Fantasy Baseball Today - First Base Decisions, Ranking Waiver Wire Pitchers & More Bad Pitching (6/1 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 1, 2023

Josh Naylor just had a monster game (2:16)! ... Is it time to drop Jose Abreu and Miguel Vargas (5:15)? ... How do we rank Louie Varland, James Paxton and Braxton Garrett (14:00)? ... What's the latest with Lance Lynn, Alek Manoah and Blake Snell (23:52)? ... Jose Siri and Andrew McCutchen have quietly had good seasons (33:42). ... News (38:33): Justin Steele is dealing with a forearm injury. ... What do we do with Shane Bieber and Aaron Nola (45:30)? ... Do Willi Castro and Jaime Barria matter in deeper leagues (50:50)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (56:55). 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. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Maybe, just maybe. 2023 is not the year for Alec Manoa or Lance Lynn.

Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today and welcome to June. I am Frank Sample and the voice. you will hear joining me today is not Barry White. It is indeed Scott White, and you'll find out why in just a moment. Today on the show, we have first-based decisions to make, ranking waiver-wire pitchers, and what's the latest on the starting pitcher bust trio of the season?

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. All right, Scott, the big reveal, why did I refer to you as Barry White? Because I sound like this today.

I don't know what's going on. I feel like I've been sick more than I've been well in 2023. And so I'm just going to just going to soldier on here. But you guys are going to have to bear with me because this is what I sound like. I wonder what to be like if I did the Michael Cain voice like this. I want snowman named Lorenzo, last name, game like mine only spelled differently. No E.

That's great. It's not bad. It's not bad. Oh man, that is great. Well, get better soon, Scotty. I'll try to do the heavy lifting here today, but, you know, show goes on. Let's do it. Let's talk a little baseball.

Holy Toledo. The album with a surprise. Holy Toledo. That is A's legendary broadcaster, Bill King, calling a walk-off bunt in the 2003 ALDS. And that was sent in earlier to. today on Twitter and I liked it. So we're gonna work that in. Scott, let's start it off.

Who is your player of the night? Okay, I'm gonna talk about Josh Naylor. Josh Naylor had a big old game here on Wednesday, went four for five, hit his eighth home run, doubled twice, drove in six. All four of his hits were 98 miles per hour or higher. Three of them were 100, higher. So he was making good wood, as the kids say. And in his last 14 games, 385 with five home runs.

So Josh Naylor's been on a burner here. And it's overdue. It's overdue because this 14 game span where he's at 385 with five home runs has brought his season batting average up to 251 and his season slugging percentage up to 443. You know, nothing to get too excited about there, but then you look at his expected stats. Expected batting average 286. Expected slug 496. Those are kind of like the expected marks we got so excited about for Brian De La Cruz last year.

Josh Naylor's been doing that, and they've been high all year. So, you know, hopefully this hot streak is just the start of bringing his actual numbers up to those expected numbers. Now, I've been reluctant to endorse Naylor, even knowing that about his expected stats, because of his tendency to sit against left-handed pitchers. But that's been happening less and less as the year has gone on. Naylor's been playing against lefties more. And his numbers against lefties, let's see what those look like.

They're bad, but at least he's playing against lefties. So, yeah, I do feel like we kind of went through this. I had this exact same spiel for Naylor in the middle of last season, and ultimately it didn't pan out. So I'm still a little gun shy based on that. I wouldn't want you to put all your eggs in the Josh Naylor basket. But while he's hot, I think we have to at least be open to the possibility that he is a real asset for you.

And Josh Nailer could be available in some shallower leagues. He's 69% rostered. And I know you mentioned last year, Scott, what he did. It wasn't a great year. It wasn't a bad year either. He had 256 last season with 20 homers, 79 RBI, six steals, and a 771 OPS. He did that in just 122 games. He was pretty French.

Pretty French. Yeah. But as you mentioned, those expected stats look great for Josh Nailer. He's lifting the ball more this year. Career high, 40% fly ball. rate, and as he usually does, making a lot of contact, just a 17.4% strikeout rate for Josh Naylor this season, which leads us into a bigger discussion about the first base position, Scott.

I wanted to have this and just talk about players like Jose Abraeu and Miguel Vargas and whether or not we can just say goodbye to those names at this point in the season. It is June 1st, after all. And you brought up one of the Waverwire first baseman I wanted to talk about. The other two, Spencer Steer went one for three with his eight. 8th home run. He had a big month of May. He's now batting 289 overall with an 854 OPS hitting Morrify balls the season as well. Eighty 9.7 average exit velocity is pretty good. It doesn't blow you away. Obviously has that great home ballpark in Cincinnati. And

your boy, Scott, Alex Kirillov. He's picking it up here. Two for four with a run and RBI. Has multiple hits in three of his last five games. And he's hit in 314. He's got a 934 OPS. only three home runs, but the walk rate is sky high right now. 17% walk rate for Kirloff. He's hitting a bunch of line drive so far, and he is 46% rostered. First off, let's rank these three, and then we'll talk about Abraeu and Vargas.

How would you rank Josh Naylor, Spencer Steer, and Alex Kirloff? Well, that's hard because I do think if you're in a deeper league, then Steer gets extra credit just because I think he's the most likely to keep getting every day at bats of these three. And so if you're aiming for the safe route, then maybe steer's number one. But I think the average listener plays in the sort of league where they can go for the home run,

the figurative home run, not the literal home run. And that would rank steer last. I would put Naylor one, Kirillov to steer three. Okay. Now, the next conversation, are you okay dropping Jose Abraeu and Miguel Vargas for any of the, is Vargas, by the way, went 0 for 5 on Wednesday, which drops his season-long batting average batting average batting average. Authority, 86.9 average exit velocity, 31% hard hit rate. Scott, what are your thoughts? Can we drop Jose Abraeu and Miguel Vargas for any of these names?

Well, certainly Vargas, I would have no qualms about doing that. I'm not like giving up on Vargas in a dynasty sense, but he's done nothing in redraft that. would convince me to keep them around, especially since, you know, these other three options offer a fair amount of upside, too. Now, Jose Abreu, I'm a bit torn on that one because it's been a few weeks now that I've said Abraeu is dropable. You know, I had an article about it and everything. You could go back and read it. I'm pretty pessimistic about his chances of bouncing back at this point. but I think these are all when you're talking about a high-end outcome

the sort of high-end outcome that you'd want from your starting first basement I think the probability of that happening is pretty low for all of these players is possible, it's possible for Kirillov, it's possible for Naler, it's possible for Abraeu. The one I don't think it's really possible,

a high-end outcome is steer. Who is it most possible for? Would be my question to you. Who do you think the high-end outcome is most possible for? Yeah, it's a good question too, because, I mean, the obvious answer should be Jose Bray, right? Just based on what we've seen in his career, but he just doesn't look anything like that player right now, right?

There's nothing that we can point to. He's struggling against fastballs, not making hard contact. He just kind of looks like a, you know, 36, 37-year-old first baseman who's struggling mightily. So, I mean, of these names, it's probably Josh Naylor, like you pointed out, at least based on the quality of contact, right? Yeah, maybe.

It may be him. I don't know. Who's the least rostered of these first basemen currently? It's Kirillov at 46%. And then the second least is... Steer, 64. And Naylor is 69. So those two are pretty close.

I mean, the bottom line, I think, is that you can't afford to have... have a brayu in your lineup right now. Right. And, you know, the shallower the league, the less likely you have to worry about somebody picking them up, obviously. And you just need, you just need to get something out of your first base spot. So I think that rationale would incline me to say, yeah, it's fine to drop a brayu for these.

It would have been better to drop them three weeks ago for hopefully somebody even better than these players, but obviously that ship has sailed. So this may be the best you can do at this point if you're looking to move on from Brayu. I'm a little bit more optimistic, I think, about Spencer Steer. I know the numbers don't really jump off the page. That May was really good, Scott. I mean, 318 batting average, six homers,

18 runs, 19 RBI, a 945 OPS. He made some notable changes, lowered the strikeout rate, you know, hit more fly balls in the month of May. And, you know, by the end of June, this Reds lineup could look completely different, right? I mean, the counting stats could potentially be awesome, right? If Ellie de la Cruz and Christian Encarnasse on Strain

joined this lineup, so I think I'm a little bit more optimistic. I think I'd still put them at the top of this group. I really like steer, but maybe I'm just more of like a, maybe I play more to like the floor than the ceiling. That might just be something in like my playing style. But yeah, I do like Spencer Seer quite a bit. I like all these names. Yeah, yeah.

So, I mean, when I say it obviously changes depending on what sort of depth of league you're used to. I think that was the gist of our Josh Young argument yesterday because I got some pushback for what I was saying about him. Basically, I was laying out the case that Josh Young might only be a Ryan Mountcastle type hitter when all of a sudden done, which, you know, in a certain league context, that's still a pretty valuable hitter. And, you know, Chris was dropping like Austin Riley comparisons, which is a very different

class of hitter in a Shepard League. It was a big difference between Austin Riley and Ryan Mount Castle. But anyway, so like I, when I say I don't see a high-end outcome for Spencer Steer, what I'm saying is he might end up being merely a 260-hitting 20-homer guy. He might end up being merely, you know, he might end up being merely what Brandon Drury was last year, which was still a pretty valuable player. But if you're talking about like a real difference maker across the board and fantasy. I don't see that as a possible outcome for steer. That's the most logical. I would say, again, that's probably the most likely outcome for him.

But for someone who's had a Brayu or even Miguel Vargas as their starting first baseman, I think they would take that as their starter right now, just based on how bad those guys have played. The one other name I wanted to mention in this just first base conversation, Freddie Freeman, man, let's give a tip of the cap. An insane month of May. Obviously, it's just a great season all around. But in May, Freddie Freeman hit 400 with six homers, 17 doubles, 17 doubles in a month. 1184 OPS, 26 RBI, four steals in 28 games. Nearly an RBI per game for Freddie Freeman in the month. And Scott, I saw your article about redrafting the first two rounds. If we were doing that, you know, from today moving forward, I saw that you had Freddie Freeman fifth overall on that.

And I mean, how can you argue against it based on what he's done so far? I couldn't put him any lower than fifth. I thought about putting him as high as, well, one, two, and three were a kunia judge in Tatis, and I don't think I could be talked out of that. But I thought about putting Freeman as high as fourth rest of season. I think, I mean, he gave a lot of crazy stats there, RBI per game, 17 doubles. The fact he's now with this latest two-steel game here on May 31st, he has eight steals. We were thinking, career high 13 last year.

there's no way Freddie Freeman does that again. He's on pace for like 25 steals now. And I'm not sure he won't get there. As easy as it is to steal base is like he's clearly not afraid to take advantage of that. If we're setting the over under at 25, I'll take the under. But it might be like 20. You know, it's going to be a reasonably good number. He's on pace for a 30, 20 seasons, Scott.

Think about that while batting nearly 350. Just bonkers stuff for Freddie Freeman. So for anyone who took him in the late first, early second round, obviously you feel great about that right now. Let's get back to our players of the night. I want to highlight Louis Varland, who had an awesome start at Houston. We were talking beforehand about, all right, Kentimae, it looks like he's working his way back.

And I feel like any time a pitcher kind of has their role threatened, unless you're Calquantrol, I guess. It seems like they put up one of their best starts of the season. Same thing happened for Logan T. Allen recently had an awesome start with his kind of back up against the wall. Louis Varland at the Houston Astros, seven shutout with five strikeouts to one walk, 13 swinging strikes on 86 pitches. Five of those on the cutter, five on the slider, three on the fastball.

He limited the hard contact in this one. Slider was up over a mile per hour as well. Really leaned into his cutter in this start. It was his most used pitch. And now, at this point in the season, Louis Varland has a 351 ERA, a 1-15 whip, nearly a strikeout per inning. He's limited the walks. It does give up a good amount of hard contact and home runs, but a 12.3% swinging strike rate.

This is a quality starting pitcher. Varland and Bailey Ober, for that matter. I know we've talked about him a lot too. Louis Varland is up to 48% rostered, Scott. What are your thoughts on him? Is he a must add? Does he stick around for the twins? He kind of reminds me what would be the best comp? like a modern Ricky Nalasco

baby in that like if Chris was here he would love that comp but I don't know if I could talk much to Ricky Nalasco well and if you look back at his numbers in today's historical context it might not even make sense but like good strikeout pitcher you mentioned the swinging strike rate

really good control nearly 70% strike rate which you know I think 64 is like average 70 is like amazing like league leader type strike percentage. So the guy throws a lot of strikes. He has a good enough arsenal to miss bats, but that hard contact is probably going to put his ERA a little on the high side relative to what you'd like it to be, what it could be, just given everything else. But I think, like, altogether, like, he's a net good. Like, I'm happy to have Louis Varlane in every league where I do, and I hope he does stick around. I do still think, though,

he's the most logical odd man out if and when Kinta Maeda rejoins the rotation. I mean, the only other choice would be Bailey Ober

who's been great too and who was ahead of Varland and the organizational pecking order. And I think is a better bet to have a better ERA,

which ultimately makes them more useful pitcher, I would say, than Varlant. So that's where I'm at with it. Like,

yeah, let's, uh, If Barland's still available in your league, he's probably better than most any other pitcher you can find on waivers. But at the same time, don't get too attached because he may not stick around long. If I was running the twins, I just stick my Ada in the bullpen. But I'm not running the twins. So that's kind of irrelevant.

I think that's still a possibility for them. We were talking beforehand. They could theoretically go with a six-man rotation. I'm not sure that they'll do that. I mean, right now, their long reliever in the bullpen is Jose de Leon. so obviously Kent and Maeda would be an upgrade over that. And given all the arm injuries and trouble that Maeda has had, that might be the best role for him at this point.

Also, I'm just kind of talking him down because I have some Varland and overshares and I want those guys to stick around. We'll see what the schedule looks like tomorrow when we do the podcast. But as of now, it looks like Varland would be in line for two starts next week at Tampa Bay and at Toronto. A couple other pitchers that stood out on Wednesday. Braxton Garrett, another strong start up against. against the Padres.

Five and a third, one run allowed, seven strikeouts with 14 swinging strikes, and over his last five starts, since he got blown up by the Atlanta Braves, five starts since then. 2.67 ERA, 0.96 whip, with 32 strikeouts, over 27 innings pitched for Braxon and Garrett. James Paxson turned in another solid start himself,

up against the Reds, five innings, one run, eight strikeouts to one walk, with 22 swinging strikes on 100 pitches. I think, obviously health is first and foremost for Paxon, but you want to make sure that he maintains that high velocity, and so far he's been able to do it in all four of his starts. He was averaging 96 on the fastball again in this start. So outside of one bad outing against the Angels,

Paxton has looked really, really good so far. Scott, how would you rank those three if you're looking to add any or all of them? Paxton, Garrett, and Louis Varlane. I'm going to rank Paxton number one. I'm going to rank Varland number two. I might flip them if I had fewer concerns about Varland losing his job. They're very close. I think they're clearly the two to get and who probably shouldn't be as available as they are.

So Paxton won Varland two. Paxton does have a little bit of the same issue of Varland in terms of getting hit hard. And really, that's been an issue throughout his career. I guess it's kind of why he was always a little underwhelming in fantasy relative to what I thought he could be. And so he might remain susceptible to the sort of blowups like he had in his previous start. But still, like Paxton looks healthy. He's got a lot of strikeout potential. He's number one, Marlon 2. And then that would leave Garrett third. I want to say somebody who's gearing up to return for the Marlins, Trevor Rogers, right? Yes. And I think Quato's not far off either.

But who knows? So Garrett may not be long for the role either, even though he's. pitched better of late. I had noted in previous starts that it seemed like increased cutter usage was the key to success, and he went back down to more typical cutter usage in this one, half as many as he had been throwing in recent starts. But he brought out the change-up a lot more instead, and it's nearly as good of a swing and miss pitch as a slider. So clearly, Braxton Garrett is doing some different things with his arsenal

that's helping to bring out better results. and I'm inclined to believe in it mostly, but we're talking about a five-inning pitcher on a low-scoring team who may not have a job for long. Yeah, that's a possibility with Braxton Garrett. I guess the Marlins could move Edward Cabrera to the bullpen if they, you know,

if push comes to shove there. But look, they're trying to compete, right? And I don't know how realistic it is, but, you know, Edward Cabrera, as much as I like him, you know, He's been very up and down this year, so maybe he would be better suited for like a bullpen roll, but yeah, that remains to be seen for Trevor Rogers in that rotation. A couple of their names here, Scott, I think more so for deeper leagues than the ones we were just talking about. Carlos Carrasco has now turned in two quality starts in a row.

He was up against the Phillies, six innings of one-run ball with four strikeouts. His velocity was up across the board. We're talking nearly two miles per hour on most of his pitches here. Jared Schuster was okay at the Oakland days, five and a third, two runs allowed, four walks to one strikeout. Obviously, you know, that K to walk is not great. Clark Schmidt had a strong start at the Mariners,

five and two thirds, seven strikeouts to one walk with 15 swinging strikes on 84 pitches, and he has now allowed two earned runs or fewer in five of his last six starts. So slightly deeper leagues here, Scott, but any thoughts on Carrasco, Schuster, and Clark Schmidt? Yeah, Schuster's just walking too many guys for me to feel comfortable with his performance. His last, how many starts is it?

Four starts since returning. He's issued just 10 hits in 22 innings, 10 hits in 22 innings, but also 10 walks in those 22 innings. Giving up a ton of fly balls, so in a way it makes sense why he's allowing so few hits, but it's too few hits to be believable. And then with all those walks there, I think, I think Jared Schuster's playing with fire. I also think you'd be playing with fire every time you used Carlos Carrasco. At this stage of his career, he feels kind of Kyle Gibson like where when he's at his best, he's at least going to give you a quality start, which is more than you can say about a lot of pitchers.

But how often is he going to be at his best? and he's just not enough of a batmissor anymore, I think, to count on him with regularity. I do like the direction Clark Schmidt is trending. He's been getting more with recently. I've pointed out before that his secondary pitches have really high spin rates. And so maybe he's on the verge of a breakthrough here. But I think it's not quite enough to win me over to picking him up yet. If you do play in a deeper points league for some reason, Clark Schmidt has, he is a SPARP, he has RP eligibility.

So a little cheat code there for those who play in points league. He's 25% rostered. Let's take our first break. When we return, we'll talk about the bus trio, Lance Lynn, Alec Manoa, and Blake Snell. What were those guys up to? We'll discuss right after this. Welcome back and a quick reminder to download and follow our five-minute podcast, Fantasy Baseball today in five, where we take the biggest highlights of the day,

the biggest players, the biggest news and notes. We talk about it in just five minutes. So if you'd like a shorter podcast in addition to this one or if you just don't have enough time in a certain day, again, download and follow Fantasy Baseball Today and 5 wherever you listen to this podcast. What's going on the latest from the bus trio, Scotty, Lance Lind, Alec Manoa, and Blake Snell.

Let's start with Lance Lynn, my guy, who's making it it really hard. He's making it hard to defend him at this point. I know the last three starts coming into this one looked a lot better, but man, goes out and gets clobbered by the Angels. Eight earned runs allowed over four innings pitch that included three more homers allowed

in this one. Lots of hard contact. And now the ERA is up to 6.55. That is the second highest among qualified starting pitchers behind only Jordan Liles. So not really the company that you want to be in there with Lanslin. Just looking deeper. got into what's been wrong this year.

The walk rate is the highest it's been since 2018, giving up loads of home runs this season, especially after this performance. A 335 bat-up against. That is much higher than last year. He's actually given up more hits than innings pitched. And the fastball velocity very quietly has trickled down three years in a row.

So if you look at 2021, he was at 94 miles per hour. Last year, 92.9. This year, he's down to 92.3. You add all that up. Obviously, age is catching up as well. You know, Scott, it's just kind of getting a little bit harder to keep defending Lance Lynn as either a buy low or someone that you shouldn't drop. What are your latest thoughts? Yeah, it's getting harder, but I'd still pick him up in any league where I saw him dropped.

So, you know, if you're buying low at this point, it should be very low because the person who has him is probably on the verge of dropping him. But I mean, you mentioned it. Those previous three starts, all quality starts, a 189 ERA. I think his swinging strike grade is still a career best. It's dropped down a little bit. I think it's like around 12% or something. It's still good is the point. Yeah.

I would still bet on him being good from this point forward. Certainly better than he's been. If he has another start like this or if he has two starts like this, in a row because everybody particularly in this environment is entitled to a blowout start now and then everybody's been subject to that so if we treat the last three starts like oh lance lynn's coming around then this is just this is just the blow-up start like you'd see for any other pitcher you know i know it doesn't seem like that because he had all those bad starts before the three-star stretch but just like that's a way you could potentially look at it and that's how i'm choosing to look at it

given that a lot of the other indicators there are favorable. And he was on a positive trend prior to this start. One thing I noticed about those previous three starts, though, he allowed four earned runs. He allowed eight runs total during that time. So, you know, some bad defense behind him. Obviously, that's not entirely his fault. But maybe those numbers could have been even worse, right,

if some of those runs were earned. So maybe a little bit lucky on that side as well. I updated the rankings on Wednesday. I dropped Lanselin down to SP 58. So, you know, names that he dropped behind for me, Zach Eflin, Merrill Kelly, Taj Bradley, Jose Berrios. I don't know how likely it is that any of those players are available in leagues that you play in.

But for what it's worth, I don't think I would drop him for any of Louis Varland, James Paxton, or Braxton, how about you? I think that's right. I may have him ahead of Taj Bradley. among the names you mentioned. But I have them in that. I have them in like the 50 to 55 range

at starting pitcher, I'm pretty sure. So we're about on the same page there in terms of ranking for Lance Lynn. Yeah, let's talk about the pitcher that I have just one spot, ranked one spot below Lance Lynn. And that is Alec Mendoa down at SP59 at this point. And obviously ranked as like a top 20, top 25 starting pitcher coming into the season.

I don't know how much more there is to say about Alec Manoa Scott. It just feels like we say the same thing every time. He could turn it around. We don't know when it's going to happen. This wasn't a completely disastrous start, but it wasn't a good one either. The good news is he allowed two earned runs. The bad news, he only lasted four innings in this one. And very inefficient, 89 pitches over four innings.

He had more walks than strikeouts. That is the fourth time he's done that this season. He didn't do that a single time all of last year. more walks than strikeouts in a start. I was watching this one to see if I could pick up on anything or hear what the Blue Jays broadcast had to say. They were talking a lot about mechanics, mindset, and how little confidence Alec Manoa has right now.

None of those things are tangible, Scott. Like, we can't measure those things. It's just something that, again, the light has to kind of just flip on for Alec Manoa, and we haven't seen it. So I don't know if your thoughts have changed after another letdown, but let's know. I mean, it's the same thing.

Just waiting for that light switch moment if you can afford to. And again, no guarantee it's going to happen at all. But it's certainly wouldn't be the first instance of it happening. He was talking about mindset after the game. The quote I saw circulating was, let me see if I can find the right quote. Basically, I'm going to have to paraphrase. He has a mindset currently of don't throw. throw a ball here as opposed to throw a strike here.

And so he's trying to flip that mindset. So it just sounds like he's, I don't know, he's feeling kind of mechanical right now and not like himself, basically. If you want to take a positive from this start, it's that he threw 66.3% of his pitches for strikes. I know he still had the three walks and four innings, but that's a good strike percentage.

Like if he can do that, if he can do that every start, he's going to be in good shape because he's been closer to like 60% this year. So that's at least something. Well, Scott, the good news here is you're actually really good at paraphrasing because I found the exact quote. The mindset of don't throw a ball here instead of throw a strike right here is it's a difference maker. Right now I'm stuck in don't throw a ball here. So yeah, pretty much spot on to what you had there. on Alec Manoa. The last one in this group is Blake Snell,

who actually put together a strong start, but you dig a little deeper, and there's still not many redeeming qualities from this one. Six shutout innings, seven strikeouts to three walks, 11 swinging trikes on 97 pitches for Blake Snell. Still allowed a 90.3 average exit velocity against. The fastball velocity was up nearly one mile per hour, so that's the good thing.

The bad is he's still not really getting anything out of his slider or his curve ball. The usage on those pitches was down again in this one. It's been down all season. He went very fastball heavy in this start. And we know when Blake Snell is at his best, it's the slider and the curve are getting all those whiffs. And I think that kind of explains why his swinging strike rate

and overall production has been down. So far the season. You know, Snell at a 4.5 ERA, 1.5 whip. I don't know that much has changed. I think I dropped him down to like SP70. So he's actually much closer to like the dropable range. I don't know, Scott. Would you make that move?

Would you drop Snell for like Paxton or Louis Varland? I mean, again, I don't have Varlane and, oh, sorry, Paxton and Varlane. Yes, I do have them in the same category. Would I drop Snell for them? It's close. So I currently have Snell 64th and Paxton 70th. And Varland, 84th.

He could stand to be higher. I'm probably being a little skeptical about the playing time there. with that ranking. My take with Snell has been, obviously we've seen him turn his season on a dime with the start of the second half, each of the last two years, and become basically an ace from that point forward.

There's no guarantee it's going to happen again, and that's part of the frustration, just because it happened the last two years, doesn't guarantee it's going to happen again. so you could be holding on to him all that time and get no benefit out of it. But if you want to make sure that you're the one who does benefit from it, if it happens again, then you just kind of have to hold on to him. And so that's frustrating.

That's why I didn't invest in Snell coming in, but you're in it now. Not much you could do. Can't trade him. Only choice would be to drop them. Would I drop them for James Paxton? I would hope I had someone else to drop instead. but the shallower the league, the more justifiable it is, I would say. Yeah, look, if Blake Snell is actively hurting your roster

by just taking up a bench spot that you can't use, obviously, or it's taking up a spot where you could be streaming a pitcher or using James Paxson in a two-star week or anything like that, then, yeah, I think you probably could. But as you mentioned, Scott, you need to be okay with the fact that if you drop Blake Snell, there is a chance that you're dropping a pitcher who turns into a top 30, a top 25 starting pitcher rest of season at some point. But again, there's no guarantee that that's going to happen.

I dropped Blake Snell down to SP 72, and I have Paxton at 76 and Varlane at 77. So it's certainly a conversation. You know, they're all kind of in that same mix at this point, at least for me. Let's get into some outfielder. Yesterday we spoke about some Cedric Mullins replacements. Again, it's a really big loss for fantasy. and we brought up Jake McCarthy and Brian Dela Cruz and Marcel O'Zuna, two other names that performed well on Wednesday,

and frankly have just been really good so far this season. Jose Siri went one for three with his 10th home run. He's a lower batting average guy does strike out quite a bit. He's hitting just 245. But he has 10 homers and five steals this year in 884 OPS, and like the rest of the Tampa Bay raise, Jose Siri's hitting more fly balls this year. He entered Wednesday with an 8th,

percent barrel rate. That is an elite number. He's also 99th percentile in sprint speed. Again, that's Jose Siri. Andrew McCutcheon just keeps on hitting. He went three for four with a double, a walk, and his sixth steel. He doesn't blow you away. He's a higher floor play at this point, but he's hitting 273 with an 822 OPS, eight homers, six steals. That's a 2418 pace in terms of, you know, power and speed. And that's a really useful player. So I don't think either of these names, I would rank ahead of the ones we spoke about yesterday, Scott, but any thoughts here on Jose Siri and Andrew McCutcheon? I'm really surprised Siri is rostered as little as he is.

Yeah. Because, I mean, for a power, for a power speed guy, sure, he has strikeout issues, but they haven't killed him yet. Obviously, he's batting over 240, near 250, right? and has delivered on the power and the speed and is playing every day and is probably going to keep playing every day because he's a defensive asset. So I'm surprised in those five outfielder leagues,

he's not getting more attention because normally power speed guys, you know, we're talking roto context, people are willing to overlook the strikeout issues for guys like that. I mean, is it that clear that Christopher Morel, for instance, when all said and done is going to be better than Jose Siri. I don't think it's that clear. I think they have a lot of the same strengths, a lot of the same weaknesses.

So we'll see. And, you know, I'm saying at this point, Morel, of course, does need to be rostered more than Siri. But if you've missed out on Morel, I went ready and you're looking for that kind of production. Siri's still highly available. Yeah, I agree completely. Definitely on the point with Christopher Morel.

I mean, these guys are very similar, super athletic guys, power, speed, combinations there. One thing I noticed with Siri is it does seem like he sits out every fourth or fifth day for Tampa because he plays for Tampa. He's not immune to it like the rest of them. But it's kind of like how, you know, Harold Ramirez sits out here and there. And same thing with like Esoc Parades. It's frustrating. But when he does play. I thought it's a little more than I thought. But yeah. But it's like once or twice a week. Basically, Siri sits. I think still in five outfielder leagues, you can overlook that.

Would you be okay, Scott, the names we spoke about dropping yesterday, like Brent Rooker and Jaron Duran. I think even like Patrick Wisdom is probably in that mix too. What do you think about dropping those names for like a Siri or an Andrew McCutcheon? I don't think they're quite bad enough to drop for those others. I mean, Rooker may end up there, but I'm not ready to pull the plug on him yet. I think in a points league, I'd be right getting rid of wisdom for either one, McCutcheon or Jose Siri.

Wisdom is just, he's been sitting out more and a strikeout rate is just so harmful in a points league. I think I'd be right at one. I mean, I don't think in the long run, any of them are going to be points league assets, really. So I guess that's fine if we're talking about a shaller context like that. McCutcheon, Scott, I mean, he's leading off now. He's got a good OBP on the season.

I think he's actually a pretty good points league player. Again, he doesn't blow you away, but it's been solid. Let's see how he's actually doing in points leagues. You may be right. Let's see. In terms of points per game, McCutcheon is 2.79. That's not bad. That's not bad.

Wisdom is just a tiny thousandth of a point higher in a points league. But it's close enough that, you know, McCutcheon being the hotter hand right now, I'd be fine with it. it's not a huge, it's not like a difference maker. It's like, you know, maybe you're fine with him as your third outfielder in a points league kind of thing. Jose Siri, by the way, three point two fantasy points per game this year. I don't think that that will remain because, again, he strikes out a lot, but just to give you an idea of how good he's been on a per game basis this season. Let's hit some news and notes before we get to our final break here, Scott. And the big news from Wednesday, Justin Steele will undergo an MRI on his left forearm after,

leaving Wednesday start. And it's obviously rough news for a starting pitcher who entered this start. SP 12 in head to head points and SP 18 in Roto this season. We'll wait and see what the news says, Scott. But, you know, the early indications, it doesn't sound very good for Justin Seale. Yeah, I think forearm issue. You're almost certainly looking at an IL stint there. And I was asked on Twitter, do I think this.

mean, do I think this could be Ben Brown's ticket to joining the Cubs rotation? Prospect, throws hard, tall guy. It's gotten a lot of strikeouts between double and AAA this year, already on the 40-man roster, which is probably the best thing Ben Brown has going for him. I like it. But I think they have more experienced options, several more that they could plug in instead. Hayden West Nesky, for instance, who followed Steel in this game. after Steele left and threw more than three innings.

So he still stretched out. And he was fine in that relief appearance. I imagine they turned to West Nesky in the rotation before Ben Brown, if I had to guess. Ben Brown in the minors this year, by the way. He's made nine starts, a 2.25 ERA 11 whip, 66 strikeouts over 44 innings pitched. And that's split between AA and AAA. He's been promoted over the past month or so. he's looked a little bit more human in double uh in triple a so far but i think i mostly agree with you

yeah it probably would go to wesnesky first it was really just one horrible start that he had a star where he gave up like seven runs okay for the most part ben brown has been very effective all right trista mackenzie threw 85 pitches in his latest rehab outing on tuesday not confirmed yet but it would make sense for mackenzie to make his season debut as soon as next week maybe even this weekend. It hasn't been confirmed yet, but McKenzie's getting close. Wander Franco was out of the lineup Wednesday due to a left shoulder injury. They said he's just dinged up. Hopefully nothing bigger than that. Carlos Rodan will throw another bullpen session Friday. This will mark his third bullpen since May 14th. He remains without a timetable for now. Stop me if you've heard these two before.

Byron Buxton has missed two of the past three games and manager Rocco Baldelli admitted Buxton is playing at less than 100%. And apparently, Eloy Jimenez has been bothered by a leg issue. Just never ends. Jorge Polanco will make his return Thursday, which means Edouar Julian

will be optioned back to AAA. John Carlos Stanton is in line to return Friday against the Dodgers, as is Anthony Rizzo, who has missed three straight with a neck injury. But again, sounds like he'll be back on Friday. Anthony Rendon is targeting next week for a return to the Angels.

He was batting 301 before he got hurt, and he's 68% rostered. Scott, would you be looking to stash Anthony Rendon anywhere right now? Yeah, I know the power production has been disappointing, but you'd be surprised in points leagues, which we generally think of as the shallower league, just how productive he's been on plate discipline alone. So if you're doing it in that shallower format, I think you got to do it in like a roto league with the extra corner infield spot as well. And there's a chance the power picks up. Obviously, we've seen Rendon, you know, even for the short time he was healthy last year. He was

producing enough power, including his one and only career at bat from the left side of the plate when he hit a home run. Remember that? That was one of the coolest moments of the season last year. I know Rendon did not do much outside of that, but that was, that was such a cool moment. Yes, I remember it like it was yesterday. Without getting stuck on that, what I mean is he had five home runs in 166 at bats last year. So, you know, I think he still has like 15 to 20 homer power that he could unlock potentially if he can stay healthy. Yeah, it's, uh, we're talking about Anthony Rendon and James Paxson, right?

It's like Spider-Man meme from like the pitcher and the hitter perspective, but between those two. Rendon, only 30 games played earlier this season, but was averaging 3.2 fantasy points per game, which was the same mark as Raphael Devers, Bobby Witt Jr. It was better than Alex Bregman, who normally be looked at as like a points league standout. So yeah, I think definitely in that format, someone I would be looking to stash right now.

Riley Green was placed on the IL with a stress fracture in his left fibula. Michael Conforto is day-to-day with a bruised left heel after his MRI came back clean. Alec Bohm underwent an MRI on his left hamstring and was out of the lineup Wednesday. A trip to the IL is possible. Michael Grove will be activated

to start Saturday against the Yankees. Rwanzi Contreras will start Friday with Vince Velasquez back on the IL and one prospect note I wanted to highlight here, Scott. Oswald Paraza hit two homers in the minors on Wednesday night. He now has nine home runs over his last 13 games.

The dude is red hot. I don't see how he fits into the Yankee lineup unless they make a Volpe for Paraza swap. I would take the under on that actually happening. I mean, I guess it's a possibility, but like Josh Donaldson's coming back this weekend. They keep playing him for whatever reason. Yeah, I mean, ideally it would be like Paraza at third and Volpe at short, but I just don't know how he fits in right now. Yeah.

And, I mean, he's got to come back at some point. the thing is particularly when the guy doesn't perform as expected the first time around you can never you can never recapture that same hype as the initial call-up

so I don't know that it's a big priority to Stasho's world Paraza like he could come back at some point and he could break through I mean maybe this this bin she's been on a AAA is the start of it

but like when he gets called up it's doubtful many people in your league are going to care just because they've seen him a couple times already and it didn't work out then. Let's take our final break and when we return we'll talk about Shane Bieber and Aaron Nola. We'll do that here on Fantasy Baseball today. Big thanks to those watching us live.

It is nearly 1.30 a.m., 500 people watching us live. We do appreciate you being here. Make sure to like this video. and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. Scott, I was trying to think of a clever name or segment idea for Shane Bieber and Aaron Nola. And as you could see on the rundown, I just wrote Bieber and Nola. I couldn't really think of anything creative.

But Shane Bieber knocked around at the Baltimore Orioles. Four innings pitched seven earned runs. You know, you dig a little bit deeper at the things that we've been worried about this year. He actually did a good job, a great job, of limiting hard contact in this one. still didn't get at any whiffs. The velocity was up. So it's like kind of a mixed bag here. Like underlying some good stuff for Shane Bieber,

but obviously not getting whiffs. That's like the downside here. And that's the biggest thing. Right. As far as I'm concerned. His K-minus walk rates got entering the start, 10.3%, which ranks 58th of 70 qualified starting pitchers this season. This is just not the Shane Bieber that we have come

to know over the past couple years. No, no. And I've been worried about him really all season. He's had this. So this was his second disastrous start that he's had recently. Like he's managed to navigate it okay up until now. But now with this second disaster start, we're talking about a guy who has a 372 ERA,

a 129 whip, and 6.4K per 9. So now, like, I'm not even sure there's an opportunity to sell high anymore because those are not numbers that are going to win anybody over, I don't think. Certainly not for the price you'd need to justify moving Shane Bieber. You're hoping something changes for them at this point. But I'm going to make a prediction right now, okay?

Really bold prediction. Uh-oh. And maybe, maybe everybody will laugh at me when the season's over looking back on it. But I'm going to predict here in the, in the fledgling hours, probably, whatever, the wee hours of the morning on June 1st, this day forward, Lance Lynn will have better numbers than Shane Bieber from this day forward. I like it. Bold, spicy. Speaking of Bieber, I was updating the rankings, and I dropped them outside the top 20 starting pitcher,

Scott, for the first time this season. So it's not a huge drop. He's down to SP21, but I moved guys like Joe Ryan and Logan Webb ahead of Shane Bieber. But yeah, if he performs to that level, Scott, we might be talking about, you know, not even on top 30 or top 40 starting pitcher rest of season for Shane Bieber.

If you could still sell high and get top 20 value for him, it's something you should look to do. Aranola with another blast start at the New York Mets, six innings, four runs, three walks to five strikeouts. He had 11 swinging strikes on 103 pitches, limited the hard contact. And, yeah, I mean, this wasn't really a bad start. I think he just gave up a home run and kind of got doomed there.

But the velocity up across the board, the sinker up 1.7 miles per hour, the fastball up 1.6 miles per hour. Yeah, it's kind of tough with Aranola because he still stands at like a 4. 0.7 ERA and you know for everything we say about Bieber Aranola swinging strike rate is 10.7% this year which is down quite a bit from where it's been at it in years past as well I mean what are your latest thoughts on Aaron Noah? Yeah I mean that the thing about Bieber relative to Nola is he lost so much on his fastball last year and like

should have collapsed then right like pitchers don't normally survive that big of a drop in fastball velocity but his his curveball and slider were so good that it made up for it. And so this is like the other shoe dropping this year, him losing the bite on the breaking balls that allowed him to survive that steep drop in velocity. So that's, you know, the contrast between Beber and Nola, why I'm so pessimistic about Bieber, but remain fairly optimistic about Nola.

You know, Nola needs to show signs of improvement here soon for me to keep staying optimistic with him. because, yeah, a lot of the underlying numbers I normally don't look great for him. I just think Aaronola has had a whole career, basically, of making us panic for a month or two. And then basically being Aaronola after that. I mean, the month or two may not be the first two months of the season. But, like, you know, and of course a couple starts ago, he had 10 strikeouts in seven innings and looked like retro Aaronola. So, like, there's still signs of that guy in there. So I remain optimistic for now, but that gets harder with each start like this.

I get what you're saying, too. It's not like a month or two collective, like consecutively. It's just kind of like six to ten starts over the course of the season where, you know, you're just kind of left scratching your head with Aranola. Like, is this guy really an SP1? And then again, at the end of the season, he just usually kind of winds up with Aranola type numbers. A few names that could be out there for my deep. leagueers, some hitters that have caught my eye. Patrick Bailey, is there anything here, Scott,

in a two-catcher league? Obviously, if we're playing in like 12 or 15-team roto leagues with two catchers, you know, you kind of get desperate for that second catcher spot. Patrick Bailey now has multiple hits in three of his last five games, has played 11 games with the Giants. He's batting 333 with two homers and a 9-14 OPS. The other name here is Willie Castro, who went two for four with his 10th steal of the season. He added three runs scored. He's now with the Minnesota Twins, and the numbers look pretty good.

274 batting average, four homers, 10 steals, a 779 OPS, and has a bunch of different eligibility, second base, third base, shortstop, and outfield on CBS. Scott, deep leagues, anything on Patrick Bailey and Willie Castro.

So, yeah, I wondered if the return of Royce Lewis Lewis, would impact Willie Castro's playing time. But it, you know, looking at the lineup history now for the twins. He was playing third base only sporadically. And I know, well, they're also getting Jorge Polanco back on Thursday, sending Edward Julian down. So that seems like, you know, something that won't disrupt Castro's playing time either. you just swabbed Julian out for for Blanco.

It's going to be, it's going to be difficult still, I think, to get him in the lineup regularly enough for him to remain this impactful. And I have questions about the profile anyway. He's pretty undisciplined hitter. He's had a nice run, but I wouldn't get too invested in it. And let's see, who's the other one, Patrick Bailey?

Yep. Yeah, I mean, clearly not worth using in one catcher leagues, but you probably have to use them in a two catcher league. And I don't know that the analysis needs to go any deeper than that right now. It's just kind of the nature of the position where it's either one catcher leagues are too shallow, two catcher leagues are too deep. So it totally changes the value of a player, whether it's one catcher or two.

Next year coming to a league near you, 1.5 catcher leagues, That's what I've always argued. I've argued that for years because people complain about two catcher leagues. You end up having to start all these scrubs. And it's like, well, but if you look at one catcher league and there are always too many good catchers on the waiver wire because nobody ever wants to use a catcher in a utility spot for obvious reasons. So unless you're forcing people to pick up catchers specifically,

you don't go deep enough at the position. Well, how would that even work, right? It wouldn't really work. It can't work. great but yeah it's probably it would be the perfect kind of in between but yeah it's just wouldn't really work maybe like a maybe like a catcher r p flex spot gosh oh that sounds so gross if it's like only only in points leagues it wouldn't really work if you have a if you have a crossover between like a fantasy baseball and football league like a a catcher tight end spot i mean

that that kind of just feels like where we're at at this point um some pitchers in deeper leagues Jaime Berea has made two solid starts in a row. He was at the White Sox five innings, one run, six strikeouts with 13 swinging strikes on 90 pitches. And he's doing some good things. 12% swinging strike rate, doing a good job, limiting hard contact. Again, that's Jaime Barria. Tommy Henry, another great start up against the Rocky, seven shutout innings with seven strikeouts, 12 swinging strikes on 95 pitches.

And Julio Tehran, one of the most odd starts that you will see, turned in his first quality start since September 7th of 2019. What were you doing on September 7th of 2019? I couldn't tell you right now. He was at the Blue Jays. Six innings, one unearned run, zero walks, zero strikeouts.

Two swinging strikes on 79 pitches and allowed a ton of hard contact. I don't really know how he got away with this one, but he did, Scott. Obviously, we're talking like 15 team leagues in deeper here, but any thoughts on Berea, Tommy Henry, and Julio Tehran.

On that night, it was probably sitting here talking to the Welsh who was hosting. No, no, no. I think it was still Adam Hazer at the time. Yeah. Probably right, yeah.

And Adam, I don't know, I don't know when Adam and I started doing nights. I don't know. Anyway, Tehran, yeah, he's a weird pitcher. He's been out of the league for a while. I'd bet against him, but, you know, you look at the course of his career when he did have good season.

they mostly weren't backed up by the underlying numbers. So it's not crazy to think he could be useful as like a streamer type, but I'd bet against it. Anything on those other two or just don't really matter? Jaime Berea, Tommy Henry? They're more interesting than Tehran. Berea has been getting nice swinging strike totals, especially on the strength of that slider,

which it throws close to 50% of the time. I don't know how much job security he has and it might only take one blow up for the angels to lose faith in him. But I'm keeping an eye on Jaime Bari at the very least. Tommy Henry's had two good starts back to back. I don't know. I don't see a lot of good in his profile.

So I'm steering clear of him for now. But we'll continue to monitor it because it's too good in a row. And when I say good, I mean in terms of like, you know, a lot of swinging strikes out of nowhere, too. Yeah, 18 swinging strikes in his previous start 12 in this latest one for Tommy Henry. Let's wrap up with some leftovers here. Scott, Joe Houtani, two for three with a double dong, added four RBI and three run scored. He is up to 15 home runs on the season. Also has seven steals.

His teammate Mike Trout went one for three with his 13th home run, a 461 foot shot. Of course, all of those came off of our boy, Lance Lynn. Not great. Sayas Suzuki went two for four with a double and a run scored. He finishes May betting 319 with five homers and a 977 OPS. I called him a buy high last week, and I stand by it. Muky Betts went two for five with a double dong for him, and he's up to 13 home runs as well.

Kaber Ruiz. This should have been in a waiver wire somewhere, so I guess I miss this one. But he went three for four with a double dong of his own. A revenge series. series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He had three home runs in the series. He's only betting 237. The expected numbers are much, much better for Cabo Ruiz.

And Scott, I feel like he would be one of the perfect players for a 1.5 catcher format. He would. Yeah, especially if it is a points format because he strikes out so little. Mm-hmm. Just a 7.6. Wow, those expected stats are good. Yeah, 286. XBA 472 X-SL

for Kbert Ruiz. Yeah, where did that come from? Hmm. Interesting. Yeah, he's 40% rostered, so again, yeah, he's like an in-between guy. I don't think he's available in a two-catcher league, and in a one-catcher league,

he's probably not good enough to drop, you know, like, I don't know, Alejandro Kirk or Tyler Stevenson type for him. I think you could drop Kirk for him. He's just not playing enough and not producing when he plays and not producing in a way that would earn a more playing time. And maybe it'll change, but it's, he's just kind of useless right now. The only thing with Kirk Scott is that Danny Jansen went on the aisle recently, so I could see the playing time

going up, or at least that's the hope. But let me see if it has. Yeah, it has. I mean, he started four or five behind the plate. I guess I missed the miss the Jansen news. Sorry. about that. All good. Okay. All right. Let's stick with Kirk then. Sorry.

I mean, they're pretty similar players, right? It's like a high batting average, not much power. Well, Kirk does hit the ball a lot harder. Like, Kirk has, I think, more hope for power than Ruiz does, despite the two-homer game here. Last name here, I want to mention Masataka Yoshido went two for four with his seventh home run. He had four hard hits in this game. Now batting 317 with an 899 OPS, 30 run scored.

31 RBI, nearly as many walks as strikeouts, and we had the same exact idea, Scott. We both moved Yoshita up to outfielder 18 in head-to-head points leagues, and just inside the top 30 in roto slash category formats. One lonely pitching left over, George Kirby, was great up against the Yankees, eight shutout innings with seven strikeouts, 10 swinging strikes on 95 pitches, did allow 10 hard hits in this one velocity way up nearly two miles per hour on each of the four seam fastball in the sinker i don't know if there's anything to add scott george kirby is very good well i was coming off a very bad bad start true thanks for bearing with me everybody i know i've had like i just my

voice just disappears on me mid word and i end up having to say the word over again so that people can hear it uh yeah nice bounce back star for kirby after a really bad one All right. I'll just do the rest of the talking from here and out. Let's get into the bullpens for the Tigers. Alex Lang struck out two for his 10th save. He is up to 75% rostered. And I don't know, probably should be 100% right. I think even in points leagues, Alex Lang has been so good. Probably should be rostered there too.

In Tampa Bay, Jason Adam entered in the eighth inning with a one-run lead facing eight, nine and one in the Cubs lineup. He gave up a hit and a walk. And then in the ninth inning, they started things off with Kevin Kelly. he only recorded one out. Jalen Beaks got the final two outs for his first save of the season. I would still bet on Jason Adam getting the majority of the saves moving forward.

For the Cubs, we continue to not know what's going on. Mark Leiter Jr. entered in the seventh inning with a runner on first and a two-run lead. He promptly gave up a two-run homer to Brandon Lowe, then started the eighth inning, and he gave up a two-run homer to Jose Siri. So not the best outcome there for Mark Leiter Jr. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm about ready to give up on him. Yeah, about ready to give up on this voice too, Scotty. For the Braves, Riesel Iglesias had a clean ninth inning for his fifth save for the Nationals. I think Kyle Finnegan's probably getting close to like drop territory here. He entered in the seventh inning with a one-run lead, gave up a game-tying hit. He started the eighth inning with a three-run lead then,

gave up a solo homer to Mukhi Betts. His usage has kind of been all over the place recently. Hunter Harvey recorded the final six outs of the game. for his third save of the season. For the Padre, Josh Hader entered the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He gave up two runs,

took his third blown save, and first loss. For the Brewers, Devin Williams picked up his ninth save. For the Reds, Alexis Diaz was unavailable. Buck Farmer picked up his first save. And for the Mets,

they had a three-run lead. Adam Adavino pitched in the eighth. David Robertson closed it out for his 10th save of the season. To stream or not to stream, Scott, very short slight here on Thursday. Three names that I wrote down, Taiwan Walker at the Mets,

Zach Davies versus the Rockies, read Detmer's at the Astros. Frankly, I don't want to use any of those. If you have to use one, Deppmers is probably it. And then on Friday, also not looking like the greatest, no, it's quite bad.

I think Edward Cabrera versus the Oakland A's. It's probably the most interesting. Maybe he'll save his job since you want to take it away. Yeah. Honestly, I would welcome it because I do have Edward Cabrero on a few teams.

I guess Dean Kramer at the Giants, if you're looking at a second one, Garrett Whitlock has pitched well, but going up against Tampa Bay in Fenway Park, I don't really love it. Anything else? No. That is a fitting way to end this podcast.

For Scott, I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spree. Spotify. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.