Fantasy Baseball Today - Injury Replacements, Astros Combined No-Hitter & Struggling Pitchers (6/27 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 27, 2022

Cristian Javier and the Astros combined for a no-hitter this weekend (1:25). ... Who are some potential Bryce Harper replacements (4:50)? ... Which waiver wire pitchers emerged this weekend (10:55)? ... With Salvador Perez out eight weeks, which catcher should you target (21:15)? ... Andres Gimenez, Thairo Estrada or Brendan Donovan (23:45)? ... News and notes (30:19): Ronald Acuña is dealing with a sore foot. ... Start or sit Manny Machado and other banged up players (40:35)? ... Frank made a dynasty trade (43:35)! ... What do we do with these struggling pitchers (45:45)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (53:30). Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. What a wacky and wild weekend of baseball. We saw crying, a no-hitter, a brawl, and much more.

Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, June 27th. Frank Stamphill joined by Scott White and Chris Towers today on the show. Some big injuries, unfortunately, Bryce Harper. We now have a timeline for Salvador Perez. We'll find replacements, hopefully, for those players. What to do with struggling pitchers? I made a trade in the Scott White Dynasty League. We'll talk about all of that.

But first, let's jump in. Oh, my goodness gracious. It seems appropriate to only start with the team, the player, that threw the no-hitter against my New York Yankees. This is called Karma, by the way, because going into Friday's podcast, I was gloating about the walk-off win against the Astros, yada, yada. They come out, they win Friday, Saturday.

And to be honest, the Astros probably should have won all four games. But let's just talk about the no-hitter. Combined no-hitter on Saturday against my Yankees, headlined by Christian Javier, who threw seven no-hit endings himself, 13 strikeouts. He had 20 swinging strikes in the start. is down to 2.73 for him.

1.05 on the whip. He's been very, very good so far this season. But I don't know that there's anything else to add besides that because he's pretty rostered. And I think we're just kind of rolling with Christian Javier. Scott, what do you think? I feel like you should talk because I've been talking too much. Yeah.

Christian Javier, I think, is great. I'm hoping this start was the clincher because Jake Oterizzi is going out on a rehab assignment now. And where's the opening for him? I assume they're not going to take Christian Javier out after a 13 strikeout no-hit effort, though he seemed like his job might be in jeopardy prior to it. So, yeah, I hope they don't try anything weird there with Oterizzi because Javier is definitely better. And kind of a weird case because his ex-fip is high, 387.

He's a fly ball pitcher, so that brings it up. but the actual FIP is 275. He's one of those flyball pitchers who prevents home runs well enough that he's always going to have an ex-fip on the high side. And all the other ER estimators say Javier's performance is spot on, and he's great. He is great indeed. Chris, I know that something you have pointed out in the past

is whenever a pitcher either throws a no-hitter or goes deeper than they go basically ever before, Javier threw 115 pitches in this start, maybe you're a little bit wary about using them the following week. What do you think about Javier up against the Angels this week? Yeah, I mean, that's not to say that you should sit, Christian Javier, but I would guess,

generally speaking, that most pitchers, when they have a 110 plus pitch outing, and this is worth looking up, I suppose, but probably throw on average fewer pitches than they normally do in their next start. So I would expect something like that for Javier. But yeah, he like Scott said the ERA estimators mostly agree that he's been very good and I think the X-FIP is the one that you can probably throw away a little bit because that's the one that assumes that pitchers don't have much control over the results on balls and play and that is something that we know at least to a certain extent pitchers can control and Javier so far this season has had very good results on balls and play that was not the case last season but for a flyball pitcher he

He does get a lot of pop-ups, 11.7% pop-up rate per baseball savant, which calculates it slightly differently than baseball or fan graphs. So he generates a lot of weak pop-ups, basically, is one of the answers for how he gets away with being a fly-ball pitcher. He also gets a ton of strikeouts, 31% for the season, 30% for his career. So, yeah, I think Javier is quite good, feeling good about him moving forward. Quite good, indeed. And Javier, it's going up against the Angels this week.

And over the last two weeks, their offense has really, really slowed down. So I would continue to roll with Javier this upcoming week. If you play in a points league, of course, he has SPARP eligibility, which helps. Chris, we'll go to you next. Oh, my goodness, gracious player from the weekend. Yeah, Jaron Duran, who continues to lead off for Boston, got on base, I think three times. On Sunday, had two steals. He's just continued to be really solid for them.

them. I think he's gotten on, I think he got on base seven times this weekend in three games. Stole two bases. The quality of contact hasn't been super impressive. 107 max exit Velo, 90 mile per hour average exit Velo is pretty good, though. I think and I hope that Jaron has done enough to remain a key part of their lineup moving forward. You know, he's played, he's batted lead off every game that he started so far. So hopefully, when everyone's healthy, he's doing enough to stay up with the big club. And he's creating a situation where hopefully outfield, you know, part of a situation where hopefully outfield can be a little better moving forward.

You know, there's a handful of guys, Riley Green being called up, Alex Kiroloff, although he hasn't done a ton. You know, I'm hoping that Jaron Duran can be part of the solution at outfield moving forward. Yeah, I hope so too. I'm excited about him. He's kind of selling out. out for like the contact speed profile, which is what he was in the minors prior to last year. Last year he went through that Willie Mays-Hays and Major League 2 phase where he wanted to hit a bunch of home runs.

And it didn't work out. It showed good signs at first, but it didn't work out in the long run. And so he's kind of reverted to what he was previously, which, you know, if it's not a profile you see as much. anymore in the modern game, so that raises questions of whether to work. But it seems to be working so far, and we like him stealing bases, obviously. The one issue with Duran is you're not going to start him this week because they're going to Toronto, and he's not vaccinated. So he's out for half of this week.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't pick him up, especially if you're looking for more steals. Yeah, especially in five outfielder leagues. He's 33% rostered, so it could be out there in some road. style formats and definitely would look to get Duran on your team, but maybe not in your lineups this upcoming week. I was going to save it for later, but, you know, looking for Bryce Harper replacements. Bryce Harper placed in the aisle with a fractured left thumb, unfortunately, this weekend, and the Phillies have yet to provide a timeline for his return. As a result, it looks like Matt Veerling should see more playing time, but I scooped up a few outfielder's here,

and how would you rank these four? Connor, Joe has multiple hits in three of his last four games. He's got six home games this week. Alex Kirloff, Scott, I know, is one of your hitter sleepers this upcoming week. Duran was one of them. Those Joe. Duran was one until I found out about the Dorado thing. And then Oscar Gonzalez, who is someone else I know that you like. So how would you rank those four? Joe, Kiroloff, Duran, Gonzalez.

Look, I think Keraloff has the most upside. He's also shown the least. So I'm calling this upcoming week with the Twins playing eight games and mostly favorable matchups. I'm calling it as coming out party. and I still think he should be your first choice just to see if that materializes. But I like them all to an extent. I mean, Gonzalez is probably going to be the least valuable from like a points league perspective

just because he walks so infrequently, but he's probably the best natural power source of them. I mean, while Duran provides the speed, can't use him this week, obviously, but as a long-term replacement for Harper. And then Joe, you know, he's probably the lowest upside of the bunch, but there's still a lot to be said for batting leadoff for the team that plays half its games at course field. So I think he'll at least be useful if you can't get your hands on one of those higher upside plays.

In deeper leagues, I saw a few names pop out as well. Chris, I'll throw these your way. Edward Olivaris returned with a double dong on Friday. Nick Sanzel over his last four games, he has eight hits, including three stolen bases. Tyrone Taylor over his last seven games. He's hitting 280 with three homers. And Seth Brown with the Oakland A's, he had six hits this weekend, including a home run.

And very low-key, he has nine home runs and seven steals as a corner outfielder, obviously very low batting average. Is there one or two that stand out here, Olivares, Senzel, Tyrone Taylor, Seth Brown? Olivares is kind of in the Jaron-Duran category where I just want to see him get an extended opportunity. I mean, he has played 87 games in the majors and actually hasn't been bad. I mean, 87 games, he's got 10 home runs, four steals.

Like, that's not amazing, but it's not useless, especially nine steel attempts. He's been four for five. He needs to be better than that. But you look at what he's done at AAA. He's played 76 games, 16 homers, 12 steals. I'm not saying he's going to be a 30-20 guy over a full-season pace if he gets an opportunity, but he's someone who has flashed multiple times in his major league. career and I think he's by far the most interesting here even if you know I'm not a

hundred percent sure he's going to get an everyday role all right Edward olivaris 16 percent rostered for those of you in deeper leagues who lost Bryce Harper this weekend all right Scott you've had 10 minutes to decide your oh my goodness gracious player from the weekend have you figured it up you know it's hard to coming off these weekends because obviously three days worth of games how do you narrow it down and you know I'm tempted to go with Alejandro Kirk, who's homered five times in his past eight games now.

And I'm not so sure he doesn't deserve to be. With Salvador Perez going down for eight weeks, I'm not so sure Alejandro Kirk isn't the number one catcher and fantasy moving forward. But that's me cheating and squeezing in an extra guy. My oh my goodness gracious player today is going to be Graham Ashcraft, who's been my oh my goodness gracious player before, but that's because he keeps doing, oh, my goodness gracious things.

This weekend against the Giants on Friday, he had one of those, oh, my goodness gracious starts, one run on three hits and seven innings, no walks, eight strikeouts. And it was right at the point where, okay, we did the Ashcraft thing. He proved to be not worthwhile coming off two bad starts. you know, with his fun while it lasted sort of deal. And then he bounces back with a start like this against a really good offense.

What I noticed he did in this start was throw his cutter two-thirds of the time. That's the pitch that peaks at 100 with movement, obviously, because it's a cutter. 67% of the time. Normally it's like 45% of the time. So he did the throw your best pitch more thing. And lo and behold, it worked for him too. and elite ground ball skills. With that much velocity, you know,

you're going to make a lot happen with that much velocity. So I am still on board with Ashcraft. I added him to my 10 sleeper pitchers for this week because I had to remove somebody. Oh, Michael Waka is no longer a two-star pitcher. So I took him out and put Ashcraft in. Ashcraft this week is going against the Cubs. Yep.

So I think that's a decent play. Scott, what was the line that you read off for Ashcraft? Because I think you might have been selling him short if I heard it correctly. Did I, maybe I wrote it down before the game was over. You give me the line. So I have eight innings, six hits, two runs, zero walks, eight strikeouts. So it was a bad final inning there. It raised the ERA and whip for the game.

But yeah, he went eight instead of seven. And it was a good start either way you look at it. Yeah, very good. My only problem, I guess, and this is nitpicking, because I absolutely think he should be added. And I added him in TGFBI, which is one of the ones where Rayvers ran already. He only had a 26% CSW in this start. Only 10 swinging strikes.

His strikeout rate for the season, only 16%. So he is going to, you know, there's room for him to like tweak his pitch mix and throw his slider more and get more swings and misses. but generally speaking, I think if Ashcraft is going to be useful moving forward, it's going to be as a contact suppressor, you know, quality of contact suppressor. And in his defense, he's been very, very good at that. 331 expected Wobon contact is very, very good, which means that he has a 322XERA compared to a 327 ERA.

So despite having a very low strikeout rate, you know, at least that underlying stat backs it up. But the quality of contact takes a long time to stabilize and it takes a long time to know if that's a skill A guy who throws a 98 mile an hour cutter you would think would be hard to square up So hopefully that can you know continue to be the case, but that that's the one thing that I noticed with him that You know, he gives up a lot of contact so he's going to have to be very good at suppressing quality of contact moving forward and of course anytime you have a pitcher who relies on Quality of contact there's more variance involved because obviously once a ball leaves the bat, anything can happen, as we've seen many times before. And I think all of the waiver wire pitchers that I noticed this weekend,

they basically all have that in common. So Scott, what do you think of this group? Along with Ashcraft, Jose Orkidie tossed a gem at the Yankees on Sunday, seven innings of one hitball. He allowed one run, three strikeouts. He actually had a no-hitter through the first six endings of this game. Has three quality starts in a row. That is Jose Orquite. Marco Gonzalez also has three quality. he starts in a row, and I call him out because he's going up against the Oakland A's this week, so that is a great matchup. And then Kyle Hendricks, one of his best starts of the season at the Cardinals, 7 and a 3rd

shutout with six strikeouts to just one walk, and in three starts since coming back from his little hiatus, he's got a 3.78 ERA and a 13% swinging strike rate. So I thought that was kind of interesting. What do you think of that group? Scott, Ashcraft, Hendricks, Marco Gonzalez, Jose Orkite. Well, I would say that Ashcraft is my favorite of that group. Yeah, I don't have, I've, Orkidi pitches for the Astros.

Like, I feel like that's the main thing he has going for him. Even with the quality starts he's had recently, still a 436 ERA. The ERA estimators are even worse. He doesn't strike out many guys. He puts the ball in the air a lot. He allows a lot of home runs. I just don't think there's much there with Erkidi.

He can be a matchups play sometimes, and you like the supporting cast. But I think, I don't think he's lived up to who he thought he was going to be when he was first breaking into the league. And, you know, Gonzalez Hendricks, I think they've, I think they have more weaknesses than strengths too. Gonzalez somehow manages to put up respectable numbers year after year, and the ERA, not so much the whip, but the ERA is respectful of this year as well.

Yeah. And well, and, and when mad at us on Twitter about Marco Gonzalez and like how disrespectful we are to him. And it's like, I don't know, he's useful. Yeah. He's not, well. He's in my sleeper pitchers this week going against Oakland. He was this past week too because he was. Yeah, I think like against the right matchups, he can probably help you in E.R.

That's probably like he won 10 games last year. He's got four wins this season. It's like, yeah, that's not that useful. Like, if you start, if you just lock Marco Gonzalez in your lineup, you're probably hurting yourself more than helping yourself unless he has a 3-1 ERA like he did in 2020. And even that was like an outlier strikeout rate where he was at 8.3 per nine. It was, it was 10 wins and 25 starts last year. Sure. So it was, what is that?

Like a 12-win pace. and he's had a 16 win season, a 13 win season. The short season, he won seven games and 11 starts. So there's something to be said for going deep into games and keeping runs off board. But yeah, I think he's... I think his numbers end up better than how we rate him.

But when you're going through the season, like he's rarely one of the five most attractive choices for a team. You can probably stream better overall production. Marco Gonzalez. I mean, he's just so interesting because he walks so many batters and does not get strikeouts. He does go deep into his start, so it probably helps him in a points league. That is Marco Gonzalez. We're talking about. Strong matchup again this week against the Oakland A's. Yeah, use him against that matchup. We'll just point out with Kyle Hendricks that he threw more changeups and curves this weekend, which seems to be a recipe for his success whenever he does

have a good start. So just something to follow for him. A few other names I wanted to mention Waverwire pitchers, part two, Dane Dunning, seems to basically alternate good starts and bad starts. Well, this weekend was a good one. Six innings of one-run ball with four strikeouts against the nationals. Zach Rankie returned with a quality start against the Oakland A's. Six innings, one run, four strikeouts there. And David Peterson, I don't know if there's anything here,

but he posted a career high, eight strikeouts at the Marlins on Sunday. Seven innings of two-run ball. He had those eight strikeouts to zero walks. 16 swinging strikes and his slider has a 25% swinging strike rate this season. I thought that was pretty interesting. Chris, what do you think about this group? Dunning, Granky, David Peterson. Peterson has had like multiple good starts against the Marlins in a row, right? Or like two of his last three starts or something like that. I remember he had a really good outing against the Marlins recently as well. He had 19, 19 wiffs against the Marlins in his

last start. And that's really what's caught my attention about these two starts is the jumping whiffs. The Marlins have by far the worst strike I write in baseball against lefties this season. That's true. 28.4%. The second worst is 25.6%. I know there was a lot of teeth gnashing and wailing about jazz chisholm sitting against lefties, but he's been awful against them. They have the worst OPS against lefties in the majors. So I'm not saying that there's, nothing here with David Peterson, but there's probably not much here. I think it's probably just preying on a bad matchup or on a very good matchup. That's a good observation, but I will also point out that in both of those starts, he used his slider a third of the time. Normally,

it's more like a quarter at the time. And his slider has like a 50% whiff rate, which I think you just mentioned, Frank, right? Yeah. So, I mean, a 50% whiff rate is huge on any pitch. If it's one you're throwing a third of the time, you're going to get some swinging strikes if that whiff rate holds. So, I don't know. I'm inclined to say. And so I'm not saying there's nothing. I just,

the numbers pop off the page over the past two starts in a way that probably. Like, I think he can be useful moving forward. But David Peterson looking like a good pitcher is probably more about the Marlins. Yeah. I think it's good to put that in person. of how bad the Marlins have been against lefties this season. I also do like for David Peterson.

He's got a 53% ground ball rate. So, yeah, he's got a high whiff pitch. He's got the ground ball rate. He's someone that I added in one of my 15 teamers this past week and actually started him. So I feel like a genius, but it doesn't always work out that way. But I'm going to hold on to him in that league and just kind of see where it goes from here for David Peterson. Let's go back up to injury replacements. I mentioned Bryce Harper.

We talked about some outfield ads. Salvador Perez will miss eight weeks after undergoing surgery to repair the UCL in his left thumb. So we are looking, unfortunately, for replacements in shallow leagues, assume one catcher leagues. Christian Vasquez, Sean Murphy, obviously MJ Melendez, 72% rostered could be out there. Is going to play more now with Salvador Perez out with injury. Scott, what do you think about those three? Vasquez, Sean Murphy, Melendez. Who do you prefer? Melendez.

Melendez, I think, definitely has the most upside. It's probably going to play the most or at least close to it. I know Vasquez plays a lot too. Vasquez would be my second choice for what it's worth. I actually, well, the bit has to go through, but I actually am going to replace Perez with Vasquez, I think, in one league. One of the many leagues where I have Perez. So this is not, this is especially damaging injury for me, of course.

And I, you know, I think we can declare I was wrong to. draft Salvador Perez as early as I was. And, you know, one of the downs disadvantages always to drafting a catcher that early is it's a position that has a lot of injury risk. And I don't remember exactly how he hurt his thumb. I think it was on a swing and not in fulfilling his catching duties. But regardless, if you discount a catcher for injury, then that would have saved you from this fate. I'm not saying I'll never going to recommend drafting a catcher in round three. 10 years or so, one comes along that I think is worth doing it for,

but it didn't work out for Salvador Perez this time around. Fair enough. In two catcher league, some names that popped up for me. Chris Jorge Alfaro, someone we've talked about quite a bit recently. Jose Trevino has been solid all season for the Yankees. Cow Raleigh has been much better in June for the Mariners. And James McCann just returned for the New York Mets. How would you rank those four?

Alfaro, Trevino, Cal Rale, James McCain. I would probably go Alfaro, Raleigh, Trevino, McCann, or some combination of those three after Alfarro, but I do think Alfarro is the most interesting. As we talked about on Wednesday's podcast, he's playing more, he's hitting the ball really, really well, which he's always done, but now he's starting to hit the ball in the air more, which has always been the issue for Al Faro. So, yeah, just in terms of upside, I think Alpharo is the most promising. one. All right, so we've hit outfield catcher, starting pitcher ads, middle infield. There was a few names that popped up this weekend in shallower leagues. Andres Jimenez just keeps on. He is having a very good season. Six hits this weekend, including a sock and a shoe on Friday. He's now up to eight home runs and six steals overall.

He's 75% rostered. And for a while, we were worried about playing time. He's now started 10 straight games for the Guardians. That is Andres Jimenez. And then Brendan Donovan had a huge game on Sunday. He went two for four with a triple second home run. I think he had two walks in that game. He's betting 315. He's got an 874 OPS. He's eligible at every position except catcher on CBS. So a very interesting player there.

Scott, who would you rather add, I guess, in a shallower league, Andres Jimenez or Brendan Donovan? Well, I would say it probably depends on the format. I think Donovan is really undervalued. points leagues because of the walk. Like he walks, I think actually now he does have more strikeouts than walks, but it's basically one to one. And he continues to walk a lot.

And, you know, you don't need him to hit a high number of home runs. And he won't. But he gets enough extra base hits that I think he'll hold up in that format. But yeah, Jimenez is having what appears to be a breakout season. And the Guardians appear to be appreciating it finally. playing him every day. His batting average against lefties is over 300 itself, so there's no reason not to play him every day. I added him to the sleeper hitters for this week.

And you know what? If you wanted to go Jimenez over Donovan in a points league, just because you feel like there's more upside there, I don't, you can't blame you for that. I just, I don't know. I think Donovan's being overlooked in points leagues. For what it's worth, Jimenez is hitting 310 against lefties. It's 45 play appearances. His expected average is 270,

which is still fine. But his expected Wobos 299 against lefties, which is still pretty bad. He's really crushing Ritees. Like his expected Wobo against them is 382. That's 104 points higher than it was last year. So nearly all of the improvements that he's made have it come against Ritey's,

and hey, if you're going to hit one-handed, one hand. That's the one to do because there are more right-handed pitchers and left-handed pitchers. But yeah, I mean, I feel like usually hitters are worse against one hand to pit same-handed pitchers, whatever hand-edness it is. And like those. He's improved enough against lefties. Right. Like that if he does keep crushing righties, it'll play. I completely missed Tyro Estrada, who I meant to put in this conversation. He had a sock in a shoe on Saturday, now up to six home runs and 11 steals. He's 78% rostered.

Chris, would you take Tyro Estrada over either of Jimenez or Brendan Donovan? I think probably only in a roto league where I'm looking for steals. And even then, Jimenez is going to give you enough there that I think the difference in the quality of their bats is significant enough to tip in Jimenez's favor. All right. In deeper leagues, two mid-infielders, I was looking to put some bids on. Sunday. Niko Horner has nine hits, including one homer over his last four games. He's betting 295 overall. He's got four homers. He's got six steals. And Essoc Parade is back-to-back

three hit games on Saturday and Sunday, which included his 10th home run. Obviously, he just had a massive week. Three homers against the Yankees in one game earlier in the week. He has started seven of the last nine games for Tampa Bay. I know they've been dealing with a lot of injuries themselves. Scott, were you looking at either of those in your deeper leagues? Niko Horner, Isok Parole. radius? Honestly, no. Part of it is because I got in on the Louis Garcia thing. I picked up Kyle Farmer back when he was highly available. I just don't have a great need at middle infield right now. That's part of it. But part of it is because as someone who doesn't have

that kind of need, like I don't think. I don't think. either of these players has the sort of upside where I'm going to miss them that much. And that includes Paredes, who I know has been really hot. But, I mean, his average exit velocity is 86.5 miles per hour,

you know? Yeah. And it's the raise. And they sent Jonathan Arranda back down with Wander Franco coming back. So, So maybe that gives an opportunity for more consistent playing time for Perretta's.

But I just, I think, you know, when he's not blazing hot, bats might be hard to come by for him. Before we hit the break, I want to remind you to join our Facebook group. Facebook.com slash groups slash fantasy baseball. Today, you can go there and ask questions with other listeners and people who watch the show and waiver wire, trade questions, dynasty, keeper leagues, whatever you've got going on. You need help setting your lineup.

Just drop a post in there, and people will respond to you. Again, that is Facebook.com slash groups slash fantasy baseball today, and we'll take a break and be back right after this. The news and notes, Ronald Lecunia was out of the lineup Sunday after fouling a ball off his foot on Saturday, and he isn't dealing with a fracture, but apparently couldn't put much pressure on his foot.

and that sounds pretty bad. Scott, I assume that we should just bench Acuna to be safe. It wouldn't even surprise me if he winds up on the IL or something. And he was riding around on some kind of scooter thing is what was reported. So, yeah, I mean, you hate to miss out on anything from Ronald to Cunia. And maybe in deeper rotisserie leagues, your alternative, you know, you're not giving up that much if you start a Koonian and it's up getting getting nothing from him but I think of

most leagues you probably have to sit him all right manager dave robert said that mooky bets's initial return timetable of two weeks is proving to be unrealistic so continue to leave him on your bench for now jacob de graham through 20 pitches during live batting practice on a saturday the hope is for him to return sometime in july his running mate max scherzer expects to make another rehab start on Tuesday, and if that goes well, he could return to the Mets next weekend. Chris, would you take the chance and start Scherzer hoping that he returns over the weekend? Nah, it's far enough away that something could happen, rain or, you know, whatever. So I would just avoid it.

I don't think that they necessarily need him either because they have five games this week and they have two off days. So they could probably just space things out and play it safe with Max Scherzer, especially with the lead that they have. Although, I don't know. Have the Braves made up ground, Scott? Are they like closing in on the Mets? I haven't checked in a couple days.

So the Dodgers just took two or three from the Braves. Back and forth game here. It's still a five game. On Sunday. Five games. I mean, that's, you know, it's not insurmountable in June, obviously, but it's a pretty good lead.

All right, we'll see what happens with Max Scherzerer. Wander Franco returned from the I.L. And started on Sunday. Jonathan Aranda was sent back to AAA, as Scott mentioned. Jack Flaherty was removed Sunday with right shoulder stiffness, which is just about the last thing you wanted to see with Flaherty, who has not been effective and dealt with a shoulder injury all season leading up to this. So I don't really know what we do.

I guess we just leave them on the bench, but this sounds very bad. Well, yeah, I mean, we don't have a diagnosis beyond stiffness, which isn't much of a diagnosis. I would be surprised if he doesn't wind up on the IL so I'm waiting to put him back in an IL spot. Yeah. Basically. He's looked awful.

Velocity's been way down. I'm not particularly optimistic about him moving forward. I'm not sure. I'm not sure he would be in, you know, whenever I update my rankings this week, I'm not sure he'll be in my top 75 rest of season. All right, that is Jack Flaherty. Jesse Winker was among six players and two managers

who rejected Sunday following their brawl, which was a pretty crazy one. I think Mike Trout almost got hit by a pitch on Saturday, and then on Sunday they threw at Julio Rodriguez, and then they threw at Jesse Winker, and then this huge brawl broke out, and J.P. Crawford's like sucker punching people. It was actually pretty entertaining,

not that I condone violence or anything, but... I think it was a guy on the Angels threw like a box of sunflower seed. Yeah. Rice Oliglis. field. That was pretty good.

Yeah, but my thinking is... It was impressive throw. It's like this big, like, plastic bin of sunflowers. He tosses it like 20 feet. But what's the point of that? Isn't it just, like, his own team's grounds crew

is going to have to clean it up? It's like, what to express, you know, express your displeasure. I guess. Through, uh, you know, sunflower seed tossing. It is,

it is funny how, like, fighting in the field of play, like, yeah, I mean, you get suspensions and stuff. Maybe you get fines. but it's just like, you know, any other environments, like the consequences would be so much worse, you know?

It's just kind of, we're kind of free to enjoy it because it's just part of the spectacle, you know? And like, it's a, it's a sports fight in 2022. Nobody's really trying to fight. Like you want it like at the least, 99% of the guys out there want to be seen wanting to fight. but none of them actually want to fight. A lot of chest puffing. If you guys had Jesse Winker on any teams, would you bench him just kind of bracing for a suspension this week? I mean, among other reasons to bench Jesse Winker, sure.

He's kind of been heating up a little bit, but yeah. Yeah, you might want to play that same. I don't know how quickly these suspensions come around. Like, will it happen right away this week? Well, if they appeal. A couple days, but then there's potential for an appeal. The likelihood of appeal, I'd say. So, yeah, I mean, I think you're probably

within your right to start Winker this week and the Mariners have the third best matchups and it's almost all righties. And as we said, he's been heating up. See, four multi-hit games in his last six. So it's pretty good. Yeah, I think I continue to start Winker.

All right, let's do it. Jeremy Pena made his return to the Astros, batting sixth on Sunday. Mitch Garver, who was out of the lineup, said he'll eventually require surgery to address the forearm injury that has prevented him from catching since early May. So that doesn't sound great.

And overall, he just hasn't been very good this year, maybe because he's playing through injury. Chris Sale has allowed... Chris Sale allowed, not has allowed. He allowed three hits while striking out six over two and two-thirds scoreless in a rehab start for the Florida complex.

League affiliate for the Red Sox on Saturday. I assume he still needs a few more rehab starts, but slowly getting built up there. Michael Brantley was removed Sunday with right shoulder discomfort. Nick Ladolo is scheduled to make another rehab start on Wednesday before rejoining the Reds. He is 37% rostered if you are looking for a pitcher to stash. And speaking of which, Dustin May, who is returning from Tommy John surgery, faced live hitters on Friday and is expected to have three.

more throwing sessions, which puts him on track for rehab in mid-July. Are you guys looking to stash Dustin May anywhere? He's 27% rostered. And probably a month of rehab. So, best case scenario, mid-August. You know, if you have a free aisle spot, it doesn't hurt to throw him in it. But he did look like he was making a real leap last year. He was someone who was like a pitching ninja darling, like has.

had a ton of movement on his pitches, but the strikeout rates were pretty mediocre until last season. He only made five starts, but he had 35 strikeouts and 24 innings, I think, 23 innings. So small sample size, but was finally getting the whiffs that his stuff looked like it deserved and he could be a top 25 starting pitcher on a per inning basis, you know, whenever he's healthy. That is Dustin May. Do you remember the Yerminate? Your mean Mercedes was called up by the Giants on Sunday, and he was awesome for the White Sox in April of last year, and then completely fell off.

Did you guys look at Mercedes in two catcher leagues at all? He's not eligible at catcher anymore, I don't think. He might be right. He's just D.H. only. That's not great. Yeah. No, it'd be interesting if he was eligible a catcher, but I imagine he's not going to play enough on the Giants

to really make it worthwhile, even presuming he hits well. All right, forget about that one. His quality of contact metrics last year were pretty good. And he hit at AAA, so, you know, if he gets a chance, we'll keep an eye on him. You're me and Mercedes just a name to watch. Ezekiel Duran and Taylor Hearn were both optioned to AAA on Saturday, which is unfortunate. I thought Duran played very well in his short time with the Rangers.

Players who went to the IL this weekend, Ty France with a grade two flexor strain in his left forearm. It's a pretty big loss. He's been awesome so far this year. Andrew Heaney with left shoulder inflammation, once again, hopeful for a brief absence there. Brandon Crawford with left knee inflammation. Hunter Renfro with a left calf strain. Trevor Larnick with a core muscle strain. Daniel Lynch with a blister.

And Daniel Hudson will be out for the season with a torn ACL. Start or sit these banged up. Before we move on to that, Frank, speaking of Thai France, and we don't know how long term that absence is going to be, but it could be several weeks, as with Harper and Perez. And one potential infield replacement, who we didn't talk about earlier, but I added in a couple of leagues, is Josh Smith of the Rangers who, Ezekiel Durand got sent down this weekend, surprisingly, because he'd hit well, and it seemed like there might be a platoon there between Smith the left-hander and Duran the right-hander, or Duran the right-hander. but now it's just Smith's job and he was batting leadoff

Chris Woodward says he likes him as a leadoff hitter he draws some walks and he steals some bases and he might end up being kind of valuable I was surprised how I put in some modest bids for him in those 15 team roto leagues and won him I think at everyone that I put in a bid for him so he's eligible at shortstop and third base I believe on our site.

So yeah, that's another guy you could look into it. And I like them more than like Nico Horner or ESOC Pared to have Josh Smith. All right. Would you start or sit these banged up players? Mani Machado has now missed seven straight. Why didn't they just put him on the IL? I don't understand things like this. Anyway, he's nursing that sprained left ankle,

participated in light workouts and batting practice on Saturday. what do you guys think? Mani Machado this week. Yeah, I mean, it's weird that because it's only 10 days for hitters. It's back to 15 days for pitchers. So it's weird that he hasn't gone on the IEO yet as much time as he's missed.

So that kind of, I don't know, that could go either way. But I'm kind of leaning towards starting him. Brandon Woodruff will return and start Tuesday at Tampa Bay. And it looks like he could have a second start against the pirates later in the week as well. Chris, do you throw Brandon Woodruff just back in there, Rays and Pirates?

Yeah, he was good in his rehab assignments, 14 strikeouts and 7 and 2 thirds inning. So I would just go out and start him. Chris Bryant will rejoin the Rockies on Monday against the Dodgers, but it seems like he is quite prone to re-injury. Scott, would you throw Chris Bryant back in there? Six games at home. I mean, it depends what my third base options looked like.

If I'd been slumming it there since he went down, then yeah, I'd get him back in the lineup. But, you know, if I'm pretty happy with my alternative, I might get him a week to prove his health. It does help that they're in Colorado all week. So that adds to the temptation. Jonathan India sat on Sunday after getting hit by a pitch on his right hand on Saturday.

He's been okay since returning. Chris, would you take a chance with Jonathan India? I think that's fine. You know, it doesn't sound like it's serious enough to stay away. But, you know, if you have another option who's viable, you know, if I had Nico Horner, I think I might be okay sitting him.

Sorry, Scott. Colton Wong is expected to return on Tuesday. I would start him in leagues with a middle infielder if you were holding out to him this long. Jorge Polanco hopes to return sometime this upcoming series with the Guardians, but that

phrasing just sounds kind of risky. I would pass. Yeah, and he's not been great, Jorge Polanco. The Mets are, are quote, very confident. Jeff McNeil will return on Tuesday. He's missed five straight with a hamstring injury. But the Mets only have five games this week anyway, so I don't know.

What do you think about Jeff McNeil? Nah. Yeah. I'm kind of meh on him anyway, but particularly with some health concerns in a five-game schedule, I think he can probably do better. Carlos Carrasco left his previous start with a back injury.

He's expected to make his start this week, but it's up against the Astros again. I think I would pass. I have Carasco in quite a few places. Yep. Yep. And the last one, Glaver Torres, was diagnosed with a mild ankle sprain on Sunday. Would not surprise me if he misses a few days there. I don't want to spend too much time on this because I don't know how many people actually

care about the Scott White Dynasty League, but, you know, some people have emailed in and they're like, hey, talk about your leagues more. So, all right, I made a trade this week with RJ White in the Scott White Dynasty League, 24-Team Head to Head Points League. grade the trade. I gave up a $42 Clayton Kershaw, $6 Tanner Rainey,

and a minor league Dre Jameson. And I received a minor league spot D.L. Hall, a $2. Luis Arias, $26. Eduardo Rodriguez,

and a $2. Amelio Pagan. It's like, whatever, who cares about that? What do you think? How'd I do? I mean,

the key pieces in this deal are Kershaw and Hall. Yep. And I would say, given, you know, Kershaw's too expensive to keep and he has a tenuous grasp on health. Like you want to trade him when he's actually healthy.

And D.L. Hall's a consensus top 100 prospect. Some might even have him in the top 50. This stuff is so good. Drey Jameson's an okay prospect, but he's been horrible this year. So, yeah, I think you did pretty well. It's, you know, I know the context of the league and how hard it is to trade for legit prospects.

And maybe you get something out of Emilio Paghan for maybe he, I don't know, Johann Duran just got a save today with Paghan entering the game in the 6th. So I don't know if the twins are on the verge of making a change there. So maybe Paghan's already on his last days as a closer. But if not, then you've got some value from him to. Eduardo Rodriguez will see. I mean, I don't have much, I don't have much hopes for him, especially at that keeper cost,

but it's another way that this deal could even end up more in your favor. So I think he did pretty well. Yeah, all right. Thanks, Scott. And look, Eduardo Rodriguez, $26, whatever. I mean, in this league, just trying to rack up starting pitchers,

like, if he does anything rest of season, like maybe I'll even flip him for something else. I don't know. My team is... Yeah, we've got like a month till the trade deadline, but sure, it's possible. It could happen. Something I've already thought about,

so... Come back soon, Eduardo Rodriguez. We're rooting for you. What do we do with these four starting pitchers who are, we talked about them a lot recently. I guess whether or not to start them this week, do you maybe just try and sell them and recoup some kind of value for these guys? What do we do?

McKenzie Gore was solid on, I believe, he pitched Friday five shutout innings with four strikeouts, but the fastball velocity down once again, 1.6 miles per hour. He has three plus walks in five. straight. He's at the Dodgers this week. Obviously pretty scary matchup. Nestor Cortez, he's looked much more human recently over his last four starts. He's got a 5.68 ERA, six home runs allowed during that span. Joe Ryan, the fastball velocity remains down. I think

that's two or three starts in a row. He's got a 4.50 ERA over his last seven starts. And then Jose Burrios crushed once again at the Brewers, gave up eight runs over two and two thirds. His ERA for the season is up to 5.86. And someone pointed this out to me. His road ERA, 7.92. His home, 3.18. So for whatever reason, Berrios struggling mightily on the road this season. Chris, what do we do? Burrios, Joe Ryan, Nesser Cortez, McKenzie Gore.

Lots of names, lots of talent. What do we do? I would start Brios this week against Tampa Bay. I know it's a really rough go of things for him, but it's a not terrible matchup. It's actually been a pretty good matchup this season. We'll see if that remains the case moving forward, but I would roll him out there. Gore, I would be trying to trade him. Um, you know, I think in redraft, in redraft.

In redraft. Yeah. I mean, Dynasty, obviously there's still a lot of potential and even a redraft. Like there's still a chance that he figures out. it's like one of the slider or curveball, I think needs to take a leap. Both of them have just been not particularly great pitches. The fastball has been his best pitch in terms of quality of contact allowed. Whiff rate is fine on the fastball, but neither the curveball or the slider looks like a difference maker in terms of

with rate and the quality of contact has been mediocre. So I think he needs to figure out, he needs to find an answer for one of those two pitches. And I'm just not sure the command is there on either of them. My concerns about Gore are more acute than that even Because what happened to him last year when he lost his mechanics His velocity went down and his control was way off And what's happened his last three starts?

His velocity is down and his control is way off He's 11 walks versus eight strikeouts in his last three starts And so I'm afraid he's Now we've seen him regain it mechanically And maybe it'll just be a little blippin And otherwise very successful rookie season but because he has that history of kind of losing it, I'm worried.

Like, I definitely would sit him until he found it again. Scott, would you look to, this isn't a concept we talk about often because it doesn't seem like a good one, frankly, just being honest,

but would you try and sell low on any of these players because their value could continue to plummet even further? And then, you know, you won't be able to get as much value as you can get right now. So would you try to do that with any of these? I mean, look, Nestor Cortez hasn't been that bad. Yeah, his numbers are still great.

So I don't know, like, if you wanted to bail on Cortez, I think you could still get a nice return for him. And I still think he's fine. Like, I'm not saying, I'd still, like, I'd still, I'm not saying I want to trade him at all. Like, I think it's more likely he regresses, he backslides here than not. He continues to backslide, I guess.

but, you know, I really, I want a really good return for him still. Yes. Yeah, I'm more skeptical, I think, than anyone of Cortez, but I still think you should be asking for quite a bit in return for him. As for the others, I mean, like, you can't trade Barrios now. And, like, I'm still, like, the last two starts have been awful. Unlike Chris, I just, I don't think I could risk putting him out there as bad as the last two were. but the three that preceded it were like legitimately awesome starts,

like exactly what you'd expect from a high-end pitcher. So that just makes it extra maddening that you know, seen very recently how good Bereas can be. But, you know, 586 ERA is a 586 ERA. And yeah, so I don't think you can move that. I'm not sure what to make of Ryan. I'm not sure what to make of Ryan. His whole career, I've been unsure what to make of Ryan,

and there has been no clarity with this recent blip of his. His last outing was fine, right? He had more than a strikeout per inning. It was a quality start. But since returning, the velocity's been down a little bit, and not that he's a guy who has a ton of velocity to begin with. I don't know. Because I'm unsure, I'd probably just continue to roll with them.

Shop them and see what you get. I'd want like a top 30 starting pitcher return for him, what you'd expect to get in exchange for a top 30 starting pitcher, I'd say. Otherwise, I think I'd rather be the one to sink or swim with him. All right, that is Joe Ryan. Let's see what you can get for him in a trade. What about these pitchers start or sit this week? Blake Snell, another blah start up against the Phillies. Four runs allowed over five and two thirds.

He is at the Dodgers this week. Uh, Snell? Yeah, I mean, Snell, if he's not a drop, he's a sick. Yeah, I have no faith in Snell anymore. None. Yep. The next one is Lance Lynn. He's now allowed 11 earned runs over his first three starts of the season. Fastball velocity, still not where you want it to be. He's at the Giants this week, who are pretty good against right-handed pitching. I would want to sit him. I do like what he did his last start. I mean, I know he gave up.

Six runs, five earned, but 23 swinging strikes. Yeah, that's massive. And the velocity was still down from last year, but it was up a little from his first two starts off the aisle. I just think he's trending the right direction. I, you know, it's no, not a bad idea to sit him. I guess I'd rather start Lance Lynn than Jose Barrios. Yeah, I think that's fair. Yeah.

Josiah Gray has now allowed two earn runs or fewer in five straight games. He was at the Rangers this weekend, seven innings of two-run ball, with nine strikeouts, 17 swinging strikes, and he's up against the Marlins this week. I assume that's a go. I like him more than Burrios, more than Lynn, more than Snell, more than Ryan, more than Gore. Yeah.

I love that he used his fastball season load 29% of the time in this one. More sliders, more curveballs. He's a guy who I wish had a change up, because I do think there could be some platoon issues, but his fastball is by far his worst pitch. And minimizing the exposure of that pitch probably helps it play up and he's got really good swing and miss rates

on the slider and curve. So I think it's a all-and-all very good thing for him to do. And I think he's been good against the Marlins this year. I think he has a couple starts against them. All right, that is Josiah Gray. Get him in your lineups this week. SP standouts part one. Justin Verlander with a strong bounceback at the Yankees.

seven innings of one-run ball, only three strikeouts, however. Nick Povetta now has quality starts of at least seven innings. Three games in a row. Seven innings of two-run ball in this one at Cleveland, and he's got a 1.85 ERA over his last 10 starts. That is Nick Povetta. Julio Reyes now has three quality starts in a row. He went six innings of one-run ball with nine strikeouts,

20 swinging strikes at the Braves. Nice start there for him. And Aranola now has four quality starts of at least seven innings in a row for him. Seven innings of one-run ball, 10 strikeouts in that start on Friday. ERA down to 2.98 there. Scott, what do you think? Anything on these four? Aranola, Julio Reyes, Nick Pavetta, Justin Verlander.

Can we say Aranola is an ace now? He's got the ERA below three. He keeps going seven, eight innings with a bunch of strikeouts. I mean, can we declare a final verdict here? As soon as you say it, Scott, you're putting the curse on him and he's going to give up 10 runs in his next time. I have him as a top 12 pitcher rest of season. He's number 10 for me.

Yeah. I have him inside my top 10 as well, I think. And Arias, I think he's beyond the concern level, too, after a sluggish start. His velocity's been inching up. He's been getting a lot more strikeouts, allowing almost no hits lately. Still short outings, but, you know, I think he's back to being a full-fledged must-start type of pitcher. SP standouts part two.

Garrett Cole has allowed two run runs or fewer over his last three starts. He was up against the Astros this weekend, seven innings, one run, eight strikeouts there. Miles Michaels tied a season high with nine strikeouts against the Cubs. Logan Webb, six innings of one-run ball, six strikeouts. against the Reds. His ERA is down to 3.04 and Max Freed posted a season high nine strikeouts against the Dodgers. He had 20 swinging strikes in that start for him. Chris, anything you'd like to add? Max Fried, Logan Webb, Miles Michaelis, Garrett Cole. I mean, is Max Fried an ace? Are him and Sandy Alcounter are kind of the the Spider-Man memes?

They know, you know, they don't pitch quite the same way. Obviously different sides of the mound as well, but very similar types of pitchers. I think Alcantra is maybe a little more reliable as far as the health and the ability to go deep into games. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Awesome. I mean, yeah, like, Alcantir might have a...

Freed is 92% of Sandy Alcantara? Six to seven innings, leaning towards six, and Alcantra is seven to eight innings leading toward eight maybe. Yeah, right now for sure, yeah. Yeah. But other than that, yeah, I mean, a lot of groundball, just under a strikeout per inning.

Yeah, I get the similarities. Yeah, and what I like for Freed this year, velocity up a little bit, best control that we've ever seen. He's throwing his change up more, just has this legit, like five-pitch mix. This is, I can say confidently, the best version of Max Fried that we've ever seen.

SP standouts part three. Shane McClanahan makes it nine straight quality starts. This one against the Pirates, seven innings, one run, 10 strikeouts. He leads baseball with 123 strikeouts. overall. Very close behind him. Dylan Seas posted a career high,

13 strikeouts against the Orioles on Sunday. He has 121 strikeouts. So just behind, Shane McClain. Tony Gonsland, another solid outing. This one at the Braves, five and two thirds of one-run ball. And the Quadfather, I like that nickname.

I heard it on the broadcast. Spencer Shrider, with a great start up against the Dodgers. Six shutout with seven strikeouts. Zero walks. Love seeing that. swinging strikes for Strider. Scott, anything you'd like to add? Shane O'Mac, Dylan, Sees, Gonselin, Strider. Yeah, I, you know, obviously we love Strider and it's nice to see him bounce back

from a bad start, but I don't think any of us lost faith in him. Gonsolin, you know, he's been getting a lot of hype recently, very low ERA, very low ERA for his entire career. That's why I liked him as a breakout this year. And I've enjoyed the breakout. He's had. but I've been reluctant to move him into like the top 20 starting pitchers because he still gets handled kind of like a fifth starter in that only half of his starts has he gone even six innings and two in a row now where he's gone less than six despite pitching well and I think his season high is six and a third so he's never

hasn't once gone seven so he's not getting that that kind of workload that you want from a top 20 starting pitcher. And maybe that's helping to keep the ERA down. I mean, maybe it's for the best. But it does obviously limit his impact to a degree. And so I've been, you know, even though I want to pat myself on the back, I called the breakout season for Tony Gonsolin. Like, I'm restrained in how I rank him going forward.

Some hitting leftovers worth mentioning, John Carlos Stanton has now homered in three of his last. last four games, he's heating back up. Trey Turner had five hits entering Sunday this weekend, so I guess Friday and Saturday combined. All of a sudden, Trey Turner is hitting 320, 10 homers, 52 RBI, 14 steals. He's awesome. Adelius Garcia hit two more homers this weekend, including a walkoff on Saturday.

He's now up to 15 homers and 11 steals for the season. Scott mentioned earlier, Alejandro Kirk is just crushing home runs right now. He has four. In his last five games, he went four for first. 4 on Friday. So putting together that combination of contact and power has been great for Alejandro Kirk. Pete Alonzo had a double dong on Saturday. He's now up to 22 home runs. Aaron Judge, another walk-off homer on Sunday. He's now up to 28. A huge game for Jose Altuve on Sunday, a sock and two shoes. Now up to 15 home runs. Quietly has five stolen bases.

Sounds like my four-year-old dressing himself. I like that. Roddy Tilly. a double dung on Sunday. He's kind of been stuck in this power outage so I don't think you need to add him but let's see if he can get hot once again and speaking of hot, the beefcake, Kyle Schwaber, another home run

on Sunday. Now up to 21 total. 10 home runs in the month of June with an OPS over 1,000. That man is hot. The call to the bolt pan for the Astros one day after Ryan Presley had his meltdown Raphael Montero picked up a save on Friday, his fifth save and then

then Presley bounced back on Saturday with his 15th save of the season. For the Mariners, Paul Seawald got the save on both Thursday and Friday. Now has six total. Diego Castillo pitched in the eighth inning on Saturday. Eric Swanson picked up his first save of the season. And then I think Ken Giles pitched a ninth on Sunday in a two-to-one loss. So they're slowly working him back in as well. for the Reds on Friday, Hunter Strickland pitched a clean ninth inning for his third save.

And I saw a report from, I think it was David Bell that basically just said, Hunter Strickland's going to be our closer. And look, saves are hard to find right now in those deeper leagues. I did have a few bids in on him on Sunday night in like 15 team roto leagues. This is Hunter Strickland. I didn't feel good about it. Yeah. And Alexis Diaz is about to come off the aisle too.

and he's clearly been the Red's best reliever. I think, let me see if I can find the exact quote. I know we're coming up on the end of the podcast, but it was basically like Sprickland seems to step up in the ninth inning. Yeah, kind of thing. So he likes giving it to him. Let's see. Hunter is definitely somebody that likes closing games.

He thrives on it in some ways, I think the bigger of the situation, the better pitcher he's going to be. It may not always be the ninth, but I'm definitely aware of it. and it works in his favor to keep getting those opportunities. So make of that what you will. Bell has been about as non-committal as any manager to the ninth inning. And Diaz has been better, so much better. From one questionable closer to another,

Lutrovino picked up two saves this weekend for the Oakland A's after A.J. Puck and Zach Jackson combined for a meltdown on Thursday in Frankie Montas' gem of an outing. Chris, in deeper leagues, who would you rather take a shot on Lou Trevino or Hunter Strickland if he needs saves? I guess Trevino? Yeah.

Just because he's done it before. But either way, you feel dirty, do it? I don't like either one, but yeah. For Boston, Tanner Houtke picked up his sixth save on Saturday, but keep in mind, he also is eligible to play the first three games this week in Toronto, because he is unvaccinated. On Saturday for the Phillies,

Corey Canable pitched in the seventh, Brad Hand and the eighth. Sir Anthony Dominguez picked up his second save in that game. And then on Sunday, Andrew Balati picked up his first save of the season for the Phillies. I just assumed Dominguez and Brad Hand were unavailable. I guess so, but it's, Dominguez had worked two of the previous three,

hadn't thrown many pitches in either. I don't know, it was a little weird. But I'd rather have Dominguez than Hunter Strickland or Lutrovina. Sure. For Tampa Bay on Sunday, Jason Adam was using the eighth inning. Brooks Raleigh picked up his fourth save of the season. For the twins on Sunday, Emilio Pagan recorded four outs across the sixth and seventh in a five to three game. And then Yohan Duran struck out two for his fifth save. He is 48% rostered. Scott, who would you rather take a shot on Sir Anthony Dominguez or Yohan Duran? Probably Sir Anthony Dominguez. This, we've said it before. This might be the transition to Yohan Duran. I hope so.

This reminds me of last year on the FFT podcast. There were like seven different weeks in a row where someone on the podcast was like, this is Javante Williams week. And it never happened. And that's what it reminds me of right now. Yeah. Who's Javante Williams?

Is he like an upcoming prospect, Chris? I've never heard of it. No, I'm just kidding. For the White Sox on Sunday, a 4-1 game, Joe Kelly entered in the eighth inning. He faced 9-1-2 in the Orioles lineup. Kendall Graveman then gave up two unearned runs in the ninth, but still picked up his third save of the season. To stream or not to stream, let's take a look at Monday.

Eric Fetty up against the Pirates, Chris Bubich, against the Rangers, Tyler Wells, at the Mariners. Fettie's probably my favorite, but yeah, it's not good. Not great. On Tuesday, Zach Plessack up against the 21st. wins. I don't know if that's actually happening. I've seen a few different places that don't have them starting on Tuesday. Uh, well, no, ESPN still has it. Jose Katana at the Nationals, Ross Stripling versus the Red Sox, Michael Waka at the Blue Jays, Dakota Hudson versus the Marlins,

John Gray at the Royals, Johnny Quato at the Angels, Dean Kramer at the Mariners. John Gray is the guy to go with here, I think pretty easily at Kansas City. Yes, I think. I think so to anybody else Dakota Hudson against the mall is okay yeah Kramer at Seattle's not uninteresting Kentana I think is okay

at the Nationals but yeah John Gray is the one to go with if he is available in your league we're gonna wrap there for Scott and Chris I am Frank thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today will be back again tomorrow bye