Fantasy Baseball Today - Gerrit Cole's Slow Start, Worryometer & Rookie Hitters (4/20 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 20, 2022

What is going on with Gerrit Cole (1:10)? ... Should you add Josiah Gray (6:45)? ... Josh Staumont looks like the Royals closer (10:00). Can you drop Scott Barlow, Matt Barnes and Jake McGee? ... Let's fire up the WORRYOMETER (16:20)! How do we feel about Robbie Ray, Tylor Megill and Jesus Luzardo? ... News and notes (31:33): updates on Fernando Tatis, Mike Trout, Jose Altuve and more. ... What do we do with Spencer Torkelson, Bobby Witt Jr. and the other young hitters (37:42)? ... Should you add hitters like Tommy Pham and Aaron Hicks (46:37)? ... We wrap up with pitcher standouts and streamers (56:55). 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. It was a night of firsts for Garrett Cole, and not the good kind either. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, April 20th.

Frank Stamphill joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we will get to that Garrett Cole fella. fire up the Worryometer. A bunch of young, fun pitchers were not so young and fun. Well, I guess they were still young, but they weren't as fun on Tuesday. So we'll break those guys down.

They were less young than they were in their previous starts. That is a factual statement. Thank you, Chris. As are we all? Yes. Thank you for backing me up there. Some young hitters, I keep getting questions about rookies and Joe Adele and Julio Rodriguez. We'll talk about those. And of course, we will recap Tuesday's action.

But let's jump right in. You gotta be breaking me. Yeah, that was my exact reaction when I was watching Garrett Cole on Tuesday because it was a night of first, as I mentioned. The shortest outing of his career, he could not escape the second inning at the Detroit Tigers. He recorded five outs,

and he walked in a run for the first time in his career as well. The final line, one and two thirds, one hit, two runs, five walks, three strikeouts. He did have 10 swinging strikes on 6. 68 pitches and through his first three starts, the SP1 across the board, ADP, rankings. He has a 6.35 ERA, a 1.41 whip. Chris, you are up first. What is the problem with Garikol right now? Billy Crystal and pitchcom and I'm sure there was something today. Yeah, those were the excuses that he had in his first two starts.

I think there's nothing wrong, is my sense. Like, I think he pitched pretty well in his first two starts, and then he had an uncharacteristically wild start, and that happens. But I don't think, like, this particular version of a bad start, I just, I find it hard to be worried about Garrett Cole, walking five guys in one outing, when, like, that's not something that happens to him, you know?

Like, I don't see any reason to think this is going to linger. That's my sense anyway. Yeah, you know, Garrick Cole, you mentioned some of the things, the pitchcom, he's kind of whiny, and I don't like that. He was complaining about, if you watch any Yankee games, when they get two strikes on the opposing batter in Yankee Stadium, they play like the, I don't know what that is, death star sound, Chris? I don't know, they play some kind of like loud siren thing, and he was complaining about that saying that it distracts him. It's like, dude, come on, Garer Cole. Anyway, Adam Azer, fun fact. Every time Garik Cole stinks, Adam Azer just text me fraud.

That's it. That is the entire text. Well, I was about to say your take about him being whiny sounded very Adam Azer-like. That is the sort of rant Adam would have gone on. He's very whiny. Anyway, in this start, what I noticed, he struck out the side in the first, so he looked good there. He had to wait a long time in the second inning. It was just, I think the Detroit Tigers pitcher threw something like 40 or 50 pitches,

and it was just incredibly long. Maybe that affected him. Scott, the Worryometer, which we will get to a little bit later on as well, What is your level for Garrett Cole right now? 10, you're absolutely freaking out, one, not concerned at all. I'll go. You kind of want to go 0, 5, or 10. That's just where.

That's just like a human way to respond to the worryometer. But I'm going to go like two, I guess. I tend to agree with Chris. I mean, velocity looks good. Spin rates look good. He's getting swinging strikes, you know. The temperature wasn't great in Detroit. It was low 40s.

Temperatures were low in a lot of parts of the country, and it had an impact on several pitching performances, I think. It may have had an impact on Coles. If not, I mean, obviously there's the short spring, very easy to blame, but rightfully, I mean, spring is the link that is for starting pitchers primarily, and it was only half as long as usual this year. So I think that's an excuse that could. apply to just anybody, not to mention the variance of baseball and that literally anything can happen to anyone over a sample of, what is this, his third start?

Yep. So a sample of three starts. And, you know, broadening that out, like what ACE has lived up to expectations so far? There have been some, but only like half of them. Like only half of the top 20 have actually been good so far, I would say. So I don't really think there's a reason. I don't see anything specific with coal that would cause me to worry.

Yeah, honestly, I don't see anything either. The velocity looks fine, spin rates look fine, as you mentioned. The one thing, he gave up three home runs in his first two starts, and the command has just looked shaky overall. Obviously, it was in this start where he gave up five walks. He is giving up a lot of hard contact too.

I notice on the Stackcast page, but again, it's only three starts. I kind of think he's just in his head right now. Maybe some, maybe it's like a mental thing from last year with the sticky stuff. I don't know. But either way, he has not looked good. I guess the next question is, would either of you be looking to buy Garrett Cole? We got this email from Tim, and he said he was offered these two trades in a nine-team Roto League.

He receives Garrett Cole and Eloy Jimenez for his Zach Wheeler and Tyler O'Neill. The other trade is he receives Garrett Cole and Lordes Guerriel for his Zach Wheeler and John Carlos Stanton. Would you guys take either of those trades? Okay. But I think either one would be worth doing. Yep, I agree. Cole's the best.

And that'd be true in a 12th. Yeah. All right. So if you can, I don't know that many people are going out and trying to sell Gary Cole. Obviously, he was likely a first round pick. But if you can, it's something you should look to do right now. Yeah, those weren't particularly low cost. I mean, we like them both for Cole, but I wouldn't say those are obvious sell low trades either.

So they're good, though. I'd take them. Yeah. All right. Chris, let's go to you here. You're, oh, my goodness gracious. or I guess you got to be bleeping me, player of the day. So is that what he said?

He said bleeping me. You got to be bleeping me. Okay, weird. I mean, come on. I will go with Josiah Gray. What did you expect him to say? Yeah, I didn't know what he was saying. I had no idea what he was actually saying.

You can't question Hawk Harrison. Come on, Chris. I'm going to go with Josiah Gray, who I thought looked pretty good. It's against the Diamondbacks, obviously. sleep, but, you know, what was it? Eight strikeouts, two walks, five in a third inning, gave up one earned run on a home run. Only three hard hit balls, which is a good thing for him because he does tend to get hit pretty hard. So I thought this was a very promising start from Josiah Gray.

You'd like to see more than nine swinging strikes on 87 pitches, but all in all, this wasn't like the best day ever for, oh my goodness, gracious performances. But 36% caught, no. No, what's the, what caught plus swinging? CSW called strikes plus whiffs. Called strikes plus swinging strikes rate. 36%. That's a very good mark for Josiah Gray.

So all in all, I thought this was a pretty good performance for him. It was kind of weird with his pitch selection. He usually throws both of his breaking balls into a decent amount of the curveball and the slider and pretty much ditched the slider in this start. I'd wondered if maybe that was the pitch giving him trouble with the home run. but looking through the data, it doesn't seem like that was the case. Did the Diamondbacks, they had a decent amount of left-handed hitters

in the lineup today, didn't they? Yeah. Sounds accurate. Yeah, the top of the lineup especially with Varsho, Marte, Peralta, Beer. I would guess he throws his curveball more to lefties than he does the righties,

and he does. So, you know, his slider last season was almost exclusively thrown against righties. His curveball was a much higher usage rate against lefties. So that might explain some of the difference there. Okay. Josiah Gray, 68% rostered. So he's up there. I think

in general, amongst the most added starting pitchers recently, Gray is behind names like Andrew Heaney and Nessor Cortez and Kyle Wright and Merrill Kelly. But I think after that group, I'm kind of intrigued by Josiah Gray. Back-to-back starts of at least five innings with one earned run or less.

And it looks like he will be in line for two starts next week. It's a very early look, but it seems like it will be the diamondbacks and the giants for Josiah Gray. So, yeah, I think he is worth looking at least. I like Nestor Cortez, but it wouldn't be surprising at all if Josiah Gray was better than him. You know, we were pretty excited about Josiah Gray, you know, for pretty long stretches last season. Obviously, his overall numbers ended up being pretty bad, but there's a lot to like about him in terms of the, uh, the swing and miss stuff, especially with the two breaking balls. I'm not trying to dismiss that, but I don't think he's at the level where I'm adding him like I am, Nestor Cortez.

And one stat I want to mention is I noticed the overall launch angle was lower against Josiah Gray this year. But the ground ball rate specifically is almost exactly what it was last year. Only about 30%, which means he's given up the kind of contact that could lead to a lot of damage still. Yeah. All right, Scott, who is your player of the day from Tuesday? I am going to go with Josh Stamont, and I am feeling relieved, I guess, more than anything, in those 15-team industry roto leagues, I bid big on Josh Stamont as a guy who doesn't invest much in saves in the draft, thinking that save we saw from him over the weekend would hopefully

at least lead to a timeshare with Scott Barlow and maybe was an indication that Mike Bethini actually prefers Stamont as the closer over Barlow. And I think we got even a stronger indication of that here on Tuesday because once again Barlow set up for Stamont. Stamont converted the save again. So that's back to back for him with the Royals. But in that previous outing where Barlow set up for Stamont, Barlow was facing the heart of the lineup.

And in this one, he was facing the bottom of the lineup. Stalmont actually had the tougher matchups and was still called on to get the save. And, you know, he got a chance to close. He looked like he was close to inheriting the job last year before Barlow eventually did. Apparently, Stallmont had a bout with COVID that kind of affected his endurance, made it so they couldn't count on him to pitch as regularly as you would need a closer to. And this year he's hitting 100 miles per hour with regularity. So he might just be the guy over Barlow.

I'm not saying I'm ready to drop Barlow in those deep rotisserie leagues, those 15 teamers where anybody who's in line for saves is getting huge bids on the waiver wire. But if the choice was between Barlow or Stalmont and anything shallower than that, then I think you've got to lean Stalmant at this point. Yeah, I think that makes sense. I was getting that question on Tuesday night. Scott Barlow is 86% rostered on CBS. Josh Stamont, just 18%.

So if you're just looking for saves, that is a move that you can make in 12-team league, dropping Scott Barlow for Stallmont. Even in deeper leagues, I would make that swap too, but I'd probably try to hold on to both if I can. There was a lot of bullpen happenings on Tuesday. Wanted to bring up the Red Sox situation as well. Hansel Robles recorded five outs between the 7th,

and eighth in a tie game. He was perfect with two strikeouts. Jake Deekman recorded the final out of the eighth, and then Garrett Whitlock came on in the ninth inning and converted his first save of the season. Chris, I'll go to you for this one. Garrett Whitlock, 47% rostered. His role has been kind of all over the place this year.

I thought he made the most sense as the team's closer coming into the season just because, frankly, he's been the most reliable reliever for them over the past season, basically. but would you look to add Garrett Whitlock with the idea that he will continue getting saved for this team?

I think that's a good way to put it. He will continue to get saves for this team, but I don't think he's going to be the closer. I just think he's too valuable in that multi-inning role out of the bullpen and they like him in that role. Obviously, they value him quite highly given the extension that they gave him.

And I would be surprised if they just went to using him in a one-inning typical closer role. I think he's going to get his share of saves, but I would be surprised if he got, you know, even more than 50% of them would probably be pretty surprising just because there are going to be situations where,

you know, the starter can't make it out of the fifth and it's a close game or something like that. And they want him to go two or three innings. There will be situations where they want them to use them in the seventh and eighth. So I think they're going to remain flexible with him, would be my guess. Scott, we mentioned the possibility of dropping Barlow

He's 86% rostered. How about someone like Matt Barnes? He's still 71% rostered on CBS. Jake McGee was pitched. He pitched in the seventh inning in game one of the Giants doubleheader. He's still 73% rostered. Are these names that you could drop? Jake McGee, Matt Barnes, along with Barlow, for the Josh Stallmont's or even Garrett Whitlocks of the world?

Yes. I think in standard size leagues, in traditional saves leagues, not saves plus holds. Barlow again is the one I'd be most hesitant to drop because it's not crystal clear that it's even a 50-50 or that he doesn't have a 50-50 split there with Stallmont but the others I like the only time we've seen McGee used anything like a closer was when Camilla Duvald obviously needed a day off and yeah

I don't think either of them is is showing signs of being in line for enough saves to hold on to. All right, yeah, I agree. In 12-team league, I would drop Jake McGee, Matt Barnes, look to pick up Josh Stallmont, Tanner Rainey. He was very shaky on Tuesday, but he did pick up another save. It was his third of the season. He's just 47% rostered.

Anthony Bender, we keep talking about. He's 43% rostered. So those names are, again, all under 50%, Bender, Tanner, Josh Stalmont, I'd be right adding any of those dropping McGee, Matt Barnes, and maybe Scott Barlow. I still think in a traditional league that rewards saves like normal, Hansel Robles is the guy to have in the Red Sox bullpen over Whitlock. I think there's, I think him and Deekman and Whitlock will all be in line for saves at times, but Robles will most often provide it he doesn't implode, which is always a risk. And I think he's the least talented of three. But I just think he's best positioned for saves because he throws right-handed and has closing experience and isn't needed for multi in multiple innings usually like Whitlock is

What what's his nickname Hansel Robles Chris? Do you know it? I think it's El Cabo Blanco is that it the white horse? Oh, I have no idea I was just thinking of Hansel from Zoolander Hey, that Hansel Robles he's so hot right now. He's pretty hot right now. He was pretty hot on Tuesday. He recorded five out, two strikeouts against Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Lordis Correel, he looked pretty good. Let's get back into the Worryometer. I mentioned Garik-Cole. There are a few other pitchers I want to talk about here up top.

Kind of weird to lump Robbie Ray in this mix because, frankly, he was all right. He pitched a quality start, six innings, two runs, four strikeouts. However, the fastball velocity was still down compared to last year. 92.7 miles per hour is what Robbie Ray average in this start, which is up from his previous start when he was pitching through a monsoon. but that's still down two miles per hour from where he was last year. Chris, the results have mostly been okay for Robbie Ray.

What's your worryometer level based on this Velo? I would still say more like a four than anything else. I can't say I'm not at all worried about the velocity being down, but the fact that it was up in this start is a good sign. Maybe he can work his way back up to the 94 mile per hour average velocity that he last season with this fastball, but I'm not counting on that, certainly. And if I can't count on that, then I have to be at least a little bit concerned, because I think the fastball velocity was a big part of why he was able to be so effective

last season, allowed him to throw his fastball in the zone without as much fear about getting hit hard, and that allowed him to both, you know, get more strikeouts, but also avoid walks, which was key. And so, yeah, I'm not, not concerned, but it was good. to see him dial it up a little bit in this start. Scott, I see you with the grin on the face. I don't know what's going on here. Oh, I don't know either.

I was reacting to something. I can't remember what. No, Robbie Ray. I'm about, I probably put myself as a five. Just got a one-up Chris there on the Wariometer with Robbie Ray. He hasn't, like, this is a guy who's consistent, even in his bad years, 11K per 9. You know, he hasn't had a single start yet with even a strikeout per inning.

And it might be partly the velocity, but last year the velocity went up from where we were used to saying and he still used to get all those strikeouts. So I guess I'm glad that, you know, walk a ton of guys in this start against the players because that was looking like an issue in his first two turns. When I say it's a five, I'm not selling Robbie Ray for 75 cents on the dollar. I'm not really doing that with any early round pick at this point.

But, you know, two or three more turns of this, and I'll probably be there. Let's talk about Jesus Lazzardo. He took a big set back in his second start here against the St. Louis Cardinals. He allowed five runs. Four of those were earned over four and a third in his pitch. He gave up seven hits. And what I noticed, couldn't really throw the fastball on the curve for strikes in this one. He gave up a lot of hard contact.

I know there was some questionable defense behind him, which led to a longer inning and everything kind of snowballed after that. Someone pointed out to me that St. Louis has been really good against lefties so far this season. They are first and weighted on base average against left-handed pitching.

Scott, Worryometer for Jesus Lazzardo after the second start. Yeah, how should we approach this? Yeah, how you calibrate it? All right, because it's like the level of investment in Luzardo isn't nearly the same as Robbie Ray, so that would naturally cause me to be less

concerned. But I think, I guess I'll say, I guess I'll say four. He looked right in spring. He was amazing in his first start. But he's not a proven asset. I like that the velocity was still up.

I like that he, the curveball was his most thrown pitch. He's leaning on the secondaries board than he did last year. And I think that's a formula for success for him. But is he to the point where he's ready to consistently deliver starts where like we saw in that first one or is he going to be kind of up and down this year

definitely worth rostering but going to be kind of frustrating at times maybe I mean I even great pitchers have bad starts on occasion and that may have been all this is but without the track record for Jesus Lizardo I think

I'm inclined to you know to maybe maybe dial back the enthusiasm just a little bit he's still in my top 40 starting pitchers, but can't necessarily count on him as an up-and-coming ace yet. I wouldn't mind seeing him throw his change up more. We saw more of that in this start than in the first one. And that was something that we said in the first start. I think you only threw two or three in that first start. And it's like, well, when you're, you know, curveball is working when you have

a 90% whiff rate or whatever it was on the curveball last week, you don't really need the other secondary. So wouldn't mind him throwing the change up more. And honestly, the thing with Luzar, is even when he's throwing 96, 97, 98, like he is right now, you know, the fastball doesn't necessarily seem to be an elite pitch. It's a relatively low spin pitch. So even, you know, throwing it harder is going to help in some regards. But I think fewer fastballs is probably better for Hazel Zazardo. And the changeup has been a very good pitch for him in the past as well. So, you know, that's, that's something I'll be keeping an eye on. Let's move over to Tyler McGilley. Came back to down to earth in his.

This was his third start against the San Francisco Giants. Six innings, four runs, four strikeouts. The velocity on the fastball was down 1.6 miles per hour compared to his season's average. So he was basically where he was at last year with the fastball when he, of course, had a 4.52 ERA. Chris, the Wuriometer for Tyler McGill based on this velocity. Yeah, I mean, I guess the interest level

in Tyler McGill was based on the velocity being, up. So if the velocity is not back up, it gets harder to be excited about him. But I will say, you know, we talked about it last time he pitched. Part of what, you know, you were interested in him coming into the season, Frank. And part of what I like about him is he was pretty good last season, even without throwing 97, 98, 99 miles an hour. You know, he was, um, his ERA was like four, five. So it wasn't great. But his XERA was like 3.7. And so I do think he's someone who can be pretty decent, you know, a pretty useful pitcher, even if it's just at the level he was last season. And if he can, you know, sustain the velocity that we saw in his first two starts and get back to that after today, you know, then I think there's room for growth beyond that as we saw in his first two starts.

So, you know, I'm not too worried about the velocity being down in this start. I think he deserves them all again because the Giants and Mets played a double header. So McGill's velocity was down one and a half to two miles per hour. The same was true of the two pitchers who went in the second game, Max Scherzer and Logan Webb. Makes Alex Cobb look even more impressive. Right? Yeah, so I mean when three of the four starting pitchers

and two of them more established than Tyler McGill experienced the same drop in velocity and if the temperatures in the 40s, you know, I think that's understandable. All right. We are holding both of those guys, right? Luzardo and Tyler McGill. Absolutely. Yep. Okay. Last one here, Framber Valdez. He had a rough outing at home against the Angels. Four and a third, nine hits, six runs, four walks.

And that was against an Angels lineup that was without Mike Trout. And he gave up some hard hits and the walks. I mean, the walks have been an issue for Framber Valdez. Outside of the shortened 2020, he averaged 2.1 walks per nine. That short in season. last year that was 3.9 walks per 9 and this year the through three starts the walks have been an issue

as well Scott your Wuriameter level on Framber Valdez I feel like this just comes with the territory I don't yeah he goes through stretches where he walks a bunch of guys but we've seen enough we've seen him recover from that

enough over the past couple years that I'm not particularly alarmed. So I will say three. I do think this kind of highlights some of the difference between like the command and control thing. Like he is a lot like Dallas Kichel and that he's going to live outside of the strike zone. That's just kind of the kind of pitcher he is

that explains why he gets so many ground balls. He's able to induce swings on pitches outside of the strike zone that lead to weak contact. But, you know, I think he probably doesn't have have quite the command that Dallas Keikle does to paint in that same way. So when it's not working quite as well for him, things can get a little uglier. But I don't really think that's a reason to be concerned. Frambervaldaz feels pretty proven at this point. You know, it's more a question of like the walk is getting to like four point four per nine is where it gets harder for him to be really,

really good. But I think he'll still be useful. Yeah. And one of his biggest assets is, is volume, being able to go deep into his starts. And if he's walking that many batters, it makes it a little bit tougher. You know, he can wiggle out of... He can wiggle out of trouble because he gets a lot of ground balls, so those can turn into double plays. But, you know, you're kind of living life on the edge there if you're relying on that. Is the thing.

Like, you just have to understand you're going to... There are going to be some rough stretches with him. And that's why he wasn't a top 30 starting pitcher. He was more like a top 50 starting pitcher. Yep. A trio of hitters, I wanted to quickly mention here, see if you guys are concerned at all. Boba Shett,

went 0 for 4 on Tuesday. He's batting 2.04 on the young season. Mookie Betts, I will grab an update. But the last that I saw, he was 0 for 2. He's batting 179 on the year. Let's see, he is 0 for 3. So that is down to 175. Catelle Marte, 0 for 8 across his double header.

He's now batting 171. Scott, any concerns, any serious concerns? Boba Chet, Mookie Betz, Cetel Marte. No. I bet that's like the default answer for any. hitter. I know we got somebody got mad on Twitter and was saying we need to talk about hitters

more, but it's like there's It's too early. Yeah, and I know that sounds like a cop out and we have to still put on an hour show, not that we've had any trouble filling the time. But it's just like

it's just reckless. Like it's that's undisciplined analysis to for proven assets like these. to read into the numbers after a couple weeks' time. It's just, it's basically meaningless at this point what they've done. I think you could make a case with like Mookie Betts because he dealt with that hip injury last

season and didn't have surgery on it this off season that like, okay, maybe his struggle so far a result of that. And he's not hitting the ball particularly hard and his strikeout rate is up and pretty much everything looks bad for Mookie Betts right now. But it's also like this kind of the thing to keep in mind with all of these discussions, is like, this kind of stretch will happen for every single player. Like, I don't know, maybe not Juan Soto. Juan Soto probably will not have a stretch where he like has a 86 mile per hour,

average X velocity for 12 games and hits 160. Like, he's too good for that. But basically everyone else will have a stretch where they just don't look good, where it's not just the ball is not falling in, but that they're just not hitting the ball well. And the thing is, when it comes at the start of the season, you do have to, figure out whether it's just one of those stretches or if something changed between the end of last season and the start of this season for a guy like Mookie Vets. And maybe that has happened,

but it's too early to say. Like this is one of the things when we have this like underlying data that and all this, you know, average eggs of velocity and we can look at the hard hit rate and how hard every single batted ball he had was. And all that's great and that gives us more information than we used to have, but it still doesn't change the fundamental facts that, like, weird things happen in two weeks of baseball. And sometimes really good players have two bad weeks. And even if you want to talk about the hip for that, and I know you were just presenting a theory that you don't necessarily believe yourself. But, I mean, we saw him play through the hip injury last year. He didn't return first round value, but he was still good.

He wasn't this bad. Yeah. He wasn't bad at all. He just didn't return first round value. relative to the other two. I wrote about these three guys and seven other slow starting hitters. Did kind of a Worryometer thing in a column today. Sorry for stealing your bit, Frank,

and also add them before you. It's not mine. But yeah, like nobody had, even like I had Brendan Rogers and Luke Voight, and among the 10 hitters, nobody had higher than a five on the Wariometer, which is a completely arbitrary scale that we all understand. Mookie Betts was higher than Cotel Marte and Bobichette.

but I can't say I'm actually worried. It's mostly just like the, what if the hip is an issue. Yeah, but other than that, like Bobeshett and Katel Marte, especially, like there's no physical issue to be concerned about there.

So I think it's probably just like good hitters having bad weeks. Yeah. And overall, I agree with you guys. It's, you know, we're getting a lot of questions about these players. And again,

you know, people listening, they want to know if there's anything underlying that stands out so far. but that's why we've been looking at pitchers so much early on. There's just more actionable information with pitchers, looking at velocity and pitch mix changes, and those are things that you can act on now

before other people start to pick up on them. So that's why we've been predominantly pitcher-heavy. We'll get into a few other young hitters early on, like J-Rod, Julio Rodriguez, and Joe Adele later on. But, you know, those are, I think there could be more concerns, obviously, because those are just younger players in general. Let's take a quick break. and when we return, we will get to news and notes here on fantasy baseball today.

All right, so news and notes. Fernando Tatis simulated fielding ground balls and made throws on the infield Monday. He'll be eligible to return in early June. It doesn't mean that he'll be back in early June. I don't know if you guys watched Sunday night baseball on ESPN, but there was a clip of him playing soccer in the outfield before the game, and he fell, he tripped over the ball, and he landed on his wrist. Guys, I mean, you know, this is maybe the most prized asset in baseball right now.

You think we can get him off the soccer field for now and just make sure that he's alright and put this guy in bubble wrap for a little bit. So let's see. Please keep Fernando Tati's healthy and safe. Mike Trout has now missed two straight games with that left hand injury. Ronald Acuna went one for three with a double in his first rehab game. Jose Altuvae was out of the lineup Tuesday. and will not play Wednesday either with that hamstring injury. He took an MRI.

They said that they were cautiously optimistic or that they were surprised by how it went, but there's no actual results yet for that. Byron Buxton remained out of the lineup with that knee injury on Tuesday. Both Jonathan India and Mike Mursakis were placed on the IL for the Reds. India was retroactive to April 16th,

so in theory he could be back by early next week. Lucas Gialito could be activated to start Sunday against the Mitz. Minnesota Twins. Salvador Perez was at D.H. Tuesday due to an eye issue, and he's dealt with that same issue each of the past two seasons. Clearly has not affected his production. It feels like every time there's a report about this eye issue, he goes out and hits a

home run. And then he did you one better? He hit two home runs on Tuesday. So a double dong and Salvador Perez is now up to four home runs. So think the eyes are just fine. Luis Castillo is on track to begin a rehab assignment this Sunday. He's on the IL with right shoulder soreness. Alex Cobb left Tuesday start with a right groin injury and was later placed on the IL.

This is unfortunate because he's- That's frustrating. Pitched so well. The velocity is up, as you mentioned, Chris. So, you know, I think we just wait. Obviously, no one's looking to drop Alex Cobb. So just hold on to him. It's unfortunate. Don't drop him. No, do not do that. Wanda Franco was back in the lineup Tuesday and good thing that he was. He went three for five, hit his first home run of the season. Tyler Stevenson left Tuesday's game after a collision with.

Luke Voight at home plate. That is quite the collision. I don't know if you've seen Tyler Stevenson. He is a massive human being as is Luke Voigt. Those are some big boys. Yeah, he slimmed down a little bit, but he's still big. Oh yeah. Country strong. I think it's how he's been described.

Gavin Lux was scratched due to back tightness on Tuesday. A bunch of Tiger pitcher news. Michael Paneda's first start is likely for Thursday against the Yankees. Matt Manning is unlikely to make his next start on Saturday because of right shoulder discomfort. Casey Mize is considered day to day, but remains without an official timetable to begin a throwing program.

He's on the IL with a medial elbow sprain. Aaron Ashby is not scheduled to start this week for the Brewers. A.J. Pollock should return from the I.L. on the I.L. Christian Vasquez was placed on the COVID-I.L. Greg Holland designated for assignment by the Rangers. Scott, do we have any indication who the Rangers closer might be? My guess would be Joe Barlow? I mean, he hasn't pitched well, but there's no alternative, really. So yeah, that would be my guess.

Greg Holland might have been the best alternative, and now he's gone. Hey go. Wascari Noah was optioned to AAA after his rough start Monday. Tuki Toussaint was recalled, but won't enter the rotation. I read that the Braves are likely to go back to a five-man rotation. But, Scott, would you add Spencer Strider in case he gets a chance to start?

I know you like him quite a bit. I do. Yeah, I mean, that could be coming. It just depends what kind of roster space you have to work with. It's not a bad idea if you have a spot to play with. But particularly this time of year, I doubt many people listening to. I would rather stash Ronesy Contreras, but more on him in just a little bit. Kyle Freeland signed a five-year, $64.5 million contract with the Rockies

and a prospect note. Cardinals prospect, Nolan Gorman, has homered in five straight games in the minors. He now has seven home runs over his last seven games. Chris, I think O'Neill Cruz is a very obvious stash candidate among prospect hitters right now. But Nolan Gorman, 28% rostered. Would you look to stash him as well? Yeah, I mean, I guess the question is, do they have an obvious hole in the lineup? I don't really think, because he's a second and third baseman, right, Scott?

Mm-hmm. Yeah. They did talk this. There was some talk this spring that they're fine making Tommy Edmund a super utility player once Gorman's ready. Yeah.

I don't know that he's necessarily ready. I mean, he's striking out at a high rate. He got his strikeout rate down quite a bit at AAA last year. But, you know, a lot of home runs. It's a lot of home runs. And he's repeating AAA. He's 21-year-olds rarely had to repeat a level before. so he could come quickly.

And maybe Tommy Edmund hears some of those whispers because he has been awesome so far this season. I think he already has three home runs and hit a triple. He does. I don't think any stolen bases, though. So weird, right? Tommy Edmund, the slugger. Yeah, exactly what we were hoping for.

Some lineup notes. Each of Trent Grisham and C.J. Abrams sat the past two games going up against left-handed pitching. Zach Collins has started four straight for the Toronto Blue Jays and he hit a home run on Tuesday. So if you need a second catcher in the short term, Zach Collins has been playing and has benefited from Teasca Hernandez landing on the aisle. Jeremy Pena led off with No Jose Altuve in the lineup.

And going up against a left-handed pitcher, he went one for three, hit his second home run of the season. The early returns on Jeremy Pena have been very good thus far. Scott, what do we do with these young hitters? Spencer Torkelson, I'm getting a lot of questions about right now. He went 0 for 4 with two more strikeouts. Tuesday. He is batting at 207. Spencer Torkelson is he's someone that you would try your best to hold onto right now. Yeah, I mean, he's he's impacting the ball well. He's drawing a lot of walks.

I don't see much reason to be discouraged. I mean, obviously you'd like for him to hit the ground running and and remove all doubt. And he hasn't removed all doubt, but there's reasons to be encouraged to. And remember last, year it was his first full year as a professional terrible in spring training got off to a terrible start

in the minors. Everybody's wondering what's going all with Spencer Torkelson and obviously he catches fire and never looks back. So that could happen at the Major League level too.

I have no interest in dropping Torkelson at all. All right. Bobby Witt, obviously we're not dropping Bobby Witt. He went 0 for 4 with a strikeout. He's batting 139. Chris, would you maybe bench

Bobby Witt for now. Well, he's learning on the fly, I guess. I don't think that's a terrible idea. How many steals does he have? I think it's only on one steel. So yeah. I would say, I mean, this was, I was definitely a little bit concerned about the possibility of him being a little overmatched in terms of the strikeouts because there were contact issues in the minors. He was so good at hit, you know, he was hitting the ball so well it didn't matter. And I think in the long run, that'll probably end up being the

case for him here. But yeah, I would say you could certainly sit him until he shows signs that he's figuring it out. Shortstop's a pretty deep position. Scott, we recently spoke about the Mariners youngsters, Julio Rodriguez and Jared Kellnick. Rodriguez went one for three with two steals on Tuesday. He's running. When he gets on base, he's got the green light. He's now up to four steals on the season. However, he has a 43.6 percent strikeout rate. Again, we're not dropping any of these guys, but With a strikeout rate like that, maybe we look to bench Julio Rodriguez in a points league for now? Yeah.

I don't know that I would say for sure that you can't drop him in a three outfielder points league. I mean, obviously he could come surging back with huge numbers and make you regret it. But it's always tricky in those points leagues. How many bench spots can you devote to hit her? And I think there's also a scenario, which she just gets option back to the miners, particularly. Kyle Lewis is getting close to returning, right? Now, last time we talked about Julio Rodriguez,

a couple Mariners fans hit me up on Twitter to say, oh, the umpires are squeezing them, and been a lot of called third strikes, maybe. I don't know if that's continued to be the case in the days since then. But that only, that justification only carries, the reality of the situation so far. Yeah, he still has had 11 called strikes,

called strikeouts, which leads baseball. That seems like a lot. 11 of 16. Four hitters have been legitimate strikes. Yeah, no, I mean, I've seen the graphics going around and there does seem to be some, something to the, to the idea that he's getting squeezed a little bit on some of those.

like if you call up the chart, you know, I see one, two, three, four, five that were definitely outside of the strike zone. And a lot of, pretty much all of them were right on the edge of the zone or, you know, only one was completely inside of the strike zone. So, you know, I think there's something to that. But that is also potentially a knock against him or at least something that he would have to work on because that's an adjustment that you have to make. If that's happening to you, you know, you have to be more aggressive in those situations. And that's not to say that it's a hitter's fault that he's getting called up, you know, on strikes outside of the strike zone.

Um, but it is to say that like, you know, you in a two strike count, you have to protect the plate too. And so if that's not something he's doing well right now, you know, that's it. That can obviously happen. I don't, I think it's probably somewhere in the middle in terms of like blaming him versus bad luck. but he's also swinging missing a lot. You know, it's not like he's just getting a lot of called strikes against him.

He's got an 18.2% swing and strike rate. You know, that's one of the higher rates in baseball. His out of contact, or his contact rate right now is 64%. That's pretty low. So it's not just bad luck. Yeah, I was going to bring up that swinging strike rate. That's pretty massive so far for Julio Rodriguez. 18.2% that is tied for eighth highest among qualified.

hitters thus far. He does lead baseball on sprint speed right now. Yeah, I mean, he's a freak. I remember the video when they told him he was going to make the team. And Scott's service was adamant. He said, don't change how you play. No matter what, don't change how you play. Be aggressive. So if nothing else, that's exactly what Julio Rodriguez has done for better or worse. Bryson Stott is another one here. He's still 44% rostered and not playing every day. He sat against a leftie on Tuesday. Scott, can we drop Bryce and Stott universally, or should we hold them in deeper leagues? I'd hold them in deeper leagues. There's a chance to playing time improves.

But 12 teams or less, a guy with questionable power profile who's not playing every day, I would say, you know, if you're looking to make room for somebody, Stott's somebody you can drop. The last one here I wanted to mention Joe Adele, who went three for five on Tuesday. He's been in the lineup with Mike Trout dealing with injury. They were going up against a lefty, so he probably would have been in there anyway. The two outs that he made on Tuesday were both strikeouts.

So we're still looking at a 47.5% strikeout rate for Joe Adele. However, Chris, the underlying statcast metrics entering Tuesday 99th percentile in barrel rate, 99th percentile in sprint speed for Joe Adele. He is still 75% roster.

Does that sound right to you? Yeah, I mean, I would say in probably like a 12-team points league where you only start three outfielders, he's probably dropable. But as in that, I want to hang on to him if I can because, yeah, he's hitting the ball really hard. You know, like even with a 49% strikeout rate, he has a 355 expected Wobo right now. That goes to tell you, like 355 is well above average. That goes to tell you that when he's putting the ball, the back, on the ball, really good things are happening. 29.4% barrel rate.

That's one of the best in baseball. So, yeah, we're seeing signs of the elite skill set. And I think he's got two doubles that were hit almost 395 plus feet too. So, yeah, I want to hang on to him if I can. The strikeout rate obviously is a big concern. And, you know, there's a chance that he just doesn't play every day until he figures that out. I want to give them some benefit of the doubt there.

All right, let's move over to WaverWire hitters. Should we add these? Can I go ahead. Can we just do real quick like contextualize most dropable or at least, let's say least dropable to most dropable among those young hitters? I would go. Bobby Witt, Spencer Torkelson, Julio Rodriguez, Joe Adele, and Bryson. And there's virtually zero chance I'm dropping. the top two on that list,

Witton Torkelson, and close to that for Julio Rodriguez as well. Okay. Where would you put Calanick? You didn't mention him. I didn't mention him because we didn't really talk about him. But yeah, he had a home run today,

110 mile an hour exit velocity. So some promising signs there. I'd put him between Rodriguez and Adele. That sounds about right. Yeah, he showed signs like the max EV. I think he hit a 114 exit velocity home run last week. That was the hardest. hit by a left-handed batter at the time.

Hardest hit home run by a left-handed batter. Yeah, so the skills are there thus far, but you look at his battered ball profile, lots of infield fly balls, lots of fly balls in general. So kind of seems like he's just trying a little bit too hard. Again, that's Jared Kelnick. We'll see. This recent stretch has looked pretty good for Jared Kelnik.

Should we add these hitters anywhere? Let's start with Tommy Pham. He went one for three with his second home run of the season. That's now back-to-back games with the home run. he's 33% rostered. Chris, what leagues would you look to add Tommy Fam, if anywhere? I think you could consider adding him in a 12-team, five-out-fielder league, but he's not a must-ad.

So I think his ownership rate is probably about right. Yeah, I think five outfielder leagues, that makes sense. The Reds have only played two home games thus far, so I do think, you know, once they get into Cincinnati, that will obviously help Tommy Fam, and hopefully the rest of their lineup, because it's been pretty bad for the Reds thus far. Tyro Estrada, we haven't talked about him at all.

He's been pretty good for the San Francisco Giants. Went two for five with a run scored in game one of their double header. And he's played every game in the season for the Giants. He's got two homers. He's got one steal. Last season, he had an 813 OPS. Again, this is Tyro Estrada. Scott, he's 20% rostered.

Would you look to add him anywhere? I don't think so. I'm confused as to why he's playing so much because it's not like this is some. Tommy Lestela is all. on the I. Yeah, but I mean, Wilmer Flores could play some second base.

It's not like he's the only, especially considering it's the Giants and they play but nobody every day, right? So why is Tyro Estrada the exception to that? It seems strange to me because I don't think he, I don't think there are skills to get excited about here, really, even though he is off to a good start. It'd have to be a pretty deep league for me to invest in him.

All right, Chris, you get Hunter Dozier. He went one for three with his second home run of the season on Tuesday. He has not walked a single time this season, but he is striking out way less. 16.7% K rate last year. That was 28%. And he's barreling up the ball pretty well so far. Hunter Dozier, 31% roster looking to add him anywhere, Chris. Yeah, his quality of contract metrics are pretty good.

They look a lot like 2019 when he was a pretty good fantasy option. So I don't want to write him off entirely. You said 16% rostered, 31% rostered. Yeah, that probably sounds about right because, you know, I think I would rather have Tommy Fam just for the stolen base potential under Dozier. Not going to steal many, if any, bases. And so, you know, I'm not looking to add him in anything shallower than a 12-team-five outfielder league.

But, you know, it's not out of the question that he can be pretty useful there. I have a lot more hope for fam than Dozier. And I kind of disagree with you on him being 33% rostered. I think it should be at least double that. He got off to a one for 26th start, but homered him back-to-back games. And the metrics look great. He's still fast. He still walks a lot.

He still doesn't strike out much. He's impacting the ball hard. He plays his home games at Cincinnati now, and he's playing every day. So I think there's a chance Pham could have a – I give Pham a better chance. of a bounce back season than Dojure, and I think the upside is higher anyway. All right, let's move over to a pair of first baseman. I guess if you play in a roto league with corner infielders, that's probably where you're looking

at these names. Scott, do you have any interest in Rowdy Tellez, who went one for three with his second home run? It was 114 miles per hour off the bat for that home run on Tuesday. Eric Hosmer, I know he talked about him, Scott, but he keeps hitting two for three. He's batting 400. He's 30% rostered. According to Fangraphs, he's at 14.

31% line drive rate Eric Hosmer does. Do you have any interest in Tellez or Hosmer as corner infielders? Not a lot. Tellez's skill set is interesting, but he has, he almost never plays against left-handers, and that leaves a lot of, that keeps him from getting the abats he needs to be a mixed league contributor, I think. And Hosmer, I mean, he's hot right now.

It's going to end, though. He's going to end. He's not even that hot. Like, this is, you know, there's, there's the like, there's hot in like the, this guy is crushing the ball and he's actually hot. Like he's locked in or whatever phrase you want to use. Hosmer's just punching singles. Like, he's hitting 400 with a 954 OPS. That is wild.

He does not have a barreled ball yet so far this season. His hard hit rate's 48%, which is actually pretty good. They're just largely on the ground. His barrel rate is 0% is that what you're doing? Yeah, 0% barrel rate on 27 badd balls. So yeah, there's nothing there. Like, it's Eric Hosmer. I like, that's not, it's not fair to say there's nothing there.

Or Cosmer has been a decent hitter in the past at times, a pretty good one. But there's no reason to think that Eric Hosmer is anything but what he's been in the last few seasons, which is a fringy fantasy option. All right. That'll do it for Eric Hosmer. Isaiah kind of, Isaiah. Kiner Falafo went two for three with a walk and his first two steals of the season. All it took was me benching him

in my most important league. So great, good job, Frank. 33% rostered is ICF. Chris, would you, are you interested in adding him, I guess, anywhere where you need a middle infielder? Yeah, anywhere where you need a middle infielder and steals, that's about it, though.

He's not going to provide much else, but, you know, 15 plus steals has value. Aaron Hicks, I brought up the name recently, one for two with two walks, two runs scored, And his first deal of the season on Tuesday, I guess Tucker Barnhart, they just saw something there.

Anthony Rizzo stole a base in that game too, so they were just running all over him. Aaron Hicks has now let off three games in a row for the Yankees. He is 17% rostered. Scott, even if you don't like the player, 17% rostered for whoever's leading off for the Yankees. Yeah, I think that number should be higher. Well, I really liked him going into last year,

and I've liked him in the past. Was he coming off Tommy John's surgery? last, like, was that his first year back last year? He's trying to remember what was going on. He's dealt with so many injuries. They're all just kind of blended together in my mind. Last year, it was a wrist injury, but... He was such a disaster.

I think he had Tommy John surgery in 2019. Okay. Like, he was such a disaster that it was easy to write him off, even though the Yankees clearly weren't. But he's back to being, at least so far, this elite on-base guy, which is what he's been for most of his career, who contributes some power and some.

some speed, not a ton of either, but enough. He's looking pretty interesting so far. I would still prefer to pick up Tommy FAM over Hicks, but I'm not going to dismiss this so quickly. I mean, he has the track record to deserve that. All right, the last name I wanted to mention here, Stephen Dugger, he now has four steals on the season. So whenever he gets on base, he is running.

He doesn't play against lefties. He's only 2% rostered. Chris, this is more of a deep league ad. I just pull up a stat cast page. He's averaging 96 miles per hour on the exit velocity. Any interest in Stephen Dugger? It would be really hard to have interest in him outside of the stolen bases. And he's got four in 10 games, which is really awesome.

But he had 7 and 107 games last season, and that was without getting caught stealing. So I have a hard time believing there's much to it. I haven't looked up the play logs, but I wouldn't be surprised that it was a situation where he had like a double steel or something like that or a, you know, kind of catcher didn't make a throw on one. And just that's what I feel like happens when you see guys like this get relatively big steel totals in a small sample size. There's probably something fishy there. All right. There is one picture I wanted to mention as an ad. and Ronesi Contreras, another strong relief outing at the Brewers, three innings, one hit, one run, five strikeouts to zero walks.

That is back-to-back three-enning relief appearances for Ronesy Contreras. He's getting ground balls. He has an overpowering fastball. The spin rate on the curb ball looks great. Spin rate on everything is ridiculous for this guy. Yeah, Scott. I mean, the question I keep getting is, will he start? We don't really know the answer to that.

It seems like they're stretching him out right now. Yeah, at some point he will. At some point he will. You're breaking up, Skadi. All right, let's start out of Chris. Chris, if you have any thoughts on Ronesi Contreras, he's 18% roster right now. I tweeted out on Tuesday night that I think

if you have a spot open to stash a player, I would definitely be looking to do so with Ronesy Contreras. Yeah, it depends on like that if you have a spot open to stash a player. Like if you've just got a ton of guys on the aisle and you've put them all on there. I think that's reasonable, but, you know, would you be looking to stash him in a 15 team NFC league where you don't have IL spots? That's harder to justify. But if you, you know,

if you've got a league where you're stashing some prospects already, then, yeah, stash a guy who's already in the majors. Yeah, I actually am stashing him in one of those NFBC leagues. Chris, my 15 team main event, there's no IL spots. It's kind of hard to do, but I think the upside might be worth it for Ronesy Contreras. Scott, what were you saying about him? Yeah, I love the upside, and he is going to start at some point. I think it's more likely he starts at some point than maybe even Spencer Strider. But it's like a trio of guys who are in relief roles right now,

but just by virtue of them throwing three plus innings as often as they do, you expect that transition to happen sooner than later. It's Contreras, it's Strider. It's, well, Aaron Ashby, I guess, has made a couple starts now. but doesn't have a secure rotation spot yet. And I would say, in an ideal world, I'd be willing to stash any of them. Of course, most of us have to make tough decisions,

and it probably means not stashing them right now, but I'd like to, in theory. Let's quickly hit on some pitcher standouts from Tuesday. Adam Wainwright, nice bounce back, five and two-thirds, one run with six strikeouts. Corbyn Burns was awesome against the Brewers, seven innings, two runs, 10 strikeouts to zero walks. Joe Musgrove going up against the red, six and a third, two runs allowed, seven

strikeouts. Max Freed at the Dodgers needed to get back on track. He did exactly that. Seven shutout, only allowed two hits, eight strikeouts to zero walks, and then Max Scherzer was fantastic as well. Seven innings, one hit, one run, ten strikeouts. Even with the velocity down, because it was 40-something degrees. Yeah.

Oh, gosh. By the way, I mean, Chris, how are you enjoying winter still? here in the middle of April. It's been terrible here in New York. It was a rainy cold softball game on Monday night. That wasn't great. Not great. Was the pitcher throwing as hard?

Velocity was down a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. A lobbs were a little lobier. Yeah. Yeah. Was his name Robbie Ray? Yeah, it was 27 miles per hour instead of 33.

It was pretty alarming. Darn. Anyway, Scott, anything to add on Wayne Wright, Corbyn, Burns, Musgrove, Freed. Scherzer. No, no. I just traded for Corbyn Burns. Oh, geez. I mean, I was going to, look, there's not much time left anyway, but let's just talk about this quickly. What is going on with these trades in the For the People League? So Scott acquired Corbyn Burns, Anthony Santander and Alex Kirolov for Chris Bryant and Jesus Lozardo. That happened on Tuesday afternoon before the

Jesus Lazzardo trade. The other day, Scott got Shane Bieber in exchange for Nesser Cortez and O'Neo Cruz. I get it. Scott's a cool guy. We all want to trade with Scott. Before that, I got Julio Arias in the same league for Max Muncie. We just got one guy in this league who's very, very antsy. Well, he's not the only one I've traded with.

He wasn't responsible for the Bieber trade. No, no, but he's made three trades now, or four trades. He's made three trades just with me. Yeah, but not the paper trade. Yeah, I don't know. Like, they're just, I have, like, they just offered to me. Yeah, I don't blame you, Scott. I mean, you know, if people offered me those trades, I would probably take them too.

But, well, it's, it's to the point, because this is a 16-team categories league. And so it's to the point I've now given up Muncie and Bryant, two of my first three-hitters drafted. And so, like, I hesitated with this Burns trade because it's like, I still need hitters. Like, pitching is only half the equation. And look, the guy has a great lineup now because he keeps taking home by theirs. So I don't know. Like, it's the sort of trade where, like, I felt obligated to take it because Corbyn Burns is Corbyn Burns.

And, like, you don't pass up a chance to get Corbin Burns. but at the same time, I wonder if, without me making another trade now to improve my lineup, if it actually improves my chances of winning. My sole purpose in this league now will be to beat Scott White. So, I mean, it's not your fault, Scott. You're just hitting except. But as a result of everyone helping you out, my purpose in this league will be to take you down. So I'll see if I can make that happen.

Let's, anything else here? Some hitting standouts. Sarling Marte and Lindor I wanted to mention they each picked up their third steal of the season the Mets are second in baseball in steals

so far Buckshaw Walter is letting these guys run so that's been fun to see CJ Crone hit his league leading sixth home run of the season signs of life from Kyle's more home runs than the Baltimore Orioles

although actually there are like four guys who have more home runs in the Baltimore Orioles because they have four home runs right now. Yikes. Some signs of life

from Kyle Schwabour in Coorsfield you'll love to see it He went two for four with his third home run of the season that came off of a lefty. Mani Machado is on fire. He hit his third home run as well. Any other bullpen stuff?

A roll of his Chapman, the fastball velocity. He converted the save. He looked fine. It was a clean inning. But the fastball velocity remains down. It was very cold in Detroit. So I gotta keep watching that with A Rolla's Chapman. Anything else?

Daniel Bard picked up his fifth save of the season. Yeah, that's pretty much it. Let's go to Streamer. stream for Tuesday. Nope, not Tuesday. Wednesday. Mitch Keller at the Brewers, Merrill Kelly at the Nationals, Eric Fetty versus the Diamondbacks, Drew Rasmussen at the Cubs, Chris Paddock at the Royals, Jordan Lyles at the Oakland A's, and opposing him is Dalton Jeffries going up against the Orioles. You know, Merrill Kelly kind of, but not really, right? Yeah, he's not a streamer. He just needs to be added in all formats. He's over 70% but if you're

counting him as a streamer, then yes, Merrill Kelly, big fat streaming. Yes, and he'll probably not have a good start. No, he will. Keller, what? No, he will. Merrill Kelly's awesome. He's going to be good. I'm optimistic, but, you know, you can't look, three good starts in a row.

Has anybody had three good starts in a row this season? I'll tell you someone who hasn't. His name is Garrett Cole. That's asking a lot. Not everybody had any starts yet. What's that? Not everybody's at three starts yet. Sure.

Hazel Zardo couldn't even manage two good starts in a row. There you go. What a bum. Mitch Keller, I'd prefer to avoid. Drew Asmussen, I think is probably second on this list, actually.

Yeah. I kind of like... I'm trying to figure out who I like more between Liles and Jeffries. I kind of like both, but man, the Orioles are bad. I don't know.

I probably don't want to play any of them. Anyway. No. No. Don't. You don't want to put your name on recommending Jordan Lyles or Dalton Jeffries. You are right. Merrill Kelly and Drew Rasmussen, that's who we're going with on Wednesday.

You don't want to see your name on that Dalton Jeffers screen. For Thursday, we've got Paul Blackburn versus the Orioles. Tyler Wells at the Oakland A's. Zach Davies at the Nationals, Josh Rogers versus the Diamondbacks. Taylor Hearn at the Mariner's. I'm kind of interested in Paul Blackburn. Same. I like him more than

Dalton Jeffers against the Orioles so I would say he's probably the most interesting of this group I agree I still wonder with we keep stressing

roster space being in demand this time of year who is in a position to sacrifice a roster spot for one start from one of these guys you know that's fair it just seems like

who like who are we talking to. I did pick up Paul Blackburn in two 15 team leagues this week. So, Scott, there you go. You'd be surprised, man. A lot of our listener audience, they play in head-to-head categories, daily lineup leagues, and they are looking for streamers. They keep, a lot of people just keep one roster spot available just for streaming options throughout the week, so. Okay. Yeah. All right.

Nope. Would it be me, but. Well, Paul Blackburn, if you need one for Thursday, Dalton Jeffries, by the way, a 1.93 ERA through two starts. His expected ERA is 7.49. So that's higher. A lot. Higher. We're going to wrap there.

For Skyer, Chris, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.