Fantasy Baseball Today - Eury Perez's Debut, Matt McLain Promoted & Drew Rasmussen Replacements (5/15 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 15, 2023

Eury Perez had an impressive debut Friday (3:45). Perez over Bryce Miller and Tanner Bibee? ... Could Taj Bradley return to the Rays following the Drew Rasmussen injury (10:00)? ... Add Alex Kirilloff (12:20)? ... Christopher Morel is crushing the ball thus far (16:52). ... Matt McLain will be promoted by the Reds on Monday (21:02). McLain or Morel? ... James Paxton made his Red Sox debut and actually looked great (28:00)! ... Let's rank some waiver wire outfielders (36:32). ... News (41:00): Jazz Chisholm might have turf toe. ... Is Chris Sale back (49:15)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (55:52). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  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/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. What's up, and welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, May 15th. I am Frank Sample, joined by Scott White and The Welsh. Today on the show, we're going to recap all of this weekend's action.

Yuri Perez made his debut on Friday, what we think, and the Welsh brought his prospect magic because another promotion, Matt McLean, be getting called up on Monday by the Cincinnati Reds. Before we get started, please like this video and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. And if you're listening on the audio side, download, follow and leave a five-star rating.

We really appreciate it. Happy Mother's Day, first and foremost, to all the great moms out there. Wouldn't be here without you. Scott, I know that you had a nice old beach day for Mother's Day. How did that go? Yeah. Yeah. That's what my wife wanted to do Mother's Day weekend. So that's what we did. Went to the beach. The waves were a little rough. I took my eight-year-old out there, though. Thought he'd wimp out. He did not. He loved the heck out of it, even with all

the salt water going up his nose. You know, it was unavoidable. It was one of those days, like, you were just fighting against the waves the whole time, but he loved it. Both of the kids loved it. So it was a good day. A good time had by all. Very nice. Very nice.

Walsh. How about you? Mother's Day weekend? Anything big going on? Exhausted. I mean, I've got, you know, as a parent, as Scott would know, you have your kids.

So you have to play surrogate gift giver and celebrator for the children for your significant other, my wife. Then I have my own mom and then we take care of her mom. So I had three moms to coddle and take care of with the kids and cook and do all the craziness. I am not ready for Father's Day, but I'm ready for a nap. Very nice. And for those watching us live, you could tell it's a special occasion because the Welsh isn't wearing a hat.

He's got the nice little kind of comb over going on right now. He's all spruced up from Mother's Day. I knew it was going to be a thing. I knew it's going to be a thing. Try not a little new do. I was always doing my Jimmy Neutron. I was like, eh, I'm going to do a little. He calls my hairstyle a combover. I don't think Frank knows what a comb over is.

What do you call that? I don't know. It's just, I don't know. A comb over is when you, is when you position your hair to cover up baldness. Like you're trying to disguise your baldness. It's not a side part.

Are you saying I'm covering up my baldness? No, I'm saying you're not. I am, I am objecting on your behalf to him describing your hair as a comb over. Yeah, it's like a, it's like a,

I will tell you this. There is a secret to that. hair though. So my entire life, the part was the other direction. But then I found out this nifty trick because I do have some balding in this area. If I go the other direction, boy, does my hair look a lot better and doesn't look like I've got any spots. So I just changed directions. And poof, it was like, you know, I'm having a dirty shirt and putting it inside out. That's all I did with my hair. Everything was good to go. All right. Well, as much as people care about our hair, let's get into the baseball. We're actually going to start with the Welsh because, uh,

He's got the most significant player of the weekend or I think most actionable player. Welsh, who is that? How about Yuri Perez? How about Yuri Perez? Ladies and gentlemen, what is this like? Probably the fifth straight week people have had to spend $200 plus in Fab or call it, you know, 25 to 30 percent of Fab on a rookie pitcher. And Yuri Perez, you know, I don't want to say Yuri Perez didn't disappoint because I think

there's definitely elements of it that did. You easily could have come out a little bit happier. but at the end of the day, Yuri Perez looked the part of everything that you ended up wanting. He had a 31 CSW percentage, 34% whiff rate. His slider looked dominant, fantastic. The fastball was popping, hitting 99 on corners. He's got one of those big old changeup,

I guess we're just going to call it like a Marlins changeup now when you throw 90 plus and it's a change up. And he was popping off on his curve. Outside of the changeup, he had four plus whiffs across the board. I thought he did a, a pretty good job of hitting all the corners and being a pretty good, what am I trying to look for? Like a command pitcher, sorry, I couldn't even think of the word, like a good command pitcher across. The pitch mix, I don't think necessarily worked in every favor, but he got big swing and whiffs in that game.

He actually had a strikeout prop of four and a half in that game, and he got that in the third inning. And looks like he's going to be able to go deep. There are bigger questions, you know, how far is he going to be able to go into the season? but I think the Marlins are leaving it open, even outside of when some of these guys come back from injury. But, you know, so far, so good. I like the pitch mix. I'm really liking these rookies going under 50% on the fastball. I don't know how much we're going to talk about them, but a certain pitcher with a certain team that I follow that I get lots of tweets about.

That guy went under 50% on the fastball. And that's what Yuri did. And that's the type of mixture that you want to have, especially when you have a big dominant slider and a really great changeup that's going to get strikeout. So I thought he met the part. and he gets into this big clump of these Tanner Bibis and all these guys and where does he ultimately fit? And I think it's pretty easy to say, Frank is God, he fits at the top,

guessing that he's going to stick around for the rest of the season or at least hoping that he's going to stick around. He's the top guy, even though he gave up a few runs. Yuri Perez is now up to 75% rostered on CBS. And I have three leagues where Fab ran already. And I will reveal how much he went for in just a little bit. But, Scott, would you think of the debut here of Yuri Perez on Friday?

He was up against the Reds, four and two-thirds, two runs, seven strikeouts, 16 swinging strikes. Would you put him at the top of that prospect list, which includes Tanner Bybee and Bryce Miller and all those names? Was it specifically in terms of are they sticking around? Can we feel confident they're sticking around? I think you have to take the guess. I think you have to like, you have to go in without the assurance of, you know, you got like Tosh Bradley that's sitting out there. You got Bybee who's had one bad one. Logan Allen's been pretty consistent.

You just have to go in with the knowledge you know at this moment. I mean, is he that top guy after that performance for you? I mean, I think Bryce Miller has to be at the top of rookie pitchers that I want a roster. And I think I'd put Tanner Bybee ahead of Yuri Perez too. But, I mean, I'm not trying to denigrate what Yuri Perez did here on Friday. I was very excited about it. I was putting in some big bids for him myself after this. performance and I think I talked last podcast about how he seems like that like something I

focused on here recently is can you get swings and misses with your fastball specifically? Because I think that's a good indicator of upside. And I said Yuri Perez, you know, 20 to 80 scale, his fastball grades is like a 70. It seems like that kind of pitch. So it was encouraging to me to see him get somebody withs on the. slider and the curveball. And according to Stackast, he didn't get a whiff on the changeup. But Chris is saying that's a really effective pitch for him, too.

He only threw four of them. So, you know, if he has that in his back pocket too as yet another weapon, then this guy is all tooled up, as you'd expect. He was the top pitching prospect in baseball at the time of his call up. And really excited for what he can do next. He is very young. He's a recently turned 20-year-old. And I would put a hard cap on his innings between majors and minors

of probably 130 if things are going well. That's similar to like where Spencer Strider ended up last year. So there are less bullets here than there might be for a Tanner Bybee. But in the meantime, you can enjoy what he offers because I think it'll be really good. Again, that is Yuri Perez, and we'll talk about Tanner Bybee and Bryce Miller a little bit later on. Both of those gentlemen pitched very well over the weekend as well. Three leagues, again, where Fab ran, and Yuri Perez went for $34 out of a $1,000 budget in my Tout Wars League. So that's a 12-team Head-Ted Points League with roster-sized, with rotosized rosters,

excuse me, with nine pitchers and corner and middle and five outfielers and all that stuff. So 3-44, and then in my 21-15 team leagues, three-fielers. 33 and 33. Exactly. So I guess if you're listening to this and you haven't put your bids in yet, I mean, it looks like you have to spend a third of your starting budget around 33%. Well, I was about to say, like in all of those leagues you're playing in Frank, those are probably sitting, you know, 80%. I mean, maybe 30% is gone from everybody. That might look closer to 50% of budgets were being blown on a guy like Yuri, which is, it's wild. It's wild. In my NFPC main event league, I didn't even have this much money left to try and bid on Yuri Perez.

I'm already down to like, I think it was 281 because I bid on Bryce Miller and Mason Miller and just a bunch of injuries to pitchers so far. And I mean, look, another big one this weekend, which really came out of nowhere on Friday. Drew Raspison randomly placed on the IL, 60 day IL with a right flexor strain. No indicator before this. I mean, he pitched on Thursday and he was fantastic against the Yankees. Tyler Glass now should be back soon within the next. a couple of weeks or so for Tampa Bay. Scott, do you think this means that Tage Bradley

will make his way back to the race rotation sooner rather than later? I would assume so. I mean, the one complicating factor is that he's been horrendous in all three of his starts after being sent down. And I can't help but wonder if that's related to the fact he was undeservedly sent down. And he's just kind of emotionally working his way through that.

I can take one thing. I didn't even interrupt. I just wanted to add to this because I've actually been covering this this whole week because that I've been speculating what's the reason behind that and I went and compared his last major league start to the stat cast numbers we have on

his two minor league starts and what looks like part of the reason behind this I think your logic makes a lot of sense but they've also, they're altering his pitch mix which is a total raise thing to do. They obviously have taken stats and they're analyzing it down. In the minors, he's dropped his cutter

percentage significantly. So it's forcing, because it was Cutter, in his last start in the majors, it was Cutter over fastball. It's now fastball over Cutter and they've essentially scrapped his curveball. So he is now under new management, if you will, in how the rays are treating him and how they want him to pitch in the minor. So I personally think that has something to do with it, that this guy wanted to play cutter.

He wanted to play Cutter, Fastball, Curveball, I think Slider or Change Up, whatever it was. and now they've completely altered that because they're probably, you know, this is a statistical advantage that they see. This is what the rays do. Maybe led to Rasmussen getting hurt. But I think that has a lot to do. So I didn't interrupt you, but I wanted to add that because I think that's been an important factor that major minor league pitch mix changes since he's been sit down. Yeah, no, that's a good observation. And it makes you wonder if, like, to, like, clearly he's not succeeding with that. So if they were going to call him up, it seems like they'd be asking him to scrap that plan to go with what he was doing before,

or else he presumably would get shelled in the majors, too. So there's, all of this is to say it's, it's likely, but it's not a guarantee that Bradley, that this Rasmussen injury earns Bradley a spot back in the rotation. All right, Scott, well, let's go to your, oh my goodness gracious player from the weekend. Okay, I'm going to go with Alex Kieriloff, remember him, Frank. Ah, for the brand. Your old favorites. Yeah.

No, he's back. He's back, it would appear. Not just back in the majors, but back hitting well in the majors. He had a two-homer game on Saturday, two homers in a double, actually. And then he had a couple more hits Sunday. He's, since returning from the minors, he started every game but one for the twins. So they seem to be prioritizing him in the lineup. I noticed he was batting third on Sunday.

They seem to have a lot of confidence in Alex Kirolov. And as we all know, I've had a lot of confidence in Alex Kierloff for a long time. Hoping he'd finally get past this wrist issue that has so sidetracked his career. And hopefully it's happening. My one hesitation is that his hardest hit ball over the weekend for all the extra base hits he was getting. Hardest hit ball is 102 miles per hour. So he wasn't, he wasn't like, you know, that's for a home run, that's, you know, not a very impressive exit velocity.

And I prefer if it was like 106 or 108. It's hard to sit ball since being called up is 103. So, you know, I'd like to see him really get into one to feel even more confident in the strength of that wrist and how he's going to perform with it. But we're talking about a guy who is sparsely rostered and I think has a ton of upside and is getting chances again. So certainly in five outfielder leagues, you need to make sure Kirillov is scooped up. And at least keep an eye on him in three outfielder leagues. Look, in most points leagues, those are three outfielder leagues. And frankly, that's probably the format that Karoloff would excel in most in terms of his plate discipline

and hitting for power. And if it's not going over the fence and it's probably doubles power. And so he's someone that should play up very well in a head-to-head points league. I have a bunch of waiver wire hitters written down. But a group of three-corner infielder, So Kirillov has first base in outfield eligibility. He's 40% roster at this point, so widely available. A couple of other names that had big weekends.

Josh Naylor had a huge weekend. Five hits, three homers, a steal. And he's actually been really unlucky this year. His expected numbers are really good, according to Statcast. 279XBA, 500X slug. And Yohan Moncata made his return on over the weekend on Saturday. He went three for four with two doubles. And he was hitting the ball well early on in the season.

So Welsh, I'll come to you first. and then Scott, how would you rank those three, Josh Naylor, Kirillov, and Yohan Monkata? That's tough. Those are really, really good names because I just bid on Kiralov, and I won him $96 bucks to 71 as the runner-up, so I paid a little bit over to make sure that I acquired him

in the five outfielder in FBC. I think the Monkata one makes this, I think maybe the most difficult here, but I would probably go, I think I'd go Naler Monkata, Kirolof. I don't think, Kierloff has quite gotten to that level where he deserves to be over some of these other commodities. I'm worried about the wrist.

I love Kiroloff. I got to interview him like a couple years ago. His dad's a hitting coach. He's like a super smart guy. Of all these guys, I actually truly believe that he's one of those that can find adjustments, but his wrists are made of paper. And they keep falling off.

And there are so many bats on that team that can come up when things start to struggle. He is getting the playing time. I think it is all very close. and I would be willing to put Kirloff in there. So I think they're in a very similar tier, but I kind of get a little bit more excited about Naylor, and Moncato was really hot before he left. So that's going to be my order.

Scott does not agree. Yeah, I was going to go exactly the opposite order. I was going to go Kiralov, Moncada, Nailer, mostly just because Nailer, like, he sits a lot. He doesn't have as good a chance of a chance at every day at Bats as I think the other two do. Could agree to disagree there, but, yeah. us too. What about you Frank? You know, you break the time. Is Moncotta too for you too?

I probably would go in the same order that you did, but I think I've kind of just gained the reputation as like the Kirillov Hater. And it's not really anything against his skill set. I just don't trust that he could stay healthy. So that's the biggest worry for me. Um, but I actually I like the skill set of Josh Naler and, um, makes a lot of contact. He's hit the ball hard. I think he's just been really unlucky so far. So, uh, yeah, I would go in the same order that you went in Welsh. Oh my goodness. gracious for me from the weekend. Christopher Morel is off to a scorching start. He hit two more home runs this weekend. He is now batting 381 with three homers. One steel in just five games played so far. The average exit velocity entering Sunday was 94.6 miles per hour. He's hitting a ton of fly balls, maybe even a little bit too many, 58% fly ball rate. That is really high. But as a result, you hit the ball that hard, you put it in the air, lots of barrels. We know he has good speed. He let off two games this weekend as well. So as long as you, as long as you, as Nico Horner is out, which I don't know how long it's going to be. He did go on the I.L with

the hamstring strain. Christopher Morel looks like he has every day playing time. Scott Morrell's up to 53% rostered. He's second base in outfield eligibility. Last week I said I think he should be rostered in all category leagues. I know his skill set does not really mesh well with head dead points leagues. I kind of just feel like he's a must add player the way that he's hitting right now. I couldn't see fit to add him in any of my points leagues. You know, pretty much all All of my leagues have weekly waiver runs. So you get this kind of backlog of talent over the course of a week. I know most people listening, they have daily or even just straight add drops.

So it's a little bit different process, I understand. But sizing up that backlog of talent from the week, pretty much all my roto waiver priorities were Uri Perez 1 and Christopher Morel 2. So on a roto league where you have so many more. hitter spots to fill. We're not going to have to worry as much about Morrell's strikeout rate other than the impact it'll have on his playing time. And where the steals are more beneficial,

the steels that we hope Christopher Morel can provide. He was a pretty high priority for me. I'm dual eligible, second base outfield. There's a chance he picks up other positions in the future, depending on if they decide he's worth keeping around once Nico Horner's healthy. But so far, so good. good. I mean, the

ball he hit on Sunday, was it a home run? He had a ball that he hit more than 113 miles per hour Sunday, which is very good for anybody, but it's a new career high for him. And, you know, he's just looked every bit like a premier athlete,

and it just comes down to the question is his 30% strikeout rate going to sink him the way it ultimately did last year. But I think so far so good, worth taking a chance on if you're playing a Rotel League. Where does he play, though? Where does he play if Horner comes back? I just keep camera at my head around. Well, yeah, he could be super util or util. But like, if you want to make the story of he's a full-time player, where is it? I think it's everywhere. I think it's everywhere. I don't know that the difference between super util and versus just util, if super utilil gets to

play almost every day. And I think, so I think that's the role Christopher Morel would be filling If they decide, you know, if he continues to perform well by the time Horner gets back and they decide he's worth keeping around. Patrick Wisdom has already started to fall off after a very hot start and he has major contact issues as well. That's probably the place. There is, if there was ever, if there was a position where Morel was going to earn everyday bats, that would probably be it. But beyond that, who knows, maybe save Suzuki gets hurt again. The good thing is because Morel can play everywhere, because they don't have a dedicated DH,

they can manipulate their lineup in enough ways to get Morel in often enough that I think will be happy with him. But to get to my point about the strikeout rate costing and playing time, that it's contingent on him performing. And if he goes into a deep slump because he strikes out so much, then those that bats could dry up for him. That batted ball Sunday, Scott, which you mentioned, by the way, for Christopher Morel,

113.6 exavilo, 461 foot home run, which came off of Louis Barlin. So yeah, serious power. We know that Christopher Morel has speed as well. I think this is a good transition to talk about Matt McLean, who is one of the top prospects in baseball. He's one of the top prospects in the Reds organization, who is being called up on Monday? Because I want to compare these two, right? Who would you rather have? Matt McLean in 38 games at AAA this year was his triple slash 348, 47. 74, 710, with 12 home runs, 10 seals, a former first round pick back in 2021. He did struggle last year, but man, he got, you could not get off to a better start. There's power, there's speed, there's on base skills here.

Welsh, what do we need to know about Matt McLean? And who would you rather have him or Christopher Moreau? Yeah, that's a great question. Matt McLean out here in the AFL this past year, getting the push. We were talking about this before the show, me and Frank were like, I'm like, ah, see, yeah, see, I've been. Eating the drum of CES is going to be the first guy up. But Matt McLean has been insane.

The most important aspect of all of it has been the K percentage drop. That was a huge problem we saw in the AFL. It looked like he was just trying to demolish fastballs, demolish everything that was there. He was really susceptible to some low off speed, low breaking stuff, like to a crazy degree, it was almost Nick Gonzalez. Like, I've got some, if you go on my Twitter handle profile and type in Matt McLean, you'll see a couple of videos I have out there.

it's Quinn Preester, where Quinn Pryster was just dropping changeups on him and he was striking through it. But when he made mistakes, he had huge power, but his batting average stunk this year, the K percentage going down also kind of lines up with him pulling the ball a little bit less, and he's hitting kind of all fields. His opposite field percentage has gone up of around 30%, which also just shows the impact of what like the AFL did for him and the type of patience. He's willing to wait a little bit. He knows he can catch up to fastballs, so you cheat a little but on breaking pitches. And it's been phenomenal in the minor leagues.

He can run. His walk percentage is over 16%, which is absurd. So I say all of that to say, this has been great. We've got to see it at the majors. I have major questions if this is going to continue, because I think there was still a big hole in his swing in the AFL. It seems to be fixed in AAA.

I hope it's fixed and good into the majors. I would take Matt McLean over Christopher Morel, not just because I think Morel has been great, but my question of his playing time, which I don't think is there with Matt McLean. Jose Barrero, that's done. Matt McLean can ride this shortstop spot out for the rest of the year because Elie de la Cruz when he comes up has been playing third base.

So he can play third base for the Reds when he comes up. So Matt McLean has this gig for the rest of the year. And he's a theoretical five-tool option, just like Christopher Morel is with less strikeout issues. So it's pretty easy McLean actually for me. Scott, which way are you going? Matt McLean or Christopher Morel? Is it purely a head dead points league versus a categoriously?

Well, that's a good point. No, I don't think it's purely that, but to to that point, McLean, because his plate discipline is a strength while Morels is a weakness, you would think McLean would benefit more, you know, the points league format would suit him more. Did you give the actual stats that McLean was putting up at AAA? Yep, sure did. Yeah.

So, like, we're just ridiculous numbers, obviously. And he said for the cycle down there. is actually the second time in his minorly career he hit for the cycle. I think this is these two players, Matt McLean and Christopher Morel, it's kind of the ultimate tools versus skills debate because Morel, with how hard he hits the ball, with how fast he is, like clearly has very impressive tools. While McLean, he's managed to put up similar numbers at AAA,

but it's more, you know, with the plate discipline, with optimizing his swing in a way that maximizes, as baseball America puts it, not a lot of functional strength. He's five foot eight. You know, he kind of seems like an Alex Bregman type player to me. Does McLean? It's a very good fun. Yeah, that's a really interesting.

You know what is really funny about it? I should have prepared for it. But I have a video of him hitting a homer off of this guy, Fri Contreras, with the Padres. and it feels, now that you're saying that, you look at it and it feels very Bregman-like into the approach, and it's a slider that's missed up and he just tanks it to left field.

There is very, yeah, the non-functional, this functional non-functional power is very Alex Bregman. Like, I love that comp. Would less put that to ball skills than Breggman, though? So I think at a point, it's easy, McLean.

I mean, he's shortstop eligible and you probably have a bigger need there in that format, especially. So that helps, too, but in Roto, it's a really close call. I guess I'm going to go McLean too, but it's really close. It is. It is really close.

I think it depends on the format. I would go McLean in points, and I would go Morel in categories. If I could just choose one of them, regardless of format, I actually think I would go with Morel just because he's been up in the majors. He was up last year. He kind of failed. He went down and dominated AAA again this year. and he's back up. So he's already kind of failed

and he's back at it. So I think I would go with Morel overall, but I do like both of these guys quite a bit. Scott, I'm trying to figure out where I'm going to move McLean up to in the rankings and just kind of eyeballing our shortstop ranks right now.

You and I both have Jeremy Payne at shortstop 20. And then at 21, I have Bayez. At 22, I have a Medo Rosario. 23, I have Zach Netto. I think Matt McLean could probably just drop right in somewhere there. I think 21, just ahead of Baez, Rosario.

and Zach Netto and Bryson Stott and all those kind of guys. What do you think? Yeah, I think that range is right. Definitely ahead of Stott, definitely ahead of Netto, even though Netto Homer a couple times last week. So maybe he's showing signs of coming around. I still think it's just been the overall,

the overall production has been so underwhelming that I think I'd take the chance on McLean over him if it came down to it. All right, well, that is Matt McLean, once again, getting called up by the Reds on Monday. Hopefully we see Christian Engel. Carnacio and Strand sometime soon. I have a bit of a feeling that we will see him up

sometime here in the near future. Let's take our first break, and when we return, I've got some Waverwire pitchers we'll get to right after this. Welcome back, and a quick reminder to follow us on TikTok. If you do dabbled, ticot.com slash at FBTPod, or if you go on the app, just search up FBTPod, and you'll find us there. We take short clips from the full-length podcast from FBT and 5,

and we cover them up with highlights, and it's fun. We post some fun stuff on there. So again, on TikTok at FBT Pod. As I mentioned earlier, Drew Rasmussen is likely out for the season, I would assume. Place on the 60-day I-L with a right flexor strain.

So we are looking for replacements. We already spoke about Yuri Perez. How about some other names that could be available Waverwire pitchers, part one. Louis Varland turns in another quality start. He was up against the Cubs. Six and a third, three runs, seven strikeouts in that game,

16 swinging strikes on 97 pitches. He's 42% rostered. James Paxton. That's right. That James Paxton, he was actually solid in his Red Sox debut up against the Cardinals, five innings, two runs,

nine strikeouts to just one walk. He had 12 swinging strikes, and he averaged 96.3 miles per hour on his fastball. His last, quote unquote, full season was 2019. He averaged 95.4. So he was actually up from...

It's crazy. Well, that was the hardest James Paxton. I mean, the last full year, James Paxton averaged that much on his fastball was 2016. That's, I mean, we're closing in on like a decade ago. We're talking about that. It's wild stuff. But he looked really good in his debut.

Tyler Wells had another strong start. This one up against the Pirates, seven shot out, only one hit allowed, two walks, eight strikeouts with 18 swinging strikes. And Brandon fought. turned in his first solid start of the season, his best start of the season. I love it when the Welsh was here for Brandon Fott. Five innings, one hit, three walks aloud, five strikeouts,

11 swinging strikes on 86 pitches. Did a really good job limiting the hard contact, did lower that four-seem usage and through more sweepers and curves in this outing. Scott, we'll start with you. How do you rank this group of four? Varland, Paxton, Tyler Wells, and Brennan Fott. Okay. I think I rank them exactly as you list them here,

Varlent, Paxton, Wells, and then fought. Fought, it was encouraging. I want to see more. He's allowed six home runs and three starts. But you had to figure that eventually that talent was going to show up a little more than we'd seen in his first two. Varland, he has issues with getting hit hard, and, you know, he allowed that very long home run.

run to Christopher Morel, right? But the swinging strikes have been very consistent and very high. So he had 16 on 97 pitches in this start against the Cubs. Previous three starts, 12, 15, 14. He's got an arsenal full of pitches capable of missing bats.

So it might be a high ERA, high strikeout situation. Relatively high ERA, high strikeout situation. But he consistently goes six. and I think he needs to be rostered everywhere now. Paxton, I mean, you can't really argue with the strikeouts and the velocity. They were what they were. And it's been a while since we've seen him, obviously, coming back from Tommy John surgery and all sorts of health setbacks. He still made a glass, so you can't, like, get too comfortable with him.

But while he's there, it appears he still has plenty left in the tank. And before this recent batch of health issues, we all consider James Paxton a must-roster sort of player. So I'm back on board for now until the next health issue shows up. And then I will say for Tyler Wells, even though I rank him third of this group, getting close to the point of calling him must-roster 2. It helps that he finally had a start where he was.

looked like a bat misser, eight strikeouts in seven innings against the pirates, 18 whiffs on 96 pitches, five on the fastball, eight on the slider, five on the change-ups of that. It had it all working. Mostly this year he succeeded on

limiting hits by way of fly-balls, which is a dangerous game to play. It works for some pitchers, Tristan McKenzie. I think it works for Bailey Ober, basically. So far, it's working for Tyler Wells. But if he can, if he can sustain the bat missing potential he showed here on this start Saturday,

then there's not going to be much to complain about. He might just be a pretty good pitcher. Well, so any quick thoughts on your boy, Brendan Fott, turning in his best start of the season on Sunday? Yeah, I think it's just huge. The biggest thing to take away from this is that he can learn and he can change. And, you know, he's a real boy. That's the big thing.

Like, he's a real pitcher. Like, this is exactly what I wanted to see. I wanted to see the fastball perceiving. go under 50. In his last start, it was like 70% through the first two or three innings, which I assumed was a strategy because he does struggle the third time through the order to get more of his off-speed stuff. And that kind of ended up happening.

This game kind of evened out. It was more sweeper. What we really wanted was more curveball. Had a 33% whiff rate on it. And I wanted to see more of that. I think this is encouraging. I think the team has huge trust in him. They believe this guy has ice in his veins.

And I think if you're talking about upside, I'm not, listen, I've heard enough about Brandon Fott, but I think you can put him too on this list. Because if you really want to, like, get through the whole mold of playing the high upside, I think Louis Varlane is the top guy. I think, Scott, I think that's what you said. I think, like, he's the very tippy top of this list for me. But I don't have big trust in Paxton. He also got a bunch of really bad calls on the hump.

I was watching that game strikes in some bad corners that let him get out of some situations. Tyler Wells is fine. Paxton, if he gets back to who he was before, might be the best, but he's made a glass. So I think this is Varland fought. And then I'm fine. Like, Paxson looked pretty good after a really rough first inning. I could go with him and then Wells or put Wells there. But if I'm playing kind of the full season upside, that's how I would look at it.

If I was playing a little safer, then you probably put Fott at the bottom because he has a home run issue. There's no doubt about it. He did it again today. But I'm encouraged that he's learning and the pitch mix is getting better. That's a great sign for a pitcher. Sometimes adversity is not the worst thing in the world for development. It sucks for fantasy.

And we're taking Yuri Perez over this entire group, right? Yes. All right. Part two, I've got five names here. Kyle Bradish turned in a quality start up against the pirates. Those pirates, by the way, they are coming back down to Earth. The offense is obviously faltering here, so I think we can get back to streaming some pitchers against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Six innings, one under a run, six strikeouts for Kyle Bradish in that one.

JP France has now turned in two solid starts for the Astros. He went six and two thirds, one run, three strikeouts at the White Sox. Rwanzi Ketrares, it's been a very interesting season and a very interesting season. and a very interesting line in this one, seven innings, two runs, one walk, one strikeout, two home runs allowed. That was up against the Orioles. Braxton Garrett put up a season high,

eight strikeouts against the Reds, five innings, one run, eight strikeouts. Changed his pitch mix up in that one, and had 14 swinging strikes, so I was kind of impressed by what we saw there. And Kyle Freeland, I know he's like the boring, whatever, but, I mean, he's got a 3-160 array

and a one-one-one whip. So he's... Don't get, don't fall for it, Frank. All right, all right. It's not going to end well. I just thought I'd bring his name up. Don't do it. Of this group, Scott, who are your three favorites?

Freeland, Garrett, Rowan Zy, Contreras, JP, France, and Braddish. Well, I'll first say that this is a much less interesting group than the last one. Yeah, to say the least. I think Kyle Bradish is still my favorite. I think there's the most upside there. He looked great in the start against the Pirates. Got a lot of whiffs on the slider specifically. As you point out, Pirates offense is crap.

pretty hard somewhat predictably. But even before this start, I would have said Bradish had the most upside of this group. So I'm going to stick with him as my favorite. And my second favorite, like we just haven't seen a lot of swing and miss from Contreras this year, so I don't think it's him.

I might just go for the mystery box here, J.P. France, which isn't a hearty endorsement for people to pick up. France, but you know, he's looked solid through two starts, had great strikeout numbers in the miners. Bad walk numbers, and I imagine we'll see those rear their ugly head

in the majors sooner than later. But I think he's interesting enough that he's at least worth monitoring. Not so excited about picking him up. Okay. So he would be two, then Contreras, three, then Garrett four, and Freeland, a distant fifth.

All right. Let's get into some way of wire hitters, and I had some outfielders I wanted to talk about, a huge weekend for Jake Frailey. He had a double dong on Friday and then a sock and a shoe on Saturday. He is now up to five homers and four steals. 31% roster. He's got a series in Coors Field

coming up this week as well. Michael Conforto looks like he's slowly coming around. He had five hits this week, this weekend, rather, two home runs. One of those coming off of Brandon Fott. Is Dominic Fletcher a thing? Well, I'd like to get your thoughts there. Monster weekend for him, two,

three for four with a homer on Friday, two for four with another homeowner. run on Saturday. He makes a lot of contact. He's hitting the ball hard so far. And Brian Dale La Cruz had six hits this weekend as well, went two for three with his third home run on Saturday. Welsh, how do you rank this group of outfielders? Friley, Kenfordo, Dominic Fletcher, and Brian Dale Cruz. All right. I think I would go freely at the top. I've been, I've been impressed at least with some of what those outfielders have been able to do, not named, you know, Stewart Fairchild. I love the ballpark factor. Homer.

stolen bases, 267 batting average will do it. Hard hit number is pretty low, which I would love for that to improve, but good walk rate, no bad strikeout rate. Hard hit can start to come. And also,

if you really look at it, like what he's done without hitting the ball super hard, I mean, his hard hit percentage is bottom 7% of the league, and he's still been able to put up some good power speed numbers. I think he's at the top.

I think the big question, like you said, is like Dominic Fletcher, like how real is this? You know, he put up, he put up some stuff in AAA. He put up some hard hits.

He's a small, guy, David Fletcher's brother, makes a lot of contact, and it is just ripping right now. This will come back down to earth, but it's a great strikeout percentage. Walks are going to get probably a little bit better. I love the max EV near 110, and he's already put up almost a 93 average EV, which is crazy. I mean, he's doing what everyone thought Alec Thomas was going to do. What Alec Thomas's underlying numbers told us, that's what Dom Fletcher is doing.

And he plays great defense, much better than Jake McCarthy. So I don't think he's going anywhere. So I look at this group. I think it's Freyley at the top. And again, I'm kind of like, I'm a little bit more of an upside play when I look at this, Frank. So I go Freyly, probably Fletch.

You know, Brian De LaCruz, Fletcher, Conforto. I think that's how I'm going to do it. Conforto doesn't do a lot for me here. I think Fletcher's exciting. But Brian Dele Cruz, I've thought could be a poor man's Teosca Hernandez when he's good. And I think he's kind of trending in that direction. Also an injury with Hazie Sanchez,

going to keep him in the lineup a little. bit. So that's going to be my order. Scott, are you taking Kirillov over this entire group? Again, Fraley, Conforto, Dominic Fletcher, and Brian Dela Cruz. I'm taking Fraley over Kirillov. And you remember, Fraley was one of my big breakout picks coming into the season.

I tried to draft him in basically every roto league. I did draft him in several. This was the first week I sat him. Naturally. Naturally. Oh, geez. But hey, you know what? I'm not going to sit him

next week. He's one of my 10 sleeper hitters, got the series coming up at Corse Field, as you mentioned, Frank. So he's number one, and then I put Kirloff behind him. Between the others, you know what, I might just as soon have Fletcher at this point. I guess if you're playing it safe in a deep league and like you're stuck with this guy, rest of season, Conforto would probably be my choice. But if you have more maneuverability, I think I'd see where this Fletcher thing takes me. I have been surprised by how hard he's hit the ball.

Hasn't been like amazing ex of velocities, but he's already hit a ball harder than his brother ever has. His hardest hit ball is harder than David Fletcher has ever hit one. So clearly there's more power. And the minor league numbers were great. I kind of wrote him off because it was, you know, we've talked a lot about the upper levels in the diamond back system and just how hitter-friendly they are.

But 323 at AAA this year, 312 between triple and AA last year. And yeah, as good of a defender as he is, it seems like he's going to play a lot. Again, that is Dominic Fletcher. Let's take our final break when we return. I got some news and notes here on fantasy baseball today. Welcome back and a big shout out to everybody watching us live on YouTube. We just passed over midnight here, so it's pretty late on the East Coast.

730 people watching us live. So again, we do appreciate you hanging out. Make sure to hit that like button, subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. Let's get into some news. And notes, Janice Chisholm was out of the lineup Sunday due to turf toe and is scheduled to see a specialist, which sounds like it will end in an IL stint. I would be happy to be proven wrong, but it doesn't look too good right now. Jose Altuve started a rehab assignment at AAA on Friday. He should be back with the Astros within the next few weeks.

Mason Miller is scheduled to receive a second opinion on Tuesday. The original diagnosis was elbow inflammation, but no structural damage. No, Scott, I usually get nervous when I hear second opinion, but his original diagnosis wasn't a bad one. So I don't know. How should we feel about this second opinion coming? Well, I mean, yes, the initial diagnosis was as good as we could have imagined it being. So a second opinion, like it could only be worse news than the original.

It either confirms the initial opinion or it's worse. So I don't take it as good news that he's getting a second opinion. Gosh. I have them in my main event league. And man, I'm just like holding on for dear hope here. Yeah, hopefully. I mean,

I think it's like the worst. Yeah, it's like the worst thing you could have. Like we got out of it. We're all like, and they're like, no, and they're like,

oh no. This is not good. There's, there's nothing good that's going to come out of that. Yeah. Oh, gosh. All right.

Well, that is Mason Miller. Yandi Diaz was removed Sunday with left groin tightness and we'll undergo an MRI. If, it's a big if. Diaz has to go on the IL.

Well, so you think it's possible that we see Kyle Manzardo with the Tampa Bay Rays. I had a few people tweeting and asking me. Manzaro had a home run in three straight games entering Sunday down in the minors. What are your thoughts there? I do not. And I wish I could say they would because he deserves it. He has been a monster. Eight homers in AAA this year hitting 287.

Strikeout percentage still under 20%. He's been awesome. I just, this is just not how the Rays really. work because they've also got Aranda. I don't, Ronda hasn't been playing particularly well, but, you know,

if they want to go down that road, they've got guys with some major league experience. I'm not personally looking. I don't recall if Manzardo is even on the 40 man yet, but if that is out there, Rondo would be another reason. I do think there's, I think Manzardo is going to be sticking longer than anybody wants.

It's just a gut feeling. I mean, I did talk to him in spring and, you know, they talked about him maybe switching gloves and playing around. And there's also the futures game that's going to be in his hometown. that just little tiny things that probably wouldn't preclude them

if they really felt he could help them win now and they might so I don't want to say never is never but they do have a guy in Aranda who's been up before and I kind of just feel that the team would go in that direction first unless maybe this is a long-term injury but look at what they did with Taj Bradley so I don't know I'd like to be helpful but it's the raise they kind of give the least hope of anybody with prospects right now

plus they could it could be an excuse to find more for Luke Rayley or Harold Ramirez or, you know, they just, they have so many players that we would like for them, we would like for them to play more and maybe they would too. And this presents an opportunity. Monsardo, I checked, is not on the 40 man yet. Yeah, so I think that's a big thing that keeps it off. And I think they want, like, just my impression with talking with him and his run with the

raise is that I really feel like they are going to slow roll this. But that is the cue when he immediately gets called up tomorrow on when everyone's listening to this, he'll immediately get called up because I said, that, so you're welcome. Liam Hendricks will be re-evaluated after Sunday's appearance at AAA. He gave up four runs in his rehab outing on Thursday, and there is a good chance that

Hendricks returns to the White Sox at some point this week, which is obviously fantastic news. Carlos Hordaunt threw on flat ground from 60 to 75 feet on Saturday and Sunday. He had a cortisone shot in his back last week. John Carlos Stanton did defensive work on Friday, and

will be part of the Yankees' outfield mix once he returns. He's about a month into a six-week absence. Trevor's story has been hitting and throwing at the Red Sox Spring Training Complex in Florida. He's expected to return sometime around the All-Star break, maybe second half-ish. He's 48% rostered, so if you have an IL spot, go out and stash Trevor's story. JD Martinez was activated from the IL Friday. Michael Bush was optioned back to AAA.

Joey Gallo left Sunday's game with a left with a leg injury, but manager Rocco Baldelli expects Gallo to be in the lineup Monday. CJ C.J. Cron was removed Sunday due to back spasms and is expected to be placed on the IL. He was replaced by Mike Mustakis in that game. And I would just say in deeper leagues, watch out for Elehiros Montero because since he got sent down, he's actually been crushing it in the minors again. So wouldn't surprise me if he gets called back up by the Rockies. Alex Wood will start Monday against the Phillies and we'll face the Marlins later this week as a part of a two-start week.

28% rostered. Scott, any interest in Alex Wood for the Phillies and Marlins this week? I mean, he might only go three innings, given the way the Giants operate. So I wouldn't consider that a high priority, no. Anthony Deis Celfini left to start Saturday with a toe injury. Do you guys start him this week up against the Marlins? Obviously, it's a good matchup. We just don't know how healthy Deis Cofani is right now.

Yeah, I mean, it probably depends on the circumstances, but I try not to start him. I guess is how I'd put it. Yeah, if you had a better option, go that way. Eric Lauer has been moved to the Brewer's bullpen with Colin Ray, taking Lauer's spot in the rotation. Anthony Rendon was out of the lineup Sunday due to left groin tightness. Surprise. Anthony Volpe was dropped to seventh in the Yankees lineup this weekend.

How did he respond? Five hits, two homers, and two steals. Yankees infield prospect, Oswald Paraza, began a rehab assignment at AAA on Sunday, and Orioles prospect, Joey Ortiz, was recalled on Sunday. Sunday. He started at shortstop and was betting ninth. Welsh, do you think Joey Ortiz will play enough to have fantasy value? I don't think so. I feel like, I mean, already with the kind of up and down, I think this is, you know, see what you got.

Get in the, the plane movement. And I think when they're ready to make the big move, it's Jordan Westberg time. And that's why Jordan Westberg is, I mean, I think Colton Cowser is the first one. I think he has a, you could get him in right now and you can make this work. And he's been the best bat. But Westberg is right behind him. And that's the next way. of what's ready. I would not be shocked, to be honest with you, if that team also just say, you know what, we got to let Gunner get right. And they dropped him down and they brought Westberg up. And a guy like Joey Ortiz, actually, in that situation, he could move around and maybe even play third for them. And Westberg could be their, you know, future shortstop. However they want to do it. Players who went to the IL this weekend, AJ Puck with nerve

irritation in his left elbow, Dylan Floro picked up the save on Sunday with Tanner Scott pitching in the seventh. Floro is 30% rostered. Scott, do you have any, or did you have any bids in on Dylan Floro, you know, looking for saves. No, but I probably should have. I probably should. Because I do think, I mean, Skip Shoemaker has, or Schumacher, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Skip Schumacher. I was just about to be like, Schumacher? I was just about to go down that. I didn't want to go down the whole road, but I was looking at the same thing. Sorry. The way he manages, the way he's managed his bullpen so far, very conventionally, consistently, Floro, eighth inning guy, puck, puck, ninth inning guy. So to see Flora get the first save after Puck goes down, I think.

I think he's going to be a pretty reliable source of them in the interim. Other players who went to the aisle this weekend, Nico Horner with a left hamstring strain, Nick Ladolo with left cast tendonosis. And keep an eye out on Andrew Abbott. We'll see if maybe he potentially gets to call for the Reds as well coming up soon. Max Kepler with a left hamstring train. Trevor Larnick was back with the team and hit a home run on Sunday.

Hasu Sanchez with a right hamstring train. Really rough timing as he was starting to heat up. Elvis Andrews with a strained left oblique. Hanser Alberto started at second base on Sunday. And really scary stuff as Rocky starter, Ryan Feltoner got hit in the head with a line drive on Saturday. He was placed in the aisle with a small fracture

in his skull and a concussion. So wishing the best there for Ryan Feltsner. Some pitcher questions, Scott. I know it's way too late in the podcast, but let's talk about your guy. Chris Dale. Yes. Is he back?

Eight innings, one run, nine strikeouts to just one walk. He had 16 swinging strikes. And over his last five starts, a 316 ERA, a 0.96 whip, is Chris Sale back? He's back, baby. We thought this last start. Last start, actually, he got his velocity. He averaged like 96 on his fastball. It was back down to 94.9 in this one.

So that might have been a one-start blip where he's just fired up to 50. Bryce Harper or whatever. But the point is the results have been good during that five-star stretch right, where there was only one misfire or the last five have been great for sale. And throughout his career, he hasn't needed that top-end velocity.

That was just kind of a short time in his career where he was throwing that hard. And obviously, he's had a Hall of Fame-worthy career almost. So, yeah, I mean, between Chris Sale and, Alex Kierloff, I feel like it was Scott White Revenge Weekend. And I was loving every minute of it. I was here for it. Got so much crap for Chris Sale all those weeks.

And hopefully, hopefully I'm getting the last laugh here because I never, I never lost faith in my guy, Chrissy, sale. Chris is usually not like to be called Chrissy, by the way, just from personal experience. I'm not trying that out to you. I mean, it's not like, it's a little bit of a firecracker. It's not like he has a history of losing his temper. And I think I'll be fine. I just wanted to add to with Chris Sale, because I was kind of focused on him this weekend. Over the last two weeks, 30% K percentage.

He had the seventh best K minus walk percentage at 28.2%. I was really intrigued by this as well. His slider has the highest whiff rate since 2019. And his change up has the highest whiff rate since 2019, I think it is, 18, 19, those. So those two, when you talk about the fastball and where is that living, his slider and change up have been more affected and are getting more whiffs than they have in like three or four years. So that's contributed. And it really, really is encouraging to see everything he's doing. He's been awesome last two weeks and really under the hood looks even better.

So he's a big buy right now. Bryce Miller makes it back-to-back school of starts. This weekend he was at the Tigers. He went seven shutout, three hits, zero walks, three strikeouts, only seven swinging strikes. And he did a little bit differently in this one. He lowered the fastball usage, relied more on his. slider, his curve, and his change, but just one earned run and one walk allowed in three starts thus far for Bryce Miller. Walsh, are you putting Miller out there at the Atlanta Braves this

week? Obviously, a much tougher task. Yeah, I think I'm still, I think I'm willing to risk it with where he's going. I mean, this could be the one. You have to know that that's happening, but I'm encouraged where he's going. I was talking earlier in the week. It's funny. It looks like Sivan has kind of picked this up, but where they were lying, his sweeper was out. actually his curveball and where their, you know, his pitch mix has really been kind of a of a whole thing. And we got some more information about what he was doing and why he struggled at the lower levels.

I love to see the pitch mix changes. And I think that's been really key for him. As fun as it is to see big fastballs and guys be able to work off of that and get whiff rates, you really need to see them be able to go to the secondaries. That's what we worried about in the very beginning with Bryce. And he's already showing, you know, the complete inverse of that, even if he loses a strikeout. So I'm, I'm pretty encouraged with how he hasn't been hit up.

obviously be cautious, but I think I would do it at this point. All right. Scott, a few names that got knocked around this weekend. And frankly, both of them have just been underwhelming this year. Nestor Cortez up against Tampa Bay, four and a third, six runs allowed, only three strikeouts. The ERA is 553. The whip is up to 1.32. And Sandy Alconcant, a hit hard once again. By the Reds in Miami? The star wasn't even in Cincinnati.

It was like so random. Seven and two thirds, six runs allowed. He did have nine strikeouts, 18 swinging strikes. What's going on with Isu? Nessar Cortez and Sandy Alcantra. Well, I'm not that worried about Alcantra. Obviously, his previous start was awesome. It was more Alcantra-like than what his season-long ERA would suggest.

And he's just been inconsistent. That's really what it's come down to. But the stuff is still really impressive. His ground ball rate is lower. I mean, is higher. He is allowing 50. Fewer ground balls this year is Sandy Alconjord. That's, you know, looking at the under the hood stuff, that's a little out of character for him.

We're actually wondering how his ground ball generating skills would translate in a post-shift league. But that hasn't been the issue. So I guess you can take some comfort in that. That's not like it's not like the ground ball-ball-heavy approach just isn't working for him anymore. He's not giving up as many ground balls as he usually does. but I think he's fine. I think he's going to be fine. Nester Cortez,

there's more reason for skepticism all around, and obviously he wasn't valued on nearly the same level of Sandy Alcantra coming in. It's been a bad stretch, the last four starts with an 853 ERA. He was doing pretty well before then, and like a lot of the, I don't know,

I guess the whiff rate has slid some during this rough four-star stretch for Nestor Cortez too. I don't know. I don't have a great explanation for what's going on for him and I think it's reasonable to worry a little at this point,

but I'm not, I'm not to the point of like moving on from Nestor Cortez. I think you gotta give him some leeway for just a rough patch, four-start rough patch, which is basically what it boils down to. Yeah, I think there's just a few things

just on the fringes that have taken a step back for Nestor, the walks are up. He's always been a flyball pitcher, but he's up to 58.5% last year that was 47%. So he's allowing more hard contact and as a result, a few more home runs. So it's just been a few different things, just again, around the fringes at the Blue Jays this week.

I think I would try and get away from Nestor Cortez if you can afford to do so. His XERA is 348. It's worth pointing out. The other expected stats, not wild about what he's doing. He's giving up a lot of home runs, which is part of it.

And you mentioned the fly ball rate being way up. But in terms of quality of contact, Stack has still likes him, giving him a 348 XERA. All right. Let's get into a few other leftovers from this weekend. Pitching standouts, part one. Spencer Shrider now has double-digit strikeouts in three of his last four starts. He went six and two-thirds with 12 strikeouts at the Toronto Blue Jays. On the other side, Chris Bassett tossed a two-hit shutout against the Braves.

He had 19 swinging strikes on 103 pitches. Sunny Gray, another strong start up against the Cubs, five and a third, nine strikeouts to one walk for him. And Corbyn Burns has now turned in three straight quality starts. He was up against the Royals, six shutout with seven strikeouts there. Welsh, lots of names, you know, a couple quick hitters here, but any thoughts on Strider, Bassett, Sunny Gray, and Corbyn Burns. Yeah, I mean, strider, strider, I didn't know what to do at this point. Like, Strider is just so dominant. Even when he's not dominant, he's dominant, if you know what I mean.

Bassett was really fascinating to watch in that game as well. The CSW percentage going up, the whiffs. I mean, he has had just kind of, he's just been up and down. And I was really encouraged with how he was mixing up the pitches and being able to command. I mean, that's something we really need to see out of him. Sunny Gray, again, I think Sunny Gray has established himself in a place as well. And this is encouraging, you know, for Corbyn Burns. Because I don't know how you guys are, and we don't have time to talk about it,

but like where the falloff has got on Corbyn Burns this year because of inconsistencies of like, is he still in that top tier? Does he belong in that top tier? As guys have moved up? You know, is he at the bottom of the tier of, you know, the strider moved up and passed him.

You know, my Klanahan versus Burns, I think is like a fascinating debate right now for people willing to buy in that Burns gets back dominant or where Shane McClanahan has been right now. But I think the big one was the, I was impressed with Chris Bassett this weekend and that might be a buy for the future. Bassett, by the way. and seven starts since getting rocked on opening day,

a 197 ERA, 0.94 whip, and that's despite 4.3 walks per 9 during that span. So he is pitching really well, even with some lackluster control. Another instance of it would have been better to ignore his spring training entirely where he got crushed and was throwing like three miles per hour softer

and everybody was freaking out, especially after that opening day start. But yeah, he looks fine. Again, that is Chris Bassett. Pitching, Handouts, Part 2. Blake Snell and Dustin May both pitched well against each other on Friday. Snell at the Dodgers, six innings, two runs, four strikeouts.

He now has three straight quality starts. Dustin May on the other side, six and two thirds, two runs, three strikeouts. He has the lowest qualified swinging strike rate amongst starting pitchers. 5.8% for Dustin May. It's kind of weird. It keeps getting worse, too. It's lower than Kyle Quanchrell and Wade Miley. So just to put that in perspective.

Joe Ryan keeps dominating. He was up against the Cubs, six shutout with 10 strikeouts and 18 swinging strikes. John Gray, two dominant starts in a row. He was at the Oakland A's eight shutout with five strikeouts. And Scott, remember our last start, we were talking about the slider velocity being way up for John Gray. Apparently he's made a mechanical tweak to that pitch and that's, you know, that's what he credits for these last two starts and for that slider being as good as it has looked. Any thoughts here? John Gray, Joe Ryan, Dustin May, Blake's now. And it stayed up in this start at Oakland, even though he didn't get as many strikeouts, obviously, had a great final line.

So I'm encouraged by the direction John Gray is headed. I don't know that we talked about him. Remember, I had those seven pitchers to sell high on last week. D'estemae was among them. I mean, he has a very good track record in terms of keeping runs off the board. He's always kind of underwhelmed with the strikeouts, given how visually impressive his stuff is. You know, it's kind of like a,

kind of like a Class A situation, a manual Class A situation in terms of, you know, stuff looks impressive, strikeouts aren't there. And maybe that's just his formula. But like, it's never been this low in terms of missing bats. And he has such an extensive injury history on top of it. I kind of just want to get a, out while he has this 216 ERA.

You know, cash in, obviously, not dump them. Cash in, realize those gains and not have to worry about where it goes next. Because maybe it'll be in a great place, but I have some concerns. Again, that was Dustin May. This last group here, and I do apologize. I mean, we're an hour in, and I'm only talking about Mitch Keller now, who was, like, arguably the most impressive pitcher in the entire weekend, but it's just there's so much going on. And, you know, we've recently talked about him and how he's,

breaking out. So I don't want to overstate it, but yes, he has been amazing. This last group of pitching standouts, Julio Arias posted another quality start. He was at the Padre, seven innings, two runs, four strikeouts there. Dylan Seas turned in his first quality start

since April 16th. He just really likes pitching against the Astros for some reason. Six shutout with five strikeouts in that one. Zach Gallin, seven and two-thirds, two runs, six strikeouts up against the Giants. Tanner Bybee, he bounced back with a great start against the Angels on Sunday,

seven and two thirds, one run, seven strikeouts to zero walks. The zero walks, obviously huge. He had four walks in his last outing. And Mitch Keller follows up his first career complete game, a shutout the last time out. He goes seven shutout innings with a career high, 13 strikeouts at the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday. Welsh, obviously, lots on packed here. But I think the two that stand out to me most, Mitch Keller and Tanner Bobby, obviously. Yeah, I mean, Mitch Keller is moving.

moving into like a completely another range of like how we need to be valuing him. And it's tough because he's a pirate's pitcher and we look at that. But I mean, he had an over, you know, 42% CSW called strikes and whiffs on Sunday. That's it's an absurd number, 28% overall whiff rate. And the sinker, whether it's getting whiffs or not, it's making guys just stand still. 10 called strikes on that sinker. He's, you know, theoretically, I guess you want to look at it. It's like three different versions of a fastball that he's,

covering the entire zone on a sinker, cutter, and then a four seam. And then he's getting a sweeper in there, getting a 40% whiff rate. I mean, he looks dominant. He's hitting his spots. I'm all in on Mitch Keller. And I think this was like exactly what you needed at a Bive coming off of that last start. You needed the rebound. We wanted to see the stuff again, 31% CSW, 29% swing and whiff.

Fastball was there. The change up had a 38% whiff rate. I thought this is the exact type of bounce back that proves kind of the stable, young, stable pitcher that he is. But Mitch Keller is moving himself into a completely different tier of pitching, regardless of being a pirate. We did have some monster weekends on the hitter side of things as well. Anthony Rizzo, Nolan Aronado had seven hits, three homers, a sock and a shoe on Sunday for him.

Luis Roberts having a monster may so far. Christian Yelich, three straight multi-hit games. He had a double dong on Saturday, a sock in a shoe on Sunday. he's up to seven home runs and nine steals. Bryce Harper, the fact that he didn't have any rehab and he just looks like Bryce Harper so far is unreal. Estuary Ruiz hit his first career home run. This weekend, he also picked up another steal.

He's up to 18 steals. Ronald Acuna, another homer for him. Two more steals. He's got eight home runs and 17 steals so far. Speaking of the speed, Whitmerfield, five steals this weekend, including three on Saturday alone. Not much power.

I think, you know, obviously we suspect that at this point for Marryfield, but he's hitting 281, he's got 12 steals, so you know, doing the things that we like to see from him, and back-to-back multi-hit games for Salvador Perez has the batting average up over 300 for him. A few bullpen updates here for Tampa Bay. This weekend, Jason Adam struggled on Friday, but then bounced back on Sunday,

picked up his fifth save of the season. Yankees situation is kind of a mess right now. Michael King entered on Friday in the seventh inning with the game tied. Two to two, he was facing. the heart of the raised lineup, and he pitched a clean seventh. He came out for the eighth. He gave up a three-run homer to Josh Lowe. He was relieved by Clay Holmes, and Wondie Peralta would eventually pick up the save. And Wondi Peralta picked up another save on Sunday. Scott, do you have any feel for the Yankees bullpen right now?

I mean, it's not with great comfort that I say this, but probably got to pick up Wanda Peralta, right? In deeper leagues, at least, I would say, yeah. Back-to-back days with the save and all of the other candidates worked before him on Friday or Saturday, Saturday, right? The first of those days. Yeah, I mean, I don't, I, like, it's hard to imagine a scenario where with all those relievers, Peralta, is just the Yankees closer. But who is? I don't know. I think it's completely open right now. And would surprise me if Holmes like works his way back into it. But I think they want Michael King to be the guy, but, uh, obviously faltered a little bit there on Friday and they used them earlier in the game too.

For Boston, Kenley Jansen allowed five runs on Friday and Saturday combined. He took two blown saves and two losses. He had three pitch clock violations on Saturday alone and you know we kind of had some concerns about that. It hadn't been an issue up until now but man he looked he looked pretty bad for the Phillies this weekend on Friday Craig Kimbril struck out three for his fourth save. He's 59% rostered but then on Saturday Gregory Soto picked up his first save 12% rostered. So out there in deeper leagues, Walsh,

do you have a feel right now for the Phillies bullpen between Kimberl and Gregory Soto? I thought we were going to be going to Matt Strom. I thought Strom was going to be one of the guys. So no, I know. I mean, Soto makes the most sense.

Soto makes the most sense of all of these guys. So, Estrom would have been my speculative ad in there, but Soto is a good ad right now. That's the best guess I could get. But there's quite a few of these that are like, all right, you know, flip a coin, make your pick.

Heads at Soto. There you go. Yep. And then I want to mention the Braves on Sunday. Raisal-Glasis entered in the ninth with a one-run lead. He gave up two runs on a walk and three hits. The fastball velocity was down 2.1 miles per hour. The slider down 2.8 miles per hour.

Scott, how worried are you about Rice-Leglacias right now? Yeah, I'm a little worried. A little worried coming back from a shoulder issue. His, what, fourth or fifth appearance back? He sees his velocity drop like this. hopefully it's just an isolated event

but keep your ear to the ground because it may not be yeah to stream or not to stream let's wrap up here we'll start with Monday and if you were looking at

the same names that I am this group is yuck not looking good I can't even say this with that much confidence I think Michael Waka against the Royals is okay

but man I think that's I think that's fun I really don't like this game. I think Dane Dunning against the Braves is probably fine. Dunning has pitched well, but you know, obviously it's the Braves. Balsh, anyone stand out for you? I don't know.

Bailey Falter versus the Giants, maybe? I mean, it's not great. I think Walk is the play. I was trying to see if I was into David Peterson. I'm not. So I don't know. Like if you're really desperate, Peterson and Bailey kind of jump out to me, but walk is the play. Yeah, I thought about Falter 2.

The Giants are 26th and Woebugg against Lefties, so they do sure. strike out like crazy. Falter might be able to jump into a few more. I think that might be, it's a risky play, but that might be my sneaky one. On Tuesday, I think Bailey Ober is a standout,

even though it's against the Dodgers. He's pitched very well. And frankly, he's better than a streamer. But if you're just looking for that, I do like Ober at the Dodgers. And don't really love much else. I think the way the pirates are scuffling right now,

Michael Lorenzen has pitched well recently. So I think that's probably the only other one. Scott C. but that's probably the best choice after Ober, I would agree. Yep. And him Silseth, maybe? Anything Silseth against Baltimore? That kind of jumps out, maybe.

Yeah, he's filling in for Jose Suarez. Welsh, I know you have a personal grudge against Jose Suarez and finally out of the rotation on the IL. Selseth pitched well in the minors this year, but the Orioles offense has looked pretty good. So maybe if you're desperate, he's the third on that list. But yeah, we're looking at Billy Ober and Michael Lorenzen. We're going to wrap there for Scott and the Welleson.

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