Fantasy Baseball Today - Edwin Diaz Replacements & Fill in the Blank! (4/21 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 21, 2026

Edwin Diaz will have loose bodies removed from his elbow and won't be back until the second half (2:23). ... Dalton Rushing just keeps hitting homers (12:09)! ... Isaac Paredes is on the board (19:04). ... News (23:25): Mick Abel went on the IL with elbow inflammation. ... Kyle Bradish struggled again (32:25). ... Justin Wrobleski did the thing again (38:30). ... Jac Caglianone is on the board (48:44). ... Let's do fill in the blank, rankings edition (54:30)! ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:06:32). Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow our FBT team on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@FBTPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CPTowers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CBSScottWhite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@Roto_Frank⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join our Facebook group at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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. And first pitch, watching. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. If you have a closer who is healthy and good, hold that pitcher very close to your heart.

Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, April 21st. I am Frank Stamphle joined by Chris Towers. Today on the show, we finally figured out what is going on with Edwin Diaz. We'll do a little fill in the blank and the most dropped players from the weekend.

But before we get into the players of the night, let's just start with Edwin Diaz, Chris, because this is massive news. We learned that he will have surgery this week to remove loose bodies from his right elbow and will be sidelined until the second half of the

season. In most drafts, the first or second closer off the board, if you drafted Edwin Diaz over Mason Miller, I am so sorry. That's rough. That's not great. I have to imagine there's that, you know, it was a coin flip for most people, so that is not looking great so far. Trying to figure out who will get the save opportunities in his absence. There were three names mentioned, and that included Alex Vesia, Tanner Scott, and Blake Trinan. Vesia does have the last two saves for the Dodgers. He is 31% rostered. Tanner Scott is 28% rostered.

I think they'll probably mix and match here, Chris, but my lean is, I think, let's say Tanner Scott gets 50% of the save opportunities. Vesia gets like 30, and then the rest of. get 20%. That's the way that I'm leaning right now, but there's no way of actually knowing. That is just a guess on my part. Yeah, I think Tanner Scott is probably the best pitcher in the bullpen.

He's certainly now the most expensive pitcher in the bullpen. And you just look at the usage. And yes, Vesia did get those two saves. One was a single out save and one was a more traditional save. I don't know. when you look at the usage for both of them with Vesia it's been since the start of April we'll just look at the start of April for both because I think it's eight appearance or seven appearances for Vesia 8 for Scott Vesia it's sixth inning seventh seventh

seventh ninth ninth ninth seventh fifth and I know the one one of those saves I have no idea if this played a part into it but I know one of those saves was like a health care workers appreciation night and a bunch of the people who worked in the NICU when Alex Vesia's daughter was there. I think it was his daughter last year. We're there. It was a really incredible moment. If you were watching the game, they were cheering super hard when he got the save. Maybe that played into their usage, giving him a little high profile moment there with them.

Or it was just he's a really good pitcher and they like him. But either way, it's been a lot of seventh and sixth innings there for Alex Vessia. Tanner Scott, 8th, 7th, 8th, 8th, 9th, 8th, 8th. That sounds like Tanner Scott's the next guy up. It doesn't always work out that way. But you also have to remember, Tanner Scott got a $72 million contract last year. They signed him to be their closer last season, and it didn't go well.

And maybe they've just lost faith in him. But this usage, eighth inning, high leverage all the time. suggest to me they still have a lot of faith with Tanner Scott. He's pitching better this season. He doesn't have a walk yet. That will change, of course. I think it's going to be Tanner Scott. And I would think it's more close to 60% of the saves moving forward.

It won't be 90. It won't be like Edwin Diaz. I don't think Tanner Scott is just the Edwin Diaz replacement. But I do expect Tanner Scott to be the closer here. And if you have Diaz on your team and you don't have an IL spot to play with, he's a drop. I think you got to drop him. I know it. And you know, in those NFBC leagues, if you're playing there, you know, getting a really good closer is super valuable.

But I just like, you got six or seven bench spots. Five in some leagues that I play in. I just don't see how you can hang on to him unless you have really unlimited I L spots. because, look, removing loose bodies from the elbow is a relatively straightforward procedure. I'm not a surgeon, but that sounds about as simple as it can be when you're talking about the elbow. Unless they open them up and find more damage there, which happens occasionally, I think you can hope that Edwin Diaz will be back by late July, early August, and give you two awesome months. You know, it is nice to know that there was an explanation.

for why he was so bad. And if he's just himself, August and September, you might get, you know, 15 saves. And I don't know, 30 strikeouts out of him, 35 strikeouts out of him? That could be super valuable, but there's also a chance

to get nothing out of him the rest of the way. Some other replacements that are 50% rostered or less. We have Brian Baker, Joel Kuhnall, who actually just picked up another save here on Monday night. Brad Keller with the Phillies. Caleb Thielbar with the Cubs,

Victor Vodnick, and then the Astros guys, Aniel de Los Santos and Brian King. Eileen Santos, but I know Scott mentioned Brian King yesterday. It's probably just a mix and match until Josh Hader is back. Any of those names stand out to you above the rest?

Baker. I mean, it really seems like he is the guy for the raise, and we just got the setback for Edwin Nuseda and Griffin Jackson has not been great. so far this season. So I would prioritize him certainly over Joe Kunal, who I just don't think is a great pitcher

and Sacramento. Do you see they actually wore jerseys that said Sacramento the other day? Yeah, there was a rumor, or a report this offseason that they were going to do that. They should. I think this like, we're not really,

we're not really the Sacramento A's. You're the Sacramento A's. Okay, you made that decision. I kind of want to get one of the jerseys just because I like having weird jerseys. That Sacramento green and yellow jersey is going to hit hard at whatever Cochella looks like in 25 years, for sure. Back to the point of this podcast, though.

Brad Keller would be probably second up for me. I think what he did out of the bullpen last year after transitioning there was very impressive. I think he's, you know, the Phillies gave him. They gave him decent money, right? I think it was three for 30. Yeah. And, you know, Jose Alvarados, there has been a very good closer in the past,

but they've always been a little hesitant to fully trust him there. So Orion Kirkring is good, but not elite. So I think it's going to be Brad Keller for the Phillies with Yon Duran. And it might be six weeks with Yon Dron. You know, that was what it was last time he heard is oblique. So I think Keller is the clear number two there. And then probably Caleb Thielbar. don't think the Cubs are going to take Ben Brown out of that multi-inning role. I think having that

flexibility is super valuable. So that is how I would prioritize those guys. Baker, Keller, Thielbar. And then I think a drop-off, I might prioritize Tanner Scott over all of them, though. That was my next question is where do the Dodgers relievers kind of fit into this group? Would you take them ahead of Brian Baker? I think so. Because with the raise, it's like, yeah, Brian Baker's got, what, saves. He also has two blown saves. Yeah, and it could be Griffin Jacks next time out or Garrett Clevenger. Like it's just you never know with the raise. Yeah, they have used Baker a few times in the eighth inning in high leverage spots, but it feels like he is their highest leverage reliever for now with Tampa Bay. And he's looked mostly good, Brian Baker. Yeah, I think I would,

I think I would probably put Tanner Scott at the top of that list now. And then probably Baker and Keller and then maybe like Vesia fits in somewhere in there. One thing I'll mention with the Cubs, which I didn't bring up yesterday, Phil Meiton and Hunter Harvey are on the IL, but it sounds like they could be back soon. So those are both right-hand of relievers, so there is a chance they could factor into the mix as well. But yeah, I think we're both in agreement, leaning that Tanner Scott is the guy, but we'll find out over the next couple weeks.

And you know what? Dave Roberts in previous years, he kind of thrived on having this kind of bullpen by committee. I think it's something that he likes to do. And it wouldn't surprise me if he does that again. It is in Edwin Diaz's absence. I understand the Dodgers have effectively unlimited resources and so it doesn't matter if they spend inefficiently. It is weird and a little bit funny that they've done the most inefficient thing you can do as an organization, spend a huge amount of money on a reliever two off seasons in a row.

I think Tanner Scott, that was like the, it was like a top 10 reliever contract. of all time. Top, I think top three. And Diaz was the biggest in AIV ever, I think. I think Tanner Scott got a bigger overall deal than Edwin T. I think the overall money, but the AV was bigger. And it blew up immediately in their faces. That's kind of funny.

It's crazy. Turns out you can't just like, even a really smart team with unlimited resources can't do everything right. Yeah. Again, the big news, Edwin Diaz having surgery this week to remove loose bodies from his right elbow. If you play in a league with no IL spots, my guess is you probably have to drop him. If you have, if you're playing a league with limited IL spots, you probably have some tough decisions to make there with Edwin Diaz. Let's get into the players of the night.

Let's stick with the Dodgers here, Chris. My play other night is Dalton rushing. He just keeps on hitting home runs. Yesterday we told people, he can't just keep doing this. Well, he did for at least one more day, two for five with a double-donged three RBI on Monday night in course field. He started at first base against a lefty, but Freddie Freeman is on the paternity list. So that's how he'll be back, I believe, tomorrow. Dalton rushing was able to get into the lineup here. And look, he's been amazing so far. He has seven home runs and a 1760 OPS in eight games played so far entering Monday, 98.8 average exit velocity, 25% percent. barrel rate, 50%

pulled air rate. So Dalton Rushing understands the assignment when he gets playing time. We were talking beforehand, Chris, it's still hard to make the math work here with Dalton Rushing as awesome as he has been. I do think that

he has earned more opportunities and the Dodgers should find ways to get his bat in the lineup. The question is how? He has played games at first base and left field in the minor leagues. The Dodgers have yet to ever give him an inning in the outfield at the major league level. And look, I think they don't have a third catcher on the roster.

I think they could stand to give Teoska Hernandez a day off here and there. Give Freddie Freeman a day off here and there. They are an older team and they care more about the postseason than anything else. So they could do that. They can rest Otani as a hitter when he's pitching. They did that last week to get Dalton Rushing's bat in the lineup. So if they get creative and they give Dalton Rushing, let's just say, two to three starts per week.

I think that is worth being rostered in a two-catcher league. But in a one-catcher league or anything like shallower than a 12-team two-catcher league, I just don't really see how he's gonna play enough. No, not in any one-catcher league. Like you just, you look at the top,

I mean, even the top like 15 at catcher. Okay, Gabriel Moreno and Adley Rushman are on the IL. After that, it does get, you know, pretty dicey, although Dylan Dingler is right there, I think, in the top 15. I still would rather have Dingler more than rushing. Yeah, and it's not a question of talent for Dalton rushing. This is a 933 career OPS guy in the minor leagues.

I think Dalton rushing might be a top 12 catcher if he was playing as much as Will Smith. Kyle Teal's going to be back from the IL soon. I forgot about that. Liam Hicks just keeps on heading. It was two more hits on Monday night. It would be like Donne rushing versus Gary Sanchez is your number two catcher. Santa's is going to play more for the next month. Yeah, at least for the next like two or three weeks or however long Andrew Vaughn's out.

Gary Sanchez is going to play more. Ryan Jeffers is off to a really nice start. It's just really hard. Sean Murphy's going to be back soon and presumably we'll play a decent amount. It's just really hard to get there unless you're playing. Even four times a week probably isn't enough given the strength of the catcher position. So it's just, and I don't know how you get him to four times a week. What are you going to, how often can you realistically justify sitting Shohei Otani?

Teoska Hernandez has an 800 OPS this season. He's been fine. Freddie Freeman has shown signs of aging, but he's a first battle hall famer who still had like an 850 OPS last season. I don't think Dalton rushing is a better player than any of those guys. And so, yeah, give those guys a day off, but it's just really hard to make the math work unless, like, if the Dodgers, I'm looking up their, their AAA roster right now, looks like they've got like Zebby Zavala and Eliezer Alfonso at catcher at AAA. If they call one of those guys up, okay, then we can start talking about they're going to start playing Dalton rushing in the outfield. But as long as they're only carrying two catchers, it is really tough to play Will Smith at catcher and Dalton rushing at left field. You know, the teams don't like to do that very often when they only have two catchers on the roster.

So it's just, it's really tough to make it work. I hope they find a way. I would love to see a report that Dalton Rushing is taking grounders at second because that is the most obvious spot in the lineup for him. I guess right field they started Alex call today. I just, but I also don't think. And they had that was with Kyle Tucker out of the lineup. Yeah. It's not going to happen often either.

I just don't think you can play to Ask Hernandez and Dalton rushing in the outfield at the same time. Or even really Dalton rushing Kyle Tucker in the outfield at the same time. It's just, it's really hard to make it work, which is frustrating because I think Dalton rushing is if he was getting Drake Baldwin's playing, time he might be as good as Drake Baldwin. I really think he's that talented of a player. It was a better hitter in the minor. So it's all very frustrating. I don't know because it's also there are three different spots where someone gets hurt, Dalton rushing can be an everyday player and be a huge impact. If you tell me that you want to roster him on your bench just

just in case, just in case an injury happens or almost like a handcuff situation if you have will Smith on your team or Teoska Hernandez or Freddie, Freeman, right? If one of those guys gets hurt, then I think Dalton rushing gets more playing time. But then you look at all your rosters and how many leagues do you actually have the the luxury of doing that? Right. It's tough. With all the relief pitchers you're trying to cycle through right now to get saves because all our closers stink and, you know, we're still losing pitchers all the time and you got to take a flyer on any pitcher who shows any signs of life. It's just, it's really hard to use a player that frankly is not likely to be

very useful in the short term. And it's frustrating. Yeah. The one thing that I would bring up, and again, I understand how tough it is because in a 12-teen categories league with daily lineups, the benches are usually pretty shallow. But if you told me in a league like that, that you wanted to have rushing on your bench and you pay attention to lineups every day and, hey, whenever he's in there, I could just play him at catcher or as my utility bat. Sure, if you're on top of it and you want to do that, like, yeah, you get exposure to the best lineup in baseball. You can make that work.

The talent is a young player, yeah. But that's if you have a bench spot that you can afford to just mostly keep Dalton rushing on the bench for and get him in there whenever he's playing. So he's off to a tremendous start. It's nothing against his talent. It's hard to make the math work here for Dalton rushing. All right, Chris, over to you for your player than it. Yeah, Eastside Pradesh is someone who has been,

starting to get dropped and it makes sense. He didn't have any home runs. And during the day, he was hitting around 200. He really wasn't providing anything. I think Monday was a reminder of what Esoc Paredes can do and is likely to do moving forward. He hit two home runs today. Yeah, you look at the underlying quality of contact data. It all stinks. Well, that's always been the case with Esoc Paredes. He is still pulling the ball. He is still making a lot of contact. The strikeout rate is up from last season, 21.6% to 17.4%. When you're talking about

79 plate appearances, that's literally three strikeouts difference. I don't think there's any difference in Isak Paredes today than there was last year. And last year we saw, he was on a 30-homer pace with the Astros. So he needs two more appearances at first base

to gain first-base eligibility. He needs two more appearances at second base to gain second-base eligibility. That should happen at some point. and that's just going to make him even more valuable. He's a great points league option. He's a good roto player. I think Isok Parada should still be rostered 100% of the time

despite the slow start. I think it's just a slow start. And he has been playing too. He's started 12 of the past 13 games for the Astros here. Again, this is Esok Paratus that we're talking about. And he has been dropped a little bit. He's down to 75% rostered. So that could be in some of those shallower head to head points leagues.

and that's his best format because typically it's a good eye at the plate, good plate discipline, and obviously hitting in the middle of one of the best lineups in baseball so far with the Houston Astros. Both of these home runs came on the road too. How about that, Chris? So it's not like he was just taking advantage of the Crawford boxes or anything. He did it in Cleveland. So yeah, nice game there for Esoc Paredes and a reminder of what he can do when he gets locked in. Reminder, before we hit our first break, sign up for the FBT newsletter.

If you haven't already, if you're watching on YouTube, scan that. that QR code that will bring you right to the website where you can sign up for free, CBSports.com slash newsletters, and you will get one delivered to your inbox every weekday of the season. Well, as long as Chris is here, of course, and healthy. But yes, all of Chris's work will be delivered to your inbox for free. Let's take that break, and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in, Fantasy Baseball today. Let's hit the news and notes.

Out of nowhere. Mick Abel placed on the I.L. Monday morning. with right elbow inflammation. Reports are that it's not overly serious, but it's an elbow injury for a pitcher. And one that we were pretty excited about after his last two starts. So pretty terrible timing here.

The athletic reported that left-handed pitching prospect Connor Prelip will join the Twins, but only as a taxi squad participant. So not even sure that he will be in the rotation in his place. Yeah, that's weird because there's also Peyton Tolly is kind of on the pack the taxi squad for the Red Sox right now and it's just they they call them up they're on the roster or they're with the team they have a locker but they're not on the

roster I was actually watching Trevor May's YouTube series just check it out he's great he did a whole thing explaining a lot of this stuff that I was watching the other day and I think prelip's pretty interesting He, let me make sure I find it, but he was, he has a very good slider, and I think he introduced a curveball to his arsenal this season. He's at AAA, was starting, has put up decent strikeout numbers. I think he's a moderately interesting option. Obviously, McAable would be more interesting, and it's terrible to see him dealing with an injury because he's an interesting young pitcher.

And I saw Twinsdaily.com, pitchers who go on the I.L with elbow. inflammation during March, April, or May missed 72 days on average. Oh, geez. That's, that doesn't, the problem is inflammation is nothing. And that it tells it, diagnostically, inflammation is not a diagnosis. It is a symptom of something else. And it's just a question of, is that a symptom of ligament damage? Or is that just inflammation?

Just something's irritated. It's impossible to know. it sounds from the early reports that it's the latter, and it's not that serious, and I don't think it's likely to be the minimum, but I would still like to hold on to McAbel, but this is a talented but kind of fringy pitcher right now. We've seen one great start, one pretty good one,

two pretty bad ones. I'm hoping to hang on to him, but, you know, if you don't have the IL spots to play with, I think you might have to make a tough decision on McAble this week. So hopefully he's cleared to start. throwing soon, but anytime you're dealing with an elbow with a pitcher who throws 97, it's scary. And just going back to Connor Prelip for a second, he is 4% rostered on CBS and in 15 and

a third innings at AAA this season, 230, ERA 12.1-21 whip, 12.6K per 9, but also 4.6 walks per 9. So in deeper leagues, just a name to watch could get an opportunity in the rotation. That is Connor Preelip. Sunny Gray left his start Monday with a right hamstring injury. and is expected to go on the IL. I believe he actually already did. And everybody has been speculating on Peyton Toley,

but they have actually called up a different pitcher so far. His name is Tyler Salmon Yego. And I don't know if... He's been used exclusively as a reliever. He was already on the big league roster at one point and was used, I think, three times in relief. He was pitching in relief at AAA. So I don't know if Payne

Talley's going to get the call, but I don't think Tyler Samaniego is likely to be in the rotation. I'm leaning towards thinking Peyton Tully is going to get the call, though. Yeah. My thought is that they just need bullpen help until the next time that they need a fifth starter, and whenever that is, then maybe they can go to Peyton Tully. But it's not certain that Peyton Tully is getting the call right now. But obviously, Tully is a huge prospect, and he's off to a really good start in the Miners, and he's 39% rostered, so widely available.

So with Peyton Toley, I mentioned earlier, he was on like the taxi squad. I don't know if he's actually with the team. I know he got scratched from his start on Sunday at AAA. And the explanation I saw there was the Red Sox thought that they might have a rain out on Sunday and need him for a double header either Monday or Tuesday. So he's ready. and now, you know, he was supposed to start Sunday. Gray goes on the IL Monday.

You know, does that line up to get him in the rotation? I hope so, and I think he will get the chance. And Payton Tolly is an extremely exciting prospect. He wasn't great when he got the chance last year, but he has maybe the best fastball in the minor leagues. He is a lefty who throws like 97 with elite movement and shape and everything. weird looking for. And the Red Sox have done a really good job of finishing off some other pitchers and expanding their arsenals. I know he was someone that I think was toying with a cutter

this spring, was throwing a sinker as well. I just think it's a bet on a super talented pitcher in an organization that generally has a good reputation for developing pitchers. So Peyton Tolly, someone, if I lost McAble, I think Peyton Tolly, if I'm not desperate for a starter right now, I think he has similar, if not more, upside to what we were hoping for from Mick Abel. So the pitchers we keep talking about, Abel was one of them, but like Spencer Arrogetti, Reed Detmer's, who had okay starts on Monday, not great. Would you drop either of those to pick up Peyton Tolian and speculate there? I think so. I think at least in shallower leagues.

And I'd be more inclined to do it with Detmer's than Arrogetti, just because I think Detmer's we've seen more of and kind of a little more of a known commodity. I still have some hope that those guys can be pretty good, but it's neither is a guarantee. I think Payton Tolly might be more talented than both for sure. Yeah, I think I would stick with Arrogati and Detmer's, but if you look at any of the other most added starting pitchers on CBS right now,

Landon Rube, Bryce Elder, Rhett Louder, Carmen Maginski, Jack Kohanowitz, Dean Kramer, Michael McGreevy, Cater or Montero, I would take totally over any of those easily. Those are all two start and drop guys for the most part. So I think that's super easy to do. Detmer's, yeah, I hadn't seen his schedule. I don't know if it matters that much.

Yeah. Detmer's feels like not to the same extent as someone like Gavin Williams, but I feel like if Detmer's has it going, he's pretty nasty, right? Yeah. We saw what he did against the Yennings. Yankees last week and then we saw what the Yankees offense did this weekend, right? There's still a really good offense and Detmer's completely shut them down. So I think when he's on, he does have some potential there.

And I know we've been dup by Detmer's over and over again, but he's a little bit of a different pitcher this year throwing that change up and change up wasn't great here on Monday. Perhaps that's why he himself wasn't so great. Brendan Donovan was placed on the aisle with a left groin strain. The Mariners selected Will Wilson from AAA. They did not call up Colts Emerson because apparently he is dealing with. with a wrist injury. So perhaps they would have if he was completely healthy

and hitting well at AAA. I believe he's off to a bit of a slow start. But yes, Brendan Donovan does go on the IL. I'm not sure that we could take much more, Chris. But Ronald Acuna left Monday after getting hit by a pitch on his hand. X-rays did come back negative, thankfully. Mark Bowman reported that there are no plans for an MRI.

Acuna is day-to-day. He even said that there's a chance that Acuna could play and be in the lineup on Tuesday. So something to watch there with Ronald Acuna. Muki Betts resumed swinging a bat over the weekend. He is on the aisle with a right oblique strain. Brent Rooker has begun a hitting progression.

He is also on the IL with a right oblique strain. Jeremy Pena did some running on Monday. He is on the IL with a grade one right hamstring strain. Tatsuya I threw a bullpen Monday, his first time throwing off a mound since going on the aisle with right arm fatigue.

Jackson Holiday will continue his rehab assignment at AAA on Tuesday. It was previously paused. due to mild wrist soreness. Ryan Pepio's injured right hip apparently felt unstable while he played catch on Monday. So another bad report,

potential setback for Pepio who went on the 60-day IL last week, so not great for him. You mentioned this earlier, but Edwin Ussato will be shut down for two to three weeks after being diagnosed with another right shoulder strain. Grayson Rodriguez is through a live batting practice on Monday,

his first time facing hitters since going on the IL. And Jonathan India was placed on the aisle with a left shoulder sublixation. Chris, people are not happy with Kyle Braddish. And I get it. It was another lackluster start here on Monday night. He was at the Royals, 5 and a third innings, 10 hits allowed, one run, three walks, seven strikeouts, did have 15 whiffs on 104 pitches.

And the walks have been a problem. It's three walks in 405 starts so far. He is at 4.7 walks. per nine on the season. One thing I'll point out, his average exit velocity against was 83.8 in the start. He had three hits against him that had an XBA below 200. So I think there's been a little bit of bad luck. Some of it is hard to him.

I think there's been a lot of bad luck. The walks are on him. Like the command has not been there to start the season. He also has a 417 Bavip so far and his career is 293. So I get why people are frustrated, Chris, but I, I, I, still think better days are coming for Kyle Bradish. Look, the thing with Kyle Bradish is we have seen between 2023, 2024, and 2025, 240 innings from him, over 44 starts.

Now, yeah, injury in between there, he only made eight starts in 2024, six in 2025, but 44 starts, 240 innings. At no point was he ever anything less than a must-start pitcher across those 240 innings. At times, he was a downright ace pitcher. I just don't think there's any reason to believe Kyle Bradish is suddenly a bad pitcher. I think this is two things can be true. He is not pitching especially well right now.

And there's a lot of bad luck at play. 417 Babbip, like you mentioned. 563 Babit today. That's just not real. That's not a thing that actually happens for, any extended stretch of time. I believe it was nine, nine singles in this. Yeah, a 417 BABIP is not a thing that happens for any extended stretch of time.

So I have every reason to believe that Kyle Braddish will continue to be a must-start pitcher moving forward. If you want to push back and say, hey, you guys were telling us this was a top 15 starting pitcher this season and he's not. Fair. Like that, that might be reasonable. You know, the FIP is 349 right now. the XERA is actually still excellent.

Do with that what you will, but that takes into account quality of contact. But I have no reason to believe Cobrattis will be anything less than a must-start pitcher moving forward. Maybe that's, he's the 25th best pitcher in baseball instead of the 15th. Okay. Like if that's your contention, cool. I, that seems like a reasonable argument, even though I would still rank him higher than 25th. But if you're talking about dropping Cobbreddage, no way. If anybody drop Cowbrash in any of my leagues, I would immediately pick him up.

I would spend more in fad than I have spent on any player who has become available this season. I have that much confidence that Cowbrash will be good moving forward. I don't know what else to say beyond that. Even if he just pitches to his career numbers, a 358 ERA 119-119 whip and 9.5K per 9. That is a top 30 starting pitcher. Maybe it's not a top 15 starting pitcher like we were high. wiping him up to be, but again, I still think he's going to wind up being at worst your SP3. Once he settles in, like he has to throw more strikes.

He has to get the walk down. But walks really, for sure. Walks haven't been a big issue for him in his career. It's three walks per nine. That's not great, but it's not terrible. Like Robbie Ray or Dylan C's other pitchers we see who really struggle with control. So I would still be looking to buy. And I get that people are frustrated.

Like, people are tweeting at me and you and Scott saying, oh, how could you guys rank? I drafted Kyle Braddish in a few spots. Like, people think that we, like, we just say these things. We're not trying to fool you. But we're not invested. Like, we are invested in the players that we liked and told you to draft as well. So if you are frustrated, we are frustrated by it as well. But it is still only five starts.

It's a really, really long season. I would also just point to, we talked about him on yesterday's podcast, but you're Perez. I think Yuri Perez was pitching worse than Kyle Braddish before last start. And then Yuri Perez had a great start yesterday. It is five starts. That is a very small sample size. That does not mean like I mentioned yesterday, Gary Crochet will probably not be worth the first round pick this year, based on just based on what he's done so far, even if he pitches like a first round pick the rest of the way, he will probably not be worth a first round pick. That's true. That has happened.

It doesn't really change how I feel about Garrett Crochet. What has happened so far with Cowbraddish doesn't really dramatically change how I feel about him. Again, if you want to say he's the 25th best pitcher in baseball instead of the 15th, and we got out over our skis this spring, cool. That's fair. That's reasonable. If you're saying like you'd rather have Seth Lugo than Cowbraddish, no way. I'm sorry.

No way. If you're saying you'd rather have like Bryce Ellberg. elder, you don't know ball. There's just like, there's no other way to say it. Like, Kyle Braddish is better than those dudes. And he will show it. And you have to express some patience when we're talking about five-star sample size because weird things happen in five starts.

Sometimes guys just aren't locked in, but they'll figure it out. Bet on talent. Kyle Braddett is super talented. He has showed us that for a long time. Bet on 44 starts is more than five. History did not start five games ago. go. Like, this is just basic stuff. And I'm happy to say it, but don't drop Kyle Bradish. Whatever. Don't, like, that's the point. Let's talk Waver Wire pitchers here. And going the other

direction, Justin Robleski just had another strong start. This one in Coresfield, seven innings, eight hits, one run, only three strikeouts. His last two starts, 15 innings of one run ball, five strikeouts to zero walks. I don't. I just, I don't. The one thing I would say is coming into the start, he was doing a good job limiting hard contact. Yeah, he did the last year too.

A very long time to normalize over time and know if it's real for a starting pitcher. In this start, he allowed 12 hard hits in Corse Field and he somehow escaped with just seven innings of one run. So that seems a little bit fluky to me. With that said, it is two very good starts in a row. So, what do you think about Justin Robleski? Should he be more than 63% rostered?

If I, so maybe some leagues play like this. I don't know. I have not in every league. If I add Justin Robleski, do I get credit for what he has done so far? Or do I only get what he does moving forward? Presumably it's I only get what he does moving forward. That's how every fantasy guy I've ever played in works. In which case, I don't see any reason to add Justin.

Rebleski. Like, he pitches for a good team, but he's not going to be in the starting rotation for that much longer. Eventually, Blake Snow will be back, probably by the end of May, early June. There is no skill indicator here with Justin Robleski that suggests that he is anything more than a fringe guy. And look, a fringe guy who puts up a four ERA for the Dodgers could win 12 games in the course of the season. but that's not a must roster player, even if he wins 12 games. So I don't see anything here. I'm going to be honest.

It's a 9.5% strikeout rate. He had, there was only one pitcher with a lower swinging strike rate, one starter with a lower swinging strike rate entering today than Justin Rebleski. The name is escaping me, but it was only one. And his swinging strike rate went down in this start. he only had five on 97 pitches. I just, I don't think there's any skills here worth looking at for Justin Rebleski. He is 63% rostered, as I mentioned.

I apologize in advance. I'm going to say that a lot about a lot of the pitchers who pitched well on Monday and who have good numbers so far. There was just, there were a lot of good results from mediocre pitchers today. He has nine strikeouts to five walks over 24 innings pitched. it's just when you allow balls and play that much things are just going to happen

and bad things are going to happen look at Kyle Bradish, he has a 417 Babbitt or whatever it is. So if you tell me that you want to use Justin Robleski as a SPARP because he has RP eligibility or he's, you know,

a fringe end of roster person that you just stream because he pitches for the Dodgers and you're trying to pick up wins and use him in the right spots. That I think is fine. Like the next player, I have up is Ret Louder. If you want a roster Justin Roblesky over Ret Louder

sure, I have no problem. All those kind of fringy end of roster Waver Wire pitchers, if you want to use Roblesky over those, that's fine. Over James and Tyone, sure, whatever. Yes, someone like that. He pitches for a really good team and he's pitching well right now. He also is getting no strikeout.

So in a points league that doesn't matter as much, I could see him having more value in that format, but in a category's league, I do think there will be some correction at some point and you just don't get to strikeout. And look, let's look at the schedule here. Versus shitout, look, he just had a good start at Colorado, so whatever. We don't know anything. But versus Chicago Cubs at St. Louis. Okay, that's pretty cool.

And then the next one after that is either at Houston or versus Atlanta. I'm sorry, I'm not starting Justin Robleski against the Cubs in Wrigley Field if I can avoid it. I might start him at St. Louis. I'm not starting at Houston or versus Atlanta. Those are like the two best offenses of baseball right now with a bunch of star players. I, yeah, no. A couple of their waiver wire pitchers here. I mentioned Red Louder, a quality start at the race, six innings one run, three strikeouts. He has a quality start in three of five of five starts so far. And I feel like he's done a lot of what we expected. It's solid ratio so far, but you're not getting any strikeouts. He feels like a high floor option.

again, that is Rhett louder. Max Meyer pitched well on the other side. No, he was going up against the... Was it the Reds? No, Max Meyer was against the Cardinals today. Cardinals, why did I write Cincinnati? So, facing the Cardinals, five and a third innings, two runs, eight strikeouts, 17 whiffs on 91 pitches here,

has yet to complete six innings in a start. I think that's going to be a pretty regular occurrence for Max Meyer, but the strikeouts are there. The swinging strike rate is pretty, interesting so like of all the three names that we've mentioned in the segment i i think max meyer is the most interesting yeah he got eight whiffs with the sir eight wiffs with the sweeper i think today um he might have a second good pitch because the slider's awesome slider's great against lefties righties whatever that is a phenomenal pitch i think the rest of the arsenal's pretty

mediocre his changeup actually looks really good he gets a lot of movement with it yeah he can he can he can he can get a few in there, but it's inconsistent. I don't think he's very good, but he does at least get strikeouts. I think the thing with Max Meyer is the ugly starts are going to be really ugly. He gets the Giants in San Francisco this week after this start. I think that's great. This was a great two-star week for Max Meyer. Philly's next week, though.

I cannot trust a slider sweeper guy against the Phillies, a slider sweeper righty against the Phillies. that that's maybe it'll go well, but I don't have a lot of confidence there. Any interest in Ret Louder? In tomorrow's newsletter, I comped him to Colin Ray, who we're about to talk about, who I think they're not totally disinteresting pitchers, but I think I'd rather have Colin Ray. At least he's got the elite defense behind him, you know? Ret Louder, for what it's worth, gets to Tigers this weekend and at the Pirates next week. So not terrible matchups for Ret Louder.

and Colin Ray, one deep league name here, six and two thirds innings, one run, five strikeouts against the Phillies, that's back-to-back quality starts for Ray, and so far a three ERA on the nose, 104 whip, and he's getting a lot more ground balls so far this year. I'm not sure how sustainable that is, but again, if you're getting ground balls

with that defense behind you, that feels like it could work as like a streamer, so 17% rostered is Colin Ray. You know what the next start is? Oh. At the Dodgers. That's probably this weekend. What about next week?

Do you have that up? I do not have that, but I could find it pretty quickly. If you vamp, just, you know, give me like six seconds. So Colin Ray, it's his usual kitchen sink approach. He had seven different pitches between 9% and 23%. His splitter remains a good pitch for him. He just doesn't throw it that much. He had four whiffs on the splitter here.

Looks like it's versus. It might be at San Diego, but it's probably versus Arizona. and then the next one would be the Reds on the road. So at Wrigley Field. That's, I don't hate that someone got mad at me because the Reds are like 8 and 2 on the road, but I don't think that's a super talented lineup. They've got like a couple of hitters I'm scared of, but I think you avoid them at Great America Ballpark,

but on the road I think the Reds are a fine matchup. So I'd be okay using Colin Ray in that one. But now we're talking week seven, I think that's in May. So a pretty long while before I'd feel confident using Colin Ray. But, you know, it could be, we could have a week in a couple of weeks where it's versus Cincinnati at Texas. That's a pretty cool two-step for Colin Ray. Yeah. But I don't think you need to hang on to Colin Ray for two weeks for that.

Yeah. More of a deep league name. You use them in the right matchups. Again, really good defense behind him. Let's take our final break. When we return, I've got some shallow league waiver wire hitters. We'll talk most dropped. I have fill in the blank.

Rankings edition. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. I do have some shallow league waiver wire hitters. And Jack Caglione, he is on the board with his first home run. 109.7 exit velocity, 437 feet. 78% roster on CBS, so could have been dropped in some of those shallower formats. Totally understand that he has done nothing up until Monday night when he hit his first home run.

I still remain intrigued by the underlying stuff here, Chris. He is hitting the ball super hard. He is barreling it up more. He's hitting ground balls less. The expected stats look pretty good. I still remain really intrigued. I would not be dropping Jack Caglione, even in shallow four minutes.

I mostly agree with that. His quality of contact metrics so far this season are absurdly good. There's a little James Wood here. in that he's just absolutely crushing the ball. He swings and misses a lot, and he does not optimize. He actually has a lower launch angle on average than James Wood, which is really hard to do.

The problem is I don't think the pitch recognition is as good for Jack Caglione as James Wood. The chase rate, say what you want about James Wood, but he tends to pick the right pitches to swing at. He just misses when he picks the wrong ones, I guess, or sometimes when he misses the right ones. Caglione, his chase rates a lot higher.

He doesn't. He has lowered it from last year, which is, I guess, an okay sign. He was disastrously bad last year, but, you know, yeah, that's fair. I think he's interesting. I don't know if Jack Caglione's good yet, but we are talking about the kind of physical tools

where if it clicks, it's going to be outrageous. and all of a sudden it's a 750 OPS, so it's not even like he's been a disaster. He's hitting 269 with a 750 OPS. Like, we need more power. I get that, but. I think he'll be, certainly, you should keep him on your roster

just because there's a lot of upside here. Dailin Lyle is picking things up with the power. He has two home runs in his last four games, and he has played every game except one so far. his profile is one that should work very well in a points league he could stand to walk more but he makes a lot of contact I just don't know if there's enough juice there with dan leyle what do you think there's a lot of guys like this um you know even like stephen kwan to a certain extent is like this where the profile is better in a points league

but they're not so good in a points league that it's they reach that top 36 outfield or threshold. Stephen Kwan has, and I think Dan Laha has that upside. The weirdest thing for me is just he's a bad base runner, despite being a really good athlete. So far in his MLB career, he's got nine steals. He's been caught stealing eight times. This would be such an interesting player if he was a 25 steel guy, because now you're talking, I think he's a legit 285 hitter, maybe better. And I think there's a little bit of pop there. I think you can hit 15 homers.

And if it's 25 steals, I think that's awesome. If it's 10 steals, that's sort of fring. 285, 15, 10, it's like, again, we just, we need more, you know? That's pretty good, but it's, it's fringy, especially in a points league. So I think Dale and Lyle should be rostered in every Redo League. I think he should be rostered in most points leagues. I think his 71% roster rate is probably. Probably too low.

But I get it. Who do you like more between Cags and Dillon Lyle? Man, that's a tough one. Cags is certainly more talented. I like Dian Lyle a lot, though. I think this dude is just a good ball player. It might be just a floor versus ceiling thing. It just kind of depends on what you're looking for.

But I think both should be more or less rostered everywhere. Yeah, I think I would lean Caglione, but it is a pretty close call there. Other waiver wire hitters, Mason Wynn is picking things up. went two for three with a run, RBI, and a seal. Last seven games, he's hitting 370 with a homer, eight RBI and a stolen base. I still think there's a player there with Mason Win,

an offensive player. We know he's really good defensively. We just really have not seen it yet at the Major League level. He is 24% rostered, and then two very deep league names. Leoti Tavares hit a grand slam and extras with the Orioles. He has started nine of their past 11 games, and he's hitting really well so far.

and then Carlos Cortez with the athletics. He went four for five with his second home run. He has started nine of their past 11 games. Has not started against the lefty probably won't, but any interest in Mason Wynn or deeper Tavares or Cortez? Tavares, not really, no. Cortez is, you know, I know Scott has liked him. He's put up pretty big numbers in the minors.

It's a very good home park. I think there's, you know, moderate deep league interest here, but it probably can't be any 12-team leagues. I think you're looking at maybe a 15-team, fifth outfielder type, and even then, it's probably pretty fringy. But, you know, there are guys you cycle through. He could be one of them. He has Carlos Cortez two strikeouts and 48 plate appearances. So when you see that athletic strikeout rate, you can't blame Carlos Cortez. He is not part of the problem there.

Fill in the blank rankings edition. Sal Stewart will not stop. Sal Stewart. Yahoo. Two for four with a sock in the shoe, his eighth home run, his fifth stolen base so far. And the expected stats are awesome. Quality of contacts are really good.

We have talked a ton about Sal Stewart. Chris, fill in the blank. Top blank first baseman, rest of season. Sal Stewart. I think when we talked about this last week, right after head updated my rankings, I said I did not have him in the top 12. It was like 15 for me. Another week of him crushing it. Has that changed anything? Yeah. I mean, if you look at Michael Bush's underlying numbers, there is some terrifying stuff going on in Michael Bush's numbers. He had really bad bat speed numbers last year. but he managed to hit for power anyway.

And look, those things are not directly related. There's some correlation, but there are slow bat speed guys. Bat speed is not all just about swinging as hard as you can all the time. Adjusting the pitches as part of being a hitter as well. He has gone from pretty bad bat speed last year. I think he was like 18th percentile, 16th percentile in 2025. He's fifth percentile now, Michael Bush. He's down to 67.4 miles per hour average.

bat speed. That is interesting. That is really, really bad. And the quality of contact metrics are just horrible for Michael Bush so far. And I, he actually, I wrote about this and I did the research and I can't remember if he has been playing against lefties or not. I can look it up. But I last week was inclined to not move South Stewart ahead of Michael Bush. I might make that move move now. I think so too. That would get him to 14. Yaddi Diaz has been really good this season. He's got a long track record. It's I just that one's hard. I think the upside for South Stewart is just higher. That's fair. Now here's potentially the more interesting and more viable and more Michael Bush has started against five of six lefties. Yeah, that's okay. That's

what I thought. I think it was three of four when I wrote about it. So yeah, they're doing it. He's just, he's been awful. I still think Michael Bush will probably be fine, but here's the question. Where will we rank Sal Stewart at third base? Yep. That when he makes, have you know, he hasn't started a game at third base. Yeah, he gets moved there late in games. But he's played four games there now. Yeah. And. I think it's ninth at third base. That's what I was saying, too. I think I'd put him ahead of Alex Bregman.

I wrote down top 11 at first base, so I would move him ahead of Michael Bush, but still behind Vinny Pasquantino. And he needs three more games at second base. At second, yeah. So I wrote that out, have him top six at second base, which might sound crazy, but like it's ahead of Luke Keishel and Ozzy Albies,

who I just... Yeah, I think that's perfectly. Albies, he's had an okay start to the season. He's been okay. But Keishel's been disappointing. I think Stewart's upside is higher. No, I like a five. I wrote top nine, third baseman, yeah, ahead of Alex Breggling.

Yeah. Yeah, no, it's, and we say all this. There are, I believe, two first basemen who are not actually playing first base, and you should not use them at first base, who I rank ahead of him, but like Sal Stewart or Salvador Perez, you're not using him at first base anyway. So, South Stewart is a. starting first baseman is what I'm saying. Ben Rice actually is just useful

at first base if you need him there to pinch. Hey man. My bold prediction coming into the year, he leads all catchers and first baseman in fantasy points this year. Ben Rice he might be able to do it. He's really good. Let's talk about Christian Walker who had a big game three for five with his fifth home run. He was scuffling before this. He was 0 for 15 in his previous five games. Still, it is a great start to the year for Christian Walker, who's hitting 274 with five home runs,

18 RBI and 903 OPS. Christian Walker is a top blank first baseman rest of season. 16. I have him at 17. I see that you have him ahead of Jonathan Aranda. Aranda's off to a bit of a slow start. I still like Aranda more than Christian Walker. Yeah, that one.

Aronda plays against lefties now, too. He's just an everyday player. Yeah. It's just the only time we've seen Jonathan Aranda be a viable major leaguer was when he had a 400 babbip And I just I don't know what it like the underlying stats the XBA suggested it wasn't a fluke, but he ran high babbs in the minors too though Yeah, but nobody runs a 400 babbip. No, no, I wouldn't expect that. And so it's like if he's a 350 babbip, that's super high And that shaves 50 points off the batting average from last year. Yeah. So that's just it's a tough balance to strike. I think he's good, I'd rather have Christian Walker.

Yeah, that's close. So I have Christian Walker at 17, top 17, so he is a firm corner infielder. Look, with the chance to rise. Like, if he keeps doing this for long enough, then I think we'd say, all right, last year, the first half, new team got off to a slow

start, but he was really good in the second half, and now he's picked it up here to start the season, and he's hitting in the middle of a really good Astros lineup. So, might be better than, you know, where we are ranking Christian Walker right now. Let's talk about Max Muncie of the Dodgers. He really enjoyed this series in Corse Field.

Four for four with a double-dong. Four runs scored on Monday night. He had three hits on Sunday. He went three-for-four-four with two homers on Friday. And he actually has started against three of five lefties so far this season. That actually kind of surprised me for Max Muncie. Crazy enough. He has eight home runs, nine RBI.

In the Dodgers lineup. How is that even possible? For Max Muncie. I did look into this as well. His last 82 games dating back to last year. So, and this year combined. He is hitting 285 with 26 home runs and 67 RBI in 82 games. That is crazy stuff there for Max Muncie.

So top blank third baseman rest of season for Max Muncie. He has only gotten one full day off so far this season. He's been out of the lineup twice. pinch hitting one of them. All right, so looking at it, you take him over, Cosimo Komoto, that was one of the guys that had ahead of him coming into the season. Brennan Donovan's on the I-L, okay, you take him ahead of him. I think it's top 12.

I think in a points league, it's probably even higher than that. But yeah, I think top 12. I have him behind Paredes, but I like Paredes, but I just think Max Muncie has a little bit more juice there. So, Muncie had to- I think at some point they have to start giving him more days off, given his age, given his history. Yeah, I mean, that's a big thing.

Like, when Muncie plays, he's good, but he hasn't been able to stay healthy. So that's a big part of this as well. So I think top 12, that would put him right behind Bregman and Kevin McGonigle, which I think sounds right for Max Muncie. Yeah, that seems reasonable to me. I have Matt Chapman ahead of him, too. If you wanted to take Monty ahead of Chapman, I don't have an issue with that. But I think Chapman is pretty useful.

But, I mean, the upside is not as high as what we're seeing right now from Max Muncie. Let's talk about Seth Lugo, who looks like he is back to form against the Orioles. Seven shutout innings, seven strikeouts to four walks in this one, had 11 whiffs on 93 pitches. Two are and runs are fewer in all five starts. He has a quality start in four of five starts. Seth Lugo, top blank starting pitcher, rest of season. 60 for sure. I think you could make a case for 50.

but it's it depends how you want to handle some of the injured guys would you if you had Seth Lugar right now would you give him up for Carlos Rodon I don't know if I would yeah guy coming back for Garik hole I think if Rodon is right

and he's like the pitcher he was last year he's I think he would be more valuable than Seths Oh of course I think Yeah there's no way of us knowing that right now The upside for Carlos Rodan, Garrett Cole, Spencer Strider is significantly higher than Seth Lugo. But if you wanted to take Seth Lugo ahead of them the rest of the way, because setbacks happen and you never know if guys are going to come back all the way, that's fine. I just, I think the thing we have to keep in mind with Seth Lugo is 2024 is the clear outlier for his career. You know, where he was this workhorse who was putting up gems every single night.

3ERA. He's not that guy. But a 355, 360 ERA and a really good volume and decent strikeout totals because of the volume. I think that's okay. He was, there's no question Seth Lugo was way underrated coming into this season. He was, his AP was like 350 or something. He was outside of the top 100 starting pitchers. I've never been a Seth Lugo fan. Everybody yelled at me all throughout the 2024 season for it. And I had him, I think, 60 or 70 spots ahead of that ADP. So I think he's a phenomenal value wherever you drafted him. I also think there's definitely a sell high window here.

If people are looking at it and saying, ah, yes, Ace Seth Lugo from 2024 is back, I don't think that. But top 60 for sure, if you want to make the argument for top 50 rest of season, I wouldn't, I wouldn't argue too much with you. It's just, are we going to do this thing wherever? Everybody says he's a top 20 starting pitcher again. I can't do that. So if you could turn him into Kyle Braddish right now.

Absolutely would do that. I think I said that earlier in the show. Yep, yep, yep. I agree with you on top 60. You know, some names I have right around there are names that are going to move up. Like I have Parker Messick at 59, but I think he's closer to like a top 40 starting pitcher. Braxton Ashcraft probably should be a little bit higher. But then you get into like Jack Lighter, Shane McClainahan, Edward Carrera.

Ron Harris. I think Lugo would be ahead of those guys. I think I would take him ahead of Luis Castillo too. That's one. I still have Castillo at like 44, 45 in my rankings. Me too, but I think he needs to be lower now. Yeah, I think it's like top 40 starting pitcher at home. I'm probably not starting him on the road.

I think is where I'm at with Luis Castillo, which is I'm hanging on to him, but he's definitely not a must start guy. I think Seth Lugo should be a must-start guy, but I will just remind everyone, he started off really good last year, too. He had like a sub-3 array at the All-Star break. But it seemed a little bit more Fugazi, right? Like, the K to Walk was much worse.

Yes. But I think he's just one of those guys with a slim margin for error. Yeah. Where things... He was pitching through injury last year, Seth Lugo. So it might just be that he's healthy again. And when he was healthy in 2024,

he was really good. Again, I don't think he'll get back to that level, but I think what you said, mid-3 ZRA, 115, 120-ish whip, you know, 170-ish strikeouts by the end of the season? 7.5, 8K per 9. Something like, yes, solid starting pitcher,

high floor starting pitcher. We were going to get to the most drop players from this weekend, but we're running out of time. So we'll move on to the leftovers here. How did the recent hype guys do? Spencer Arrogetti at Cleveland, five innings, two runs, four walks, three strikeouts.

control not great here and then read detmer's he did have a quality start through six innings he came out for the seventh he walked the first batter and then of course that batter came around to score so ruin the quality start there uh for detmers what you see from him and argyty uh fine you know detmer's one thing you have to keep in mind with the guardians they can throw a ton of lefties out there um only 17 of the 96 pitches he threw this this game were against righties that's tough is his curveball and who has multiple breaking balls. You know, he tried to throw the cutter more to counterbalance the lefties. He tried to throw his change up a little more.

I don't think he's ever going to be as good against a lefty, heavy lineup as against a righty heavy lineup. So that's maybe something to keep in mind moving forward with when you're playing match with theregety, but I wouldn't drop him. And then Detmer's, it was a quality start until he came in, walked Miles Strahl to lead off the seventh inning. Kind of feels, you know, a little, a little hubristic to

let Reed Detmer's go into the seventh inning. I know his pitch count was at like 85 or something to open the inning, but it's Reed Demers, you know, let's take the wins when you can get them. You know, you don't have to push the bar. I mean, hey, I guess, you know, credit to Kurt Suzuki showing faith in his guys, right? Like, I don't know, it's a two-way street.

I hear what you're saying, like, you know, don't want him to face lineups like a third or even a fourth time, obviously. But, you know, he was okay before that. Again, he had the quality start. So if I picked up Arrogati or DeBers, I think I'm just holding on after okay starts. Do we need to hold on to these two? Jack Flaherty took a step back at the Red Sox, three in a third innings, two unearned runs, six walks to three strikeouts.

He has three or more walks in all five starts. He has four or more walks in three of five starts. his velocity was down across the board it was pretty cold 47 degrees and then 11 a.m. start yeah that's true and then Aaron Nola he was not great at the Cubs

four and a third innings five runs four walks five strikeouts here and he is a 506 IRA 146 whip do we need to hold on to Aaron Nola and Jack Flaherty I don't think you need to know I'd be fine

speculating on Pantoli for either of these guys I think Aaron Nola and Jack Flaherty will have their moments. Nola, especially in points leagues, because I think the volume should be pretty good, and he should win some games. But I think you look at the skill set for Aaron Nola, and it just kind of looks like a 4ERA guy now, which the skill set also looked like a 4ERA guy last year. It's just he ran into bad luck, and it was a 6ERA. Yeah.

But I don't think we're getting the 3.5 ERA version of Aeronola back. I think he's kind of strictly back in or in streamer territory for the first time in his career. Yeah, I think I would hold on to Nola in a points league. In a category's league, I feel like it's a little bit tougher just because his biggest skill right, like has always been, well, not always, but volume was always a big part of his game. And I think he'll still provide that, but not sure how much else. Jack Flaherty, I mentioned this last week with Scott. I'm over it. I don't think he needs to be rostered.

Some hitting leftover signs of life from Roman Anthony, one for two with three walks and his second stolen base. Matt Olson, quietly off to a great start, hit his sixth home run of the season. Vlad Jr. with a big game, three for four with his second homer that's back-to-back three-hit games for him. He is hitting the ball really hard with a 55% crown ball rate. So he's Vladimir Guerrero Jr. He's Vlad Jr. And then Josh Naler, he has a steal. He did it.

Let's go. Three for four with two doubles, an RBI. and his first stolen base. Last seven games, Josh Naylor coming around. 333, two homers, one steal, a 979 OPS. Anything on Roman Anthony, Madelson, Vlad Jr., Josh Naylor? I did not draft Lad in any of my leagues this year. Me neither.

I thought it was weird that people were... I mean, look, Nick Hurst has been pretty bad this season as well. I didn't want either one, to be honest. Yeah, I just didn't think it was worth picking a first person. Baseman in the second round this year. I wasn't in on any of those guys or Pete Alonzo, who Alonzo's at least been fine. By the way, did you see the ball that Nick Hertz hit to center field today? No, I didn't.

It was one of the weirdest balls I've ever seen a major league. Oh, the one that J-Rod caught. Yeah. Oh, I thought you meant, I think he hit a home run in that game. Yeah, no. That was crazy. That was crazy. It was like a 350-foot, 108-mile-hour knuckle ball.

I've never seen a baseball move like that. J-Rod had it lined up and then out of nowhere he had to jump to the left. Yeah, it just moved like five feet. Like at the last minute, it was crazy. I've never seen a ball hit that far with that kind of movement. It's just looking at no spin at all. So weird. Look, I think Vlad will be very good moving forward.

He's been very good so far. But I just don't think this dude's a 40 homer guy. And I don't think he's even a lock-it-in-thirty-homer guy. And so he's really dependent on a batting average. He can be a 300 batting average guy, which the skill sets there for it, he's awesome. But if it's more like a 275-280 batting average, I think he's disappointing. And it's just, it's really hard to justify a second round price when you don't have multiple lock-it-in-in elite categories. And I don't think Vlad does.

Same with Nick Kurtz. Yeah. Dylan Seas had a strong outing at the Angels five innings, two runs, 12 strikeouts. He had 18 whiffs. now has 12 strikeouts in two of five outings. The problem, again, is just inefficiency, 110 pitches to get through five innings, but that's part of the Dillon C's experience.

It's one wild to compare the top two pitchers in the Blue Jays rotation versus everyone else because Dillan Sees and Kevin Gossman have like a two ERA combined and everyone else has like a seven ERA. Kevin Gossman and Dylan Cis also, for having a two ERA combined across 10 starts between them, have one win. Did he get the win today?

Yes. Okay, they have two wins now in 10 starts. It's been a rough start for the Blue Jays as well. But I think DLC is awesome. There will be a stretch this season, maybe starting with his next one where he's not awesome because he is the ultimate random number generator at starting pitcher. The call to the bullpen for the Red Sox. I rolled as Chapman got the final two outs for his fourth save.

For the Marlins, Pete Fairbanks gave up a run, but struck out two for his fourth save. For the Royals, Lucas Ursa got the ninth with a one-run lead. He allowed a run on a hit and three walks. He took his second blown save. I was watching this game. I just think pitchers overthinking sometimes against Samuel Bessio. He had him flailing at off-speed pitches out of the zone. zone and then went to the fastball and it was right down the middle and he gave up an RBI game

tying single it's just like do what the batter is telling you to do like he is wailing at secondary pitches just and it was an oh two count just like throw them out of the zone and try and get a couple chases I just did not get it at all but you know Erseg has a 648 ERA a 180 whip he has six walks to five strikeouts Matt Trom pitched the eighth inning of this game he struck out the side he's been really good. there's no indication that they're close to making a change, but, you know, if we're speculating on bullpens everywhere right now, I think Matt Strom might be in that deep league mix right now.

Yeah, I think it's a pure speculation at this point, but I've been saying this since spring training. I think Matt Strom's the best pitcher in that bullpen. And that doesn't always mean that he'll be the closer. Oftentimes it doesn't, especially when you're talking about a lefty. But I think Matt Strom definitely is the best pitcher in the Royal's bullpen, And it might just work out that way that he ends up the closer. So I think if you're in a deep league for sure, 15 team leagues,

it's worth speculating on Matt Strom if you missed out on a lot of the other guys. As we mentioned earlier for the athletics, Joel Kunal got the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He allowed a run on two hits, picked up his fourth save. He has three of the last four saves for the athletics. I don't think he's very good, but he's getting saves. So again, deeply context. if you picked him up, just kind of ride with it right now.

And then for the Blue Jays, right back to Jeff Hoffman with a three-run lead, he gave up a hit but did pick up his third save of the season. Struck out the next three batters. Yeah, nice little bounce back there from Jeff Hoffman. To stream or not to stream on Tuesday, the best options that I see are Stephen Matt's against the Reds, Dustin May at the Marlins, Chris Paddock against the Cardinals,

Kyle Harrison at the Tigers. I think Matt's Harrison and May are all pretty good options. I like Matt's and Harrison. May. Yeah. Like, Landon Rup is pitching, but he gets the Dodgers. Yeah, it's the Dodgers. Rainey Vasquez has done some interesting stuff, but it's at Colorado. Or no, it's at Mexico City, which is actually even worse.

No, no, no, that's this weekend against the debats. Oh, so it's at Colorado. Okay, that's still bad. Yeah, it's in Colorado. So either way, I wouldn't want to use him. Harrison, I'm a little worried just because the injury is coming back. You know, that's, you never know. They gave him some extra time, but, you know, it was a, what, wrist and knee.

Yeah. So, you know, I'm just a little scared off by that. Dustin May, I don't think he's very good, but I don't think the Marlins' lineup is very good. So I think, like, I give the Marlins lineup a little bit more credit, man. They are pesky lineup. but now they get Kyle Stowers back. Like, I don't know. Did you see who was hitting cleanup today?

No. Xavier Edwards, cleanup hitter. I think he had multiple extra base hits in this game. He had an RBI double. Yeah, I actually think high contact hitters at cleanup is not a bad idea. And I think teams should be more open to it when they don't have a traditional guy there. But that was just weird. Yeah, maybe I'm not giving the Marlins enough credit.

I think, you know, it's one of those things. like, you know, every team thinks their third base coach is the worst who's ever existed and only makes bad decisions on sending runners. Every fan thinks that their team is uniquely bad at hitting with runners in scoring position or with the base is loaded especially. That's just one of those psychological things about being a fan. You're just too close to understand that every team has the same thing. Every team runs into outs at third and at home.

Maybe I'm just too close to the Marlins and maybe they are better than I'm giving them credit for. I just don't have a lot of faith in the offense. Yeah, I mean, that's me with the Yankees a lot of times. I'm, like, overly pessimistic, but looking at the Marlins lineup, they have three regular hitters that have an OPS over 900 right now. Yeah, I just, I think the biggest thing is they have to string hits together. Yeah, they don't have a lot of big boppers. They don't have, they don't have bop is the biggest thing.

It's just, it's hard to string hits together. Dostimate gives up a lot of contact, though. So, you know, it could, it could be bad for him. But I would, I think Matt's is, on a level by himself. I think the Reds away from Cincinnati are a pretty good matchup and he looks pretty good. But May and Harrison could be fine.

Then on Wednesday we have Kyle Leahy at the Marlins, Jansen Junk against the Cardinals, Brandon Williamson at the Rays, Nick Martinez against the Reds in Tampa, Aaron Savali at the Mariners, Chad Patrick at the Tigers, Eduardo Rodriguez against the White Sox.

I don't really like any of these I would say Patrick's doing some interesting things but he hasn't gotten any strikeouts yet I think Patrick Erod and probably Jansen Junk but

Yeah I think those are all okay Yeah don't love it We will save some of these team names For next week's team name Tuesday But continue to send those in And we will feature them at the end of next week's podcast We are gonna wrap there for Chris I am Frank thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball

today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, and we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Mount Podcasts.