Fantasy Baseball Today - Injuries Piling Up, Dylan Cease Implosion & More! (4/9 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 9, 2025

Nick Lodolo is delivering quality starts but without strikeouts (2:45). ... Shane Smith looks really good so far (5:41). ... How do we rank Smith, Landen Roupp and Easton Lucas (9:00)? ... Dylan Cease got lit up by the A's (12:23). ... We got a bunch of injury updates to Jackson Merrill, Fernando Tatis, Matt McLain and more (17:46). ... Who are the top injury replacements (27:34)? ... Jameson Taillon has turned in back-to-back quality starts (40:42). ... These aces did not perform on Tuesday (42:37). ... What's up with these first basemen (46:55)? ... Nationals, Brewers and Cubs bats had big nights (49:37). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (55:30). 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 lead. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. What's up and welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, April 9th. I am Frank Sample joined by Chris Towers, our latest start of the year.

And I know that because Chris was just yawning before. before we started. So it is a very late one here. It's Tuesdays are tough because everyone typically starts at the same time. We did get some day games, but lots of injuries, lots of stuff going on. Today on the show, we had aces across baseball, very mixed results across the board. Yes, some of those injuries, as I just mentioned, we'll talk about some replacements. Shane Smith might be legit.

Looks pretty good once again. And much more. Let's jump in. Crazy! All right, Chris. You are a first player of the night. I kind of feel silly going first because mine is the guy who had an okay start. Nick Ludolo had, what was it, six innings of one run ball?

No, he didn't give up a run. Shut out. Six shut out. Six shutout innings. Three hits, one walk, all great, except three strikeouts and only eight swinging strikes on 87 pitches, including one with his curveball. going on there and that is three straight quality starts for nicodolo to open up the season if i'm not mistaken and he has eight strikeouts in 18 and two thirds innings this is not my beautiful

breakout starting pitcher i am concerned about nic lodolo despite the very very promising era results so far because i don't know what's going on with his curveball specifically. He is getting five inches less of glove side break with that pitch. And look, in this start, I think he had a 75% strike rate with it. CSW was 33%. Like, that's all good. And 84.8 mile per hour average X velocity, like, that's fine.

But can Nick Lodolo really be an above average very good major league pitcher without getting a lot of wiffs with his curveball. I have trouble seeing that. And it's not like the change up is exactly picking up a ton of the weight. He only had two whiffs on 12 swings with that pitch today. So I just, I don't know. The results are good, but the process is not what I want to see from Nicodolo. So I'm thinking Nick Lodolo might be a sell high candidate here.

Yeah, he is a bit of a tough one to figure out. You mentioned it's only eight strikeouts and three starts, all three quality starts, but he only has one walk-allout so far. So pitching more to contact, I don't know if that's by design. He was giving up a decent amount of hard contact entering this start, getting a good amount of ground balls. But, yeah, I mean, pitching a contact and pitching in Great American Ballpark as your home field is not really a recipe for success here.

So the surface level numbers have been good for Lodolo, but yeah, I'm with you. I mean, he's kind of a confusing one so far. For what you invested, like, I don't know that you'll be able to get much for him. You might just want to ride it out and, you know, hope these results start to come with more strikeouts. But, you know, if there is a Reds fan in your league or someone that's just buying this completely and you can get a top 30 starting pitcher in a turn or an outfielder with all the injuries that are going on right now, something like that, then I think you can look into it. it. But yeah, Ladolo's a bit of a tricky one here early on in the season. We will talk about

the pitcher that opposed him in this in just a little bit. I wanted to talk about Shane Smith early on because he took a no-hitter into the sixth inning at the Guardians. He threw six shutout, two hits, one walk, six strikeouts, nine whiffs on, 83 pitches, and just passes the eye test, like watching him out there, mid-90s with the fastball. The change-up gets a lot of movement as well. He actually struck out Stephen Kwan in this start. Like that was one thing that I saw and I was like two swinging strikes on Stephen Kwan and the one he got on the change up. Uh, that way, I think that was not for a strikeout. Um, yeah, the change up was like you don't see Stephen Kwan get fooled that badly. It was pretty impressive. Yeah. Now he's looked good so far. That change up in

particular has has been wicked four wifts in this one, 36% whiff rate. And, you know, we talked about him in spring training a little bit, made the White Sox 25 years old. He was picked up in the Rule 5 draft last year. Shane Smith performed well in the Brewers minor league system, 305 ERA 105 whip, 10.8K per 9 at 12.3% swinging strike rate. And say what you will about the White Sox, they've done some pretty good stuff with their starting pitchers over the past year or so.

So 20% rostered here on Shane Smith. He's RP only on CBS. you could use him as a spark here. I'm thinking that number needs to be a lot higher, Chris. Next time out, Red Sox, that is a much tougher test. So we'll see how he does there. But I would want to add him before that start just to see. Like, if he performs really good against the Red Sox,

like, it might be too late to pick him up at that point. Yeah, I don't think there is like an ace level outcome. I don't think this is the next Garrett Crochet or anything. But he does a lot of things well, right? He's got big extension, big, you know, good fastball velocity. The shape is okay. A decent pitch mix, slider change up, occasional curveball. And yeah, he was productive at the minor league level last season.

It was like a 22% K-minus walk rate across two levels last year. Do you think the Brewers are regretting letting this guy go in the Rule 5 draft or leaving him available in that because, yeah, I think Shane Smith looks at the very least like a viable major leaguer. Now, there are two other RP only pitchers who pitched on Tuesday night who had very good starts if I'm assigning them all the right position, Landon Rupp and Easton Lucas. That sounds correct, yeah. And I think the talent level for all three of them is probably pretty similar.

Lucas probably at the bottom, although there's some interesting stuff going on there. And he was awesome today. And so like Rupp versus Smith is a pretty interesting conversation because Rup is more proven at the major league level as a reliever. He's also just on a much better team. So I might prefer him to Smith, but I think both are worth adding anywhere that SPARP eligibility matters at the very least. Well, let's talk about those two pitchers for a second here. Landen erupts, six innings, one run allowed, four strikeouts, only seven wifts on 81 pitches here. Through a lot more sinkers in this start, 52% usage. It was 39% in his first outing. So might explain why the whiffs were down here, but quality start, as you mentioned, pitches for a much better team here with the San Francisco Giants. And then Easton Lucas, who is on the Blue Jays, great start in Boston.

So very tough environment, really cold, obviously, across the league right now. Five and a third shot out innings, three hits, one walk, eight strikeouts for him, 12 whiffs on 82 pitches. And interestingly enough, gets really good IVB induced vertical brake on his fastball from the left hand side. 18 inches of induced vertical break. That fastball had five whiffs in this one. He's 28 years old. He's mostly been a reliever in the minors, but performed well last year.

So, between those thing that I find kind of interesting is that before last season when he made four starts, he hadn't started a game since 2019. And so I that is probably an indication that he's not good enough to be a starter. But I do wonder like he put up decent numbers last year, mostly pitching in bulk. And it does just make me wonder. if there's some kind of new thing that he's added or if he's just a late developer, something like that. This is Easton Lucas.

I'm not rushing out to add him anywhere except AL only, but I'm keeping an eye on it. I think Smith and Rupp are past the keep an eye on them point. I'm keeping an eye on Easton Lucas after this one. Yeah. So how do you just rank the three in general? It sounds like Easton Lucas is last, but who would you take between Shane Smith and Rupp?

I think it's Rupp ahead of Smith. I think they're both kind of interesting talents. So I'll just go with Rup having the better situation. I also just had really big strikeout rates in the minors. So I think he's a little bit more interesting, but Smith is pretty interesting in his own right for sure. Yeah, I think I totally get the team context. I think I lean with Shane Smith.

I think he's a little bit more of a complete pitcher just from what I've seen with the mid-90s fastball, the change-up, the slider looks pretty good. You got a really good strikeout on a curveball against Kalamanzardo today as well. I know the curveball for Landon Rupp is really good, but I feel like Shane Smith might be a little bit more of a complete pitcher.

So I'll take him at the top of that list. So when we spoke about yesterday, Hayden Wisniewski, another Spartan. Would you take Hayden Wisniewske above all these names? I think so. Yeah. It's a little bit more proven, certainly a better situation. So I would go with Wesnowski, but they're all fairly similarly fringy for now.

Yeah. I think I would take Wesniew as well. I think the Astros in the long run are probably the best team, although Giants have looked pretty good so far. Yeah, I think I would take Wesneseki just ahead of Shane Smith. That one is a pretty close call, though. Before we hit our first break, did want to mention Dylan Cease. Oh my goodness grace.

shout out for all the wrong reasons here. Crushed by the, I was pot to say Oakland. Sacramento, just the athletics, I guess you can call them. Four innings, nine hits, nine runs, three walks, four strikeouts, just completely decimates your ratios in this one, set you behind big time in a head-to-head points league. And if you look at the underlying numbers, like five hard hits, 83.6 average exit velocity, it doesn't seem like he got

crushed, but watching this start, the first inning just spiraled out of control. It was he had two outs, two runners on, he gave up five hits in a row. Next thing you know,

he's giving up six runs in the first inning of this start. And we were talking beforehand, Chris, the most annoying part of all this is he had the two outs. That first hitter comes up. O2 pitch,

he grooves a fastball down the middle. I don't think he was. was trying to do that. I don't think Dylan Cis was trying to do that. I think his, you know, command is probably just not good enough. But why even throw a fastball anywhere around there? Just like, spike two sliders in the dirt and try to

get like a really bad swing for an out. Like, why throw a fastball anywhere near the strike zone in an 02 count? And he did that two batters in a row. Like, O2 just fastball down the middle. And obviously I was watching because I have them on a few teams, so this was a terrible start. But I don't know if you have anything

else. It's just frustrating Dylan C's outing. I have said this for years. I cannot analyze Dylan Cese objectively the way I want to if I ever watch him pitch. Because it's the same with Blake Snell. I am I am repulsed

by watching those two pitch because it's just they just go from like looking incredible. to being completely lost from one batter to the next. And I just cannot stand the process. So in order to maintain a level ahead about them, I have to just not watch them pitch because it just, it drives me crazy.

And that is the Dylan Seas experience in a nutshell. He's going to be awesome. He's going to be really good moving forward. And he's going to have these stretches where he just absolutely drives you nuts. and my my advice is to just put blinders on and just don't don't don't watch him yeah now that's that's well said uh if you get any solace in this a 798 era a 157 whip through three starts for dylan c's it's a 273 fip a 3.46 ex-fip 11k per nine his uh left on base percentage is currently 46 percent last year that was 69 percent so yes things spiral here he's maybe had a little bit of bad luck and

if you can find an emotional fantasy manager like me you should be trying to prey on that person and pilo on dylan c's if you can a couple reminders here sign up for the fbt newsletter if you haven't already uh was how about we throw up the uh stream yard code here yep for those watching on youtube you can scan the QR code that will take you right to to the website, CBSports.com slash newsletters, where you can sign up again for the FBT newsletter for free. And big thanks to those for watching

us live. Make sure to hit the like button and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. Let's take a break and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today. News and notes, Chris buckle up lots of injuries to talk about. It was a rough day.

And a rough one for the Padres in particular. Jackson Merrill was placed on the aisle with that hamstring issue. He missed Monday's game and we thought, all right, maybe he's this day to day here. They're going to play it safe. They put him on the IL. But also, Fernando Tatis left this game with an apparent injury.

No word on what that is just yet. It looked like a shoulder though. And a surgically repaired shoulder, right? Were you watching? I saw some video of like a swing where he kind of like pulled up lame a little bit. He stayed in the game after that, but then did leave, I think, after his next plate of parents. So hopefully it's not that because obviously he's had a lot of problems with his shoulders, but that was, that was scary for sure.

And this is part of the problem with Fernando Tatee. He's uber talented, but he has dealt with a lot of injuries so far in his career. And Jake Cronoworth also left after suffering an injury on a swing. And I haven't seen an update on that either. Obviously, these are late games on the West Coast. So as we learn more, we will let you know. Matt McLean was placed in the aisle finally with a left hamstring, strain. They also demoted Carson Spires, so Will Benson and Noel V. Marte were recalled, and it'll

be interesting to see if Noelvie Marte gets any playing time here in Matt McLean's absence. Wyatt Langford left Tuesday night due to right side tightness. Now, he dealt with oblique tightness earlier in spring. That was to the left side. So I guess that's glass half full, that it's not the same oblique that he already dealt with, but now this is, uh, he's dealt with sort of to both obliques within basically a one month span, a two-month span here for Wyatt Langford. It doesn't help playing in the cold early on, I'm sure. Obviously, you're really tight and things like this can happen. And he was off to a great start. He hit his fourth home run in this game. He already has two steals. So not great. My guess is if the Rangers

play it's safe, we probably see Wyatt Langford land on the IL, but I don't know that for certain. That's just me speculating right now. Yeah, obliques and hamstrings are kind of the two that you just kind of assume an IL stint, even if the team is playing it, you know, underplaying the severity. It's really hard to only miss two or three days with those kinds of injuries. And I just refreshed here,

and I'm seeing Tyler Soderstrom was removed with calf tightness as well. So yet another injury here. This is like a devastating Tuesday night. My goodness. Pablo Lopez left his start early due to right hamstring. tightness. He will get an MRI on Wednesday, but the injury is thought to be minor. We'll see. Zach Eflin is going on the aisle with a low-grade latch strain. He's shut down from throwing for a week.

So another pitching injury, and my guess is Kyle Gibson will be up at some point here in the near future for the Orioles. I don't think he started in the minors yet, but yeah, I would imagine so, yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're just, they're desperate, right? There's a lot of teams that are just desperate for pitching help right now and the Orioles are one of those. Charlie Morton has an ERA near at nine through his first three starts. So yeah, they're, uh, yeah, but Chris, who could have seen that coming for a 42 year old pitch? I mean, he is 62% rostered. I, for tomorrow's newsletter, I wrote, Charlie Morton is 62% rostered. He doesn't need to be. Drop him for Shane Smith. Like, that is the kind of hard hitting analysis you get in the fantasy baseball today newsletter.

And it's all for free. So why not sign up? Johnny DeLuca, another injury placed in the aisle with a right shoulder strain expected to miss two to four weeks. And my first thought was Chandler Simpson, maybe it's happening. But the raise called up Coco Montes instead, and they started Christopher Morel, Cameron Meisner,

and Jake Mangum in the outfield on Tuesday. Imagine a month ago I told you that it would be April 8th, and that would be the starting outfield for the Tampa Bay raise. That is not ideal for them. Yeah, I'll just. point out with Chandler Simpson, he's only played eight games at AAA and look, he's got five steals. Oh, yeah. That's what he does. The raise almost never call anyone up, especially their top prospects without a lot of time at AAA. I, they might get desperate enough to change that with Simpson and they might believe that he's exceptional, but I would guess it's not until later in the season, even if there are more injuries in the outfield, unfortunately.

Yeah, I think that's fair. is on the aisle with a shoulder injury will be shut down from throwing until Monday. Spencer Arrogati was placed in the aisle with a fractured right thumb. I have not seen a timeline on this at all. Chris, have you seen anything on how long Arrogati can be out? No, I did look at some previous injuries for pitchers with a fractured thumb and seems like the average time missed was about 45 days. So that'd be about six weeks, which that timetable makes sense. There weren't any shorter than about 40 days. And that, that feels pretty, it was his pitching hand, right?

I didn't actually, yeah, it was his right. His right hand, yeah. You could see maybe it being a little quicker if it was the glove, but thumb's pretty important for pitching. So I would guess it's going to be more than a month. Here we go. I got a quote here from Mike Schilt on Fernando Tatis Jr.'s left shoulder injury. so confirming that it is the shoulder.

Checking out medically, everything seems to be intact in good shape and strength is good and he's not overly concerned. So we err on the side of caution tonight and we'll evaluate it. So I guess that's the best news we can get for now. Nothing is completely out of whack, but yeah, we'll see. We wait and learn on Fernando Tatis. Rinaldo Lopez underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery on Tuesday and will be shut down for 12 weeks.

The surgery was termed as a cleanup procedure, and he's a pretty clear drop if you just need the IL spot or, I mean, unless you play in a league with IL spots, you can probably just drop Ronaldo Lopez. I think you'd have to have like unlimited aisle spots to really justify it, because that's shut down for at least 12 weeks. And then you got to start the whole,

so you're talking about like mid-August at the earliest for him to return and no guarantee that he's any good after that. I would be shocked if we get anything useful from Raynaldo Lopez. All right, sticking with the Braves, Spencer Shrider has a target of about 90 pitches for his rehab start on Thursday, which will likely be his final one before being activated. So please just make it through that start okay, Spencer Shrider. CJ Abrams has missed two straight due to right thigh tightness.

Nestor Cortez received a PRP injection in his left elbow, but remains without a timetable. Lane Thomas left after getting hit by a pitch on his right wrist. He was diagnosed with a contusion, hopefully nothing more. Jake Rogers was placing the IL with a left oblique strain. And if you play in deeper two catcher leagues, Dylan Dingler has hit well. He has a little bit of prospect pedigree.

He went two for three, hit his second home run of the season here on Tuesday. He's batting 364. He's only 8% rostered. So, you know, 15 team, two catcher leagues. I think Dylan Dingler is a name that you can. can look at. Francisco Alvarez will begin a rehab assignment on Wednesday. He's on the IL with a hamate fracture in his left hand.

Victor Robles was diagnosed with a small fracture in the humoral head of his left shoulder and is expected to be sidelined for at least 12 weeks. Dominic Canzon was added to the Mariners roster. Josh Lowe is moving pretty pain-free, according to manager Kevin Cash. Lowe is on the IL with a gray-2 right oblique strain and it is still a ways away from returning. Josh Young was activated from the IL. He was in the Rangers lineup batting 7. He went three for four with a double, triple, run, and RBI.

Rangers Suarez will begin a rehab assignment at Singaleh on Thursday. He's on the IL with lower back stiffness. Landon Nack will start Wednesday for the Dodgers. Chris, any interest in deeper leagues in Landon Nack? He's not without intrigue, but I think it's probably a case where you need to see it first, especially because we do have a decent number of like low end. and pitching targets like Shane Smith and Landon Rupp, who I would definitely prioritize.

So it's got to be a pretty deep wait for Landon Knack. All right. Braves manager, Brian Snickker indicated Drake Baldwin will still play quite a bit even after the return of Sean Murphy. Kind of feels like it would be just bad for both players' fantasy values. Sean Murphy responded in his debut by hitting a three-run homer in his first at bat of the season off of Zach Wheeler. So I don't know if he continues to hit this well, maybe it's not that close of a split.

But I don't know. It just feels like it would be bad for both of their fantasy values, Chris. Yeah, it's probably like a 6040 split in Murphy's favor. And that makes sense given how much he burnt out in 2023 when he got off to that hot start and then had trouble staying healthy last year. So they're catchers though. You know, it impacts the upside for Murphy, but if he's good, it doesn't matter. And some sad news on Tuesday as former Major League Major League pitcher, Octavio Dutel,

passed away at just 51 years old after a tragic accident in the Dominican Republic. Thoughts and prayers there go out to his family. Rest and peace to Octavio Dutel. Some injury replacements, we spoke about all of those injuries that are going on right now between Jackson Merrill, maybe Tatis, maybe Lattis, maybe Lerner. Langford, everyone else who's hurt right now. If you're looking for outfielders, Victor Scott first up in a category of league,

he's 75% rostered, so, you know, only out there in a quarter of leagues, it's probably just points leagues at this point, but had a big game here against Paul Skeens. He let off with no Lars Newbar in the lineup, two for five with a two-run triple. He added a double. He's batting 297, four steals early on in the season for Victor Scott.

I think Jung-Hoo-Lee is a pretty clear name in head-to-head points leagues. He is 73% rostered. And two names, three names, rather, I think in five outfielder leagues, Chris. Zach Veen, who made his major league debut. He was batting seventh for the Rockies. He went one for four.

Heston Kirsten, Kirsten, who's been playing more with Colton Kouser on the aisle, and Sal Freelik, who's off to a nice start for the Brewers, but a nice start for Sal Freelik is a good batting average and a couple of steals. Yeah, not really much else going on there. but anyone else that stand out or do you want to talk about anyone

from this first group of names as outfield replacements? No, I do think it's worth noting that Victor Scott started at leadoff on Tuesday. That was with Lars Nupar out of the lineup. We do expect Lars Nubar to remain the leadoff hitter for the Cardinals, but it's just if something were to happen to Newtbar,

it does seem like Victor Scott would be the candidate to step into the leadoff spot, and that would be good. He's off to a very good start, cutting the strikeout rate. making a little more contact. He changed the swing as well. So there's a lot to like there with Victor Scott.

And then Zach Vien anywhere he's available. Actually, Jung-Hul-Lee, I think even like you said, he's just a points league guy, I think because he's running a little bit more, did you get his third steal today? Let's take a look. I can't remember. I saw him running, but I couldn't tell if it was.

He already had its third steel, but he went 0 for 4 on Tuesday. Okay, he did get on base, but I guess it was a, it might have been a bulk that was on a steel attempt. And yeah, but I think Jung-Hul-Lee is like going to be a good source of batting average. He's going to hit for not much power, but if he can be a 15-15 guy with a 280 batting average, that's super useful. So I think Jung-Hu-Lee is going to matter in any league, really. Yeah, and he's batting third consistently. So the accounting stat should be there for Jung Huli.

Both him and Victor Scott are less than 50% rostered on Yahoo. A lot of those are head-to-head category leagues. Chris, who would you favor? Who would you favor in that format, Junkhuli or Victor Scott? Probably just depends on what your team needs more, because Victor Scott's going to be a bigger source of steals. But I think there's a pretty good chance Junk-Hul-Lee is just better at everything else. So if you specifically need stolen bases, okay, fine, Victor Scott.

but otherwise I think Junkhui Leeds just the better option. I have three deep league names written down here for Alfield. Max Kepler is someone we've talked about a lot. He's 26% rostered. Jake Mangum of the Reyes, who does have a little bit of batting average and speed. It seems like at least based on his minor league numbers, he's been playing a lot.

And Cameron Meisner with Johnny DeLuka going on the aisle here. He's going to play more for Tampa Bay. And, you know, he's another one who's had some power and speed in the minors. It's a lot of strikeouts here. But Chris, these are deep league names. Max Kepler, Jake Mangum, and Cameron Meisner. Definitely like Kepler the most out of this group. He's in the

best lineup. He is the only one with a major league track record to speak of. I know he was pretty bad last year, but there was a lot of really interesting stuff going on Kepler's profile in 2023. In particular, his quality of contact was way better than it had been before. And then

he got hurt and missed time with a knee injury, I believe. he reworked his swing this spring. I think Max Kepler is a, is very under-roastered. I think Scott in his hitter column this week said that Max Kepler is the most under-roastered player in fantasy right now.

Well, yeah, I would not argue with that. I mean, it's just, you know, he's out of the lineup here on Tuesday against Chris Sale. You know, maybe he's not going to play against every tough lefty and watching a lot of Phillies games. They love Edmundo Sosa, man.

They're just trying to find ways, to get Edmundo Sosa in their lineup. It's just like... Started his first ever game in left field today and robbed a home run in like the first inning. That was a sick catch. That was so cool. It just,

he didn't know how close he was to the wall and he just kind of put his glove up there. And man, that was not awesome for Marcel Ozuna owners like me, but it was a really cool catch. Did a little shimmy. It was great. If you're looking for middle infield help with Matt McLean on the IL,

some names in shallower leagues. Otto Lopez, Mason Wynn, who started to be, pick things back up. And Jacob Wilson, who is, all these names are between 60 and 70% rostered. So we're looking at shallow leagues here. Wilson, three more hits on Tuesday. He's batting 400. He's got an OPS of 1,000. He only has two strikeouts and 45 plate appearances. Also, zero walks. So I think we kind of know. It's an aggressive approach. He's not going to walk, but he's not going to strike out. He also has a 59% ground ball rate with an 85 mile per hour average exit velocity.

maybe that doesn't matter because he's just going to put the ball in play so much, Chris, but Jacob Wilson is off to a nice start to his credit. Yeah, I mean, that is the difference between Jacob Wilson and Luis Horace, who's the most obvious comp for him. Luis Aris hits a, he makes a lot of contact, yes. He also just hits a ton of line drives. He is actually not a ground ball guy. For the most part, for his career, he's been between 42 and 45%.

ground ball rate. So that's a big difference between him and Jacob Wilson. But I do think Jacob Wilson is probably the most interesting of this trio. Um, that ballpark looks great. We've seen a lot of big offensive numbers in the games in in Sacramento so far. I do believe the batting average will be very strong. And hey, he moved up in the lineup today all the way to seventh. Small steps. Yeah. I think in a points league, you, you kind of just ride whoever is the hottest hit. of this group right now. And Wilson probably is that. Otto Lopez got off to a nice start.

He's now won for his last 15 over the past four games. I still think he's going to be okay and serviceable throughout the course of the season. In a Categories League, I still think Mason Win has like 25 plus steel upside the season. So if I'm just looking at a Categories League, I think I would still go with Mason Win. But in a points league, I probably would lean with Jacob Wilson

in that really low strikeout rate. I want to talk about Kyra and Paris, who continues to impress. He's one for three with a walk and his third home run here on Tuesday. He has started three straight. He's homered in back-to-back games. He's got three homers and four steals early on in the season here. He's 42% rostered, so pretty widely available. Minor league numbers kind of all over the place,

but I feel like I heard somewhere or read something that, you know, he just completely reshaped his swing in the off season. What do you think about Kyra and Paris? Chris and him being 42% rostered. Like how much higher does that need to be right now? He's obviously hot right now. I don't know. Like his minor league track record is really bad.

2023, he hit 255 with a 29% strikeout rate. 2024 he hit 167 with a 35% strikeout rate. Maybe the swing change helped him unlock something. I don't know. The quality of contact. metrics aren't particularly impressive. Even at the minor league level, he only had four batted balls last season above 105 miles per hour at the minor league level.

He hasn't hit one. I think his hardest hit ball so far this season is like 107 miles per hour. Given that, I'm pretty skeptical that there's much of anything here, but I can't say for certain. I think 42% rostered is probably fine, but there's enough. stolen base potential there especially that maybe you can look at him in roto leagues. I really,

I don't know what to make of it because the only case for him mattering for fantasy is that he's just a completely different player than who he was at the minor league level, right? Because what he was at the minor league level, there's no reason to be interested in a guy who hits, who strikes out 30 to 35% of the time and doesn't have,

I mean, you have to have 30 Homer power to strike out that off. And so the case is that nothing that happened before two weeks ago matters, or I guess a month and a half ago because he had a very good spring. We'll give him that as well. I don't know. It's a totally blind leap of faith, but maybe there's something there. Yeah, again, that was Kyra and Paris that we're talking about.

And four walks to six strikeouts, really small sample, 26 plate appearances, but it's a 15% walk rate, 23% strikeout rate. reading an article here from the athletic talking about Kyra and Paris's swing change here apparently he worked with Aaron Judge's personal hitting coach in the off season

so clearly made an effort and if you look at the prospect grades you know 50 raw power 60 speed like there are some tools here there is a little bit of power and speed and you know if he's making more contact

I don't know how long he can keep this up I mean it could every year there are players that just come of nowhere. So I think I would take all three of the other names ahead of him. Otto Lopez, Mason, win, Jacob Wilson. If you play in a deeper league where he's the best most interesting middle infielder available, yeah, I would pick him up and I would see where this goes.

I picked him up in a few 15 teamers this past week. I didn't start him, but I just kind of want to see where it goes. And maybe he turns out to be a breakout. Maybe not. But, you know, now is the time of year to kind of experiment with players like this and see if they stick. A couple of their names in deeper leagues. Max Muncie of the A's, Ryan Bliss of the Mariners,

Brendan Rogers of the Astros. Not much interest here, Chris, but, you know, we're talking deep, deep leagues. Do you like any of those three? Yeah, I mean, Bliss has some speed. Muncie has a little bit of pop and a little bit of speed.

Rogers, maybe the Astros have unlocked something. I know he's hitting well so far. I don't think any of these guys are particularly interesting. I guess if you needed someone right now, Rogers would be the best. choice, but I'm a little more interested in Muncie as a long-term play. Although, I guess not super long-term because Galloff could be back at some point in the next

month or two. And Muncie's going to have to hit by that. Yeah. I did want to, again, just mention Sean Murphy. If you lost Yvonne Herrera in the past week or so, then Murphy seems like a pretty obvious replacement. And again, he went two for four with a three-run homer off of Zach Wheeler and he's only 39% rostered on CBS. Let's take our final break. When we return, we'll shift over to some waiver wire pitchers. Recap the rest of Tuesday's

action right after this. Welcome back in that fantasy baseball today. Taking a look at some waiver wire pitchers. We already spoke about Shane Smith. We spoke about Easton Lucas. We spoke about Landon Rupp. Other name here is Jameson Tyone, who I think is kind of just a matchups play

at this point, but it's two quality starts in a row. this one, a tough matchup against the Rangers, six innings, three runs, six strikeouts. He had 12 wists on 85 pitches. He threw more curveballs in this one. It was a really good pitch for him. The overall numbers don't look great here for Tyone, but had a solid season last year.

He's pitching for a good Cubs team. The run support should be there. Looks like he might be in line for two stars next week, Chris, but the debacks and at the Padres. And he is, what's his roster? is like 60% already. 69% I don't see much reason

to add him anywhere that he's available given those matchups. By the way, after that, it's probably the Phillies. So I don't think I want to, like,

look, I said that about the Rangers matchup, and this was a pretty good performance. So that's not everything, but can you really roll the dice on that

four times in a row and expect good results? I'm pretty skeptical. Tyone is competent. I just don't think he's much more than that. One name in deeper leagues. Kyle Hendricks pitched well at the raise. Five shutout innings with four strikeouts here.

Just spammed his change up and it was really good. He got, you know, all nine of his whiffs came on that change up. He's been serviceable through two starts, but he's also Kyle Hendricks, Chris. Any very deep league interest in Kyle Hendricks? I think the best you can hope for are serviceable. I would rather take the shot on Lucas, Smith, Rupp. Yeah. Probably Tyone even against those matchups, yeah.

All right, let's move on to Aces who did not perform like Aces, and we already spoke about Dylan Sees, but Paul Skeens, it turns out he is human, a rough outing against the Cardinals, six innings, five runs, seven strikeouts. I say rough outing, yes, third runs, but still had 15 whiffs on 9. 98 pitches in this one and, you know, did give up some hard contact.

It's, you know, I'm kind of taking a lot of these pitching performances with a grain of salt. Just because the weather has been so bad, man. Like, velocity is down across the board, but a lot of these pitchers are pitching in, you know, 30, 40 degree weather. So, yes, it's excuses, but I think we're all expecting big things out of guys like Paul Skeen's. And, you know, two others, Zach Wheeler and Chris Ayl, though, the weather not as bad playing in Atlanta here. So doesn't hold as much weight. Zach Wheeler 5 and a third, eight hits, five runs in this one,

seven strikeouts, and Chris Sale, four and two thirds, nine hits, five runs loud with five strikeouts. Did have 15 whiffs on 86 pitches, but anything stand out here, Chris,

for Sale, Wheeler, or Skeens, who did not perform very well. Skeens in particular, it was just bad luck. 82.6 mile per hour average exit velocity against,

I would imagine. I wrote down, 92.6. So one of us is wrong. Maybe I was looking at the overall, the incoming into this start was 82.6. That's what I was. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's yeah. That that's what it was. I'm checking it now. Yeah. It was 82.6 mile per hour average velocity coming into this one. A ton of ground balls. He's allowed one bad start. I, I don't have any concern about any of these guys really. If I had to have some concern about one of them. It would obviously be Chris Sale, whose velocity was down to 92.7 miles per hour in

this one, that's more than two miles per hour down from where he was sitting last season. Given his age, given his lack of track record in terms of staying healthy in recent years, there's obvious concern there. It's not time to panic about him, but this is probably a worse three-start stretch than he had at any point last season. and there are going to be limitations in his workload because he pitches for the Braves and they want to try to keep him healthy. So yeah, I'm a little worried.

I'm not concerned. I'm not panicked. But it's a little concerning. Yeah, that was the main thing that stood out to me too is the fastball velocity being down here for Chris Sale. But if you look at the underlying number so far through three starts, it's a 314 FIPP, 308 X-Fib, 17 walks to one strikeout here for Chris Sale in 14 and 2 thirds innings pitched.

Let's talk about Shane Bosch, Chris. The results are there. How much do you trust it? Here, this one against the Angels, seven innings, two runs. Four walks, six strikeouts, only eight wits on 96 pitches. So maybe a little bit fortunate to wind up with those six strikeouts here. But used a lot more fastballs in this start. the curb ball was not nearly as effective and still not really getting anything from that slider post Tommy John surgery.

First start was tremendous for Shane Boz. This one, the surface level numbers are good, but when you dig in, it's not as impressive. What do you think? Yeah, four walks especially is not what you want to see. And went from eight whiffs with the curveball in the first start to just two in this one. That's a big deal because, you know, what we've talked about with Shane Boz and look, looking for the breakout there was the slider needs to get back to where it was pre-injury. And it hasn't yet.

But if the curveball could be a big swing and miss pitch for him like it wasn't the first start, then maybe that makes up for it. And then this one it wasn't. It's really frustrating that everybody else was making their third starts for the most part. And this was just Shane Baz's second. So we really just haven't had many looks at him. I'm not dropping him, certainly. But I wouldn't be going out and trading four.

Shane Boz right now. All right, let's bounce around to a few different hitters here. Some first base talk. Pete Alonzo off to a great start. Two for four with two doubles for RBI. He is batting 333, three homers, 15 RBI, 1139 OPS. I know you brought this up as a possibility. He really could lead baseball in RBI this season. That is Pete Alonzo.

Paul Goldschmidt off to a nice start. Three for four. He let off against the lefty in Terrick Scouble. He's batting 381. Haven't seen much power yet. Only one homer, but it's a 935 OPS. Only a 17% strikeout rate. So I think pretty encouraging start for Paul Goldschmidt.

And Spencer Torkelson heard us talking smack yesterday about his strikeout rate. Two for four with his third home run. He added a double, batting 310, three homers with a 10-51 OPS. Chris, anything that stands out from Torkelson, Goldschmidt, and Pete Alonzo early on. Yeah, I mean, Goldschmidt is probably the, one most worth talking about just because Torkelson, it's just hang on to him and see if it's real. I'm not sure it is, but it might be. And then Alonzo, when you talk about RBI skills, we usually don't talk about RBI skills,

but guys who can hit for power without sacrificing contact are usually good bets for a lot of RBI, especially when they hit in very good spots in lineup. Pete Lonzo is behind Francisco Lindoran Wonsetto. So yeah, I think there's a decent chance he leads the majors in RBI. But Goldschmidt's the most interesting one because he's very much on

the edge, right? Like he was drafted probably in every league, but not super high and you're just hoping there's like that second half bounce back that he had last year can carry over. And I think so far it has, right? We haven't seen the strikeout rate climb above

20% even. It was close to 30. in the first half last season. His bat speed hasn't declined this year. That's a good sign given his age. I don't think we're ever going to get much power from Paul Goldschman. I think what you were hoping for was 20 home runs and double-digit steals and pretty good counting stats in a good lineup. And I feel like what we've seen so far makes it look like a decent bet. Yeah.

And you know what? The lineup context as well for four. Paul Goldschmidt. He's either going to bat first against lefties or cleanup against righties. So being right at the top of that Yankee lineup, which, you know, say what you will about their pitching. I know they haven't hit in this series, but I think the lineup is still going to be really good when everyone's healthy there. So it should be a pretty good spot here for Paul Goldschmidt as well. Two Nationals bats are heating up here. James Wood, three for five with a double-donged 5 RBI.

Both of these homers came off of a lefty, and Chris, he finally hit one to the pull side. He heard me yesterday. Let's go, James Wood. In two games against the Dodgers, four hits, three homers, seven RBI, one steal for James Wood, and some signs of life from Dylan Cruz,

two-for-four with his third steel, two runs scored. He has multiple hits in two of his last three games, and only three strikeouts in his last six games total, which I think is a good sign for Dylan Cruz. And with regards to James Wood, that was not his first home run to the pull side of this season. That was his first batted ball in the air to the pull side.

He has, he entered today with a 76% ground ball rate. Last year it was 55%. I think that's just going to be a problem for him. And he's going to have to have absurd results on balls and play. Luckily, he constantly hits the ball hard. He hits the ball hard about as often as anyone in baseball. So, you know, it's, it could be like Christian Yellich, but with worst plate discipline, you know, like the early Christian Yelich where he would hit the ball hard. There was some pop there, but it just wasn't like the huge home run totals consistently.

I think it might be more like 20 to 25 for James Wood, but he's going to hit for a good batting average with his athleticism. and he's going to steal some bases. So it still looks pretty good. And then Dylan Cruz, I can't say I was never worried because we have no track record of Major League production to go on there. But I figured he would turn it around. My only concern really was can Dylan Cruz turn it around before the Nationals decide they have to send him down? Now he's starting to show signs of it. I'm pretty unconcerned.

I hope nobody dropped him. There's still plenty of upside here. The Brewers enjoyed their first game in Corse Field. They scored seven runs on 11 hits. And Jackson Trio, two for five with a double, triple steel, and two RBI. Over his last six games, he's got 10 hits, three home runners, nine RBI, one steel. Remember the five strikeouts on opening day? Me neither.

Jackson Trio. Really good. Bryce Tarang, one for four with his third home run. This one came off of a lefty. He's off to a very nice start. two players who are not off to good starts. Yelich hit his second home run. William Contreras hit his first homer.

Chris, is there anything you've seen in the underlying numbers regarding Yelich or Contreras that maybe has you a little bit concerned early on? I'm going to be honest. I haven't even looked at the underlying numbers for either of those guys yet. And Contreras, like there is nothing. I could see William Contreras. I could look at his baseball's Zavat page, and it could just be the,

deepest ocean blue in every category through the end of April. I don't think I would move him down in my rankings, even if that was the case, just because he has earned that benefit of the doubt. As for Yelich, his bat speed is down a little bit from last year, not so much that it's super concerning, but he does have a long swing,

so that's something that you could see, you know, potentially being a concern. He struck out a lot in the early going as well. it's 27 plate appearances, 43 played appearances is what it is overall. So it's still too early. I'm just more concerned about him,

obviously, because he's coming back from back surgery and he only played, what, eight, 10 games in spring. So we just don't have a huge track record of what he looks like post back surgery, but I haven't thought about moving him down yet. Terang, kind of interesting that he's hitting the ball harder,

kind of interesting that he is swinging hard. his swing speed is still really low. But it is higher than it was last season. So maybe he's not quite so punchless as we thought, but I'm pretty skeptical that you're going to get much from him moving forward as a hitter. One thing I want to watch with Christian Yelich, I think the bad speed is a good thing that you bring up. And 14 strikeouts so far, a 33% strikeout rate for Yelich.

That could be a timing or B, it could be. Hey, guy in his mid-30s coming back from back surgery. So, you know, let's watch that and see where it goes. The Cubs offense continues to produce. Facing Patrick Corbyn definitely helps that. Sayas Suzuki had three hits, a walk and two RBI. Danesby Swanson, two for four with a sock and his shoe. His fourth home run, his second steal.

And Pete Crow Armstrong, Chris, take it back. Take back every bad thing you ever said about Pete Crow Armstrong. Three for five with two RBI and two steals. he is up to six steals on the season. I said it once, I'll say it again. Kind of feel like the Cubs offense could just be awesome to season for fantasy. Yeah, I mean, I will say

nobody ever said Pete Cromstrung wouldn't have any good games as a hitter, and he finally had one. It's not 100% true. He had two to hit games earlier, but he is hitting 222 with a 578 OPS after going three for five,

today. So I'm not going to take anything back yet. I still feel very skeptical. Good to see Dansby Swanson getting off to a good start, though. He was a guy who had a good second half last year, had core surgery in the offseason, something he's been playing through for a while. We talked a little bit about him this spring as someone who was probably being overlooked. And good start for Danesby Swanson. You like to see that. Let's get into the pitching leftovers here. Cole Reagan's dominant against the twins, six innings, one run, 11 strikeouts to zero walks. He had 18 whiffs on 96 pitches. Back-to-back starts with double-digit strikeouts for the first time in his career.

Terrick Scoobel's first quality start came against the Yankees. He threw six shutout with six strikeouts. He had 11 whiffs on 87 pitches. Franber Valdez with a strong outing at the Mariners. He threw six shutout with eight strikeouts here, 11 whiffs. Through the sinker a little bit less in this one, more changeups, and obviously a lot of curveballs for Framber Valdez. Anything on this group, Valdez, Scoubel, and Cole Regens. I really don't have anything to add on these guys.

These are our aces acing for the most part. Valdez is leading with his curveball so far this season, which is, you know, what we saw last year that got his strikeout rate up. So that's a good sign. He does have, do you have like 21 strikeouts and 18nings? He has more strikeouts than innings so far, I believe. So, yeah, 21 and 18. So that's a good sign. Yeah, again, that was for Ambervaldives.

Three pitchers who were solid. Luis Castillo, five shotout with six strikeouts against the Astros. He had 14 whiffs on 102 pitches, 12 of those on the fastball. Freddie Peralta survived Corus Field, five innings, one run with six strikeouts. He had 14 whiffs on 83 pitches, and Sunny Gray pitched well against the pirates. Five innings, one run, four strikeouts. Only through 71 pitches. Thankfully, it doesn't sound like there was anything going on.

I was looking here. It was also 38 degrees in Pittsburgh, so I don't know if that was why they pulled them early, but overall it was an okay outing. Anything on Sunny Gray, Freddie Palza, and Luis Castillo. Yeah, Sunny Gray's velocity was down a little bit, about one mile per hour on everything. So between that and the 71 pitch limit, I was just keeping an eye on it. But like you said, I think it was probably just something with the cold weather and they didn't want to push it. Peralta continues to look really good.

Obviously, being in course field, he changed his pitch mix today, barely through his secondaries. It remains interesting that he's throwing his curveball so much more than his slider. so far this season because that's kind of been the opposite throughout his career. Even in this one, 11 curveballs, six sliders. I don't know what to make of that exactly because the slider's generally been the better pitch, but the curveballs looked good, so I'm not too concerned about it. And I think Peralta has looked good. And then I want to say that concerns about Luis Castillo's demise were overstated this spring,

given the way he's pitched so far, which has been very solid. And he looked really good in this one, especially nine swinging strikes on his four seamer. That's something we haven't seen from him. Or was it 11? There's a lot of swing strikes. Yeah, I think it was even, yeah, it was 12. 12. Okay, there you go.

He's pitched all three of his games so far in T-Mobile. So I just don't, I don't think we can say, right? Like, I feel pretty good that he's not just finished. like some people were concerned, but is he still a must-start pitcher? I think so, but I won't really have as good of a sense for that until we see some more of him away from T-Mobile.

I don't think Luis Cascio is finished per se. I think maybe he just pitches closer to his underlying numbers of past couple years, which is like a high-3s ERA. Like I don't think that would be finished, but that would be kind of like, I guess he's finished as like an ace for fantasy or as a must-star pitcher, you know. There was just, it felt like there was like some like real doomerism going on around Luis Castillo this spring. Not necessarily on this podcast, but just around in the air. I wrote him up as a bus for sure. Like, yeah, so I don't want to back down from it.

But it was mostly that I just, I thought he would kind of pitch closer like a four ERA this year. And, you know, he was just. to decline a little bit, but so far, that's reasonable, yeah. He has been pretty good, but all three starts coming at home. Some mixed outings from these three, Clay Holmes against the Marlins, five and a third, four runs, ten strikeouts,

13 wits on 87 pitches, and really mixed things up in this one. Velocity was down, but it was, again, very cold there in New York. He was actually through five innings with two earned runs, ten strikeouts. They brought him out for the sixth, some of his inherited runners came into score and obviously that kind of ruined the line here for Clay Holmes.

Garrett Crochet against the Blue Jays, five and two-thirds, four runs loud, only one of those earned, four walks, five strikeouts, so again, mixed results. And Jeffrey Springs, it's been up and down. The first start, awesome against the Mariners, which is a really good matchup. But this one here against the Patres, six innings, seven hits, four runs, three of those earned,

two walks, four strikeouts, 12 whiffs on 102 pitches, but gave up some hard contact. He's been a bit of a tough one to figure out, Chris. Anything stand out from Springs, Garrett Crochet, and Clay Holmes? Yeah, Crochet admitted his stuff was, quote, terrible. He said there really hasn't been a start this year

where I feel like I've had my best stuff. Hopefully that's because I'm building and they're all going to come later in the year. year. Yeah, I hope so too because he hasn't had a, he has one quality start so far, that dominant eight inning start. And that he's been pretty underwhelming. It's moderately concerning, if only because we just don't have any kind of track record

here outside of like he's had three inning, three months where he's been a full time starting pitcher really ever. Like that's not overstating it because he dealt with some injuries in college, dealt with a ton of injuries as a professional, had the COVID season lost. And so we just don't have a long track record here. And so, you know, if he struggles for a month, well, that's 25% of his time as a full-time starter. And he's got to get through the next five months after that. I don't think we're at that point yet where you're worried, but it's just not what we wanted to see. with Springs, I think

he just goes as the changeup does. The changeup was good in this one, so he was fine, right? It was a quality start against a Padres team that does not strike out very much. I think they had the lowest strikeout rate in baseball last year,

so not going to hold it against him too much. It's a tough matchup. Clay Holmes, really bad first inning. Not great sixth inning, although there was definitely one, I think the walk probably should have been a strikeout. And it was just a bad call. And then the reliever came in and didn't help.

It's not what you want to see from Clay Holmes. Certainly, I think we're at the point. It's early and there have been flashes, especially in this one with the strikeouts, where I'm not writing him off. I'm not dropping him. But it is, I think, worth, I think we can say at this point, that like the top 200 picks on Clay Holmes probably weren't the best idea.

And sometimes he was getting pushed even higher than that. His ADP in the final week before the season was like 170. I think that was probably we got over our skis a bit too much. That's not to say he can't be useful. That's not to say you should drop him. But I have a piece coming out tomorrow on the 10 players who were the biggest risers over the final week of drafts. and just where they're at, how we're feeling about them. And Holmes is one of the ones that I think we're,

we're not feeling great about how much we moved him up in the rankings. And the fact that it was mostly because of spring performance, might be a lesson there. All right, three hitting leftovers. George Springer stayed hot, two for four with a massive home run off of Garrow crochet, 422 feet. And Springer is batting 459 with two homers, two steals, 1254 OPS, early on. Kyle Schwabber had a huge game. He went three for three with a walk, a triple,

monster home run, 462 feet off of Chris Sale there, lefty on lefty for Schwabro who has five home runs at a 1255 OPS early on. And a nice game for Brenton Doyle, one for three with a sock into shoe, his second home run, and his first steal of the season. Call to the bullpen for the Cardinals with Ryan Halsley unavailable, Phil Mayton, entered. with one out in the ninth inning, a runner on second, gave up an RBI double, but picked up his first save of the season. For the Braves, Rieseliglesias walked one, picked up his first save. For the raise, Pete Fairbanks got the ninth inning with the game tied.

He gave up a run on two hits and took his first loss. On the other side, Kenley Jansen got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. Gave up two hits, but struck out two for his third save. Also, when I add there, Ben Joyce, I believe, gave up three runs on like one. third of an inning in that one. So that's also just good news for Kenley Jansson. Yep. For the Reds, Emilio Pagan got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He retired the side in order for his second save. They did not use Tony Santian at all in this game. He got to save on Monday night. I still think Santhian is probably the highest leverage reliever, but I do think

he's probably going to be used before the ninth inning most of the time. So let's say Could be an Erseg versus Estavis thing. Yeah, while Alexis Diaz is out, I'll go like 60% saves to Emilio Pagan, maybe 30% to Santian and 10% other. But I would guess Diaz is back next week, and I would guess they're going to give him a chance to get the job back. Yeah, it's interesting. I don't think it'll happen right away, though.

I think they'll probably... I think they'll work him back in a little. slowly, but I think their goal is to get Diaz back as the closer. Probably, yeah. For the debacks, AJ Puck got the eighth inning with a one-run lead facing the top of the Orioles lineup. That was Gunner Henderson, a lefty, Adley Ruchman, who was a switch hitter, and then Ryan O'Hern, who was a lefty, he gave up a hit and struck out one.

Justin Martinez got the ninth. He struck out one for his second save of the season. To stream or not to stream on Wednesday, we have Max Myers. at the Mets. Tyler McGill is home against the Marlins. On the other side, we have Nick Martinez at the Giants, Verlander facing the Reds, Landon Nack at the Nationals, Logan T. Allen, home against the White Sox. Eric Fetty at the Pirates. What do you think? I think Max Meyer is the best pitcher on the slate, but the matchups obviously not great. I would go McGill

Meyer boy I think I would go Justin Verlander third just the reds have been so bad but he hasn't given us much reason to believe that he has much left so I don't say that with a ton of confidence yeah I think I would go McGill first Meyer

then probably Feddy and Logan Allen but that's solely just playing the matchups there with those two and then on Thursday it's a shorter slate I think we only have six games on the schedule Jose Soriano at the raise, Zach Lattel facing the Angels, Jonathan Cannon at the Guardians,

Ryan Fultner is home against the Brewers. I could see Lattel having a good start. I could see Soriana having a good start. I don't like anybody else here. Yeah, agree completely. We are going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to 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. Podcasts.