Fantasy Baseball Today - Is Kevin Gausman Back!? Week 10 Sleepers & Two-Start Pitchers? (5/24 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 24, 2024

Luis Gil is on quite the run right now (2:40). ... Is Kevin Gausman back (8:56)? ... Mason Miller is human after all (12:45). ... Rays prospect Carson Williams has cut down on the strikeouts this season (14:35)! ... News (21:33): Julio Rodriguez was dropped down in the Mariners lineup. ... Paul Skenes had another impressive start (28:35). ... Matt Chapman is one of the hottest hitters in baseball (31:06). ... Matt Waldron is a sneaky streamer for next week (39:56). ... Let's preview Week 10, starting with the schedule and two-start pitchers (45:42). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (56:20). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on May 24th. I am Frank Sample, joined by Scott White. Today on the show is Kevin Gosman back, had his best start of the season. We have another prospect spotlight, a raise prospect other than Junior Kemanero. We'll do week 10 sleepers, two-star pitchers, and much more. But let's jump in.

The sun will come out. Tanaka. Bet your bottom dollar with Tanaka. I think any time we have a Yankees pitcher we want to highlight, Scott, that has to be the opening. That's going to be that one, huh? Okay. Well, the one I want to highlight today is the one who pitched today, Luis Heel. And he was amazing.

Again, allowed just one hit to the Mariners in six and a third innings, eight strikeouts, two walks. All those numbers are worth mentioning, and I'll get into Y in a second. but, you know, that was, this is Louise Heel following up that 14 strikeout effort. He's one of three pitchers to have as many as 14 strikeouts in a game this season. The other two were Tyler Glass now and Jack Flaherty. And then you got Louise Heel doing that. Now, he's been getting the strikeouts all along over 11K per 9 this year, but kind of dismissive of it early on because he was walking so many guys

and struggling to go deep into games and just that had to, you figured that had to catch up to Louise Heel eventually. But I've taken a real heel turn here recently, Frank. I am becoming more optimistic in our old buddy Louise Heel here because I mentioned the two walks. This was now the fifth time in six starts that Louise Heels had two walks or fewer. I mentioned he was struggling to go deep into games. Not anymore. This was actually his fifth straight start going six innings or more.

and it obviously hasn't cost him in terms of effectiveness. You could also let me point to the fact that Louise Heel in five straight starts now, the same five straight starts where he's gone six innings or more, he's allowed three hits or fewer in four of them. And maybe you say, okay, well, there you go, good luck. that's going to be Louise Heels undoing. 152 batting average against coming into this game,

presumably it's gone down since then 152. Okay, but his expected batting average is 188. We don't talk about expected batting average much for starting pitchers, but it's notable in Louise Heel's case because it kind of backs up what he's doing. A lot of weak contact, a lot of it in the air. So he's kind of built for not giving a pitch. He has really good at hip prevention. And so if he's really good at hip prevention

and he's really good at getting strikeouts and he's not going to cripple himself with walks, there's a lot to like here about Louise Heel. And of course, he's rostered in enough leagues that's not like we can have the, okay, do you pick him up or not conversation? But how much should we value him? I've moved him into my top 60 rest of season.

Certainly he has the, upside to rise beyond that. I think the biggest downside for Luis Hill at this point is there's been some chatter in Yankees media about how they're going to handle him going forward because coming back for Tommy John surgery and it's not like he had accumulated a lot of innings before that. So they're presumably going to pull back on him at some point. And like we've talked about with Gary Crochet. presumably that's going to happen with Luis Heel too,

especially since the Yankees, they have playoff aspirations. You're going to want him available for the playoffs. How exactly is that going to play out? When is it going to happen? I imagine it wouldn't happen until Garrett Cole comes back. And you were saying off air, Frank, that it's Aaron Boone said four to six weeks still before we see Garrett Cole.

So I actually got this quote. This is from Brian Hoke, who covers the Yankees from MLB.com. With Louise Heel starting to say Aaron Boone said, has no plan in mind for what to do with the rotation when Garicol returns. Quote, it's three, four, five, six weeks away. If at that point we're in this position, then that's a good thing. We'll do what we have to do in the baseball calendar.

That's still light years away. Yeah. No, that's how I feel about it too, because, okay, four to six weeks, maybe Louis Thiel gets bumped to the bullpen or get shut down for however many weeks or whatever. Maybe that happens. But in four to six weeks, somebody else could be hurting the Yankees rotation. and they got to get to the playoffs before they can worry about their playoff rotation.

So I don't think it's worth worrying about them pulling back on Luis Heel yet, just like I don't think it's worth worrying about with Garrett Crochet yet. He's doing great things for you right now. And I say you just enjoy it for the time being. And for anyone who picked him up in a Keeper League or if you held onto him in Dynasty

throughout the Tommy John surgery, I think there is a lot to be excited about with Luis Heel. And Scott, you're running through the numbers and the fact that he's a fly ball pitcher and he limits hits and, you know, the walks have been high, but they've gotten better as the season has gone along and he gets all these strikeouts.

And it kind of reminds me of Christian Javier in 2022, the best version of Christian Javier that we've seen where it's a lot of strikeouts, a lot of walks, but lots of fly balls. So he limits hits and does actually a good job limiting home runs despite giving up a lot of fly balls. And that's kind of what it reminds me of, except Luis Heel does it

in a little bit of a different way. He has a three pitch mix, and all three pitches are really good. Javier has always been a two-pitch pitcher, and now he's introduced a third pitch this year. But that's what it kind of reminds me of as a whole, right? Is that prime Javier from a couple years ago? It's that sort of statistical profile.

But Luis Heel has better pure stuff than Christian Javier. Javier was more of a fastball-shaped guy than a stuff guy. And I think it a way that makes heel more durable, not in terms of staying healthy, but it makes his performance a little more durable, perhaps, than what we've seen with Christian Javier the past couple years. Yeah, I agree completely with that. You know, the sell high conversation, I think it's there. And it's something you could think about.

You know, if you have this pitching surplus, again, you might have just picked Luis Heel up. And it looks like everyone's looking for hitting right now. So I don't think it's the craziest thing to do, but make sure you're getting fair return because Luis Heel looks like one of many breakout pitchers so far this season. Let's talk about Kevin Gosman, who turned in one of his best starts of the season. He was at the Tigers and a little sneak peek. We recorded a podcast, which is going to come out on Monday morning. We're not going to be around for a weekend recap on Sunday.

And we spoke about Kevin Gosman as, you know, one of the slow starters, one of the struggle. Superstars this season. And then he goes out and has this awesome start. So maybe some of that analysis has changed. But it was truly a great start for Gosman. Six innings, one run, 10 strikeouts, which was a season high. He had 18 whiffs on 98 pitches. What stinks about this start, Scott, is there were technical difficulties in this game.

So we don't have full stat cast data. So we can't look at the pitch mix and the velocity and all that stuff, which is kind of annoying to about. evaluate, but it is what it is. I know. It's like we went back in time five years. Yeah. And we have to find other things to say than how many swinging strikes Kevin

Gosman got on individual pitches. That was his best start of the season, in my estimation. The 10 strikeouts was a season high. He had gone, he did go seven innings in one start, and he only went six in this one. So, you know, he had had a couple good starts prior to this. but this was probably the best one I'd be most interested in seeing the velocity because that was one of the big

red flags for Kevin Gossman so he missed time this spring with an elbow injury right it was the elbow no shoulder shoulder okay sorry shoulder and then he comes in and he's not throwing his heart and he's not getting as many whiffs and it all kind of added up to one big red flag, considering the performance wasn't quite up to snuff.

He was having enough good starts in there that I remained hopeful and obviously a great track record on all of that. But there comes a point now almost a third of the way into the season where it's like, all right, we got to see more than just the occasional good start. We have to see some sustained improvement here. So maybe this is the start of it, hopefully, hopefully. Yeah, especially with all. all those pitchers that are kind of nipping at his heels, right?

The guys that have elevated their games this season, the Imanagas, who's been a big riser, and Jared Jones and Paul Skeens, and we'll talk about Skeens in a little bit. So those guys are right behind Kevin Gosman in the rankings, and he put up here, he shoved all in and had a great start. I did have a few quotes here, because as you mentioned, Scott,

we had to turn back the clocks in terms of our analysis, so I went digging for what I could find, and apparently Kevin Gosman didn't even have his best stuff in this start. Per MLB.com, Gausman said he didn't necessarily think he had, quote, good stuff to maybe strike out 10 guys, but he made pitches and had command while

getting ahead in counts. Quote, and when you do that, you are the aggressor. You can get them on their heels. You get ahead and their averages go down, even if you don't necessarily have good stuff. I knew my stuff wasn't super electric, so I tried to be a lot more fine with that.

Yeah, that doesn't really sound like what I want to hear. I mean, glass half full, he didn't have his best stuff, and he just struck out 10. It was against the Tigers. True. Who just gave up season high in strikeouts to Cole Reagan's. Col Reagan's a great strikeout pitcher, but I don't know. It's, yeah, it's hard to have too big of a take on this when we don't have all the information.

But I think the right response is to be encouraged, but in a, tempered way. I want to give an honorable mention to Mason Miller. Turns out that he's human after all. He recorded five outs across the 10th and 11th innings and actually looked human. As I mentioned, he gave up five

runs. Three earned on a walk and three hits. He only struck out one and Scott, I know you wanted to get to this earlier than our usual bullpen updates. Yeah, just a little observation on this. It was obviously a really bad outing and it's kind of funny.

He basically blew the save twice because he blew it by allowing a run in the 10th, I believe it was, and then blew it by allowing all the runs in the 11th. That game in general was crazy. Not that you can actually blow two saves in a game. That's not possible. But he had a chance to close it twice and failed in the same game. So definitely not what we're used to seeing for Mason Miller. The reason I think it's notable beyond just the,

the novelty of it. His velocity was down. Now, it wasn't down significantly. It was about a mile per hour on both of his pitches on the fastball. Not even quite that, but about that, about a mile per hour.

Doesn't seem like much. We've certainly seen other closers have bigger velocity drops in occasional appearances. So I'm not sounding the alarm here. But it was his it was the softest he had thrown in a game since his first appearance of the season on March 30th. And his first appearance on the season March 30th,

Mason Miller allowed two run runs in his one inning at work. So the only two times he's allowed any runs this year were the two starts where his velocity was about a mile, the two appearances where his velocity was about a mile per hour lower. than usual. And it just makes me wonder, like, is there a lot of margin for error there with his velocity?

Because he's such a hard thrower and it's so electric and nobody can touch him. But if he loses just a little bit off of it, because it's hard to sustain that year after year or even over the course of a full six months, if he loses just a little off of it, does he become vulnerable?

It's something to watch. It's something to keep an eye on. Obviously, I'm not saying go out and sell Mason Miller. But I did find it interesting that the only two times he allowed runs, they were both pretty ugly, and his velocity was down only about a mile per hour. All right. Well, something to note there and pay attention to moving forward with Mason Miller. But it is Friday.

Let's get into another prospect spotlight. Let's talk about a raise prospect not named Junior Caminero. Shortstop Carson Williams, who the Welsh and I, Chris Welsh, interviewed out at the Arizona Fall League back in November. You could find the interview here on our YouTube channel. Carson Williams is 20 years old, a first round pick back in 2021, and he is off to a great start at AA, batting 336 with eight homers, 13 doubles, two triples, 11 steals, a 1055 OPS.

filling up the stat sheet, and this guy's got tools for days. Power, speed, he's an elite defender. And the biggest question, Scott, were around the hit tool and the strikeouts with Carson Williams. Well, he has lowered the strikeout rate, which has routinely been above 30% at every level throughout his career. It's down to 25.5% so far this season, which is good. It's manageable.

Obviously, we would like it to be better, but he's trending in the right direction. How much are you buying the lower strikeouts, this new approach from Carson Williams, and this big jump in batting average for him? Well, I'm excited about it. The improved strikeout rate, 25%. It's still pretty high, especially going against double A pitchers. But it's manageable. And I was pretty pessimistic about Carson Williams because the strikeout rate was so high, above 30% against A ball pitchers. So you know, are mostly throwing fastballs.

Other publications had him top 25. But I was looking at that. Okay, a lot of that is defense. He's a stellar defender, which defense we only care about to the extent it costs a player playing time. That's all we care about it in fantasy. So the defense is nice, but we don't really care that much. And he hits the ball very hard, Carson Williams.

He has a high power ceiling because of the way he impacts the ball. And that's great. But if you're never connecting with the ball, it's kind of irrelevant, too. So I, even though most everyone else had them top 25, I had him 72nd. And even then it's, it was kind of like, I got to put him somewhere. I can't leave him out completely. I really did not feel great about Carson Williams as a fantasy asset. It gets that strikeout rate down to 25% though.

And, you know, that has them batting over 340. It's a difficult transition to the majors. I'm not saying Carson Williams. is he can't miss bat now. But I do think he's a legit fantasy dynasty asset now when prior to this season, I would have been skeptical of that. Yeah. And if nothing else,

what this higher batting average has provided is maybe the floor is a little bit higher, right? When he gets to the majors, maybe it's a 240 batting average with really good power and speed. And that would still make for a great fantasy player. But if it's down around 200, to 10. I mean, obviously that becomes a problem. So it's still possible. We'll see how Carson Williams continues to trend, but it's been a great start to his season so far at AA. Carson Williams was one of

Scott's five prospects on the periphery in his latest prospect report. Make sure to check out that article, which is live on the site, cbsports.com slash fantasy slash baseball. Quickly, you want to promote to download and follow FBT and 5 wherever you listen to podcast. We have a bonus prospect episode coming out every Saturday of the season. And a programming note, which I already kind of mentioned, but we will not be live this Sunday night on YouTube because it's Memorial Day weekend. But we do have a podcast which will be uploaded to YouTube on Sunday night, and it will be in your audio feeds on Monday morning.

So we took a closer look at 11 of the biggest early round bust this season like Julio Rodriguez and Corby and Carol. What's wrong with those players? Will they be better? what do buy low trades look like, all that fun stuff. And again, that will come out Sunday night on YouTube around 10 p.m. Eastern Time and in your audio feed on Monday morning. We'll be live again Monday night here on YouTube, recapping the long weekend.

Let's take our first break, and when we return, we'll hit the news and notes right after this. Welcome back in. Let's Talk News and Notes. Julio Rodriguez was moved down to sixth in the Mariners lineup following his very slow start. And we'll see if that can inspire him. and get him going. Again, we broke him down extensively on that podcast, which will come out on Monday morning. Austin Riley has now missed 10 straight with that intercostal strain. There you go. All 10. We've talked about it a lot. Should have been on the IL. Not sure if he'll be in the lineup on Friday. Luis Robert will begin playing in rehab games at AAA on Tuesday. The raise will wait until

Friday before making a decision on whether Josh L will head to the IL. But it kind of sounds like Josh Lowe was going to head to the IL. with one less bat in the lineup, Junior Caminero. We're always on Junior Caminero watch. Not that he plays the outfield, but they can finagle things and move guys around. So I think they can figure it out.

Probably not. He hasn't really been setting the world on fire AAA lately. And obviously, they had a lot more injured guys just a couple weeks ago. True. Didn't see fit to call Commonero up then?

It'll happen at some point, so maybe it'll be now. But I doubt it. As somebody who's stashing him in two leagues, Scott, I'm just kind of wishcasting at this point with Junior Camerro. John Means was placed on the aisle with a left forearm strain. Cole Irvin will rejoin the Orioles rotation. John Gray was placed on the aisle with a right groin strain,

retroactive to May 22nd. Nick Ladolo threw a successful bullpen Wednesday and is set to throw off a mound again Saturday. If all goes well, he should be activated to start on Monday. and let me check, Scott, because you sent me over all your two-start pitchers. I don't see Nick Ladolo. Do you think he will return on Monday?

Because it sounds like there's a good chance he will, and if that's the case, he's probably a two-star pitcher. Yeah, if that's the case, he's probably a two-star pitcher. So I'll look into that and maybe update the list. You know, we don't like starting pitchers fresh off the IEO usually, but if they're going to line up for two starts, particularly one with the upside Lodolo has, may have to go for it.

Yeah, I'm probably going to rank them in the second tier there, which is advisable in most cases, and then advisable in most cases tier. All right. The Ray is reinstated chain boss and optioned him back to AAA. He's struggled mightily in four starts in the minors. It's a six ERA, a 192 whip with more walks than strikeouts. I think once Shane Bos gets going, we will see him up with the raise, but not just yet.

Eloy Jimenez, who went on the I.O. with a hamstring strain on Wednesday is expected to miss around a month of the season. The Pirates option, Jack Swinsky, back to AAA. He was batting just 174 with a 565 OPS. Estuary Ruiz was placed in the IL with a strained right wrist. Das Cameron, son of Mike Cameron, was recalled. Mm-hmm. I did that for you, Scott. And he hit a home run. Tyler Nevin, son of Phil Nevin.

Oh, I see what you did. I did it just for you. We had that game on this afternoon and, you know, mostly my kids were watching it, but I heard a home run was being hit. So I turned around to see who it was. And it took me forever to place the name Das Cameron. I'm like, who is that? I know I've heard that name before. It was just such a blast from the past.

Yeah. And yeah, he was part of that crazy game between those two teams, which by the way, my 6-year-old was very invested in. He kept, you know, they had to eat dinner. Well, before the game was over, it was in extra innings. And he kept, like, coming back to me and asking what the score was. And, you know, it kept going back and forth, four runs in the top of the 11th, four runs in the bottom of the 11th.

And when I eventually told him the athletics won, he was like, yes, he was so excited. And then I'm like, no, you don't want him to be an Oakland A's fan's. Anything with that. I think he has something against the Rockies. Because like every time he goes and he's playing with his little baseball figurines and he's like playing out a game, it's always Braves versus Rockies. I don't know what he has against the Rockies.

I have that Rockies shirt that I wear sometimes. Huh. And I wonder if that like is like a bull seeing red to him. I don't know. Maybe he felt betrayed. Like, why is dad wearing a rocky shirt? I don't like this. You know, the game MLB Power Pros 2008 for the Wii,

you could like create a character and do a career mode. And I was doing that with them. It was part of my, one of many stages I went through in like baseball propaganda for them, trying to get them interested, which I guess eventually work because now they're obsessed. But I created a character. named Marverett, which was like a blending of their two names, and he started on the Braves, because we're Braves fans, he got traded to the Rockies. Oh, I wonder if that like...

Psychoanalysis. Yeah, I wonder if that was like a traumatizing event for him. We had no control over it. That's true. It's great, and we got traded to the Rockies. I mean, that is a, that's pretty traumatizing experience. Going from the Braves to the Rockies, I mean, oh, I don't think anyone would want to do that. but yeah no that's that's interesting um also i think it's really satisfying like was it interesting

i think it is um as someone who does not have kids it it sounds like this is a pretty awesome phase in life for you to go through with your kids so i it's it's like it just happened in the last few months they are consuming it's mostly like they're reading stuff and so they have all these like they know all this baseball history that i don't even know from like you know the early days of baseball and they're talking about these players. But, I mean, they're reading everything they can get their hands on and wanting to watch it, at least for a couple innings here and there. And it's just been a night and day difference because they, for years, I would try

to push it on them personally. Try and introduce it to them in ways that would be exciting to them. And hopefully you're hearing me. Scott! Yeah. We were so good for so long. Maybe that's the cue to just move on. I don't know.

I tried a different browser this time, and I think that was my mistake. I got to go back to the other browser. All right. Well, yeah, let's do exactly that. One more news item, prospect update, Nationals top prospect.

James Wood was removed from Thursday's game, and there was some chatter and fanfare. Oh my gosh, is he getting called up? No, he's dealing with lower body soreness. Some flamethrower. who pitched well. We already spoke about Luis Heel. We've got to talk about Paul Skeens, who turned in another strong start against the Giants. Six innings, one run, three strikeouts, had 13 whiffs on 93 pitches, and six came on that splinker, five on the fastball, two on the slider,

and he leaned on that splinker more, and it was pretty good in the start. Obviously, had six of his 13 whiffs, and I remain encouraged by the pitch counts. Paul Skeens has thrown 84-193 pitches in his three starts. He's gone six innings in back-to-back outings here. And so far, it's a 225 ERA. It's a one-whip, getting ground balls at a 56% clip and tons of strikeouts. I don't think you could ask for much more than what Skeens has provided so far. Yeah, it's really going great.

It's really been close to a best-case scenario, I would say. And mainly the workload is the most encouraging thing, as you point out. because he didn't throw more than 75 pitches in a minor league start, and most of the minor league starts were more like three to four innings. So 75 was the high in the minors. His pitch count in his three major league starts, 84,193. So that's basically a full workload, right? They're just, it is kind of what I was saying it was, as it was happening,

just a delayed start to the season. And basically April and the minors was Paul Skeen's spring training. And he built up to a point where they could let him go and they're letting him go. Doesn't mean there won't be any pullback at any point this year. But I think you can just count on him being a regular part of your pitching staff for the time being. Another thing I noticed with this start, he's really leaning into that splinker. We knew his fastball was he was the most consistent one. hundred mile per hour thrower among starting pitchers.

And we knew his slider was probably considered his best pitch. But the Splanker's relatively new. And he's gone from, in his three major league starts, he's gone from throwing it 25% of the time to 33% of the time to 40% of the time this time. So it's like a brand new pitch for a guy who was already the most hyped pitching prospects since Stephen Strausberg, if not ever. Without the knowledge of that splinker. So very, very interesting development there for Paul Skeets.

Let's talk Waverwire hitters, and it feels like we talk about Matt Chapman every day. But guess what? Matt Chapman is one of the hottest hitters in baseball right now, and we are starved for offense. So he went two for five with his eighth home run. He added three RBI. He's homered in three straight games. And over his last six games, Chapman has 13 hits, three homers, 11 runs, 8 RBI, and 2 steals.

So he's up to 77% roster. He's probably only out there in shallower leagues, 10 team leagues, points leagues, whatever it might be. I think he's a must roster, Scott. As hot as he is right now, you know, guys like Michael Bush, Jake Berger, Justin Turner. If you're playing in a points league, I would be okay dropping any of those guys for Matt Chapman.

Yeah, I would too. It's probably just a situation of him being hot, and I wouldn't be, I want to make myself too dependent on him, but given the lack of offense across the league, you get a guy performing like this, then obviously you need to pick him up and just write it for as long as it lasts for Matt Chapman.

I will note that his batting average is now up to 249. His 263 expected batting average is actually the highest ever. Now, we're not counting. on Matt Chapman for batting average we never have. We want him to hit home runs. And there are still issues going on there with this rate, which dropped quite a bit last year. And I think that that's been the biggest impediment to him in his production.

But he's pulling it a little more in May. I don't know. Maybe he's starting to notice that. It's got a different organization he's working with now than he had in Toronto, obviously, different front office and everything that may emphasize different things to him and hopefully he's on the right track. It might just be a different version of Chapman, which isn't a bad thing. But, you know, instead of him being a 220 hitting 25 to 30 home run guy, maybe he's a

260 hitting 20 to 25 homers with like 10 to 15 steals, which would be a pretty damn good player in this environment. So I'm not saying that will definitely happen. It would be basically what we've always wanted to Brian Hayes to be if that's what Matt Chapman was. I was thinking it while it was coming out of my mouth. So, yeah, he's, I would say, if you need third base help, Matt Chapman, a must add right now. Do either of these hitters need to be rostered in more leagues than they are?

Brenton Doyle had himself another solid game, two for five with a double, two RBI, and his 10th stolen base. He is batting 273. He's got 30 run scored a 781 OPS, 67% rostered. The Rockies have six games next week. three in Cores Field against the Guardians and three on the road. I don't remember where. And some signs of life from Zach Gelloff, who went two for five with a walk and an RBI that's back-to-back

multi-hit games for him. But Gelloff is batting just 200 with a 582 OPS, 68% rostered. Do you think either of these need to be rostered in more league, Scott? We're basically talking about points leagues with Doyle and Gelloff. I mean, at Doyle's, going to be such a difficult fit in points leagues, so he's probably right

where he needs to be at 67%. I don't have a problem. If you need an outfielder and he seems like the best guy available, okay, you don't need me to tell you to pick him up, but especially when they're at home, Doyle might be a worthwhile play in points leagues. He has improved his

strikeout rate, but it's still not good enough, I think, for points league use. And Zach Gelloff just has a long way to go, I think, to regaining trust in leagues where he doesn't have to be rostered. So 68% is probably right where it needs to be for him. He's rostered in all the roto leagues where you have to go deeper into the hitter pool

and you're just kind of holding on to him and hoping he figures things out. But it wouldn't be surprising if he didn't. Obviously not much of a major league track record there for Zach Gelloff. And he has some significant plate discipline issues that frankly made it. a surprise he was such a success last year. All right, Scott. How much does Tommy Fam have to do for you to buy in? Because this man is raking right now.

Three for four with a double, a walk, RBI, and two runs scored. He is batting 333. He's got three homers, 15 runs, 12 RBI, three steals, and 872 OPS over his first 25 games played with the White Sox. Still only 27% rostered. I know we've mentioned his name a lot, but outfield is bad and Tommy Fam is one of the guys that are hitting right now, Scott. Yeah, I mean, that's fine.

I guess I'd put it the same way I did for Matt Chapman. I'm not particularly optimistic that Tommy Fam has unlocked some new level that we haven't seen in five years. But he's hot right now in an environment where few hitters are. So if you just want to play them because you have so few hitters you can rely on for anything, I don't have a problem with it. In the long run, he's probably a 240 hitting 15 homer 15 steel guy, which is pretty fringy even in five outfielder leagues. But you're hurting for production.

I mean, if you're still starting Evan Carter, and I, I've been there, I was there until very recently in some of my three outfielder leagues, then I understand wanting to upgrade any way you can. And I guess that would apply for Brent and Doyle too. I would, would I rather have Brenton Doyle than Tommy Fam? They're pretty close. They're pretty close.

But you wouldn't drop Evan Carter, right? It's like a bench and then try to find a way to get those guys in your lineup. And a three outfielder league, I think you could drop Evan Carter. He's not playing enough. Yeah. And he hasn't been good. It hasn't been good enough. Yeah. It's not me giving up on him forever.

I still think he has a bright future. But in shallower leagues, you can't afford to roster a lot of dead weight. And he feels like dead weight right now. Five outfeiture leagues, different story, obviously. Some waiver wire hitters in deeper leagues. J.J. Bladay has quietly been solid.

He went one for six, hit his seventh home run. He's got a 774 OPS. Jorge Mateo had himself a huge game. game, he went one for two with two walks, a sock, and two shoes. That's one home run and two steals for those keeping track. And in May, Mateo is batting 260, three homers, 12 runs, five steals, 836 OPS. He's doing some things right now. Elliot Ramos with the Giants has hit quite well since being recalled. He went two for four with his second home run. He's batting 296 with an

808 OPS in 14 games played. Don't laugh at me. But Andrew McCutcheon, he's hitting well recently. Two for five with his seventh home run. Last 11 games batting 3.41 with four homers, 10 runs, and 7 RBI. And Joey Bart had a big game, two for four with a grand slam. It was his fourth home run. And he could be a factor in two catcher leagues if Yasmani Grundal does continue to miss time with this groin injury. Scott, any interest here?

Deeper Leagues, Joey Bart, McCutcheon, Elliott Ramos, Jorge Mateo, and J.J. Bladay. The most interesting is probably Jorge Mateo, good lineup context, and he's going to give you a lot of speed. He has been productive here in May with the 260 batting average, three homers, five steals. And he's getting to play pretty regularly. He has started 10 of the past 13 games. So it is a deep league play. A shortstop is, it's maybe been the deep. his position so far with players like Jeremy Pena and Willie Adama's exceeding expectations by as much as they have.

Bryson Stott recently being added to the position. It's a very deep position, so it would have to be a deep league for you to turn to Jorge and Matteo. I think the most notable thing about Jorge Mateo's success lately is just it's giving the Orioles extra excuse to to keep Jackson Holiday down. And Jackson Holiday hasn't been doing great at AAA anyway. Right. So I really don't see a lot of urgency there. But Mateo's performance is adding to that lack of urgency.

Not many waiver wire pitchers here on Thursday's slate, but some quick names that I'll mention. Matt Waldron has allowed two run runs or less in three straight. He was at the Reds, five innings, two runs, seven strikeouts, had 11 whiffs on 90 pitches, and his velocity was up quite a bit across the board for Matt Waldron. A little sneak peek into the sleeper pitchers for next week, but Scott has him as a single-star streamer.

He's facing the Marlins. I think it's a good deep league play for Matt Waldron. Ryan Feltoner pitched well at Oakland, six shutout innings with six strikeouts there. And then two young pitchers who looked solid going up against each other. A.J. Smith-Shawber for the Braves. Four and a third shutout, three hits, two walks, four strikeouts, and Ben Brown against the Braves.

Four shutout, one hit, two walks, six strikeouts, and that curveball was nasty for Ben Brown. Scott, any thoughts here on Brown, Smith-Shawber, Ryan Feltoner, and Matt Waldron? Well, I did feel like a dunce that Ryan Feltoner was so good against the athletics when the streamer pitcher section I was dismissing him. It had been a really awful six-start stretch for him, to be fair. Well, I gave him out, so, you know. Yeah. We helped people. But you said Waldron, so it worked out.

I did say Matt Waldron, and he had a nice start too. Neither one got a win, so you didn't miss out on that either way. True. And Waldron's had three good starts in a row. How do you size up a knuckleballer? I have no idea. I feel like the only fantasy stud knuckleballer was R.A. Dickie, at least that I can remember in my time playing fantasy.

I know Tim Wakefield had some good stretches, but it's not common. It's not common. Waldron does throw a harder fastball than it seems like the typical knuckleballer does. So that's interesting. And he's had three good starts in a row. And I have him on the sleeper pitchers for this upcoming week. Spoiler alert, though not with a lot of gusto.

It was hard to come up with 10 sleeper pitchers. Also, AJ Smith Schaweer. We talked about how bad he had been at AAA, ERA over six. And then he comes in and does this. He looks great. And it was weird about it. He threw fastball, change up, curveball, all 20% or more. No sliders.

And the slider during his time in the majors, he threw it 23% of the time last year. It was his best pitch. Yeah. Pretty clearly. So I don't, he was thrown in the minors. I don't know why he went away from the slider in this. And if he brings it back, whether it be a good thing or not, it seems like it would be.

But he had success without it. I imagine A.J. Smith's shop, I didn't see any news, but I imagine he's going to get another start based on this. They have that Bryce Elder opening. And I imagine they'll want to see Smith Schaver another look. Ben Brown, it's been looking good. Basically, every time they've given him a chance to start the Cubs, 320 ERA-19 whip now, has yet to go even the five innings.

the five innings required for a win. So you're not going to be that relevant in fantasy if you can't make it five innings and kind of need to be able to go six. So I don't think we're to the point where we're picking up Ben Brown yet, certainly not in this pitching environment. But I can see that happening.

He has, he's looked quite effective and the control hasn't been as big of an issue as I feared it would be for him. Just one clarification, Scott, on Ben Brown. He did have a six-inning start against the D-backs back on April 15th, but that was the only one where he even completed five. Yeah.

Yep. All right, let's take our final break. And when we return, we will preview week 10. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in, and let's preview week 10. The schedule for next week. We have 10 teams with seven games, the Nationals, Mariners, Brewers, twins, Mets, Astros, Royals, Red Sox, Cubs, and Braves.

18 teams with six games and two teams that have five games for next week. The Rangers and the Pirates. What about the Rockies? They have six games, three at home against the Guardians and three on the road at the Dodgers. Starters sit these fringe two-star pitchers. And look, most weeks, Justin Steele, no doubt. You're starting him as a two-star pitcher. But he has struggled recently.

And it looks like he is at the Brewers and home against the Reds next week. Scott, how do you feel about Justin Steele? I think you start him. It's not a must start. He's part of that second tier I was referring to earlier where I'm going to slot Nick Lodolo, advisable in most cases. But I don't think...

I think he's rusty. I think that's mainly been the issue for his struggles. And this most recent start against the Braves, he was going great, and he just kind of had an inning where things unraveled on him. but I think there's I think there's a lot to like about Justin Steele still. I think those matchups are fine.

Two-star week, even in Categories leagues. I'm throwing them out there. Michael King has been very inconsistent this season, but he gets the Marlins and at the Royals. So one good, one bad matchup next week. Yeah, and I'm still skeptical

of the Royals lineup. I don't know how long I can say that. I know I was looking at the standings today and their run differentials. One of the best in baseball. Pitching has a lot to do with that. But the line has been productive so far. But even so, King, two starts, one of them against the Marlins. I lean yes on that one.

Brian Beow, the walks have been piling up recently. He is at the Orioles and home against the tiger. So another one, one tough matchup, one good one. Yeah, same thing. Lean yes on Brian Beow. Gavin Stone is at the Met and home against the Rockies. The Rockies on the road. Uh, that is probably more of a points league situation.

Those matchups are solid, but I just don't know that the upside's that high for Gavin Stone. Christian Javier is at the Mariners and home against the twins. Yeah, leaving him for points leagues too. Losing a lot of faith in him, but, uh, decent matchups. All right. I have Christian Javier in my home points league where we start six starting pitchers. I don't know that I'm going to use them next week. I mean, oh, I mean, you don't have to.

Yeah, yeah. If you have a good pitching staff, there's no reason to force him in. I got Chris Sale, Gilbert, Imanaga, so yeah, I've got some names there. I think I'm going to stay away. Blake Snell, who's been quite bad. He gets the Phillies and the Yankees. Both are at home. Yeah, I'd rather not.

But it's doable in points leagues where you don't have to worry about him wrecking your whip. you're kind of just gambling on one of those two starts being the start, the switch flips for him. And there's less downside risk to doing that in a points league. So kind of like Christian Javier, it's not like you have to, but I might do it. Some names in deeper leagues. Do we have any interest here? Jake Irvin, at the Braves and at the Guardians. You know, he rounds out my sleeper pitchers for this week.

He's number 10 of the 10 sleeper pitchers. but that kind of shows you what a bad week it is for sleeper pitchers because I'm just like, all right, he's making two starts. He's been semi-reliable. The matchups aren't great, but I had to come up with a 10th name, and I'd rather be a not-so-appealing two-star guy than a not-so-appealing one-star guy. Tyler McGill is home against the Dodgers and home against the debacks.

Yeah, encouraged by what I saw from him in his return. term from the aisle, but those are really, really rough matchups. So no. And Robert Gasser, who has mostly pitched okay, he is home against the Cubs and the White Sox. Not in a way I trust his mostly okay pitching. So Robert Gasser is a pass for me. All right, Scott, who are the two-star pitchers that you are looking to add and stream outside of Jake Irvin? Well, it being one of those weeks. There's only one that I really like a two-star pitcher, and that's Zach Lattel, who gets the athletics and gets the Orioles. So another one of those

won good matchups, one of those, won bad matchups. But he's, he's pretty solid pitcher. A better strikeout guy than I gave him credit for coming into the year, and I think pretty automatic with two starts. It's available in about 30% of CBS Sports leagues. My second favorite two-star pitcher who might be available in your league is Alec Marsh, who gets the twins and Padres. So the matchups could be better.

And I don't really trust the profile, but he has been very consistent so far, part of that Royal's pitching staff that's done so well for them. That's more of a points league play, I would say. So my second two-star pitcher were already in that points league-only range, Alec Marsh.

Also, Cooper Criswell, another one good, one bad match-up thing, and tigers. Again, there's nothing impressive about him, but he's been performing well. Cole Irvin. Whoa. He's lined up for two starts.

Robo Scott is here to tell you that Cole Irvin is lined up for two starts this week against the Red Sox and the Rays. Okay, so yeah, they're both at home, Cole Irvin, fly ball pitcher in Baltimore. It generally works out well for him. and then I already mentioned Jake Irvin. Both the Irvin's.

What do you know? The single-star streamers, I think, are much more appealing this week, and there are five of them. Yes and no. Alec Manoa is at the top of the list here against the White Sox with the way his last two starts have gone, throwing a lot more strikes, looking a lot more like his pre-20203 self.

I'm pretty excited about that one. Manoa against the White Sox. But after that, next on the list here is Reese Olson at the Red Sox and then Christian Scott against the Diamondbacks and those are both like not matchups oriented picks especially not Christian Scott against the Diamondbacks that's a tough lineup

but among the matchups plays the pitchers were just not that good and I think Resolson and Christian Scott are and they're just under-rastered Olsen actually left his last start with an injury So we can't even, it's a little scary starting him just because of that. And yet he's third among my sleeper pitchers for this week. So there are really only two sleeper pitchers I feel good about in Alec Mino and Zach Lattel.

And the rest is just kind of, okay, I got to fill out a list here. Okay, but to give you a few other names, Jose Soriano is facing the Mariners. And the Mariners have by far the highest strikeout rate against right-handed pitchers. and Soriano is a right-handed pitcher. And then finally, Matt Waldron, we mentioned earlier. He's going against the Marlins next time. Hopefully that knuckleball plays for him as well as it has recently. And everybody loves a knuckleballer.

So if you're playing a deeper league and you're just in a tight spot, I think it's totally fine. Matt Waldron up against the Marlins next week. Best hitter matchups for week 10, the Guardians, the Blue Jays, the Dodgers, Braves, and the Rays. The worst hitter matchups, pirates, angels, tigers, Astros and the A's. Who are your sleeper hitters for next week?

My sleeper hitters. I have Dalton Varshow because the Blue Jays have the second best hitter matchups. Kind of surprised he's available enough to mention here, but he is. And I would certainly be looking. If he's available in your league, there's no reason to think about Tommy Pham or who's the other one. Brenton Doyle? Brenton Doyle. Yeah, especially with the kind of matchups the Blue Jays have this week,

going against the White Sox for three games and the Pirates for three games, but notably neither of the Pirates Young Studs in those three games. Okay, so also Davis Schneider really like them with those same matchups, playing a lot recently, good on base skills, good power. And then Danny Jansen, who we've talked a lot about too. He's available in like 60% of leagues. You might just keep him if you pick them up for this week. I like Andy Paez again.

Dodgers having the third best hitter matchups. I realize he's cooled off quite a bit, but the hitters he's facing this week are Tyler McGill, Adrian Hauser, Jose Kentana, Dakota Hudson, Calquantral, and Austin Gomber. So I think Andy Paas is a good bet to pick it back up. Turn the Paez, you might even say? Oh, my gosh.

I'm sorry. That's pretty good. It just came to me. Okay. Lars Nupar has been playing well this month. The Cardinals are facing the, you know, they have pretty good matchups. Only one left-hander on the schedule. I think Newbar needs to be picked up in a lot more leagues.

J.D. Martinez. The Mets are one of the teams playing seven games, and the matchups are mostly good. The Nationals are playing seven games. Only one is against left-handers. So I like Jesse Winker and Luis Garcia both for that reason. Brandon Lowe, I'm going to roll the dice on him coming around this week, recently returned from the IL.

The race have the fifth best-titter matchups and only one left-hand are on the schedule. So Brandon Lowe is going to play a lot, hopefully heat up. Josh Bell has already been hot, and he has good matchups this week as well. Michael King, Jose Arrania, Michael. Lorenzen, Dane Dunning among them. So hopefully Josh Bell stays hot. There you go. And there you go. That is your week 10 preview.

Let's wrap up with some of the leftovers from Thursday's action. It's got two hitters who I noticed haven't looked the same since we're turning from injury. Ozzy Albies and Sayas Suzuki, they actually both had solid games here. Ozzy Albies won for three with a walk and his third steal. Sayas Suzuki went two for four. but Albi's in 24 games since returning. It's a 237 batting average, one homer, one steel, lots of fly balls, lots of pop-ups, and the overall Ops is now down to 718 for Ozzy Albies,

and Sayas Suzuki in 11 games since returning from that oblique injury. It's a 182 batting average, one homer, one steel, not hitting the ball nearly as hard as he was earlier on in the season, and his overall OPS is down to 730. I think with both guys, we probably have to be a little bit patient here, but anything you're actually worried about with either, Ozzy Albies or Suzuki?

No. No. I guess it's worth bringing up that if the hitting environment is the worst we've seen in a decade, it's actually been nine years, not quite a decade. But if it is, as I've been pointing out,

home run to fly ball rate even worse than 2022, when we were talking about a deadened ball. Maybe Ozzy Albies is a guy who doesn't hit the ball very hard. Maybe he struggles with that. We were worried about that in 2022, but remember he ended up missing so much that year with injuries that it wasn't fully put to the test. But his OPS so far this year looks similar to that year.

So if you want something to worry about, that's it. But he also bat second. second in a Braves lineup that we do think is going to be robust at some point here. Some pitching left over. Zach Wheeler turned in another strong start against the Rangers. Seven innings, two runs, five strikeouts had 12 whiffs on 91 pitches. Jack Flarity turned in a quality start against the Blue Jays, six and a third. Three runs allowed. Nine homers also gave up two home runs.

And if there's one lingering issue for Flerity this year, while the strikeouts will, you know, The strikeout to walk ratio has been amazing. The FIP, X-FIP, everything loves Jack Flaherty. The home runs are still there. It's nine home runs allowed and 10 starts. That's 1.3 home runs per nine, which is pretty high compared to the rest of Flaherty's career. And Grayson Rodriguez struggled mightily with control at the White Sox. The overall stat line, five innings, two runs, seven strikeouts,

14 whiffs, that's still really good. But five walks. And walks are now a consistent problem. I would say for Grayson Rodriguez. He has three plus walks in four of his eight starts. He's up to four walks per nine. Anything to add on Grod, Flaherty, and Zach Wheeler? Yeah, I'm getting frustrated with walks there for Grayson Rodriguez.

That's a high rate any way you look at it. He threw 66% of his pitches for strikes last year, which is a good rate. 63% this year, which is a bad rate. Those three percentage points make a big difference. And yeah, there's been lots of walks. Otherwise, he looks good. But the walks could, look, they've given him a high whip already.

And they could spell trouble with the ERA too. So I'm a little wary of him, especially with so many great alternatives at starting pitcher. Jack Flaherty, I have a bone to pick with AJ Hinch here because through six innings, he had a great stat line. And it had already thrown more than 90 pitches. And it was like, okay, he's done. I got another great start from Jack Flaherty. And then he came back out for the seventh and allowed a two-run homer to Dalton Farshow.

And it's like, why? So his ERA goes up instead of down and now it's up to 384. It was still a fine start, a quality start, a bunch of strikeouts, but it could have been better, should have been better. Yeah.

And I do think better days are ahead for Flaherty because the underlying numbers are so, so strong. I think he's inside of my top 30 starting pitchers, so I am pretty aggressive on ranking Jack Flaherty rest of season. Some hitting leftovers. Vlad Jr. went two for five with his fifth home run, and he has turned things up in May, batting 371. Only two home runs.

You like to see more power, but 12 runs, 13 RBI, a 950 OPS for Vlad in the month. Brian Reynolds has also picked things up, three for five, with his seventh home run. He has homered in back-to-back games and in his last 10 games. It's a 356 batting average, three homers and two steals. Another day, another homer for both Aaron Judge and John Carlos Stanton. Judge went two for two with his 15th homer, and John Carlos Stanton went one for three with his 12th home run. One 12.1 exit velocity, 445 feet for Stanton.

Looks like Adolius Garcia's forearm is just fine, one for three with his 12th home run. JT. Realimuto has homered in back-to-back games. Luis Arise has really stepped up since joining the Padres, four-for-five with a run and RBI that's back-to-back four-hit games, and according to MLB.com, A Rise is the fifth Padre to ever have consecutive games with four or more hits, and the first since John Jay did it back in 2016. Hassan Kim continues to run.

He went one for three with a walk and two steals. I don't love his spot in the lineup. You know, consistently batting eighth and ninth. It's going to hurt the counting stats. The power and speed has still been really good, though, for Hassan Kim. Boba Chet has multiple hits in three of his last four games. He went three for five with a run and RBI. And Cedric Mullins, not a name that I think we mentioned the other day.

He was a big faller in my outfield rankings. He went two for five with two steels. steals and two runs scored. He still has six homers. He has 10 steals. That's great. He's batting 199 with a 589 OPS. So that is really dragging down the rest of Mullen's production.

Lots of names here, Scott. Anybody that in particular stands out to you. Yeah, it's hard to be that alarmed with Cedric Mullins because so many good hitters are struggling to deliver batting average. And so maybe the fact he has, He's providing power and speed his reason to hold on to him. I don't know.

I think he's around 40th in my outfield rankings. I think I moved him down to 46 or something like that. Yeah. So Vladimir Guerrero and Bo Bichette, I wanted to point this out for the two of them. Because I think a lot of their issues in recent years has been spray angle. Like are they, are their fly balls angled

to maximize damage. And I think both have struggled in that regard. Bo Bichette, I've pointed out, every year his pull rate goes down. And specifically on fly balls this year, it's significantly worse. And it already wasn't good. I believe it's like 10 percentage points down,

pull rate on fly balls. And Vladimir Guerrero, same way. Pull rate on fly balls this year for Vladimir Guerrero is only 15%. And normally it's like 25%. So they're kind of leaning even more into really just going opposite way in a way that I don't think is beneficial. I mean, it should improve their batting average upside, but and downside, I guess. But if it's going to rob them of power production, which we've seen pretty clearly for Bo Bichette, especially in recent years, I don't think it's the right way to go. But Vladimir Guerrero is

certainly hitting four batting average right now. He's 371 in May, up to 282 overall. It's just five home runs to go with it. Yeah. It's not going to get it done. We need, we absolutely need more power from Vlad Jr. Again, it's a productive month, but he only has two home runs in the month of May. So we would like to see more. Some bullpen updates for the Giants with Camillo Duval unavailable. It was Tyler Rogers

who picked up his first save for the Yankees. I wrote Luis Heel. Got the final four outs. That is not correct. That would be Clay Holmes who got the final four outs for his 14th save.

For the Phillies, Jose Alvarado entered in the eighth with a three-run lead to face two, three, and four in the Rangers lineup. And then it was Jeff Hoffman who got the ninth and converted his fourth save.

of the season. For the Padres, Robert Suarez walked one in extras but picked up his 14th save and I wanted to mention Jeremiah Estrada in saves plus holds leagues because in 10 games he has a .66 ERA a .66 whip 20 strikeouts over 13 and two thirds. He has two holds and one save and I think he's been really good so he's an a name. He has been and I'm not really sure where it came from his minor league numbers are well I guess they're good they were great this year 20 strikeouts in eight and two-thirds innings and he always had high strike at rates I guess mostly he struggled with control and that made his ERAs and whips just horrible prior to this year but it does seem like Jeremiah Estrada's had a breakthrough of sorts and if anything were to happen to Robert Suarez I I think it might be Estrada who gets the first crack at that he remember there was an outing recently

where they brought in Robert Suarez to pitch to the top of the Braves lineup in the eighth inning. Yeah. And Jeremiah Estrada was the one who came in for the ninth to get the save. Yeah, no, I think that's a great point. For the Braves, Raisal Iglesias struck out two for his 12th save for the Rockies. Jalen Beeks got the

ninth with a one-run lead and he gave up a game-tying home run to the first batter he saw. Das Cameron and he took his third blown save. The Rockies eventually lost in extras. We already spoke about Mason Miller. And then for the Orioles, Craig Kimball got the final two out for his 10th save of the season.

On Friday, I should mention this is to stream or not to stream, Scott's favorite segment that we do every single day. Woo! We have Alec Minoah at the Tigers, which I think is totally fine. Christian Scott against the Giants. Also good. If I had to choose one more, I would say Patrick Sandoval against the Guardians. Yeah, distant third, but I would agree.

On Saturday, we have Dean Kramer. at the White Sox, which I think is fine. Trevor Williams against the Mariners. You mentioned they have struggled a lot against Ritees. And I mean, there's Paddock against the Rangers. I don't love the matchup, I guess. James and Tyone at the Cardinals, that's not a terrible one. Jose Soriano against the Guardians.

Not bad either. I don't know. Who are your top three from Saturday? Kramer's the clear number one. And I think I would go Paddock number two, despite the bad matchup. He's just pitched so much better since incorporating that slider.

But it is a distant second. It's not like you have to start, Paddock. And then third would be, who'd you mention? Trevor Williams. Yeah, Trevor Williams. On Sunday, we have, I think Michael Waka at Tampa Bay is all right.

You know, I would say Ryan Weathers, he's pitching well. He's at the debacks. They're really good against left-handed pitch. pitching. Mitchell Parker against the Mariners, I think, could work out. I think I like Waka and Parker. Yeah, I agree.

If I had to pick a third one. Sean Mania revenge game against the Giants. That would probably be the third one if I had to pick one. All right, we're going to wrap there for Scott. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again next week.

Bye-bye. Thank you.