garry Crochet types, but I think the SP 50-60 range is probably the right spot for Cutter Croffer right now. Pitching standouts part two. Chris Bassett has turned in back-to-back quality starts.

This one up against the Yankees, six and a third, one run allowed, five strikeouts. Seth Lugo is now four-for-four in quality starts. He was at the White Sox where he threw seven shutout innings with four strikeouts. Sunny Gray looked great at the Oakland A's, six shutout with six strikeouts to zero-one. walks. He only needed 72 pitches to get through six innings. So, very efficient there for Sunny Gray. And Tyler Glassnow, what? Come on, man. Like, last time out, 14 strikeouts. This time, six earned runs allowed over five innings. To the Nats.

Good Nats. Come on, man. Ah, that's baseball. Anything to add here, Scotty? Glass Now, Sunny Gray, Lugo, and Bassett. That's baseball, Susan. Pretty soon people aren't going to understand that reference. anything, do I have anything interesting to say about any of these guys? I don't, I don't think so. Do you have anything interesting to say, Chris? Because I don't.

It's, I don't want to say it's an uninteresting group. I think there are a couple of uninteresting but pretty good pitchers here. Like, yeah, I think Tyler Glassout baseball is a funny sport. And these things happen sometimes. Lugo doesn't belong. in this group is my takeaway. Like he did yesterday. His results were good,

but I think he's in that 60-ish, 70-ish range he's fine to have on your roster. If you see a pitch, if you see Edward Cabrera on your wire, totally fine dropping Seth Lugo for Edward Cabrera. I think he's that kind of pitcher. And his whiff rate has been way down this year. I know he's had success,

so I've kind of just let it go, but I could see Seth Lugo becoming that becoming a problem for Seth Lugo eventually. I did want to mention just with Chris Bassett, his velocity was up in the start. Sinker Velo was up 1.2 miles per hour. Not that Bassett is ever a big Velo guy, but I don't know.

If he's averaging 93 in his starts, then maybe he could be a little bit better than he has been. But yeah, just something to watch with him. Some hitting leftovers. Oh, here's a good, here's an interesting thing. Chris Bassett is throwing eight pitches. Yes. Yeah, eight different pitches between 4% and 31% use.

He's just throwing the whole kitchen. The whole kitchen. Hitting leftovers, Cedric Mullins is quietly off to a nice start, one for three with his fourth home run. He added three RBI. I also had an amazing diving catch in center field. Mike Trout, stay hot, two for five with his seventh home run. Did you see this home run?

He just golfed it. It might have been my favorite home run of the season, because it wasn't even like the pitcher didn't even look back. It was like as soon as it left his hand, he knew it was gone. He didn't even need to see the swing. I don't think I've ever seen a pitcher not react to a home run the way that like it was, it's incredible. The no cell was amazing. Taylor Ward also stay hot, man.

I mean, I don't want to say the angels will have a good lineup, but I mean, their top, I guess three or four could be okay. Taylor Ward, two for five with his sixth home run. He is betting three, 13 with 19. RBI early on. And Vinnie P. Baby. Vinnie passed Quantino, two for three with his third home run

in six games since Chris and I put Vinny P on the Worryometer. 10 hits, three homers, 10 RBI. You're welcome. Let's wrap up with some...

And wait, wait, the most encouraging thing about this performance Monday for Vinny P, the two hardest hit balls of the game, both over 108 miles per hour.

I've never felt more confident that Vinnie P is back. Very nice. Let's wrap up with some bullpen breakdowns. And for the Rangers, Jose LeClerc entered in the sixth with a one-run lead. He pitched two scoreless innings with two strikeouts. David Robertson pitched a clean eighth,

and it was Kirby Yates who pitched a clean ninth for his first save. He is 21% rostered. I have a tough time figuring out how this is going to play out, because if Kirby Yates pitches well in the role, I don't know that we could assume that LeClerc is just going to get this job back. So that's kind of where I'm at right now. I mean, I'm going to have a bullpen report out on Tuesday

and I am putting Jose LeClerc first in the pecking order for rostering and fantasy over Kirby 8s. But it's a narrow margin at this point. The only reason I'm doing it is because from everything I've seen, Bochie is into, it's just a temporary move for LeClerc to get him right. And he's done well. He had two scoreless innings in this game since the move.

So I'm expecting him to switch back to LeClerc sooner than later, but it wouldn't surprise me if he doesn't because is LeClerc, LeClerc really that much better than Kirby Yates? I don't think so. I think it would have to happen soon for the sake of LeClerc, because the further we get into the Kirby Yates experience, if he converts, I don't know, let's just say five saves in a row. Why would they go away from it, right?

So it doesn't make sense. For the Orioles, Craig Kimberl struck out two for his fourth save. For the Phillies, Jose Alvarado entered in, you guessed it. The eighth inning with a runner-on first and a one-run lead. He got Charlie Blackman to ground into a double play. Jeff Hoffman got the ninth inning with the game tied. He gave up a double and a walk, but got out of it. The Phillies would win that game in extras.

For the Giants, Camillo DeVal recorded the final. four outs for his second save for the Blue Jays. Two games in a row that Chad Green pitched in the eighth with Yemi Garcia in the ninth. And Garcia picked up his second save. It sounds like Jordan Romano could be back as soon as Tuesday. For the Mets, Edwin Diaz picked up his fourth save for the Royals. James MacArthur struck out two for his third save. Chris, who would you rather have MacArthur or Kirby Yates?

MacArthur. I think so. Because he has less competition, seemingly. For the Padres, Robert Suarez entered with two outs and two runners on in the ninth with a four-run lead. He gave up a single, but then got self-reliq to fly out for his sixth save, which is tied for the league lead. For the Astros, just kind of a weird using your closer when you're down in the game, and Josh Hader just imploded. He allowed four earned runs. He only on a walk and four hits.

I think he only recorded one or two outs. His ERA is very high, but I don't really see anything to be worried about. So remember in 2021 when we had some concerns about Josh Hader, it was mostly non-save situations. So I think it's probably just weird stuff like that, and he'll be fine moving forward. For the Cardinals, Ryan Helsie struck out two for his sixth save. That is tied for the league lead as well.

For the D-backs, Kevin Ginkle got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He gave up a run, so he took the blown save there. Eventually, the Cubs would win in extras. and for the Nationals, Kyle Finnegan closed out the Dodgers for the save in that game. To stream or not to stream on Tuesday. And yes, I excluded some of the options because they are like Kukuchi and whoever else we were excited about.

They're just rostered in too many leagues now. Rangers, Suarez, I think it was. Good. Nah. Well, we still... We didn't even feel that strongly about Kikuchi this week. John Gray Against Detroit

Garrett Whitlock versus Cleveland And like I know Wade Wade Miley has not had a good start There we go Um Wade Miley has not had a good start right

His ERA super high from what I remember No he's made one start and it was fine It was like four and he has like a 330 ERA over the last three seasons It's nobody cares but he's usually pretty good. So I think Wade Miley's a fine streamer. I might take Lance Land against Oakland over Wade Miley, but...

Sure, that's fine. Those two are entertainable. I'd rather not take either. You are why nobody cares. On Wednesday, I think Luis Severino up against the pirates, let's say... I'm going to be there, so hopefully it's good. Are we going to this game together, Chris? Is that happening? Oh, are you going?

I don't know. I was thinking about going. I'll see you there. But I think it's supposed to rain now on Wednesday. Oh, yeah, I did see that. So I don't, I don't know. We'll see. But Severino against the Pirates, I think is okay. Matt's at the A's, Black Murder against the Cardinals.

Keenwin against the Marlins, I think is probably fine. Miami's really bad. They're missing Josh Berger. And Keenwin did some interesting things in his last start. His splitter was really good. So even Andrew. I take Tyler Wells over all these guys your name in. Welles has been bad, man.

And actually, I think the Wednesday streamers are okay. Andrew Abbott at Seattle, I could see being good. That's a very good park. Yeah. I was unimpressed by his most recent start despite good results, but I could see that being okay. And Zach Lutel against the Angels, I think can be pretty good. Who are the three favorites?

Scott, who are your three? Severino, Tyler Wells, and at Andrew Abbott. One of these weeks, I do want to do team name Tuesday. So if you have fun, creative team names, send them in, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. We'll get to it on a future episode, but here we are. We're running along. It's early in the season.

There's lots to talk about. 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.