Fantasy Baseball Today - Fernando Tatis On Fire, Spencer Strider Struggles & Waiver Wire Moves (6/15 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 15, 2023

Matt McLain just keeps hitting (1:30). ... Shohei Ohtani and Fernando Tatis are on fire (8:33). ... How do we rank Garrett Whitlock, Ranger Suarez, Reid Detmers and Kyle Bradish (15:53)? ... Jose Abreu has turned it on in June (23:10). Geraldo Perdomo or Orlando Arcia? ... What's going on with Spencer Strider (37:37)? ... News (45:40): Yordan Alvarez is out at least four weeks. ... Is now the time to sell Justin Verlander after a strong start (53:30)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (55:46). 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 Tough Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, June 15th. Frank Stample joined by the Chris's Walsh and Towers.

Today on the show, Fernando Tatees Jr. is on fire. Spencer Shrider's ERA is on fire. Fun waiver wire pitchers, a pitching duel out in city field, and much more. 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 on Apple or Spotify. For those watching us live, apologies. This is by far the latest start of the season. It's just five West Coast games.

on a Wednesday night. It is just a killer, man. Like, there's still games going on. So, yeah, we had to wait for results and it's, it's really frustrating. But here we are. And let's talk about baseball. That ball had a family. Welsh, why don't you kick us off?

Because we are talking about a Reds player. It's just not L.A. LaCruz. Yeah, not the one that you think we might be talking about with the family. No, we're talking about Matt McLean. Who? Matt McLean is doing wild things. To the credit, like, I can't even.

even like understand from the guy that I saw in the AFL and some of the minor leagues passed, there were big strikeout issues. There were just overall swing and chase issues. Now you got a guy who's under 30% in the majors, 43% hard hit rate, barrel percentage over 10. I believe you had this crazy stat before we were kind of chatting about him. What is it, 40 hits since his debut, which is what the most or tied for the most. Is that right? Yeah. So since Matt McLean was recalled, he leads Major League Baseball with 40, 40 hits and that's tied with Freddie Freeman and one more than Luis a rise.

Which is absolutely crazy. And, you know, the great thing that's gone on with the Reds is like the prominent spot that they put some of these young guys in. And Matt McLean just kind of almost instantly got thrown into that number two spot. He has dominated not only fastballs, but breaking pitches, hitting 364 against, which has been nuts. Off speed, he hasn't seen a lot of. That's where his struggles are.

I imagine that is what's going to happen at some point. but you're talking about high, high sprint speeds. He's making great contact. His XBA is still in line pretty solid, I believe. I just went away from it, but I believe it's around 280. Yeah, 279 right there. So, I mean, it's in line for whatever regression is to come into play as a number two hitter. He is going to be, I don't call him like, isn't an elite fantasy option,

but he is league winning potential for where you got him, probably even from a fab standpoint. I watch him night in and nine out. and, you know, we're kind of focusing on an L.E. Day Le Cruz so much, but he just makes it happen. He gets stuff done three more hits tonight. Matt McLean is incredibly exciting and really is kind of opening up the space for, you know, our shortstop ranks and rest of season. We did a lot of focus on, hey, what does Ellie look like rest of season at shortstop? But let's not forget Matt McLean. And God knows if they were to do something with Jonathan India, like, was being speculated. In the near future, he moves over to second base, just gets more eligibility.

Matt McLean, very, very valuable. And I don't know about you guys. I mean, do you think Matt McLean, top 10 shortstop rest of season. Is that insane? I don't have it ranked that way. And I guess you could get him pretty close. I have him at 14. He's still behind Danesby Swanson. Look, if you want to take McLean over Danesby Swanson, I have no problem with that. Same tier. But then we get into Zander Bogart's who, look, that lineup is starting to click. I think I want Zander Bogart's giving that track record.

Nico Horner, I think there's probably a conversation. He slowed down a little bit. Tyro Estrada, I have 10th. And he's basically picked up where he left off since he came back. So I think the highest I can get him is probably 12, but he's in this 12 to 15 range for me. I mean, shortstop is kind of bonkers right now. Because like I've got Carlos Correa 20th. And I still have a lot of faith in Carlos Correa being a very good hitter moving forward. I've got, I've got Matt McLean 18th, which is probably too low.

But that's also only one spot behind Gunner Henrik. who I think is awesome. It's just that I've got 18 short stops in my top 125 overall right now. Donner and Matt McLean is a fun conversation too. Yeah. The position is just super deep right now. And, you know, it drops off pretty quickly, I would say, right around that point. You know, you got Royce Lewis is also awesome.

He's 22nd for me. But then you've got Anthony Volpe and I'm in Rosario. And there's a drop off. right around 20 or 22, but those 22 are real, real good. And yeah, it would be hard to get Matt McLean in the top 10, but it's not a knock against him that he's not there. Yeah, I think it's the space. And by the way, I misspoke.

I said three hit, three RBI, two hits, had a Homer today and that bad age up to 328. I just look at him and I think all the guys that you just talked about, I think it's a clump of a tier that we're just waiting for separation. Like I know you say, Frank, you're saying like Therstrom and Swanson and even Bogarts. I mean, Bogart's is great and this offense is clicking. But if you are looking from like a five category standpoint, Matt McLean might cover a little bit more, you know, especially if the running starts to get going. So I just think it's a big clump.

It's a tier. He's valuable. Whether you want to, you know, poke at where they sit is 18. This is 14. This is 12. He belongs in this really valuable tier of a guy that you got off the wire. And he continues to go. it's been an awesome month so far. It keeps going. And he's showing really, really great

sustainable signs of barrel percentage plus the over 40% hard hit percentage, big focuses without going and putting up crazy strikeout numbers. Matt McLean, very awesome. Well, it's real quick. I know you brought up the question. Who would you rather have rest of season? Just in redraft. Matt McLean or Gunner Henderson? I'm turning back with Gunner. I'm still a little bit worried. The strikeout percentage has dropped. He's actually finally got the season total under 30%. This last like three weeks have been really good. My gut says if we're starting from this moment on right now, Gunner is going to be a little bit more impactful.

But I do want to point back out. My whole point is like five categories. Matt McLean might take three of those five categories. I don't think it's hard to say. So I guess I would lean Gunner Henderson, but I don't feel great about it. I do want to shout out. We talked about this last night.

I hypothesized that Gunner Henderson was doing better because his swing rate was higher as the season has gone on. and we weren't able to confirm that last night, but Chris Swick from Yahoo Sports used to work with me at CBS Sports way back in the day. He showed me how to find that. And Gunner Henderson's swing rate in April, 37% in June, 43% in, sorry, 37, 43 in May, 50% in June.

So matches up with the hypothesis there for me. And Gunner's got that mix to, like I've struggled with is like you go and everybody has done that you've looked at baseball savant but it's like you take hard hit numbers which are top 10% of the league and then you put it with almost you put top 12% barrel percentage and you just start getting going you just get it going swing percentages up he's making better contact you put it with some of those underlying things it there's the tools for an elite player there's a reason he was a huge top top prospect so i don't know i think really good things are to come for gunner henderson there'll be a tiny bit of regression at some point obviously 320

batting average with Matt McLean, but McLean has been awesome. Gunner equally cool. And for Matt McLean, last point on him, up to 79% rostered in CBS, I still think that should be closer to 100%. 61% rostered on Yahoo. So I know those are shallower head-to-head daily lineups, but somebody out there needs Matt McLean on their roster. So if you play on Yahoo, just check to see that he is not available in your league. Towers, you are up. Oh my goodness gracious. Yeah, I know we try to sick with more fantasy relevant stuff and typically like lower rostered players.

Shohei Otani is my pick. Just like because he actually made me say, oh my goodness gracious, he was one of two things today that made me say that. The other one was Hazer Sanchez saving a grand slam with the Marlins up four in the bottom of the ninth, which was pretty nuts. Shohei Otani has now in this series against the Rangers,

he had three different home runs that he hit to the opposite field that were on the inner half of the plate. That is nuts. That is, he hit a 453 foot home run today that was on the inner half of the plate that he hit to the opposite field. According to Codify Baseball, in the stat cast era, this was the first home run hit over 100,000. 16 miles per hour by a left-handed batter that was hit to the opposite field. Look, there's nothing here. We don't have to spend a lot of time on it. He's one of the five best players in fantasy.

He's the best player in baseball, probably. He's one of the most talented players we've ever seen. But it was just, I tweeted a video of all three of his homers in this series. And again, three different opposite field. home runs that were on the inner half of the plate. You don't do that. That is just, uh,

he's incredible. Your point yet, I feel like we're talking about him less too. With everything that's gone on, maybe last year with the race and everything of him and pledge, it just feel like there's like a little bit less talk. We're so,

you know, LA, Dela Cruz is coming up and all the rookies and all this excitement. I feel like there's like a little bit less like, wow, what the hell is happening in the show, he's having probably his best season as a header. He is on,

a 50 homer pace while hitting 299. He has 21 home runs already. Yep. He's incredible. Speechless. Well, you know, guys, speak for yourselves because I'm wearing the Shoahe Otani's shirt, so I haven't forgotten about him. Still, uh, show my God.

That guy has been ridiculous and especially in June. He's just like really turned it on here. Maybe part of the reason we haven't talked as much about him is the pitching has taken a little bit of a step back. I was looking at his numbers since the start of May. And I think he has an ERA close to like four and a half during that time. He's giving up a lot of home runs and some walks in there. Still getting a ton of strikeouts.

But, you know, the pitching, all right, taking a little bit of a step back. But the hitting has. He's only like the 21st best pitcher in baseball while on pace for 50 homers and 25 steals and a 300 average. You know, washed. I'm just looking for a reason why we might have forgotten about him. But, yeah, Joe Otani has been amazing. Look, Chris, I'm going to follow your lead here. I wanted to talk about Fernando Tatis.

I don't know that there's anything actionable about it, but there were question marks. Maybe not for towers coming into the season, because I know you loved him, but just around the fantasy industry. And I think that they were mostly warranted, a player who hasn't played over the past couple of years, who was coming back from a suspension and a shoulder surgery

and a wrist surgery and all that stuff. And he is on fire. and he looks exactly like the player he was before. He went three for four with a sock and two shoes on Wednesday. That's now up to 14 homers and 10 steals in 47 games. 150 game pace, 44 home runs, 31 steals. He's also batting 283 with a 303 expected batting average. He's still Fernando Tatis.

Nothing has changed. He's still amazing. So he picked up exactly where he left off. And, you know, I was going to bring this up And I was like, ah, maybe there's a conversation to be had Like, Tati Surakunya rest of season. There's really not a conversation to be had. Once I looked more into it, Akuna, like, Akuna played a double header on Wednesday.

He went three for five, hit his 14th home run, stole his 29th bag in game one. 461 foot homer, by the way. And then in game two, he hit his 15th home run. So two homers on the day. Oh, sorry, it was only 429. thing on the first one. The second one was 4-61. Yeah, he is,

he's on pace for 30 homers and 70 steals. The most steals ever in a 30-homer season is 52. Wow. If he stays healthy. We might have multiple players that break that by the way. We just want to throw that out. We have multiple players that might have 30 homers with more than 52 stolen.

Yeah, I think Corby and Carroll's on a similar pace. Yeah. That's exactly right. Gosh. So as long as Acuna stays healthy, that guy is going to be breaking records this season. I really don't think there's a conversation. Ronald Acuna is the number one player, but hey, Tatez versus Otani.

Yeah, that's probably a conversation. If Aaron Judge was healthy, I think, you know, he's right in that mix as well. So yeah, back to fantasy prominence and should be, you know, fun next season drafting as well. You know, an interesting thing, too, a change we've seen from last year. And I wonder, and I feel like he's setting himself up for an even stronger second half by being able to do this, is this year he's hitting over 3.30 against breaking pitches, which, you know, he's seeing 30 plus percent of the time. So, you know, slider-based pitches. He's hitting 33. He hit 222 last year. He's suffered, he's suffering currently off of the fastball where he's only hitting 258 against 324 last year. But he's setting himself up by not letting anybody be able to cheat on him against breaking pitches. He hit 222 against us last year.

That's like a wild change. That's a dramatic wild change. And to know the damage he does off a fastball that he's not currently doing it, it speaks wonders to kind of what you're talking about with Tatis Jr. And I think what's to come for the rest of the year. All right. Well, just to put a bow on this conversation,

talk about a few other players on these respective teams, the Braves and the Padres. Michael Harris has turned it back on in June. Thankfully, the first two months, basically a loss season up to this point. But he goes four for four in game. one of the double header. Fifth Homer, seventh steel. He had two hard hits in that game, including a double that was 112 miles per hour off the bat. So love to see it.

Continued success, hopefully, for Michael Harris. And look, if we could ever get all these Padres going at once, they basically all had a great game here. Mani Machado hit his seventh homer. Juan Soto hit his 11th. Zander Bogartz went two for three with his seventh steel. If we get all those guys going, not to mention Gary Sanchez, wow. Just imagine what can be with that Padres lineup. Quick heads up here. I mentioned a programming update yesterday that Chris Howers and I interviewed

a former All-Star outfielder, and that will drop on Thursday at noon p.m. Eastern Time. So in the podcast feed, on YouTube, wherever you want to watch. Some fun stuff on Otani in there as well. Yep, some conversation about L.A. Dela Cruz as well. So you can find that in the podcast feed. Let's talk about some Waverwire

pitchers. A really fun group here that emerged on Wednesday as well. Garrett Whitlock, two great starts in a row, up against the Rockies in this one, seven innings of two-run ball, seven strikeouts with 17 swinging strikes on 92 pitches. Of course, it's worth mentioning. Those two starts have been against an Aaron, Judgeless Yankee lineup and the Rockies on the road. Obviously, very good matchups. Rangers Suarez, four straight quality starts. He was at the Diamondbacks, no Corby and Carroll in the starting lineup, seven shutout innings with seven strikeouts. There, he had 10 swinging strikes on 105 pitches. Over his last four starts, a 1.35 ERA and a 105 whip for Ranger Suarez.

Reed Detmer's, two strong starts in a row for him at Texas. That's a really tough place to pitch. Six innings of one-run ball, eight strikeouts with 15 swinging strikes, and the last name on this list, I don't know if he's as fun. But Kyle Braddish, strong start up against the Blue Jays, seven innings, one run. One strikeout, kind of weird, but nonetheless, a good start. for him. Towers will start with you. How would you rank this group? Garrett Whitlock, Ranger Suarez, Reed Detmerz, and Kyle Braddish. I'm pretty sure I have it ranked

Detmer's Whitlock, Suarez, and Braddish. I'm still a believer in Detmer's. I still like the stuff. I know the results haven't been great overall, but I think he can pretty easily go on a run like he did last year once he came back from AAA where he was a very good pitcher. So He gets the edge, but I'm also a big Whitlock fan. I've been a believer in him. You know, obviously staying healthy has been an issue over the last year and a half or so. But there are some interesting things going on with him that I want to, you know, like hopefully Lance Brasdowski does one of his great pitch metric breakdowns on Garrett Whitlock because looking at him tonight, his fastball velocity was up a little bit. His change up velocity was actually down two miles per hour.

So getting even more separation on those two pitches. Fastball average 94, changeup down to 81.2, was also getting more vertical break with the pitch, so getting more drop. And that'll be interesting to see. But, yeah, nine swinging strikes with the changeup. It's a bad Rockies lineup, six swinging strikes with the sweeper as well. So everything was really working for him. And yeah, I would like to add Detmer's and Whitlock specifically,

everywhere they're available, but I also think, you know, Ranger Suarez, there's a lot to like there as well. Remember, he was a very good pitcher two years ago. Yeah, yeah, two years ago. Last year, he was serviceable, but he's looked great recently, Ranger Suarez has, you know, his first couple of starts, he got rocked. He was working his way back from. I think it was either an elbow or a forearm injury, so it makes sense that his first couple of starts were a little bit rocky, and now he's starting to get going. Ranger Suarez has changed his pitch mix to see, season two. He's throwing less sinkers. He's nearly tripled his curveball usage, which has been a great pitch for him this year. It is really close with this group. I think long term, I would put

Dettmers at the top of the list just for upside at some point this season. But if you're looking just for next week, Garrett Whitlock looks like he's lined up for two starts at the Twins, at the White Sox, and Ranger Suarez is going up against the Braves and the Mets. So one rough matchup and one not so rough matchup. Welsh, how would you rank that group? Whitlock, Swares, Dettmers, and Kyle Braddish. Yeah, it's the same rank. I mean, you guys kind of covered all the points that I would have hit. Ranger Swarres is actually a little bit more interesting to me because of exactly what you guys talked about. It's that curveball usage that's gone up and you're seeing big whiff rates out of it 33%. Also, when you look at like the zone charts, you know, you can sometimes,

I was actually doing this today with we're doing these blind plays. And sometimes you can just look at a blind you can look at a chart and you can be like oh that's the pitch that has to have the most whiffs on it and i did that with a guy and a change up and i actually think it's a really impressive chart because ranger doesn't strike out a whole bunch of guys there's a lot of underlying metrics that's going to do really well with that but i think he's just becoming a better pitcher and that zone i mean he's sinker coverage inside the plate curveball on the lower half he's not leaving anything really inside and he's able to make it work i actually think that's sustainable for him and going to give him some cheap strikeouts i kind of like that but read deadmers is

the top of the list for me. That slider really looked good today. I was watching some of that game. Big whiff rates on the slider and curveball. The fastball seems to be down in general, just as far as like the impact that it's having, the slider, we all know, up way in Velo. And as long as he's like finding a comfortable place and being able to command, those big whiff rates out of the slider are going to be impactful. So he's got way, way big upside. I agree Whitlock is too. But I think Ranger is really close to that. And Ranger would be someone I would keep an eye on, kind of like we'd talk about in spot start area. he is, probably not against the Braves though.

Like, definitely not against the Braves. Don't. And would you guys be okay dropping Drew Smiley for any of those names? He gave up five runs over six innings pitched and over his last four starts, a 604 ERA and a 175 whip. Yeah. Towers? Sorry, what was the question?

Would you be okay dropping Drew Smiley for anyone in that? Absolutely, yeah. Okay. Were you watching the Hayser Sanchez catch again? I was looking up some Eric Davis stats. Somebody challenged my 50 home, my 50 steel stat in the chat. So I had to, I had to, you know, I had to confirm my numbers. I was right.

Defend yourself. I don't think it matters, but who knows? One pitcher here that I have written down is a 27-year-old named Osvaldo Bito made his first major league start at the Cubs. He allowed one run over four innings pitched with six strikeouts. And the pirates are looking for a fifth starter. They recently moved Rwanzi Contreras. to the bullpen. And is there anything here, guys?

Osvaldo Bida? Not in my mind. There might be some interesting underlying stuff. I think Quinn Priester is someone to maybe keep an eye on. Quinn Priester pitching the AFL last year. He's had a pretty good minor league season, especially as of late. Maybe that's something that's going to get pushed up.

And Quinn might get some second half run. If he does, I'd take a look at him. He didn't do well going deep into games, but he's got like a big old slider. serviceable in like mid-90s fastball. So Quinn Priestier might be someone to work up, but this don't do it for me, Frank. All right.

Let's take our first break. And when we return, we'll get to some waiver wire hitters here on fantasy baseball today. Welcome back and streaming live on Paramount Plus. The ultimate international soccer rivalry is renewed when USA takes on Mexico in the Kankakav Nation's League semifinals.

The U.S. is two wins away from defending their title. And it's once again Mexico's standing. in their way, looking for revenge. This is more than just a match. This is a battle for regional bragging rights. USA versus Mexico tonight, Thursday, at 10 p.m. Eastern Time, streaming live exclusively on Paramount Plus. Try it free at paramountplus.com slash live sports.

Some waiver wire hitters, we continue to talk about Jose Ibrahim, because much like Michael Harris, his first two months were a completely lost season. And now June, you know, the calendar flipped to June and everything has changed for Jose Ibrahim. He went three for four with his fourth home run of the season, added three RBI. He blasted this one, 109.6 exit velocity,

417 feet, multiple hits in five of his last six games. And so far in the month of June, Jose Ibrayu betting 327 with three homers, 13 RBI, and a 917 OPS. So if you lost Pete Alonzo and a shallow League or Vinnie Pasquantino who unfortunately is out for the season. Jose Brayu, 79% rostered could be out there. Luis Matos did indeed make his debut on Wednesday.

He got the start against a lefty in Jordan Montgomery. He went one for three with a single and a run scored. He was pinched hit four by Michael Conforto later in the game in the seventh inning going up against right-handed pitcher Jordan Hicks. And Welsh, get some of your thoughts here on Luis Matos. I really just hope the Giants don't mess. this up. I know they like to play matchups and they play splits quite a bit. I just want them to let Luis Montos go and play as much as he possibly can. Your thoughts just on his profile and whether or not

that will happen with the Giants. Well, I'll speak to what you just said. I think we just saw their hand. I think we saw the foreseeable future hand. That's pretty in play. I got a lot of outfielders, even with the injury to Hanager, there's still a bunch of guys. I don't think anybody really in tune with like the athleticism that Matos has to play centerfield. But they played their hand. It was like the seventh inning and they pinch hit for him. I think it gets a righty. And that was like going to be his third at bat or whatever. It was kind of ridiculous for the opportunity. But so that's that. So are they going to screw that up? Yeah, probably. But Matos has a chance to be pretty dang successful. Obviously had an insane minor league season. The strikeout stuff

has been pretty crazy too, you know, because I've seen this guy since like a ball or a rookie, really rookie ball. And the strikeout dip to under 7% at AAA is pretty mind-boggling. But he doesn't, there's not a lot of stuff in the swing. I mean, he's pretty upright and he just has a very easy motion to attack. He has really good vision and crazy bat speed. He laid it out in the NFL. It's laid out here at AA and AAA. He's put up those numbers, can hit the ball hard. Homers, I think, are a little bit overinflated to what we saw in the miners to what we'll see in the majors. But I legit think he can be on a full season. You know, 15, 15, 15, 20.

We have to see where the stolen bases are going to go. I think he's a great points league guy. Categories, rest of season, we'll see. Matchups might take up some of those opportunities. But Luis Matos, I think, in like 12 teams is viewable. Anything lower and probably not, unless, you know, you just like to stream out. You want to, like, if you have some type of keeper format, maybe pick them up. But yeah, they're going to screw this up a little bit.

see how much opportunity he gets, but I think he will continue to hit and not really hurt anybody for points league. So I think that's what's a big plus for him. I was updating my rankings earlier, and I moved Luis Matos up to my 54th ranked outfielder just ahead of Nolan Jones and Jack Swinsky. It's kind of a tough group for me there. Well, would you take Matos over both of those guys? Definitely Nolan Jones. I'm a little bit of like Nolan Jones hater or whatever. Like, ooh, you got your four stolen bases last week and you're in Colorado. That's all great, but I don't by long-term batting average. I think Nolan Joe's a better, like, he's a really good OVP guy,

but other than that, I'm not interested. Swinsky's kind of interesting because I like the power potential there, little bit hot and cold, streaky, almost like a, like there's a James Outman-ness to him. But I think I might take Swinsky over Matos. But again, like, those are all the same tier. If you can kind of interchange those players and you have the ability to pick up Matos, maybe you do.

You know, there's nothing that Swinsky's doing that's going to, like, make him an instant pickup. Just see what you have. out of my because that's actually the cool thing with Montos. I'm downplaying some of the offensive potential, just like a tiny bit. But at the end of the day, like, he might step into more power and he might aggressively run. Or he might just be like a cheaper outfield version of like, I say Louisa Rise. Like, you know who the Walmart version of that is Emmanuel Rivera.

And like that's who Montos could theoretically be in the outfield, which doesn't make him like a super great fantasy option. Maybe he becomes like a Stephen Kwan even. That might be a more recent. decent cheap. Yeah, like a like Masataka Yoshida. You know, that kind of like yeah, we're talking a little strikeout. Strikeout rate. Yeah. Again, that was Luis Matos. Mitch Garver I want to talk about. He went two for four with a double a run and RBI in eight games since returning from the IL. He's betting 300 with one homer, four doubles, and an 87 OPS. Towers, there's no doubting when Mitch Garver plays. He's a good hitter. And

he's in one of the best lineups in baseball. He's 27% roster does have catcher eligibility on CBS now. Would you take him over Gary Sanchez, a name that we spoke extensively about yesterday? Hmm. What does the playing time look for like Garber? So he's been back for about 12 days. He's played almost every day.

He's played eight games. Yeah. Started seven. Yeah, for a cat. I mean, that puts him, I think, squarely in the number two catcher conversation, which is where Gary Sanchez is.

So I, if you wanted to have, if, If you have more faith in Garver than Sanchez, I think that's fine. Sanchez does appear to have the playing time edge right now. But, you know, I don't have a strong lean one way or the other. You have to choose. You're not going to get a strong opinion about Mitch Garver versus Gary Sanchez out of me, unfortunately.

Okay. I will say, I don't know, it is tough because Mitch Garver is so injury. I've got them both right at the low end number two catcher range. I think I have Garber ranked higher so I guess that will be my answer. He is a really good hitter when he's on the field. It's just can he stay healthy? That's the big question. Two middle infielders

that could be available Welsh from your diamond backs. Haraldo Perdomo went three for four with a double, a walk and his seventh steal he was leading off in this game batting very quietly $297 this season, five homers seven steals and 875 OPS. I think for most

of the year he's only been playing against right-handed pitch which is surprising considering he's a switch hitter. And Orlando Arcea went four for eight with four RBI across the double header. He's now batting 331 with an 853 OPS. Welsh, who would you rather have Perdomo or Arcea? Oh, man. I want, okay, I want to say Predomo, not just because I'm a, you know, blowhard Homer or anything like that, because I've watched a lot of him and he's,

he's good. He's a good player, makes a lot of contact. But, you know, I don't want to completely ignore the, underlying stats. And you look, and it is, it's, it's, yeah, that's, that's the best word. It is disastrous. The hard hit is the bottom of the league, 1%. The barrel percentage is trash. I hate, and you can, there's always that line of like those guys that are like two or three percent barrel percentage. Like, what do we know about them? They don't hit homers. Maybe they can hit for contact. Usually you're not going to even see great speed numbers out of those. So I'm worried

he's going to come back down, but he's going to get playing time. He's earned that. The Diamondbacks love him for that. I just don't know. the sustainability of what his stats are going to end up looking like. And it's like the opposite with Arcea. It's great batting average, good hard hit numbers, barrel percentage is serviceable, he's not striking out. And it doesn't look like Von Grissom is any actual threat to his gig at this point. So I'm going to say Arcea against my better Homer nature here

and watching Perdomo as much as I do, it's going to be Arcea over him. Yeah, Perdomo is currently the league leader in the difference between his XBA and his BA, his ex-slug and his slug and his ex-Woba. He's outperforming his ex-Woba by 92 points right now. That's the highest mark. 90 on the XBA. That's a wild. It's a 200 expected batting average.

He is outperforming his expected sluging percentage by 178 points. His X slug is 286. Now, like, these stats aren't perfect. And there could be something in his profile that makes him prone to outperforming those stats in a way that they might just not account for. But the kind of margins we're talking about here are much larger than you could reasonably expect moving forward, in my opinion, at least. Yeah. And also like what you said, Frank, too, you said he's not hitting a lot against lefties. Like, that's a guy he, you know, probably would have been even more of a disaster against a shift.

You know, like he can make some of these changes and that might be a little bit of benefit for him. He can get under the ball. And that's been, you know, a little part of his game where he has hit some absolute no doubters. Because the guy has a really good plate vision. He really does. It's just two and a half percent barrel percentage. That's DJ LaMayhew. That's John Birdie level stuff.

It's just, it's not offensively sustainable. Yeah, it is interesting. You know, I'm trying to find something that can debunk why he's so bad, but he does not hit the ball hard. The plate discipline is really good. 23 walks to 33 strikeouts for Perdomo. But I agree. I think we got to go with Arcia. If for nothing else, the playing time. And as good as the Diamondbacks lineup is, it's not the Braves.

So I'll take Orlando RCA. They also got a guy. She doesn't throw this out here. Not saying it's going to happen, but Ryan Bliss leads the minor leagues in hits. They also have a kid named Jordan Lawler. You might be familiar with him. But Ryan Bliss at AA leads the minors in hits as former Auburn second baseman shortstop that if there were to be some thing go on and they need to make a move,

He has been one of the biggest turnaround prospects in the minors this year from last year to this year. He's hitting over like 320. It's like 300. He's power. He's speed. Everything looks good across the board. And, you know, he's, this is a college bat from a couple years ago that there are options. There are two good middle infield options that I'm backs can turn to if things, you know,

go sour offensively for them. So there's no like, you know, there's no, there's not like there's not a guy behind him if there are some big struggles. You mentioned the word turnaround there, and we'll quickly mention Jordan Lawler, who we spoke about recently, was struggling mightily, lots of strikeouts. He is kind of flipped a switch in June. Strikeouts are down. He's playing much better. So, you know, one of the top prospects in baseball, we needed to see it. And he has turned it on recently. Frank, can I give you a quick fun stat before we move on to the next player? It's relevant to the next player. Sure. Let's do it. How many players in Major League Baseball this season have a batted ball over 118 miles an hour? You feel free to guess. I think Stanton actually hit into a double play today. He did today, so it's not.

So now it's three. I always didn't say, okay, three was going to be my guess. Okay. Would you like to try to name them? One of them is John Carlos Stanton today. He's not showing up on the leaderboard, but he did have a grounded into double play at 118.3 miles per hour. Would you like to guess the other two?

I'm going to guess because I see the next player on the list. Could one of them be, well, I'm going to save that guy because we all know who it is now. I'm curious. It's not Ellie. Ellie hit one. No, his is like 115. Did Cron hit Cron hit one? Nope.

It's a very good player. Aaron Judge. Not Aaron Judge. She is seventh at 117 miles per hour. Fernando Tatis. Not Fernando Tatis. I give. Chohei Otani.

Not Shohei Otani. We know who the one is. We can't get this middle one. We can't get the middle part of the same much. I have no idea. So Matt Old has the hardest hit ball in the majors this season at 118.6 miles per hour. Jake Burger. is the only other player in the majors,

besides Matt Olson and Giancarlo Stanton, to have a batted ball over 118 miles an hour. Not entirely sure what to make of that, but it's pretty impressive. Oh, he crushes the ball. There's no doubt about it. And I was just looking to see, he just added another home run in that game.

So two for five with a double dong, Jake Berger now to 15 home runs, 15 homers and 174 plate appearances. that is a 350 ISO. Now, let me quickly pull up the league leaders because, I mean, that has to be among the best. If he qualified, if he qualified. I bet he doesn't qualify, but even if you take it off, he's close enough. If he qualified, that would be second in baseball behind only Aaron Judge.

That's pretty good. J.D. Martinez is actually second. That Pete Alvarez. That's incredible. Yeah. And you pair that too with, you're going to probably guess, but like, you know, 93rd percentile hard hit. but also 99%tile in barrel percentage

and over 20% barrel percentage to go with those hard hit numbers and a better expected batting average by around 30 points than his current one. Jake Berger's something else, man. I mean, you know, that roster just, it's just dropping like flies in the outfield, but they have too many infielders

to try to make it all work with what they're doing. I'd love to just, I'd love to see Burger in every single day to get this across the year. Yeah. Yeah, they've got to figure it out because the way that he's mashing right now, he's 44% rostered. It's hard to call him a must add because he hasn't been playing regularly enough. He has started six straight, so that's a good sign. And I know he was taking grounders at second base recently, but as good as he's hit and how bad Yo'amongata has hit,

I think they have to find a way to keep Berger's batting the lineup. So if you're playing a league with corner infielers, a roster size that deep, then I think Jake Burger absolutely should be rostered. And look, if you're just desperate for power, pick this guy up and let's see where it goes. Because this is just like a trust the stats kind of player. And if he gets up playing time, maybe he turns out to be like a 40 home run guy. You know what's so odd is like, why are they working him at second? I don't have to like pick on.

He's like a big guy, whatever. But Yohama kind of came up as a second baseman. He played second base for the wise. Just move him over. Let Berger have third base and move him over. I don't know why we have a big playing time issue with Berger win. You have a guy that literally can play that position that you think there is a whole lot. Just move Moncada over.

Yep. All right. Let's talk about Spencer Strider. Maybe there is no consensus SP1 because that's the conclusion that I'm coming to right now. And Spencer Strider was knocked around by the Tigers of all teams. He gave up five runs over five innings pitched. Three homers allowed in that start. Still had 17 swinging strikes on 95.

four pitches. He's given up a total of 13 earned runs over his past two outings that gets the ERA up over four for the season. And just a few worrisome things that I've noticed. If you look at the strikeout numbers and underlying numbers, Spencer Shrider is the best pitcher in baseball right now. But his fastball velocity is down 1.2 miles per hour compared to last year. And it was 96 miles per hour in his previous start, it was 96.6 in this one. So it's been down and it's kind of trending down in the past couple of starts. So just something to watch is giving up a lot of hard contact

the season when opposing batters can actually make contact against him. It doesn't really happen often. But Towers, your latest thoughts on Spencer Shrider and I don't know. Who's your latest SP1? Is there a right answer? I don't think there is.

It's been Garrett Cole. I think since I moved Corbyn Burns down, I just kind of moved, it was just kind of Gary Cole slotted up one and Strider's number two and McClainan's number three. But yeah, everybody seems to have some warts. I mean,

Garicall's actually been pretty consistent for the most part. There have been a couple of blips, but his strikeout rates way down. So that's a little concerning, certainly holding him back. I would guess Strider, is he the number one pitcher in fantasy?

At least before this start, I would assume he was, even with a slightly elevated ERA. Yeah, I, I don't know. Like, maybe it's just that like the fastball when it's 98 is just completely overpowering. And when it's 96 to 97, it's a little more mortal. You know, I was wondering like, because I did notice he's throwing his fastball a little less this season. He's throwing the slider a little more. And I was wondering if maybe that was why.

but he's actually given up seven of his nine home runs with the fastball. Last year, six of his seven home runs came on the fastball as well. That's not terribly surprising given how much he throws it. But, you know, it's still, you know, it's not necessarily like he's changed his pitch mix. And that's why it's just that the fastball's been a little less effective. But I don't know. I don't think there's too much to worry about here.

He was never going to, you know, what did he end up with last year? a 267 ERA and 200 strikeouts and 131 innings. Like, I expected some regression from there. And the fact that it's mostly just come from, he's allowing a couple of extra home runs in June, I don't think there's too much to worry about. Maybe there's no consensus SP1,

but whatever order you want to put Strider, McClan, Cole, Burns, whoever, like, I don't really have a strong, strong feeling. Because it's June, right? if it was April or March, I guess, I would have to have a strong take on who the first starting pitcher off the board should be because you have to make that decision. There are not a lot of situations where people are making any kind of decision between Garrickle and Spencer Strider right now. You know, like whether you have one one, one, one, two, I don't, I don't think it matters all that

much. And that's all to say, I'm not too worried about Spencer Strider. Yeah, I think the question becomes it's people like, can I be safe to buy Spencer Strider? Is this a good buy low? Is he still good? And I think so. Yeah, I completely agree. You know, one of the interesting, I wonder, I'd love to hear it. And I don't know how you can really do this like to a mile per hour.

But there's a part of me that wonders like, is maybe the backtrack on Velo a little bit about sustaining, you know, from where his innings were last year to this year and being able to have the full rigors of a whole season. And maybe that's part of it. You know, there could be something in there that's like, hey, we need to back off to make sure we're, you know, watching our injuries. I don't know. The other thing with the hard to hit is it's coming from the slider. If you go and look, it's actually about the same hard to hit percentage on the four seam as it was last year.

It's almost identical. But last year, 22% hard hit percentage against the slider. It's up to 40% this year. And looking at the zone chart, it's hugging pretty hard on that corner where he laid it out a little bit more last year. So, you know, there's a better tape on him. Velo's down a little bit. Guys are probably sitting on that bottom corner on the slider a little bit more. And maybe they feel they can cheat a little bit more on the slider.

And that's what's building all to this. But, you know, I think we can pick and try to, you know, find all the little things. At the end of the day, it's really, like you said, Towers, it's about like, do you feel comfortable that he will be okay and he's still one of the top pitchers? And in my mind, yes. I would love to buy low on him right now. even though he has the biggest warning sign of all of them for us as analysts, Velo dip.

I'm okay with it. Maybe I'm making excuses. I think this will get righted because he is a unique talent and I will buy low. Yeah, I tend to think, you know, Garry Coles had some stretches like this over the past couple of seasons as well. I tend to think it's just this happens. You know, outside of Jacob de Grom, outside of, you know, a handful of seasons, everyone has stretches like this.

the only thing that you did say that it did bring to mind is just as good as he was last season, he didn't have to go full bore start of April through the end of the season. He was pitching out of the bullpen until late May. And so it was, you know, it's an unanswered question. It's at least, you know, can Spencer Strider do that for a full season? That still remains to be seen. I tend to believe yes, hence why he's still my number two starting pitcher. And if you have him number one, you'll get no complaints for me.

Just looking through the top 10, it just seems like a big glob. And you can, you know, you're splitting hairs on each of them. It's I have a strider, McClain-Han, Cole, Gosman, Otani, my top five. Yep. And then Burns, Gowan, Wheeler, Valdez, Castillo. But like you said, I mean, every one of those pitchers has either had a blow-up start or a stretch where, you know, they put a little bit of doubt in your mind. And that's, that's why we're, you know, it's, there's no consensus.

It's just kind of a big glob right now. And I kind of screw this up too because I, I think I have McClanahan as like kind of my top guy, you know, with the team. I think baseline, maybe it's not a sexiest strider. I just like the arsenal a little bit better. The wins are getting there. But like you said, it's just like intertwining all these guys. I agree.

Like, I think the 10 you name, those are like the guys. Just makes them around a little bit. Even McClain's taken just a teeny tiny step back in the underline. line numbers. The RA, 2-1-8, 10 wins, he's been awesome. But XERA is down to 365, strikeout rates down, walk rates up. It's like, I don't know if it's a pitch clock thing, but there does seem to be just like a little wart on every elite pitcher now. Yep. Let's take our final break. And when we return, we'll hit some news and the leftovers. We'll do that here on fantasy baseball today. Big thanks to everybody watching us live. Make sure to hit that like button and subscribe to the channel.

you haven't already and once again a reminder that Chris and I did an interview with a former All-Star Outfielder, a World Series champion and that will be dropping today at noon Eastern Time so make sure to check that out. I want to know. Can I find out after the show where you guys tell me who it is? I don't know. I don't know. Can I leak it?

Can I leak it? I'm going to find out. I will know before all of you but you'll get it when you wake up. You'll be fine. All right. Jordan Alvarez is expected to remain on the IL for at least four weeks, which means we likely won't see him until after the All-Star break. Vinnie Pasquantino.

Ah, we've got to retire the sound bite, I guess. Baby! Vinny P. will undergo surgery to repair Torne Labrum in his right shoulder and is expected to miss the remainder of the season. Expect Nick Prado to see most of the playing time at first base moving forward. Joe Musgrove has been wearing a compression sleeve on his right arm for much of the season, because he's dealt with elbow

bursitis. There are no plans for any downtime, but rather the issue is something that he'll have to manage. And this sounds kind of worry. So, I mean, anytime anything with an elbow, would you guys try and swap Musgrove for another top 30th starting pitcher

just in case to play it safe? Can you do that? Yeah, I mean, yeah, I think so. I don't like that. That doesn't make me feel... It has been shrouded in injury stuff. And I think back to spring, when I heard him literally talking about like new grip changes and he was changing up. He had a new grip for his change up and just a lot of this tinkering, a lot of the weird injury stuff. Obviously the toe thing not related to this, but I don't think I'm excited about it. I don't, this is not, this is something if I could get out with like an even return.

I definitely would. I just don't know what it looks like. I kind of feel like you might have to do something where you're getting like a lower pitcher that you believe has more upside and then maybe like another little piece. I'm not sure there's an even swap there. Either way, I think you have to take a risk if you get out from Joe Musgrove in the player that you get and got a hope to buy. Like, you know, here might be an interesting one. If you could trade Musgrove to get Bobby Miller after the news we heard today with Bobby Miller staying in the rotation, and maybe you got like another little piece, is that something you would be willing to do taking the upside of Bobby Miller rest of season?

I think that's fair. I move Bobby Miller inside of my top 50. So it's not that far off. And it depends what that other pieces. But if it's a low end starting hitter or a reliever that can help your team, yeah, I think that's probably fair. It would have to be another piece. I moved Bobby Miller up to 43 at SP.

So I'm being pretty aggressive with him. I think there's a lot to like there. Are you worried about Musgrove enough to go for this, to try to do this? Or is this like, all right, cool, we'll just go through it. Because I think that's what this is about. Like you're saying, I got to have that other piece. But are you worried about Musgrove enough that you want to go and try to make this move? I just don't know what Bersitis means.

Like, that's not literal. I actually know what Bersitus means. It's a little fluid-filled sack in your joints that cushions your elbow and it gets inflamed. It's also in your other joints. But what I mean is I don't know what it means as far as like his likelihood to pitch at a high level and stay healthy because, you know, I just went baseball perspective has this great. injury database going back to, I think, 2018. I just did a search for Bersitis. And I couldn't find an example of a guy who went on the IL with elbow

brisitis. Jack Flaherty dealt with shoulder Bersitis last year. That was the primary issue for him. Taiwan Walker, I think, also had shoulder Bresitis last year. But elbow Bersitis, I mean, it's not good, right? It's inflammation in your elbow. I just don't know if like, does that mean he's more likely to suffer a tendon injury or or is it just like he's going to have some swelling that he's got to deal with?

I don't know. So it's an unknown for sure. And as soon as we started talking about it, I made a point to move Joe Musker of down. But he's still a top 25 guy for me. So I would have to like if you wanted to trade him for Dylan Seas, I think that's reasonable. Or Pablo Lopez or George Kirby, like that range of pitcher.

I think that's fine. but Bobby Miller would be lower, yeah. I don't want to sell low just for the sake of getting rid of Musgrove, but yeah, around that range. I think Pablo Lopez is a good one because the underlying numbers for Lopez are actually still really good. So you might be able to pull that off. I have Tyler Glass now right in that same range.

I don't know how realistic it is, but you could try. So again, Joe Musgrove dealing with elbow bursitis. MRI results revealed that Max Muncie has a grade two left hamstring strain, manager Dave Roberts said the Dodgers won't place Muncie on the IL just yet. There's hope that he can return by Saturday. That's weird. Yeah. Grade two hamstring strain, like, at least in my memory, I feel like that's automatic IL. Like a grade two hamstring strain. And so the fact that it's like, yeah, he'll be back on Saturday, but I'm skeptical.

I am skeptical as well. And it's not like they could just D.H.M. either because they have J.D. Martinez on that team. So, yeah, doesn't, does not make a lot of sense. Kutel Marte was out of the lineup due to lower back tightness, but I think he pinch hit in that game. I saw him playing at some point, right Welsh? Cotel Marte. Yeah, I believe, I believe so. Lars Neupar will start a rehab assignment at AAA later this week.

Salvador Perez left with a left-hand contusion after getting hit by a pitch. Nick Lidolo received encouraging results from his MRI, but he won't be able to return until August at the earliest. This is probably the weirdest update. I've seen, encouraging results won't be back until August. Hey, it's... Great news, guys. I guess it must have been pretty bad.

He's in a walking boot. He's in a walking boot with a stress reaction in his left tibia. Eloy Jimenez returned to the lineup Wednesday against the Dodgers. Mitch Hanneger will undergo surgery Thursday to repair a fractured right forearm. He'll likely miss the rest of the season. Jeremy Pena has missed three straight with an illness but is expected to play a Thursday. Lance McCullors underwent season ending surgery Tuesday to repair a torn right flexor tendon and remove a bone spur in his right forearm.

Zach Netto was removed with cramping in his left side. J.D. Davis is dealing with a grade one right ankle sprain, which he suspects will keep him out of the lineup for three to 10 days. That's a pretty big range of days. Just I don't know. Let's put him on the aisle. It's just random. Mike Levenger left his start with right bicep soreness, Orioles. infield prospect Joey Ortiz was recalled from AAA on Wednesday. He was batting 328 with five homers and a 943 OPS in 32 games at AAA. Welsh, I know in general, a lot of the prospect community is excited about Joey Ortiz. I just don't know if he's going to play enough.

He wasn't even in the lineup Wednesday. Yeah, I tend to think maybe long-term Joey Ortiz is like a super-util type of guy, move them all around in different spots. Also, I mean, these positions are like, whatever he's doing is just a warmer for Jordan Westberg. Jordan Westberg is going to be the guy. I want to, I don't 100% I'm not looking at it. I think it might be a 40-man issue.

But Westberg is second in the miners in homers right now. He's hitting just under 300. He's got a handful of stolen bases over 50 run in RBI and barely over a 20% strikeout rate in AAA. So I want to say this is a 40-man issue or this is simply about seeing what they have. Orte's again kind of fills that role of being more super U-Til, where Westberg is going to be more centralized into his position and they're going to make the commitment as they will

when Colton Couser comes up, who might be one of the most underrated. And we're all talking about Christian and Carnacian and Strand. Pay attention to Colton Couser as a pickup here in the near future when he gets a call. All right, the Rangers optioned Owen White back to AA after his relief appearance Tuesday. And Trevor Larnick was optioned back to AAA as well.

Let's quickly run through some leftovers here. We had a good old-fashioned pitcher's duel at City Field between Garrett Cole and John. Justin Verlander. Garrett Cole, six innings of one-run ball with eight strikeouts and 16 swinging strikes. Justin Verlander on the other side, six innings of one-run ball

with six strikeouts, 14 swinging strikes. Did allow 10 hard hits in this game and changed up his pitch mix. The fastball has not been playing very well. So use more sliders and curve balls in this outing. Towers, your thoughts here on Garicol and Verlander. Would you maybe use this as an opportunity

to sell Verlander while you can? No, I've still got him as a top 10 starting pitcher. I'm still, I think he'll be fine. He, you know, it was a delayed start to the season for him, and maybe that's why he's been a little iffy so far. But I still just, I trust the track record. I trust the guy. It's one of those situations where eight starts isn't nearly enough for me

to change my position. And I don't care too much about like, yeah, his fastball is getting hit hard. I don't worry about that too much yet. for him. I kind of wish that Scott was here just so I could ask him. He is out. He moved Verlander all the way down to SP24. So,

Wow. All the way down. That's like, that's like, you're just so mad at yourself. You're just like, I'm done with this. You're done.

I'm done with you forever. Yeah. Yeah, that's one of those. I'm never drafting that guy again. Yeah. Moves. It's like,

instead of a spite drop from your team, it's like a spike drop in the rankings. I mean, Joe Musker over Verlander. Let's text Scott right. We talked about this yesterday. Like, I'm slow.

to move guys. I'm, I'm slow to move guys out of my lineup or off my team and Scott's a better fantasy player than I am. Like I'm, I'm perfectly willing to admit that. So like that's, I'm not going to knock him for that. That's, that's, you know, you have to be aggressive. Yeah. And I basically, I split the difference because I have Verlander at SP 17. I think I lean a little bit more towards you, Chris, and that we've just seen him go through so much before and then he finds a way to get back on track eventually. So I still kind of have faith in coming back from the injury. You know, maybe he's not the top five or top 10 guy we drafted,

but I'm not ready to, I guess, completely bury him yet. Some other pitching standouts, Jose Burrios, took a no-hitter into the seventh inning at the Baltimore Orioles. The ERA is down to 3.28 for him. Framber Valdez, with another great start, up against the Nationals, seven innings of one-run ball, with six strikeouts and 11 swinging strikes. Michael Waka just keeps it going.

and he was up against the Guardian, six and two-thirds shutout with five strikeouts for him. That change-up has been tremendous. And kind of feels like Yuri Perez heard some of those rumors about him getting sent down because puts together his best start yet, his first quality start of his career, six shutout innings, two hits, one walk, six strikeouts at the Seattle Mariners. Welsh, any thoughts here on Yuri Perez, Michael Waka, Framber Valdez, and Jose Berrios?

Burrios just want to point out in June, a 137 ERA over these three starts, 13 strikeouts over what is 19 innings pitched. He hasn't given up more than three earned runs since mid-May. So, I mean, I believe there's five starts. And then he's been really good. Michael Waka was down kind of across the board too. We were talking about this before the show. Like VLO over a mile per hour across the board was down. Yet he continues to get it done.

His change up has been absolutely devastating. 36 and a half percent whiff rate. He throws it as his top pitch and the fastball sets everything up. And, you know, Yuri Perez, it's a bummer. We've had lots of discussions on here about these rookie pitchers. And I've always kind of defaulted to Yuri Perez because of talent. I just think he's the most talented of all these guys. That's, you know, the big focal point for me.

But once we kind of got that information from mission crew about, listen, he is going to be capped. And we don't really have the game plan of what that is. I had asked the question before the show, Bobby Miller or Yuri Perez. And I think we all kind of unanimously agreed with what we know about Bobby Miller at this point. Not trying to make it the Bobby Miller podcast, but we would go with Miller because we know what's there. We've seen this stuff and we know the longevity of the year. And I just don't see a path regardless of what Yuri does where this team is going to be able to put him out there in a way that makes him fantasy relevant the entire season with this inning's cap. So I'm kind of disappointed because he really is phenomenal.

and the worries with like the slider and some of the fly ball stuff is just things that are going to get fixed. And he's going to come out next year. And we're going to probably all rank him way higher than we think at this moment come next year. Quality starts all around. This group, not nearly as good as the previous group, but they were all solid. Merrill Kelly, Bailey Ober, Jordan Montgomery, Luis Castillo, Castillo six walks, but still managed a near quality start. And Clayton Kirshaw as well.

Towers, anything you'd like to add on that group, Kershaw, Castillo, Montgomery, Bailey Ober, and Merrill Kelly. Yeah, Bailey Uber, I'm trying to get to Bailey Ober's page because he's got the ERA down below three now. He had 16 whiffs in this one. I don't

buy him as a sub three ERA guy. I don't think that's, you know, a stretch, but 355XERA for the season, he's up to a 350 ERA for his career.

I think the limiting factor, and it's sort of what we talked about with Braxton Garrett yesterday, but to a lesser extent is just, he doesn't go super deep into games. He's gone six innings. It looks like one, two, three, four, five, five times and ten starts,

but he's never gone more than six innings in this one over his career. He's made 41 starts. He's got 206 innings total. That's right at five innings per start, if I'm doing the quick math in my head correctly. So I think there's a limited upside, but I think Bailey Ober is clearly pretty good.

So, you know, happy to have him. I think he's, or did I move him into, he's, I need to move him up. 69. He needs to be higher than that. Yeah, I actually moved Ober and Michael Walker inside of my top 60 starting pitchers. They've just both have done it for long enough this season

where, you know, they've proven it to me, and I do have more faith in them now. Michael Waka is just going to be my Martin Perez this year. The one thing I will say is he's had starts where he does get a lot of whiffs. I feel like we did not see that from Martin Perez at all last year. So a little bit more sustainable for Waka. XERA is closer to four for Waka. So I'm still pretty skeptical that he's going to be super useful moving forward.

But this is one and it happens every year for certainly for me and for everyone. There are just some guys that you just can't come around. round on and walk as one of them for me. I just, I have no faith in it. I also have 20 whiffs for Merrill Kelly. Just want to throw that up before we move down with that. Yeah, I did want to point out. I mean, Merrill Kelly is having a career year. 304 ERA, a 1.1 one point one whip. He's getting a career high ground ball rate, career high swinging strike rate. His change up has been amazing. And I think it's really kind of unlocked the rest of his arsenal. It's just helping everything else play up.

And he's doing that in spite of a career high walk rate. So if if he can just get those walks, down. Merrill Kelly might even be better than what he's shown us so far. So he's another one. I think I've moved them inside of my top 50 starting pitchers. Totally agree. With how well he's pitched so far this season. Hitting leftover is Jordan Walker went two for five with an RBI.

Stop me if you've heard this before. Two more hard hit balls, both over 106 exit velocity in 12 games since returning. For Jordan Walker, 326 batting average, two homers, two doubles, a 908 OPS, 96 mile per hour average exit velocity. Tommy Edmund has been struggling mightily in June, but he went one for four with a grand slam, his seventh home run of the season. Whitmeryfield went three for four with his 18th steel.

He's also batting 308. And if you look at his season, it's basically Whitmeryfield, a touch less power. I think he's on pace for, what, like six home runs right now, so that's not great, but the batting average in the steel

is just awesome stuff. from Whitmerryfield. Sayas Suzuki went two for four with two doubles, two runs, and two RBI, had four hard hits in this game. I've seen some questions recently about Suzuki. I know, I think he's gone 15 games without a home run or something. So the power has slowed down a little bit. He's still betting 282 with an 825 OPS. And he's hitting the ball really hard. So I'm not worried about Sayas Suzuki. I think he's going to be just fine. Quality of contact metrics are pretty unanimously good across the board. So no concerns for me. A crazy series for JT Rio Muto out in Arizona.

He hit for the cycle on Monday, two for four with a steal on Tuesday, one for four with another home run on Wednesday. And Estuary Ruiz had two more steals. He's now up to 33 on the season. Some bullpen updates for the Braves. Game one of their double header, Reisel Iglesias pitched a ninth inning with a four-run lead. He gave up one run but did close it out.

And then in game two, Joe Jimenez got five outs across the eighth and ninth innings. AJ Minter got the final out for his 10th save. For the twins, Yoan Duran entered in the eighth with a two-run lead facing the top of the Brewers lineup. Griffin Jacks then pitched the ninth for his first save. I thought we were kind of past Duran, you know, pitching earlier in the game and he was just a closer. So, obviously that wasn't great to see. For the Cardinals with Ryan Helsley-Hurt, Giovanni Gaiagos got the ninth inning with a two-run lead,

and he promptly gave up a two-run homer to Mike. Yistremski, Stephen Mats got the 10th inning. He gave up three runs and took the loss. I mean, it's just the hits will not stop coming for the St. Louis Cardinals. It is literally unreal. For the Giants, Camillo DeVall picked up his 18th save for the Blue Jays. Romano picked up his 19th. The Astros game, this was a crazy ninth inning. Ryan Presley entered with a three run lead. He gave up three un-earned runs thanks to two errors, one that he actually committed himself, took his third blown save, but wound up with the win because in the bottom of the ninth, Hunter Harvey, the game is tied. He gave up an

unearned run, also on an error, took the loss in that one. For the Reds, Alexis Diaz picked up his 17th save, and for the Cubs, Mark Leiter Jr. pitched in the eighth inning with a one-run lead. He pitched a clean inning, and then the Cubs tacked on three more runs, no longer a save opportunity. Adbert Alzlis pitched a ninth without giving up any runs, and he's been really good. A 203 ERA, a 0.87 whip, 31 strikeouts, over 31 innings pitched. Let's wrap up with stream or not to stream. And as we mentioned yesterday, Thursday is Barron. There is not much.

The only one that I think is maybe okay is Johan Oviedo at the Cubs. I'm not. I'm not watching these. Nope, you ain't going to get me on this, on any recorded thing, saying any of these guys are streamable. I'm a big old fat no. Taz Bradley's two rostered for this exercise, right? Correct.

Yeah, the biggest, yes. Yeah, no. All right. On Friday, there are more interesting names in this group. Which ones do we like the most? So, all right, I guess we'll just go down to line.

France against Sensi, maybe? That's JP France, right? Yeah, JP France versus the Reds in Houston. fine. Kyle Hendricks coming off a near no hit bid up against the Orioles, maybe. Yeah, it's Pittsburgh, maybe.

Don't mind Hendricks at Baltimore or versus Baltimore. Hauk versus the Yankees I don't hate. You know, he's very hit or miss and I'm not a believer in him long term, but, you know, it's a good matchup right now. And Rich Hill versus Milwaukee, I could see that going well.

Yeah, and I know Wells you mentioned Julio Taran up against the Pirates. Taiwan Walker, his velocity has been way up recently. He's at the Oakland days. Take whichever three you like most because there's... We didn't really come to a consensus. We throw out a lot of names. I think there's some streamable options here.

I don't know if we all agreed on... Do we all agree on JP France versus the Reds? Is that one we can all get down with or no? I think he's okay. Yeah, I don't know that he would be in my top three. Andrew Abbott at the Astros. I don't know. to be mentioned. Yeah, I like the pitcher or not the matchup. Yeah. All right. Well, uh, there.

Flip a coin, as the well said. There's a bunch of, uh, interesting names on Friday. We're going to wrap there for the Chris's. 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.