Fantasy Baseball Today - Impressive Pitching Debuts, Trust-O-Meter & More! (5/1 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

Tony Gonsolin looked great in his return (2:35). ... Lucas Giolito hurled a quality start in his Red Sox debut (5:38). ... Royals prospect Noah Cameron took a no-hitter into the seventh inning in his debut (9:58). ... Masyn Winn had a huge day (14:03). ... Justin Martinez appears to be hurt (20:07). ... News (23:32): Mike Trout left with a knee injury. ... Victor Scott continues to impress (28:27). ... Any interest in Tyler Anderson or Luis L. Ortiz (36:12)? ... Let's fire up the TRUST-O-METER for hitters off to slow starts (42:41). ... Cristopher Sanchez returned after forearm soreness and Corbin Burnes remains a question (52:25). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (57:56). 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, ⁠⁠⁠⁠@CPTowers⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠@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 league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Welcome back to Tony Gonselin and Lucas Schulito. And welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today.

You know what time it is. It's gonna be May. That's right. Thursday, May 1st. I am Frank St. We'll join by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we had some impressive pitching debuts, both team season debuts and major league debuts.

We'll fire up the trustometer, trustometer, discussed the D-BACs bullpen. Seems like Justin Martinez might be hurt. And much more. Let's jump in. All right, Scott, breadstick of the night, player of the night. It goes to you. Tony Gonselin.

Is it the breadstick? I guess it's the breadstick. It was the first one who came to mind for me. And that's because he looked really good. Against Miami, granted, but really good. Struck out nine in six innings, walk nobody. When Tony Gonsland's at his best, he's had really good control. His track record is pretty spotty.

Pretty spotty in every respect, I would say. But at his best, a really good strike thrower, Tony Gonselin. So 17 whiffs on just 70. seven pitches, six on the fastball. I'm sorry, four on the fastball, six on the slider, five on the splitter, two on the curve ball. So he was missing bats with everything. And it was only 77 pitches, but I was still encouraged that the Dodgers let him go six innings in his first start back. I think that may have been just as encouraging as any other part of the stat line.

So we've been we've been yearning. for interesting starting pitchers off the waiver wire. I would say this start combined with some of the highs Tony Gonselin has had in the past. I know the last time we saw him, 2023 wasn't very good, but a lot of times that last year that leads to Tommy John surgery, you see that.

Look what he did the year before. 16 and one record with all the other numbers looking good. So I think there's a lot to like with Tony Gonsolin, and I think he's a priority pickup after this start. Yeah, no, I was just thinking about like, who that we've added over the past couple of weeks would I drop for him? Would you drop Tyler Malley for him? I kind of think I would. I don't think I would.

That's probably about the line. I get it because what made, what was interesting about Tony, Tyler Malley for the first few starts has kind of disappeared in the last two. But. Yeah, the strikeout. have just been pretty underwhelming all season. Yeah. The whiffs on the fastball specifically. Yeah, I, that's a close one.

I suppose if he was, if it was a shallow enough league that he was really my worst player, I guess I would do it. Drop Malley for Gonsolin. Is this a player that you would drop Gavin Williams for who we spoke about the other day? I know Chris, even the other day before this debut,

you said you would do it. So I guess the question is to Scott. Would you drop Gavin Williams for, 20 Gonsolin. Yeah, I think so at this point. I moved. How below did I move Gavin Williams? I think I moved him outside of my top 70 rest of season. So I, yeah, I could get Gonsolin higher than that, sure. All right, well, let's just-Mitchell Parker, easy drop. Yeah, I think is. Jake Irvin, yep. What about, what about Landon-Roop? Yeah, I think I'd drop

Lander Rip for him. Yeah, it was another rough start. We'll talk about him a little bit more later on. Let's just get through all these debuts now because I think that was kind of the the big talking point here from Wednesday. Lucas G. Alito in his Red Sox debut, his first start since 2023, turned in a quality start at the Blue Jays. Six innings, three runs, seven strikeouts, only nine wiffs on 90 pitches here,

but through 68% of his pitches for strikes. Thought that was pretty encouraging here as well. Velocity pretty much in line with where he was back, where he was at back in 2022 and 2023. 43, 43% rostered. Chris, who would you prefer to add? between Gileto and Tony Gonslyn. It's Gonslyn for me.

It was Gonson before this start. I think Gonson looked better than Gleader. I know the matchups, you know, Toronto versus Miami. Miami's much easier. But I'll also point out Gonson, the defense let him down. I think the last two runs he allowed were pretty iffy. One was off a defender's glove. The other one just went under a defender's glove.

Could have been an even better day for him. so I would give Gonson the edge over Gilead. And I'm actually not sure it would even be an edge for me. I think I just prefer Gonselin because, well, we haven't seen Lucas Gialito have a good season since 2021 at this point. I know 2023, he was decent in the first half. The peripherals were not good. He had like a 3.45 ERA before the All-Star break,

but it was like a 425 FIPP. So awesome in 2022, terrible in 2023. but I'll give Gonsolin the edge. He's further removed from his surgery as well, so you would think that there's less of that. Like, he should have been ready to go for the start of the season, and he heard his back this spring.

So I'm going to go with Gonsolin over Gialito as well. I'm not even sure I'm that motivated to pick up Gialito after this start. I agree. He really just went fastball change up. Didn't throw much of the slider at all? basically just two-pitch pitcher in this start. Previously, it had been a three-pitch pitcher.

You said his velocity was back to where we saw it when? In 2022 and 2023, when he was bad. Bad, exactly. Like, it wasn't back to where it was when Gialito was actually good. He did get a decent number of whiffs on the fastball, but all in all, there wasn't enough here for me to get excited about Gialito's return. and, you know, obviously those deeper leagues where there's just garbage on the waiver wire. Yeah, fine, pick up Gio Lito then.

But normal-sized leagues, I think you can let them lie. Yeah, I would rather take the flyer on Gialito than Mitchell Parker. You know, those kind of like, even maybe Tyler Malley, like, just guys who I don't think there's very much upside. I don't think there's a ton of upside there with Gialito. But I could talk myself into it, right? So whereas I can't really talk myself into Tyler Malley having much long-term upside. I think he'll be useful. I think he can be fine.

But I think there's at least a chance Gialito has some upside there. I mean, I put Mitchell Parker and Tyler Malley in different categories. Sure. So the gist of what you're saying, I agree with. I just don't know that I put Tyler Malley specifically on that side of the ledger. But like Merrill Kelly is 83% right. Rostered. Gavin Williams is 84. Jose Barrios is another one where it's like, I don't mind dropping him.

Renal Blanco, I don't mind. Like, I'm not saying I would drop all of those guys for Lucas Gialito, but if it's a shallow enough league, I think it's probably okay. I don't think you're going to regret dropping those guys to take a chance that Gialito unlock something. Yeah, I just, I don't want to belabor the point. Merrill Kelly, I agree with you. There's not a lot of upside there. I think I see more upside in some of those others you mentioned than you do. I don't want to be labeled as the Merrill Kelly guy on this podcast,

but four really good starts in a row from Merrill Kelly. I will just point out, you know, he's been... At one point, you could have said that about Mitchell Parker. Yeah, yeah, that's fair. I don't know. Merrill Kelly, Jose Brios, yeah. I mean, there are, I guess, more floor options, high floor options than anything else at this point.

Let's go over to Royals pitching prospect Noah Cameron, who made his Major League debut. He took a no-hitter into the seventh inning in his first career start at the Tampa Bay raise, six and a third shutout, one hit, five walks, three strikeouts, only eight whiffs on 79 pitches. I don't want to do the thing where, you know, rookie has this awesome start, really happy for the guy, but, you know, you dig in under the hood a little bit, 58% of his pitches for strikes, five walks to three strikeouts. Like, I'm happy that this was a great star for him. I don't even know if he's going to stick around.

what did you guys think about Noah Cameron? I don't know that I'd ever, like I get at one hit, no earn runs. Maybe those who view pitching through an ERA first lens would see it as a good start. But I don't know that I ever see five walks and three strikeouts in a pitching line and think, wow, he pitched great.

So, yeah, I wasn't that impressed by this from Noah Cameron. He didn't get a single whiff on his fastball. And I thought, I think that's going to be critical. to his success, how if his fastball can provide anything for him, because it's a low velocity fastball, 92.1 is what Noah Cameron averaged on it. Early this year at AAA, it was up a mile per hour, but that seems to have normalized. And it's supposed to have good carry. That's what the scouting report said. But when he gets zero whiffs on it, I'm just not sure I believe that. Yeah, it was 14 inches of induced vertical break in this one. It did have a four.

flat approach angle, which is one of the things that you're looking for. But at 92, it's going to be really hard for that to play as anything more than just okay. So yeah, I didn't see much here to be super enthused about. And just we're not even sure, like Frank said, that he's going to stick around. You know, Col Regan hasn't been placed on the IL yet. So this might just be a one start thing. Yeah. So I think it's more of a.

team for now. Let's see where Noah Cameron goes from here. We'll just quickly mention the Reds also promoted a pitching prospect. Did not go the same way as Noah Cameron. Chase Petty, two in a third innings, nine runs aloud, two homers allowed. He did have 11 whiffs.

Long term, I still think there's a good amount of upside for Chase Petty, but obviously it was not good here in his Major League debut. Let's take our first break, and when we return, we'll get into Chris and my players of the night, and we'll do that right after this. Welcome back in, Fantasy see baseball today. Chris, who is your player of the night? My player of the night is Mason Wynn,

who remember how terrible he was this spring, and then he opened the season going hitless in his first five games and I think struck out in like a third of his plate appearances in those first five games. Well, after going four for eight with two home runs on Wednesday across a double header, I believe he is hitting 360 or right around 360. So, since the first five games of the season. That's really good. 360 batting average is really good. The strikeout rate,

it's down to about 22% in that stretch. So not as low as we'd like. I think Mason wins probably someone who needs to live in like the 18 to 19% range to really, you know, live up to expectations, but it's just a reminder that a slow start doesn't really matter.

I know it feels like it should. It doesn't. It's just unless it costs a guy playing time or like, look, there are going to be examples of guys who get off to a slow star and it actually is a canary in a coal mine. It's a sign that something has gone wrong for them in a way we weren't expecting. Usually that's not the case. Usually a slump in April is no more meaningful or predictive than a slump in june. you. And our expectations for Mason Wynn should probably be pretty similar to what they were before the season, especially now that he's already turned it around and has been doing really well for the last

15 or so games that he's played. It doesn't mean Mason Wynn's going to be a superstar. We never thought that Mason Woon was definitely a superstar before this. It's just a reminder that these things need patience, especially for a guy who missed. some time as well. Yeah. I mean, to add to your point, you say, sometimes it is a canary in a coal mine, but usually it's not,

even in the cases where it is, it's almost impossible to tell in the moment. Right. That's something you only observe in retrospect. And, you know, I do think there is a distinction between players who had a clear outlook coming into the season, and players who had a fuzzy outlook.

There's another example of that. who is Dylan Cruz another one where it's like yeah because he didn't have the track record the slow start might be meaningful the slow start might tell us something it just don't know if it does and other side of the coin Tyler Soderstrom had a fuzzy outlook coming into the season and so I've been a little more aggressive about moving him up in my rankings because I didn't have a clear idea who he was to begin with so I do I do think there some level of going with the flow with players you're just not sure about to begin with, to a degree, obviously you don't let it interfere with the stalwarts. But yes, generally speaking,

I mean, just look what happened to Brandon Nimmo the other day. Your mood on him totally changed in one day. And then he got sick and hasn't played since. But you get the idea. I think if you have Brandon Nimmo and fantasy, you're not sorry. You drafted him right now. I will point out on Soder Strong. I don't think it really matters very much. He's been a little cold for a couple of weeks. I don't know. Let me let me see what the exact. You got a hit today, but his previous 10 games, he was hitting 200 with a 31% strikeout rate and no home runs. I don't necessarily think it matters that much. I do like that he got outfield eligibility, but he played a six game today, so he's outfield eligible now. We'll just point out.

out, we have roughly 20 games of Tyler Sotom, looking like a really good hitter. And then the most 11 recent ones, he looks pretty bad. We're, it's small samples all the way down here, folks. But this is why we are a little more hesitant to move guys up without a track record than you want us to be. And I know, Scott, this has been a big source of consternation for you in recent days, but that's just, it's a reminder that when we're dealing with these really small sample

sizes, it's fine to have a strong opinion. You shouldn't dig your heels in. Like, it's fine to say, yeah, I think Tyler Soderstrom's breaking out. But 20 games is just 20 games, you know? Like, mediocre hitters have really, get 20 really good games with good underlying data fairly regularly. They're major league players. They're really talented. Yeah. Yep. And Mason. has had 15 good games. And it should be expected for every player that they're going to slump at some point in this season, especially for a young player.

So just keep those things in mind. Getting back to Mason Win, he's only 55% rostered on CBS. Not sure he's like a must-add, must-raster player and points leagues and things, but looking at some players that are rostered in more leagues than him, Zach McKinstree, Sadan Raphaela, easy.

Dillon Moore. I'd have Mason win than those guys. Like Dylan Moore, Tyler Fitzgerald. No more's on the IL, right? Yeah. Yeah. So that, I mean, if you, if you have an aisle spot, whatever, although I don't think he's really a high priority IL stash. But yeah, those guys are fairly easy to drop.

Even like Zach McKinstry, he's hit for a really good batting average. He hasn't done anything else so far this season. I have been stubbornly keeping McKinstree out of the visible range of my rankings at all the positions where he's eligible. I might have just moved him into the visible range. now. Yeah, I just don't think there's anything to it at all. My player of the night for the wrong reasons. Just want to mention up

top, Justin Martinez started the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He gave up a solo homer, then two walks. He did not record an out. He was pulled for Ryan Thompson, who then closed it out for his first save of the season. Justin Martinez Velocity was way down in this outing. Sinker was down four miles per hour,

split her down two miles per hour. They talked about him recently dealing with shoulder fatigue. Doesn't seem like he's healthy. And then after the game, Toro Lavello said that Martinez will undergo imaging and could require a trip to the IL. So wanted to hit this up top because D-BACs expected to be a good team. We're always looking for saves. Who is next up? Kevin Ginkle recently returned. He does have some experience saving games for the debacks. Shelby Miller has been awesome this season. What do you guys So the fantasy baseball world kind of ignored it.

But when Tori Lavulo was asked who was going to close this spring, he always named three guys. We just acted like Kevin Ginkle wasn't one of them. But every time he was asked about it, it was A.J. Puck, Justin Martinez, and Kevin Ginkle. He's been really good over the past couple years. This was his first appearance. His velocity was down a bit. I don't know what to make of that. but I think it's fairly clearly Kevin Ginkle as long as he's himself.

He might not be in which case it doesn't matter. But I think they viewed him. I was with everyone else in being skeptical that Ginkl was actually going to be a part of the closer committee with Puck and Martinez. But I don't think he was just lying. So I'll put Ginkle at the top. as long as, you know, he gets up to speed. Yeah, that's fair. And I don't know how long it's going to take for, for him to say, yeah, ginkles, ginkle, and let's go.

So I am going to nominate Shelby Miller, whose velocity has been up this year, and he's been, he's allowed three hits all year. My biggest, well, you know what, it hasn't really been an issue looking at the game long. I wondered if Shelby Miller was someone they trusted to go on back-to-back days, but he's done it three times already this season. So I don't think that's an issue. It's, yeah, if you were betting, let's say this is a long-term injury for Justin Martinez, you're betting somebody long-term, ginkle. But Shelby Miller might get the next save for the diamondbacks.

Yeah, Shelby Miller has been incredible. 12 and 2-3rd shutout innings, 15 strikeouts of four walks. a 15.7% swinging strike rate, though we haven't really seen him close out games. He had two saves last year for the Tigers, but yeah, it's not something he has a ton of experience doing. I would bet on Kevin Ginkle, but I do think there is a chance for Shelby Miller as well. But Ginkl, by the way, 5% rostered. So even in the deepest of leagues, like NL only, deep roto leagues, you need saves, just take a shot and let's see what happens here. Before we get to the news and notes,

thanks to everyone for watching us live. We appreciate you being here. Hit the like button and subscribe to the YouTube channel if you haven't already. And if you listen to the podcast on audio, drop us a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. It really helps. And again, we do appreciate it.

The news and notes, Mike Trout was removed Wednesday due to left knee soreness. That is the same knee that he had surgery on twice last season. Did you guys see or hear anything else here regarding Mike Trout and his knee? They said it was a precaution. Given his history, I can't say I believe that necessarily, but that is what Ron Washington said.

Yeah. Tyler Glass now will be shut down 10 to 14 days before being reevaluated. He is on the IL with right shoulder inflammation. George Kirby could begin a rehab assignment as soon as this weekend. Tommy Edmund was out of the lineup due to a right ankle injury. He's actually sat out two of the past three games as he works through that jazz chisholm was out of the lineup with that right oblique injury which he called a right flank injury and like i i don't know i've i heard of like flank steak i've never heard of

i know a flank injury before but i don't know it's just jazz being jazz i guess my connotation no it was officially reported as a flank injury yeah i think someone asked him and he that's what he said and they just kind of ran with it so okay you know what he spent a lot of time in miami probably had a lot of Rupa Veeha, which is made with flank steak. That's got to be what you said. Oh, is it? I do love some Rupa Vier. Oh, so good.

That's what I always get at the Cuban restaurant. It is great. Love some old clothes. Jazz said that he was feeling better, but he is still scheduled for an MRI on Thursday. Yvonne Herrera will start a rehab assignment on Thursday, 63% rostered. Would you guys take Herrera over any of Augustine Ramirez,

Sean Murphy, Hunter Goodman, or Carson Kelly. I didn't hear who you said, but I heard Augustin Ramirez, and there's no beating him. Ivan Herrera, Augustine Ramirez, Sean Murphy, Hunter Goodman, Carson Kelly. So I will rank them all for you. Augustin Ramirez. Geez, how long is it going to take Herrera to actually be rehabilitated? I guess another week? In the long run, I'll put Herrera second after Ramirez. then Sean Murphy, then Hunter Goodman.

Carson Kelly, way, way, way, way below all of them. He's not actually Mickey Mantle. And by the way, the hottest prospect in baseball right now is a Cubs catcher. Yeah. Moises by Asteroz, who is now batting over 400 at AAA, just had a two-homer game. Really, really good hitter, built like a bowling ball. He's basically Alejandro Kirk. hopefully he elevates the ball more consistent.

Well, yeah, I mean, Pablo Sandoval is kind of like the more favorable, I guess, projection there. But yeah, at some point you feel like they're going to have to work him in. And I don't know that it's going to be a catcher because the Cubs already can't play Miguel and Maya enough. But it's just going to further complicate things for Carson Kelly at some point, I think. Max Scherzer threw another bullpen on a Wednesday that went, quote, fairly well. Manager John Schneider said Scherzer is definitely making progress and that the feedback has been a lot better. Jared Jones has begun a throwing program. He is on the IL with a UCL sprain in his right elbow.

Austin Hayes, who's missed two in a row with a hamstring injury, is expected to avoid the IL. Hayden Wesneski is not expected to make his next start until next week. So apologies to those who have him in their lineup. Apparently he's not dealing with any injury. The Astros just wanted to give him more rest as his last start was pretty inefficient. Speaking of the Astros, Lance McCullors Jr. will start Sunday against the White Sox.

This will be his first start since the 2022 World Series. I mean, three years, almost three years. It's like two and a half years at this point. But now 31 years old, he's dealt with so many arm injuries. I have no expectations. Do you guys have interest in adding him in deeper leagues for now? checking on the velocity here it is uh not where it was at his peak it's been around 92 93 i think

yeah it's down a couple miles per hour so i i have very low expectations for lancebe colors those deepest leagues like a l only maybe even some deeper mixed leagues where there's just nothing interesting out there you take a flyer and hope for the best but your hope should be low. All right, and prayers up to the fan in the Pirates game, man. That fell out of the stands. It was very scary stuff. The players were kind of shaking up, taking a knee and everything, and hope everything works

out. I haven't heard anything definitive. I know it was like critical condition, but yeah, I hope everything works out with that fan in the Pirates game. Waiverwire hitters, other names here. I wanted to mention Victor Scott had a big double header, three for seven with a sock and a shoe, 271 batting average for him. He's got two homers, 10 steals, 742 OPE,

every time I think he's about to kind of like slump his way out of a job, he bounces back, he has a couple good games here, 69% rostered on CBS. I think that sounds right. I don't think he needs to be rostered in points leagues, but, you know, somewhere like Yahoo, 31%. I have to imagine there are some head-to-category teams that need speed out there. So it should be rostered.

I still think it would have to be a five outfielder league, though. Fair. Not that you couldn't roster them in a three outfielder league. I just hope you wouldn't be starting him. Three outfielers in a utility spot and a head-to-head categories. Like, I think it's just a file. Which one are we talking about again? Victor Scott.

Yeah. I think I'm most... I think I'm mostly agree with Scott. 69% rostered is fine. You said it's 31% Yahoo? Yeah. The distinction was I was saying, Frank was saying all categories leagues. He should be rostered.

I was saying probably just the five outfielder category league. I think it probably, like, if you really need speed, he's clearly going to be a stand out there. There's probably one team in every 12-team categories league that need speed, though, right? I would think. Yeah. No, that's what are you forfeiting to get that speed in your lineup? Yeah. I mean, he hasn't been a complete zero in other spots.

You know, it's the counting sets have been getting at like two homers. All right, he's probably only going to hit five or six for the season. But batting average has been okay so far. So I don't know. It's been a nice start to the season for Victor. Scott. Jeremy Payne. Someone in the chat asked Victor Scott or T.J. Friedel.

I definitely go Friedel there. Oh, I would think so, yeah. I would definitely, I would go Victor Scott. Okay. Yeah. Jeremy Payne has quietly had a strong start to the season as well, three for five with his fourth home run, and he has let off four games in a row with Jose Altuvae batting second.

I didn't confirm this, but I heard this on Dodgers radio today, that Jose Altuve requested to be moved to second in the lineup. because he now plays left field, and it takes him too long to run from left field to the dugout to get ready to hit lead off for the game. I thought I saw that on a joke account. I did see that he requested to hit second. I wasn't sure.

I didn't know that was the reason. I don't know if that's actually the reason or not. Did you fall on the joke, Frank? No, I heard it on the Dodgers radio broadcast, put it. I will say with regards to Pena, like he's having a pretty solid start to the season, the underlying numbers are actually even better. He has a 364X-WO compared to a 330 mark.

His XBA is 298. He's cut the strikeout rate to 16%. He's hitting the ball a lot harder this season. Walking a little bit more too? Yeah, I'm skeptical. I'm skeptical that it really matters, but maybe there's another level that Jeremy Pena can get to. Would you rather have Jeremy Pena or Mason win?

Mason win. Scott? Oh, I think that's pretty close, actually. I might give the edge to Pena. You know, the thing you have to keep in mind with Jose Al-Tube before you make fun of him, it's a lot of steps to get out to left field. I never make fun of Jose.

You know, like, that's just, that's like, like Aaron Judge only has to take like 12 steps and he's in the outfield. Jose Al-Tube's got, it's a lot more work to get out. Short stride. Yeah. No, he's, and he's, you know, he's getting older. Yeah. You don't want to be winded before the inning even begins.

Max Muncie of the Dodgers, I guess I have to make that distinction now. He's off the Schneide, two for four with his first home run of the season. Everything else looks pretty bad. He's down to 50% rostered. I feel like we should just leave him there, right? And maybe he gets hot and we pick him up, but it's been a really, really bad start for Max Muncie. Yeah, he feels unstartable. I mean, hopefully, hopefully this is the start of the turnaround.

Obviously, his track record is pretty stable. but he is getting older. And even in my roto leagues with corner infield spots, I haven't taken him out of my lineup. So yeah, it's going to take a bit of a hot streak, I think, to regain my trust. Some names in deeper five outfielder leagues. Kyle Stowers might be a dude.

4-4 with a double-dong, 4 RBI here, batting 323-906 OPS, and Dalton Varsho had a nice game recently returned from injury, two-for-four with his side. first home run, batting fifth all of a sudden in the Blue Jays lineup. Both are 23% rostered. Who do you prefer in those deeper five Alfealer leagues? I assume you guys talked about that catch Dalton Varsho made on Tuesday night.

It's crazy. Because I might want to pick them up just for that. No, I would not take either Stowers or Varso over Pahez or Beck. I didn't ask that question yet. Oh, sorry. Just between the two. Who do you like more, I guess? I was thinking about the catch, and I didn't actually listen to what you were asking.

I'm sorry. I like Stowers more than Varsho. I don't like Stowers that much. Is it Stowers or Stowers? I have no idea. I don't know for certain, but I'm pretty sure it's Stowers. Okay. I believe you.

I just have often been confused by his name. Stowers, it looks like baseball reference is saying. Nicknames include Stowers Power. Okay, we're going with Stowers. So his strikeout rate is near 30%. His exit velocities are kind of mad. He hit three balls really hard in this game, but overall they don't really back up

what he's been doing here with the 321 batting average. And obviously a bad lineup, too. So I think everything's going to take a turn for the worst here for Kyle Stowers. Not saying you can't roster him in five outfielder leagues, but I don't think you should believe you've unearthed some gem here that's going to be a staple in your lineup moving forward. I do want to say two things regarding Dalton Varsho.

One, I believe that catch he made would count as two outs in a Savannah Bananas game. And two, remember he used to be a catcher? Yeah. I don't know if we talk enough about how, crazy it is that he just transitioned to the outfield like three years ago and has been like one of the five best defensive centerfielders in baseball that's that's wild i wonder that's really impressive i wonder how much exposure craigigio had to second base before he went from catcher to second base and then he wound up in center field too i mean every time he hit a double for sure yeah sorry

It is impressive. Varshael, athletic specimen. What can you say? I want to mention a deep league middle infielder J.P. Crawford has picked things up. Last 12 games, he's hitting 400 with two home runs, 13 RBI, tons of line drives. But the problem with Crawford, he kind of feels like a deep points league player. And I just don't know how many of how many of those leagues there are. I'm in my Tout Wars League is a points league with Roto rosters. That's probably the only league where I'd really look to pick J.P. Crawford up. Yep. I think that's fair. Other Waver Wire pitchers besides the debuts,

from earlier, Tony Gonslin, obviously top of the list. Tyler Anderson, another quality start. He has allowed three-earned runs or fewer in all six starts this season. Luis L. Ortiz had a strong start up against the twins, six and a third. Shutout with five strikeouts in that one. Both are under 40% roster. Do you have any interest in Tyler Anderson or Luis L. Ortiz? I'm kind of interested in Ortiz. You look at the whiff rate on his pitches. Like, it's, he doesn't have one pitch that has like a 40% rate,

but there's a lot of 25% to 35%. And the overall swinging strike rate was 13%. He has given up hard contact. And he's not really a ground ball pitcher. So I don't think there's a really high ceiling here for Luis Ortiz. but I think there's enough bat missing potential that Cleveland, you know, they have a reputation for maximizing pitcher outcomes. And I think they've unlocked enough here in Ortiz

that he's going to be maybe a little better than a streamer moving forward. He's a spark. Yeah. So in those formats, certainly, I think in Roto leagues, I'm not particularly interested, though. I know we probably shouldn't trust. Trust is not the right word. add Tyler Anderson, I guess, but

entering this start, he had a 373 XERA and then 11.9% swinging strike rate. And he had 18 whiffs in this game, so just thought I would mention that with Tyler Anderson. How'd that Andrew Heaney follow-up go?

Oh, do you hold or drop these pitchers? Landen Rup, we kind of talked about Jake Irvin. What do you think about those two rough outings for both of them? Irvin, category. Like, whatever you get out of him, just thank your lucky stars. And he's a two-star pitcher next week.

Yeah. Versus Cleveland versus St. Louis. I think that's fine in a points league, but I just, I don't have any interest in him in a roto league. Yeah. Certainly a 12-team won. Rup's still interesting with this curveball, but I don't think interesting enough that he only has one good start this year.

he's kind of just interesting. Yeah, for now anyway. Keep an eye on him. Keep him on the scout team. But I don't think you have to continue to roster Landon Rup. I really think just like, because like Max Meyer has a similar approach where he spams that secondary pitch so much that like the slider is his primary pitch.

He throws a 40 to 45% of time. Rup is in a similar range. I just think it's really hard to do that with a 77 mile an hour curveball that breaks as much as his. I just think that's going to be, I think inconsistency is going to be the problem, and they're going to be really, really impressive starts

where he's got the feel for it and he dominates. But I think there's going to be a lot of starts where it's just too hard to throw strikes consistently that way. Yeah. I think his command is worse than Max Myers too. Oh, yeah.

You know who would be better than Landon Rube? And also better than Jordan Hicks. That's kind of the one I'd rather see go. Oh, yeah. Is Hayden Birdsong. He's on the rundown. He's up next. Yeah, okay.

Now, I mean, look, now's the time to, if you're playing a deeper league, stash Hayden Birdsong, he really should get another opportunity. He's been awesome this season. 113-ERA 10K per 9, 14% swinging strike rate. So if you want to stash Hayden Birdsong with the hopes he gets in the rotation,

I can see that happening some point soon. I will say, just as a general rule, I've seen some people do this with Ben Casparius as well for the Dodgers, who's been kind of their bulk reliever, who's had very good numbers, it's a completely different animal than starting. You know, even throwing two or three innings out of the bullpen

is just so different than being asked to navigate a lineup to maybe three times. It's not to say that Birdsong isn't an interesting talent. I think he is. It's just keep expectations in check. Yeah. You don't know how it's going to go, but we were rooting for him to win the rotation spot with his performance this spring. And we did see some pretty big upside starts last season,

at least in terms of strikeouts for Birdsong as well. Chase Dolander just wanted to mention, this is probably just a scout team for now, right? I mean, good start against the Braves, five and two-thirds, one run, only four strikeouts, but 14 whiffs on 87 pitches here. He left with a broken fingernail, so not entirely sure he'll make his next start,

but prospect of note has a good start, but I think it's just kind of a scout team for now, right? Yeah. The odds are not in his favor. All right, let's take our final break, and when we return, we will do the trustometer right after this quick commercial break. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today, the trustometer. How much do you trust these hitters will get all the way back on track?

One, you have no confidence in that happening. Ten, they will definitely get back on track. And a lot of these names have already started to heat back up, but, you know, try to find a way to talk about them. Riley Green, 4-4 with two runs over his last seven games. He's batting 407 with three homers. Where is he on the Trustometer? Nine?

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. As we move on, I might want to lower him to an eight if everybody's coming out a nine or a ten. But I'll go to nine for right now with Riley Green. There's definitely at least one that's not a nine. All right. Wilson Gutreras is coming around two for four with his third home run in game two of their double-hitter. 18 games since April 12th. He is batting 309 with three homers, two steals, and just a 16% strikeout rate.

Where is Wilson Contreras on the trustometer? Sounds like it's already happened. Yeah. I mean, the overall numbers, it's still 222 with a 642 OPS, so yeah. I'll go nine just because he's old, but the strikeout rate, I think, is the most encouraging part there

because it was inflated early on for Wilson Contreras. Rafael Devers is racked up the hits again last five games eight hits three homers seven runs five RBI 20 30 50 I he has like the best quality of contact metrics of his career I really think it was just he only played five spring games and he needed a week or two to to get up to speed because it's basically like the numbers weren't there but all the underlying stuff after the first week has been Raphael Devers yeah and I

think you'll probably say the same thing about his teammate Jaron Duran, who in his last eight games is betting 405 with one homer and four steals. Well, I'm going to go nine just because he was never a 10 even on draft day. Yeah. So

I'm already deciding I'm lowering Riley Green to eight just to further distinguish my confidence level in these players. I'll go nine. The only other thing with Jaron is I do want to see more power at some point, obviously. He's got two home runs to this point. It's a 147 ISO last year that was 207, even the year before it was

187. So hoping that the power shows up at some point soon. He is hitting the ball really hard. 92.9 average exit velocity there for Jaron. And the launch angle is even higher than last year. I mean, it wasn't that high last year, but it's higher this year. So that's not been a problem for Duran either. I think if you're making hard contact at the right angle, the power is going to come. Mark Vientos last 11 games. He's hitting 310 with four homers and 11 RBI. I believe at least one of those came off of a position player. But what about Vientos on the trussometer? Six. I was going to say seven, but we're both in agreement. It's the lowest right now. I mean, he so like his chase rate is way down.

It's down to 27%. That's by far the lowest of his career. It's actually lower than the league average. He's also, his bat speed is way down. And that's not everything, right? Like bat speed is one in a number of factors to take into consideration. And Scott, you've brought up that it's not clear bat speed tells us a ton that the stats we already have. Don't.

I mostly agree with that. But when you're looking at a change. over year. I do think there's something there, especially in Viento's case, because it's coming with that plate discipline change, where I think he might

just be, like, despite the love. Yeah, selling out for contact, or just making his swing decisions a little later than he needs to to try to make sure that he's getting, you're making the right choice,

and that in theory could help the strikeout rate lower and it has it's just it's cost him a lot of power his quality of contact metrics really bad right now his average eggs of velocity 90.1 miles per hour that's 57th percent of okay it's above average but this is a guy who probably needs you know borderline elite quality of contact to to really matter and even lately his last 50 plate appearances 299 expected Wobah so even you know that those last 11 or 10 games, whatever you cited,

Frank, doesn't really seem to be much there in the underlying numbers to back it up. So I'm pretty iffy on Mark Vientos right now. And I was iffy on him coming in. So could be confirmation bias here too. Well, yeah, I was too.

And I am factoring in the confirmation bias. You know, if my level of trust in a player wasn't that high coming in, it's going to be lower now. too. I just want to point out because we have all this new data that can

give us new insights into what a player's doing in the moment, what he's done up to this point. It's still not like, it still doesn't describe his permanent state. Yeah.

You know? None of these steps. Yeah. A lot of times we would say a player is cold because we had no other way of stating it. But if you, if we had this underlying information available, we probably would have found a lot of the same things.

Like if this isn't working, if Mark Viantos has intentionally changed his approach to make better swing decisions and it's not working for him, you would imagine at some point he would revert to his past approach and heat up and do what people expect it all along. So that's why I'm only going seven.

I mean, it may, you mentioned that in recent it bats hasn't improved that much, but he is starting to hit home runs. So it may be, that it won't be long before people are wondering what there was to doubt about Viantos in the first place. Three other hitters who are struggling much more,

but they had big games here on Wednesday. J.T. Real Muto, two for four, with his second home run in the season, still batting 237 with a 669 OPS. Where is he on the Trustometer? Eight only because he's old, but his underlying data is still pretty solid. right now. Yeah, I was going to say eight also. All right. I still have a lot of confidence in him. I, as thrilled as I am with Augustine Ramirez, as I can't move him past the real Muto line. Especially four steals already after only stealing two last year, sprint speeds back up to 85%.

I, yeah, I think JTura-Moto's going to be a must-start guy the rest of the way. Some signs of life from Vinnie P. Baby! Vinnie passed Guantino, one for four with his fourth home run. He is batting 177 with a 569 OPS. Where is Vinnie P on the trostometer? He's probably down there at a 7 with Viantos. And part of that is I just still don't have a great grasp of what Fiantos, I mean, of what Pasquantino is. Because he's shown flashes throughout his major league career.

There have been a lot of injuries that have interrupted things. If you look at this full-season stat lines for Vinny Pasquantino, None of them are that impressive. It's just, oh, he was finally, he was finally starting to get going. He was finally doing what we expected from Pasquantino and then injury ended at all. So I don't know that he is just what is full season stats show. But if that is all he is, then he's not that big of a deal. He's better in points leagues, obviously, definitely a startable hitter there.

But even there, not a difference maker. I think it was like three fantasy points per game last year for Vinny P. Yeah. Which is good, but. You'll notice my analysis was all about like it's the same analysis I could have given coming into the season. It has really little to do with what he's done so far. Because what he's done so far, I don't think. The only thing that it might suggest is that he's feeling that hamstring injury more than has been let on.

the hamstring injury that was in play on opening day, right, from the very start of the season. Yeah. Yes, right before the season, right? Yep. Anthony Santander blasted a clutch home run on Wednesday here, one for five with his fourth homer, three RBI. He's batting only 175, 574 OPS, first season, new location, big contract here with the Blue Jays.

What do you guys think about Santander on the Trustometer? I'm still like a nine on him. I know the underlying number. This is one where it's kind of the opposite of someone we were talking about earlier, where the underlying numbers aren't there. I think he's just not locked in in that classic sense. And eventually he will be and he'll be fine. That's where I'm at.

As somebody who has a long history of underestimating Santander, take it for me. Don't underestimate Santander. All right, let's get back into the rest of Wednesday's action. And back over to pitching, Christopher Sanchez's first start after leaving with forearm soreness. Pretty good one. Five innings, five hits, two runs, three walks, six strikeouts here. 13 whiffs on 87 pitches.

Velocity looked fine from what I could see. What did you guys think of Sanchez's first start back from that? Everything looked fine. Command a little shaky. that would be my only concern just that like if he's 97% healthy but he has to reach back a little more to get the velocity. Does it mess up his command? Does it lead to another injury? Well, sure.

That would be the bigger concern, but there's nothing we can do about that. But my concern level is relatively low. All right. Let's go over to Corbyn Burns. Maybe the concern level is a little bit higher here. A weird start for Corbyn Burns at the Mets. Six innings, one run, five walks to three strikeouts here. Only through 52% of his pitches for strikes.

His velocity was down in this one. It was 71 degrees in city fields. I don't think that was part of, you know, any blame for his velocity being down here. Strikeouts are down, walks are up. you guys were talking beforehand, like, I don't know what to make of Corbyn Burns right now. Yeah, I've moved him behind Michael King and Yoshinobu Yamamoto

in my rest of season rankings. So just very slow and measured move down the rankings for Burns. And it's mostly just out of respect for him and his track record and the fact that we saw him make adjustments last season. But I don't see a lot to be. encouraged by here. And that doesn't mean he's doomed.

That doesn't mean it's all over for Corbyn Burns. But normally, when there is a player like this who's performing below expectations, I can say, yeah, but this is okay and this is okay. And he's probably okay, especially when it comes to pitchers. Because when people are freaking out about the top line stats for numbers when the sample is small. A lot of times that the foundation is still there, you know, but it's not for

burns. Like the swinging strikes have just collapsed. I mean, 20% strikeout rate, 12% walk rate. That is horrible. And the cutter's not there. That's the biggest thing. The velocity was down again today.

About two and a half miles per hour down from where he was last year from remembering correctly. He was down to 93 miles per hour with it. and also 12 inches of induced vertical break, only like two inches of horizontal break. He last September, when he rediscovered his cutter, he said that his cutter had turned into a crappy four seam fastball. He used more colorful language,

but there might be kids listening. That's what it looks like right now. His foreseamer looks or his cutter looks like a crappy force seam. seamer and especially if he's sitting 93 with it instead of closer to 94 or 95 even where he was last year i i'm really concerned i don't want to panic and say ah sell corbin burns right now because it could just be a simple mechanical tweak or a grip tweak and he he gets back to it like he did last september but the fact that he lost it had a terrible august rediscovered it in september and and then seemingly lost it again in the off season,

that makes me think that it's not quite so easy to get it back as I thought it was. And it's looking pretty bad. Yeah, I haven't moved to, I haven't updated my rankings for this week yet. Just eyeballing it, I could drop him to about 15th, maybe even lower. Like, I'm not 100% sure I'd rather have Corbyn Burns than Logan Webb the rest of the way. I know Logan Webb's coming off a bad start,

but I think he's been really impressive this season. He's expanded his arsenal. It's kind of a similar thing for Logan Webb, where his change-up has come and gone. When he's had it, he's looked amazing. He's expanded his arsenal enough that I think he can survive without the change-up, but I don't know.

I could fairly easily move. Am I certain? I'd rather have Corbyn Burns than Freddie Peralta right now? I don't think I am. All right. Well, I'm not going to let you squirm out of this then. I have Logan Webb. I send you an offer right now.

Logan Webb, for Corbyn Burns. Are you taking it? I'm probably turning it down. Okay. But I acknowledge that one of my weaknesses as a player is I anchor too much to my preseason expectations for players. That could be what I'm doing here because I had Corbyn Burns as my number four or

five starting pitcher. Well, that looks dumb right now. I don't think he's that guy. I don't think it's impossible that he gets back to be. that guy, but it's been a really discouraging start for Corbyn Burns. I think this is even worse than like, even lower than last August for me, just because the underlying stuff is so much worse than it's been. Other pitching leftovers, Chris Sale had his best start of the season. He took a tough luck loss at the Rockies, seven innings, two runs, a season

high 10 strikeouts to zero walks. Michael King pitched well against the Giants, five and two thirds, one run, six strikeouts for him. Pablo Lopez, a quality start at the Guardians, six and a third, two runs with six strikeouts, and Nathan Avaldi looked great against the athletics, six innings, one run, eight strikeouts, zero walks, 16 whiffs on 92 pitches. I believe it's, yeah, three walks in 42 and two-thirds innings for Nathan Avaldi this season. Anything to add on those four?

Avaldi, Pablo Lopez, Michael King, Chris Sale. Are we feeling good about Chris Sale now? I know it's the Rockies and Coresfield is weird and all of that. It was, we told people to buy low earlier in the week. You might have missed out. So, yeah,

one thing I do want to point out is, this is the lowest team OPS that the Rockies have ever had at home. It's down to like 721 for the season. They're still like 17th in league wide OPS at home. So I know the Rockies, the Rockies are terrible. Truly one of the most hopeless teams I've ever seen. frankly.

Get the win. I don't even like, because it's one of those things where like, I don't even know what like the good version of this team is supposed to look like. Yeah.

But Coorsfield is not like the Rockies at Coorsfield. It's not the Marlins, you know? Like this is not a walkover matchup despite it being a really poor lineup. So yeah, I haven't really had a good explanation

for why Chris Sale has been so overwhelming anyway. So I kind of just, just chalk it up to, yeah, I mean, it hasn't been, it hasn't been like Corp and Burns where it's just like, just kind of the results are bad,

but everything else looks fine kind of thing. Which is just, that's the underlying foundation of pitchers when they're struggling early on, what I was referring to when I say, well, even when they're struggling, you see that the basic components of the pitcher are fine,

and so he's probably fine. And I think that's true of sale. All right, some hitting leftovers. For all the hoopla involved with Freddie Freeman. He's off to a pretty good start. Two for four, his fifth home run, batting 319 OPS over a thousand, first 20 games of the season. Teosker Hernandez is on a heater last seven games. He's hitting 452 with four homers, 14 RBI and seven games and two steals. Just a tremendous start for Teosker. Aaron Judge will not stop three for three with a walk in his 10th home run.

he is batting 427 with a 521 on base percentage so far and Lawrence Butler 50 hits in the month of April Aaron Judge had 50 hits in March slash April he has over the past 165 days a 365 batting average a 1255 OPS 62 home runs 138 runs 155 RBI and 12 stolen bases. Like this is kids. For those of you who weren't old enough, Frank, I actually don't know if you were old enough to have watched Barry Bonds in the early 2000s.

Yeah. That's what this was like. It's unbelievable what he's done over the past year. It's just given that Barry Bonds was on steroids, this might be the best we've ever, I've ever seen from a hit. and I never thought I would say that. I never thought I would see someone hit at the level Barry Bonds did in the early 2000s.

It's bonkers. Yeah. And obviously, he, I don't think he's going to keep up a 427 batting average, but it's pretty interesting to just compare his start to this season versus his start to last season when he got off to a terrible start, and he still wound up with a batting average over 300 and 58. Like, where will the numbers end this season? I don't know.

Like, let's just hope he stays healthy. we find out, like, how good of a season can Aaron Judge have? I don't know. We're about to find out. Lawrence Butler, two for five with a grand slam. He is hitting 254 early on, five homers, five steals. Who's going to ask you guys, like, what do you make of his season so far? The OPS seems underwhelming, but he's basically on pace for a 25, 25 season right now.

So I think overall you're pleased? Yeah, I'm pretty happy with what he's doing. my biggest concern was that the improved strikeout rate we saw from him from the time he returned from the miners early June last year, whatever range of numbers I kept citing where Butler got that strikeout rate way down and everything blew up. Strike out rate's 22% for the year. And he's walking at a nice rate.

Plate discipline's been great. Exit velocities look good. I think he's been, I think the spray angle's been a little sub-opsylvania. optimal for power, but I don't think that's going to be a big deal in the long run. I think you're going to be happy with what Lawrence Butler gets you, and it looks like the power's begun to tick up here lately. Call to the bullpen for the Tigers.

Tommy Canley got the final four out, striking out two for his fifth save of the season. Kind of feels like the pendulum is swinging back in his favor, but I guess we never know with A.J. Hinch. For the Rockies, somebody named Zach Agnos picked up his first. career save. Seth Halverson pitched in the eighth inning, facing 9-1-2 in the Braves lineup. He struck out too. Tyler Kinley feels like he should have been available, but he's not very good.

I mean, the deepest of category leagues. Any interest in a Zach Agnos? So I mentioned the Rockies got their fifth win today. They've gotten four saves in those five wins. Different pitchers each time. four different pitchers have a save for them and their five wins. So no.

The food was terrible and the portion sizes were so small. Totally fair answer. For the Padres, Robert Swares struck out two for his 12th save. For the Guardians, Kate Smith entered with one out in the seventh, one runner on in a tie game. He struck out the next two.

Emmanuel Claisse, got the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He gave up a run on two hits. He struck out three for his fifth save and is that just it? Claus A's back? I mean, I don't like that he gave up a run. He's already given up more than last year.

Yeah. So. I guess it's back in the roll. Yeah, well, he's back in the roll. That was clear already, I think. But I wouldn't be so quick to drop Kate Smith. Yep. For Kate Smith.

For the Yankees, Devin Williams pitching the seventh inning with the Yankees down one run. He walked one, also struck out, nothing else, but two clean outings in a row for Devin Williams. For the Orioles, Felix Bautista got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He struck out one for his fifth save. Has looked pretty good. Best he's looked all season.

Yep. The velocity was way up, too. For the Pirates, David Bednar got the ninth inning with a one-run lead against the Cubs. So, you know, pretty high leverage here. Gave up a hit, and he struck out one for his third save. And Bednar since returning, it's six innings, one run, eight strikeouts to one walk. He has two saves.

only 41% rostered feels like that number should be higher for David Bednar for the Royals Carlos Estavans I wanted to point out because I agree with you but I thought this was the most revealing outing yet

because when when David Bednar got his safe before Danny Santana is that his name I'm forgetting his name Dennis Dennis. Dennis Santana yeah Dennis Santana worked the eighth

against the top of it was the Dundana Dodgers lineup, right? So he faced the best of the Dodgers lineup in the eighth, and then they turned to Bednar in the ninth. And then I noticed they used Bednar in the ninth of a non-safe situation the other day, did not use Dennis Santana in that game? So I was wondering, did they trick us? Was it just a leverage thing with Santana? But then obviously, Bednar conventional safe chance he gets it. And Santana didn't even pitch in this game. I wonder if something's going on with us. He's on the bereavement list right now. Oh, okay. Yeah. For the Royals, Carlos

Estabez picked up his nine. save for the Brewers, Trevor McGill, got the ninth with a two-run lead. He gave up a hit and walk, but struck out two for his third save. It looks a little shaky. For the Rangers, Luke Jackson entered the ninth of the game tied. He was charged with four runs on two hits and two walks. He has a 655 ERA and a 155 whip. This was not a save opportunity, but obviously he was tasked with keeping the game tied and he did not do that. Meanwhile, Chris Martin has a 184 ERA and a 0.95 whip. So I don't know what's it, what it's

going to take. I don't even know if it would be Chris Martin. Maybe it would be, uh, Robert, what's his last name there? Robert. I'm forgetting the other reliever. I'm forgetting his name too. But they have another, like, I can see the Rangers going away from Luke Jackson at some point. Yeah, I mean, I don't think Luke Jackson's very good. I'm always. Robert Garcia. I'm always. I'm quick to dismiss the bad outing for a closer in a non-safe situation. And I just wish, I just wish managers would acknowledge this. It's kind of one of the most frustrating things about modern bullpen usage is that they don't, they don't put anything on the emotion of the moment. It's just, no matter what moment we, or situation you enter into, you're supposed to

perform exactly the same when obviously adrenaline is going to be different and just the whole mentality might be different for the pitcher. And it's it's so often that we see closers and non-save situations just have outings like this. They just can't get up for it for whatever reason. And Luke Jackson had been totally fine prior to this. So I don't think he's on the verge of losing the job. I agree with a four-run inning kind of going awry for a like non-safe situation, but bringing in who you think is your closer or best reliever in a tie game. I mean, that's a high game is.

That's a pretty high leverage spot, I would say. Like, you got to be able to get up. Maybe I read the box score wrong. Sorry. I thought they had. I think you turned it into a four run game. Yeah.

It was. Yeah, it was tied going into the ninth. They lost seven to one. They gave up six runs in the ninth thing. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I just read the box score wrong.

Sorry. Okay. So forget that. He blew a tie. That's a little different. And I still think he gets a longer leash than this because he had been totally fine. But he can't afford many more of this, obviously. All right.

For, to stream or not to stream on Thursday, we have Colin Ray at the Pirates, Matthew Liberator at the Reds, Andrew Abbott versus the Cardinals, Chad Patrick at the White Sox. Oh, Verlander, home against the Rockies. That could work. Yeah, Verlander, I think, is fine. that's probably the only one I could see a good start from Liberator or Abbott but I don't have a ton of faith in them same with Colin Ray Chad Patrick at the White Sox would probably be my second choice to Verlander

but actually they both were among my streamer pitchers for the week so yeah Burlander than Chad Patrick I think Colin Ray at the Pirates I'm pretty open about starting almost anybody at the Pirates, and Colin Ray has looked pretty good, so I could see that working out for him. And then on Friday, hmm, not the best slate, but we have Jack Leiter facing the Mariners, Osvaldo at the Marlins, Michael Waka at the Orioles, Jose Soriano, home against the Tigers. You're not going to get me to say start Osvaldo Bito, even against the Marlins.

It's worked out when we've started them against the White Sox both times. That, I will live with it if it doesn't work out. Okay. I'm not thrilled. I'll live with it. I will live with it if it does work out, I guess. Because I think both those white socks started was one strikeout, so it felt like you got away with something. Yeah.

But it did technically work out. I think, I know his last couple starts have been shaky, but Jose Soriano against the Tigers still seems like the best one here to me. The Orioles lineup is kind of weird. Sometimes it just seems inept. And I don't think it'll be always that way, but Michael Walker is a decent pitcher. I think he's coming off his best start of the season. So that matchup at Baltimore might go okay for him. All right.

We are going to wrap there for Scott, Chris. 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. Paramount Podcasts.