Fantasy Baseball Today - Is Jose Berrios Back? Let's Rank Pitching Prospects! (4/26 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 26, 2023

Is Jose Berrios back (1:30)!? ... Josiah Gray had his best start of the season (5:45). ... Taj Bradley was optioned back to Triple-A (9:10)! ... Let's rank all the pitching prospects who've recently been promoted (11:52). ... What happened in Mason Miller's second start (17:52)? ... Do any of these waiver wire pitchers matter (21:52)? ... News (28:20): Yordan Alvarez could land on the IL. ... Let's talk waiver wire outfielders and catchers (37:49). ... What do we do with these struggling pitchers (43:00)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and daily streamers (48:00). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ 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 league. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Jose Burrios might, might be back. Let's talk about it.

Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, April 26th. Frank Stamphill joined by Scott White. Today on the show, we're going to recap All of Tuesday's games rank the recent pitching promotions, pitching prospect demotions as well, I guess we'll talk about that. Jose Burrios had his best start in a long time, and much more before we get started. Big thank you to everybody who has subscribed

on YouTube over the years. We just hit 20,000 subscribers, which is awesome. Great milestone. Shared it with the bosses today. They're ecstatic, they love it. Thank you to everyone who has subscribed. If you're listening on the audio side, download, follow, and leave a five-star rating.

really appreciate it. Scottie, let's jump in. Let's do it. You can put it on the board. Yes. Yes. You know, it's probably not the best idea that I used a white socks sound drop on the day that Jose Burrios dominated them. But Alas, Scott, here we are. Oh my goodness gracious for you. Yeah, I'm going to go with Barrios because this was this was the best burrios we've seen all year. and let me see let me remind myself if it's the best we saw of last year too he did have some good stretches last year

even though he finished with a 523 ERA oh yeah he had a 13 strikeout effort last year a couple of them actually so no not the best burrios we've seen in two years but the best we've seen this year he struck out nine in seven shutout innings against the white socks had 16 swinging strikes including seven on his

change up, which is not a pitch he features much usually. He threw it about twice as often in this one, and clearly it was working for him. I think what's even more notable than the strikeouts or the swinging strikes for Jose Beres, though, is that average exit velocity in this start, 80.1 miles per hour, you know, there have been times when he seemed to be pitching pretty well, but he was still getting hit so hard that it gave us reason for skepticism. And now if you look at his season long, average exit velocity, it's similar to two years ago. It's similar to before the troubles really began for him.

And so, you know, this just fits in with the theme of this season, or at least this April, where when it looks like we have a read on a pitcher, suddenly everything changes. Because between this start and the seven strong innings you through Houston last time, Burrios is looking like a pretty good bet again. And if I was on the verge of dropping him before, I'm clearly not now. Yeah, and you're probably not going to find him on many waiver wires because he's 81% rostered on CBS. His first two starts this season, Jose Burrios, quite bad,

but his last three now, 19 innings pitched, three earned runs, 18 strikeouts to just two walks. The control has been key for Brrios so far this season, limiting some of that hard contact, as you mentioned as well, Scott. And he needs to have one fastball. One of his two fastballs, he throws a four seam and a sinker. He needs to have one of those working at all times. Because when he gets into trouble, it's like he can't command those,

and he basically just goes downhill fast. The sinker has been really good from this year. I was watching that start today. He threw a few, like, 96 mile per hour with, like, crazy movement, like, away from left-hand batterers. It was just really, really impressive from what I saw from Jose Brrios in this one. Not ready to say that he's all the way back, but obviously we are trending in the right direction. And Scott, I noticed you were updating the rankings here on Tuesday night,

and you got Jose Brrios up to SP 67. Was that before, after, while the start was going on? That was before. Okay. And so let me see if I might want to move him up more. If I can pull it up here. Okay, 67 is where I have him now. I could get him probably to about 60th.

So I have Jack Flaherty 61st. I think Boreas I could staple him to Flaherty. Flaherty also showing signs of coming around recently. That would put them also in the Graham Ashcraft range of my rankings. And I've expressed doubts about Ashcraft recently, his ability to sustain what he's done so far. So I think that's about the right range that would put them behind

Justin Steele, Johanna Oviedo, who looked pretty good in today's outing even though he ended up with four-armed runs. It certainly could have gone a lot worse against the Dodgers. So I haven't lost faith in Oviedo because of today's start. I think that's probably the right range

for Brios and Flaherty both. Yeah, I think that makes sense too. I'm currently in the process of updating my rankings. I have him down at SP78, but he's going to move up quite a bit. and that's a similar range that I was looking at as well. I have Grayson Rodriguez at 61, Alex Cobb at 62, but maybe just behind those guys are right around those guys.

I think that's a good range for Jose Burrios. Hopefully continues to keep that working. Oh my goodness gracious for me. I'm going to go with a pitcher as well here. Scott Josiah Gray, his best start of the season at the New York Mets. Six shot out, four hits, one walk, nine strikeouts with 20, 20 swinging strikes against the Mets lineup, nine of them on the slider, seven on the fastball, three on the cutter, limited the hard contact, just 86.3 exit velocity against

in this one. And oftentimes when Josiah Gray has succeeded, it has been accentuating or favoring the secondary pitches, the breaking pitches. He actually went forcing fastball heavy in this one, but it worked, man. He had everything working in the start. If you look at the CSW, the call strikes plus whiffs on all of his pitches, they were great on every single one of pitches. So outside of opening day, Gray's been pretty consistent. His last four starts, two earn runs are fewer. He's only 34% rostered. He's going up against the Pirates this weekend. So if you started him in a two-star week, obviously you feel fantastic. And it looks like he's at the Diamondbacks next week. There are many names, Scott, that stood out to me from a

waiver-wire perspective on Tuesday here. But if there was one pitcher, it was Josiah Gray. Yeah, I mean, this was his best start of the season. And you pointed out, the irony that it was also the start that he featured his fastball the most. The pitch we've been calling on Josiah Gray to fade because of how hard it gets hit. It didn't get hit hard in this one.

You mentioned Josiah Gray's average exit velocity for the game was good. On the fastball itself, it was 83.5. It was even better than his overall eggs of velocity for the game. So I don't know what was different about the fastball. I don't know if he could,

if this is going to be a formula for success for him moving forward. But it led to him having his best start of the year. And, you know, ultimately, the results will tell the story. You know, I'm already anxious to see Josiah Gray's next start. And I think that's a really favorable one. I had him as a sleeper for the... You said the Diamondbacks, right? He's got the Pirates this weekend.

He's at the Diamondbacks next week. Okay. So I was more concerned about... I had him among my sleeper pitchers for this week with two starts, but I was more concerned about this first one against the Mets than the second against the pirates. So I'm already anxious to see that next start, what the usage is if he can continue to miss bats like he did in this one.

But since allowing three home runs on opening day, he's allowed just one home run and four starts. And whatever it takes to keep the ball in the yard, If Josiah Gray is able to do that, then the results should be pretty good. Some of the most added starting pitchers right now. I'm looking at the veterans for now because we're going to have a conversation coming up about all these pitching prospects. So I'm going to leave that for later. But Drew Smiley and Eduardo Rodriguez, Scott, are two kind of veteran-type pitchers who are on the most added list.

Would you rather have Josiah Gray over either of those? Smiley, and who is the other one? Eduardo Rodriguez. I would rather have Gray than Smiley. It's a closer call with Eduardo Rodriguez. Sorry. Okay, yeah, I will go Eduardo Rodriguez than Josiah Gray than Drew Smiley of those three. All right, let's talk about all the prospects got in the biggest news.

Well, maybe not the biggest news, but it is very big news. Tage Bradley optioned back to AAA on Tuesday. And the explanation that we were given was that Bradley needs to, to work on a five-day schedule because he's currently on a six-day schedule. So they sent him down. They want to get him going every fifth day in a normal, like a normal rotation would be. And the second excuse was that the raise want to give Yanni Torinos and Josh Fleming some more work. I don't know that I buy that exactly, Scott.

But obviously this is very frustrating. The questions are, we're rolling in. What do we do with Taj Bradley? Do we hold on to him? When might we see him again? I think we can answer the first one. Do we hold on to him? The second one, we don't really know.

Do you have a feel for what the Rays are doing right now with Tos Bradley? I mean, Ray is going to Ray is really my response to this. I don't think it's a big deal for Tos Bradley's fantasy value. Yes, the uncertainty is annoying. Yes, the fact he's not going to be a two-star pitcher after all this week is annoying. but he's going to be back soon enough. They have three true starting pitchers on their roster right now. Yes, Torinos and Fleming have both started in the past,

but they're not in a position to do that right now. So I don't know how they're going to handle this next time through the rotation, the race. I don't know why they can't adjust. If that's even a valid reason, adjusting Todge Bradley so that he's used to go. going every fifth day. I don't know why that adjustment couldn't happen in the majors.

I don't know what it takes for that adjustment to take root, you know, for them to say, yes, he's adjusted now. We can trust him to start every fifth day. I don't know what that looks like. Ultimately, I think it's more just a temporary frustration than something to lose your mind over and keep Bradley on her roster. And sooner than later, you're going to find out he's, scheduled to make a start on this day. Okay, plug him back into your lineup.

Tage Bradley is up to 90% rostered. So, yeah, I think you got to hold them. As good as he's looked, six plus strikeouts and all three of his starts, 3.52 ERA, 0.91 whip. How about some of these underlying ERA estimators for Tage Bradley? 2.60 FIP, 2.35 Sierra, 1.58 expected ERA. He has been dominant so far. Look, you spend big money on Todge Bradley and Fab, or you use the top waiver spot. I think you've got to continue to hold on to him. The other big news, Scott, and it's just kind of speculation for now. We don't know for sure, but Cleveland Guardians' pitching prospect, Tanner Bybee,

was scratched from his appearance on Tuesday in the minors. And now there's speculation because the Guardians don't have a probable pitcher set for Wednesday, that Bybee is going to make that start. Now, we don't know for sure. They have not confirmed that as of now. We're recording this late on Tuesday night. But if he does come up, I mean, this is a guy that's in that same kind of conversation as Tage Bradley and Brendan Fott and Mason Miller. So in 28 starts in the minors from last year and this year so far for Bybee.

2.13 ERA, 0.97 whip, 186 strikeouts over 148 innings pitched. So the next question, Scott, is what are your thoughts on Bybee? And how do you rank all these names? Tage Bradley, Bybee, Logan Allen, Mason Miller, Brennan Fott. Man, that second one is really hard to answer with the rankings because we don't know. Even if Bybee comes up, we don't know if that would be a one and done situation because they have five healthy starters, the Guardians already. Now, could they move on from Zach Plesack pretty easily if Bybee comes up and shows he deserves to stay?

Of course. Doesn't mean that's the most likely scenario, but it is a possibility. And, you know, remember the first time Tage Bradley came up, we said, yeah, I don't really see how he's going to stick around. I guess we were right about that in retrospect, but not because the rays didn't have an opening for him. Like, life finds a way, right? So, um, Bibi, I, it is a bigger prospect than Logan Allen. and he is a more, he stands out in more traditional ways than Alan does. Alan, you know, has succeeded a lot through deception and overcoming a lack of big stuff.

While Bibby has better peer stuff and also remarkable control, if you look at his walk rate in the three starts this year, it's high because his last start he happened to walk a bunch of guys. But last year, Tanner Bybee and the miners, his walk. rate was 1.8 per 9 innings to go with 11.3k per 9 and him being in the Guardians organization that earned him some chain Bieber comparisons from the prospect towns because Bieber really stood out for his ridiculous walk rates before being called up to. So I really liked Tanner Bibi. I think if we had assurances he'd stick around, honestly he might be just as exciting if not more so than Brandon fought. I don't think it's crystal clear which the two of them is the better prospect.

But we don't know that he's even coming up, first of all, and we don't know that he's sticking if he does, because they already have five starters, as I said. So getting to the ranking of these players for Fantasy, I'm going to go Tage Bradley, number one. I'm going to go Logan Allen number two, because they haven't sent him down yet. So I think that means they plan to keep him around.

I don't know. Maybe that's the transaction that gets Bybee on the roster. I don't know. But I'm presuming Alan has a spot for now. Third, I am going to go with... I'm going to go with Brandon Fott, actually, because I'm pretty sure he's going to get an opportunity soon here. And then I'll go with Tanner Bybee.

And I'm actually going to go with Mason Miller last year here. I was saying on yesterday's show or on Monday show that I feel like the hype has exceeded the utility for Mason Miller and his start today against the Angels was pretty underwhelming and I mean he threw a very hard fastball again but his he allowed contact that average exit velocity over 100 miles per hour

and he only made it four innings again allowed four earned runs in those innings and it was just like if you're not if you're going to be pitching for the A's you have to be lights out to be an impactful fantasy pitcher. And I just don't think Mason Miller at this point in his development anyway is there. More on Mason Miller in just a bit because I watched every pitch of his start on Tuesday night. Every pitch.

Every single pitch. I didn't look away for one. I did not look away. It set me back a little bit, Scott. If I'm ranking this group, yeah, I think it's tough, Scott, because like given we don't know who's going to stick around. It's based on performance. If Tanner Bybee comes up on Wednesday and pitches really well, then he probably sticks around.

It's worth mentioning that Peyton Battenfield made a start on Tuesday, and he looked pretty bad. Yeah, that's a good point. Cal Quantrell got rocked on Monday, and Zach Police Act has terrible numbers this year. So I think that they could just kind of push all in on like a prospect pitching staff, and it would make some sense to me at least for the Cleveland Guardian.

So if I'm ranking this group for now, I would put Tage Bradley at the top. I think I would go Brennan Fott. There was a report on Tuesday. According to Theo Mackey of the Arizona Republic, Fott could start this weekend in Colorado, which is like the last place you want to start a rookie, but okay. And man, he's already used to that kind of environment

without where he's had to pitch in the minors. That's true. So I'm going to Taj Bradley, Brandon Fott. I guess Logan Allen, just because for the reason that you mentioned, we know he's up right now. And as good as he looked, I don't think they're going to send him down right away. and then Tanner Bybee and then Mason Miller. But, I mean, if we're just going based on pure stuff,

like Tanner Bybee might be second for me. So just keep that line. So you're going Mason Miller last too. I am going Mason Miller last. You must not have liked what you saw watching every pitch. Not necessarily, but there are limitations. So let's talk about it. The final line is disappointing.

I wrote on the rundown. It seems disappointing. It is disappointing. Four innings, five hits, four and runs, one walk, six strikeouts, nine swinging strikes on. 86 pitches. He threw 12 fastballs 100 plus miles per hour. We know that. He could throw very hard. His first inning, Scott, was very eventful. He got squeezed big time against Anthony

Rendon. He threw a fastball down the middle, legitimately down the middle. You can go on MLB.com game day. You go look, it was down the middle and they called it a ball. He wound up walking Anthony Rendon and then everything just kind of spiraled after that in that first inning. The next batter was Brandon Drury and he had a line drive to second. center field. Estuary Ruiz, like, slipped on the play, and it turned, like, what would have been a single if he just knocked it down, he just didn't get to it. It turned into a two-run triple. And after that, there was like a few more hits. He settled down after that, though. His final three innings of work, he gave up one hit, zero walks, and four strikeouts. So, I mean, to be

able to have a first inning that bad and then settle down, I was pretty impressed by that. But for the reasons you mentioned, Scott, obviously pitching for the Oakland A's, Shee Langaleers, did not realize this before. He is a terrible framer. There were pitches that were like right there on the corners where Langlars just kind of like flailed his glove at it and just did not do a good job at framing pitches. So I worry

about that. Obviously the defense behind him, the run support's not going to be good. I think there's a picture there, a very exciting pitcher, but there are limitations. So I like him. I would I guess I would drop him for any of those other pictures that we talked about. But if there are already, if those guys are not available

and you picked up Mason Miller, then I would just hold. and you'll see where it goes from here. Yeah, I'm just saying, like, you have to temper your expectations. He could take off at some point. That's always a possibility. Like, things can change very quickly for a pitcher especially, or really for any player. I mean, look at what's happened with Jose Barrios and Jack Flaherty, how quickly we've changed our tune with them, especially Burrios.

But only once in his entire career as a professional has Mason Miller gone five innings and it was this very last minor league start. And again, like, it's such a big hurdle to clear pitching for the A's because they are terrible. They are historically bad. Yes. So how good does Mason Miller have to be to win a decent number of starts? You know, it's just so many things stacked up against them.

And whatever bad luck he may have suffered from in this start here Tuesday, again, average exit velocity over 100 miles per hour when they're. They made contact. It was really, really hard contact. And they made contact more than you might think because his swinging strike rate was only 10.5%, which is nothing special. Yeah, he's he is not perfect by any means. He needs to work on his breaking pitches. I think the slider and cutter are are serviceable pitches for him, but he couldn't throw them for strikes. And so opposing batters in this start, they were just laying off and they were just teeing up on the fastball. They were timed up for the fastball. That's all they were swinging at. so he's got some things that he needs to work on. But as I mentioned, again, like if those other names are available,

okay, you could drop Mason Miller for them, but if not, I would say let's just hold, see where it goes from here. The pitch count is interesting. 81 in his first outing, 86 in this one, so it wouldn't surprise me if he can go like five innings regularly

based on that pitch count at least. Frankly, he's throwing more pitches than I thought he would. Let's take our first break, and when we return, I got a few other waiver wire pitchers will get to right after this. Welcome back and just a quick reminder to sign up for our fantasy baseball today newsletter. Dan Steyer does a great job with it. You can head over to CBSports.com slash newsletters, punch in your email address and press sign up.

It's easy as that. It's free and you get the latest news and articles delivered right to your inbox every single day. Spoke about Josiah Gray earlier and he was really at the top of the waiver wire pitchers. Where does he fit into that group, Scott? I guess, look, if we're talking about Brandon Fod and all these names that are available right now, where were Josiah Gray rank on that list? Yeah, that's a really good question.

Because I don't actually have a lot of faith in Josiah Gray. I mean, he's done what he needs to do to avoid this season he asked. He's kept the ball in the park. But am I confident that he's made the adjustment? adjustments necessary to continue with that or is it just is it just kind of a thing that's happened you know and We've gotten burned as I talked about in at length yesterday. We've gotten burned in recent years by Just kind of having blind faith in the upside guy the the prospect who just got promoted and it going

pretty disastrously that's happened that's been happening more and more I am going to say that I would rather have him... I would rather have... I think Mason Miller is the only one I'd rank behind Josiah Gray from that previous group. So I would take over him each of Tage Bradley,

Logan Allen, Tanner Bybee, and Brandon Fott over Josiah Gray. So that shows you kind of where I am with Gray in terms of level of faith, confidence that what he's doing is something he can sustain. It may depend on what your actual needs are. Like, is this somebody you can afford to stash on your bench?

Or do you need to be able to plug this guy in your lineup right away? Well, the one who's most likely to take his next turn is Josiah Gray. And so, you know, maybe depends on your needs, maybe depends on your league depth, where exactly you slot him in there. but as a general rule, I'm going to, when it is a player that I don't have much faith in, I'm going to still side with the upside guys. All right.

Outside of Josiah Gray, a few of their names that stood out on Tuesday night. Marco Gonzalez has had a solid start to the season, five innings, one run, two strikeouts for him. He was at the Phillies. The ERA is 3.32 with a 1.25 whip. Griffin Canning had a solid outing versus the A's, five innings, three runs, seven strikeouts.

with 14 swinging strikes, only 17% rostered. And Brady Singer, we recently have called a drop, rightfully so. He's down to 64% rostered. He turned in his first quality start of the season. Six innings, one run, five strikeouts, zero walks. Scott, I think we need to see a lot more from Brady Singer before we consider picking him back up. But what do you think about this group, Singer, Canning, and Marco Gonzalez?

Oh, I'm most excited about Canning. he has yet to go six innings coming off multiple injury plague season so it's understandable that he's not taken on a big workload yet but if he continues to pitch this well I imagine he'll start going deeper and deeper

into games between his three starts now he has a 16.7% swinging strike rate which would rank up there with the very best in all of baseball that's like that's like Garrick Cole type stuff just looking at swinging strike rate, obviously. Obviously, you probably shouldn't do single-factor analysis with pitchers,

but that's a really good skill to have Griffin Canning. It is something he showed before these injury issues started. Remember, he was a favorite of mine coming off his rookie season because he showed so much swinging and misability with that slider especially. So I am excited about Griffin Canning, and he is somebody who I would try to add, not over Josiah Gray, not over some of those other exciting young pitchers we were talking about earlier, but just in a general sense, if they're already rostered, if you have a spot to play with,

Canning, I think, is worth pursuing. As for the other ones, Marco Gonzalez is, you know, he has a track record of being pretty effective in fantasy. Last year was more the exception than the rule. but it's always been in ways that are difficult to understand. Really poor Batmissor. I'd be reluctant to invest in him as more than a streamer type. And Brady Singer, like you said, Frank, I need to see a lot more. Because he entered this start.

I feel like average acre's velocity is the stat I'm beating to death here in this particular podcast. but he was what first percentile first percent who was worse than 99 percent of the league in terms of average exit velocity Brady Singer coming into the start 97.6 miles per hour

it was 84.7 in this start so he it wasn't just that he happened to get good results it seemed like he was missing the barrels better he was pitching better and if it continues then maybe Brady Singer is going to be somebody you look into in fantasy again. Maybe he can go the way of Jose Burrios and reclaim his value.

But I need to see more. And I don't think he has as much upside as a Jose Burrios anyway. So that's another reason why there's no need to do a total about face on him yet. I don't think this matters, but Ryan Feltoner has two strong starts in a row, Scott. And for those who don't know, he pitches for the Colorado Rockies. I don't blame you if you don't know. Six innings, one unearned run with six strikeouts. he's throwing his change up more this season. This is a very deep league name, Scott, but anything with Ryan Feltoner.

Oh, it takes a lot to win me over to a Rocky's pitcher unless he just has this huge prospect pedigree. And even the Rockies pitchers we've seen come up with that kind of pedigree over the years have, you know, not been standouts in fantasy. I'm thinking John Gray specifically. So, no, I'm not going to be making a move for

Elton, even in my deepest leagues. All right, let's hit some news and notes. Yerdan Alvarez's neck injury was, quote, about the same as Monday, and apparently an IL stint has not been ruled out for Yerdan Alvarez. Scott, we had a long conversation about Jordan Walker yesterday. He has now sat out two in a row and three of his past four games with the Cardinals. And somebody on Twitter pointed out to us that Walker made a pretty bad base running mistake recently, so perhaps that's the reason why.

but man, two games in a row sitting out. There is a reported reason why. Why is that? So this is coming from Katie Wu of The Athletic. I'll read the tweet directly. Jordan Walker has been working on a variety of things with his swings, specifically his posture and rotation, which is why he's been out of the lineup for the last two games.

There's also been a focus to get him off the ground more and lower his chase rate outside the zone. I think get off the ground more means, elevating hitting the ball in the air so they're working on a swing

I don't know if he'd be better served working on a swing in the minors I don't know that that's kind of a weird report

like how much work can be done on your swing between starts but I yeah I don't really know whether to take that as an

encouraging sign okay they're sitting him because they're working on things it's not because they just don't want to start him anymore or if it's a discouraging sign, oh, they think he needs a lot of work.

How much longer are they going to keep him around? I don't know how to take it. I think you just sit tight with Jordan Walker because in the long run, he's still probably going to be a big fantasy asset, but he hasn't hit the ground running. It's fair to say. Yeah, and all those things are accurate. His ground ball rate is 60% so far. That is much higher than we'd like it to be.

his chase rate is a touch over 40%, which league average is around, you know, 30, 32%. So, yeah, both of those numbers are high. And even with that, still betting 274, two homers, two steals, a 718 OPS. So I fall on the side of more encouraged, Scott, that he has these issues, they're aware of them,

and even with that, he hasn't been a total disaster. He still has had some good moments so far this season. Carlos Sordaun plans to throw off the mound on Friday. He'll need several bullpens without issue before heading out on a rehab assignment. Jake McCarthy has been optioned back to AAA, and Scott, lots of questions about McCarthy. Do you drop him everywhere, even your, I don't know,

15-team five outfielder leagues? Probably. I'd hesitate in the 15-team five outfielder leagues. It would obviously depend what I could pick up instead. The waiver wire is generally pretty sparse there. Yeah. So maybe not in those formats. But if you're talking to 12-team Rotter League with five outfield spots,

I mean, the main thing we were hoping McCarthy would contribute is stolen bases. And those are looking pretty plentiful at this point with no idea when he's going to come back, how he's going to perform when he does. I think it's probably okay to move on. Tim Anderson will likely need 10 to 15 at bats during his minor league rehab stint before he can return to the White Sox. Dodgers catcher Will Smith is slated to take live batting practice

on Wednesday, and he's been on the concussion IL for just over a week now, I think, nine days. Last Monday he was placed on the IL, so hopefully we get him back soon. MJ Melendez has missed two straight due to back tightness. Logan Gilbert had his start push back to Wednesday because

he felt muscle spasms in his scapula. Tony Gonsland is confirmed to make his first start of the season on Wednesday. at the Pirates. Reisel Eglacius will throw either live batting practice or in a minor league rehab

appearance on Thursday. He has missed the start of the season due to a shoulder injury. Austin Hayes was removed Tuesday night with a right hand contusion. Preliminary X-rays came back negative for any fractures.

But if Austin Hayes does have to go on the IL for this reason, Scott, perhaps we see Colton Couser get the call for the Orioles. Perhaps we do. Colton Couser is a top prospect. He was the fifth overall pick in 2021. And so far this year, AAA Norfolk, he's hitting 290 with three homers, two steals, an 880 OPS, high walk rate 407 OBP.

Last year at AA, last year was split between three levels, but he played 49 games at AA and hit 3.41. did Colton Couser. The strikeout rate is a little higher than you'd like for a guy who doesn't profile as like a big power hitter. But certainly in five outfielder leagues, he'd be somebody you'd want to invest in as soon as he got the call. And there's no reason he couldn't stay up,

even when Austin Hayes returns. Like if he performs well, they have a DH spot to play with. They could just slide Anthony. Santander there, presuming Anthony Santander is deserving of being in the lineup still at that point. So yeah, definitely keep an eye on what happens with Colton Couser. I imagine he'll be, I'm writing the prospects report tomorrow. I imagine he'll be featured pretty prominently in that.

Lance McCuller is through 20 to 30 pitches from the front of the bullpen mound on Tuesday. He's still several weeks away. And Scott, what do you think happens when Lance McCullors returns? Who gets the boot from the Astros rotation? It could possibly be Jose Orkidi, who has struggled in his last two starts. Hunter Brown, I think, would be the odds-on favorite. They could shift him to the bullpen or whatever else. It's not like he's been so overpowering that it would be ridiculous to take him out of the rotation.

But they could do Erkidi instead. It would be somebody we're invested in either way. Obviously, we'd rather have McCullors. But yeah, we'd be losing somebody who has some value. TD Martinez was out of the lineup Tuesday due to back tightness. Garrett Mitchell will have surgery on his left shoulder after receiving a second opinion. If everything works out, he could be back towards the end of the season. But in redraft leagues, he can be dropped.

More bad news for the Brewers as top outfield prospect, Sal Freelik is having surgery to repair a torn UCL in his thumb. So he's out for the next four to six weeks or so. Ranger Suarez will begin a rehab assignment at AA on Thursday. He's 35% rostered. He's got any interest in Ranger Suarez. Not really, but it will probably come to pass that he's in my 10 sleeper pitchers one of these weeks. I think he's probably going to be more in that streamable class of starting pitchers than somebody who needs to be rostered everywhere.

Angels manager, Phil Nevin, said Jose Suarez will stay in the table. team's rotation on a start-by-start basis, and Chase Silseth was pitching well on the minors, but left to start Tuesday with a blister. So maybe that's why they didn't make a move yet, but if Silseth is okay and Suarez continues to struggle, they probably make that swap at some point. Brian Reynolds finally reached an agreement with the Pirates signing an eight-year $106.75 million extension, which I kind of went back and forth a little bit on this guy. I think it's a little team friendly this deal Brian Reynolds with the Pirates. I don't know if

you saw the logistics. I mean, I didn't see the breakdown, but yeah, it surprised me how low it was given what a trade asset he was supposed to be. And he's nearing the end of team control too, right? So to get him at, what does that average

out to a year? It averages out to just over 13 million? Yeah. Like that's like the kinds of contracts, free agent contracts that were being handed out this offseason to players of Brian Reynolds stature. What would he get in the open market? Between 25 and 30 million a year?

It seemed ridiculously team friendly to me. I don't know why I'd do it. Last but not least, Cody Bellinger was also placed on the paternity list on Tuesday. Scott, do you know which team Cody Bellinger played for last year, by the way? The Dodgers. Yeah. They must have had a pregnancy pack going on. That's all I can figure.

They said, all right, we're going to go home. We're not going to an All-Star game. So let's go home and see how many of us can get our wife pregnant. That must have been a conversation that happened in the clubhouse. Yeah, I don't know. Planning it nine months in advance, they just kind of tell it, hey, we'll have one week where we're all off during the baseball season next year. and then we'll be back right after that and everything will be all right.

So it's just a very, very... Approve your virility while you're off. Very, very interesting stuff there. Let's take our final break and when we get back a few WaverWire hitters on fantasy baseball today. Let's talk WaverWire hitters and we'll start with some outfielders here.

Charlie Blackman was moved up to the leadoff spot for the Rockies. He went two for five with his second home run. He's down to 70% rostered so it could be out there in some shallower leagues and maybe he was dropped for the right reasons. Not providing much at this point in his career. Jaron Duran, post-hyped Jaron Duran, 3 for 4 with a grand slam.

His first home run of the season, he added three runs scored. He had four hard hit balls in this one. The home run was 107.8 miles per hour off the bat, traveled 409 feet. He's hitting the ball hard. The problem here, Scott, has been the strikeout so far for Jaron. He did have zero strikeouts in this game, but overall he's got a 31% strikeout rate early on.

Joey Menesis went three for five with two RBI. He's slowly coming around. Mike Estremski went two for four with his fifth home run. He's been hot. His last 15 games, he's batten 316 with three homers. Andrew McCutcheon one for five with his fifth homer added three RBI. He's batting 2.70. I think he still has more walks than strikeouts, or at least he did the last time I checked.

Scott, how do you, I mean, there's five names here. Who are your three favorites from this group? Blackman, Duran, Manessus Yistremski, and McCutcheon. McCutcheon is number one, I think. Yeah. I will go, I think Yistremski number two. And for what it's worth, like I'm not super high on any of these guys. I don't think any of them have much utility in three outfielder leagues.

Like if you're in a pinch, obviously you could pick one up at start him. But yeah, I'm going to say McCutcheon and Yostrimski to, guys who we've seen be impactful fantasy players in the past. And I think third, I'm going to say Jaron Duran, just because I'm intrigued by the upside. He's the only real base dealer of this group. And so, yeah, those are going to be in a top three. Yeah, I'm very interested in what Duran is doing right now for the Red Sox. I lied about McCutcheon. He's struck out a little bit more recently. So he's up to 12 walks of 15 strikeouts, but still, that's very good plate discipline.

I'm not really sure if anything's changed for you, Strimski, because last time we saw him be a quality fantasy option was 2020, so it's been a couple years. But he already has the hardest hit ball of his career this year, which I always find

interesting. Let's talk about a few catchers here, Scott. There's been a lot of catcher injuries recently, and so let's talk about it. Danny Jansen went three for four with a double dong. Four RBI. He has three homers over his last three games. He's just not playing that much. That's been the issue for Jansen. 32% rostered. Cabr Ruiz went three for four with his second home run. He's batting 288 early on. Shea Langaleers

went one for two with a walk and his fifth homer. Blake Sable went two for four with his fourth home run. It was a walkoff two run shot in that game, last game of the night up against the Cardinals. How do you rank that group, Scott? Jansen, Kbert Ruiz, Langaleers, and Blake Sable. I guess I'll still put Jansen number one because I don't think any of the other three have done enough to overtake him. Obviously, prior to this two-homber game, Janssen had done next to nothing. But, you know, he has a little bit of a track record that we can hope on. So I'll go Jansen number one. If it's a points league, I might go Ruiz number two just because he never strikes out.

But if it's Categories league, he's going to drop the fourth for me. And I'll take Langaleers over Sable. Though of these four, I still kind of feel like Sable has the most upside. His quality of contact is very high. He hasn't made a lot of contact, but he's getting plenty of playing time. He's also the only one of these four who's likely to contribute any number of stolen bases. So keep an eye on Blake Sable. All right.

For the deep leaguers out there, Maricio Duelo. Dubon went two for five with two doubles and his second steal. He now has a 19 game hitting streak this season. 18 run score that helps. He's, you know, but batting average in runs, he's not really providing you much else outside of that. And a gentleman named Brenton Doyle was recently called up for the Rockies. He went three for four with two steals in his second game.

Four percent rostered. Obviously, you know, some very deep league names here. Scott, anything we need to know with these two, Dubon and Doyle? I don't think Dubon. offers much offensively in the long run. So I wouldn't get too excited about him. There's just not a lot of upside there. And there's not a lot for Brent and Doyle either,

but he was a 2020 guy in the minors last year, 26 homers, 23 steals. He reached base at a 300 clip between AA and AAA. So I don't think he really profiles as an everyday major leaker. But there are, you know, Coorsfield can do some special things to hitters. he has at least shown that power speed combo in the miners. All right.

Let's talk about a few pitchers who did not perform all that well here on Tuesday night. What do we do with them? Continue to start. Do we bench him or do we just flat out drop them? We'll start with Kyle Baddish. Very bad. Very bad. Very badish.

Up against the Red Sox, two and a third, eight hits, seven earned runs, four walks, only one strikeout, allowed a lot of hard contact. And, you know, he's made two full starts. You know, he left early in his first start of the season, but he was great against the Nationals and then all against the Red Sox here, Scott. He has a start at the Tigers this weekend and then at the Braves next week.

What are we doing with Kyle Bradish? So obviously, he has a lot to prove still. And when you have a start this bad, it's fine to move on if you need to. Like, if Bradish is who you need to drop to get that exciting waiver wire pickup, I'd probably drop him for Josiah Gray at this point. It's not like I was particularly enthusiastic about picking up gray.

But there is a case for holding on to Bradish 2 because his next start is at Detroit this weekend. At least see how that goes. And if he bounces back with a big start against that awful offense, well, then maybe he's worth holding on to for a little longer, though obviously you're probably not going to look to start him against the Braves next week. Johan Oviedo had its first rough start of the, not of the season, of the week. But five in a third, five runs allowed, four of those earned, four strikeouts.

I didn't really see anything that stood out to me here, Scott. And, you know, nothing too bad. He didn't allow a lot of hard contact. I think maybe just got babipped a little bit in this one. I only bring it up because some people might see this and say, oh, I picked him up for two starts. I'm going to go ahead and drop them now. What would you say to that? Yeah, like I said earlier in the show, I'm still enthusiastic about Oviedo.

he kind of ran out of steam there after four innings allowed the other three runs in the fifth and six and also his slider was down a mile per hour and a half and remember the jump in three miles per hour

is kind of what has allowed him to take off this year so that's something to keep an eye on but just a one start blip particularly against the Dodgers I'm not really going to hold it against him all right next up

We have Noah Cindergarde who was on the other side, other side of that game. And he now has three quality starts and two awful starts. He gave up seven earned runs over four innings pitched at the Pirates. Nine hard hits allowed in this start. And because of the two blowups, he now has a 6.58 ERA. Still 87% rostered, Scott. What are you doing with Noah Cindergarde? I don't have a lot of faith in him.

I haven't seen anything in his. Any arsenal changes or any of the underlying stats that make me think, okay, he can survive with this reduced velocity. The Dodgers have worked their magic on some veteran pitchers in the past, but I remain highly skeptical that they're going to do that with Cinderguard, and I don't think he's must roster by any stretch. Would you drop him for the group of prospects we talked about earlier? Yeah.

Yeah, any of them. Okay. What about Mike Levenger? He gave up six earned runs or five innings pitch. He's up to a 4.81 ERA and 1.60 whip. He's gone. Hit him out of there. Five more walks for my boy, Blake Snell, who I was telling people to draft, unfortunately. Five innings pitch, two earned runs, five walks, five strikeouts. He has 18 walks in 23 and a third innings this season.

Yep. Seven walks per nine so far this year. What do we do, Scott? I am thankful I'm not invested in Blake Snell anywhere because I think this is probably the most difficult player to deal with gosh because I mean what happened each of the last two years second half rolls around and he looks like an ace

but there's no guarantee that's going to happen again this year so do you just plant them on your bench in the hope that come late July you'll have a nice a really nice pitcher at that point I don't think I'd be ready to drop him just yet because it doesn't necessarily have to be in late July when it happens either.

Maybe he turns things around to May this year. But it's just the two-faced nature of Blake Snell just makes it really difficult to deal with. Obviously can't start him right now. He's crushing your whip and most of the time you're ERA too. Yeah. And for those who play in points leagues, he routinely is worse in that format too

because he doesn't go all that deep into his starts. He doesn't provide many quality starts. he's got a two-star week next week, it looks like, up against the Reds and the Dodgers. That's going to have to be one that we talk about on Friday's podcast. A few pitching standouts,

Joe Ryan, man, bad job by me because we're 55 minutes in. I mean, I don't know that there's much to say outside of he's been amazing so far this season, but that's exactly right. Seven innings, two runs, seven strikeouts, zero walks going up against the Yankees in this one.

Joe Ryan is 5-0. He's got a 2.81 ERA, 0.81 whip, 36 strikeouts to just four walks this season. He's been phenomenal. I said I was fading him this year and I've been dead wrong about him so far. Scott, you moved him up to SP 31 and I was glancing on my rankings and I think he's going to get inside my top 30. That range features a lot of inconsistent pitchers right now with Lance Lynn and Chris Sale and Nicola Dolo. So I think Joe Ryan should be ranked ahead of all those names. Yeah, I haven't met

of those three getting him up to 31 I do have them behind Nestor Cortez but you could talk me into moving him ahead of Cortez. You could probably talk me

into moving him ahead of George Kirby and that would put him at 20 ninth for me. Yeah. That's about the level I'm valuing Joe Ryan right now who I thought

obviously has a tremendous had a tremendous minor league track I credit and I thought I thought did some pretty impressive things last year too seems to be building off that. A few of us. other standouts, Charlie Morton had his best start of the season up against the Marlins,

seven innings, one run, nine strikeouts for him. Luis Garcia makes it two strong starts in a row. He was at Tampa Bay. Six shutout with seven strikeouts in that one. Justin Steele continues his breakout season up against a Padres, five and a third shutout with five strikeouts, and Martine Perez turned in his first quality start of the year. Six and a third, one unearned run, five strikeouts going up against the Reds. Anything that stood out for those names, Scott Perez.

Steele, Luis Garcia, and Charlie Morton. Nice to see Perez get back on track with a quality star. First quality start of the year. His average exit velocity is about the same as last year. And his walk rate's actually better than last year. So I'm not saying he's must roster or anything, but it wouldn't surprise me if Martin Perez turned out to be a pretty reliable option again, even if the innings have been limited here early on.

As for Luis Garcia, as you mentioned, two awesome starts in a row after a rough start to the season. In these two starts, he's featured his cutter a lot more. He's thrown it, I believe, yeah, about close to 50% of the time, each of these last two starts. And it's been, obviously, it's led to good results for him. So hopefully he's unlocked something there, figured something out that will allow him to take the next step forward in his development. But, you know, he was already pretty highly regarded to begin with.

All right. A few hitting leftovers. Masataka Yoshita went two for four and now has multiple hits in five of his last six games. And during that span, he's got 12 hits, two homers, nine RBI. Needs a little bit of time. Looks like he is coming around. Masataka Yoshita. Maybe the breakout game

that Miguel Vargas needs to get going. He went two for four with a double, two RBI, and a walk. Jared Kelnick. I think that double was a bloop for what it's worth, a blooper. But sometimes, sometimes that raises the confidence

and you see a hot street develop from that. That's what all the old school announcers always told me anyway. Oh, man. Old school announcers, It just reminds me about, some of them are just so salty about analytics, and it's just, it's so frustrating to hear, like when you're watching games. There are some broadcasters that do a great job with it.

I really like listening to the Astros broadcast. They're very, like, forward thinking, and they openly talk about, like, statcasts and FIP and FIP and stuff, and I'm like, yeah, this is great. Love it. Jared Kelnick went three for four with his seventh home run. He hit a double, and the home run came off of Lefty Bailey Falter, which is, A great sign. I mean, we get to everyday playing time and doing against righties and lefties now, Scott.

It's looking good. Yeah, I'm beginning to think this is, I'm beginning to become a true believer here in Jared Kelnick. Obviously, I was more open to drafting him than a lot of people coming into the year, but with a certain amount of healthy skepticism still. Even prior to this game with the two extra base hits off a lefty, he was, five for 15 off lefties with only three strikeouts, a home run, a double. Now the numbers look even better. He's hit three home runs.

I don't know exactly the pitches, the home run. I don't know what the pitch was that he homered off of today. But he entered today's game with three home runs off sliders. His strikeout rate is down to about 25%. Everything is looking. good for Jared Kelnick right now. And I think if you

drafted him, you should be pretty excited. How about this? By the end of April, who had Jared Kelnick being more valuable in fantasy than Julio Rodriguez? That's pretty crazy to think about, huh? Scott?

Yeah, we got five days to go. A lot can change just in one day. But yeah, as of now, that's true. That is crazy. Yeah. I'm looking at Roto rankings. Kelnick is 42nd. Julio is 55th, so it could change, but man, that's crazy.

Ozzy Elbeys went 2-4 with a double dong. He's betting 263. He's got seven homers, 23 steals. So providing the counting stats, except for steals, he's got zero steals. And he's 54th percentile in sprint speed, which seemed a little low for me. Yeah, he doesn't usually ray high in sprint speed.

At least he hasn't the past couple years, so that doesn't strike me as odd. I think part of the issue is just that he hasn't spent much time at first base. He doesn't walk much, and a lot of his hits so far have like seven home runs. A lot of them have been the extra base variety. So I still would pencil Albi's in for between 15 to 20 steals when all said done. Yeah, 54 percentile sprint speed was exactly the same as last year. Okay.

It has been declining over the course of his career. But I think this, like, remember Jason Stark had that article he wrote prior to the season interviewing mainly Albies about the new rules. And Albies was like, sure, I'll go 40, 40. Why not? So like it seems like he has, he's motivated to run. And maybe he just hasn't gotten any opportunities yet. But like to see what he's doing with the bat. I think the question we had coming in about, oh, will his power translate to this new environment? well, I guess that remains unanswered

because the new environment is now an even newer environment that's different, but Albi's just hitting for power is the bottom line. Jorge Polanco is on fire since returning. He went two for four with two doubles and in five games played he's got nine hits, one homer and six RBI.

I moved him up to my 12th ranked second basement and I saw Scott. You moved him up to 13th and I think that's a good range for Jorge Polanco. Byron Bucson went two for four with his fourth home run. Got to see him come around a little bit. Corby and Carroll has been pretty great so far. Three for four with a double, triple, two run scored, and two stolen bases.

He is now up to 10 steals on the season. He's batting over 300, and he's now batting third in the Diamondbacks lineup. So you love to see it. A few bullpen updates for the Dodgers in Evan Phillips' first game back. He pitched in the sixth inning with the Dodgers down seven to five at the time. The Dodgers later took the lead, and Shelby Miller pitched in the ninth. inning for his first save. I don't know if it's just because

it's his first game back, Scott. They wanted to ease him back in or whatever, but yeah, it's weird. Kind of weird. Because Bruzdar, Gratterol is the latest taking paternity leave, right? Now for the Dodgers, right? Correct.

And he got the most recent save. He's worked late in games. I think his last three appearances, Gratterols have been to finish out a game once for a save and once with Phil. setting up for him. I would still rather have Phillips than any other Dodgers reliever right now,

but I think Gratterol is right there. Shelby Miller. I'm going to chalk this one up as a fluke. He's had a lot of walks out of the bullpen, and I'm not sure they really want him in this high leverage role. I know 164 ARA, but he's had a lot of walks, and this is a pretty new role for him. So it would be surprising if they went back to him for a bunch of saves.

But it's interesting how they handled Phillips in this one, even with Graterall, not available. For the Mariners, Paul Seawald entered the ninth with a three-run lead. He gave up one run, but struck out two for his seventh save. For the Tigers, Alex Lang was unavailable. Jason Foley recorded the final four outs for his second save. For the Royals, Aroldus Chapman entered in the eighth with a three-run lead. He gave up two runs.

One of those earned. He was relieved by Scott Barlow, who recorded the final five outs. he had two strikeouts and he picked up his third save so all right maybe swinging a little bit back towards Scott Barlow now maybe yeah

and Chapman I believe took a loss on Sunday or Monday as well on his previous appearance yeah I think it was Sunday but yeah maybe Barlow getting that back for the Angels

well technically he never lost it for the Angels Carlos Estabez retired the final five batters for his fourth save and is 49% rostered if you do need save the regular closers out there.

For the Reds, Alexis Diaz struck out two for his third save. For the Red Sox, Kenley Jansen recorded the final two outs for his sixth save. For the Giants, Camillo Doval entered in the eighth with the game tied. Runners on second and third, he allowed a two-run single. Looks like he was about to take the loss. And then Ryan Helsley happened. He entered in the ninth inning with a two-run lead. It did start out with an error, so not all his fault.

but gave up an RBI double and then a walk off to run Homer to Blake Sable. So we'll see how much of a leash they give Ryan Helsley moving forward. To stream or not to stream, we'll start with Wednesday. Domingo Hermon at the Twins. I will give that a maybe.

Okay. See what else we have. Kentemita versus the Yankees. Gonna pass on that with the health issues. Tanner Hauke at the Orioles. Nah. Tyler Wells versus the Red Sox? No.

You say Kikuchi versus the White Sox? I think I like him a little more than Hermon. Michael Kopeck at the Blue Jays. No. Hermon Marquez at the Guardians. No. Rwanzi Contreras versus the Dodgers. No.

Taiwan Walker versus the Mariners. No. Mackenzie Gore at the Mets. No. at the Cubs? No. Drew Smiley versus the Padres.

No. Stephen Matt's at the Giants. No. And Luis Medina in his debut at the Angels. Going to think about this. No. All right.

So it sounds like Kikuchi and Hermon are the biggest maybes of that group there. And who is? Okay, so the Guardians are facing Colorado. So if Tanner Bybee gets called up,

that's a fascinating one. Yeah, that is. I might roll the dice on that. Give them the alternatives here. That's not a bad call. For Thursday, we've got Brax and Garrett at the Braves. No. Mitch Keller versus the Dodgers.

Tough matchup, probably not. Matt Strom versus the Mariners. No. Seth Lugo at the Cubs. I could see doing that, but I'm not thrilled with it. Hayden Wesnesty versus the Mariners. No. J.P. Sears at the Angels.

No. Kyle Gibson at the Tigers. Yes, though I will point out that didn't go so well for Eric Lauer here on Tuesday. He is hard to... He's done. Eric Lauer is done, man. He was so excited about him last time. He's cooked.

It's tough always like chasing yesterday's start, but I understand the temptation given how many, how unreliable pitching on the hole has been. But, you know, Eric Lauer is Eric Lauer. Yeah. Joey Lou Casey versus the Nationals. Um, if I'm feeling brave, maybe. Fortune favors the brave, Scott.

Zach Rankie at the Twins. No. All right, we're going to rat there. For Scott, 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. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.