Fantasy Baseball Today - Framber Valdez Injured! Struggling Pitchers & Hitters That Might Be Breaking Out! (4/9 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 9, 2024

Framber Valdez was scratched from his start with an elbow injury (3:01)! ... Elly De La Cruz had a monster game (4:37). ... Christian Yelich is hitting for power early on (7:30). ... Tyler Anderson has looked great so far (10:16). ... News (17:20): Gerrit Cole played catch for the first time. ... Jesus Luzardo, Luis Castillo and Zach Eflin are struggling early on (23:10). ... Are Anthony Volpe, Will Benson and Brett Baty breaking out (29:35)? ... Do we have any interest in Spencer Turnbull (42:00)? ... Nestor Cortes had a big bounce back (45:26). ... Let's break down the good, the bad and the ugly pitching performances (50:50). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (59:40). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Well, hello, and welcome into Tough Fantasy Baseball today. Tuesday, April 9th. Frank Stamphill joined by Scott White today on the show.

We're going to recap all of Monday's action. We have three struggling pitchers, hitters who might be breaking out and a big nasty Nestor Cortez bounce back but of course there's only one place to start Scott is this some kind of sick

joke after everything we spoke about on yesterday's podcast what is happening another pitcher injury on Monday Framber Valdez was scratched from his start after experiencing you guessed it

soreness in the top of his left elbow after playing catch He's been sent back to Houston to be evaluated by team doctors. Both Joe Espada and Astro's GM Dana Brown have downplayed the level of concern, noting Valdez hasn't yet been placed on the IL. We're waiting to learn more, Scott, but this is just insane. We are, it feels like we're averaging a pitcher per day, losing a pitcher per day in fantasy at this point.

Yeah, we can't keep that pace up for very long. It's true. We don't know much about this, obviously. It's hard not to fear the worst, given what we've seen, given the weekend we're coming off of, and then what we saw really in the build-up to the season as well, that the Astros are downplaying it. You know, I don't think for those, in those other cases,

there were many attempts to downplay it. So I don't know. Maybe that's encouraging. But, yeah, it's hard to not, it's hard not to fear the worst and to expect the worst. and to expect the worst, frankly. So we'll just have to wait and see. That's exactly what we'll do.

Wait, see what happens with Framber Valdez. Hopefully Justin Verlander is back soon, but we do have some updates on other pitchers who are rehabbing, and it sounds like we could get some help coming here soon in fantasy baseball. God knows we need it right now, Scotty. All right, let's get into the rest of Monday's action. That ball had a family! That ball did have a family.

L.E. de La Cruz, I just wanted to... to start there. That was the call from last year. I think it was Ellie's first home run, but my goodness, what a game for Ellie Dela Cruz here on Monday. Three for four with two socks into shoe. One of those homers was an inside the park home run added to RBI, four run scored. The home run that went over the wall, it went well over the wall. A hundred twelve point three exit velocity, 450 feet. He's off to a nice start, Ellie Dela Cruz, 297, two homers, six deals. And he's doing all of that, Scott, with a 41.5% strikeout rate and a 60% ground ball rate. So, man, imagine if this guy ever improves on the things that we were concerned about coming into the season, right?

Yeah, yeah, imagine. You know, he's going to have to shave probably five, six points off that strikeout rate, probably just to... At least. Well, I mean, more would be better. but to be a high-end fantasy asset, I would think he'd need to have no more than a 35% strikeout rate. Still early, that obviously could still happen. You know, it's hard to celebrate this as the big game

that obviously the stat light, it doesn't seem as good as the stat line because of the inside the park home run. That's what I'm trying to say, which was basically a soft single. goal to center field that got misplayed by Sal Freelick and makes the final stat line look more impressive than maybe he deserved. But, you know, he's still at a long home run. He still stole a base is sixth. That's an incredible steals pace. I said all through the preseason that I thought

even given some of the underlying concerns there with L.E. de la Cruz as a hitter, the hitting profile, the stolen bases would probably save him and maybe not make it so he was quite a second round pick or even a third round pick, but make him a must-start player still just as long as he ran as frequently as he did as a rookie. And that at least seems to be happening. Whether he can take that big step forward as a hitter and live up to that second third-round price tag remains to be seen. But I would say, despite this big performance today, I am less hopeful just given how the strikeout rate and how the ground ball rate looks so far. I will point out with the Reds, they are off and running so far as a team.

They lead baseball with 22 stolen bases. Does not look like they're going to slow down anytime soon between Ellie and Will Benson and Spencer Steered. These guys just look like they're going to run and run. The Nationals, second in baseball with 20 steals. We'll talk about one of their players a little bit later on. Scott, who was your player of the night? Well, I had a few choices here, but I wanted to dig in. to Christian Yelich a little bit

who's already up to four home runs and last year he hit only 19 and he hasn't had 20 in a season Yelich since he had that you know those back to back seasons where he was MVP and runner up for MVP specifically

2019 when he hit 44 home runs that was the last time Christian Eilich even hit 20 home runs in a season and like I said here on April 9th already at four. And I think that comparison to 2019 is interesting because the last time he had a fly ball rate, a launch angle like he does right now,

was 2019 when he hit 44 home runs. And the quality of contact has remained high ever since. Ever since Christian E.Lich was one of the top players in fantasy. It's not like he stopped hitting the ball hard. He just struggled to elevate like he did. during that incredible two-year run. It's very early, and I'm not saying you should go out and buy high on Christian Yellich pay up from like he's a first round pick. But I don't know, we saw Cody Bellinger bounce back to something close to his MVP standard last year after several years of dramatic underachievement.

Maybe it's not too late for Christian Eilich to do that. I think, you know, especially given the quality of contact, there's still hope, which is basically the opposite of what I was saying during draft prep season. But, you know, we react to the facts as they develop. Yeah, that's exactly right. And, you know, I could be wrong about yellow to you. I don't know that I vocalized this that much. He was kind of just someone I never looked to draft just because I'm worried about the back injury

as he gets older and it feels like the back injury started to. crop up a little bit towards the end of last season. It kind of derailed his August, but he still had a great season overall last year. And, you know, while we've been faked out early in the season many times before with these launch angle changes, you're absolutely right, Scott. If Yelich can continue to elevate throughout the year, he hits the ball hard enough where it's not crazy to see. We could get another 25 to 30 home run season on top of that if he continues to run. He could just

have a truly massive kind of re-breakout season. here for Christian Yellich. Yeah, I mean, 25 to 30, he was a must-star player in fantasy with 15 to 20. Yeah. Especially with the steals improvement we saw last year. So that would be pretty big for Christian Eilich, if he can keep it up.

Player of the night for me, I'm going to go with Mr. Anderson. Tyler Anderson of those angels, the shirt that you are wearing right now, Scotty, seven shutout innings in each of his first two starts. This one was against the Tampa Bay, raise where he allowed just four hits, one walk, three strikeouts. You might see the strikeouts that say, oh, all right, well, that's not too impressive. 17 swinging strikes on 91 pitches for Tyler Anderson in this one, eight on the fastball,

seven on the changeup, two on the cutter. He leaned on the fastball surprisingly a little bit more in this one. I mean, his change of remains a really good pitch. It was a good pitch for him last year, but the fastball just got clobbered. So I don't know what is going on with Tyler Anderson early on here, Scott. If he's actually doing something different with the fastball, it's not like the velocity is up or anything like that. It could just be that he's locating it.

It could just be a two-small, a two-start sample size, which is obviously really small. But Tyler Anderson is somebody who two years ago was awesome with the Dodgers, a 257 ERA and a one whip on the nose. We know he was terrible last year. what are you seeing right now? Any interest in Tyler Anderson? Well, yeah, I mean,

it does look like the movement profile of his fastball and change up, which are mainly the two pitches he throws. They're both different. They're further apart in terms of the movement they're getting.

So I don't know. I don't know what to... Like, I'm just... I'm like you. I'm looking for anything here other than the results that I can say, oh, well, that's different for Tyler Anderson. Maybe that explains it. You know, two years ago, he was one of the top pitchers in fantasy.

It was total outlier for his career. And so we were pretty quick to write him off when his first year with Angels didn't go well. And I'm not saying he's a high priority pickup now. But these are two really good starts and really good in every statistical area. I mean, I guess he only had three strikeouts today, but with 17 whiffs. You know, you'd expect that to translate to more strikeouts most of the time. So I would add him to the scout team. Obviously, if you're in a deep 15 teamer, you probably just have to add him, period.

But for most listeners out there, something to keep an eye on. Not sold or anything on Tyler Anderson, but it's something to keep an eye on. Yeah, I would agree with that. Don't think he is a must add by any means. But, you know, I mean, based on what we've seen from Reid Detmer, so far this season. The Angels might just have a better idea of what to do with their pitchers now. They did bring in a new pitching coach this offseason Barry Enright.

So perhaps there's some influence there from him. But yeah, I would say in deeper leagues, just check to make sure that Tyler Anderson is not available. You know, and your 10 to 12 teamers. Not yet. But let's keep an eye to see where this goes. I did want to give an honorable mention here to Brandon Nimmo, who had an awesome game for the Mets. 4 for 4 with a double-donged 5 RBI in this game. He had three hard hits, all three over 108 exit velocity.

And he needed it, Scotty, was batting 103 in his first eight games. But like we've said with many other players and we'll continue to just preach patience. For guys that we know are talented, not that Brendan Nimmo is like a superstar, but he's a talented Major League player. Eventually, these guys are going to come around. Yeah, I mean, he had a total of three hits prior to this game, and so now he more than doubled his season total of hits in just one day, did Brandon Nemo. And that's easy to do this time of year.

You can see hitters turn everything around in just a game or two. And I don't think anybody who is worried about Brandon Nimmo yesterday is still worried about him today. It is still very early. You know, it feels like we've been through so much already, particularly with the pitching injuries, but I was looking at my head-to-head lineups today and seeing 1-0 or 0-1, you know,

as my win-loss record. And it's like, oh, there's only been one matchup. Obviously, it's two if you counted week one as just that opening weekend and didn't combine it into an extra long scoring period. But the point is, it's just, it's a good reminder that, like, you should never freak out in fantasy in a head-to-head league if you're 0.1.

Like, that's never, that's meaningless in the grand scheme of things. And so, of course, on an individual player level, that's true too. One other honorable mention, I got to give a shout out to the Padres here on Monday night. My goodness, they were down eight zip entering the sixth inning where they scored seven runs. And then they tacked on another two more runs in the eighth inning. It was Fernando Tatees, who hit that go-ahead home run off of Adbert Alslei, unfortunately, for his fantasy manager. but man, Tates off to when I start. Shout out to the Padres.

Awesome comeback here on Monday night. Quick promotions. Subscribe to the FBT newsletter. If you have it already, it is free. CBSports.com slash newsletters. And Chris does a great job. Get sent out to your email inbox every day. You just go to that website,

click on the FBT logo, punching your email address. It's easy as that. And a reminder that you can listen to and follow fantasy baseball today and our five-minute podcast, FBT and 5 on Spotify. Let's take our first break.

When we return, we'll hit the news and notes right after this. Welcome back in, News and Notes. Garrick Cole played catch without issue on Monday. It's the first time he's done any throwing since he was diagnosed with nerve irritation in his right elbow. He is not eligible to return until late May, but this is the first of hopefully many good news items to come for Garrickle. CJ Abrams has missed... I like the optimism. I know, right?

I'm just trying to speak. get into existence at this point. Gosh, what a, what a start. CJ Abrams has missed three straight due to a bone bruise in his left pinky, but hopes to return to the lineup on Tuesday. Jordan Romano through a live batting practice on Sunday, the Blue Jays are still determining what the next steps will be for him. Josh Young was moved to the 60-day IL, which makes sense.

He's expected to miss eight to ten weeks with that broken wrist. Tommy Edmund was cleared by a doctor Monday to begin. baseball activities. No timetable in place for him, but if he needs a full spring training, whenever he actually starts getting on the field again, I guess we'd look at like a month from that point, whenever that is for Tommy Edmund.

Lars Neupar was not activated on Monday and will instead resume a rehab assignment with AAA on Tuesday. Wilson Gutierrez was originally in the Cardinals lineup Monday and then once again was scratched due to that lingering handsorness, manager Oliver Marmol said he's confident Contreras will return on Tuesday. Justin Verlander will throw a bullpen Wednesday and will have another minor league rehab start this weekend.

In his first rehab start on Sunday, he gave up seven runs, six of those were earned. Not sure how much the results matter, more so just the velocity and the fact that Verlander is just bouncing back in a healthy way. So hopefully he continues that. Edward Cabrera is scheduled to make his third rehab start with AAA on Wednesday. Braxton Garrett scheduled to make a second rehab start this Friday at AAA. Taiwan Walker will begin a minor league rehab assignment

with AAA on Thursday. We'll be interesting to see what happens with Spencer Turnbull, who's pitched very well so far. We'll talk about him in just a little bit. Jonathan India was scratching the lineup after being hit by a ball in his left leg during batting practice. Nick Ladolo set for his season debut Saturday against the White Sox.

He is 74% rostered. We mentioned him on yesterday's podcast. Even in shallower leagues, I would say go check to make sure Nick Ladolo is not available. When I did my yearly social media survey where I asked kind of, I ask, one of the questions I tend to ask is who's your favorite breakout pitcher? I think, or I think the way I worded is which breakout pitcher are you most? confident in. And the winner of that response, the one who got the most responses last year to that question was Nick Ladolo. So, upside is there to be a factor in all leagues. And yeah, you don't want to sleep on him. Next up, Michael Conforto was out of Monday's lineup due to a minor side issue.

Justin Foske was placed in the IL with a left oblique strain. Chase Silseth was placed in the IL, and Jose Soriano will take his place. in the rotation. Scott Soriano is someone who got transitioned into being a starter this spring. He actually looked pretty good. I remember him having some interesting starts. Any interest in Jose Suriano in deeper leagues?

Yeah, in deeper leagues. I think there are some control issues there that are going to prevent him from being like a big breakout. But, no, he was effective in relief last year and throws hard. and I could see him factoring in some of the deeper leagues and some of the 15 teamers. I would probably put him behind like Alec Marsh in terms of interest.

And I know Marsh's last start wasn't great. But that's the level I'm talking about. So if Alec Marsh doesn't matter in your league, then I don't think Jose Soriana does either, at least not yet. The twins were called Jose Miranda, but he's mostly expected to be a part-time player for now. He impressed as a rookie back in 2020.

but then came crashing back down to Earth last year, dealt with some injuries. So let's see what Jose Miranda could do in his return. And the Red Sox signed their prospect, Sadan, Rafael, to an eight-year extension worth $50 million, which buys out his arbitration years and the first two years of free agency. And I always find it interesting when teams sign a prospect like this

got to an extension this early in their major league career. it almost, not that every team's going to get it right, but it gives me more confidence. If a team is willing to do this, then all right, maybe there really is something here with this player and obviously this player being, say, Don Raphaela. Well, it's a gamble.

I think they'd all say it's a gamble. I think why the Red Sox are willing to make this gamble is because Raphaela provides so much defensive value. And a worst case scenario, you know, maybe he's a super utility player who is your best defender at, in both center field and maybe shortstop. And that'll be,

that'll mostly return the value here on this investment. Obviously, there's the potential, say Don Rafael develops into more, but since we don't often think about defensive value, about how that might affect the way a team approaches a player, thinks about a player, given that this is a fantasy show.

It is worth mentioning in the case of Raphaela, that's more than anything, that's what he brings to the table. And that's something that the Red Sox can take to the bank. Three struggling pitchers early on in the season. Jesus Lozardo, Luis Castillo, and Zach Eflin. Let's talk about him. First up, Jesus Lazzardo got crushed at the Yankees, four and two-thirds innings, seven runs allowed,

five walks, four strikeouts, two homers. Pretty obvious here. You walk five, you give up two home runs, obviously bad things are going to happen. Lazardo, very critical of the walks after the game. The five walks tied a career high. He's also allowed four home runs in three starts this season. And I don't know if it's a thing where maybe the Yankees just have a good read on Lazardo,

but he faced them last year as well. Also allowed seven earned runs against the Yankees. This is obviously a little bit of a different lineup, but maybe they just see him well. Is there any takeaway here, Scott, anything you're actually worried about with Lazardo? I know he's prone to some of these blow-up starts at times, but is it just a rough three-start stretch to open the season?

Well, the first start was great. The second start was two outs away from being a quality start, and I would categorize it as a decent start. This one was the first truly bad one for Lazzardo, and it was bad in several respects, as you pointed out. You know, I don't see any red flags in terms of, like, velocity being down or pitch selection being. weird. It was just, I'm going to chalk it up as a bad start for now.

Okay, yeah. I probably overblown struggling pitchers looking at it now at the game like. Obviously, the season long stats look bad after a start like this, but he entered with a 435 VRA and a 0.97 whip. Yeah, and we might just get to a point this season where, not to the same level as the Dodgers, but if a team gets rocked by the Yankees, maybe it's just give them a mulligan because that lineup is pretty good as long as everyone stays healthy. So that's exactly what we saw here today

against Lazzardo. Two batters in particular as long as they stay healthy. Yes for sure. But there are other Stanton's playing well. Rizzo I think is back and Volpe might be turning the corner. He might be doing

exactly that. More on him in a bit. Luis Castillo, another underwhelming start at the Blue Jays. Five innings. Nine hits allowed, four earned runs, six strikeouts. He did have 11 swinging strikes on 101 pitches. Not like he gave up a ton of hard contact in this one. It looks like he didn't really have the changeup working. He got zero whiffs on that pitch.

He threw more sliders in this one. If you look at, on fan graphs, even while the stat is happening, they kind of have like live updated FIP and XFIP and everything. So Luis Castillo has a 689 ERA in the season. That comes with a 331 FIP and a 3.3.1 FIP and a 3. 02 X-FIP. So kind of feels like there's been some unluckiness here

for Luis Castillo. Yeah, the strikeouts have been good, the walks have been good. All three of his starts have basically been like five innings, four-earned runs and a few too many hits. So obviously that leads to a bad ERA and whip.

There was no like disaster start in there, though, like we just saw for Luzardo. It's just been, everything's just been a little off. But the things we care about most are fine for Luis Castillo. And, you know, I think it's shaping up to be one of those seasons where you look back at the season splits month by month. And it's like, oh, 6 ERA in April.

And then like an ERA three something or two something in every other month, which happens all the time. Yeah. And speaking of just three starts so far collectively for Castillo, he has a 451 babbip against that just isn't going to. to last. So. And I say, like, I'm, I'm already condemning him to a 60 R8 April.

It's April 9th. Yeah. Like, it's, it's a third start. And I guess this season just started so early that it feels like we should be halfway through April. But we're not yet. We've still got most of April to go. Let's talk about Zach Eflin, who had another rough outing here.

This one at the Angels, five innings, nine hits, five runs aloud, did have five strikeouts to zero walks, gave up a lot of hard contact. in the start, 10 hard hits allowed, 91.4 average exit velocity against, really leaned into his curveball in this start. It was his most used pitch, 37% usage, but I just don't know that he had much else working. It looks like the cutter and the four seam didn't really have much. The cutter velocity was down almost three miles per hour in the start for Zach Eflin.

I know you expressed some concern after his first start, Scott. How are you feeling now after three so far? Well, the concern after Eflin's first start is that he threw his curveball only 10% of the time and that's the pitch that kind of made him into what he is but here in this third start, which also wasn't good, the curveball was his most thrown pitch. It was up near 40% as you pointed out.

So what seemed different for Eflin in this start is you mentioned the cutter velocity was down and the cutter is a pitch that he relies on for very weak contact. the numbers off his cutter in terms of like opponents batting and average opponent's batting average and everything very very low and so it seems like he didn't have that pitch today so the first outing when he struggled it was the curveball he didn't have this

outing it was the cutter he didn't have the middle outing I don't know I guess everything was fine because he got a good result but it's every start has been different for Eflin which I guess is a good sign that there isn't like one part of him that maybe just broken? I don't know.

Everything's just been a little off for him, I feel like. Would you recommend all three of those pitchers as buy lows right now? Zach Eflin, Lozardo, and Luis Castillo. Castillo easily, but he's probably going to be the hardest to buy just because of the investment people have in him. Eflin might be the easiest to buy

since there have been two really rough starts but I would still consider him a buy low sure Okay Could these hitters be breaking out And we already mentioned the name Anthony Volpe who continues to look like a brand new hitter He went one for three with a walk And hit his second home run

He added three RBI so far this season He's 15 for 36 That's a 417 batting average Two homers, three steals He also has five walks early on That's an 11.9 percent walk rate. But Scott, after doing a little digging, the things that we normally look at, again, this is an incredibly small sample size, like not even 10 games for this data. The expected

numbers are pretty low. The average XVlocity is not impressive. I almost wonder if it's a situation similar to Cody Bellinger last year where Volpe just has completely changed his approach. He's not swinging and missing. He's just looking to, make more contact and maybe drive it into those kind of power alleys or whatever it might be doubles and not necessarily home runs. What do you think? What is your early take here on Anthony Volpe? Could he be breaking out? Yeah, I think he absolutely could be breaking out. This was his first barreled ball, the home run he hit. He actually had another home run this year that somehow wasn't a barrel ball. So that's interesting. It's a little weird. It's a little weird that

there haven't been, as good as his numbers are, that he hasn't hit the ball with much authority. That happens every year for guys like Jose Altuvae. It's not, it's not unheard of that Volpe could take on that kind of profile, but it is rare enough that you don't want to just casually be like, oh, I guess, I guess that means, I guess that means that that Volpe's just doing the Jose Altuvae thing and he's going to be fine. overall I'm encouraged it's a better angle for hits

flatter swing in the zone more the plate discipline's been good if his exit velocity readings look like this all season long then we could have run into trouble but I don't think they'll look like this all season long all right again that is Anthony Volpe who's off to a tremendous start

I guess on the flip side if somebody is willing to pay I don't know top of 50 overall value for Anthony Volpe right now, is that something you would try to sell high on? I mean, sure. Top 50. That's pretty high.

That's like Mike Trout. Yankee fans could be pretty crazy sometimes. Speaking from, you know, experience. But yeah, look, if you can get a top 50, I don't know how realistic that is, but people just, they kind of overreact every which way early on in the season. season. Not that you need to just try and sell

Volpe because, again, he might just be breaking out. So just thought I'd bring it. Maybe somebody drafted Trevor's story as their starter, or maybe the draft was earlier and they drafted Matt McLean as their starter. And they're really in a desperate spot at shortstop. That might be

who you dangle Anthony Volpey to. With the understanding that, like, he may well be breaking out and you don't want to undersell him. But if you can take advantage of his hot start and, like, like you're saying, get a big return for him, then it's something to explore.

The rest of the hitters on this list, potential breakouts, they are all waiver wire options as well. So let's just run through the names. Will Benson had another huge game, two for three with a sock and a shoe. He has two home runs, two steals early on this season.

Like his teammate, he's also striking out quite a bit, but he's hitting the ball very hard. He's playing against lefties. I think there's lots to like with Will Benson. Brett Beatty, three for five with a run score. He has multiple hits in three of his last four games.

And obviously comes with tons of prospect pedigree. Brandon Marsh, two for four with his third home run of the season. And he's hitting well early on. He's hitting the ball really hard too. He did so last year as well. And I guess it just kind of went under the radar a little bit, but a 91.3 average exit velocity for Brandon Marsh last year, it's pretty damn good.

The other two names here, Bryce Terang, who continues to hit so far, two for four with his first home run, four RBI, two-run score. We know he has the seven steals as well. And then there's Taylor Ward, who I know he's been around for a while, but he's never actually just put it together

and had that breakout season. He went three-for-five with three RBI and his first steal. So lots going on here, Scott. Taylor Ward, Bryce to Rang, Brandon Marsh, Brett Beatty, Will Benson. Could any of those names be breaking out? I would say,

that the first two you mentioned are the two I'm most excited about. I liked Will Benson a lot coming into the season, particularly in Roto Leagues. The strikeout rate in points leagues is going to be a problem and maybe makes them not worth pursuing there. But the power and speed, I think, are legitimate for Will Benson.

And with all the injuries, his playing time has been close to every day. He's played against lefties more often than Jake Freely has, for instance. The starts against lefties might bring his batting average down, but I think you'd still rather him play than not for the totals he could provide.

And so far, so good for Will Benson. But maybe the one I'm even more excited about, given his ability to outperform his draft status is Brett Beatty, whose strikeout rate is like 20% so far, well down from his rookie season. and although the exit velocities were low, sort of like Anthony Volpe, and that's more out of character for Brett Pady.

We've seen him hit the ball very hard in the past. He hit two of his three hits were hit very hard in this one. I believe they were both 104 miles per hour on this three-for-five day for Brett Beatty, and that's got his batting average up to 333 now. Again, with that reduced strikeout rate. So he might be showing early signs of a breakout here. We know the upside is tremendous.

And yeah, a lot of reason to... Oh, one of the hits was actually 105 miles per hour for Brett Beatty. Even better. Yeah, so good game for him. I'm excited about him. I think if you need third base help, maybe you lost Josh Young. it's worth looking into whether Brett Beatty is available. As for the others here,

Brandon Marsh, yes, he does hit the ball hard. He strikes out a lot and he doesn't play against lefties. I don't think that's changed this year. I have to admit I haven't looked. He sat out a few games for sure. And my guess is those would be against lefties. Yeah, he started against two of the five lefties. the Phillies have faced.

Okay. So that's a little more than we've seen in the past. But I'm still, like, if it's between him and Will Benson, I definitely lean Benson. I think the upside is higher, and I think the playing time will be higher. Bryce Terang, you know, I'm not that interested in all. The home run he hit here on Monday was his hardest hit ball of the year, but he doesn't hit the ball very hard in general.

and I remain skeptical, even though he continues to deliver here in the early going. Taylor Ward, yeah, I mean, maybe there's something there. I think if the angels end up running more and he's a part of that, you know, he got his first stolen base here on Monday. We've seen Mike Trout. He has two stolen bases already. If they can be double-digit steel guys, I guess Ward especially, if you can get like 15 to 20 steals, then that could be a game changer for him. But I'm not expecting him to be much more than a 275 hitting 20 homer type, which has value.

It's like Lordus Gariel type value. But it's not like he, I don't think Taylor Ward has the potential to be a transformative player for you the way maybe a Brett Beatty could be. The only thing I would add on Bryce Tarang, I agree in a vacuum he doesn't hit the ball hard. Entering this game, it was an 87.4 average exosophilop. but that is still much better than last year.

I don't know if that's actually a good thing or not. Maybe it just proves how poorly he hit the ball last season. But last year was 85.5 miles per hour. So he's up almost two miles per hour. We know he's off and running. How much power? How much batting average can he provide? I would say in category leagues,

I wouldn't want to leave Bryce Terang on the waiver wire right now. But that's just assuming you have a roster spot to mess with. I'm not going to drop anybody of value to make sure I get Bryce Terang on my team. Any interest in these other three waiver wire hitters, Scott, they just all did something of note. I would say more so for deeper leagues than anything. Trey Lipscomb of the Nationals, three for five with three steals in this game. He's got a home run. He's got four steals early on. He's getting some playing time in with the Nationals due to the Nixon Zell injury. Connor Joe continues his nice start. I swear, I'm not just bringing up his name, Kokomo Friday. He's legitimately off to a

Nice start. Two for three with a walk, a double, two RBI. He's batten three 24. He's got a homer. He's got a steal. He got the start on Monday against a righty. He had really only been playing against lefties to this point. So I don't know, maybe earning a little bit more trust from his manager. And Charlie Blackman continues his nice start. Two for four with a walk, a triple and his first home run of the season. Any interest in those, Scott Blackman, Joe, and Lipscomb. Not much interest in Lipscomb or Joe. We've done the Connor Joe thing before and it doesn't end well. And I mean, he's hot, but I think that's all that's happening there. And that's partly why he's getting as much playing time as he is. Blackman, Charlie Blackman, I think is the most interesting here. He's the leadoff hitter for the Rockies, who of course play half their games in Coors Field. They're not a very good team.

They're not a very good lineup. but when you're playing games at Cores Field, special things can happen. And I think any time the Rockies are playing there, Charlie Blackman probably deserves to be starting for somebody in your league. It might be a situation where you're starting him at home and sitting him on the road. And I understand that when it fit with every team,

not everybody has the bench base to handle a player like that. But overall, for being only 31% wrong, less than Connor Joe, in fact. I would say Charlie Blackman is undervalued. I see Charlie Blackman in many sleeper hitter articles in the future for Scott White. If that roster rate remains where it is, that may well be. Let's take our final break when we return. Some other Waver Wire pitchers from Monday's action.

We'll talk about those right after this. Welcome back in. Let's run through some of the Waver Wire pitchers, and Spencer Turnbull looked good once again, this start at the Cardinals. Six shutout innings, two hits, one walk, six strikeouts, had 12 swinging strikes on 82 pitches, and he's throwing a new sweeper this year. He used it a ton in this start, 38% usage.

Velocity remains down, but he's looked good so far, only two starts. Miles Michaelis, back-to-back quality starts for him. Six and two-thirds innings, two runs aloud, three strikeouts up against the Phillies. We spoke about Tyler Anderson earlier on. Trevor Williams solid at the Giants five innings one run, three walks to two strikeouts.

I did have a little birdie tell me that Trevor Williams went to drive line this off season. So for those who care about that type of information, I would guess it has to be in very, very deep leagues, but obviously this was an okay start for him. And Javier Assad, I just put Assad and solid into one word because that was how I was going to describe his start. It was solid at the Padres, five innings, two runs, seven strikeouts in this one.

Any interest here? Assad, Trevor Williams, Michaelis, Spencer Turnbull. Turnbull's the most interesting because of that new sweeper, which, as you mentioned, 38% of he threw it more than any other pitch. So it was kind of a, it's kind of a Spencer Turnbull we've never seen before. His fastball's been down a mile per hour, but with that new sweeper, But very effective, very effective. And maybe the league will catch up to it.

Maybe he won't have a spot for long with Taiwan Walker on the mend. But life finds a way. And if Turnbull continues to pitch like this, he'll continue to get chances. I had him as a sleeper pitcher for this week lining up for two starts. So far so good. If his second start this week goes like this, you might want to hold on to him for a little longer. if it continues. I assume we're taking Tyler Anderson over everybody else in this group.

Yeah. Yeah, Tyler Anderson, if we were to include him in this group, he would be, I think he'd be second for me. I think I prefer Turnbull to him. But they would be clearly the top two ahead of Miles Michaelis, Trevor Williams, and Javier Assad. The most added starting pitchers on CBS are Renel Blanco, Tanner Halk, Brie Singer, and Logan T. Allen.

I'm guessing we wouldn't take Turnbull or Tyler Anderson over any of those names, right? Alan is the only one that's even in the discussion. And I might take Turnbull and Anderson over him. If it's a shallow league situation where you know you'll probably have another shot at a Logan Allen type, then I think I'd sell out for the upside that Turnbull and Anderson are showing. that I totally believe in, especially in Anderson's case, but just to kind of head your, I don't know if head your bed is the right way to say it, but to give yourself the most opportunities at securing a breakout. I don't think we're seeing telltale signs of a breakout from Logan Allen,

necessarily. Let's get into some other pitching standouts, and it was a nice bounce back performance for Nestor Cortez against the Miami Marlins. He threw eight shutout innings, two hits, zero walks, six strikeouts, 15 swinging strikes on 102 pitches. And I noticed he was throwing a change-up more in the start. It's not something that Mr. Cortez normally does. And he threw 11 change-ups in this one. It looked pretty good. Got three whiffs on the pitch, a 60% whiff rate, 36% CSW. So first two starts, he struggled, made some adjustments in this one and he looked pretty good. One thing I will point out, the velocity was also down quite a bit in this start.

So something to watch because Nestor Cortez did deal with a shoulder injury last year, but your thoughts on a pretty awesome start here. It was. And it was reassuring given that he was kind of shaky his first two outings. I was close to giving up on him. I think the main reason not to let him go if you were, if you were, you know, struggling to get another one of those breakout pitchers on your roster,

was that he had a two-star week coming up with the Marlins and the Guardians, I believe, were the second matchup for Nester Cortez this week's. And, you know, the Marlins lineup has been not so productive so far. I think it'll get better

because most of the personnel is the same as last year. Not there were a great lineup last year, but good enough to get them in the playoffs. I think it'll get better. But there, I guess, matchup to exploit right now while they are struggling so and Nestor Cortez took advantage. The swinging strikes especially standout as being, I think he only had like three in his last

start and he got 15 this time. You know, obviously he was very good for fantasy two years ago. Injury plagued season last year, there's a chance he could be more like his 22 self this year. I think this is the first sign. This is the first time Nestor Cortez looked like that, but it's reason enough to retain some hope. Jose Barrios is off to a hot start,

and this one was against the Mariners, six and two-thirds shutout innings with six strikeouts, had 13 swinging strikes on 101 pitches. Nine of those came on the slurve, which was awesome in this startup. 50% whiff rate, 46% CSW on that pitch. And early on here, it's a 145.

ERA for Jose Burrios getting a lot more ground balls. We'll see if he can keep that up, a 52% ground ball rate through his first three starts. Anything else you'd like to add on Burrios' hot start here? Well, I would note, and this was certainly true in this start Monday, that he seems to be fading the four-scene fastball. It was pretty much 80% of his pitches basically were slurfs or sinkers. and the foreseen fastball got hit pretty hard for Jose Burrios. It's never been a particularly good pitch for him.

So perhaps that is helping to drive this hot start for Burrios. Has his value really changed in my eyes? No. I think he's a mid-tier pitcher who deserves to be rostered everywhere. It is. But if he does, if there is a case to be made for Burris taking a step forward this year, I think fading the four-seember. that's the case to make.

If you can turn him into Zach Eflin or Lazzardo right now via trade, would you do it? Yep, absolutely. All right, and then this one, I think it was a positive start from Zach Allen. It's obviously tough to evaluate starts

in Cores Field, but that's where Zach Allen was on Monday. Five innings, eight hits allowed, three earned runs, 10 strikeouts to zero walks, had 15 swinging strikes, 12 of which came on the curveball. Still gave up lots of hard contact, but it feels like that's something Jack Allen is always doing and obviously still had a great year last year.

Changed up the pitch mix a little bit in this. You know, he ditched the slider and the change up. Might have been a Corse field thing where he just relied more on the curveball, and it was a really, really good pitch for him. The fastball velocity, Scott, steadily climbing back closer to where it was last year. Are you encouraged by this latest start from Zach Allen? Yeah, mostly that last. So in his first start of the year, Gallant's fastball was down 1.8 miles per hour from 2023.

It was 1.4 in the second start. It was 0.9 in this start. So as you mentioned, inching up the velocity on that fastball. And the diamondbacks delayed him for the start of spring training because they were worried about the number of innings he threw with the deep postseason run last year. And I wonder if that had something to do with the velocity being laggy for Zach Gallen early on. I don't know that we'll ever know for sure, but it is trending the right direction and the results have been good the last two starts. So if Zach Gallen was a five on the worryometer for me before, I'd say he's more like a three now. All right, some other pitching leftovers, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

We'll start with the good Mitch Keller turned in his first quality start of the season up against. the Tigers. Six innings, two runs, nine strikeouts in that one. James Paxton turned in a quality start at the twins. Six innings, three runs, four strikeouts there. Bailey Ober, solid bounce back against the Dodgers of all teams. Five innings, one run, seven strikeouts had 10 swinging strikes on 68 pitches. A little surprised, they didn't let him come out for the sixth, but I just think they did not want Bailey Ober to face the Dodgers third time through the lineup. and then Tristan McKenzie, better in his second start here,

up against the White Sox, five and two-thirds shutout, more walks and strikeouts, four walks, two strikeouts in this one. And I don't want to take anything away from McKenzie here, but the White Sox lineup, as long as Luis Robert and Eloy Jimenez are out,

it is bad. It's really bad. I would say they might be the top team to stream against right now in terms of pitchers. So I just wanted to make mention of that. Anything to add on, McKenzie, Ober, Paxton, and Mitch Keller. So, I saw a headline about how the Royals may just have Bailey Ober's number.

I didn't read the article. We've all been there, right? But I saw the headline, and I wanted to point it. I wanted to mention it because he got crushed against the Royals in his first start, obviously, turned around and had an awesome start against the Dodgers. Totally defying expectations. But I would say Bailey Ober is A-OK. And this start should have been enough to assuage our concerns.

I want to see what his career numbers are against the Royals. I was about to look up the same thing. If you want to move on to another pitcher, if you have anything else, I could find it. 724 ERA and eight starts. I'm not sure how much of that was the most recent start. Because obviously that first start for Ober was terrible. James Paxton. his velocity, his fastball velocity,

has been down 1.5, 2 miles per hour in his first two starts. And, yeah, he has the Dodgers lineup backing him. The Dodgers' whole supporting cast, that's good news for Paxton. Seems pretty volatile, though. I don't know that he is, you know, if you're itching to pick up another starting pitcher,

I would be okay letting Paxton go. I think he's useful. I think he's streamable. But I don't think he's going to be a big difference maker, particularly with that velocity lagging, and of course he's bound to get hurt at some point. Great start for Mitch Keller. That was encouraging to see

after his first two were kind of shaky. I talked about how much he changes just from start to start, and that was the case in this one too. He threw his sinker 40% of the time. In his first two starts, he threw his sinker 16% at the time between the two starts.

So more than doubled his sinker usage. and it was a pitch that was giving up a lot of hits for him through the first two starts and obviously that wasn't the case in this one. It was responsible for six of the 13 whiffs. The whiffs have been high for Keller all along. He remains an enigma, but I think the end result is

with maybe some ups and downs along the way is going to be positive. I didn't want to add with Paxton that it was 49 degrees in that game in Minnesota the velocity was down in his first start as well, so I think it's a fair point, but maybe it can bounce back up a little bit once he starts pitching in the nice L.A. weather

out there in the West Coast. The bad pitching performances for Monday, Graham Ashcraft got hit hard, but also got lots of whiffs, so yeah, but I think it was still bad. Five in two-thirds innings, six earned runs allowed, had six strikeouts,

16 swinging strikes on 99 pitches. He has 12 plus swinging strikes in each of his first two starts. Blake Snell, mixed bag, and his Giants debut against the Nationals. Three innings, three runs allowed, five strikeouts. Pitch mix looked pretty similar to what it was last year. Slider velocity was down 1.1 miles per hour. You Darvish, pretty bad against the Cubs. Three innings, four runs allowed, three walks, four strikeouts.

His velocity was down across the board, pretty much 1.5 miles per hour or higher on each of his pitches. Darvish has dealt with a lot of injuries in his career, so just hope this is not the next name we hear something about. And then Aaron Ashby, that's right. Former top pitching prospect for the Brewers. He made his first major league start since October of 2022, and he wasn't very good.

Eight runs allowed. Four earned. I was watching this start. He had some terrible defense behind him too, so not entirely his fault, but pretty rough return here to the major. Scott, anything to add on Ashby, Darvish, Snell Ashcraft. It was getting a bunch of whiffs on his changeup was Ashby,

so that's kind of interesting. But yeah, he has a lot. It's going to take a lot for him to get back in our good graces, I would say, after he was all the rage. The fantasy world was a buzz over Aaron Ashby just a couple years ago. It's been mostly bad news for him since. So Graham Ashcraft, he was dominating through four innings. Pitching Ninja was loving.

it on Twitter. And I thought this was going to be a great sleeper recommendation for me, streamer recommendation for me. But then it all fell apart in the fifth. And that's Graham Ashcraft for you, right? So he does have this new sinker this year to go with his triple digit cutter and his slider gives him another look. And I was hopeful it might make him a little more consistent. But that certainly wasn't the case here on Monday, just the opposite. So I I would say Ashcraft remains pretty low end for fantasy. Darvish, I share your concerns. If we don't hear anything health-wise,

then obviously you just keep starting them. But the velocity down across the board, average exit velocity way up. Kind of scary. Kind of scary what's going on there. I want to rag on Blake Snell since he was a bust pick for me. And his first start is,

you get that familiar feeling. you know, with Blake Snell putting up some ugly stat lines except when he's dominating. But, you know, the pitch mix was what we were seeing last year with increased curveball and change up usage.

And he got at least two whiffs on all four of his pitches, which is made for a pretty good whiff rate given that he only 372 pitches overall. It just seemed a little rusty walking too many guys, which is to be expected. So I'm not really,

I don't think there are any judgments. to be made for Snell in this start. You halfway expected it to go like this, but I didn't see any, like, red flags, really. And then the ugly, Reese Olson got hit hard at the Pirates. Four and a third innings, nine hits, six earned runs, three walks in this one. He allowed 11 hard hits, 92 mile per hour, average exit velocity.

Scott, would you see here from Reese Olson? Would you be okay dropping him? Or do you want to hold on? You know, I had a lot of good calls in my sleeper pitchers for week three between Spencer Turnbull and a few others. I don't remember them all. But number one on the list was Rees Olson. He was my number one sleeper pitcher for this week,

and it was ugly against the pirates here. Yeah, probably haven't heard the last of him for fantasy because his slider is really good. and he actually threw it a lot more on this start. And the change-up came along last year. I had a 144 ERA last September, I think, once he started using the change-up more. Obviously, his first start this year was good,

but this start was so bad for Reese Olson that you put him on waivers, nobody's picking him up in leagues, 12 teams are fewer. So I think that's safe to do. I'm guessing you wouldn't drop him for Tyler Anderson or Spencer Turnbull, right? I think he's better than those two. but if you're going to like... I think so too. Like if you wanted to take a flyer on one of them,

again, I don't think anybody's going to pick Olson up, so that gives you an excuse to try it. I'd probably just stick with Olson, but I wouldn't blame anybody for making that swap. All right, five hitters who are off to nice start so far. Just wanted to mention these names, Shohei Otani, three for five with two doubles, and his third home run, he's betting 3.45.

He also has a stolen base. He has 12 runs scored so far. Juan Soto. two for three with his second home run, his first in Yankee Stadium. He's betting 357. He's got 10 RBI early on in the season. We spoke about Christian Yelich.

Mike Trout has looked great. Three for five with his fifth home run, two runs, two RBI. The five home runs are tied with Mookie Betts, Tyler O'Neill, and one other name. Marcel Ozuna, who went two for five, hit his fifth home run. He is betting 325 early on with 12 RBI.

Anything to add, Scott, on Ozuna, Trout, Soto, Otani. Obviously, those last two names are first round picks, but anything on Trout, Ozuna? Other than what we've already been saying, you know, Trout looks healthy, and he looks like

Mike Trout, and he's running more, and I think he was a great value in draft. That's why I ended up with so many shares of him. Maybe he'll get hurt at some point and miss a month. Maybe he'll get hurt at some point and miss two months. But he may just justify a fourth round cost.

fifth round costs maybe in some leagues anyway. And Ozuna, we're still seeing good Ozuna. He's pulling the ball in the air well, which is what tends to happen when he's going well. You know, a lot of times the predictor stats, the expected stats on stat cast will look good even when his actual numbers look bad because he's hitting the ball too much to right center and it's just not doing hard. Uh-oh. His hard-hit balls.

Did I just lose you there? You were freezing up a little bit, but I think you're back. I think you're back. We're here. Yeah, no. Azuna looks good and was a good pick for you, I think. All right, some quick bullpen updates for the Reds. Alexis Diaz got the ninth with a two-run lead.

He walked one but picked up his second save for the, The Dodgers, Evan Phillips, entered the ninth with a two-run lead. He struck out one for his fourth save. For the Mets with Edwin Diaz unavailable, he pitched three of the last four days entering Monday. Jorge Lopez got the ninth with a two-run lead. He gave up one run but picked up his first save for the Phillies. This is a little frustrating for Jose Alvarado managers, but he got the eighth inning with a one-run lead facing nine, one-and-two in the Cardinals lineup.

He walked one but got out of it. and then Jeff Hoffman got the ninth inning with a two-run lead. He gave up a walk, a double, a sackfly, then a game-tying single. The Phillies would take a two-run lead in the top of the 10th, and then it was Gregory Soto who would eventually close it out for his first save. Serves Rob Thompson, right.

We'll see if he thinks twice about using Avarado and then. We'll just see. Uh-oh. All right, well, we're getting robots. Scott Scott here at the end of the podcast. So let's just get through the rest of the bullpen updates, some streamers, and then we'll get out of here.

For the Rockies, a mess as always. Justin Lawrence got the eighth inning with a two-run lead to face four, five, and six in their lineup. He walked one, he struck out two. It was a gentleman named Nick Mears, who got the ninth with a three-run lead. Tyler Kinley had worked Saturday and Sunday, so I don't know who the closer of the Rockies is. It might not matter at all, but Nick Mears gave up a hit, three-warned. and a run.

He was then relieved by Jake Bird, who got the final out for his first save of the season. The Rockies are a mess. Their bullpen is a mess. I don't think it matters. For the Cubs, Adbert Alesli entered in the eighth inning with a runner on first base and a one-run lead.

He gave up a two-run homer to Fernando Tatis. He took the blown save and the loss. On the other side, Robert Suarez struck out two in the ninth. For his fourth save of the season, He has looked great early on in the season. And let's wrap up with the streamers. And we will start with Tuesday. I forget who we said exactly on yesterday's podcast,

but I think Martin Perez at the Tigers, I mean, at home against the Tigers, Casey Myers at the Pirates, and maybe Ronaldo Lopez against the Mets. Yeah, am I here? Can you hear me? Yes, I hear you. Okay.

Yeah, I think those are the best three. Oh, Logan Allen against the White Sox, duh. Yeah, that's a good one too. Yeah, I prefer him to Martin Perez against the Tigers. I'm going to go Rinaldo Lopez, Logan Allen, and Casey Meis. It's my top three for Tuesday. On Wednesday, we have Jordan Hicks against the Nationals.

I like that one. Zach Lattell at the Angels. And then could we get one more? Cody Bradford against the A's? Yes, let's go with Cody Bradford. Sure, why not? You said Jordan Hicks, right? Yes.

Yeah, I mean, I was starting Jordan Hicks against the Nationals this week over some higher-end pitchers than him because I think he's going to be pretty good, especially with that match-up. All right, Scott, while I have you, let's just wrap up with the best for last, a burning question.

Oh, boy. Did you get to see any of the eclipse here on Monday? No. No, not your thing, not your company? No, I don't know exactly when it was happening. I don't know. I wasn't that interested to be perfectly honest with you. I did step outside and kind of glance up at the sun to see if anything weird was happening and quickly looked away because it was just a big burning ball of light.

and so I said, ah, whatever, and went back inside. And that was the extent. I saw the pictures. They were, okay, I guess. I don't know. Yeah, it was not. Yeah, what about you?

It was pretty cool. I mean, I wasn't that into it, but then as the day kind of went along, I was like, all right, let's see what all this fuss is about. My mom was driving home from work. She brought me the, whatever, the UV glasses that you need to look up at it and stuff. So, like, all right, I got the glasses.

I might as well take a game. at it is, it's pretty cool, but. Would you have taken a week off work and traveled across the country to get a better look at it? Because that's, you know, I'm not here to harsh anyone's buzz. Right. But I don't know. I can think, I can think of better uses for my vacation time than that, personally.

Well, I didn't do it, Scott, because I wanted to, and I frankly needed to be here with you to do the podcast. Yeah, of course. Of course. That is what we did instead. We're going to wrap there 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 Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.