Fantasy Baseball Today - Hitters Heating Up, Add J.D. Martinez & New Bat Tracking Stats! (5/14 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 14, 2024

Spencer Torkelson has homered in back-to-back games (2:45)! ... Alex Bregman just had his biggest game of the season (4:51)! ... Bo Bichette, Bryan Reynolds and Yandy Diaz also had big games (7:04). ... News (12:57): Shohei Ohtani returned to the Dodgers lineup after missing a few games. ... Jose Caballero continues to run and J.D. Martinez is picking things up (20:50). ... Jose Soriano and Colin Rea were doing some different things on Monday (30:20). ... What are these new bat tracking stats from Statcast (36:13)? ... Zach Eflin and Jordan Montgomery didn't have their best stuff (45:13). ... Jose Berrios and Tanner Bibee bounced back (49:22). ... Make it two strong starts in a row for Mitch Keller (52:46). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates, streamers and Team Name Tuesday (55:00). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Well, fantasy! Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Alex Brankman, finally. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, May 14th. I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White.

Today on the show, we'll break down the new bat-tracking stats on Statcast. they are the talk of the baseball world. We'll give you a little intro, some of the leaders, et cetera, hitters who are starting to wake up, some pitchers who didn't have their best stuff, others that bounce back, and much more. Let's jump in. Can you believe it?

Wow. All right, Scott, can you believe it? Player of the night, who you got? I, on a very boring night, I will point out, I'm going to go with Spencer Torkelson here, who hit his second home run, of the season.

Both home runs have come in the last two games, and he also has an eight-game hitting streak working. So I think, I think, if you held on to Spencer Torkelson, you're about to be rewarded. He was among my 10 sleeper hitters for this week, with the Tigers having good hitter matchups. And I think we've seen from Spencer Torkelson now, in both the minors and majors, frankly,

is that he tends to run very hot and cold. He didn't do much of anything until the second half of last season and then was very productive to close out the season. I think his ultimate output is limited by his home park, but not so much that

he won't be a must-start player going forward. I think this is the start of it. And looking at some of the data, his strikeout rate is actually lower this year than it's been so far. It's the lowest it's ever been, not that it was ever that bad for somebody with his kind of power. Christian Walker type numbers from here on out.

I think that's possible for Spencer Torkelson. Yes, and I did want to look up what his numbers were in April of last year. And you're right, Scott. Torkelson hit 206 with a 575 OPS in the first month of the season last year. And then slowly picked things up. And we do remember in the second half, he really started to get going when he had an 816 OPS. yes and hit for a ton of power.

So yeah, I think he, we could say Torkelson is someone who's a little bit more inconsistent. He runs hot and cold, especially. And, you know, I kind of give Tigers hitters and a lot of these hitters who play in the Central Division, the benefit of the doubt early on just because lots of cold weather in those games and in those cities. So same for Torkelson. He was down to 79% rostered. You had him as a sleeper hitter. And hopefully this is the start of more to come.

And my player of the night is going to be the name I mentioned up top. Alex Bregman, who needed a much needed. Needed a much needed? Not great. He needed a breakout game. And that's exactly what he got. Three for three with a double dong. Three runs scored for RBI.

All he needed was Oakland pitching to come help him out. It's been a really slow start. But as we pointed out on Friday's podcast, Breggman is someone who got off to a really slow start last year, still wound up with great numbers. He's in a contract year. I think it's been just a kind of a weird start for the entire Astros team.

Some have been better than others. Obviously, Kyle Tucker and Altuvei have been great. But it's just been a weird start overall, and I'm not worried about Bregman. Like Torblosin, Scott, I think this is hopefully the start of a big breakout the rest of the way for Bregman. Yeah, never any doubt about Bregman.

So I think this was inevitable, but you're always a little relieved when you see that first game, I guess, that first big game for a struggling hitter. But obviously his track record speaks for itself. And never any doubt. Torkelson, I never got to the point where even though the shallower leagues, remember I had that article a couple weeks ago, 24 players who it's okay to drop in shallower

leagues. And I didn't, I thought about putting Torkelson on that list, but held back. I thought, no, this guy, what do I honestly think is going to happen? I honestly think he's going to hit 30 homers this year. even though he has zero so far. And so I can't say there was never any doubt with Torkelson, but I felt like we'd jam peed up soon. And so it seems to be happening.

Yeah, I don't think we ever talked about Torkelson as a drop. We might have brought up his name with guys like Michael Bush and maybe a Kyle Manzardo, but I'm pretty sure we told people to hold on. I dropped him a little bit down in the rankings, Torkelson, my 18th ranked first baseman, but the names ahead of him are just worthy players. They're guys that have performed really well this year.

They have a track record. And so if Torkelson continues to hit well, then he will move back up the first base ranks. I mentioned there were other hitters who needed, who desperately needed a game here to get going. And let's just run through all of them, because we already mentioned Bregman and Torkelson. Bo Bichet, three for four with a walk,

and his fourth stolen base. He is betting 2-18 with only two home runs on the season and a 5-81 OPS. He's still hitting the ball hard. Lots of ground balls and not pulling the ball. That is what will lead to just two home runs on the season, and I think contributing to why Bobichette is off to this really slow start. Brian Reynolds went five for five with his fifth home run.

He added two RBI. He had four hard hits in that game. The home run was 105.8 exit velocity, 421 feet. And after this game, Reynolds raised the batting average up to 256. Obviously, he is capable of being a much better hitter than that. and Yandy Diaz also starting to get going. He went three for five with a double and a run scored over his last 10 games. He is batting 405 with two homers, eight RBI, and nine runs scored.

Anything that you've seen from these names, anything that stands out, Scott, anything potentially worrisome from Yandy Diaz, Brian Reynolds, and Bobeshett. I mean, Reynolds' game was so good that I'm not sure we could say he needed a big game anymore. He's basically on pace for last year. numbers now after that 5 for 5 performance. So you're getting what you're getting what you purchased with him. The others, I would say Bo Bichette is the most concerning to me, which isn't to say he's not going to bounce back.

It's not to say he's not a by-low. He absolutely is. I think better days are ahead. I think his batting average is probably going to finish near 300. but I was pretty down on him coming into the year. So this slow start is, I guess it's confirming my biases, which makes it easier to seize upon. And you pointed out with the poll rate, how low it is,

that's been a continuing trend for him since the first years of his career when he was at his most productive in fantasy. Last year he had a career low. I'm looking at Fangraph's data here. Last year, Boba Chet had a career low pull rate of 27%. Now it's down to 23%. When he started out, it was 35 to 40%. And so he's kind of undermining his power potential,

maybe giving himself a higher batting average floor and ceiling potentially. Like locking himself in as more of a 300 hitter with that all-field's approach. But I think he's going to disappoint. in the home run category again. I think he's going to disappoint in the stolen base category again. Let's see how he's doing with that so far. He's got four already.

He has four already. That's pretty encouraging, I would say. Yeah, I guess he is enjoying a little bit of a bounce back in that category, but he was a 20 homer guy in his 601 plate appearances last year, 24 homers and almost 700 plate appearances

the year before. So I compared Beau Bichette coming into the season to Xander Bogarts. I said he was a rich man, Zander Bogartz. And I'm not inclined to move off that position based on the way this year started out for him. And I will point out with Boba Chet and other struggling stars

who have a clear track record, just because the underlying numbers don't say that Boba Chet is a by-low right now, he is one of these guys where he could just go on a tear for the next two to three weeks, and then all of the underlying numbers will look a lot better. and everything will just support what he's done to that point. So, like, guys that are this talented, it can flip on a dime.

We're just pointing out, hey, here's part of the problem with Boba Shet, the ground balls and the pull rate being as low as it has been so far this season. Want to remind everyone that if you enjoy the show, make sure to leave us a five-star rating and review on both Apple and Spotify, and do the same for FBT and 5. If you enjoy that podcast as well, we really do appreciate it. Let's take our first break when we return. Lots of news and notes, lots of ventries like there are every day.

We'll talk about it right after this. Welcome back in. Let's talk some news and notes. Shohay Otani returned to the Dodgers lineup after missing Sunday with back tightness. So obviously that was great to see. Austin Riley was out of the lineup Monday and an MRI revealed he has inflammation in his left side. Zach Short started at third base against the lefty Shota Imanaga. And pure speculation at this point, Scott. But my guess is if there's information,

inflammation in the left side. Maybe they play it safe for a couple of days here, but my guess is he probably lands on the I. My report, I mean, the report I saw said they're hoping to avoid an IL stint based on this news. Now, given that hitters only require 10 days on the IL versus the 15 of a pitcher,

I'd rather them just play. As a Braves fan, speaking as a Braves fan here, I'd rather them just play it safe and make sure that inflammation doesn't turn into a, full-blown strain and just give them, give them the 10 days off. But it doesn't sound like they're leaning that way as of now. Louise Robert could begin playing in games in the Arizona Complex League later this week. Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said it's possible that Grace and Rodriguez

will return from the IL to make a start this weekend against the Mariners. Blake Snell made a rehab start Sunday throwing four perfect innings with seven strikeouts. He's expected to make one more rehab start before joining the Giants. And Scott, would you be looking to buy on Blake Snell now before he returns? I don't think that's a bad idea. I'm not sure. As good as that start looked in the low A California League, where he was blowing away a bunch of teenagers.

Yeah, I'm not sure how confidently I'm going to. to start Blake Snell once he gets back. His first three starts were awful. We've talked about how he's been close to unusable in the first half each of the past three years and wasn't trending that way prior to the injury. So there may be an even better time to buy on Blake Snell is what I'm saying. You know, worth exploring though. Kodi Isenga won't face hitters again until he works through some mechanical issues.

he threw 32 pitches in a live bullpen last weekend, but was not satisfied with how it went. Ronaldo Lopez left his start early due to back tightness. He threw five scoreless innings with four strikeouts before leaving. Scott, did you see any updates here on Ronaldo Lopez? Yes, I saw that he left the game with an injury. It was tightness in the back, tight back, which seems to be going around.

Bad case of tight back. it's like everybody seems to be suffering from that injury right now. Well, I've got a tight back. I'm still here. I'm still working. Come on. Come on,

Ronaldo Lopez. Christopher Morell exited Monday night after fouling a ball off his left foot. He is day to day. And I believe that's three days in a row where Christopher Morel has tweaked something or done something and he's either left the game or hopefully he's all right

because he's been coming around lately. Nolan Jones will join. AAA on Tuesday, but will not immediately begin a rehab assignment. Evan Carter underwent an MRI on his back on Monday. He's now sat out four straight games with a lower back problem. What do you know? More back issues. I did see that he got a cortisone shot as well and hoping to return to the lineup soon.

Perhaps it's part of the reason Evan Carter is off to a slow start this season. Wouldn't rule it out. Kyle Schorber has missed three straight with, what do you know? Lower back soreness and J.T. Realemuto has missed two straight with right knee soreness. Brutal news for T.J. Friedel, who was placed in the I.O. with a fractured left thumb. I haven't seen an official timeline, but my extensive research, aka Google, revealed six to eight weeks is the likely return timeline for a fractured thumb. Obviously, Friedel has missed most of the season because of a fractured wrist.

So just really, really bad timing for him. Wyatt Langford said Monday that he is running at about 85 to 90% speed. He is on the aisle with a hamstring injury. Brandon Lau felt something in his right oblique during a rehab game and will visit a specialist on Tuesday. The Blue Jays have some kind of sickness going around around the team right now, an illness. Back tightness, is that it?

It might be. An actual illness in this case, okay. Yeah, George Springer, Justin Turner, and Kevin Kiermeyer We'll all out of the lineup on Monday because of it. Reese Hoskins left Monday with a lower body injury. I feel like there was more of an update since I wrote that down. I think there were some kind of specifics on Hoskins, right? I thought I remembered seeing that.

Hamstring. Hamstring. He's going to have an MRI. Didn't look great. Yep. Don't love that. Zach Gelloff rejoined the A's and could be activated during their four. four game series in Houston.

J.P. Crawford will begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Tuesday. He's been on the IL since April 25th with a right oblique strain. Jung Hu Lee was placed in the IL with a left shoulder dislocation. Luis Matos was recalled and expected to get a lot of run in center field. Paul Blackburn was placing the IL with a stress reaction in his right foot. Adbert Alzli was placing the IL with a right forearm strain. Tim Anderson placed on the IL with lower back tightness. Danny Jansen was out of the line of.

due to back spasms. Jack Leiter will start again Tuesday against the Guardians. Not because he's been great because in fact he's been quite awful, but the Rangers rotation is just so beat up right now, so they need bodies.

They need arms. And so Jack Leiter will pitch again on Tuesday. AJ Puck was activated and will pitch out of the Marlins bullpen. He's a name to watch in case Tanner Scott gets traded away from the team.

Austin Hayes was reinstated from the IL but was out of the lineup Monday. And I think this is notable Scott because Colton Couser has really slowed down. His last 21 games since April 19th. He was 9 for 60. That was entering Monday. Two homers, still hitting the ball hard,

but lots of strikeouts. Do you think this can go back the other way now? Maybe Austin Hayes starts to dip into Colton Couser's playing time a little bit. You sure you'll want to throw it to me? It's 105. You're on a world there. You're going. It's a good time to do the news and news.

No, it's started at 103 every day. So do I think it's going to go the other way and Colton Kouser is going to begin to lose at bats? That's the question you asked. And I would say against left-handers, that seems like a possibility. I doubt they're just going to remove him from the lineup. And Kyle Stowers, is he going to play much?

Well, if Heston Kirstad, didn't. I don't think stowers did. And I think part of the reason the Orioles are making this swap is because they value Kyrostad a lot more in the long run than they do stowers. And so they can, they don't mind stowers wasting away on the

bench as much. Yeah. Even though he has pretty good power. And the miners, he's had for pretty good walk rates in the past, though it wasn't so much the case of AAA this year. Yeah, he just, it's just not the same caliber of prospect. And I wouldn't, I

wouldn't have much interest in Stowers unless unless he begins to prove that he deserves it. Let's run through some of the waiver wire hitters from Monday's action. Jose Caballero continues to run wild. He went two for four with two more steals.

He is now up to 17 on the season that is second in all of baseball behind Ellie Dealer Cruz. And Caballero is up to 68% rostered. I don't know if that needs to be higher, Scott, because then we're talking about points leagues. I would just remind everyone that Caboero needs to be rostered in every single categories league and that's about that, right?

Stealing a lot of bases. I think we could all use more of those, eligible to both middle infield spots, which is nice. Yeah, yeah, I'm happy to have him. I'm happy to have him as a replacement for Danes B. Swanson in the Memorial Magazine League. I'll tell you that much, because I'm in the bottom third of stolen bases anyway. Maybe I should have been starting. Caballero all this time.

Maybe, maybe. Caboero, by the way, on Yahoo, 56% roster. I know a lot of those leagues are daily head-to-categories. So I would say Caboero probably needs to be higher than the 56% there. I mean, he doesn't do much else, right? So if you're covered for steals, unless you just want to, you know, a guy who could, you could plug in in case one of your base dealers gets injured, then I'm not sure Capoeiro is for everybody,

but somebody in your league. Any kind of categories league could use him, I'm sure. J.D. Martinez is picking things up. He went three for four with two doubles and two RBI. And over his last three games, he has five hits, one homer, and three RBI. He's hitting the ball hard early on here with the Mets. And I was surprised to see that J.D. Martinez is only 55% rostered.

We know how awesome he was with the Dodgers last year on a per game basis. I don't think he's going to get back to that level, especially the run production. Not that the Mets lineup is bad or anything. I think they're solid. But I feel like J.D. Martinez should be higher than 55%, Scott. Yeah, and he absolutely should be. Now, if it was 75%, I might say I kind of get it, obviously.

Uh-oh. You spoke to you soon, Scott. Oh, man. Were we five minutes delayed? Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Am I here? You are here, and you are Robo Scott.

For those watching on YouTube, I figured if this is going to keep happening, let's just make a little a bit out of it. So I've got, I took Scott White, I took one of his images, and I put Robocop on it. And anytime Scott starts to lag, I'll just throw up the Robo Scott

and we'll have some fun until he's back. And then we'll fill time, and now the connection is good to go. And here you are. You're back, Scott. You kind of sounded like Strong Bad the way you say that. So that's Robo Scott. Robo Scott.

Oh, shout out to Strong Bad, man. My guitar hero days. Good times. What were we talking about? J.D. Martinez. Ah, yes. J.D. Good old J.D.

Yeah, no, I mean, if it was 75%, I'd be like, okay, well, he wasn't available for a long time. The start of the year. And he's DH only, which is especially, makes. it especially hard to fit him in in those head-to-head lineups without all the extra outfielders and infielders. And, you know,

you couldn't stash him in an aisle spot while he was out. So I could understand it lagging a little bit, but I think it's going to start to pick up now that he's in the lineup regularly and producing. Let me ask you, just brought up Colton Couser who slowed down. If you're playing a 12-team head-to-head points league

with three outfielders, even though J.D. Martinez is not outfield eligible. Would you make that swap? Would you drop Kouser for J.D.? No. Would you? I don't. Man, but strikeouts are so bad.

If Colton Kouser was my worst hitter, I think I'd be alright with it. I mean, Martinez struck out over 30% of the time last year. But that's not normal for him. He is getting older, so. Yeah. You're quick to turn on players, Frank. I don't have Colton Kouser anywhere, so I'm turning.

on him. Going to be careful making alliances with you, that's for sure. Yeah. How about someone like Ian Hat was off to a terrible start? 75% rostered. Yeah, I think that's pretty easy to do. Just looking for some names here. I know people who want us to talk more about drops too, so.

All right. If anyone else comes up, I'll throw them. I'll throw you a question and ask you about J.D. Martinez. Who else do we have on this list? A couple outfielders, Brandon Marsh, quietly having a very solid. solid season, one for two with two walks and two steals. He is batting 250 with six home runs, seven steals on the season,

striking out a lot, 31% of the time. But hitting the ball extremely hard, 93.3 average eggs of velocity for Brandon Marsh. And Jack Peterson continues to hit two for four with his fifth home run. I believe he only has nine RBI. Even as a strong side platoon player batting cleanup for the debacks, how do you have five home runs and nine RBI? It just doesn't add up. Bad luck.

Sounds like some bad luck for all Jock Peterson. Would you be looking to make either of those a priority in any format, Brandon Marsh, Jock Peterson? I did have Marcia's a sleeper hitter. I may have swapped him out

for low perfido on Sunday. So I don't know if I get credit for that or not. It's only one game. Peterson, there are going to be times when I think he's a good play. It's going to have to be a righty-heavy schedule

for the Diamondbacks, obviously. I think the standard league size where you're used to catering to, it's probably going to be difficult to roster him most of the time. But there will be times when you need to fill in, and he's probably your best choice. Certainly five outfielder leagues,

I think Peterson's worth having around, even if he's not must start. But the production should be good when he's in the lineup, certainly the power production. Josh Bell is starting to pick things up. He went two for four with a double, a run, and an RBI. That comes one day after hitting a home run on Sunday and over his last 13 games.

Josh Bell is betting 3-11 with two homers, nine RBI. So slowly coming around. He's 32% rostered. I don't think Josh Bell's a priority, but he's very streaky. And if he starts to get in one of those zones, then he might become more of a priority. But we'll just leave him on the wire for now. That is Josh Bell. Some catchers we've talked about recently in two catcher leagues.

Again, if you lost Wilson Catreras. Yvonne Herrera, three straight multi-hit games. He went two-for-four with a walk, RBI, and two-runs scored. Tyler Soderstrom is making some noise. He went two-for-four-four with a double and an RBI. He's six-for-16 with a home run so far in the four games that he's played. And Yasmani Grandal hitting for power early on with the Pirates. He has homered in two of the past three games.

Scott, how would you rank those three in two catcher leagues? Herrera, Soderstrom, and Grandal. Herrera, Soderstrum, and Grandal. All right. And two names in deeper leagues. Jake Bowers doing some interesting things recently. He went two for four with a grand slam in over his last four games.

He has six hits, two homers, two steals, eight RBI, has started five of the past six for the Brewers. Could get more playing time now that Reese Hoskins is dealing with an injury as well. And Luis Matos, in his first game, back with the Giants. And his first at bat back with the Giants

hit a three-run homer off of Yamamoto. He finished one for four in that game, 6% rostered. Anything to see here, Scott, in Deeper League, Jake Bowers and Luis Matos. You bring up a good point about Bowers probably being the one to fill in at first base if Hoskins misses time, because right now it seems like Bowers is the one

bumping Chorio to the bench. And that, one way or another, that situation isn't going to, it's an unsustainable situation. Chorio is either going to have to go back in the lineup or go down to the miners. And I don't know what the brewers are more inclined to do with him. But is Bowers just because he's performing now, does that mean he's somebody we should really be paying attention to in fantasy? Probably not.

I mean, he has a long track record of being pretty useless. And that doesn't mean he can't be. A hot hand play at times. His strikeout rate this year is second percentile. It's like 38%. It's horrible, even with as well as Jake Bowers has been hitting lately. So I think it's safe to avoid him. Luis Matos worth monitoring.

A minor league track record is impressive. He was horrible at AAA this year, but the exit velocities were up, which he needed. So how much of that is, like, would we rather see the good production from Matos and the miners are the improved exit velocities. I would say the exit velocities for the sake of his development. But is he ready to produce in the majors other than this one at bat against Yamamoto?

I'm pretty skeptical of that. All right. For Waver Wire pitchers for Monday's action, Sean Manaya had one of his best starts of the season. He was up against the Phillies. He allowed just one run over six innings with six strikeouts, only had six swinging strikes on 100 pitches,

but did a great job, limiting hard contact, leaned all the way into the sinker usage in this one through it 57% of the time. That is Sean Mania. Colin Ray turned in a quality start against the Pirates, six innings, three runs, five strikeouts with 12 swinging strikes. He did change up the pitch mix in this one. He threw his splitter a lot more. He more than tripled the splitter usage, Colin Ray,

and it's been a pretty good pitch for him. Michael Lorenzen pitched well against the Guardians, seven shutout, one hit, four walks, four strikeouts, had 11 swinging strikes on 96 pitches, and Jose Soriano pitched well against the Cardinals. He threw five in a third shotout, two hits, three walks, six strikeouts, with 10 swinging strikes,

and he did exactly what we want him to. He made the curveball his most used pitch. He threw 41% of the time, and it was really good. The problem, Scott, I don't know if Jose Soriano has anything besides a really good curveball. He throws hard, but both his fastball and sinker also get hit

really hard. He struggles with control. Any hype, any excitement about adding any of these pitchers, Soriano, Lorenzen, Colin Ray, and Sean Mania. I do think Soriano is the most exciting of them. Whether he can throw enough strikes or avoid enough hard contact be a few use in fantasy remains to be seen, but he throws very hard. He has a good breaking ball, as you point out, there are tools to work with here and I think the fact that he's relief pitcher eligible makes him worth streaming from time to time such as

the two-start week this week I guess you could say the same for Sean Manaya I guess he could say the same for Colin Ray too just the relief pitcher eligibility no no not Ray he's SP only but Manaya you could yeah you pointed out the sinker

usually she threw it 57% of the time Mania did that was at the expense of the foreseamer and they have the same velocity the same velocity. So I'm not sure if it was being tracked totally properly there and the pitch usage may not have been that different for Mania. I guess we'll see once

the data gets updated later on. I think the one who was who did the most interesting thing here was Colin Ray the splitter the fact that he

was thrown at only 5% of the time and he threw it 17% at the time and it is his best swing and miss pitch he wasn't getting many swings and misses

for as effective as he'd been so far entered this start Colin Ray did with a 7.1% swing strike rate which is awful and the ERA

estimators all hate him and I do think he's a candidate to regress in a major way. But if he can up that splitter usage, then it changes the profile enough that he might become a little bit interesting to me. So we'll see how it goes for Colin Ray in his next start. But that was a development worth noting for him. All right. Let's take our final break.

And when we return, we'll talk about these new bat tracking stats. That's right. They are now tracking the how fast, Someone swings a bat and all kinds of interesting things. Swords, yeah? Pitching Ninja, the swords that you see in Gifts. Those are now tracked stats on statcast.

And so we will break that down. We'll do it right after this. Welcome back in. Let's talk about these new bat tracking stats. They are powered by statcast, which you can find on baseball savant.com. And while we're talking about baseball savant, that is the website where you can go to find

all of the stackcast data that you're looking for, average exit velocity, max ex of velocity. expected ERA. I mean, there are so many different things. So if you want to go down a rabbit hole, I highly recommend you to check out baseball savant.com. You can now find average bat speed. You can find fast swing rate, how often a batter squared up a pitch, how often they blasted one, and also swords. As I mentioned earlier, that's right. The terrible swings that you see in pitching ninja gifts are now tracked as a stat on baseball savant. Why does this matter? Well, like hard contact bat speed is correlated with batting average and slugging percentage. The harder you swing

the bat, the more likely it is that something good will happen for a hitter. So on swings 80 plus miles per hour, batters have a 321 batting average and a 665 slug on swings between 70 and 79 miles per hour. Batters have a 274 batting average and a 477 slug and on swings between 0 and 69 miles per hour. Badders have a 202 batting average and a 254 slug. Scott, I know that you've been reading about this and trying to learn more about it as well.

Anything else you'd like to add as an introduction to these new bat tracking stats? Well, this is the first day I've even been aware of them. So it's worth keeping that in mind. It's still very new. And we only have data for this year. So we can't compare

what hitters are doing with these new stats to what they did in the past. And I think that would be the most useful for getting a feel for what they mean. There are some good resources out there if you want to familiarize them, yourself with them. Lance Brasdowski put out a 14-minute video on YouTube where he walks through some of his observations and his read on it initially, of course. You know, Saris wrote a good article for The Athletic. talking about some of his observations. I do think you're going to start to hear these stats referenced,

maybe sooner than they should be, maybe not in the most sophisticated way at first. And I do wonder if, you know, this is something I think about a lot where, you know, there's a lot more data to talk about. And we often do talk about it. but how much has it, like, has my evaluation of hitters, I mean, not hitters so much,

but has my evaluation of pitchers, let's say, really improved since FIP? Like, did FIP basically tell me everything I need to know about how talented a pitcher is, about how likely he is to regress? Have I become more accurate in my assessments? I can talk about it in a more sophisticated way with this new data, but has it really improved the outcomes for fantasy?

And I don't feel confident that it has. Hitters, I think, maybe more so because of the introduction of X velocity, which is not something we really had a... Oh, boy, Robo Scott is back. That's great. I'm just going to throw it up there when you start lagging, so you know what it's happening. Yeah.

that's good. That's helpful, actually. And so I kind of feel like this is going to play out the same way, where we're going to be able to talk about hitters with greater sophistication, but will it actually improve our ability to predict what's going to happen with them in fantasy rather than explain what's already going on with them? Yeah, I'm not so sure about that. I think the most useful of the new stats, if I had to read it now,

and I was kind of dismissive of exit velocity early on, and was obviously proven wrong on that. So maybe my initial read here is totally off too. But I think the most useful of these new stats will be the squared up rate how often a batter how often a batter maximizes the exit velocity available to him on that particular pitch. And that seems to have the strongest correlation

for how good the hitter is, more so than how hardy swings. In fact, if you look at the hardest swingers, a lot of times that has a negative impact on their batting average and it ups their strikeout rate. And their ability to hit that sweet spot consistently is compromised to some extent by how fast their swing is. So it's not purely a matter of do you swing fast.

If you're losing accuracy on the swing, that's not so much a good thing. but if you're able to swing pretty hard and you're able to consistently find that sweet spot, you're probably a really, really good hitter. And so I think that's, that's, right now, my read is that that's the one that's going to be most useful to us for explaining if a,

maybe helping explain why hitter struggling if he's not finding the sweet spot as often as usual, maybe for backing up if a player is having a breakout or not, if he is finding that sweet spot a lot more than usual. Again, we don't have past year's data to compare to, so we can't even really make those kinds of observations now. But I think that's something that could prove useful in the future. And you spoke about the squared up stats that are part of this new leaderboard,

and the blasts stat is something that takes that one step further. It's how often a hitter squared up a ball, but doing it at the optimal swing in terms of swing speed, bat speed. So you squared it up and you swung the bat, I believe, at like 80 plus miles per hour. So that's what blast tries to look at. I guess it's kind of the almost the way that barrels looks at like optimal contact. It looks like multiple different things. So again, you can find this entire leaderboard.

I think we're doing an okay job explaining this, but nonetheless, here are the top 10 in average bat speed. and there's no surprise here, Scott. I feel like there's going to be a lot of crossover between bat speed and average ex-velocity and max-ex-velocity, things like that. John Carlos Stanton is number one. He's the only hitter who averages over 80 miles per hour

on his swing speed. O'Neill Cruz is second. Kyle Swarber is third, followed by Matt Chapman, Ronald Acuna, Christopher Morel, Aaron Judge, Joe Adele, who we know is kind of in the midst of a breakout season so far as well. Julio Rodriguez and Juan Soto. See, so this kind of gets to what I was saying earlier.

The people who swing the bat the hardest generally struggle with batting average. It's certainly been true for Stanton over the past few years. O'Neill Cruz, Kyle Schwerber, Matt Chapman. It hasn't been true for Ronald de Cunia, but again, we're only looking at this year's data. So we don't know if this looked different for Acuna last year when he was a great source of batting average, obviously.

And then Aaron Judge, okay, he's kind of a unicorn, Joe Adele, Julio Rodriguez, the same thing as Ronald de Cunia. We don't know what this data looks like for him last year in terms of average bat speed. Juan Soto is the first name you get to where it's like, okay, this is just a great hitter

this year. This is just somebody who's been a great hitter this year and swings the bat very hard, obviously. So, yeah, that's what stands out to me is it's a lot of low batting average guys. And the bottom 10 in average bat speed are going to be a lot of hitters who hit for great batting average. Some slap hitters, some guys that, you know, just do a great job of making contact. Maybe they're a little bit more selective. They hit the ball where it's pitch, so on and so

forth. But the very bottom of the list is Louisa Rice, followed by Stephen Kwan, Nikki Lopez, Justin Turner, Wilmer Flores, Nolan Chanuel, Josh Rojas, Bryson Stott, Bryce Terang, and Charlie Blackman. Justin Turner, he's the one who stands out here as not necessarily being a slap hitter, but there's something Lance Brasdowski pointed out in his video that Justin Turner is really good at finding that sweet spot. And so that's how he's able to maximize his outcomes,

even though he is not somebody who swings the bat particularly hard. Again, those are the new bat tracking stats powered by Stackass, and you can find their leaderboard over on baseball, savant.com if you want to dig in and learn a little bit more yourself. Let's get back into Monday's action and some pitchers who did not have their best stuff here. Zach Eflin, five innings, three runs allowed, only two strikeouts, 10 swinging strikes on 91 pitches. We've talked about this so far this season. Zach Eflin changed the pitch mix up a little bit this year.

I don't know that it has been to his benefit. The swinging strike rate is down. He's giving up more fly balls. He's giving up more home runs. It hasn't worked out so far. He's been okay. He hasn't been catastrophic by any means, but not what you were expecting from Zach Eflin.

Yeah, I'm starting to wonder about him because if you look at all the stats I normally care about for pitchers, the swinging strike rate, the K-per-9 rate, the FIP, the X-FIP, the X-E-R-A, all of that, they all look very cool. close to Zach Eflin in 2022 rather than Zach Eflin in 20203. So

Zach Eflin in his last year with the Phillies, when he was serviceable in fantasy, but, you know, we're talking a 404 ERA, 7.7K per 9, just kind of a globy pitcher,

right, and not the near ace you drafted Zach Eflin to B. so I don't, I'm not ready to pull the plug on him or obviously you're not going to drop him, but I'm not ready to sell low on Zach Eflin. But if I could sell for face value, just use him as a top 30 pitcher and a trade,

I'd consider doing that. I'm a little concerned. Zach Eflin is a name that maybe will start to push down the rankings a little bit. Not that I'm going to bury him, but is he still worthy of being ranked as a top 25 starting pitcher? I think that's debatable with Zach Eifflin. A couple other pitchers who did not have their best stuff showed to Emonogical. He is human after all, and he still threw five shutout innings.

So he gave up seven hits, three walks. He had eight strikeouts, 18 swinging strikes. It was a tough matchup against the Atlanta Braves, though they did not have Austin Riley in the lineup. Command was clearly not here for Shotsu Imanaga, who had the three walks in that one. Jordan Montgomery has just kind of been blah so far with the debacks. He was facing the Reds where he allowed three runs,

over five in a third innings, three walks, seven strikeouts, 17 swinging strikes. That is a very welcome site for Jordan Montgomery who had a 7% swinging strike rate entering this start. And Yoshinobu Yamamoto, turns out he's human as well. He was at the Giants. He allowed four runs over five and two-thirds innings. He had six strikeouts.

Only seven swinging strikes gave up some hard contact in this start. But in Yamamoto's previous seven starts, he had a 176 ERA and a 0.90 whip. So I think, you know, I guess he was kind of due for a bad start, you could say. Anything to add on Yamamoto, Montgomery, and Imanaga, Scott. I mean, my main observation for these three has to do with Jordan Montgomery, who had pitched okay, but the strikeouts weren't there,

and the swinging strikes definitely weren't there. It was, I believe he had a 7.1% swinging strike rate coming into, which is like scraping the bottom of the barrel. It's really bad, and it's, it's not. not a good indicator for success moving forward. So the fact that Jordan Montgomery, even though it was not such a great start against the Reds, the fact he got 17 swinging strikes on 101 pitches,

I think is a step in the right direction. Specifically, I'd noticed that as curveball didn't seem to have his usual shape this year. And after not having a real spring training, maybe he's just a little, he just doesn't quite have the feel for it yet. It's not a situation where I'm saying Jordan Montgomery is broken beyond repair.

But I was a little concerned that he was kind of luring us in, giving us a false sense of security. And this start has me hopeful that he's on the right track. Some pitcher bounce bags, Jose Burrios, went seven innings. He allowed just two runs with four strikeouts at the Baltimore Orioles. And Tanner Bybee had a solid start at the Rangers. he threw five and a third shutout, three hits, two walks, four strikeouts, with 10 swinging strikes on 94 pitches.

His velocity was up a tad across the board for Tanner Bybee. For some reason, I cannot understand. He threw his fastball even more in this start. He threw it 56% of the time. Entering this start, Tanner Bybee's fastball had a 429 batting average against and a 698 slug. So it could just be a we need to establish the fastball. get it going kind of thing. But it has been a very bad pitch for him.

So I don't know why he's throwing it more. No. So is a step in the wrong direction, Tanner, if that is your real name. Anything to add on those two, Scott? No, I mean, I think you basically summed up my feelings on Tanner Bybee. And Jose Berrios, you know, we saw a lot of regression in his previous start. There's more to come. His ERA estimators are all than the fours.

I think. I think they're all in the force. But, you know, they were last year, too. I think he's somebody who's going to outperform those, generally speaking, just not to this degree. It's not like they're showing a new, it's not like they're revealing a new talent level for, uh, for Jose Burrios that would make this, uh, this career season that he's having something that would appear to be sustainable.

If you could turn Jose Burrios into any of Justin Steele, Grayson Rodriguez, who sounds like he's getting ready to return, Jesus Lazzardo who just returned, or Blake Snell, would you do that? Oh, yeah. I'd trade him for any one of those. Okay. You know, if you really want to aim high...

Gossman? Yeah. You may have to pair a second player with Barrios, but it does seem like when I say anything negative about Barrios, there's a lot of pushback on it. So there seems to be... a lot of Berrios truthers out there and you could possibly take advantage of that

because I'm the real truther, okay? I'm the man speaking the truth here. Look, there is going to continue to be regression for Jose Barrios. Whether you want to believe that or not, and not you, Scott, the listeners who love Jose Burrios, he has a 229 Babbup so far. It's 294 for his career.

He has an 88.6% left on base percentage. It's 73%. for his career. 8.7% swinging strike rate. It was 11% last year. So when you put the ball in play this much and you allow as much hard contact as Brrios does, bad things are going to happen at some point.

I don't know when that's going to happen, but there will be regression and more of it. It happened once already. Yeah. And it'll happen again. And I'm not trying to like trash Jose Barrios here. Oh, no, I agree. I think he's exactly what you drafted him as.

an innings eater who's going to give you a good enough ERA and Whip that he's worth mixing in. But he's not like a fulcrum of your pitching staff. He's shown it be anyway. I agree completely. Make it two strong starts in a row for Mitch Keller, who was at the Brewers. He threw six shutout innings with eight hits, zero walks,

seven strikeouts, 13 swinging strikes on 100 pitches. The velocity was up almost a mile per. hour on each of his pitches here. Again, that's Mitch Keller we're talking about. He threw his curveball a little bit more in this start. And now over his last two, it's 15 innings, one run, only one walk. I think that is very important for Mitch Keller. And he has 12 strikeouts during that time.

Anything to add on, your boy, Mitch Keller. Yeah, like the velocity, the velocity had been down by about that same amount, right? basically one mile per hour across the board. Let me double check that. Yeah, that looks about right. So if he's getting back to last year's velocities, that could be a very good thing for him. I don't think you need to treat him right now in terms of how you're valuing Mitch Keller.

It should probably be about the same as Jose Barrios. Let me clarify what I mean by that. The description we just gave for Jose Burrios. Rios, innings eater, with an ERA and whip good enough that he's worth keeping around and mixing it on occasion. I also think that's the most likely scenario for Mitch Keller at this point. Obviously, Jose Burrios has and should have more trade value than Mitch Keller at this point, but in the long run, I think they're going to be very similar for you in fantasy. So if either of them is going to exceed expectations, I think it's more likely to be Keller

because he was an ace in the first half last year and had a ton of strikeouts, more strikeouts per inning last year than I think we've ever seen from Burrios, right? So if he can get that velocity back, maybe he can, maybe those outcomes become accessible to Keller again. But based on what I've seen from him so far this year, I think he's, I think he's, He's kind of a space filler for 12 team leagues.

Worth keeping around, but not high impact. A couple other pitching leftovers. Corbyn's turned in a quality start against the Blue Jays. He went six innings. He allowed one run with six, nope, two strikeouts, only seven swinging strikes on 85 pitches. And he more than doubled his slider usage in this start, throwing his cutter a decent amount less than he has in years past.

And the strikeouts are down quite a bit. I mean, you look at the K per 9 for burns over the past four seasons, 12.6, 10.8, 9.3, and now it's down to 8.2. So the results are still there. The ratios have been awesome. The strikeouts, not so much. George Kirby was great against the Royals. He threw seven shutout innings, three hits, zero walks, six strikeouts.

He had 11 swinging strikes on 101 pitches. Velocity up across the board. Kirby's fastball was up 1.2 miles. per hour, the sinker up 1.3, the slider up 2.2. And all of a sudden, he's down to a 358 ERA and a 0.95 whip on the season. Anything to add on Kirby and Corbyn. Burns? I really don't like what I'm seeing from Corbyn Burns. Like, less than a strikeout per inning. That's how it started for him last year, too. And then he basically got things in line in the second half, but the velocities were also down in the first half for Corbyn Burns last year.

So you could kind of understand it more. This seems to be, I don't know what it is, frankly. Overall, the swinging strike rate still appears fine, not like when he was, not like when he was competing for the Cy Young Award, but fine from just like a, in a vacuum, swinging strike rate appears fine for Burns, but the strikeouts aren't there. I will point out that as expected ERA, which measure. which is the ERA estimator that measures quality of contact more than the three true outcomes. It is his lowest since 2021 when he won the Sion.

So he must be succeeding in on contact better. And maybe that'll be enough to make up for the lack of strikeouts. But you know, I want a strikeouts. You paid a lot for Corbyn Burns. He was the second drafted pitcher by the time draft season was in full swing. And he's not really living up to my expectations as far as that goes. He's still must start, obviously. But I've already moved him behind Zach Wheeler and Terrick Scoobal on the air.

And I may keep going. Maybe Luis Castillo's next. Who knows? Castillo still getting a ton of strikeouts too and just doing what we expected of him. So, yeah, it's not really a knock on Burns. Again, the ratios are good. But yeah, the strikeouts, I mean, for someone who was drafted as a top three starting pitcher, you need more.

You want more. A couple of hitting leftovers, Adley Rutchman, two for four with a double dong. He is now batting 309 with eight home runs on the season. Tyler O'Neill has not been the same since returning from his concussion. Shout out to Rodo Gut, Vlad Sedler, we've had on this podcast a few times.

For pointing that out on Twitter, I hadn't realized, but in 17 games since returning from that concussion, Tyler O'Neill has a 231 batting average, three homers, but a 37% strikeout rate during that time. Bryson Stott is red hot. Two for four with his fourth home run,

added two runs and two RBI over his last 12 games. Bryson Stott, 421, three homers, 14 runs, 15 RBI, seven steals, 11 walks to six strikeouts on fire. Yes.

Yes. That's good. I was worried about Bryson Stott early on. He was one of the... He's still sitting against lefties here and there, though. which is crazy. Here in there. Well, he did here and there last year, too.

And obviously, we were pretty satisfied with his numbers. Yeah. You know, he's running plenty. The power is no worse than last year. He's basically, he basically looks just as good as last year. So, hard to complain about Bryson's thought at this point. O'Neill Cruz stayed hot, two for four with a walk, a double, and his fourth stolen base. He had three hard hits in this game, two of them over 116 miles per hour.

and over his last 19 games, betting 354 with four homers, two steals, and just a 21% strikeout rate turning around. Looks very good for O'Neo Cruz right now. Jose Ramirez also coming around two for three with two walks, two steals, and four RBI. Over his last nine games, betting 303 with four homers, three steals, and 12 RBI. Jurexon ProFar just continues to hit. One for three with a walk in his seventh home run. Jackson Merrill looks like he went through a little bit of a lull there.

He's kind of waking back up. He went two for three with the walk and his third home run of the season. A few bullpen updates for the Orioles. Craig Kimbril entered in the seventh inning with a one-run lead. He struck out two. Yaneer Canoe entered in the eighth. He gave up a game-tying home run and then walked two. The Orioles eventually lost in extras.

Kimbril has now worked the seventh inning in two of his last three outings. But he's looked pretty good, Scott. I kind of wonder if after a night like tonight, maybe the next save opportunity does go to Craig Kimberl. Yeah, I think, you know, I talked yesterday about how I traded Jake Burger for Craig Kimbril in the in the Tout War, in Tau Wars. And I wouldn't have done that if I didn't think Kimbril was still going to get a lot of saves for the Orioles. You know, you cano, we saw him close down the stretch last year and it didn't go well. I don't think he is the sort of lockdown reliever who you really need in that role.

Kimbril comes closer to that, even though he has these stretches where he just loses a feel for the strike zone. He gets it back, and maybe he's gotten it back at this point. I think of the long run, he's still going to get a lot of saves for the Orioles. All right, for the Blue Jays, Jordan Romano pitched two scoreless innings across the ninth and the tenth innings, and he earned his first win of the season for the Tigers. Jason Foley had a nice bounce back. He got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He struck out two for his 10th saves.

for the raise. Jason Adam got the ninth inning with a two-run lead. He walked one, but struck out three for his third save. And it turns out Pete Fairbanks was unavailable because of a cut on his right index finger.

This guy. This guy. As soon as you get Fairbanks back in your lineup, he's unavailable for a save. I will note that although he had a clean inning in his return three days ago or whenever it was,

the velocity was not back. for Fairbanks. It's still down quite a bit from last year. So there's a lot we need to see from him still. And I wouldn't be so quick to drop Adam, Jason Adam, and leagues where saves are scarce. For the Mets, Edwin Diaz got the ninth with a two-run lead. He gave up two runs on two hits, two walks, and a hit batterer. He took his second blown save of the season. For the Phillies, Jose Alvarado got the 10th with a one-run lead. He picked up his eighth save. For the Braves, Ryssal Iglesias was unavailable. AJ Minter picked up his first save of the season. Would they just given him a second day off in a row?

You saw something saying Iglesias was unavailable? I just assumed, but I looked at the schedule and he had pitched three of four going into yesterday, so I think he wanted to just give him another day off. But I didn't see anything to confirm that, though. For the Pirates, David Bednar got the ninth with a two-run lead. He struck out one for his eighth save. He has allowed just one earned run over his last five appearances.

For the Rockies, Jalen Beeks, magic trick. Got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He walked the bases loaded, and he got Manny Machado to bounce into a double play for his fourth save of the season. I believe Jalen Beeks has now worked four of the past five games. Rubber arm. They're just going to throw them out there, I guess,

which is a little crazy. I mean, he appears to be the Rockies closer, each of their last four save chances all in May. Yeah. And you pointed out yesterday. It wasn't even on my radar. Are will he farewell in that role? Will he get consistent enough save chances to be useful in fantasy?

I have serious doubts about both of those. I would probably rank him at the bottom of the closer heap behind Michael Kopeck. Who else would be at the bottom there? Hector Nerris. Nah, he's all right. Yeah, it's still a stable time for closers overall. Yeah, it's not terrible.

Yeah. There's no one down there like James MacArthur, but... Foley's pretty low for me. MacArthur, sure. Yeah. But they're still getting saves. You know, Foley's got 10. MacArthur's gotten his share.

I would put Beeks way behind both of those guys. Yeah. As somebody who picked him up in two leagues, I mean, that was the most stressful thing that I have watched all season. I don't know how he got out of it, but good for him. Good for Jalen Beeks.

For the Reds, Alexis Diaz entered with a one-run lead. He gave up two runs on two walks and a hit. and he now has a 675 ERA on the season. I just don't really see anywhere else the Reds can go. It's everybody else that pitch tonight has an ERA over four. Emilio Pagan, Fernando Cruz, Lucas Sims. Fernando Cruz was looking great there for a while,

but he's had a rough go of it of late too. So I would, I feel like Alexis Diaz was a pretty good job security at this point. And then for the Dodgers, in extra innings. It was J.P. Fire Eisen who picked up his first save of the season. Daniel Hudson and Blake Trinen had both pitched a little bit earlier in the game.

To stream or not to stream, as we mentioned yesterday, Tuesday, some pretty damn good options. Reese Olson is going up against the Marlins. We have Eric Fetty against the Nationals, and we have Gavin Stone at the Giants. But, I mean, there's other names too, like, who else did I see? I guess that's really it.

I was going to say Paddock, but against the Yankees. I don't love that. I said Olsen, Fetty, and Stone. Olson, Fetty, and Stone, yeah. That's, I think, yeah, it did seem like there were more when we talked about Tuesday yesterday, didn't it? But those are three really good ones. Those are good ones, yeah, for sure.

But I don't see any others that I like here. On Wednesday, we have Casey Mize against the Marlins. I think that one's pretty good. We have... Don't love it. Not a great day here. I would probably say Robert Gasser against the Pirates. Yeah, Alec Marsh at the Mariners, if you need a third choice.

But I don't love any of those three. I think Brandon fought against the Reds. He's been up and down, but the Reds lineup is barren right now. I mean, they are ice cold, so I think I'd be all right with that one. Let's wrap up, Scott. Team Name Tuesday. Normally, Chris is here. and he's much more helpful because you and I are not great with the pop culture references.

I mean, it's really just music. True. You know, I don't have much interest in the music scene at all. And Chris has a lot. That is interesting. It seems like people tailor team name Tuesday just for Chris. Yeah. Well, we'll try.

When you drop a oops all barrios on me, that'll get me cackling. That's an all-timer right there. Let's wrap up. Team name Tuesday. This one's from Robert stairway to Nevin. All right. Who is Phil Nevin's son, if you didn't realize. I think Phil Nevin's son is an even better team name, frankly.

Yeah. From Sean, I'm bringing Vogel Bach. That's pretty good. Yeah. I like it. From Ryan, carry on Wee-W-Sun. See, it just sounds so forced when you try to cram too many names in it, right? Am I wrong about that?

I like cleverly using one name in unexpected ways. That's the sort of team name I like. I'm not good at it myself. I will point out. There are some when they try to use too many. It's so bad that it's good. I don't know. I don't.

I think things are rarely so bad that they're good. A couple other from Ryan. Beck to Beck and belly to belly. That's an homage to John Sterling. Whenever the Yankees would hit back to back home runs, he would say, back to back and belly to belly. Speaking of so bad, it's good.

Ah, come on. John Sterling, we love you, man. From Matt, ginkle, ginkle little star. I like it. See, that's the kind of team name I like. Heaney Babies. I like that too. Matt, Matt and I are on the same wavelength here. Flarity will get you nowhere. Ah, these are good.

Marte Gras Parades. See, this is what happens. You go for the twofer. It all falls apart, Matt. If you seeger something, sayer something. I kind of like that. And this last group is from Stephen. Woo, Bybee.

Mm, okay. Stand by means. Sure. And I do that. Return to Senga. Like return to Sinder? Return to Senga? I don't know.

One of the team names in the podcast for the people is Sengag Genesis. And I like that one. It's very good. Senga, my love. Sindu, my love? Probably. These are stretches. It's a stretch.

Snell High, Bryce Lowe. There isn't. a Bryce Lowe, is there? Is there a low brother we don't know about? I don't think so. Low brother on the down low. I think it's just working in as many names

into a cell high, bio type thing. Ober and Outman. Okay. That's good. That one's not so bad for having two names. I really like this one. Abbott and Castillo.

Yeah. That's good. Yeah. Surprised we haven't heard that before. And Deluca de Irish. I tried to Google that one. I have no idea what it's from. I think it's just the luck.

of the Irish. Oh, DeLuca de Irish. It's actually pretty good then. I like it. Not bad. All right, we're going to wrap there for Scott. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.