Fantasy Baseball Today - George Kirby Has Arrived! Other Prospect Promotions & Waiver Adds (5/9 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 9, 2022

George Kirby has arrived and he looks amazing (1:00)! Should you add Josh Winder and try to trade for Alex Cobb? ... How do we rank prospects Alek Thomas, Royce Lewis, Juan Yepez, and Jose Miranda now that they've been promoted (13:00)? ... Should you add Austin Hays, Manuel Margot and Brandon Drury (23:00)? ... News and notes (32:01): we have updates on Chris Sale and Jack Flaherty. ... What did we see from Charlie Morton, Shane Bieber and Sandy Alcantara this weekend (37:38)? ... Should you add Bruce Zimmermann, Dane Dunning and/or Chad Kuhl (41:21)? ... What other pitchers stood out this weekend (48:47)? ... We wrap up with bullpens and streamers (55:35). Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection 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. With fantasy! Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. What's up, and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today. On Monday, May 9th, Frank Stamphle, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers.

I want to wish a very happy Mother's Day to all the great moms out there, including mine. So thank you if you're listening. I know you're not. It's fine. Today on the show, let's talk about these prospect promotions, starter sit, waiver wire ads and drops, and much more. Take it away, Susan. Oh my goodness gracious. I do love that the anniversary of that call from Susan was recently, and I had a bunch of people tweeting at me, so I just thought that I would throw that out there. A lot of people now know where that call is from, so happy to do it. Let's talk about George Kirby here. He is, oh my goodness gracious for me, and it'll just kind of like lead into the.

conversation about all these prospects that were called up. One of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball for the Seattle Mariners, George Kirby promoted on Sunday, and he was awesome in his first start. Six shot-out innings, seven strikeouts, four hits, zero walks. He had 15 swinging strikes on 81 pitches, 13 of those coming on the fastball. Scott, George Kirby is 52% rostered? Is he a must add? Is this a universal ad in any fantasy league where he's available?

I mean, people presenting me with scenarios on Twitter Well, I had to tell them no, I guess you can't add him But like this is as close to a must add As I think you're going to find mid-season Short of Grayson, like you could argue You could argue George Kirby is the best pitching prospect Other than Grace and Rodriguez So he's especially high stature

I mean higher in prospect than Matt Brash to be sure And like the way Kirby especially excels is the way we saw Brash struggle. He has uncanny control for somebody who's such a good bat misser. When his minor league career first started, I saw those walk numbers, and I was like, man, this reminds me of what Shane Bieber used to be doing in the minors. And then since then, George Kirby's gained all this velocity and could throw like 98 miles per hour now. And he was getting all these swings and misses.

I think most of the swinging misses today came on the fastball itself, which is a very good sign that your stuff is strong if you don't even have to rely on off-speed stuff to get a bunch of swings and misses. So I think this is going to go really well. I think you should bid a ton of fab dollars on George Kirby. I mean, the one hesitation is he's not a hitter and most people probably need hitters more than pitchers right now.

But at some point, you're going to need another pitcher, I can promise you that. It's all relative, right? like everyone's pitchers look good, but if you've got a guy with a 3-7 ERA, he's not actually helping you right now. And so that's the kind of thing you also have to keep in mind is like, there's still someone who's 12th place in ERA in every ROTO league.

You know? Like that's, your ERA might not be bad. And so you might look at your team and think, wow, my pitching's not that bad, but you probably still need some pitching help. Everybody needs pitching out, like always. Whether it's maximizing our weeks. You will.

Yeah, right. At some point. Even if you don't right now, you definitely will eventually. You may never need another third basement, but you will definitely need another pitcher at some point. And other than Grayson Rodriguez, I expect him to get called up at some point this year. Max Meyer, we expect him to get called up soon.

I imagine those are going to be pretty exciting pickups. Shame bad. if he's not rostered. Baz, yeah, if he got dropped. But other than that, I think Kirby's probably probably the best you can expect to do at this point at that position. I'm sure somebody will emerge in, like, June, who he didn't see coming, like, I don't know,

maybe randomly. Jordan Hicks starts striking out a bunch of guys going six-plus innings. Oh, Jordan Hicks, you've got to spend all your five dollars on him. But Kirby is somebody you want to pay up for, for sure. And it's worth mentioning the Mariners are being pretty aggressive in calling him up. George Kirby has made five starts at AA this season. He had six starts at AA last year. But he's actually a little bit older.

He's 24 years old, former first round pick in 2019. Chris, just to put a ball on this conversation, I believe you won George Kirby in one of your leagues where there is fab. How much did you spend on him? What was the winning bid there? Yeah, the winning bid for that one was 174. That was in my Tout Wars League. I did get him. The second highest bid was only 77,

so I didn't have to go that high, but that's not one that I'm particularly worried about having overspent. You know, there was one where I overspent by about 100 in another league, and it was like 113 to 3. I feel a little worse about that one. I probably could have used those extra bucks, but George Kirby is the kind of prospect getting called up, like Scott said,

especially with how good he looked today, that I feel pretty confident about making that kind of bid. I think 15 to 20% of your budget is appropriate. That's what I've gone for. And I actually haven't won him yet with the amounts that I've bid. Chris, it worked for Chris in that league. But it hasn't worked for me yet. Hopefully one of the bids that goes through tonight.

All right. So go out there and get George Kirby if he is available in any of your league. Scott, oh my goodness gracious for you from the weekend. So there are some other exciting prospect callups that I'm sure we'll get to Weekend for those but I'm going to go with somebody who has been up in the majors for a little while now Justin Winder of the Minnesota Twins who had another great start Granted it was against the A's six innings three hits no walks eight strikeouts had 16 swinging strikes on 80 pitches Interestingly, we think of him as a fastball slider guy.

He threw those two pitches that combined 78% of the time in this one. But he got four swinging strikes on nine changeups, and that's been something, like the changeup has been effective for him, if little used. So, like, there's an arsenal there for Josh Winder to work with. Not a big prospect pedigree from this guy, but, like, he looked good in the bit we've seen him start. Like, he looks like he belongs in the Twins rotation.

And I was hesitant because I wasn't sure how long he'd last. It seemed like once they got everybody healthy that he would be the odd man out. But now somebody else is going on the IL. Presumably Chris Paddock had to leave Sunday start with inflammation in his elbow. That sounds like an IL worthy injury. And that means Josh Winder figures to stay in the end. the rotation for the foreseeable future. And who knows what happens between now and then.

I mean, Chris Archer could get hurt or just prove to not be a viable option. So, I mean, Josh Winder may very likely be in there for the long haul. And he's another pitcher who's showing good strikeout potential. Good upside. Very interested in Josh Winder as well. That's two straight quality starts with at least seven strikeouts in each of those. And he's made a couple of stars. he's made a couple of relief appearances.

So far, his arsenal, he throws four different pitches, 13 plus percent of the time, right around a 13 percent swinging strike rate. He gets a good amount of ground balls. Big right-handed pitcher, Josh Weinder is. Minor league numbers look fantastic as well. I'm in. I'm about it.

I mean, obviously, I would be more aggressive on adding George Kirby, obvious reasons, the prospect pedigree. But, man, after George Kirby, Winder is a pitcher I'm definitely looking to add as well. Yeah, I was raving about Kirby's walk rate in the miners. last year in the Miner's Winder himself, 1.6B.4-9, and for his entire minor league career, 1.9 walks per 9. So based on what we're seeing from this guy so far,

it's kind of surprising he wasn't more of a prospect than he was because he looks great. For sure. All right, Chris. Take us home. Oh, my goodness gracious. Another pitcher to talk about. Yeah, I had myself muted. I hope there's no, can you guys hear the police siren? Yeah.

They're coming for Alex Cobb. You're a bad boy, Chris. for how good he will, how filthy he was, what he did to the Cardinals on Friday. I mean, it wasn't that amazing of a start, but 19 swinging strikes on 74 pitches for Alex Cobb. Eight strikeouts and five innings, two earned runs. He's been up and down this season. He's dealt with, what was his injury? I'm blanking on it right now.

Let me look it up. But either way, he, um, I think it might have been a groin or something. What's that? Might have been a groin or something like that. Yeah, it was groin injury. He's added a couple. to his fastball velocity. That was something we saw in spring training. And it's held up so far. He averaged 95 miles per hour with his fastball in his most recent start. He's at 94.7. That's two miles per hour

higher than it was last season. And that's coming along with his splitter, you know, which he's throwing 48% of the time, which has always been his most important and best pitch. And it's working out really well for him so far. And so I liked Alex Cobb a lot as a sleeper coming into the season the results have been not as great as I would hope for so far, but 14 swinging misses with the splitter four with the curveball in his most recent start as well. So very, very promising signs from Alex Cobb so far. He only threw his fastball 24% of the time in this start and that's probably not a bad thing. And I think there's a chance you could still buy him, Chris.

Just because the overall numbers still don't look great. He had that one start where he didn't even escape the first inning, his first start back from the from his injury. The four 4.80 ERA 1.53 whip doesn't look good for Cobb, but the underlying numbers look absolutely fantastic. So if you could turn someone like Noah Cindergard into Alex Cobb, I know pitcher for pitcher for pitcher trades are you know not the easiest to pull off. Chris, if you could turn McKenzie Gore into Alex Cobb, would you do that? I think I would. I think I would rather have Alex Cobb the rest of the season between concerns about how long McKenzie Gore is going to stay in the rotation and just I feel more confident that Alex Cobb.

Cob's going to be effective moving forward based on what we've seen for McKenzie Gore so far with the kind of lack of swings and misses on the secondary pitches especially. One of their name here. Go ahead. I think I would too trade Gore

for Cobb. The one thing about Cobb though is like his health history is just dreadful. Yeah. Very bad. Dreadful. Like presumably that's not going to be his last stint on the I.L.

So keep that in mind. I think that makes it a closer call. But just in terms of how effective, I think they'll be, I agree. Cobb over Gore. Scott, would you flip Merrill Kelly for Alex Cobb, if you could? A near complete game for Merrill Kelly this weekend. Eight and two-thirds, one run, eight strikeouts. Yeah, I'm kind of ready to put Merrill Kelly in the cell high column.

I picked them up in a lot of leagues at the start of the season, and he's been my best pitcher in those leagues so far. but a lot of the encouraging signs I was seeing early on with the change-up especially how effective it was looking they've kind of normalized in recent starts only three whiffs on the change-up in this one and I just I think he's looking more like typical Merrill Kelly now

and you know typical Merrill Kelly could have thrown a seven-inning one-run start too it's not like that was something he never did but in the long run I'm I'm expecting an ERA close to four. I think I'm a little more optimistic about Merrill Kelly. I think I would rather have them than Cobb moving forward. But, you know, I think you bring some good points. The thing I like seeing is fastball usage is down to 41% this season.

So even if it's not just throwing the change up, it's, you know, not throwing the collective fastballs as often, especially the four seamer, which got hit really hard last season. Maybe you wait to sell high after this next star too because he's got the Marlins this upcoming week and obviously that's a pretty good matchup. They've been pretty bad, yeah. All right, let's talk about some of those other prospects

that we alluded to and we had quite a few get called up this weekend. Diamondbacks outfield prospect, Alec Thomas. He was hitting 277 with four homers, three steals and 857 OPS at AAA. Twins shortstop prospect, Royce Lewis, which we speculated could happen on Thursday night's podcast. He was called up

Friday, former first overall pick back in 2017. He was stealing a bunch of bases, high OPS in the minors this year, 44% rostered. And then a few other names here that are just performing well. Wanya Pez went two for three with his first home run on Sunday, now has nine hits over his first five games. Worth pointing out, you know, we made some jokes about Wanya Pez's, uh, getting his debut,

had a couple of doubles that were just like, bloop nothing hits. He crushed that one. His first home run, I think was today, right? Yes. Yes. He got into that one. That one wasn't a cheapie.

Yeah, he looks good so far. They're finding ways to get him in the lineup, too. He's played some right field, D.H. So I like what I've seen there. Jose. I think he's had multiple hits in every game but one. He's the new Frankie 2 hits, who, by the way, got option to the miners.

Oh, Scott, come on. We can't start off the week like this. Don't do that to my man, Frank Shundell. The other name I wanted to mention, Jose Miranda, I saw a lot of people with big bids on him on Sunday night. He's 42% rostered. The results haven't been great so far.

He hit his first home run of the season on Friday. But Chris will start with you. How would you rank these four prospect hitters? Alec Thomas, Royce Lewis, Juan Yippez, Jose Miranda. I think Thomas is by far the most interesting of this group. He's, I believe, the most highly ranked consensus prospect among the group. And he's hit 332 with a 996 OPS in 58 games across AAA going back to last season. So his numbers were pretty good this season.

He crushed AAA last year, especially. 17.7% walk rate, 12 homers and eight steals in 58 games. There's a lot to like about that. And there's the potential for him to be a five category contributor. for fantasy. So I do think Alec Thomas is by far the most interesting of them. He's 22 years old so he's never been old for his levels either.

There are I think some concerns about like he hasn't struck out much in the high miners but there are questions about his hit tool and it could be we've seen it with Jared Kelnick looked like about as safe a prospect as you could based on the profile in the high miners and

that hasn't worked out. So it's obviously entirely possible. The same could be the case for Alec Thomas, but I'm very excited. I comped him to like 2021 Randy or Rosarina as like a higher end outcome, like 2020 potential, won't hurt you in batting average.

Maybe something more like 2021, Andrew Ben Intendi is a more reasonable expectation. And, you know, for what you want to say, about Andrew Benintendi. He had 17 homers and eight steals and hit 276. Like, he was decent last year. The counting stats were mostly what held him back.

So I think there's that kind of production potential. And there are enough questions about everyone else here that I think Alex Thomas stands apart. All right. Scott, how do you rank these four? Alec Thomas, Royce Lewis, Juan Yippez, Jose Miranda. I'll just point out quickly with Royce Lewis. I think we're all very excited about him.

The Carlos Correa situation is up in the air right. now because it turns out he doesn't have a fracture, but he also did not play the entire weekend. So how are you ranking these four Scott? Thomas, Lewis, Yuppez, Miranda. Yeah, I'm a little more torn than Chris. I think the biggest point in Alec Thomas's favor is that he's the most likely to stick around. I'm not even 100% sure that he will because it's kind of weird how he got called up their catcher Carson Kelly got hurt. And so, okay, we'll take our center fielder,

move him to catcher, Dalton Varsho. And that'll open up center field for this prospect of ours, Alec Thomas. So that's kind of weird. But, okay, Royce Lewis obviously has the most questionable path to a bat since the guy he's replacing isn't even on the IEL. I will, however, point out that Trevor Larn. just went on the IL, so there's another opening in the lineup,

and Royce Lewis, he could play anywhere except catcher. He's played second, third, center field, and the minor. So he could be their left fielder, I think. I mean, if I was managing the twins, I would say so. So, like, Alec Thomas has always been a highly rated prospect, but until last year, it was hard for me to understand why, like, he definitely, like, an athletic guy, and I think he gets some of those like intangible points.

And the big question for him was always his power. And he did hit for power last year, but it was in these really hitter-friendly environments. And I know like Baseball America gave him a 45 power grade, even entering this year, so they're still not giving him much credit as a power hitter. 45 is considered below average, if you don't know, on the 2080 scale, 50s average.

So I gave him a 45. MLB.com was more optimistic. They gave him a 55. He does only have like a 25% fall rate, so that's obviously not very good for maximizing power. So I don't know, you know, he's not going to be a zero for power, but he's going to be a power hitter ever. I'm not confident in that. Like I used to say, I'll bet on that sort of prospect who showed everything but the big power because power you can cultivate easily. I'm not so sure about that anymore with the way the league landscape has changed.

So I'm not as willing to bet on that. But he should provide some speed. He should be, if I'll go's right, of some good in batting average. I think he's a safer bet than Lewis. But I really like Lewis, like the changes he's made to his swing and just like the drive he seems to have this year coming off the torn ACL. He was running so much in the minors. I hope the twins find a way to stick him to keep him around.

But because it is a, you know, there's a chance it could be sent down before the end of the week. I think you have to go Thomas over him. Now, Yuppez and Miranda, they're not going to steal your bases, obviously, the way those other two wills. So, you know, that factors in the decision making. If you need a third baseman, Miranda immediately jumps to the top of the list. Because while he hasn't been, you know, crushing the ball so far, you mentioned he had to first home run over the weekend, Frank. Miranda has struck out once

one time in almost 30 plate appearances. So, like, he belongs, I think it's safe to say, and they've been playing him every day. Yuppez, as you mentioned, he's been playing every day. I kind of just bid the same amount on all these guys in Tout Wars over the weekend

because I couldn't decide between them, so I kind of were just willing to let everybody else decide with their bids, and I didn't want to miss out on any of them. But to a certain degree, it depends on need, as far as stolen bases go, as far as third base goes. You know, part of the reason I faded Yappez maybe in comparisons, because I just didn't have much room for corner infielders, you know. But that's how I'd break it down.

How much were you bidding on these names, by the way, Scott? So in the 15-team leagues, I was bidding like 10 to 12 percent. It's pretty high. Yeah. In the 12 team leagues, more like 5 to 10%. All right. Fair enough. Yeah, I mean, that's what I saw.

In the 12 team leagues, that's what I saw. Yippez went for $81 in my 12 team heads head points tout Wars league. So 81 out of a $1,000 budget right there, 8%. And Jose Miranda went for 45 in that league. So, you know, 5 to 8% for each of those two. A few other prospects I wanted to mention here. Philly Shortstop, Bryson Stott was recalled with Dede Gregorius going back, on the IL in nine games at AAA. Stott hit 333 with two homers and two steals. And then the Red Sox promoted

Jaron Duran on Friday. He let off for them. He hit a triple. And then that was with Enrique Hernandez on the COVID IL. Hernandez returned on Saturday. Jaron Duran was optioned back down. So not sure when we'll see him again. But Chris, do you have any interest in Bryce and Stott maybe in some deeper leagues? I would have been more interested in him if he had been able to pick up third base eligibility. And I don't know how many games he ended up playing there before they sent him down. Yeah, I didn't get it. Yeah, so that would probably make me a little more interested with triple eligibility. But yeah, I think he's a somewhat interesting player if he gets an opportunity.

And obviously, Alec Bones hitting the ball really well, and I'm pretty optimistic about what we've seen. But I do want to caution that he does not necessarily a dramatically different player than he was last season. Like his ground ball rate is very similar to what it was last season. last season. He's hitting more line drives, I think. But, you know, there's still a chance that, like, Alec Bome cools down and the defense is really, really bad. And Bryson's stock could get hot and take that job.

So I just still think there's some appeal there, but probably not worth adding in any 12-team leagues. Yeah, 15-teamers, I know only for now. We'll see how he performs with the Phillies. Let's take a look at some other waiver-wire hitters that emerged over the weekend. I keep bringing up the name, but Austin Hayes, this man is hot right now.

Five hits across the double header on Sunday. He's now batting 317 overall. 52% rostered seven games this week. Scott, what do you think about adding Austin Hayes, maybe in three outfielder leagues? I'm pretty skeptical of Austin Hayes still. He plays in one of the worst parks for a right-handed hitter now, first of all.

True. Look, his strikeout rate is pretty good. I believe he's got a good launch angle. the expected stats look fine but not a walker not helped by his home part not helped by his lineup he seems like a worse version of

Ryan Moucassel to me and you know I don't like Ryan Moutcastle so I'm he's a hot hand but other than that I don't think I'm looking to add Austin Hayes all right I know Scott one of your sleepers for this week was Jamer Candelario he is heating up he's batting 308 with two homers over his last

seven games he's 48% rostered and has eight games this upcoming week if you need a third baseman or a corner infielder. Andres Jimenez, he is hot as well. His last 10 games, 405 batting average, one homer, three doubles, one steel. He's 41% rostered and he has six road games this week. Chris, if you need a middle infielder in let's say a 12 team categories league, do you have any interest in Andres Jimenez? I wish he was running more. You know, his batted ball quality of contact stuff is better than it was last season. It's still not good and I'm not sure it ever will be good. But if he could be a 20 stolen base guy, you could get away with him, you know, hitting for a little bit of average and not

having much pop. But I'm not so sure that's what we're, you know, at least we haven't seen the stolen bases from him yet. And so I think he's fine as a middle infield option. You know, there aren't a ton of those, especially, you know, if you didn't pay up for a couple of short stops in a roto league. So yeah, I think he's an okay ad. You know, there are encouraging signs. His XBA is 295. That's a really good sign.

So, yeah. I'm surprised that Jimenez hasn't run more. I mean, the sprint speed is not everything, obviously, but 95th percentile and Cleveland usually is pretty aggressive on the base paths. So maybe. He just may not have had many opportunities because he's walked twice. And he's got, great let's see he's got 18 singles so he's really only had 20 20 opportunities where he's

been on first base who knows how many times first base second base was open ahead of him so yeah I know I noticed you didn't come to me with that Jimenez take frank a 1.9% walk rate will will tend to have a deflationary impact on your stolen base totals I have players that I just gravitate towards and Scott just wants nothing to do with him and And Andres Jimenez is one of those players. If people were wondering... He's got 21 steals in 417 plate appearances. So, I mean, I think he starts running more.

That could be a potentially very useful player. I think he should run more. Obviously, he was part of a big trade with Francisco Indoor. I really like what I've seen so far. So again, it's... Maybe he'll be what I hoped Nikki Lopez would be. And that'll be a surfaceable low and starter in a rotiss really disappointed in Nick. I'm going to drop him this weekend.

He hasn't stolen a single base yet. He had like 22 and four months time last year, and he hasn't stolen even one. You should have thrown your weight behind Tyler Wade instead. Yeah, apparently. Yeah. Oh, yikes. Speaking of steals, by the way,

Scott, if you need those steals, who do you like between these two outfielders? Mani Margo is hot right now, three straight games with a home run, his last seven games. He's betting 500. He's got three home run. two steals during that time.

He's 23% rostered. And then Harrison Bader had four hits with a home run and a steal this weekend. I believe he's up to seven steals now. He is 41% rostered. What do you think of Margot versus Harrison Bader? Well, I hadn't noticed how Margo is. My goodness. Maybe I'm just so used to ignoring him.

He's like the Andres Jimenez of outfielders. Oh, stop. I'll pull up the data here, but I'm not sure it's, going to convince me, Manuel Margo is suddenly a changed player here, is deep into his career. He's 27, so he's not as old as he think he is.

That is actually kind of shocking. He is... His stack cast numbers are tremendous, actually. They look good, yeah? Will they continue to look good? I would still bet against it, but I would say between the two, Margot is a little more interesting. All right, fair enough. Yeah, for those

in five outfiel of leagues, Mani Margoe, the expected batting average is 337 right now. The average exit velocity way up for Mani Margo. Chris, someone that I was looking at in some deeper leagues this weekend, Brandon Drury, he had six hits this weekend, including his fifth home run, and his barrel rate is way up this year, 17.9%. That's in the 95th percentile. He's hitting the ball hard.

He's only 8% rostered, triple eligible on CBS, second, third base outfield. He's got seven games this week, including four going up again. against the pirates. Chris, do you have any interest in Brandon Drury? I can't say I have a ton of interest

in him. Like, yeah, the stack has data does look good. And maybe that's, maybe, maybe there's something I'm missing.

Maybe he reinvented himself this offseason and there's reason to buy it. But his track record is long enough that, and underwhelming enough that I think it's probably just a hot streak.

So, yeah, I can't say outside of, even in 15 team leagues. Like, I wasn't looking to add him. All right. Scott. Yeah. Go ahead.

We've made this point before, but when particularly, we're still in the early stages of the season. It hasn't been six weeks yet, particularly in the early stages of the season. But to some degree, this applies year round. Like, the stat cast data confirming a player's numbers is of less interest to me than the stat cast data not. confirming a player's number in either direction. Like the data looks great, but the numbers aren't good. The data looks bad, but the numbers are great. If the data looks like the numbers, then it's hard to tell which came first the chicken or the egg.

That's especially true this time of year, as we said before. But I think it's worth reiterating. And just like, to put it a different way, sometimes guys just do get hot. Right. And like, it's possible. And it's going to show up in the data. It's not that they just got lucky. Yeah, that's, yeah, there's there's like, we often think about it maybe in like, uh, oh, this is a fluke. Like he like, Juan Yipaz getting those two bloop doubles. That's a fluke. You know, you can't rely on that. But sometimes guys just do hit the ball really well. But it's not sustainable as well. So that that would be my assumption of what's going on with Brandon Jury. But, you know, it's possible that that's not entirely fair. All right. A few other names in deeper leagues. I keep mentioning Yadiel,

Hernandez hit another home run on Saturday. He's 16% rostered. He's got six home games this week. Only one lefty on the schedule. Ben Gamble in the deepest of leagues. Ten hits over his last five games. He's making more contact this year. He walks a good amount of time. Hitting a lot of line drives. His XBA is 334. That is Ben Gamal. He's only 5% rostered. And then Colin Moran hit a double dong on Sunday, including a Grand Slam. He is 11% rostered. They have seven games this week, one lefty on the schedule. Again, that is Colin Moran. Let's take a quick break, and when we return, we'll get to some of the news and notes here on Fantasy Baseball today. The news and notes, let's start off with Chris Sale, who is behind schedule by a few weeks

after dealing with a non-baseball medical issue. He is currently on the aisle with a stress fracture in his ribcage. Jack Flaherty made some progress and threw a bullpen session on Saturday, per Katie Wu on Twitter. It was the highest intensity he's thrown with yet. Flaherty threw mostly fastballs but was able to mix in his breaking stuff near the end of the session. Mike Soroka attempting to return from a second Achilles surgery hasn't had any setbacks in his recovery process and has been doing some mound work recently. The team is hoping he can return sometime around the All-Star break. Teoscar Hernandez was reinstated from the IL on Saturday, so get him back in your lineups.

Nick Lodolo was examined Friday night and it was determined he wasn't ready to rejoin the rotation. He is still on the IEL with that back injury. Andrew Heaney has joined the Dodgers in Chicago and started a throwing progression this weekend. Alex Kirloff was reinstated this weekend as well. He started at first base on Saturday and Sunday. Scott, would you look to add Alex Kirilloff? He's 54% rostered. Honestly, I'd add either of those other twins hitters over him, the other ones being Jose Miranda and Royce Lewis. Kiroloff, on his rehab assignment, went five for 21, all singles. And they wanted to keep him there, but I think just all the injuries forced their hand,

and they ended up calling him back up. So they say the wrist feels better. I'm not, you know, they never figured out the source of him, of the hurt. They just gave him a cortisone ejection and said, we'll see how it goes. So I'm not super confident in Kirillov right now. Josh Rojas returned and started at third base, both Friday and Saturday. He's 28% rostered and has second base shortstop

and outfield eligibility for those in deeper category leagues. Chris Paddock left Sunday start with right elbow inflammation. And as we mentioned, that should help Josh Winders stay in the rotation. These players were placed on the IL this weekend. Carson Kelly with a strain left oblique. Trevor Larnick with a right groin strain. Michael Waka with left intercostal irritation. Roberto Perez with a strain left hamstring.

Stephen Pascati with a grade one calf strain. Rich Hill tested positive for COVID and was placed on the IL. Garrett Whitlock will remain in the rotation for now. Brian Anderson was placed on the COVID IL Friday and missed all three games this weekend. A few other non-IL notes. Kestin Hira optioned back to AAA. Robinson Kano officially released by the Mets. Casey Mize is nearing a rehab assignment currently on the IL with a

brained right elbow. Starter sit these currently banged up players. Carlos Correa, we just don't really know what's going on right now. He did not appear in a game this weekend. He seems unlikely for Tuesday.

Chris, would you get Correa out of your lineups? Yeah, I think you gotta set him at this point. How about your boy Byron Bucks and he exited Saturday's game with right hip tightness and he wasn't in the lineup on Sunday.

Starter sit. Was it his right hip last year? I know he's dealt with some hip stuff before. I know that was the that was the hip injury last season, but I can't remember if it was the right or the left. It was the right,

so that's a little concerning that it's, you know, the same hip, but it doesn't sound like anybody's too concerned about it this time. So I would start him. All right, Zach Wheeler was placed on the COVID-IL Sunday. Scott,

would you take a chance and leave Wheeler in your lineups? I can't, did he actually test positive, or did he just get placed on the IL? They don't have to report it. Yeah, there was no indication. Sometimes they do. Yeah.

So, yeah, they didn't in his case. I think I'd play it safe and set up. I mean, he's trying to do the right direction. I feel a lot better about him. But if he did actually test positive, he's not making a start this week. Yeah, it's tough. Y'all and Moncada will be activated on Monday.

Chris, would you get Moncada back in there? I would probably prefer to see him. There was that report we got last week that he was I can't remember how they worded it but he wasn't he was behind hitting left-handed he wasn't feeling as good hitting left-handed as he does right-handed

as he came back from that injury and that's a concern because Jan Makata is one of those switch hitters in name-only kind of guys where he really isn't all that could against left-handed pitchers so I want to see him he did hit very well in his minor league rehab assignment.

So that's a positive sign. All right. Brandon Belt exited Saturday's game with next stiffness. He was out of the lineup Sunday. Scott, would you get Belt out of your lineups? Yeah, I think so, if I could.

How about Adam Wainwright? Your boy, he tested positive for COVID on Friday. I mean, he has to test negative twice. It's probably going to be tough for him to start this week, I'd imagine. Right. Yeah, that's the one I was thinking of when I said. And you did, yeah. We know Wainwright tested positive.

If I'm sitting Wheeler in the chance that he did, I'm definitely sitting Wayne Wright. All right. The last two names here, Andrew McCutcheon placed on the COVID IL. We don't really know exactly what's going on with him. J.P. Crawford exited Saturday's game and did not start Sunday because of back spasms. He's been awesome, but probably more of a fringe play. So if you could find a better shortstop or just a shortstop in general, you probably want to go that route. Three pictures, three interesting pitchers from this weekend. You're welcome, everybody. I didn't watch a single pitch of Charlie Morton on Sunday.

And he threw his best start of the season. Five shutout innings, two hits, three walks, five strikeouts. Shane Bieber got rocked on Saturday by the Blue Jays. He allowed seven runs over three in a third innings. And then Sandy Alcantir, he's just kind of been mad. The last two outings have been subpar. He didn't go five in this most recent start. It seems like the walks have been an issue for him so far as well.

Scott will start with you. What have you seen? Or what did you see, rather, with Charlie Morton, Shane Bieber, and Sandy Alcantra recently. Well, I don't think Morton is back necessarily, though you were justified in starting him for the two-star week when all sudden done. I will point that out.

Got a few more whiffs than this start, mostly with the curveball, but still had three walks and five innings, which is unlike him. So he's trying to take the right direction, but I don't know that he's back to being must-start. I'm not really worried about Al-Contra at all. The control seems a little off,

but I think he's fine. If you want to call him a by-low, I'm fine with that. I think the most interesting one here is Bieber, because, of course, he's been interesting all season, and he's gotten away with greatly reduced velocity, averaged 89.9.9 on his fastball on this one, so it was a little down from his season average, actually. And it's the first start of his career that he didn't have a single strikeout.

Now, an article came out from the athletic, before this start talking about Beber's velocity decline and some of the things the guardians are looking into related to it and basically they think he developed some bad habits in protecting the shoulder last year and they're trying to get his delivery right again

and they sound very confident they're going to be able to in that article that that's the impression the article was giving and Beber himself. You know, I think he was asked the question, in the article, what do you think you're going to be able to sustain this performance all season thrown at this velocity? And he said, I don't even think that's going to be an issue because he's that confident he's going to get the velocity back. So, you know, between that and the fact that all his other starts were good prior to this one, I'm not inclined to worry that much.

I mean, you're going against the Blue Jays lineup, lower velocity. If nothing else, it means when you do get hard, you're going to get that much harder. So I kind of think that's what happened here against a lineup that's really good obviously but of course it does raise some worry because this is the first time that we've actually seen that velocity come back to bite him

yeah all right Shane Bieber name to watch moving forward we'll see and it's worth pointing out like the results had been pretty good but the strikeout rate wasn't right what we had seen before it was 25% which is above

average but Shane B, is probably not going to be a top 12 starting pitcher with a 25% strikeout rate. He's not he's not that guy. Zach Wheeler can do that, you know, but Shane Bieber gets hit hard. He needs an elite strikeout rate. So I'm more worried about Robbie Ray, obviously, but I view them pretty similarly. I think there are similar warning signs for both of those guys.

Okay. So maybe more top 15 or top 20 starting pitchers than the top 10 or 12 that we were hoping coming in. That's definitely where they'd be ranked. Yeah, I was lower on Bieber coming in. He was like 12 or 13 for me already. So yeah, that's definitely closer to where I'm at with them. All right, let's move over to some waiver wire starting pitchers, part one. Bruce Zimmerman has now allowed three earned runs or fewer in all six of his starts.

He did that again on Sunday, six innings, two runs, five strikeouts. Chad Kuhl makes it four straight quality starts. Friday at Arizona, six innings, one run, five strikeouts there. Tyler Anderson has now allowed two earn runs or five strikeouts. fewer in all five of his starts slash appearances. He had seven strikeouts over five innings against the Cubs on Saturday. And then Dane Dunning,

three strong starts in a row. He was at the Yankees on Sunday, six innings, one run, five strikeouts to three walks. Chris, how do you rank these four? Bruce Zimmerman, Chad, Cool, Tyler Anderson, Dane Dunning. I think I would go Zimmerman Dunning, Anderson,

cool. Cool, I just, I don't see much there. Like, the ERA is pretty and the dragout rate's fine, but 385X FIP 406 Sierra, like if he actually had a 385 ERA, he wouldn't be rosterable, I don't think. Like at this point, given the way pitchers are right now. So I think you can probably safely avoid him outside of some deeper leagues.

But, you know, the Zimmerman, it's a question of how good you can be with a fastball that is one of the worst in baseball in terms of the results he gets from it, and that's been consistent whenever he's pitched, and it's been pretty bad this season two. So, you know, he's walking a fine line, and I think eventually he's probably going to fall on the wrong side of it,

but I'm pretty happy with what he's done so far. And then Dunning, like, I don't know, we had like several people on Sunday on Twitter, like you guys have to talk about Dane Dunning. And I look at it and I just, I don't see all that much interesting there. The stuff seems pretty middling still. He's not getting a ton of swinging strikes either. So I just, I don't know.

I think it's probably just a nice run for Dane Dunning, but it's probably not much more than that. I am encouraged for Dane Dunning that he has lowered his sinker usage this year. Last season, it was 52% this year. 38%. So anytime you're lowering, a sinker is a pitch that you throw to make contact. In exchange for other pitches like the slider or change up, which he just gets better results on,

I'm pretty intrigued by that. And he has a 50% ground ball rate for the season. And they're kind of letting them go this year. They're letting them throw deeper into starts. We didn't really see that much from Dunning last season. So I think I would agree that Bruce Zimmerman is number one on this list. But like Dane Dunning is probably like a 1B to Bruce Zimmerman. It was more interesting in his previous start, Dunning. He got 14 whiffs and threw 42% sliders. They were primarily responsible for the swinging strikes.

And remember what he got first got called up by the White Sox and was missing a lot of bats. It was largely because of that slider. So, you know, but he followed it up with this start where it was just nine whiffs on 100 pitches and he didn't throw the slider. It kind of reminds me of that Drew Rasmussen start against the Mariners,

where he changed up his pitch mix a little and got a ton of whiffs and we're like, oh my goodness, maybe Drew Rasmussen's figured something out. And then his last two starts, they've been fine,

kind of like this Dunning start was, but he hasn't looked nearly as overpowering. And I think the other problem is, you know, historically his sinker's not been a great pitch for him, and his change-up hasn't been a great pitch for him. Change-up's been getting hit really hard this season. And so it does kind of look like

he might just be a one-pitch pitcher who throws, 80 miles an hour. So, yeah, I think he can be better than he has been, but there's a gap between better than Dane Dunning has been and, you know, relevant in 12-team leagues. So I will just mention two of these pitchers are on my top 10 sleeper pitchers for this week.

Bruce Zimmerman going against the Tigers and Tyler Anderson going against maybe the Pirates, maybe the Phillies. There's some question whether the Dodgers are going to insert a six starter because they're playing like 30. 30 games and 31 days or something. There's a little bit of a difference between those two. Yeah.

I feel a lot better starting him against the Pirates. Right. True. But he's been pretty good so far, Tyler Anderson has, and had 15 swinging strikes in this most recent start. Yeah. Look, it's basically... Yeah, he changed up his pitch mix quite a bit.

Maybe it was just another one-star fluke for him, but the Dodgers are pretty on top of these things. So if, like, any team's going to get the most out of Tyler Anderson, you'd think it's them. That's exactly it. It seems like any pitcher of the Dodgers come in contact with just turns to gold. So Tyler Anderson is the name there. Waiverwire starting pitcher is part two.

A few names here. Kyle Freeland now has four straight starts allowing two earn runs or fewer. Jake Oteresey, three solid outings in a row. James Caprillion allowed just one run over five and two thirds against the twins on Saturday. Nick Povetta picked up his first quality start of the season. He had eight strikeouts. And then Spencer Shrider, impressive once again as a bulk reliever against the Brewers. shutout innings with eight strikeouts to zero walks. Scott, anything to see here? Freeland,

Odarezi, Caprillion, Pavetta, Spencer Strider. I think with Strider definitely, I think this may be happening where he's about to transition to the rotation. They've tried a couple other guys in that fifth starter spot, Elder and In Noah, and it didn't work out. I think they're getting to the point where they're left with no choice but Strider, who this was those longest start yet, and they didn't I think this was the first time they had him follow, like, an opener, as opposed to following a true starter in his relief appearance. So he looked great, and he's looked better, especially good the past two outings. So I think that may be about to happen.

I think you need to pick up strider if he's still available in your league. He's definitely, like, in categories-based leagues. I think it's harder in points leagues, even if he's in the rotation, just because I don't know how much, how deep hill pay. into games just because I do wonder if he's just a two-pitch guy and I do wonder if there's a little bit of like a Matt Brash thing where he might get exposed pitching in the rotation just because from what I've seen I think you know Sarah's tweeted about this when Brash got sent down he made the Spencer Strider comp where he's got really really great stuff and the control metrics don't

look nearly as good and so that's just the concern I have but I still think he's interesting that it's worth taking a flyer on him. I will mention, because his last two outings I said were especially good. One of the stories that's been circulating in the media about Strider is prior to the first of those two outings, he had a conversation with Max Freed. Typical stuff, like trusting your stuff,

don't try and strike everybody out, but he's been candid about like, yeah, basically I was just trying to strike everybody out, and now I'm not. And he's still getting the strikeouts because his stuff is that good. So, you know, maybe he turned a corner there developmentally in a way that's not shown in the overall data yet.

All right, let's get into some leftovers from the weekend. A few pitching standouts. Part one, Eric Lauer makes it four straight quality starts, three straight starts of eight-plus strikeouts. Merrill Kelly, I mentioned a near-complete game, came one out away against the Colorado Rockies. And then U. Darvish, four straight quality starts. And I noticed his cutter usage over this span,

this four-star stretch is 33% in his first two starts, just 18% on the cutter usage. Chris, do you have anything that you'd like to add on Lauer, Merrill Kelly, you Darvish? Lauer, I just continue to be very impressed with the velocity up, with the pitch usage that he's showing. Swing strike rate, really, really impressive. I think this is a legitimate breakout. As long as the added velocity is there. I mean, he was, pretty good last year with lower velocity. So if he's going to be, you know, throwing 95 or higher, I mean, not averaging 95, but hitting 95 consistently, I think Eric Lauer is someone, I think I moved him in my top 50 starting pitchers in my most recent update. So I'm very, very interested in what he's

doing. And that is definitely warranted to. Scott, you have him at SP 35. That's Eric Lauer. I have him at 45. and Chris, you have him at 101. No, I don't. Did I not hit save on that, man? You might have done it in Roto. I didn't do it in head-to-head points, I'm pretty sure. Okay. Yeah, so get him inside your top 50 and then we'll talk it out.

Pitching standouts part two from the weekend. Clayton Kershaw, Hurl 7 scoreless at the Cubs on Saturday. Kevin Gosman, four straight quality starts. He finally walked a batter. He has 46 strikeouts to one walk. Absolutely ridiculous. His swinging strike rate and chase rate are both number one among qualified starting pitchers. And then we had a pitcher's duel between Corbyn Burns and Max Fried on Saturday.

Freed seven innings, one run, eight strikeouts. Corbyn Burns, six innings, two runs, seven strikeouts. Scott, anything you'd like to add on Corbyn Burns, Max Fried, Kevin Galsman, Clayton Kirchall. Nothing that's worth getting that much into. I did notice for Freed, though, that he had 15 swinging strikes on 95 pitches more than usual for him. He had five on 11 changeups. If that pitch becomes more of a weapon for him,

the league is in serious trouble. It really does look like it too, because he's throwing that change up a career high 12%. This is Max Reed, and he has a 25% swinging strike rate on that changeup. So to go along with the fastball Velo, which is up a little bit and the curveball and the slider, Max Reed, I mean,

looks like just a legitimate top 20, maybe even top 15, starting pitcher moving forward. Pitcher standouts part three, a few names here. Dylan C's eight plus strikeouts in five of his six starts. He did that again against the Red Sox this weekend.

Pablo Lopez, a fantastic bounceback. Eight shutout innings with five strikeouts. Garrett Cole has posted three straight quality starts in a row. He had 10 strikeouts over six in a third on Sunday, and then Zach Allen was all. Once again, seven shot out innings, seven strikeouts to zero walks. Completely, I continue to be very encouraged that the walks are down consistently for Zach Allen.

Chris, anything on Cease Lopez Cole Gallin. Cease is, I was skeptical of him coming in. I still think I had him as a top 35 starting pitcher, but clearly I probably should have had him ranked higher. He looks really good. Don't really have much to add beyond that. Pablo Lopez shaved his head going with the clean shaven look and you know I think we can all agree that's a great look so I think that explains why he was so much better today now he's awesome it him and gallon and and kershaw from the previous group you know we talked about them a couple weeks ago

I think they all had a really great start on the same day a few weeks back and you know we talked about just how hard it is to actually rank those guys rest of season because there's where you rank them right now, and I think Pablo Lopez and Clayton Kirshall are top 20 starting pitchers at least, if not maybe even a little bit higher than that, right now, for their next start. And Zach Allen probably top 36 starting pitcher for his next star, for week six. How do you rank them moving forward when Gallin especially seems like just a, you know,

a Tommy John search. waiting to happen, given that he was dealing with UCL damage last year. And Clayton Kirchall had the elbow or the forearm thing. And Pablo Lopez has had shoulder issues in three of the last four seasons. So I think all of them are sell high candidates. And that's not to say that. I don't think they'll pitch while moving forward. But it's just it could end at any moment.

And that is true for every single starting pitcher. But for them especially, it's just a question of your particular. level of risk tolerance. And I think most people, Chris, where they got those specific three names, you might have got them as your SP3, your SP4, maybe for Gallin, you know, your SP5 or your SP6. Yeah, he was even like much later than that. So if you have the pitching depth to spare and you're struggling on offense right now, again, I mean, we'll keep mentioning the very clear by-low hitters, Whitmerfield, Jose I

Brayu, Catee has been coming around. But I would say if you can flip a Zach Gallen for one of those guys. or even with Lopez and Kirchhoff, you want to aim a little bit higher on the hitter spectrum, then go for it. Some hitting leftovers from the weekend, a nice little weekend for Ronald O'Cunia,

who looks just fine. He's playing the outfield again. Five hits, two homers, two steals this weekend. Eugenio Suarez had a double dong on Friday. He's 74% rostered. Quality of contact, not great for him, but he does have a 17% barrel rate.

That is A Eugenio Suarez. Brandon Lau had a double dong on Saturday, both coming off of a lefty and Marco Gonzalez. Pete Alonzo had a double dung on Sunday. He's now up to seven home runs for this season. These names are coming around. Fran Mulraeus, 11 hits, one homer over his last five games. Jose Ibrahim has six hits, five RBI over his last four.

Jared Walsh is heating up. He's got nine hits, three home runs over his last five games. Kyle Schwabber over his last seven, he's hitting 321, three homers, one steel. Cedric Mullins over his last seven. He's hitting 344, two homers, one steal. Ketel Marte over his last seven. 417 batting average, one home run and one steel. A few bullpen notes that I wanted to mention for the Astros.

Rafael Montero picked up his third save on Friday. That was one day after Ryan Presley returned and he blew his save chance. Presley was back at it on Saturday. He picked up his fourth save. Fastball velocity still down, so I want to pay attention to that for him. Yeah, I picked up. I picked up Montero in a couple of those 15 team leagues where saves are scarce, just in case Presley's not able to figure this out and not able to cope with lesser velocity

because Montero did fine in his absence. For the Twins this weekend, on Friday, Emilio Paghan picked up his third save, and then on Saturday, Yuan Duran pitched the final two innings. He picked up his second save, and then Pagan was closer again on Sunday, picking up his fourth save. this looks like a clear committee or a split, whatever you want to call it, but I think both of those guys,

Duran and Pagan, are going to get saves moving forward for the... I think there's a bit of motivated reasoning going on with Duran in fantasy circles because he looks so good and he looks like he could be such an impactful fantasy closer that I think like every sign that we get of him potentially being used as a closer is getting overblown.

And I get it because I think he's a really interesting player, but I would say at this point, I would think Paghan would probably get 60% of the save chances moving forward, if not more. I can't really argue with you. I mean, I think Duran is the better pitcher, but clearly it's something they like with Paghan as well. For the Diamondbacks on Friday, Mark Malanson return, he recorded one out for his fifth save. And on Saturday, he came in in a one-run game, and he got destroyed. Five hits, four runs. He takes his first blown save, his third loss of the season.

For the Cardinals on Friday, Ryan Helsley recorded five outs across the seventh and eighth innings of a tie game. He struck out four. St. Louis took the lead in the ninth. Giovanni Gallegos came in and picked up his sixth save. For the Giants, Camillo Duval entered a tie game on Friday. He gave up two hits and a run. He took a loss. And then on Sunday, he was back at it.

He struck out two and picked up his fifth save of the season. For the Pirates on Saturday, David Bednar got his fourth save. for the Red Sox. Hansel Robles will never get another save. I am confident in that because I have him on my fantasy teams. It's so frustrating. But who will? I don't know. I don't know for their team. So on Saturday

it doesn't seem like there's anybody else. On Saturday, Hansel Robles he gets a save opportunity, one run game. He gives up a walk, a double, sack fly, boom, tie game. Matt Barnes pitches in the 10th inning. He gives up two runs. He takes a loss. You remember that there was the year

in like 2019 or 2018 when Ken Giles had like a four five ERA, but it was like 90% of his earned runs came in like a handful of non-save situations. Yeah. I feel like Hansel Robles is having the opposite of that season where his overall numbers actually look pretty good. Like I said last time I saw it, I was like, oh, he's actually having a decent season. It's just that like and when he's pitching in save situations, he just has not been nearly as good. It feels like I don't know so frustrated. I don't think that's something to be worried about. Like, I think if you think

Hansel Robles is good moving forward, then you should probably think he'll be good. And that might be enough for him to be the closer, but you just can't have any faith in it right now. The name I'm watching there right now is Matt Strom. He's pitched okay for them, but he's another lefty. I don't know if they want to use the lefty

in the ninth inning. The expected ERA for Hansel Robles is 5.47. So he's allowing a lot of hard contact. Not great there. For the Royals on Sunday, Scott Barlow picked up his second save. Josh Stallmont hasn't pitched since last Sunday. For the Orioles on Sunday, Jorge Lopez pitched in game one.

He wasn't available for game two. Dylan Tate picked up his first save. Joe Barlow got his fourth save for the Rangers, for the Nationals, Tana Rainey, got knocked around a little bit. He gave up three hits, three runs, took a blown save and a loss. For Tampa Bay, I want to pay attention to this one, too. I picked up Brooks Raleigh in a few deeper category leagues. Kitchridge came in in the eighth inning.

It was a one-run game. Then he came back out for the ninth. He gave up a solo home run. They tied the game. But I know Brooks really has either, I think, two saves over the past week or two weeks. So they're kind of doing some Tampa Bay Rays-ish things again. So we'll pay attention there. And then for the Marlins on Sunday, Anthony Bender, he pitched in the sixth inning up to zero, the sixth inning.

This guy used to be the closer. Cole Solcer came in for the save. He gave up three hits, three earned runs, takes his first blown save and first loss. It's all coming up Dylan Floro. That's what it looks like. It's like the Reds situation with Lucas Sims where there was an opportunity for someone to run away with it when he was hurt. And it just doesn't seem like anybody's done it. I don't know if Floro is going to be back and effective.

Yeah. That's kind of been Sims problem, right? Yeah. Yeah. But I think Floreau is going to get a real opportunity. All right, some streamers for Monday and Tuesday will start with Monday. Carlos Hernandez at the Orioles, Jose Katana versus the Dodgers, Michael Paneda versus the A's, Chris Flexson versus the Phillies, Eliezer Hernandez at the Diamondbacks. Not great, Bob.

Yeah, I'm starting Panetta in a points league with two starts, but not, wouldn't be streaming him. I think Eleazar Hernandez just got crushed by the Diamondbacks last. time, right? His last start? Yeah, and this might... It could be his last stand. Yeah. I'm gonna say no. Fingers crossed on that one.

Nothing against Eliezer, but I'd like to see Max Meyer. Yeah, it's a fun time. We've got all these prospects calling up. Let's, yeah, let's get Max Meyer in the mix, too. I guess if you need one, I would say Panetta, but just don't do it. Tuesday, we've got Reid Detmer's versus Tampa Bay. You say Kikushi at the Yankees and Madison, Baumgarner, bump garner up against the Marlins. This isn't any better.

And he didn't allow any runs last time he faced the Marla. No, he did. Yeah. Shut out inning. That was like the, I don't know, romantic hand checking by the umpire. I don't know what was going on. His hand a little too long, you know, like that. I want, like, Detmer's and Kakuchi are both guys that I really want to be good.

But I can't trust them right now in a streaming situation. Nope. So. Bumgarder is the best choice if I have to pick one. I think so, yeah. Monday and Tuesday. I trust him any further than I could throw them. Wasn't Kikuchi?

Good in his most recent start against the Yankees, though? Yeah, he was. Yeah. I always worry about pitchers facing the same team. Yeah. Two starts in a row, especially when it's a good offense. Hitters fare better the more times they see a pitcher. So that's a real concern.

All right. No streamers for Monday and Tuesday. That's the moral of the story. We're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching. Fantasy baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow.

Bye-bye.