Fantasy Baseball Today - Is Spencer Strider Back?? Ohtani's Pitching Return & Waiver Adds! (6/16 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 16, 2025

We did an emergency podcast on the Rafael Devers trade but let's get Scott's thoughts (3:08). ... Brayan Bello threw his cutter a lot more (8:30). ... Is Spencer Strider back (11:20)?? ... Grant Holmes racked up 15 strikeouts Sunday (16:45). ... News (22:06): Shohei Ohtani is making his Dodgers pitching debut Monday. The Nationals are promoting Brady House! ... Agustin Ramirez had a big weekend (39:50). ... Noah Cameron is starting to get strikeouts (48:10). ... Start or sit these pitchers (1:00:49)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:05:38). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow FBT on TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow our FBT team on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@FBTPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CPTowers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CBSScottWhite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@Roto_Frank⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join our Facebook group at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Oh, man, what a weekend. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, June 16th.

I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Shout out to all the dads out there. Happy Father's Day, especially to my pops. Especially to you, Scott. Happy Father's Day to you. How was it? How was everything? Thank you.

Thank you. Oh, man. It was like Father's Day week. And so I had to work on Sunday. So we kind of knew that was going to be off the table. But no, my wife surprised me. She took me to see. Oh, man.

I can't think of how to pronounce his last name now. Nate Braggazzi, like the number one comic right now. And that was a good time. Nice. Do things like that very often. Very nice. Love to see it. Today on the show, Spencer Strider might be back.

We've got waiver moves, start or sit decisions. Oh yeah. And a massive blockbuster that came out on Sunday night with Raphael Devers getting traded over to the San Francisco Giants. Chris and I already did an emergency podcast on that. But Scott wrote an instant reaction article. And Scott, right back to you. I wanted to give you the opportunity to opine here on the podcast. podcast about Rafael Devers.

What a stunner. What a stunner, right? Like, I don't know. Like, you had to check the source when you saw it, right? Yeah, definitely did. And I don't know in retrospect, maybe it shouldn't have been because obviously things have been bubbling under the surface, not even so much under the surface, kind of spilling out into the open.

But there was always this effort after Devers had one of his, you know, public refusals to change positions, one of them, that there was always this follow-up like, yeah, well, the translation was a little rough, maybe a little unfair to him. And he also said these things that didn't get as much publicity. And so it's like, okay, so I don't know, I have a tendency to think that beef, you know, two people beefing that are in the same organization when that's made public, it's probably overblown. That's kind of just my impulse feeling, and so I kind of thought that was happening here,

but evidently not because they thought, not that it was all just like disagreement type of stuff. I mean, but I think the disagreement, the unwillingness of Devers to move to first base forced the Red Sox to examine the situation, the contract, and say, okay, are we really going to pay a DH $300 million over the next 10 years? Because we're not going to put them at third base, obviously. If he's not willing to move to first base, this is not a good allocation of resources.

And we kind of regret signing this deal in the first place. So their incentive here was to trade away the entire contract. contract, San Francisco's taking it all on. And while, you know, just- Just get whatever they could. Well, not necessarily, like, the way I was looking at it is, okay, if we regret this contract now, what would happen if we didn't do it in the first place? He just would have walked in free agency.

We would have gotten a compensation pick. Not nothing, but just a compensation pick. So now they discard the whole contract like it was never signed. And they get a lot more than a compensation pick. Even just James Tibbs, the outfield prospect they got, better than a compensation pick. And they get an arm that maybe they could work with. And Kyle Harrison, who has a pretty good fastball,

but not really any secondary pitches. And that's kind of the Red Sox specialty right now is making the most out of those kinds of arms. You know, Jordan Hicks is middle relief, whatever, a low-level minor league reliever. Not a lot of value there, but it's more than a compensation pick. So I think that's the Red Sox incentive to do it. I don't think that that is much comfortable. to their fan base right now, particularly five-game winning streak.

They just got back over 500. They look like they have a shot at the postseason. And they still do, by the way, because the other aspect of this, the other incentive for the Red Sox, why they wanted them to move to first base in the first place is because this is how Roman Anthony stays up. And if Roman Anthony lives up to his potential right of the way, you know, the first couple weeks haven't gone well, but that doesn't mean the next three months won't. then, you know, they still got a really good hitter there.

They're still, they still have a pretty good lineup overall. And, and, you know, some decent rotation depth. And they still have things to work with here. So I don't know that they necessarily are punting on the season. I think maybe the timing was odd, but there weren't going to be that many teams willing to take on this whole contract is a big part of it. And so I think they had to strike while the iron was high. thought. I think the way I'd put it, shocking, not surprising. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's probably fair. The timing really stands out most, and you pointed this out, Scott. I mean, they won five in a row. They just

swept the Yankees. Vibs. Got back to 500. Vibes felt pretty good. One eight to the last 10. And then it's, you know, middle of June, we just don't really see a blockbuster this time of year, especially a player of Raphael Devere's caliber. So very, go ahead. As far as fantasy value, and I don't know if you guys agree, but my feeling here is, while Devers' ceiling and floor may lower a bit in San Francisco because he doesn't have the Babbitt boost from Fenway, it's not going to affect his power production too much. And I think the effect it has on its batting average

will be not very noticeable. Because, again, it's just more like the hypothetical ceiling of him hitting 320 is gone now. And the experience of actually rostering him in fantasy. isn't going to change that much. All right, yeah. Well, we also did an emergency podcast where we spoke for like 30 minutes about this trade, very in depth

and tried to cover all angles of that. So be sure to check that podcast out as well. Let's get into our players of the weekend. Is this happening? It is. All right. We will talk about Spencer Shrider, Grant Holmes, and just a second here. I want to give Chris an opportunity to talk here.

Chris, who was your player of the weekend? Oh, gosh. Okay. I don't think this is the most interesting thing that happened this weekend, but I think there were some really interesting things going on with Brian Beaux's performance on Sunday against the Yankees. And Brian Beow is a player who, frankly, I don't think has given us a lot of reasons to be excited about him. I think he's been plainly overrated for fantasy. He for a long time. He has had a very good changeup. And that's

kind of it for a long time. He's worked on different types of breaking ball, has never really settled on anything that really works. He's got the sweeper the last couple of years. But on Sunday against the Yankees, he took this cutter that he had thrown, I think it was 23 times prior to Sunday's start total. He threw it 38 times in this one. And it looked pretty good. He generated four of his 13 swinging strikes with it on 17 swings, three balls in

play with a 79.5 mile per hour, average exit velocity. It was a very lefty, heavy. lineup against the Yankees that he did really well against, seven shutout innings, eight strikeouts, three walks, three hits. Lefties have crushed Brian Bayo in his career, which is surprising because the changeup is his best pitch. The problem is his primary fastball has always been a sinker, and sinkers are really bad platoon pitches.

Opposite-handed hit sinkers better than same-handed hitters, and that's been the problem for Bayo, but all of a sudden he's got this change-up, which kind of neutralize the platoon split. It can also potentially be a swing and miss pitch for him. It can be, you know, maybe something that he leans on as a primary fastball like he did in this one. And all of a sudden,

I think it makes the whole arsenal start to make a little more sense because he's never had a really good feel for any other breaking balls. If he can get something that moves glove side, it's a little harder. I think Brian Beow could be the, this could be the most. interesting version of Brian Bayo that we've seen so far. And Brian Bayo is 40% rostered.

If you look at the most added pitchers right now, obviously Jacob Mizirowski is at the top of the list, as he should be. But the next group just below, Quinn Priester, Chase Burns, interesting. Obviously, has a lot of upside. We don't know when we're going to see him with the Reds. Chad Patrick, Bryce Elder, Mike Soroka. I think Bayeos, at least as interesting as any of them, probably more so coming off this start. Yeah, I obviously would take

Mizirowski ahead of him, but then any of those other names. Like, if you want to stash, Chase, Chase Burns over him because of the upside, sure, but any of these other names we're talking about, yeah, like, let's take a chance on Brian Beow, see if this pitch makes changes for real at the Giants this week against Raphael Devers.

So that should be a very interesting start. He gets lefties out now. It's no problem. We'll see how he does in that one. All right, Scott, big name from the weekend. Is your boy, Spencer Strider? Is he back? Oh, I thought this. was going to be the big story of this podcast before a couple things happened to here on Sunday to overshadow it frankly grant holmes performance on Sunday kind of overshadowed it we'll get to that in a

minute no strider so uh Saturday night this is when we're going to see Nate Bergatsy to bring it full circle am I pronouncing that name right need that sounds right yeah that's right so you know my wife's at work on Saturday she's going to come home I got to get my kids ready for an early dinner the Braves are playing at four. We turn on the game for my kids. I'm in the kitchen making a macaroni and cheese. I'm like, hey, guys, let me know if you see any pitches above 95. And they're shouting out, like, immediately they're like, 97, 97.

Oh, he struck him out, 98. And I'm like, what is going on? I tweet out right away, because I go confirm the data. Spencer Strider is hitting 98. this is what we've been waiting to see this whole time because he had been sitting like 94-95 since returning from the injury. It had been, it had made me genuinely nervous.

But seeing that in the first inning right away from him, it was like, oh, man, I think he might be back. And then he goes on and strikes out 13 Rockies. And it was the Rockies. So maybe that gave him three or four extra strikeouts. But the point is his velocity was, up and it allowed him to get strikeouts like Spencer Strider again. Now, the final increase ended up being one mile per hour, roughly, on average.

Because I think his sixth inning, the velocity dropped down a bit in that final inning. But for most of the game, it was more like one and a half that the velocity was up. And it was up 1.4 from his previous start. Yeah. Yeah. No, he definitely looked like old strider. And I got to tell you, I am so relieved. That is what I feel is relief

because this was my favorite pitcher to watch. As a Braz fan, they've had some pretty good pitchers over the years, but there was just something so like Prime Strider doing that little pirouet as he strikes guys out effortlessly.

It would have been so sad if this elbow injury ruined him. And I was fearful that it had because the velocity decline was it wasn't small. and it seemed to have a clear impact on his performance. But now I feel relieved.

I was so relieved I was telling everybody I knew about it that day, whether they cared about baseball or not. They probably think I'm a nut. But yeah. Did you tell me Pargatsi about it? I did not. I was not that close to him. I sat very high and he was an aunt to me.

So no, I did not tell him. My biggest takeaway from that whole story, Scott, is that you now have your own production team with you, right? You can tell your kids to, scout baseball players for you and just call out, hey, this is happening. Velocity here, velocity there. That's pretty cool.

It is nice. It is nice to have a couple of small baseball fans. Really, a little obsessive about it, I have to say. But it's more good than bad. Yeah. The one thing I would say about Strider, uh, I do think this could be a potential cell window just because we don't know if the

velocity's going to stick. The thing about Velocity is going to stick. The thing about Velocity. is it matters. It's just like you can't predict the future based on current velocity. And that's the thing that's always tough is a guy gets a velocity bump in one start. That doesn't necessarily mean it'll be there in the next start. It doesn't necessarily mean when a guy's velocity's down for five starts in a row like it was for Strider.

That it won't come back just because it was up in this one doesn't mean he won't come back out in the next one and an average 94.5. You know, that's the, that's the tough thing about what we're trying to do. So I do think you could view this as a sell window, but I add this caveat that now you very much know you could end up regretting selling him. And that's the biggest difference between where we were a week ago, where a week ago, if someone had offered me a top 30 starting pitcher for Spencer Shrider, I think I would have just jumped at it. And now it's like, I don't know. In the Scott White Dynasty League, 24-teamor, very deep. Anytime you hit big on a guy, it feels like you won the lottery because of how deep it is. And I got Strider for a dollar back when he first appeared on the scene.

And it's been keeping him ever since, obviously, still very cheap to keep, given his upside. I was really close to offering him for McKinsey Gore straight up. I don't know that the guy would have taken it, frankly, but I was really close to doing it, and I was like, I'm going to give him one more start and see how this goes. And I'm glad I didn't offer it because I wouldn't offer it now.

Yeah, and Strider, 79% started. He's at the Marlins this week. Obviously, go ahead, get him back in your lineup. Most people already have him in there, but at least one-fifth of CBS players do not have Strider in their lineup. So I would go ahead and change that. Let's talk about his teammate, Grant Holmes,

who took a tough luck long, against the Rockies here on Sunday. Six and a third innings, three runs. Two earned 15 strikeouts, 25 whiffs on 93 pitches. A little one up there on Spencer Strider. 16 of those came on the slider. Six on... Is that a two up?

It was a two up. Two up, yeah. 15. Yeah, fair enough. 16 on the slider. Six on the fastball here. Obviously, slider was awesome. It's just been an inconsistent season here for Grand Holmes.

Strikeouts have been better recently. but between walks, hard contact, home runs, they've all just kind of been issues for him at times throughout the course of the season. He's another one where he's 80% rostered. He's 59% started. I hope many people had him in the lineup for this one, but if you haven't,

on the bench recently, it's a good reason to get him back in against the Marlins. He wasn't supposed to make this start. It was a surprise two-star week with the second start coming against the Rockies. They switched homes and sale. at the last minute. So, so, so, so I, it's likely a lot of people didn't benefit from the start from Holmes,

and that's a shame. I don't think Holmes is a stud or anything. And I don't, I don't think that conversation needs to be had. But there did come a point this season where that slider, he seemed to fix it. And it's, it's over a nine start stretch now. This was his, this 15 strikeout effort was his fourth with at least nine strikeouts. during that nine-start game. I've made a point a few times on this podcast

about how getting four-double-digit strikeout starts in a season is very real. That's like Terrick Scoobal-type stuff. Nine strikeouts is one short of double digits, right? And Grant Holmes has done that four times in his last nine because that slider is so effective. The walks run high, the home runs. He's susceptible to those. but I think if you think of him as sort of

as sort of a Jose Barrios type with a lot more strikeout potential I think that's a fair assessment of Holmes I was going to say Kevin Gosman yeah we've seen the strikeout upside from Gosman and every time it happens we're like oh it's Kevin Gosman back and we've been doing it for a year and a half now I don't think he's back but he's still capable

of those big performances it just comes along with an ERA close to four. That's probably where I think Grant Holmes is. And I'm going to guess because he's only like 79% rostered on CBS. So, I mean, if he's out there in your CBS league, obviously pick him up. But I'm going to guess in Yahoo, he's less than 60% rostered. And that needs to be changed too, obviously. Well, Scott, your guess would be correct.

56% rostered for Grant Holmes on Yahoo. So obviously a prime waiver wire candidate if you play in that format, and he's at the Marlins this week. Again, worth reiterating. Both, oh, look at you. Worth reiterating, both of these awesome starts were against the Rockies in Atlanta. So we understand that. There's a bit of a caveat and asterisk here, but another great start against the Marlins coming up. So at least keep those guys in there for that.

And like Chris said, maybe there is a little bit of a cell window here, or maybe just catapults them into greatness. Let's take our first break before we do that. Just a reminder, if you enjoy the podcast, you can help us out by leaving a five-star rating and review on both Apple and Spotify. You can also drop a team name Tuesday on the Apple review and we'll read it on a future podcast.

And big thanks to those watching us live on YouTube. Make sure to hit the like button and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. Let's take a break and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball Today News and News. notes, Shohei Otani had been ramping up as a pitcher. And then boom, at a nowhere, we find out he's starting Monday against the Padres. His Dodgers pitching debut, keep in mind that this is expected to be used as an opener here. Sounds like he could throw around 50 pitches, but I also heard

Dave Roberts say one to two innings. So I think they're going to play it safe. And I think Ben Kasparius will follow him on this one, unless Kasparius is just going to start on Tuesday. But pretty surprising time we get Otani's Dodgers pitching debut here on Monday. Yeah, I think expectations for fantasy should be in the floor right now. Like this is the first time he's going to face a hitter in a game since September of 2023. He's not going to be asked to throw more than a couple of innings. I would guess it probably won't be more than a few innings at all in any start for

the next couple of weeks. And they basically said that there's. look, they can't take him on a rehab assignment because he's too valuable as a DH to take him out of the lineup. So they have to find live reps for him in some way. And the nice thing for the Dodgers is the last CBA has a carve out for the two-way players, which only applies to him right now, but maybe it'll apply to someone else in the future. And that means that the limit on how many pitchers you can have on your roster does not apply to, to two-way players.

So typically teams can only have 13 pitchers on their roster. They can never have more than that unless there's double-header or it's September. The Dodgers can have Otani available to pitch an inning or two every five days without having to take a pitcher out of their group of 13. So there's really no reason not to. It's a way, it's basically a rehab assignment for him. You don't want to start him for fantasy, especially if you have to pick between, even in the Daily League,

you would rather have four at-bats from Shohei Otani than two innings from him. Maybe once he starts working up to five innings, you might have some tough calls to make about, hey, Daily League, do I start him as a pitcher today? Or do I start him as a DH? But that, I think we're a couple of weeks away from that, at least. It's exciting.

I'm happy to see Shohei Otani back. It probably doesn't matter for fantasy for at least three more weeks, I would guess. So the weird thing about him starting Monday in a seven game week is even if they give him that extra day of rest between starts, he's in line to be a two-star pitcher right away. And I understand they will be starts only in the strictest sense because they'll be more like relief appearances. But, you know, hypothetically, he goes two innings the first time. He goes three innings the second time. He gets nine strikeouts between them.

That doesn't seem far-fetched. I don't know. It's not impossible. It's unlikely. It's unlikely. I would take the under on nine strikeouts. I could just see how, you know, if you're starting a middle reliever and somebody who's not going to give you saves in a Roto League

and you're just starting them for the ratios. And you got a two-star to Tony who's going to give you probably a, probably maybe an inning more, maybe a couple of strikes. out's more. I don't know. I don't think it's totally outside the realm of possibility. I don't think many people are going to be looking to start Otani. Don't get me wrong. But it is it is notable that he happens to line up for two starts right away. Do you guys think this will affect his hitting at all? I had someone tweet me here on Sunday night. I didn't fact check it, but I wouldn't be surprised if this is the case. They tweeted me the

splits whenever Otani has pitched his, you know, hitting production has gone down quite a bit. It's not he's not pitching every day, obviously. But well, I, I think, think part of that is his rookie season was his worst as a hitter or one of his worst as a hitter and 2024 happened to be his best as a hitter it's possible that he would not have had last season's year as a hitter if he was pitching i definitely think he would not have stolen 59 bases we've already seen the stolen base pace slow i don't think that's going to pick up now that he's hitting I think Dave Roberts said as much this offseason that they're going to have him run less when he's pitching.

The one thing I would be concerned about more than anything else is just are we going to start seeing a few more days off? I think that's possible. But it doesn't like what are you going to do? That stopped. That stopped in 2021. No, no, no. I know.

But they talked about it this off season. Yeah, I mean, it's possible. I'm not ruling it out. Like, 2021 is the year at stop, though, under Joe Madden. And that was kind of the year Shohei Otani broke out as a hitter. He hit 46 home runs that year. His previous high before then was 22. So the year they stopped giving him those extra day of rest when he started

was when he took off and became an MVP caliber bat. So, like, they're, they may do it, but there, there's not really much justification for doing it performance-wise. I'll also point out since, you know, there is this idea that, okay, maybe he won't hit as well if he's also pitching. The last year he was pitching, 23, he was healthy through August. That was his career high in OPS, was 2023. His last year with the Angels was actually higher than last season with the Dodgers, actually.

All right. No, I don't think it matters that much. All right, fair enough. Let's move on to Logan Gilbert, who will be activated to start Monday against the Red Sox. Red Sox, which makes him a two-star pitcher. Are you guys okay throwing Logan Gilbert right back in your lineup? Yeah. I'm a little worried, but yeah, I'll start him.

Justin Martinez will undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the rest of this season. AJ Puck was also pulled off his throwing program. So it's Shelby Miller's job for the foreseeable future. If you need Seiz, I think he's still out there in a lot of leagues. right now. I think he's like 40% rostered right now, yeah. Yep. Jackson Merrill went on the seven-day concussion IEL Sunday. He had slowed down quite a bit as well, so maybe this break won't be so bad for Jackson Merrill. Tyler Malley went on the IL with right shoulder soreness. Kumar Rocker was recalled to start in his place on Sunday, and he pitched well against the White

Sox, which is a great matchup, obviously. Five shutout innings with six strikeouts, but he's been very volatile this season. Kumar Rocker, 24% rostered at the point. pirates, it's a good matchup, but he just feels so risky, right? I will point out that one thing we saw from Kumar Rocker in this start was a much more expanded arsenal than we usually see from him. And this was something we got a little bit excited about in one of his spring starts. He started throwing both. They're back to calling it a cutter, a slider, cutter.

I don't know what the distinction between the two pitches is. but he was throwing the cutter and a curveball in this start, which we haven't really seen that much of from Kumar Rocker. He threw basically four pitches 20 to 30% of the time. It wasn't a great start. It was just one start against the White Sox, but it bears watching, I will say. He also drank like three shots of pickle juice during this shot.

Start, did you guys see that at all? To try to avoid getting dehydrated? Yeah, he was dehydrated and they just brought him out. like three shots of pickle juice. He just downed him. Someone on my softball team brought like a pickle juice thing that you're supposed to just like drink. And no,

first of all, not here just like the pickleback is like a big like, people love a pickleback and gross. It's disgusting. It's a good shot. Horrible. Disgusting. I don't like pickles,

but a pickleback shot. It's a good shot. Whiskey is fine. No pickle juice for me. The only use would be like if you're hungover or dehydrated in some other way. Other than that, don't want it, not here for it. Fair enough.

We have yet another prospect promotion. The Nationals are calling up third base prospect Brady House, who is 22 years old, a first round pick back in 2021. This season at AAA in 64 games, he was sitting 301 with 13 homers and 865 OPS, 90.6 average exit velocity, and he was performing much better as of late. Last 19 games hitting 358, 5 homers,

and OPS near 1,000. Scott, any interest in Brady House in deeper leagues? Yeah, in deeper leagues. I think that's fine. I do think he's going to struggle because his plate discipline is pretty bad and always has been his own contact rate at AAA below 80%. It's not very good. Doesn't mean he can't find success in the majors,

but I think it's going to take some time. I think the timing is right to call him up. Jose Tenna was doing nothing for them, and House had bounced back nicely from a disappointing 2020. 24. I just think there's going to be a lot of, a lot of, it's going to be a bumpy ride, bumpy ride getting house to respectability for fantasy. So I'd leave him for deeper leagues. Scott, would you say that Jose was untenable? Yeah. I would say that. I like that. That is a word I use a lot. So I probably should have

thought of that. All right, well, Vest will undergo further evaluation and testing after being removed Sunday with a right pinky finger issue. And if anything happens, Tommy Canley is, presumably there to take over. We had ourselves a trade on Friday morning. Andrew Vaughn was sent to the Brewers in exchange for Aaron Savali. Any interest in either? Vaughn's still in the miners, right?

They didn't add him to the active roster. Not that I've seen. I don't know where they'd play him. So that was, it was less strange that they traded Savali, the Brewers, because he has to be traded going to the bullpen, than what they got back in return, because I don't really see the path for Vaughn

with them with Yelich, getting full-time. him at DH and just has to be a we think we can fix him kind of thing. Yeah. I don't have much faith in it, but that's like it's what the Orioles did with Elohimenez last year. It didn't work out there, but that was the thought process there. Royce Lewis went on the eye.

I wonder if Savali regretted his trade request. I saw I'm like, man, the monkeys, Paul. That is just so mean. You request the trade. They send you to the white socks. My goodness. Royce Lewis went on the I.O. with a left hamstring strain, and I'm

pretty sure you can drop him, right? Even when he's been healthy, he hasn't been good this season. Maybe he turns it on at some point, but this has been going on for quite some time with Royce Lewis, so feels like you drop. I dropped him in TGFBI, I believe. And that is a 15-team rhodo with no aisle spots.

Hunter Green was sent to Arizona for rehab and treatment. He's dealing with a grade one groin strain and was given an epidural for his back. Michael King remains stalled in his throwing progression. He's out with a pinched nerve in his shoulder. Esoc Paredes missed all three games this weekend with a hamstring strain

but was not placed in the IL. Do you guys start or sit Esoc Paredes this week? Oh, I try to sit him. Third base isn't a position with a lot of depth available on the waiver wire. So you may have no choice, but

it you know, this could still lead to an IEL stint just because it hasn't yet. Chris Sale had his star push back from Sunday so that he can line up to face the Mets this week. I believe he's going to start on Wednesday is the last that I saw. Luis Robert was out of the lineup Sunday due to right thumb soreness.

Pretty good excuse to get him out of the lineup. He said he wasn't concerned. He's also been terrible, so I think you could probably bench Luis Robert. Evan Carter missed Saturday with a wrist injury, but then was back in the lineup on Sunday. Max Scher tossed four and a third innings in a rehab start at AAA on Friday.

He allowed two runs with four strikeouts. He got up to 56 pitches, and the plan is for him to make at least one more rehab start. Shane Bieber had his rehab assignment paused after feeling discomfort in his elbow, but apparently received good news on Friday. The discomfort is normal, and there is no structural damage. Shane Bieber, 53% rostered. Scott, who would you rather stash right now, Scherzer or Shane Bieber? Beber.

All right, Colton Couser missed all three games this weekend after a collision with the outfield wall on Thursday. Tyler O'Neill received an injection in his left shoulder and will pause all activity for about a week. Brendan Donovan returned to the lineup Sunday after missing four straight with a strained left big toe. Austin Hayes will be shut down from running for a few days until pain and his foot subsides. John Carlos Stanton is likely to return this upcoming series

against the Angels, which begins on Monday. I saw an in-game interview with Aaron Boone. I think on either Saturday or Sunday where they asked him, how much is Stanton going to play? he's going to play and he kind of said so emphatically so uh chris stanton is 47% rostered what size leagues do you think he needs to be rostered in right now i i don't really think he needs to be much more rostered than this i think i kind of need to see it because given the nature of the injuries injuries to both of his elbows how disruptive it's been so far

i'm not sure he's going to play every day i'm not sure how effective he's going to be when he does play. So if you desperately need just home runs, any sort of league, he could theoretically help you with. He's not likely to help you with anything else, though. RBI and runs occasionally, but those won't, there won't be a lot of those even with the home runs. So I do think maybe I'll be wrong, but I don't have a lot of optimism about it.

I don't think there's a ton of upside here. 47% mostly covers all Roto League. leagues in AL only leagues, which sounds about right. Maybe he could be maybe you could bump it up five percentage points, but, but yeah, I think, I think, I think, I think Stan Nistash basically everywhere he needs to be. Grayson Rodriguez said he will throw off a mound this week and believe, believes he'll be able to return in the second half of the season. He's 62% rostered. Scott, would you take Grayson Rodriguez over the names we just mentioned Bieber and Scherzer?

No, no, he's got a longer road back. Emmett Sheehan is expected to be activated in the upcoming week for the Dodgers, and it sounds like he's expected to start as well. Four starts in the minors, 397 ERA, 0.97 with 21 strikeouts over 11 in a third innings. Probably going to take him some time to get built up here as well. 15% rostered. Did you guys try and add Emmett Sheehan anywhere this weekend? Yeah.

I mean, look, I think the likeliest outcome is he doesn't do much. You know, we've seen more talented pitchers struggle coming back from Tommy John's surgery. expectation should be that Emmett Sheehan struggles a little bit. But his velocity's actually been up on his rehab assignment. He is pretty talented. 22% swinging strike rate in his AAA rehab starts, which I mean, his last minor league season,

it was 19.3, which is also insane. Yeah, he was putting up huge strike on numbers before he got called up. He wasn't very good at the major league level, if I remember correctly. But he's talented. I think 15% is too low.

I'd rather have him roster than Grayson Rodriguez if it's not an IL spot. I think Emmett Sheehan finished strong that rookie season 2023 because I remember he was on everybody's sleeper slash breakout list, which probably meant he wasn't that much of a sleeper really prior to him needing Tommy John surgery. So, yeah, September of, I don't know if he missed a month because of injury, he missed August because of injury. He was sent down. but September, oh, the numbers aren't going to load fast enough for me. But basically he had to combine 19 strikeouts in his final two starts,

10 and 2 thirds innings 19 strikeouts. So Sheehan kind of seemed like he was locketed in there. I don't disagree that, you know, coming back from Tommy John surgery, the fact Sheehan already isn't that established as a fantasy asset, it's probably not going to be that useful in the very beginning. I'm just reiterating that I do think there is a lot of upside here for Emmich Sheehan eventually. Luis Heel is at least 10 days away from facing hitters

and probably won't return until after the All-Star break. Some other names who went on the aisle this weekend, Kyle Freeland due to lower back stiffness, Jacob Melton with a right ankle sprain. And I did just want to mention Jacob Mizzerowski and Fab. How much he went for? I don't know if you guys have that handy, but I looked it up beforehand in my leagues.

225 in Tout Wars. It's a 15-team-Roto, $1,000-Fab budget. 202 in TGFBI that's 15 team Roto $1,000 FAB so between 20 to 22% and then $89 in the NFBC 12 team

league that we play on. So I think that makes sense going for less in a 12 teamer versus 15 teamer but I think it probably should be at least over 100 or over 10% even in a 12 team league. It was 396 in my TGFBI league.

Wow. Geez. I don't know what it was in mine. I was busy writing about Rafael Devers. Fair enough. Let's get into some waiver wire hitters from the weekend and a nice weekend for Augustine Ramirez, three for five with two homers on Friday, another two-hit game on Sunday. Batting average has been creeping down a little bit. He's still at 242. He's got 10 home runs, 759 OPS, 65% rostered. We've talked about Augustine Ramirez a lot, but I wanted to

obviously give him some light here, shine some light on his weekend. Does that number need to be higher, 65%. Yeah, but I've been saying that every day since he got called up. And it's also like, like Alejandro Kirk's hitting 377, I think since the start of May.

And he's like 40% roster. Like it's just a weird time at the catcher position. So like, I think Ramirez is fringy in a one catcher league. He plays every day and I think the skill set is super strong, but the production has not been as strong as I think it should be. He doesn't expect the batting average is 10-275

X-slug 496 so I think he'll be very good 16% strikeout rate. That's really good. It's just that there's a lot of catchers. So if you wanted to just play the hot hand with Alejandro Kirk right now, I can't say that's the wrong move in a points league, you know?

Yeah, and I do have Kirk actually as a sleeper hitter for this upcoming week and I don't have Ramirez. He was a sleeper hitter for this past week. I just I do have Ramirez in my top 10, so even in shallow one catcher leagues, I think he's, I think he should be rostered. But, but yeah, I can understand when you are in a small one catcher league like that, it's pretty dispensable, whatever catcher you have. Even if I technically have them in the 10th, if you swap them out for my 13th for one week, you could probably get them right back.

So I get that. But Ramirez is in my 10. Three middle infielders who have picked things up lately. Trevor Story in June is hitting 314 with two homers, 13 RBI, two steals, and an 862 OPS. J.P. Crawford, last 15 games hitting 439. Two homers, two steals, 1168 OPS, and Willie Castro last 16 games hitting 421. Five homers, 12 runs, 10 RBI, and OPS over 1,200. I mean, Willie Castro, I mean, all three have been, but man, especially Willie Castro is on fire right now.

How would you guys rank those three just in terms of, I don't know, it's hard to answer like rest of season, but I don't know. If you're just playing the hot hand approach right now, who would you take of those three? It's probably the order you have them in story. Crawford, Castro for me. Probably in a points league,

it would be Castro over story. Castro's, Crawford's one of those players that's tough because he's so much better in a points league than a roto league. But he's a middle infielder for fantasy. like it's just it's really hard for his profile to to really matter in a points league if you're only starting short stops because he's just not a difference maker even when things are going well um but like my tout wars team my tout wars league is a head-to head league with rhodos style lineups perfect jp crawford useful player there he's just kind of stuck in the middle in every other format yeah and i like playing in points league like

that where it's a deeper roster setting. My home league, we use roto-style lineups, but it's a head-dead points league. Same thing with Tout Wars, which I played in for many years as well. I like it. I like going a little bit deeper into the player pool, especially in a points league. So you're right. J.P. Crawford does kind of stand out in a format like that.

Do any of these names stand out? Big weekend for Dane Myers, who had multiple hits in all three games. He homered on Sunday. He has started 12 straight, and he's hitting 333 for the Marlins this season. A big weekend for Luis Rehn Hefo, who has had a rough season overall.

Two for three with a steal on Friday, then two home runs on Saturday. And Brooks Lee has homered in back-to-back games. He's hitting much better in June. 3.78 batting average, three homers, one steel, and OPS over 1,000. Any of these names stand out to you guys?

Dane Myers, Luis Rehnhifo, Brooksley. Well, I mean, Brooks Lee is the highest stature of them as a recent high draft pick and top prospect. But I'm still pretty underwhelmed by all the metrics there. Even one of his home runs this weekend,

the one Brooks Lee hit on Saturday, it was hit 96.5 miles per hour and 345 feet. So was it really a home run? Yes, it was really a home run. But it's not the sort of home run that makes you want to predict more home runs, right? And so I don't think outside of deeper leagues you need to look into Brooks Lee too hard

or any of these others, for that matter. Dane Myers just I'm going to give him like a little distinction here just because he's like the least notable like the name people know the least he's the least noteworthy of these players

but he has been surprisingly productive at times his peak exit velocities are pretty low sort of like Brooks Lees are but the average exit velocity has been pretty good so far there's some NL only interest there that is less obvious in Dane Myers case than these other players while they're in the AL,

but you get what I'm saying. Dane Myers is like weirdly kind of good maybe. I can't figure it out, but he's, he's, he has 316 plate appearances at the major league level. He's got a 782 OPS. He has eight homers, 13 steals. You just like, you can't just extrapolate it and say give him 600 plate appearances, but like 16 homer, 25 stolen base pace. It's pretty good with like the underlying numbers to back it up.

I don't quite get it. But I don't know. He's been productive whenever he's been in the lineup for the last two seasons now. He's just got to avoid. I want to say he kicked the dugout step and broke his foot last year. So let's just avoid that one. And one more name in the deepest of leagues. Auto Kemp for the Phillies had a big game on Sunday,

four for five with three runs, two RBI, and a steal in eight games since getting called up. He's hitting 3.45. Haven't seen much outside of that so far. 9% rostered, getting a chance to play every day while Bryce Harper is out. So I think there's talent here.

He hasn't shown enough of it yet for me to move on Auto Kemp in fantasy, but I do think there's talent here. All right, let's take our final break. When we return, we'll talk some WaverWire pictures right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today, taking a look at Waverwire pitchers from the weekend. The first group includes Noah Cameron, who pitched well against the athletics.

Five shutout innings with seven strikeouts, and he has six plus strikeouts in back-to-back outings here. So nice to see some strikeouts coming for Noah Cameron. Kate Horton pitched well against the pirates, five-and-two-thirds shutout with four strikeouts, has just quietly been solid for the Cubs since being called up. Clayton Curshaw had his best start of the season against the Giants. shutout innings with five strikeouts there. And Charlie Morton continues to pitch well since rejoining the rotation

this time against the Angels. Five shutout, 10 strikeouts, 16 whiffs. And last four starts, a 270 ERA, 145 whip, not great. That's the problem. That's exactly what I was going to point out. 27 strikeouts over 20 innings. He's giving you strikeouts.

And it's 10 of the walks plus hits came in one two-inning start, I think. So it's a little skewed, but that's also That is a Charlie Morton experience for like three years in a row now. Right, exactly. Like everything's great except that whip. And it's kind of a deal breaker in Roto leagues. It's so high.

You're exactly right. As last couple years in Atlanta were like that. So I am mostly unmoved there. I am not that motivated to pick up Clayton Kirschall. Yeah, I agree. Even though those last two starts have been solid. and he finally went beyond six, actually went seven in the most recent one. But only 181 pitches.

Yeah, and not missing bats enough for me to think he's like back. I mean, he's Clayton Kirshall and he could figure it out. I just, every league where he was available to be picked up, I found someone else I was more interested in the Clayton Kirshall. He has not generated a swing and miss on his four seamer yet this season. Yeah. I think he'll be fine. I just think he's just a guy at this point.

And being that at this point in his career after all the injuries over the past few years, that's remarkable in and of itself. It's just I don't think it's likely to matter much for fantasy. I think he's useful, but I don't think you're likely to miss not having Clayton Karsha on your team here. Are we any closer to believing in Noah Cameron

because we've all been pretty, skeptical and he continues to get the job done. And not only does he continue to get the job done, but our biggest objection to him that he has no way of missing bats is seeming less valid with each passing starts. He's now recorded double-digit swinging strikes. He had 13 in this one Sunday, and he's now recorded double-digit swinging strikes

in four of his last five starts. He seems to be experienced. banding his arsenal, he threw five different pitches at least 15% of the time here. It's starting to look, the profile is starting to look a little more viable to me. And when the results have been there all along, I don't know. I think there might be something to it. I don't think he's as good as his ERA, because his ERA is what now? $191.

Yeah, I don't think he's that. I don't think he's within a run of that even. But can, it is no, does know what camera deserve to be rostered everywhere at this point. And it's pretty close. Maybe not the 10 teamers, but otherwise, yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I'd still take more like a 4ERA the rest of the way. And again, that can be useful.

But I still don't see, like, if we're comparing him to this group, I can see the argument for him being the most interesting. of this group. It's just kind of a dead period for outside of Ms. Yarowski, it's kind of, you know, Bayo we talked about earlier. I think I would actually take Noah Cameron over Bayo personally. I would do.

I think I'd give Bayo the chance here, but I think it mostly just comes down to this is not a particularly exciting group of pitchers that are available widely right now. And I think neither of those is likely to matter too much. So if you want to prioritize, Cameron over Bayo, I think it's probably a coin flip. All right, this next group, I don't think that they're very good, but they had good starts

this weekend, and I think they're mostly matchup plays, so I'll mention the matchups that they have this week. Severino is home against the Astros. Brady Singer is at the Cardinals, Jeffrey Springs, home against the Guardians, Quinn Priester at the Twins, and Colin Ray is home against the Mariners. So all five of those pitched well this weekend. Do you like any of them in those specific matchups? There are actually several pitchers that I think are more interesting that we haven't talked about yet from this weekend than any of these guys. So I think that tells me all these guys are probably over-rastered.

I don't hate Springs. I think Springs has had a couple of really ugly starts. But for the most part, has been pretty solid. I had him as one of the my sleeper pitchers for this week. and he came through. So that was good. He's my favorite at least of this group. And the one,

as Jeffrey Springs were talking about, the one of this group that I don't think is necessarily just a streamer. Though he's not particularly high end either. All right, some names in deeper leagues. Brandon Walter turned in a strong start. He pitches for the Astros. And six and two-thirds innings,

one run, nine strikeouts. He had 17 whiffs on 97 pitches. a lefty who can get some whiffs. He limits walks. He gets ground balls. I think there's a little bit of interest there. Hunter Dobbins pitched well against the Yankees, six shutout innings with five strikeouts.

Colton Gordon, also of the Astros, makes it two strong starts in a row. Six innings, two runs, five strikeouts. Mike Burroughs, generating whiffs here for the pirates. He was at the Cubs. Five and a third innings, one run, eight strikeouts with 16 whiffs.

And Jacob Lopez of the Athletics, a great start at the Royals, six shotout innings with nine strikeouts. breakouts, 15 whiffs on 98 pitches. Deep league names here, but Chris, maybe some of these were the ones you were referring to. At least some of them did a great job generating whiffs this weekend. Yeah, Brandon Walters, Brandon Walter looks kind of interesting. Singular Walter, just one Walter.

Just the one Walter. But limiting hard contact, getting a lot of ground balls, ground ball rates 52% elite command and like enough strikeouts. think it's a kind of interesting profile. I don't think Brandon Walter's a difference maker, but if you told me both him and Noah Cameron were in the rotation the rest of the season and there wasn't much of a difference between them, I wouldn't really be surprised.

I think they're fairly similar talents. So Brandon Walter actually in a AAA this year, 11 appearances seven starts, he had a 2080RA. 0.76 whip, 9.3K per 9.1.3 walks per 9, as you'd expect, great control for having a 0.760. whip. Big ground ball guy and always has been, but achieved it more through a sinker in his younger years. He's 28 years old, so he's kind of career minor leagueer type, Brandon Walter. Achieved it with

the sinker the more conventional way in his younger years. He's gotten away from that sinker in more recent years and his strikeouts have gone up because of it and he's still getting a ton of ground balls. So elite ground ball skills, elite control. And we've seen him, Ms. Bats, a couple of starts in a row now. I don't know if Brandon Walter sticks around as more than a sixth starter. I think he's probably earned it over Colton Gordon, even though Colton Gordon is on this list also.

Walter looks more interesting to me. But I think he's somebody to keep an eye on, absolutely. I'll also say, I think Mike Burroughs is actually the most interesting of this group because he's a legitimate prospect. Not a top 100 guy, but wasn't far off in a lot of cases. And he was doing some really good stuff at AAA. before getting promoted.

It was a 31. 31.5% strikeout rate, 2.51 ERA. I think he just got kind of overlooked when he got called up because he wasn't Bubba Chandler. And so, the pirates are promoting a pitching prospect

and everyone's like, yay! And then it wasn't Bubba Chandler and everyone was like, boo! And I think people just kind of didn't give Mike Burroughs a second look, but I think there's some interesting stuff here. I mean,

he didn't exactly hit the ground running either. No, but the last two starts, I think, have been pretty good. And I think he had 10 whiffs on 14 swings on the changeup. Yeah, the changeup has a 18 pitches. That is wild. It has over a 50% whiff rate, all the starts for Burroughs. Not every single start, but just, you know, season long, 50 over 50% whiff rate on that changeup. So I think he might actually be pretty good. Do you like Burroughs more than Brandon Walter? We just. just spoke about? He seemed to imply that he did.

I think so, yeah. And the one thing I'm trying to figure out is who has the better team context. And it's Houston, but I also, it's not like a huge difference. And I think Burroughs rotation spot is clear. All right. I want to bring up one more from this list. And I know we're getting, it's getting late here. but Jacob Lopez of the athletics,

I actually picked him up in a 15-team Roto League because that's how thin starting pitching had gotten in that deeper format. So Kansas City over the weekend, six shutout innings, three hits, one walk, nine strikeouts, 15 swinging strikes on 98 pitches for Jacob Lopez. And this is a couple starts now where he has looked really good.

Two of his last three, where he's gone seven innings or more and gotten eight strikeouts or more. The other one was against the Phillies. He allowed just three hits, one run while picking up eight strikeouts, 15 whiffs in that one also. Jacob Lopez has always been a good strikeout guy in the minors.

He's another one of the sort of like Walter, not like a big prospect guy, but you look at the minor league numbers and it's like, wow, this guy seems to know what he's doing. at AAA this year, Jacob Lopez had a 233 ERA, a 0.89 whip, 12.7K per 9, had a 15% swinging strike rate. All of those very good. His fastball has a very low vertical approach angle, which is I understand it. You want it either very high or very low.

Normally we're talking about the very high guys, but Lopez is the other end of the spectrum. and yeah he gets a lot of whiffs on the slider too so he got shelled once earlier this year and maybe he's maybe that's going to happen more and more as as Lopez makes his way around the league but looks like the guy's capable of missing some bats at least so another one to keep an eye on there Jacob Lopez a quick dropometer here I mean Bryce elder elder played out exactly the way we thought it would. 100. Okay.

Yeah, he was the one who didn't get 13 or more strikeouts against the Rockies. Coming off his best start of the season and just puts up a clunker against the Rockies. What about Griffin Canning, who the regression has commenced. Last five starts, 675, ERA 165 whips, 16 walks to 17 strikeouts

for Canning. I still 84% rostered. I'd say like an 80. and I'd also throw Trevor McGill in that same boat. He's got an ERA close to six since the start of May, and he's still like 70% rostered in CBS leagues. Would you drop both of those? Tyler Miguel, excuse me.

Yeah, yeah, do not drop Trevor McGill. Do not drop Trevor McGill. Yeah. Tyler Miguel, I think I said the wrong one. Would you drop Canning and McGill for Bayo, no Cameron? Yeah, I'm fine with that. Okay.

Starters sit these starting pitchers in their name, that I ask about, I think, every week. Jack Allen, back at it with the walks. This time against the Padreys, six and a third. Four runs, four walks, six strikeouts, only through 58% of his pitches for strikes. He allowed 10 more hard hits. It's a lot of the same.

It's three or more walks and 9 of 15 starts. Four plus earned runs in 9 of 15 starts. Do you guys use him at the Rockies this week? Zach Allen? No, probably not. As for whether he's dropable, Is that what we're getting at here? It was a starter sit.

I wouldn't drop Gallen, but maybe you're more likely to do it. I don't know. No, like, okay, I want to drop him for Jacob Lopez, obviously, if that's the kind of thing you're looking at. If he was, if it was a shallow league, Zach Gallen was clearly my low guy on the totem pole here, and that was my chance to get Jacob Misarowski.

Would I do that? I'd probably do that. I think I might do that. Yeah, I think so too. But in a shallower league. I get it, yeah. I can't, look, I can't make an affirmative case for Gallon at this point. It's been a full calendar year of him being deeply uninspiring.

So if you want to drop him, I think that's fine. Hey there. Shane Boz actually had a good start here on Sunday, six and two-thirds. Shoutout innings, three hits, four walks, six strikeouts against the Mets, tough matchup, had 15 whiffs on 106 pitches. And if Stackcast is correct, he threw a new cutter all of a sudden, 18% of the time, a pitch he has never used before. So providing a bit of a different look here for Shane Boz, he is 82% rostered, 53% started.

Would you use him this week against the Tigers? No. I mean, even this start wasn't that good. It was good for Shane Boz's standards, but he walked four, right? So I'm not going to unleash him against a quality lineup like the Tigers. But it's interesting. It gives me a little kernel of hope here, shred of hope. What little thing is hope?

It's not a kernel or a shreds. It's a kernel of doubt. It's a shred of a thrill of hope, like the Christmas song. A chip, like a chocolate chip of hope. Sounds delicious. Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying to figure out this Shane Boz cutter how different it is from his slider because the velocity's up a little bit relative to the slider.

So yeah, I don't know. I can't say I'm particularly moved by what we saw there now. And Yuri Perez was better in his second outing, but no whiffs here at the Nationals. And by no whiffs, I mean no strikeouts. He did have four swinging strikes, but obviously still not a great number here for Yuri Perez. It's still working his way back. It's going to take some time to build up. He's 87% rostered, as he should be, 51% started.

I think I'd play it safe. Just not start Yuri Perez in the meantime. He faces the Braves this week. Look what's happened with, well, Spencer Strider, and Yuri Perez's own teammate, Sandy Alcantra. How many starts it's taken them to look like themselves again. But they both, you know, it's just a two-start sample for Alcantra on a one-star sample for Strider,

but suddenly they are looking like themselves again. So I think you owe Yuri Perez the same patience. It's just a shame he came back for a two-star week. Yeah, I think the thing with any of these guys can be back from Tommy John's surgery is I'm pretty confident Yuri Perez is going to be an ace. I just don't know if it's going to happen in 2025. I feel pretty confident it'll be in 2026,

and I hope it'll come before that. And I hope Strider and Alcantra are turning the corner. And we're starting to see them figuring it out. And maybe it takes until the middle of July for Yuri Perez to start figuring it out. You know, the strider, it's been about a month that it took him. Maybe it'll be the same for Perez. But I think the big thing there is the stuff still looks good. Like the velocity, the movement, it's all there.

It was a little down. But I think one thing we need to keep an eye on, keep in mind, when guys are coming back from Tommy John's surgery, especially. That first start, the velocity tends to be a little higher. And then we see maybe a half mile per hour to a full mile per hour drop after. There's just a little more adrenaline in that first start. So that I'm not concerned that Uri Perez's velocity was down a little bit in this one. All right, let's wrap up with some leftovers.

And let's go into pitching. Part one, Ranger Suarez continues to pitch well this time against the Blue J. seven shutout innings with six strikeouts for him. He allowed seven earned runs in his first start on May 4th. He has turned in seven straight quality starts since. Garrett Crochet finished one out short of a shutout against the Yankees. Eight in a third. Excuse me, that would be two out short of a shutout.

Eight in a third, one run, seven strikeouts here. Logan Webb, a strong start at the Dodgers. Seven innings, two runs, four strikeouts for him. And Matthew Boyd continues to pitch well this time against the pirates. Six innings, one run, three strikeouts. over his last four starts a 142 ERA and a point 83 whip anything to add on Matthew Boyd Logan Webb Gary Crochet and Ranger Suarez see if you can sell Matthew Boyd I I think he's useful but I don't think he's the difference

maker he's looked like this season and especially these past four stars 142 ERA strikeouts have not been there lately he's really not missing a ton of bats over Overall, the quality of contact that he allows is not elite. I think he's a high 3-ZRA guy. And I think that can be useful with a very good team backing him up. But I think Matthew Boyd is much closer to the middle of the packet starting pitcher than what he's been so far. That's fair. I agree.

I wasn't necessarily thinking in those lines because he's been around for so long. I just, I don't think of Matthew Boyd as having much trade value. but if he does, go for it. Next group includes Christopher Sanchez, who turned in a strong start against the Blue J. Seven innings, two runs, five strikeouts. That is back-to-back seven-inning quality starts for him. Jacob de Grom, up against the White Sox,

six innings, two runs, six strikeouts. Joe Ryan, a great start at the Astros, seven innings, two runs with seven strikeouts. And opposing him, you would call that, I think you would call that a pitcher's duel between those two. It's time to do to do. Hunter Brown was masterful.

Seven innings, two runs, 12 strikeouts, which was a career high for him. Anything on Hunter Brown, Joe Ryan, Jacob de Grom, and Christopher Sanchez. Well, I will point out that Christopher Sanchez, the control is trending up again. Thank goodness. It was a struggle there for a while, but his previous start, 67% strike rate, and this start 69% strike. nobody. So hopefully he's over that that stretch where the control

was pretty shaky and he can keep throwing strikes while sustaining the velocity he's shown this year. I will also point out Jacob de Grom one of our concerns, not the biggest concern, but one of the concerns was that

he might be limited in how deep he goes into starts. This is now five of six, he's gone six innings or more. So I think that concern we can sweep under under the rug now. I will point out just in years past, he probably goes seven in this one. It was only 82 pitches in the six innings. I think that's happened a couple times for him.

So yes and no. You know, like he can still definitely go six innings and be super efficient. It's just there's a little shorter ceiling. on how good Jacob de Grom can be, but it doesn't really impact his fans. Yeah. Because he's not even getting a strikeout per inning this year. That sounds right.

Although I think his whip is so good that it's kind of skewing things. His strikeout rate, I think, is still like 26% overall. It's still very good. Yeah. But yeah, it's not. But not the 13 per nine that we used to see from DeGron. He's not the best pitcher in the world anymore. Yeah.

And the last group includes Zach Wheeler, who just keeps chugging, along here six innings two runs nine strikeouts zero walks max freed a tough luck loss at the red socks seven innings two runs nine strikeouts and nick pavetta a nice bounce back start at the dbacks seven innings two runs nine strikeouts for him uh anything that stood out on pavetta freed and zach wheeler uh wheeler it doesn't really matter but he he said he's retiring at the end of his current contract 2027 so something to know for you dynasty league types although i don't know if you should think about a 34-year-old pitcher as having more value than the next two seasons anyway.

Really? That's, yeah. Yeah, I didn't see that. He's retiring at the end of his current contract, yeah. Which so. Doesn't matter that he said it doesn't matter how I'm pitching. I'm retiring at the end of my current contract. So two years after this one.

Yep. So he's going to be 37, which I guess is fine, but he's still so good. Yeah. I don't know if he's still going to be good two years from now. But, I mean, he showed no signs of slowing down. If he stayed good as long as, like, Verlander stayed good, he might have a Hall of Fame case. Yeah.

But he's not going to if he retires two years from now. That was just something I noticed. And then, um, interesting with Povetta, the dot, the diamondbacks had a very lefty, heavy lineup. And he just went forcing curve sweeper and was awesome, which is surprising. Because you wouldn't think any of those pitches would necessarily. be great against the platoon and really it was all the four seamer he had 11 whiffs with the four seamer in this start um i didn't notice anything like velocity movement location and he was

just pitching really well but that was a surprising one and i think with pavetta his career has been so bad and so marked by fooling us that any any bump in the road i'm going to be worried as a mountain. The last two starts had been pretty mediocre. And so it was very good to see him in a tough circumstance come out with a very, very good start. Fair enough. Let's move on to some hitting

leftovers here. And we had Ellie Delaire Cruz who is on fire. He has homered in four straight. During that stretch, he has nine hits, four homers, eight runs, seven RBI. Glaber Torres continues his strong season. He had two runs on Friday. He added three more hits on Sunday. Ronald de Cunia stole a base. Let's go.

Also hit another home run on Saturday, and he has been awesome. I'll note that after the game, Brian Snitker downplayed that stolen base because he said he wasn't actually looking to steal. He was just going on a three-two count. So how do you get a steal on a three-two count? I don't know.

Maybe the batter struck out. Oh, okay. That would be the one way. Yeah. Yeah, I guess so. I don't know. I don't know. exactly, but that's the way I can think of.

Yeah, his sprint speeds down a little bit, but it's not in a major way. Like, Okunia's actually weirdly not been as fast as you would think. He just is an incredible base dealer anyway. Yeah. But I don't think I care with how good he's been hitting the ball. No, you don't. I mean, he's still, you care because you were expecting a bunch of steals from him.

Yeah. There was some commentary around the stolen base. since I happen to watch a lot of this weekend series with my kids about how, you know, it is, there is a degree of intentionality to him not stealing. Now, is it going, is he just done as a base stealer? I'm still pretty skeptical of that, but it is something to concern yourself.

It doesn't mean a cuneas and a stud, obviously, but you miss the steals. When he was talking about it before the season, he was still talking about it like, oh, if I steal 25 to 30 bases instead of 70, I can stay healthy and still impact the game. And so, yeah, I think we'll see more steals as the season goes on. Corby and Carroll hit his 20th home run on Friday. It took him 68 games to get there.

Last year, it took him 148 to get to 20 home runs. So where this season will end, I have no idea. Are we about to get a 40 homer season out of Corby and Carroll? Well, he's currently on pace for more than that. Three multi-hit games in a row for Fernando Tatis, capped off on Sunday going four-for-five with three runs and his 15th steal, and he had been scuffling previous 25 games from May 14th to June 11th hit 167 with a 526 Ops. So nice to see Tatis getting back on track.

Shohei Otani blasted two more home runs on Saturday. He is now up to 25 on the season and averaging more than a run scored per game, which is just crazy. Jordan Westberg is hitting well since coming off the IL in five games. He's gone six for 19 with three home runs. Only 66% started, so get Jordan Westberg back in your lineups. A. E. Ujani O'Swarez continues to hit for power. He's homered in back-to-back games and has five homers in his past eight.

He's up to 21 homers and 57 RBI on the season. And a fun moment this weekend when the Contreras brothers, the contrari, William and Wilson, they both homered in the ninth inning of the same game on Saturday, which pretty cool. Yeah, one. Love that. That is a great question.

I think they both did. Yeah, there you go. Let's see. It was the Cardinals won that game, 8 to 5. Would have been cool if they had to hit them on Sunday, you know, on Father's Day. Yeah. For sure. Call to the bullpen here.

Some updates for the Marlins. On Friday, Calvin Fosha picked up his sixth save. And then on Saturday, he picked up his seventh. And I know we've been, like, duped by Marlins. believers before, but it kind of feels like Calvin Foshae is the guy. He's, he's gotten each of the Marlins' last five saves. Yeah.

So, and he's gotten him pretty quickly. I'm afraid, I'm afraid to throw even a single fab dollar at him. But in this instance, his is to know goes on the aisle. And it was bad. I mean, he had kind of fallen out of favor anyway. So I think, I think that helps.

I just, I think the Marlins' most talented reliever is, and I'm blanking on his name. Is it Ronnie Enriquez? Yeah, him. And he got that one save and we're like, oh, maybe, you know, maybe this is what they were waiting for all along for somebody to break through like this. But then he hasn't, he hasn't sniffed the ninth inning sense.

And it's been pretty much all foshe. But of course, that's what's been going on with the Marlins bullpen all season. So you halfway expect Clayton. McCullough to pull the rug out from under us with Fochay too. For the Braves on Friday, Ryssel Iglesias pitched the eighth inning with a three-run lead. He picked up the hold and then the Braves tacked on five more runs. Dylan Lee pitched a ninth.

And my guess is he would have pitched a ninth regardless. Yeah, which would have got him. The next day, the next day Lee pitched the ninth with a four-run lead, gave up one run. Yeah, it appears Dylan Lee, the left-hander is the closer at this specific moment.

but I do think as long as Ricell Iglesias keeps throwing shutout innings, he will regain it in short order. For the Rangers, on Friday, Robert Garcia got the ninth inning with a two-run lead. He allowed three base runners, but escaped with his fifth save. Then on Saturday, Luke Jackson started the ninth inning

with a one-run lead. He recorded two outs. He allowed a hit. Robert Garcia came in, allowed a game-tying double, took his third blown save. The Rangers would win an extras. And then on Sunday,

Luke Jackson picked up a save in a one-run game. Do you guys have any idea? what's going on with the Rangers bullpen. I think none of these guys are all that good. That's my biggest. Chris Martin is. Yeah, well, they have no, they just don't have any interest in it. They just don't want to use Chris Martin as their closer.

I don't know. Like, is there something like you can't pitch on back-to-back days or like, I don't know what it is, but they just have shown, we're maybe halfway through the season almost. And they've shown zero interest. Maybe Craig Kimball. Maybe Craig Kimball is going to. end up being the Rangers closer. If he got a save opportunity

before Chris Martin, I wouldn't be shocked. Let's see. Chris Martin has pitched on back-to-back days at least four times a season. And one time he did back-to-back-to-back. All right. Doesn't seem like it's that then.

Yep, I don't know. For the Cubs on Saturday, Ryan Presley pitched in the seventh inning with a one-run lead facing two, three, and four in the Pirates lineup, I want to say. He allowed three hits but picked up the hold. Daniel Palencia got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He struck out two for his sixth save.

So I still think it's Palencia. He pitched in the highest leverage spot on Thursday night when Presley got the save. I'm still leaning Palencia, but. Yeah. And we've seen the Reds do this a little bit recently. Just Sunday, for instance. Amelia Pagan worked the eighth and Tony Sinti in the ninth. I think that was the second.

time in a week that happened. But not for a safe. Santian didn't get a save. It was, he would have, I think it was a four run lead when Pagan came, or was it a, I don't know,

I think it was a safe situation when Paghan came in in the eighth, and it became not a safe situation when Santian came in the night. But the point is, yeah, the Reds are doing some of that too now, which is annoying.

Yeah, it was a two-run game when, uh, Melio Paghan came in in the eighth, and then they tacked on two more runs. and Tony Santian pitched the ninth with a four-run lead. For the Phillies on Saturday, Jordan Romano has been struggling lately.

He was passed up for the save. Matt Strom got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He struck out one for his third save. This is another kind of, I guess, in-flux bullpen, but with Romano struggling, you guys looking at-at-Met-Tram? Yeah, Strom makes sense in those like 15-team. Roto leagues, Leagues,

Leagues where saves are scarce is what I usually. Lee say. I think Strom is in the discussion at least. Behind like Foshae, but in the discussion. I was going to ask, how do you rank Foshae, Dylan Lee, and Matt Strom? I think you just did? Or would I put Lee ahead of Foshae? I don't think so. Foshae, Lee's Drum. For the Padres on Saturday, Robert Suarez got the ninth inning with a four-run lead. He only recorded one out and was charged with five runs on five hits, took his second loss. Even after that,

he still has a 323 ERA and a 0.88 whip. It was that dreaded non-save situation there for Robert Suarez. And then for the Red Sox on Saturday with Chapman unavailable. Greg Weissert got the ninth inning with a two-run lead.

He recorded his second save. And then Chapman was, I guess, still unavailable on Sunday. Garrett Whitlock recorded the final five outs for his first save of the season. To stream or not to stream on Monday, we have Jose Soriano, at the Yankees.

Mick Abel is at the Marlins. Jake Irvin is home against the Rockies. That game is in Washington. Lucas Chelito at the Mariners. Look, the Rockies opposing starting pitchers get quality starts like 67% of the time against them. As we saw this weekend. Except for Bryce Elder.

Well, that's Spencer Strider did it. Grant Holmes did it. 67%. There you go. It's not a guarantee that they're good. I think Jake Irvin's totally fine to stream against the Rockies. Rockies, though. I think McAbel is totally fine to stream at the Marlins. I don't think I can get there with Gialito or Soriano.

Yeah. Okay. Soriano is my, of these four pitchers who are all two-star pitchers, Soriano's my highest ranked for the two starts. I think he's presently the best of them. But the second start is against Houston, which is much better matchup than against the Yankees. And then on Tuesday, have Will Warren against the Angels,

Bailey Falter at the Tigers. Mike Soroka gets the Rockies in Washington. David Festa is at the Reds. Dean Kramer and Zach Lattel face each other. Shane Smith up against the Cardinals. Ben Brown against the Brewers, Slate Cicone at the Giants. Some.

I go Shane Smith. Shane Smith, then Will Warren, and Mike Soroka. I think I agree with those. Yeah, that sounds good. Don't mind Zach Lattel against the Orioles. either. All right, we're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to Fantasy Baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a

five-star rating on Apple or Spotify and we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Paramount Podcasts.