Fantasy Baseball Today - Giolito's Struggles, Austin Hays Cycle and Rankings Risers/Fallers (6/23 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 23, 2022

Lucas Giolito is broken (1:00). What happens next? ... Austin Hays hit for the cycle (9:00)! What is he doing differently this year? ... The Cubs offense broke out on Wednesday (14:25). ... What do we think of Jon Gray, Ross Stripling and Michael Wacha (18:21)? ... Alek Thomas has been sneaky good (24:25)! Add Cleveland Guardians for next week. ... News and notes (40:50): Fernando Tatis is swinging at 40%. ... Jake Cronenworth and Javier Baez are climbing back up the rankings (44:56). Why are Whit Merrifield and Rowdy Tellez falling? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (55:30). 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 lead. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Lucas G. Leto appears to be broken, but can he be fixed? Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, June 23rd.

Frank Sample joined by Chris Towers today on the show. We'll talk about those struggles from Lucas G. Alito. Austin Hayes Appreciation Night slash morning when you're listening to this. More waiver wire moves and rankings, risers, and fallers. But let's jump right in. Oh, my goodness gracious. All right, Chris. You will get the Olive Garden breadstick of the night.

Although, unfortunately, this breadstick is, yeah, it fell on the floor and it's covered in hair. And it's not good. It's not what you want. Lucas Golito. When he went on the COVID-I-L on after his May 10th start, he had a 270 ERA. Let's see what it's up to now. It's a lot higher than that. Is it double? Is it twice what it was? He had another bad start today against Toronto. I believe it's exactly double. It's 5.40. There you go. Double his ERA from when he went on the COVID list. Look, I wonder if that's part of it.

I mean, he was only out for seven days, I think, the minimum. But yeah, he ended up, he hasn't been good since then. And, yeah, you had the numbers. Last five starts, 964 ERA, 11 walks, nine home runs allowed. And he's just, he's been really bad for a little over a month now. 14 hard hit balls today, only three strikeouts. rude. My guess is that he's fine or, you know,

he's definitely fine. He's not fine currently right now, no. But we'll be fine moving forward and will continue to, you know, be the guy that's been a very good starting pitcher at the major league level for the last four seasons. You know, his velocity is, it's not great. It's not like, three miles per hour down. He's down today was down to 92.3, which is about a mile and a half

hour per hour down from what it was last season. So if that was the case moving forward, that would be a concern. But I have to think that he's been so good the last couple of years that he's going to figure it out. That being said, you know, I've pretty much kept him in the top 12-ish at starting pitcher. And then I think that's clearly no longer tenable. I would rather have Shane Bieber than him. I just going through the guys who I have ranked right behind him currently, Shane Bieber, Max Fried, Dylan C's, Pablo Lopez, Brandon Woodruff. I think it gets interesting with Lopez and Woodruff.

You know, Woodruff obviously a big concern with the injury and just what that's going to mean moving forward, Lopez. He was good today, but not getting a ton of swinging strikes, hasn't been quite as effective of late. I think I'm going to move him below. those guys though. I think I'm going to move him down to 21. So that's right ahead of Luis Severino, right behind Logan Webb. What do you think about that? Yeah, I'm looking at my rankings right now and full transparency. I updated all my hitter rankings on Wednesday and I'm going to

do pitchers on Thursday. And I think right around Robbie Ray. So I moved Robbie Ray down recently and he's been better. He's incorporated the sinker and he's looked much better. And he's SP 23. I'm thinking just behind that. So that would put Geelito behind Robbie Ray, Woodruff, Shohei Otani, who had an amazing start again.

Yeah, he's incredible. Julio Arias, who's looked much better recently. And then it's just ahead of that glob. That's where the globs start. For me, I'm much higher on Frumber Valdez in points league just because he goes very deep into his start. It's been solid for a while now. Kyle Ryan.

in that range for me. Kyle Wright, Logan Gilbert, Clayton Kirshaw. To me, that's the start of the glob of starting pitchers. And I'm going to put Gialito at the front of that for now. And just knowing he has the ability to move up, move back up the rankings, if he can get back on track. What is going wrong so far the season? You mentioned some of the things, velocity being down. He's getting crushed with home runs.

His barrel percentage against is in the sixth percentile. So he's just absolutely getting crushed. I tried to find a quote, find something after the game. game. This was from the Chicago Sun-Times. Gilito has tinkered with mechanical adjustments during the stretch and said progress has been made, but there is no sign of it in the results. Location and stuff have both been subpar. And here's what he had to say. It's a combination, leaving too many pitches middle, just got to figure it out. That's it. Anthony Leroux said after that at G-Lito's healthy. So I'm going to take his word for it. Would you buy low? That's the next question.

Yeah, I mean, there's some real, like, conflicting indicators. Right now, his changeup usage is lower than it was last season. It's down to 22.5% that's supposed to be his best pitch too. Well, and that's the thing is that last season it was. He had a 245 expected Wobo with it, 35% with rate. I mean, the slider was right there with it, but the changeup was his go-to put-away pitch. And this season, it just hasn't been as effective. He's still getting a lot of whiffs with it 39%,

but he has a 362 expected Wobo with it. That was 245 last year. It's not getting hit hard, though. He has an 80 mile per hour average exit velocity on the changeup. So that's weird. It's one of those cases where there are some seeming issues with not throwing as hard in particular, the changeup not being as effective,

but I have, faith that they'll be able to figure something out. The White Sox have numerous times with Geolito, you know, been able to either one, you know, figure out what got him to be so good a couple years ago. And then, you know, there have been some, some moments where he's struggled over the past couple of seasons. Spin rate on the fastball is way down for the season, about 200 RPM. So that is, you know, one potential explanation for why he's been less effective overall,

although the fastball hasn't been much less effective than it was last season. So I don't know if that's the answer. But, you know, it could be a situation where the fastball is not playing up and it makes the change up less effective. People were asking me on Twitter, what would I give up to get Lucas Gielito? And obviously, I'd be looking to buy low. How are you doing, Chris? Good.

Am I better? Yes. Okay. So I'm just going to continue on here. The name I was looking at was Zach Allen. Would I sell high on a Zach Allen to get Lucas Gellito? and I think that's right on the cusp. You know, Zach Allen, Logan Gilbert,

and I don't think that that is, I think that's probably too much. I want to give up even less to try and buy low on Lucas Yeolito right now. And Chris, how are we doing? I think it's better. I think it was a stream yard issue. Potentially.

Let's hope so. Let's hope we're good moving forward. I brought up two names while you were gone. Logan Gilbert and the other one was Zach Allen. Would you give up either of those to get Lucas Alito right now? I would rather have Gileto than either of those. But like you were saying, I do think like if you're going to buy low, you probably want to buy lower. Gallin, I think is fine, though.

You know, in particular, because of the issues that we talked about yesterday, the concerns about durability and the health of that elbow moving forward, you know, I think that would be okay. All right. Well, that is Gialito. Next week, he's in line for two starts. It looks like at the angels, at the giants. I mean, based on this recent stretch, right? I think you have to bench him everywhere, Chris.

I could see maybe in a points league, you know, where your ratios aren't going to get tanked, but he hasn't been providing much positive value in a points league either lately. So, yeah, I don't, I think you probably have to sit him moving forward until he figures it out. I am fairly confident he will, though. Oh, right. Let's move over to my, oh, my goodness gracious player.

This is a better Olive Garden breadstick. This is kind of another free square for the night. Austin Hayes hit for the cycle in a six inning game. All right. Looks like Frank's having some technical issues. It's not my fault this time. But like he was saying, Austin Hayes hit for the cycle in a six inning game,

kind of even more impressively. I think he had four strikeouts in yesterday's game. Probably if not the first time a player's hit for the cycle in a six inning game. Probably the first time a players hit for the cycle in a six inning game. Probably the first time a player's hit for the cycle in a six inning game. inning game after striking out four times the previous game. I haven't checked that one, but I feel pretty confident in it. And Austin Hayes is someone who probably has not gotten the respect that he deserves so far. And it's, it's actually unquestionable that he hasn't gotten the

respect he deserves so far because he hasn't really been a highly ranked player for either Scott, Frank, or myself. He was outside of my top 60 heading into this game. I've moved him up. But he's hitting 287 with 10 home runs 37 rb 37 runs 40 rbi it's the number 24 outfielder and head to head points leagues number 28 in roto and you know obviously coming off of a day where he had hit for the cycle those numbers are going to improve even more it's worth looking into what he's doing differently and whether it's sustainable and you know the expected woba 340 the actual Wobah entering today, 344. So those line up pretty well. He's probably had a little bit of luck in terms of his batting average is 287 when the XBA is 270. But he's cut his strikeout rate.

And he's hitting more line drives, line drive rate up from 22.6% to 24.6. And he's done that you know, without necessarily sacrificing any quality of contact, barrel rate, down a little bit, but not concerning his quality, his exit velocity, hard hit rate, both up. The problem is, one, I just, I don't think Austin Hayes, like, you look at his skill set, and I'm not sure he stands out anywhere. Like, he's got a slightly better than average strikeout rate. He hits the ball slightly harder than average. it could be a situation where the sum is the the sum is greater than the parts individually.

Um, but that's also the kind of player who you'll often see is not as good as the, you know, underlying number suggests. So I, I don't know, between somewhat milling quality of contact metrics and the, the poor park and poor lineup that he plays in, my sense is that Austin Hayes is certainly not going to be a top. 30 outfielder moving forward. And, you know, when I moved him up in my rankings, it wasn't into the top 30. He's kind of in that outfield blob. And I'm going to put him in like the 50 range. So, you know, behind Andrew Vaughn and Ian Hap and Jesse Winker, but probably ahead of like someone like Randall Gritchick at this point, who, you know, I do think there are like Frank Frozen.

he's looking very pensive off to the side. But, like, I would rather have Orioles teammate Ryan Moutcastle over Austin Hayes. You know, Ryan Mowcastle, both of them hitting much better than any of us expected to this season. But Mountcastle, the underlying stats are a little more impressive. They're actually a lot more impressive for Mountcastle. If you take the underlying stats at face value, it looks like one of the best hitters in baseball. I don't think he's that. He kind of looks like Nick Castellanos, like the good.

version of Nick Castianos. So yeah, I would rather have Mountcastle than Hayes, but Hayes clearly deserves more credit than we've given him so far. And so, yeah, I'm going to move him into the top 50 at outfielder. Some of the names ahead of that I'm putting him ahead of, you know, and I don't think these guys are too surprising. But like Hunter Renfro, Connor Joe, Miles Straw guys who I think they can be okay fantasy. options, but I think with the way Austin Hayes is hitting the ball right now, yeah, you'd rather have him than those guys. So, uh, pretty good day for Austin Hayes, hitting for the cycle in a six inning game. Frank keeps popping in, popping back out. And, uh, let's see. Here's Frank.

Am I here? Am I working? You're here. I don't know what? You look a little fuzzy. Oh, it just cleared up. I think you're good. I hope we're good. I did a speed test. I think everything, everything looks good I don't know what is going on. This is, it just happens to happen when we're together, Chris. I don't know why, but hopefully.

It was a scary couple of minutes having to be on my own. I was starting to run out of gas. I was starting to feel that. I'm like my heart's racing, my pulse, you know, so I'm glad you're back.

All right, good. I assume you talk to all about Austin Hayes. And overall, I think he's fine. I guess you can consider him a cell high. I don't know that you're going to get anything for Austin Hayes. It just seems like he's been very,

solid across the board, and that's been good enough just because the rest of the outfielders in baseball haven't been great. So I think if you have Austin Hayes, just write it out and let's see where he goes from here. Oh my goodness gracious game, I guess. Offensively, their pitcher was great. We'll just talk about the Cubs. And they put up 14 runs on 13 hits against the pirates. They hit three home runs. Patrick Wisdom hit his 14th homer. Ian Hap went one for two with his eighth Homer. And for those in deeper leagues, Raphael Ortega went three for five with two RBI. He's betting 333 in June. Doesn't play all that consistently. It'd have to be a really deep league for him. And Alfonso Rivas is the other one who went two for four. Believe he hit a grand slam off

of a position player, Diego Castillo. So, well, actually, there is a Diego Castillo pitcher out there. And I guess now there's two Diego Castillo pitchers. But Chris, is there anything with these in deeper leagues, Ortega or Rivas? I don't think so. You know, Ortega, he's leading off, you know, for the Cubs. So there's always going to be the potential for decent counting stats. But no, I think both of these guys, and especially Rivas, is just a guy. Ortega, you know, he was decent last season.

There's a little bit of speed there. So it's not out of the question that he could be useful in a five outfielder league, especially, you know, your 15 team outfielder leagues, but the quality of contact is pretty bad. I don't know, he's kind of like John Birdie without the speed, which is, you know, not exactly.

Yeah, not great. Yeah. So I think he's pretty middling. All right. Well, let's talk about their starting pitcher in Keegan Thompson, who had, I will say, like Ian Hap is someone who,

he's like, He's having a great year. Been around the 40th outfielder for me consistently, but that's probably underselling him at this point. I mean, the quality of contact metrics are very good across the board. His expected Wobah matches his Wobah, exactly actually one of the rare players,

370 expected Wobah, 370 actual Wobah. He's cut his strikeout rate tremendously down to 19.5% by far the lowest of his career. His previous career low was 25%. He's walking a ton. He's even running. a little bit, five stolen bases. I don't know. Ian Hap is someone that I've,

he's put together really good second halves, like three seasons in a row. There have been these stretches from Ian Hap where he's looked really, really good. And maybe he's just figured it out in a way that can make him a must-start fantasy outfielder, even three outfielder leagues. Yeah, I have him right on that cusp.

He's my 34th ranked outfielder right around Ryan Mountcastle and Tommy Fam, who, you know, just quietly doing his thing. So it's been a very good season for Ian Hap. Let's talk about their starting pitcher. Keegan Thompson back-to-back quality starts after that two-start week of Doom. I know Scott's mentioned it recently. I think Keegan Thompson gave up like 10 runs over his two starts. But he's been better since then.

He gave up one run over six innings pitched with seven strikeouts against the Pirates. Drops his ERA to 3.10 gets a good amount of ground. balls doesn't strike out many, probably walks too many, 37% rostered and looks like he's in line for two starts next week against the Reds and the Red Sox. What do you think about Keegan Thompson? Yeah, I don't quite understand. Um, you know, there's not any one pitch that really stands out for him, except over the past couple of starts. You know, he's gotten decent with numbers with his fastball. I think it was like nine whiffs with the fastball on his previous start. Only four today. Only eight total.

I think he's, King and Thompson's probably just a guy. You know, maybe, maybe a high three ZRA, but I don't, I don't know if he does enough well to, to be fantasy relevant in most mixed leagues.

All right. Well, that'll transition us into other waiver wire pitchers that emerged on Wednesday. I mean, Michael Waka is just doing his best Martin Perez impression right now. He delivers another quality start, six endings,

two runs. Seven strikeouts. He, I wrote zero swinging strikes. That's definitely not true. That's probably supposed to be 10, I would imagine, on 98 pitches. The ERA is 2.34 for Michael Waka. The underlying numbers are much. Nine swingers for him.

Nine swinging strikes. Okay. For Waka in this one, he's 74% rostered. And it looks like he's at Toronto next week. Not great there. John Gray puts together another solid start. This one up against the Phillies. He gives up two runs over five and two thirds.

He had 15 swinging strikes, and over his last seven starts, he's got a 3.41 ERA. Ross Stripling, post-a-quality start at the White Sox, six innings of one-run ball, five strikeouts. His ERA in nine starts this season, 2.84. He's been very solid. That is Ross Stripling. Looks like he's got the Red Sox and Tampa next week. And then Tyler Wells, he's been a right for the Orioles. Five shoutout innings, four walks, four strikeouts, 22% rostered.

he's at the Mariners at the twins. Chris, what do you think about this group? Waka, John Gray, Ross Stripling, Tyler Wells. Waka has been a boon for my team in the Scott White Dynasty League, which is not a lot else going right for me, unfortunately in that league, but he's been really good. I don't expect that to continue. I'm, I mean, that's a 2014 league, so I'll probably just keep using him. But yeah, I don't think Michael Walker at this point. given what he's doing, not getting a lot of strikeouts. Expected ERA is two full runs higher than his actual ERA. I think you can probably expect Michael Walker to be more like a four-plus ERA guy moving forward.

Useful in two-start weeks as a streamer in head-to-head points leagues, but I don't want to see what he's likely to do to my ratios moving forward. So I would probably want to stay away. Stripling is somewhat interesting because he's been interesting in the past, but he hasn't really gotten any strikeout since 2019, when he had a 25% strikeout rate since then 18.2, 21.8, 20% strikeout rate this season. He has lowered his launch angle allowed quite a bit. He hasn't really done it by like throwing a sinker.

He's not doing like the Martine Perez thing, but his four-seem fastball has gone from having a 24-degree average launch angle to a 14-degree average launch angle, and his slider has similarly seen big improvements in that regard. But like Martine Perez, I just don't think it's a profile that's particularly worth getting excited about. He actually, in a lot of ways, looks like Martine Perez. Strike rate, walk rate, all look pretty similar. and I just, I don't think that's a type of pitcher that that's going to be worth getting excited about in a, you know, points league when he's got two starts and a mixed league when he's got a good matchup. I think he can be, continue to be useful, but I'm not excited about Ross Stripling.

I don't think he's a world beat or anything, but I don't know. There's some things that I'm, I'm very encouraged by with Ross Stripling. The ground ball rate, you mentioned his launch angle is way down this year. His swinging strike rate is 11.2%. That's his highest since 2018. His control has been much better. And he's throwing his change up a lot more this season. And it's been a very, very good pitch for him. 32% whiff rate is okay.

But the results, 152 batting average against, 227 slugging percentage against. I don't know. There might be something here with Ross Tripling. He's 41% rostered. He's in line for two starts next week, the Red Sox, Tampa Bay. I would say of the five names we've mentioned so far, Keegan Thompson, Waka, John Gray, Stripling, and Tyler Wells.

John Gray and Stripping are like the clear top two for me that if you're looking to add anyone for two starts next week, it's those two. Yeah, I would rank John Gray a decent bit ahead of Stripling. Just there's more swing and miss potential there and more strikeout potential as a risk. old, but, you know, I, I'm not sure either is, is likely to be a stalwart for you moving forward. Stripling, it's interesting. He does have a 93% chase rate, which is, or he's in, sorry,

he's in the 93% percentile in chase rate. 93% chase rate would be pretty bonkers. And so, you know, that does make me wonder how, how sustainable, even the, the middling strike out. and swinging strike rates that he has because it's not like he's throwing the ball out of the zone a lot. You know, Martin Perez, one thing that I, you know, I did a deep dive on Martin Perez, and mostly came to the same conclusion that I've held throughout the season. But one thing that he is doing is he's doing a very good Dallas-Kichel impersonation.

He's throwing like 35% of his pitches in the strike zone. Ross Stripling's not doing that. He's at 48%. And so I do wonder how much weak contact he can continue to garner while pitching that much in the zone when he doesn't have great stuff. You know, maybe this renewed focus on the changeup will help, but I'm pretty skeptical.

All right. Well, last thing I wanted to mention about John Gray, everything mostly looks the same for him. He's just done a better job limiting home runs this season, which could be an effect of a better home park, not pitching in Corse Field, and he's got a 3.44 ERA at home this season. So I think that kind of makes sense.

and I think that adds up for John Gray. Let's move over to some waiver wire hitters. Alec Thomas, Chris, is just kind of sneakily having a very good rookie season so far. He went two for five. He hit his sixth home run. He also has four steals. That is a 21 homer, 14 steel pace over 150 games. He's hitting 270, 95th percentile in sprint speed.

Makes a good amount of contact. It does hit a lot of ground balls. But Alec Thomas is still out there. I would imagine in some three outfielder leagues. He's 60% rostered. And he's moved up the lineup. He's batted second in four of the last five games for Arizona. And I was going to lump him in here with Gary Cooper, another outfielder who's playing very well.

Two for four. Hit his fifth home run. In the month of June, he's betting 3.94. Two home runs, 13 RBI. Always hits a lot of line drives, hits the ball hard. The problem just doesn't put the ball in the air enough. What do you think about Alec Thomas, Garrett Cooper? where should those two names be rostered?

I think the bigger problem for Garrett Cooper is more that he just cannot stay healthy. I mean, yeah, he doesn't hit for as much power as you would probably want. You know, he's played 163 games between 2020, 2020, 2021, and 2022, which already tells you how much time he misses. But he's mostly managed to stay healthy this season. And during those 163 games, he has 19 home runs, 294 average, 840.4. OPS. He is someone who makes good contact when he does. He doesn't strike out an overwhelming amount.

I think Eric Cooper is a pretty solid option as long as he's healthy. I don't know, you know, that's kind of like, is he going to stay healthy moving forward? Well, the fact that he's only 37% rostered, it probably makes that a little moot. And he is eligible at what, first and outfield? Yep. So that little bit of flexibility there. helps. Given how few outfielders are impact players right now, I think Garrett Cooper is worth

rostering in, I would say anything 12 team or deeper, roto. You know, points leagues, it might be harder to get him in there, although that's a good format for him when he's playing. And Alec Thomas, 60% roster rate is too low. You know, this is, the comment that I just thought of is he's what we want. wanted Trent Grisham to be. You know, slightly different profile. Grisham strikes out more, hits more fly balls. Alex Thomas pretty contact oriented, hits the ball on the ground a lot. But the overall production, I think, is going to be pretty similar. And I think there's, you know,

the quality of contact metrics for Alec Thomas are pretty middling right now. But obviously he's very talented. He's put up good numbers in the minors to the point where I do think there's room for him to grow as a hitter. So I think he's very good. I don't know if he's a starter in points leagues, but I think he's close. I think he's pretty fringy, especially if he's going to hit near the top of the lineup. So yeah, Alec Thomas. I add him where he's available. How would you rank these four young, exciting outfielder's Chris, Riley Green, Michael Harris, Alex Thomas and Alex Kirillov. I have them ranked Thomas Harris Green Kirolov, I think.

It could be Kirilov Green, but I think they're third and fourth. Okay. Yeah. So I did update my outfield ranks. And I've got it Harris, Riley Green, Alec Thomas, and Kirolov. But, man, I mean, Harris, Green and Thomas, they're all within six spots of each other. So it is very close. It's kind of fluid right now.

I just, I really, really love what I've seen from Michael Harris so far. And yeah, I know he bats ninth, but I mean, the lineup advantage is playing for the Braves. There's,

there's going to be a lot of opportunities. And lineup spot is always going to be fluid. I mean, with that team, might be harder to move up. You know, that top two, you know,

Acuna and Swanson, that's probably pretty cemented. But, you know, Matt Olson was hitting sixth a couple of days ago. So it's not out of the question that Michael Harris could start to move up. I do want to see what it looks like. Because, you know, Alex Thomas has just been around for a little longer in the majors.

And so there have been more opportunities for pitchers to adjust for him. Michael Harris has been very aggressive so far, putting a lot of balls in play, not walking very much. You know, I want to see what happens when pitchers figure that out. All right. Let's take a look at two Cleveland Guardians players here. This is kind of beat the waiver wire hitter edition because they have eight games next week. So I think these are players that we're going to be targeting. Ameta Rosario is heating up.

He went four for five, hit his second home run. In the month of June, he's hitting 354, two homers, five doubles, four steals. He really, you know, he's not heating up. He's pretty much on fire right now. That is Ameta Rosario, 48% rostered. The other name, Oscar Gonzalez, two for five, hit his second home run, makes a lot of contact, the problem, a lot of it on a lot of it on the ground. He's kind of a freak athlete.

91st percentile max exit velocity, 92nd percentile sprint speed. I don't know if it needs to be in anything shallower than five outfielder leagues, Chris, but Oscar Gonzalez is very, very interesting. And Ahmed Rosario is hot. Yeah, Rosario, it just, I wish that they let him run more

or that he was willing to run more. He's only attempted 22 stolen bases over the past three seasons. And he got caught stealing a lot early on in his career with the Mets. He had 10 plus caught stealing both 2018 and 2019 as a full-time player. He's been caught stealing twice over the past two seasons. That is a balance that I wish they would shift more to the aggressive side. And, you know, the four steals in June, maybe that's a sign of that. Because I don't think he's going to hit enough to be much more than a fringe option.

unless he starts running more. Like if I'm at Rosario with a 20 steel guy, who I can see hitting 275 with, yeah, not much power, then he starts to get a little more interesting. But right now, I think he's pretty fringy. You know, corner or middle infielder only, really. But I think Frank's frozen again. Frank's frozen again.

Gonzalez, though, I think is very interesting. He was someone who came up, and I think in his first game, had like a 114 mile per hour batted ball. He has Max Exezyvelo 113. And he's hit really well at AAA. You know, an 810 OPS is not world-beating stuff, but in 113 games at the AAA level, he's hit 27 home runs and didn't steal any bases, actually,

is interesting given the athleticism that he's shown because like you said 91st percentile max exa vila 92nd percentile average sprint speed 91.6 mile per hour average exit velocity hard hit rate is 48 percent and he doesn't strike out 19.6 percent strikeout rate for oscar gonzalez so he's showing some really interesting skills um another guy who hits the ball on the ground too much you know that there's that's a recurring theme with these guys who have intriguing skills but aren't putting it in play as often as you would like to see. Oscar Gonzalez is another one of those guys, but I do think there is,

um, there's quite a lot of potential there for him to, for Oscar Gonzalez to emerge as a viable five outfielder league guy. I don't think points leagues yet, although the, the strikeout rate does make you think there's some potential there. Um,

but yeah, for five out for your leagues, 12 team or deeper, you know, I think he's fringy in 12 teams, but he's interesting outside of that context. So there you go. Frank is continuing to have some technical difficulties. So we'll just move on down the run down here.

And Cow Raleigh is another waiver wire hitter down here. Him and Jorge Alfaro are being compared here. Jorge Alfaro went two for five with his sixth home run. He's hitting 340 with four home runs at 1069 OPS. in the month of June and he started seven of the last 11 games for the Padres, Kyle Rally. Cal Rally, excuse me,

I don't know why I say it like Kyle, but Cal Rally, one for four with his ninth home run, Cow Rally, has been quite good since getting a chance to play more regularly. 189 batting average, that's not great, but nine home runs and 139 plate appearances,

the quality of contact metrics, largely back it up, 48% hard hit rate, 91 mile per hour average. Egs of velocity, that's both very good. The problem is that 189 batting average, even the expected stats, which are better, only suggest a 233 batting average.

He strikes out 30% of the time. I think it's probably like a Mike Zunino-esque profile moving forward, and that's useful in fantasy. I think Cowrally probably does need to be a top 20 catcher, but I don't think he's someone in one catcher leagues, especially since most of those are point leagues that you need to be particularly impressed with. So Al Farrow, it's tough because he's someone who,

we talked about a little bit last week, he's always had the potential. You could argue that Jorge Alfaro is the most physically gifted catcher in baseball, just in terms of his ability to, just what he's physically capable of in terms of how hard he's. He hits the ball in 98th percentile, Max Exavilo. Every single season of his career, except for 2020, he's been in the top 5% of the league in Max Exevalo. So he is capable of hitting the ball incredibly hard.

The problem is he always strikes out 30% of the time. He's at 32.3% of the time. And the problem in the past is that he hits the ball on the ground too much. You've heard that before. 48% ground ball rate at least every season of his career. entering 2021, but maybe the Padres have figured something out because his ground ball rate is down all the way to 41.5% 25.6% fly ball rate, 30.5% line drive rate. I think the line drive rate is probably a little inflated, but with how hard Jorge Alfaro hits the ball, it's not out of the question

that he can be relevant in, I think it's probably out of the question for 12 team leagues unless he's just starts playing every day and cuts the strikeout rate. But 12 team or 12 team two catcher leagues, I think Jorge Alfaro absolutely deserves to be in the mix. You know, you should be in those two catcher leagues and really in your one catcher leagues, unless you have one of the handful of elite guys. You should be churning the position.

You know, I think in two catcher leagues, there are probably, I don't know, Frank, maybe you disagree, maybe you agree, but I think there's probably like 16 to 18 catchers who I feel pretty good about if you go through my rankings. You know, I guess there's some guys on on IL like Yalsmani Grandal and and who else is on IL right now? Tyler Stevenson. Tyler Stevenson, Mitch Garver just got back. But yeah, I think if you go, you could go like 16 to 18 deep at the position where I feel pretty good about having those guys on my team and my rankings that goes through to Gabrielle Moreno.

after that, if you don't have two of those guys, you should be churning the catcher position. You know, you should be trying to fight. You're going through Jonah Heim and, you know, Elias Diaz and these guys that we've, Joey Bart early on the season and Jose Trevino and trying to find someone who can stick. And I think Jorge Alfaro absolutely belongs in that discussion right now.

And the skills that he's showing right now, I think make him a top 20. 20-ish catcher. I'm moving him up to 20 right now. I agree. I think Jorge Alfaro has been very impressive, especially in the month of June. He's changed the launch angle this year. And Cal Raleigh, another one there, hit his ninth home run. And he's been much better in June. Even Jose Trevino, I think he's kind of in this conversation, back end of the top 25 catchers. He hit another home run for the Yankees here on Wednesday. So, yeah, lots going on with the catcher two spot. If you do play in a road.

League. In Deeper Leagues, a few names I just wanted to mention here. Apologies, by the way, I know. My internet's acting all crazy right now. Someone's getting a nasty email and or phone call tomorrow. I will tell you that in deeper leagues. Are you actually the guy who will do that? No, I'm not going to do that. But like, I can't. I can't bring myself to be mean to the customer service rep. I know it's not their fault and I can't. I can't just do the thing where I'm using them as a stand in for this large faceless corporation that's screwing over. I can't do it.

I can't bring myself to get mad at them. I'm all talk. I'm all talk. I will do a vigorous Twitter search after this to see if maybe there's something going on in my area. But outside of that, nothing else. In deeper leagues, just wanted to mention Vidal Bruhan,

I'm kind of interested just because there's so much playing time available now with Tampa Bay. He has a second home run of the season here. Just someone to watch, especially in those deeper leagues. And in the deepest, I mean, Anna only whatever, Albert Almora has three homers over his last five games. He's 2% rostered.

And his quality of contact is still quite bad. So I don't really think there's anything there, but two names to look at. Yeah. My problem with Bruhan is, I think it was like the first, I don't know, maybe 10, 12 games of last year's minor league season. Yeah, the first 16 games of last year's minor league season, he hit seven home runs. which was like, oh man, is Vidal Bruhan starting to figure this out? Like he's always been someone who'd never hit for power, but Scouts have always thought he could grow into it.

That was the first 16 games of that season. So if you take the rest of the AAA season last year, his major leagues, the last two seasons as well, he's hit six home runs in his last like 140 games. So that's the concern is I just don't think there's any pop there. Fair enough. All right. Did you take a break while I was gone, Chris?

I mean, no, not an official one. Okay, so let's take a break. Well, I think we're taking a break right now. With Frank's internet continuing to struggle. I did take a break just to catch my breath. So maybe we'll just do that again. Here's a break. News and notes, Fernando Tatis told reporters

that he's been swinging a bat at about 40% intensity in recent days. That's the first we've heard of Fernando Tatis really taking part in any kind of swinging activities, but he remains without a precise timeline to swing fully, remember last week. He had a follow-up CT scan that did not show the kind of healing that they hoped for. So still without a timeline for Fernando Tatis, Max Scherzer struck out six over three and a third innings of two-run ball in his rehab start. And it sounds like he's going to potentially start Sunday against the Marlins if he's cleared.

Louise Robert was removed from Wednesday's game due to leg soreness, though he's expected to be in the lineup on Thursday. George Springer underwent imaging on his left elbows considered day to day for now, but we'll see what the results of that testing show. Salvador Perez aggravated his sprain left thumb, awaiting MRI results. We'll see what that looks like, but not great.

If you're in one of those leagues, it allows you to make lineup changes for your hitters on Fridays. I think NFC leagues all allow that. You might want to consider getting Salvador Perez out there, maybe add Jorge Alfaro if he's available. and Carlos Carrasco left Wednesday's game against Houston

with lower back tightness he scheduled to undergo an MRI but he did not look good in this one he was beat up gave up five earned runs on four hits and two in two and a third walked two had no strikeouts velocity was down about one mile per hour

quote every pitch they hit out there was just right there in the middle I just couldn't finish my pitches last eight starts 560 ERA underlying numbers still quite good Babbit's high it's I don't know it's hard to say exactly what is causing Carlos Carrasco struggles at least prior to this start you know this one you have a pretty good excuse with the back issue but yeah I I've had Carlos Carrasco as a top 30 starting

pitcher for most of the season and not feeling great about that one right now with the way he's pitching so definitely someone I'm going to have to reconsider his ranking moving forward Edward Cabrera missed his rehab, his scheduled rehab start Wednesday due to personal matter. Max Meyer did start at AAA for the Marlins and looked quite good. So that's a good sign. Eddie Rosario will have his vision reevaluated Thursday and is optimistic that he's close to beginning a rehab assignment. He's 50% rostered. I had kind of, I had kind of assumed Eddie Rosario was pretty much done for the season. So I'd moved him way down. I'm going to have to move him back up. But, you know, given the, the name. of this issue, it's not clear whether Eddie Rosario is going to, you know, be able to get back and hit like himself, but he clearly wasn't himself before. So that's something to keep in mind. If you have an eye outspot open, Eddie Rosario is a decent stash, although he's kind of a,

he's kind of a fringy outfielder, even when things are going well. You know, last season, obviously he finished the season strong, but was pretty mediocre for most of the season. So, you know, not necessarily a mustache in my eyes. Jaron Duran won't play in the series in Toronto starting on Monday because he's not vaccinated, presumably, so that's not a good sign. He has been, you know, showing some real signs, both in AAA and his time in the majors. So not exactly thrilled to see him missing time for that. Glenn Otto rejoined the Rangers and will likely be activated from the COVID-IL Sunday against the Nationals. Not really someone I'm looking to stream.

Reed Demers was optioned to AAA. Remember, he had that no hit early in the season, but just. hasn't been able to figure out the fastball. That's been the big issue for him. The curveball's been a fine pitch for him. He can get swings and misses with it, but the fastball just continues to get hit hard, continues to not locate it well.

And a couple prospects moved up in the lineup. O'Neill Cruz let off for the Pirates. Riley Green batting second for the Tigers. We'll see how long or weathered those stick. Doing a one-man podcast. You've got to talk a lot. And I'm, you know, struggling a little bit. Let's talk about some rankings risers and followers before we move on to some of the rest of the

performances from Wednesday. My rankings risers, Jake Cronoworth, has just been incredible in June. Ryan Mountcastle, we talked about him last week. I wrote a column about him on CBSSports.com that you can check out. Where I basically just wrote that was on Monday, the trade values chart. And I just wrote about how Ryan Mountcastle, you know, clearly we were wrong about thing that he was going to be. a bust this season. He's been actually quite good, but he's also someone who, if you look at the underlying numbers, they suggest that he's been much better than he actually has been. He's been good, especially in June, but the underlying number suggests he's been one of the best hitters in baseball. I mentioned Nick Castellanos comp earlier. The problem is that park in Baltimore is going to

hold him back, and I think it's going to make it hard for Ryan Mountcastle to live up to those expected stats. So he's one that I moved up. He's in my top 36 and outfield, but probably not going to move up too much more than that unless he just really gets hot or stays hot. Marcus Simeon moved up, Javier Bayez moved up, both those guys starting to figure it out. Bias had another couple of hits today. I think he had a home run as well, so that's a good sign. Bobby Witt, Jr., we've talked about. I've seen some people saying that, you know, he should be moved ahead of Nolan Aeronado. Frank might have said it on Twitter on Wednesday, or at least suggested the possibility.

I'm not ready to do that. Nolan Aronado has been pretty, I don't want to say fringy, because I think that would be the fourth time I've said it in today's podcast, but he's been, like, if you go back to the first week of the season, he had four home runs in the first six games, Aronado has been like a 25 homer, 80 run,

or 70 run, 85 RBI guy. who's hitting 250. I think he's probably a little better than that. And Bobby Witt has been very good lately. You know, really since he got off to a slow start. He's hitting for power. He's running.

Hitting for a little bit of batting average as well. But I would still take Aeronado over Witt, but I think it's, you know, an interesting discussion. Frank, were you thinking about moving Bobby Witt above Nolan Arnauddo? Did I see that on Twitter?

Am I here? Am I working? Is this thing on? You're here. I see you. I hear you. All right. Well, let's enjoy it. All we still can. Thank you again, everybody who's sticking around. And if you're still watching, you're still listening. God bless. We appreciate it.

Yes, it is something that I was thinking about. I like to look at the last 21 days when updating my rankings. And lo and behold, Bobby Witt Jr. has been better than Nolan Aronado over that stretch. I didn't actually make the move, but it was something that I considered. And I put out a poll on Twitter, who would rather have rest of season? 54% say Bobby Witt Jr. over Nolan Aronado. Yeah, look,

I can't necessarily make a strong case against it, except that I just think Aronado's a safer bet. Yeah. It could be a safety versus upside type thing. What have you gotten to while I was gone, Chris? Was it? Almost through my rankings risers, yes. Okay.

So you mentioned Kronoworth, I assume. Mount Castle. Got all the way through to Witt. John Birdy, I mentioned. I've moved him. I've very aggressively moved him up more so than you or Scott in Roto leagues. You know, that could blow up in my face. But the pace at which he's running,

the fact that he's always actually been a better hitter than he gets credit for, I do think there might be some staying power there. All right. And you also have Max Scherzer who is hoping to return from the IL this weekend. Some risers for me, Travis Darnow, I moved them up to my. seventh catcher. He's just been rock solid. He's been a little bit inconsistent, but he's just been better than other catchers in that range, like MJ Melendez and Adley Ruchman. So I just went ahead and moved Travis Darno there. Jake Cronoworth, I'm sure you touched on him. He's having a

massive June. And he's getting back on track doing the things that we like to see him doing, making contact, getting for a little bit of power. So that is Jake Cronoward. These next two, Chris, I mean, I'm kind of just waiting for them to fall off. But Luis Arise just, he's hitting 360. And he ranks very highly in both points and Roto. I don't think he has much pop, but he's giving you a run scored. He's giving you a batting average. And the other one is Jerksson ProFar, who, you know, Scott talked about recently.

He went four for four on Wednesday, two run scored, two RBI. He's been leading off of the Padres, making a ton of contact. He's walking a lot. And he ranks highly in both Roto and head to head points this year. So it's it's kind of just these guys are performing and, you know, other players at their position are not as well. So yeah, pro far I've I've struggled with pro far all season because there was that stretch where he was hitting for power early on, but it was like the most wall scrapery power of all time.

He was hitting like it was very like DJ LeMayhew-esque. He was going the opposite way and and hitting these like two rows up type of home runs. ironically, if you look at his expected home runs by park, he would have 10 at Yankee Stadium. So there's that. And Cincinnati, he would have 13. So it's not just Yankee Stadium. I just, I don't know, like he, he makes contact. He walks a little bit.

I just don't know if he does, if he hits the ball well enough to sustain this level of production. But, you know, he is eligible at like four different positions. So there's value inherent. in that, that, you know, I'm probably overlooking a little bit. But, you know, yeah. And Luis Saraias has a similar thing going on. He's eligible in a lot of places. Javier Baez, we've talked a lot about recently.

Went two for three hit a sixth home run. His last 15 games, he's betting 2.91, three homers, three steals. And oddly enough, his strikeout rate this season is just 24%. So as we've mentioned, I don't know that you'll still be able to buy Javier Baez. I mean, you could buy him. but I don't know if it's going to be as low as it was a couple weeks ago. But he kind of looks like he's coming around and he's back. Charlie Blackman, another one.

I mean, his power has just bounced back this year. He's been very solid. He still makes a lot of contact, taking advantage of course, Field. And, you know, he plays at a position that hasn't been great in the outfield. Some followers, I just want to quickly run through these. Whitmerry Field, Jack Flerty, and Lucas Gileo for Chris. I guess the one we haven't talked much about recently is Whitmerryfield. it kind of just might be the start of the end for Whitmeryfield because he's getting older

and he just relies a lot on volume. Yeah, that was like I was pretty high on him coming into the season just because I thought at the very least the batting average and the steals would be pretty safe. And the batting average has been bad, but the expected stats suggest he's been better than that. He still doesn't strike out at all. he's actually, you know, his quality of contact is arguably even a little better than it was last season. But it's just the lack of steals. You know, he's got nine on the season, which is fine.

You know, that puts him on a decent pace, you know, low 20s. But he hasn't run more lately. You know, it's not like he's starting to run like two steals in his last six games. That's great. He hadn't had a steal in over a month before that. So it's really the stolen bases that are that are causing me to to downgrade Whitmerryfield. And look, speed tends to be streaky. You know, guys can can go for, you know, these four steel weeks and all of a sudden the pace looks a lot different.

So it's possible that, you know, I finally moved Whitmerryfield down. And it turns out that was premature. I hope so. All right. Followers for me, Roddy Tellez hit his 11th home run of the season on Wednesday. that was his first homer since May 29th. He almost went a full month without a home run. Remember that all he had earlier in the season,

he has fallen back quite a bit. That is Rowdy Tellez. Chris Taylor, I don't really know why I moved him down. I think I just saw that he did not rank very highly at any of the positions that he plays. He's someone, every time I do the trade values chart, it's kind of like, you know, John Bernie or Jerks and Profar,

Louis Soraya, these guys who were eligible at so many positions. that it's just like it's hard to find the right spots for them because anyone who's eligible you know he's what second third and short and outfield I think he's just second and outfield he might have shortstop I think he's shortstop I could be wrong but you know that's that's that has value in a way that's hard to hard to put into I don't know what the concrete terms I guess And so they're really hard to rank just because you kind of bump them up a little bit just based on that. All right. Am I back because I saw you, I saw a spinning wheel on my computer once again.

So I want to make sure that I'm actually here. Yeah, Chris Taylor is solid. In deeper leaves, he's someone I actually think I would look to be buying right now. Cody Bellinger, look, man, this is going on, what, three years in a row now where he just is not performing. And at some point, I think we just got to start to move him down the rankings. Max Kepler, the expected numbers are awesome. The stat cast numbers are great. But he hasn't actually been performing.

So I have dropped him down a little bit as well. It's very late in the podcast. It's been a real screwy one here. How much- Christian Yelich, kind of like with Cody Bellinger, I've started to move him down, Bellinger a little more aggressively. But at least Yelich has the really good,

or at least good quality of contact metrics and expected stats. Like he has a 429 expected Wobon contact, 350 expected Wobah. Those are good. Ballinger doesn't even have that. So I do at least still, you know, Bellinger versus Yelich was a big point of contention in the preseason. I mean, Yelich has been better. So I guess I'll take the win there,

but neither's been particularly good. All right, let's go rapid fire. Chris, see how much of this we can get to over the next five minutes or so. We had a pitcher's duel out in Atlanta. Carlos Rodon was awesome. Seven innings, one run, 10 strikeouts. And on the other side, Charlie Morton, seven innings, two runs, 11 strikeouts. No, I did not watch a single pitch.

And over his last nine starts, he's got a 3.94 ERA. That's not great. The peripheral numbers look much better. 68 strikeouts over 50 and two thirds innings, a 13 and a half percent swinging strike rate. Charlie Morton kind of just looks like he's back. What do you think? Yeah, you're bearing the lead. The actual reason that Charlie Morton's been good,

and this is a scientific fact. The causation is clear is I tweeted on June 8th that I finally dropped Charlie Morton outside of my top 40 starting pitcher rankings. Quote, in case you're wondering why he's about to have an awesome stretch in his next few starts. In those last three starts, he's got, what, 28 strikeouts in 21 innings, something like that? Yeah, he's been incredible. 32 strikeouts in 20 innings for Charlie Morton since I moved him outside to my top 40 starting pitchers.

You're welcome. For those of you not watching, that was an exaggerated bow that I just made. All right. You heard some squeaking. My chair's very loud. Let's keep it moving here. You keep spinning on me,

so I think it's just my connection. But whatever, let's see how much more we can get to. Pitching leftovers from Wednesday. Pablo Lopez posted his first quality start since May 30th, seven innings, one run, six strikeouts. George Kirby at the Oakland A's six shutout innings with six strikeouts. And I know, I waited so long to mention Otani. But I was waiting for that game to go live.

I actually wrote in the notes, he went seven innings. No, he didn't. He went one more after that. So eight shutout, two hits, one walk, 13 strikeouts, one night after posting a career high, eight RBI, and hitting two home runs. I don't know. Like, you've run out of things to say about Shohei Otani.

He's amazing. Yeah, I wonder that's what, 21 combined runs and strikeouts in a two-game span. I wonder if that's a major league record. And there's probably a way to check that. All right, I'll take over for the last couple of minutes. We'll go through the rest of these pitching leftovers.

Pablo Lopez posted his first quality start since May 30th. That was also against the Colorado Rockies. so that's, you know, Colorado is a pretty good matchup. Seven innings, one earned run, three walks, six strikeouts, only 10 swinging strikes. Fastball velocity has been down of late, 92.8 miles per hour on the fastball. That's down from 94. And remember, Pablo Lopez was someone we talked about before the season and early on in the season, has had a string of shoulder issues in, I think, two of the last three seasons that have effectively ended his two of his last three seasons.

So that's something to be concerned about. His ERA is down to 2.64. Peripherals mostly match it. Strikeout per inning, career high, swinging strike rate. Frank Scott, what do you do with Pablo in Dynasty trying cash out now knowing his history with shoulder problems? Yeah, I think any time you have a situation, unless you're competing right now,

where you have a player like Pablo Lopez with injury concerns, it's not so much that he can't stay healthy moving forward, but when you're talking about the long term, you should bet against most pitchers staying healthy, and especially ones with injury histories like Pablo. Had a couple of double home run guys, Jordon Alvarez, double dong. He's put that injury scare behind him,

now up to 21 home runs tied for second in the majors with a 315 batting average. Jordon Alvarez is just an absolute stud. Frank moved him ahead of Wonsodo. I'm not willing to do that yet. I still believe Wonsoto is. is the second best hitter in baseball, probably, behind Mike Trout. So I'm going to give him a little more leash, but Yon-Avarez, I think clearly a top 20 player right now.

And we'll see if he's going to be a first-round player by next season. Aaron Judge also, home run, hit two home runs, increased his lead to 27. Carlos Correa double dong, now up to seven home runs. Some other hitting leftovers, Boba Shet, two for five of the Grand Slam. Alejandro Kirk, two for five with his eighth home run, Tiosker Hernandez, two for four with his seventh home run. You missed your Tosker Hernandez. By low opportunity, he's been great lately.

Kyle Schwerber, he upped his OPS in the month of June to 1074 with his eighth home run of the month. He's up to 19 overall. Christian Walker, excuse me, hit his 19th home run. He went two for four today, 187, Babup lowest among qualified hitters. Freddie Freeman, again, you might have a,

small by low window here he hit his seventh home run jaz chisholm two for three with a 14 with this 14th home run and this one was off of a lefty his first of the season he's really struggled against them has sat occasionally but it hasn't really been often enough to affect his value um paul goldsmith back from that minor back scare hit his 17th home run nolan aronado two for four with his 14th home run to go to the call to the bullpen to finish off the show joe barlow pitched a clean ninth picked up his 13th save for Texas. Jake McGee came in for the save with a two-run lead. Proceeded to give up three-harned runs, take the blown save and the loss. Camillo DeVall had pitched on back-to-back days, so

potentially wasn't available. In Minneapolis, Emilio Paghan struck out the side in the eighth with a three-run lead, started the ninth, gave up three consecutive hits. Griffin Jacks came in to relieve him. He gave up a hit and Cleveland took the lead. So blown save for both of those guys, Emmanuel Class A, clean ninth for his 17th save. He's throwing, I think, a 96 mile per hour slider, I think is what I saw. He got a couple swings and misses on today. He's just ridiculous. And St. Louis, Genesis Cabrera pitched the final two innings for his first save.

Giovanni Gallegos and Ryan Helsie each pitched two innings the night before, so they probably weren't available in this one. To stream or not to stream. Kyle Freeland at Miami, Braxton Garrett versus Colorado, Justin Steele at Pittsburgh. Jose Kentana versus the Cubs, so we're just going against all those matchups. Dakota Hudson at Milwaukee, Johnny Quedo versus Baltimore.

I don't love any of these. I could see Freeland having a decent start, but not someone I'm excited about. I think Dakota Hudson at Milwaukee is probably the best option, but I don't love the matchup or the pitcher, so would probably try to avoid. Friday, Taiwan Walker at Miami, Mitch Keller at Tampa Bay. Dane Dunning versus Wals.

Washington, Dylan Bundy versus Colorado at Colorado. No, versus Colorado at home. So he's got Colorado, that bad Colorado matchup is only at core. So he's in Minnesota's for that one. Cole Irvin at Kansas City, Brad Keller versus Oakland, Michael Lorenzen versus Seattle. And I kind of like a bunch of these guys. I could see Taiwan Walker continuing to roll against Miami.

I could see Mitch Keller having a decent. start. I'm not buying Mitch Keller, not necessarily this new syncurized version of him, but he could be fine. Brad Keller versus Oakland, I could see that one being very good. So yeah, I think there are some options for Friday's matchups for streamers. And that's going to do it. For Fantasy Baseball today, we apologize for the technical difficulties. Hopefully Frank's internet will be working better on Thursday. And I won't have to talk so much. So for Frank, I'm Chris. I'm Chris. Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball today. We'll see you.