Fantasy Baseball Today - Jacob Wilson Hype & Did You Notice!? (5/14 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 14, 2025

Jacob Wilson just launched two homers against the Dodgers (2:22)! ... Javier Baez might be back (7:24)! ... What's up with Jeff Hoffman (10:10)? ... Shane Baz ... FOOLED YOU (12:28). ... Kris Bubic vs. Framber Valdez was great (19:17). ... News (24:33): Roki Sasaki is going on the IL. ... Josh Jung is coming around (38:48). ... How do we rank Abbott, Leiter, Soriano and Springs (45:18)? ... Did you notice Kristian Campbell is slowing down, Robbie Ray has turned things around and more (47:09)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:05:59). 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. Is Javier Baez back? I really hope so.

Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, May 14th. I am Frank Stanfield, joined by Chris Towers. Today on the show, we have a bunch of Dodgers news to get to. We had a pitcher's duel out in Houston, a did you notice segment, and much more. Let's jump in. Can you believe it? Wow. Chris, what's up, man?

Oh, my goodness gracious, player of the night. It got to be Jacob Wilson, who hit his fourth and fifth home runs of the season tonight against the Dodgers. Jacob Wilson hit two home runs in a game. I didn't know he was allowed to do that. In addition to going four for five with two runs scored, he had four RBI. Jacob Wilson is now hitting 363 with a 902 OPS for the season. It's the best case scenario for Jacob Wilson, right?

Like he's looking like the Luis Soraya's clone that we hoped he would be. And with maybe more. lunch, honestly. I think a little more. Yeah, I don't, I don't think Jacob, but like, he is currently on,

what, a 20 homer pace? I'll take the under. Yeah. I might take the under on half of that, but 3.20 with 10 homers hitting lead off

in a decent lineup in a good home park might steal, I don't know, five to eight bases. It's a pretty valuable player. Especially for someone who was dirt cheap in drafts and,

and had a lot of skepticism coming in. He's done everything you could want Jacob Wilson to do. And I think the biggest thing for me is my biggest point of skepticism with this specific type of player, the 70 grade hit tool, 20 grade power or 30 grade power, whatever you want to put it at, is you can make that work against minor league pitchers who generally don't have the ability. to throw with command and good stuff. But these types tend to get exposed at the major league level.

There are a few exceptions, Stephen Kwan and Luis Ryes being the most obvious, but this type of prospect tends to flame out when they hit the majors. And I think a big part of it is because if pitchers know they don't have to be scared of the hitter, they just go right after them. You know, like if you're not going to punish me for throwing in the strike zone, a ton. I'm just going to do it and I'm not going to risk walking you. Well, that's what pitchers are doing to Jacob Wilson right now. He's got a 54% zone rate. It was 50% is the major league average or 48% of the major league average, excuse me.

And he's making pitchers pay for it right now. I do have some concerns about what happens if pitchers just start throwing junk out of the zone because he is a very aggressive hitter. but he's got a I mean top of the scale hit tool with non-zero power really good back control and he's hitting lead off

in a pretty good lineup so I think Jacob Wilson it's it's gonna be really hard to get him into the top even close to the top 12 at shortstop it's just that's a really high bar you're basically talking like

pretty close to a top 100 pick, and I don't think Jacob Wilson is that. I mean, let's just think about Louisa Rise, who has done this for much longer than Jacob Wilson. He hit, what, 350 one year? His ADP was what, 175? Yeah, something like that.

Coming into the season, so I don't want to say that's the best case scenario for Wilson. Because again, I do think maybe there's a little bit more punch here, like, Arise's career high is 10 home runs. Can Wilson exceed that here in his rookie season? Maybe. Maybe You can get, you know, 12, something like 12 home runs, eight steals and, you know,

3, 10, 315 batting average for Jacob. A right now is 317, by the way. Yeah. It's, when you look at the rankings, it's like, okay, yeah, I would take Jacob Wilson over Zander Bogart's. That feels pretty easy because Zander Bogartz just kind of feels like a jack of all trades, but he's not actually that good at any of them. He's gone from like a B across the board to,

a C plus or something. Yeah, I think that's the right way to put it. But then you compare and like, well, Jackson Holiday's shown some interesting skills lately, especially and Jeremy Payne is having a really good season. And yeah, I would still take, I would still take both those over him. And maybe I'm wrong about that. And then like, as Xavier Edwards. I know people are really frustrated with Xavier Edwards. I still think I would take him over Jacob Wilson. In a Roto League, I would. But in a points league, that might be the, Wilson might just be better than Edwards rest of season. Yeah. No, that's fair.

So I think he's probably somewhere in that range though. Yeah, like 18-ish at shortstop. 15 to 20 at shortstop. So it doesn't make him a must-raster player in shallower leagues, but look, in a points league, that skill set just excels. I mean, how much contact he makes. Yeah, so great game for Jacob Wilson and just a really, really strong start to the season for him.

Let's talk about Javier Baez, Chris, because this is incredible. This is so fun, man. Just baseball is better when Javier Baez is good. And for years, I mean, after signing with Detroit, he was nothing. I mean, he was basically off the grid. He was looked like he was completely done in his career. And last season, he had hip surgery in August.

And maybe he's just finally healthy. Went out here on Tuesday, two for four with a double dong, six RBI, including a walk-off homer and in his last 14 games. Javier Baez is batting 396, 5 homers, 23 RBI in 14 games, an 11% barrel rate during that span. He's hitting 319. He's got an 870 OPS. I know the underlying numbers do not line up with what is happening right now.

He's not hitting the ball very hard. The ground ball rate is too high. The expected stats are bad, But like we've said with a couple of pitchers recently, ride until the wheels fall off, man. Like, he's hot. Let's stick with Javier Baez as long as his goes. Yeah, I think the likeliest outcome is this falls apart

and probably relatively quickly, 291 X Woba. Would be his best since leaving Chicago, but it's still pretty bad. His contact rates are better. The barrel rate over the 14. game span is pretty good. So I don't know. Like maybe, maybe there's something here. I think the likeliest outcome is it's just a couple of hot weeks and it'll go down as a fun footnote, but probably not more. But yeah, go ahead and add him in categories leagues and see. Yeah, I think

it's just category leagues for now. I have people asking after a game like this. I get why they're asking, is he a must add player? And I would stop short of saying that because still batting towards the of the Tigers lineup and sitting out, Bad Park, sitting out here and there, not playing every single day for the Tigers right now. So in category leagues, Roto, with that versatility, third base shortstop outfield, you could play them, you know, corner, middle,

five outfielders shore, in a head to head categories league on Yahoo, all right, with that flexibility in a daily lineup league, you can kind of move them around. Sure, points league, eh, plate discipline is still bad and those are typically shallower format. So I'll stay away there, but love what Javier Pius is doing. And again, just shout out to the Tigers, man.

They are one of the best stories so far this season in baseball. Do you want to quickly run through just some rough outings that we got here from pitchers and try and figure out what's going on. Jeff Hoffman, we don't usually talk about closures this early, but he got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He was charged with five runs on a walk and four hits, including a grand slam that he allowed to Junior Camerero, six appearances in May for Hoffman.

a 24.75 ERA, a 3.5 whip, and that has risen the ERA all the way up to 605 overall. Home runs have been a problem recently. Chris, when I dig in under the hood, the KTA walk is amazing. The underlying number is still look great. It just, it feels like maybe he's missed his spots a few times here,

and he's just been punished with some untimely home runs. That's what it feels like to me. What do you think? Yeah, margin for error for, Relievers is so, so small. And he's probably had, what, four bad innings all season is probably what it comes down to if you actually like go game by game. Let me see. He's given up one, two, three.

He's given up multiple runs three times, just three of the last five. I think it's probably just a run of, I don't want to say bad luck, bad execution. Yeah, because if you're giving up home runs, it's not. Not necessarily bad luck. You can pitch poorly and not have it be like a reflection on who you are or who you will be forever. And that's where I think Jeff Hoffman is. But I will say, if you're in the streaming saves game and if you're the kind of person who has had to try to add Jesus Tanoko, who blew a save today, go out and add Mimi Garcia. Hoffman's been bad enough over the past couple of weeks

that I think they probably have to take him out of the closer's role for at least a little while and get him right. I think Jeff Hoffman will get right eventually. Everything looks fine beyond the results, strikeout rate, walk rate, velocity, stuff. Everything looks good. So I think he'll be fine eventually.

It's just right now I think they probably have to give him an opportunity to get right in a low pressure situation. and I would guess that's what they're going to do. All right, let's slide over to another rough outing. Shane Boz and Chris, with every passing start from Shane Boz, starting to feel a little bit more like we fooled you. Yeah, we might have got duped here by good old Shane. At the Blue Jays, four and two-thirds innings, three runs allowed,

two homers allowed in this one. And over his last five starts, a 78 ERA, a 171 whip. 19 strikeouts to 12 walks over 24 innings, five homers allowed. So under strikeout for inning, control has been bad, giving up homers. He is searching right now because he, you know, brought the slider back in this start.

It was not good. What do we do with Shane Bonds, Chris? Yeah, I mean, I will say the slider didn't get. It only got one with, hard contact on one of the two batted balls. He did get five foul balls with it. That's not necessarily something we typically look at, but it's,

it's, I think, worth noting here that, like, maybe the, the extremely low whiff rate wasn't necessarily an indictment on the slider. Like,

it wasn't getting crushed. Guys weren't sitting on it. So hopefully there's something to build on there. But even in this one, he threw the slider 13 times, 37% of the time in the strike zone. That is just a really, He is throwing in the strike zone way too much.

It's like 57% in this start. I think for the season, it's been up to like 55, 56%. You almost never see pitchers pitch in the zone as often as Shane Boz is. And you can make that work, but you've got to miss bats in the zone. And Shane Boz has never really shown the ability to miss bats in the strike zone outside of that small sample size in his rookie year. Last year, 83% zone contact rate, league average 82%. This year coming into this start, it's 86%.

And I believe it was 89% on pitches in the zone today. He's just not missing bats and he's not doing enough to generate chases. Look, I don't know pitching better than Shane Baas, but this approach clearly isn't working. And there were red flags early on in his season, Even when he was racking up big strikeout rates, this was there. The lack of chases, the lack of zone whiffs. And that made me pretty skeptical of his hot start.

And what we're seeing has come to fruition. He has been very good at limiting hard contact throughout his career, Shane Boss. So, you know, I'm not saying I think he's a disaster moving forward, but something's got to give. And he's talented clearly in the raise R. very, very good development team. So I think they will figure things out at some point, but you can't start them right now. Is this somebody you're absolutely holding on to, though?

I would really want to. But I'm also the guy who's not dropping Sandy Alcantra, who has even less going for him. And I know a lot of people listening are thinking about dropping him. And Boz has more going up for him than Alcantra right now. So I tend to be on the pretty extreme end of holding on to guys that I think are talented. And I think Shane Boss is super talented. So I'm not going to say I'm betting on him figuring it out because I'm not going to start him the next time out.

But I think the upside is high enough that I'm not going to let him go. Shane Boss at Miami later this week. So please, man, you've got to get it done in that start. And regardless of what he does there, he's home against Toronto. again next week. So I think... It's going to be hard to trust him. Even if Bos has a good start

against the Marlins next time out, it's... I would probably err on the side of benching him against the Blue Jays next week. All right, let's take our first break when we return. I want to quickly run through

a pitcher's duel that we had in Houston. Then we'll get into the news. We'll do all of that right after this quick commercial break. Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball. Today, we had ourselves a pitchers duel out in Houston. It's time to do. I don't know if I've asked you this before, Chris, but you were not a Yu-Gi-o player growing up.

Were you? No, no. I was Yu-Gi-o anime, or was that, like, actually an American? No, I'm thinking of, there's a different one. I think Airbender is the one I'm thinking of. Avatar. Yu-Gi-U-Gi-O was a show, but I-I was never a huge, like, anime. It was, like, only Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z for me.

So outside of those two, I never really got. got into the genre. I think it was technically an anime, though. Yeah. It was great. Trading cards. Yeah, I never. I loved it.

It was too. I was a Pokemon kid. And for me, it was like, those were the only, you had to, you had to pick one. Yeah,

you didn't actually have to, but that was my view. I mean, trying to figure out what to do after a day of school, Pokemon, Digimon, Yugiya. I mean,

there was so much going on back in the day. But let's talk about this pitcher's duel in Houston. Chris Bubich up against Framber Valdez, Unfortunately, neither wound up with the win, but great starts for both. Bubich, six and a third, one run, a season high, nine strikeouts,

22 wifts on 93 pitches. The fastball and change up were just splendid for Bubich in this one, who has allowed one earned runner fewer in six of nine starts, and then Valdez on the other side, eight innings, one run, seven strikeouts, 14 wiffs on 89 pitches, and he did what he did last, year to get back on track. He threw his curveball more and it was great. 11 whiffs on that curve ball, a 65% whiff rate. He has gone seven plus innings in three of his last four outings. Chris, just phenomenal starts here from both Valdez and Chris Bubich. Yeah, I mean,

Valdez pretty close to a top 12 starting pitcher at this point. Partially that's variance, I think. But he's not far from top 12 in my own. No, he's there. Top 10. He's there. Top 10 my rankings. Made that move recently, I guess. It's been a little up and down, but when you look at the season, it's a 354 ERA 114 whip. That's pretty close to what we were expecting.

Projectable volume that you just don't really get from anyone else. So he's, you know, what you lack in the quality of the innings relative to some other pitchers, I think you get in the projectability, in terms of the projectability of the volume.

He's kind of maddening. at times. Remember, he was terrible early on last season. But he's right at the ship so far. Boobich is arguably more interesting. I don't necessarily think that means he's better. But he might be. He's probably not.

And given, like, Valdez has a very strong injury track record and throws a lot of innings and Bubich has no track record of throwing a lot of innings. But, man, the skills he has shown. You know, last year in relief, okay, you can write it off a little bit, except that he's pretty much picked right up where he left off as a reliever. And the stuff hasn't really lost much from his time in the bullpen. That change up just is a killer, man. It's a really good pitch.

So I don't know. Chris Boobich might be more than just a guy here. You know, I think he's probably, let me see, I had him 45th in my last rankings update. Well, that was behind Shane Boz. It feels pretty easy right now. You'd definitely rather have Chris Boobich than Shane Bois. Yeah. Chris Boobit versus Max Meyer, that's a pretty interesting one.

I think it's Boobich easily. I think you probably have to take Boobich, even if Meyer maybe has a little more strikeout upside. Yeah, I'm looking. versus Luis Castillo. I'm looking at the mid-30s range. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking, because I've got like, Robbie Race 38, I got to move him up a few spots.

But then it's Luis Castillo, Tyler, Tyler Glass, now Blake Snell. Well, I feel like I'm probably given those injures Dodgers pitchers a little too much leeway, so they can move down. I could move Chris Bubich ahead of them pretty easily. Yeah, certainly Snell. That was before we learned about the latest setback.

I think I would, I am going to move Bubich ahead of Luis Cascio. I think so. He's been really, really good. The one thing that we do have to worry about, and this is later in the season, but the innings. Innings, yeah.

How far do they push him? Because last year, it was just 66 total innings for boobitz between the minors and the majors. So, I mean, first real full opportunity as a start of this season, 120? Is it much more than 120?

I would think, oh, he's already up to 54. And this is a team that wants to make the playoffs. I don't know if they're going to, but they want to. I mean, he threw back in 2020. Yeah, 130-ish. Yeah, and he had 13 in the minor, so like 143.

I was a long time ago. That was three years ago. I would think he can get to like 140. I don't think that the ceiling is like 180. Yeah. So there will be, there will come a point where they have to make some tough. decisions, but he's been efficient.

You know, it's not like he's racking up huge pitch counts. He's averaging six innings per start right now. So, yeah, that that's one thing we do have to keep in mind is as good as he looks right now. One, is he going to wear down? And two, does he max out at around 140, 150 innings? That would, that, that's the thing I struggle with. All right. Before we get into the news and notes, just a reminder to sign up for the FBT newsletter.

If you haven't already, scan the QR code. If you're watching on YouTube, that will bring you right to the website, cbsports.com slash newsletters, where you could sign up for free. And thanks for watching. Make sure to hit the like button, subscribe on the YouTube channel if you haven't already.

Let's get into the news and notes and a bunch of Dodgers news. Roki Sasaki was placed on the IL with a right shoulder impingement, which I think makes sense. They mentioned his velocity has been down recently and he just hasn't been good.

So, I don't know, Chris, the right shoulder impingement sometimes I feel like it's, all right, let's give you a break and you kind of figure things out here. Maybe there's actually something going on. But, yeah, I think it's going to be a little bit of time here before we see Sasaki back with the Dodgers. Yeah, I mean, the one thing is he does have options. Like, they could have sent him down. Yeah. So I would guess he's not 100% healthy, but I. I wonder if there's politics involved too, though, with that.

Sure, yeah. I would also think there aren't many pitchers who are 100% healthy right now. You know, most of them are like, even the healthy ones are probably like 96%. So you could find something if you want to put a guy on the IL fairly easily. But yeah, the velocity's gone down the last few starts. I had read last week that that was on purpose, that they had, you know, remember when he was going through the free agency process, he had teams pitch him on how to get his velocity back to the high 90s triple digit range and there was a the Dodgers pitched him on a plan to get him there and I had read last week in the athletic that they had kind of ditched that plan and just focused on let's throw strikes for now and work on the velocity later maybe this is a way to put that work in without

you know, the stakes of pitching in major league games, that could happen. But I'm holding on to Roki Sasaki, but I'm not expecting him to be a difference maker at this point. This season, this season. Apparently, Freddie Freeman requires 90 minutes of treatment on his surgically repaired right ankle every day so far. Freeman noted that the ankle is not 100%,

but is good enough to play on. Well, we couldn't tell because Freeman has been unreal this season. I was updating my infield ranking. on Tuesday. I haven't published them yet, but I think I'm going to move Freeman up to my number one ranked first basement, Chris. I can't really argue with it.

Like Harper has been just fine. He hasn't been like amazing so far. And Freddie Freeman has been. And ahead of Vlad. I mean, is that part of it crazy? Vlad is just, I don't know, he gets off to these slow stars. It's kind of similar, right? Like he hasn't been terrible, but he hasn't been great.

I'm doing it. it. I'm moving free. I'm inclined to leave Vlad ahead. His expected stats are still really, really good. He's still hitting the ball really, really hard. I think Vlad will, will be fine. And I think you'd rather have Vlad just because is Freeman in a spot with like, you know, the way we talk about Nathan Avaldi or the way we talk about Tyler Glass now when he's healthy, where it's, yeah, it's going really well right now. How much faith can you have in it continue? to go well. Now, he's not a pitcher, and he's not specifically Tyler Glass now, but I don't know if like, is the injury risk today any lower with Freddie Freeman than it was before the season?

I don't necessarily think it is. That's the fairest point of all. I mean, performance wise, I'm not worried about it. Like, maybe he's just super locked in right now. But I mean, this is a Hall of Fame player. Oh, yeah. He looks like he's just kind of turned back the clocks a little bit. the injury risk is yeah. I mean, that's something that could pop back up throughout the course of the season. But I mean, man, hitting in the middle of that lineup right now, it's awesome.

We're splitting hairs, but yeah, I'm going to move them up to one ahead of Vlad Jr. this week. One more Dodgers note, Clayton Kirchall will make his season debut this Saturday against the Angels. I think he's right around 50% rostered. I don't think he's a must add, go out and grab him. But if you have a roster spot to play with, why not? Welcome back to Ronald Acuna.

Not exactly, but in his first rehab game, hit his first home run. So let's go. He was also playing the outfield. Yeah. And I saw he made a nice running catch at one point. So all good. Love to see that.

Hopefully it's back in two weeks or so. Corey Seeger was placed on the aisle with a right hamstring strain for the second time this season. The Rangers activated Kyle Hagashioka. Ray's manager, Kevin Cash, said Shane McClainanan still feels some discomfort in his left

triceps when playing catch from 60 feet. Just a complete unknown as to when if we see Shane O'Mac at any point this season. The fact that he was basically shut down for two months and is still feeling this kind of feels like we might not get anything this year. But it's also like not a muscle or a ligament, right? it's still just that nerve so I don't I don't I have no idea genuinely

like this is this is a weird situation I just don't think they're going to put him on a mound until there's absolutely no discomfort oh for sure yeah he is under contract for next year wasn't that this was one of those ones where they sign him to like a an extension so they do still have

or maybe he's still an arbitration guy I think he's still Arb okay He is, yeah, arbitration eligible through 2027. Okay, so they still have two years after this to think about. So, yeah, I would suspect they're going to be extremely cautious with it. But, you know, it's also the kind of thing where if the nerve issue gets better tomorrow and stays better, it might be a relatively smooth transition. We just don't really know.

You know, remember with Parker Meadows before the, his, it was a, it was a very smooth transition. with Parker Meadows before the, his, it was a similar thing. It was a nerve issue. And it was like, yeah, it might be a couple weeks. And he ended up on the 60 day IL as well. So we really just don't know with these situations. I would still try to keep stashing Shane McClanahan. But I think even in a best case scenario, you're looking at a July return right now.

Rangers reliever Chris Martin came on for the save in the ninth inning and then left after throwing one pitch and allowing a hit. Turns out he left with right elbow tightness. So two days in a row, Rangers, high leverage relievers, leaving with injury. Sean Armstrong then came on. He struck out the side for his first save of the season. Ian Hap was placed in the I.O. with a left oblique strain retroactive to May 10th. O'Neo Cruz has missed three straight due to a sore back.

Josh Smith has missed two straight, also with a sore back. Anthony Santander returned to the lineup after missing three in a row. row with that left shoulder injury. Luis Robert returned to action after missing two games with knee soreness, and he stole a base in his first game back. So I love to see that. His 16th steal of the season. The Yankees placed Oswaldo Cabrera on the aisle with a left ankle fracture.

DJ LaMahue was reinstated, but was not in the lineup. I think he came on as a defensive replacement at some point in that game. The Yankees started Oswald Paraza at third base with Your Beat, VVos, second. Logan Henderson will be recalled to start Wednesday for the Brewers. This happened after Tobias Myers was sent to AAA. They were planning on Brandon Woodruff making his return this week, but he suffered an ankle injury, and Jose Cantana was also pushed back a few days. So, hopefully Logan Henderson pitch as well. I don't know if he'll stick around. Chris, are you... Force their hand. Are you looking to re-ad Logan Henderson? Yeah, I think even though the likeliest outcome is you probably

sent back down. He was impressive enough that I'm willing to take that chance and see because he's been awesome at AAA as well, 34% strike out rate. I think it's a 240 ERA and 30 innings or something like that. He's been really good. I think there's a decent amount of upside here. And like I'd rather take this chance than Clayton Kershaw. I think the odds of Clayton Kershaw being an impact.

Honestly, I'd rather have Logan Henderson than Brandon Woodruff. I just, my expectations for Brandon Woodruff are not high. Even though I think he has a more secure job when he's ready, I just don't think there's any guarantee that Brandon Woodruff good. Logan Henderson or Ryan Weathers. Ryan Weathers. U. Darvish will begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Wednesday. He's working his way back from right elbow inflammation.

62% rostered another pitcher. You can look to stash right now if you have IL spots available. Josh Lowe could be activated. this weekend against the Marlins. He's been out since opening day with that oblique injury. Luis Garcia Jr. was placed on the paternity list. Luke Jackson's hand is swollen

after getting hit by a line drive comebacker on Monday. He's optimistic he will avoid the IL. Max Scherzer was unable to throw a as scheduled on Tuesday because of back tightness. It's just, man, one thing after another for Scherzer right now. Cardinals pitching prospect, Quinn Matthews, will make a rehab start this week

with the Cardinals, Florida Complex League affiliate, and he's been out since April with mild left shoulder soreness. So hoping that he can make an impact at some point later this season. The Astros will recall Colton Gordon from AAA to start Wednesday against the Royals. 26 years old, off to a nice start at AAA this season. Throw six different pitches, averages 91 on the fastball. So I don't think that there's much here, Chris.

Do you feel differently about Colton Gordon? We'll see what happens, but my expectations aren't super high now. Yandy Diaz was placed on the restricted list due to a passport issue and the team playing in Toronto. T.J. Friedel left Tuesday night after due to right wrist soreness. He got hit by a pitch and then he had a crazy collision with L.A. Dela Cruz in the outfield. So just got beat up in this game. And of course that would happen, Chris, because I just traded for T.J. Friedel in my N. L. Labor League.

No, that'll happen. That was the one where I lost Tyro Estrada. I traded for Nick Gonzalez. Then he gets hurt. I think I have six or seven players on the IL on that team. And I think I'm still in third or fourth place. So I'm cautiously optimistic right now. Alex Cora said that as of now,

Tanner Halk will make his next start Sunday against the Braves. Ben Lydley was placing the aisle with a right flexor strain. And prospect debuts, Moises Bayesteros was in the lineup as the DH batting seventh versus a right-handed pitcher. he went 0 for 4. Jordan Lawler was in the lineup at shortstop, batting 8th against the lefty,

no Haraldo perdomo in this one, and Jordan Lawler went 0 for 3 with a walk and a strikeout. Quick note, speaking of prospects, Pirates pitcher, Bubba Chandler, five shutout innings with eight strikeouts at AAA here on Tuesday. So please just call him up next time through the rotation. We need some Bubber Chandler. And some actual massive baseball news,

not fantasy related, but Major League Baseball removed Pete Rose and 16 other deceased from the permanently ineligible list on Tuesday, which means all of those names are now eligible for the Hall of Fame, which obviously is a huge story, a huge talking point for baseball heads out there. This is bad, permanently ineligible has a specific meaning. and 10 years ago, Rob Manfred was asked whether Joe Jackson should be removed from the permanently ineligible list. And he said no. He turned down the request to remove Shulis Joe Jackson from the ineligible list. I guess Shulis Joe Jackson, Rob Manfred didn't know that he was dead 10 years ago.

This is, this is bad. This is a bad decision. and I am vehemently opposed to it. That's all I will say on all of this, but the word permanent has a meaning and maybe change the name of the list if you're not going to call it permanent. All right, let's take our final break.

And when we return, we'll get into the waiver-wire options here right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today, taking a look at some waiver-wire hitters, two names in shallower leagues. Josh Young, three-for-four with a double-dong, 4 RBI in his last 7 games. He is hitting 360 with 4 home runs,

and the barrel rate, expected stats all look great, 70% rostered, and then Jonathan India is picking things up. Last 15 games, he's hitting 317, 1 homer, 10 runs, 808 OPS. I mean, the problem is, all right, batting average OBP is on the rise. One homer, zero steals, just not really doing anything else right now, is Jonathan India. between 60 and 70% rostered, Chris, do you think these names need to be closer to 100%?

Josh Young and India. The lack of steals for India is surprising because the Royals, if I remember correctly, were a pretty aggressive base stealing team last year. I think they typically are. Yeah, they were 11th in steals last season, and India stole a decent.

Off the top of my head, I don't know exactly what the number was, like 12 last year. Something like that. And the Royals are 10th. The royals are 10th in steel. Yeah. And steals as a team this season.

So this is surprising, right? Like Tyler Tolbert has six steals and five plate appearances. Jonathan India doesn't have any. That's weird. Especially because he's still a decent athlete, 71st percentile sprint speed. He still has a 343 on base percentage. So I would expect more steals from Jonathan,

India moving forward, obviously, but one would be more. So I'm more excited about Josh Young. I think he is a legit power hitter. And, you know, everything we've said about Jake Berger, I think could apply to Josh Young. He doesn't hit the ball quite as hard, but he's got much better plate discipline. So, you know, I think it comes out in the wash. And he's going to end up being a 25 plus homer guy. Dalton Varshot continues to hit for power since returning two for five with a double dong, four RBI in this one. He's got a 935 OPS in 10 games. It's a very small sample size,

27% rostered. I don't know how many of CBS leagues are roto leagues with five outfielders, but I feel like any of those, or all of those, rather, Dalton Varshot should probably be rostered. Yeah, any five outfielder league, I think he should be rostered.

That's probably it. Yeah. I don't really buy. Dalton Varsho has a powerhiter. the quality of contact metrics are actually great right now uh 94 mile per hour average exit velocity 504 expected wobon contact that was before the two homer game that's incredible his expected wobon contact for his career is 348 which is really bad that's well below average and his strikeout rate is 42% well it was coming into the today i guess it probably went down slightly

but still, way too many strikeouts. 17 and 41 played appearances. I think he's a pretty bad hitter. All right, well, let's talk about two catchers in two catcher leagues. That would make sense. Drake Baldwin, he kind of looks legit, man. Three for four with his fourth home run. He's been starting every third game,

but starting to think he might just steal more playing time away from Sean Murphy. He's hit fifth in the lineup in his last two starts, up to a 329 batting average 939 OPS for Drake Baldwin and Edgar Caro who is racking up the hits but not hitting for much power. Three for four with the RBI and this one. He's hitting 303, 751 OPS. He's got three doubles but zero home runs

so far for Edgar Caro. Chris, who do you like more in a two catcher league? Drake Baldwin or Edgar Caro. It's got to be caro just because of the playing time edge. I think he's actually really under-rastered. I think the 15% roster rate is way too low. Look, I understand it's a bad lineup, and he hasn't hit for any power yet,

and he's probably not going to be a huge power hitter, but I do think Edgar Carrow is going to be a legit source of batting average. I'm not sure he's not already as good as Gabriel Moreno or Cabrero Rees, who are much more highly rostered. Now, neither of those guys are great, but again, they're much more highly rostered than Carrow. So I think you're going to get like a 280 plus batting average out of him. And, you know, it's probably more like 10 homers over the course of a season. But I think Kara is pretty useful.

Baldwin, it's just, are they really going to give up on Sean Murphy? I don't think so. He's not going to play DH. It's like, what if they just make this a 50-50 split, which would probably just be terrible for everybody involved? No, the worst case for both. My preference would be, let's get Drake Baldwin an outfield glove and see if he can handle that. But I don't know if they're going to do that. So especially with the Kuna coming back soon.

Yeah. Like I will say if, if all else was equal, you just gave them the same number of plate appearances. I think Drake Baldwin's not far from Yvonne Herrera and Augustine Ramirez in terms of upset. It's just those guys have a much clearer path to playing time. And that's the thing holding Baldwin back. But I think he was a top prospect.

He's been, even when he wasn't hitting well, the quality of contact metrics were excellent. and now he's hitting well too. So I think Drake Baldwin is going to make, going to lead to some tough, tough conversations for the Braves at some point. Two post-hype hitters that are making some noise lately, Brett Beatty has four home runs in his past five games,

getting a chance to play against right-handed pitching. And Miguel Vargas in his last 17 games, hitting 328 with three home runs and an OPS over. 900, both have multi-position eligibility here. Chris, who would you rather take a, you know, deep league spec add on Brett Beatty or Miguel Vargas? Or neither. Probably Beatty, probably Beatty, but yeah, I think the real answer is neither. But obviously, you can't say that in every league. Vargas has been pretty good for a while now. You know,

obviously has a very good AAA track record. I just don't really buy it. I think both of these guys are nearing quad A range. All right, let's slide over two Waverwire pitchers and four standouts from Tuesday. Jack Lighter turned in a quality start against the Rockies. You know what? He better have had a quality start against this team with them on the road.

Six innings, one run, five strikeouts with 14 whiffs on 89 pitches. Andrew Abbott pitched very well against the White Sox. Six innings, one run, seven strikeouts. Kind of cheating with this one. He's up to 77% rostered. So probably just out there in like 10 team leagues at this point. Jose Soriano pitched very well at the Padres.

Seven innings, two unearned runs with five strikeouts. And Jeffrey Springs, what is going on? Turned in a quality start at the Dodgers. Seven innings, one run, four strikeouts with 13 whiffs on 102 pitches. Really leaned on his slider in this one, which is not the pitch that Springs is normally known for, but it looked really good in this start. So Chris, how would you rank this group? Abbott, Lighter, Soriano, and Jeffrey Springs.

Abbott, Soriano, Lighter Springs. And what I will say about lighter in particular, because that feels like the most actionable, if you hadn't dropped him yet, don't drop him now. He faces the White Sox next week. He gets the White Sox next week, exactly. And he solidified.

It wasn't great. Three walks, especially in six innings, not what you want to see. But, you know, 14 whiffs on 80s. you could see a path to more than five strikeouts. So I think that's fine. I think you can hang on to Jack Lighter here. But I think Abbott is the best of this.

Don't want to start him next week versus the Cubs. They've slowed down a little bit offensively now that Carson Kelly's not hitting like Barry Bonds. But I still don't think I want to trust him in that one. So yeah, that's the order I would go in. All right, let's do a little, did you notice? And I'll bring up some random stats or players, some things that I noticed here. And they were surprising to me. Christian Campbell has been cooling off quite a bit.

0-4 with a walk and a strikeout. And in his last nine games, he's batting 079 with zero extra base hits, a 31% strikeout rate, lots of ground balls, not hitting the ball very hard. He's down to a 248 batting average, 736 OPS. The expected stats are trending down as well. and I only noticed this, Chris, because I was, you know, updating the infield rankings, and I'm like, wow, his stat cast numbers really fell off here. So any thoughts on Christian Campbell?

You may have noticed too early, however, because he did hit a home run in this game. Ah. Now, that one went into extras, and he had a two-run home run. But you're not wrong. It's one for five with a home run today. But overall, he has really slowed down. I don't really make much of it. You're still talking about a very raw young player who is going to have ups and downs.

I hoped that he was avoiding the struggles that most rookies go through, but that hasn't been the case. But you look at the overall numbers and you'll take a 260 batting average with probably a 20 homer pace and hopefully more speed moving forward. he's certainly cooled off. I can't deny that. I also can't say I'm too concerned about Christian Campbell yet. Yes, thank you for the correction. Did not see that he homered in extra innings in that game. You know, I think Campbell, we're all aggressive in moving him up early in the season, but now that other names are kind of emerging as like breakouts or rebukouts, Michael Garcia, Jorge Polanco, Glaber Torres. Would you take any of those three over Campbell rest of season.

Um, they have better track records. You know, they've kind of been there, done that and they're all off to great starts. So they do have better track records, but they're not like can't miss guys. You know, even, you know, Glaber, especially the past couple of years, has been pretty mediocre. So I am inclined to still take Christian Campbell, but like we did have a discussion about Christian Campbell, I think last week where we talked about moving him into the top five. that feels like it might have been premature.

On the other hand, second base is kind of in trouble right now. Oh, just because... It is terrible. Westberg's on the IL. McLean is slumping hard. Tommy Edmund's on the IL.

Jazz is on the IL. You can make the case that Bryce Serang is the number one second base for right now. I wouldn't make that case. I would tell Marte. Well, I think it's still pretty good. But, you know,

I guess top two or three. Ozzie Albies has been terrible. Jose Al-Tuva's been disappointing. So yeah, it's, there's depth at second base still. But yeah, the top end's been pretty bad. All right, let's talk about Robbie Ray. I got my tight pants. I got my tight pants.

Who gutted his way to another quality start here. Six innings, three runs, three walks, nine strikeouts, had 20 whiffs on 108 pitches through 69% of his pitches for strikes. Nice. And Chris, did you notice? that Robbie Ray has a quality start in four straight, and he has eight plus strikeouts in three of those. Do you notice he threw the change-up 18 times today?

He was just a much more complete pitcher in this start. Mixing it all up, five whiffs on the change-up. All four pitches, and they were all good in this one. Yeah, it's the weirdest of 54% of his pitches were in the strike zone today. That is really, even when Robbie Ray is good, that's a really high number, and he was, this one looked like it was going to be a disaster. I think it was three walks and three on runs in the first inning, if I'm remembering correctly,

that was bad. And then he turned it around in a huge way. I think Robbie Ray is just really good. Yeah. And the early season struggles were mostly a mirage. There will probably be another three or four start stretch where he walks, I don't know, 12 guys because that's who Robbie Ray has always been. but he's really good.

And he's incorporating all four pitches in more consistently now, throwing the curveball a lot more as well. I'm a, I'm a Robbie Ray fan. Pete Crow Armstrong was moved up to lead off with Ian Hap on the IL, and he went two for three with his 11th home run. This is where I get myself in trouble. Did you notice that Pete Crow Armstrong was hitting 200 in his previous 16 games before this one?

However, he still had five homers and three steals during that spin. So not like he's completely crushing you, but I just thought it was notable that the batting average was trending down for the past, I don't know, two and a half weeks for PCA. Let me pull something up because he is maybe the most aggressive hitter in baseball. There could be other words if you want him reckless. I don't know. he swings at way too many pitches outside of the strike zone. His last 15 games, he has swung at 54% of pitches out of the strike zone. He's making it work, but it's just this all feels very precarious.

I don't know. This is really 63% swing rate over the past 15 games. He is just swinging at almost everything. That is a really, really hard approach to make work. And maybe he will continue to do it, but it just feels like it's going to go sideways at some point for Pre-Car Armstrong. But we've been saying that and it hasn't happened yet. So I don't know. Yeah.

I mean, in defense of ourselves here, we're not saying like Peacrow Armstrong is bad. I don't want any Cubs fans in the mentions or anything like that. Just letting you know that, you know, we're not. With any young player, there's going to be ups and downs. And so the batting average was trending down. I thought it was worth pointing out. We got bad Jose Burrios here against the raise. Five and a third, five runs, three walks, four strikeouts.

And did you notice that he has three plus walks in five of nine starts? For somebody like Jose Burrios, Chris, who doesn't miss a ton of bats, I don't think that he can walk that many and kind of get away with what he normally does. so I think he's got to figure that out. Man, I, I'm going to be honest and maybe I shouldn't be. Maybe I'm being too honest here. Maybe I'm exposing myself a little bit,

but I hope this is a safe face. I don't, Jose Breaz is one of those pictures I just don't think about. Like, I don't know. Am I alone in that? It's just like, I feel like I know who he is so well. Do you have him on any of your fantasy teams? No.

So that's why. Yeah. I have been a few spots. I go through the box score. every week. Like I write about, I don't know, 60% of the starters in any given day. And he is one that I just,

there is almost never anything notable about him because we have such a long track record of who he is. And I know the performance fluctuates from one season and the next in season. He's never as good as he looks at his best. He's never as bad as he looks at his worst. It does feel like we might be on the, precipice of him being more bad than good.

You know, underlying numbers last year were pretty bad, even though the results were fine. Underlying numbers right now are really bad. So, yeah, I, Brillos, you know, you probably shouldn't drop him, but I don't think you'd, like, regret it if you did. I don't think I would either, but the swinging strike rate has been below 10% two years in a row. Again, I think the control has to be better if we want to get a typical Jose Burrios season out of him. If not, then we might be looking at something more like a, you know,

four ERA with like a 125 or 130 whip for Brios this season. Ellie Dela Cruz launched a game tying home run in the ninth inning. It was his seventh homer of the season. But Chris, did you notice he has a 60% ground ball rate this season? That is a problem. Yeah, that's not what you want. And it's, you know, the striker rights a little better, but it's still 29%. He hasn't really taken a big step forward.

He's not hitting the ball as hard as he did in years past. The one thing I will say is I just, I think he's still very much a very high variance player. And that's probably going to be the case probably forever for Ali Daly Cruz. I know he's still young and it's still relatively early in his career. there's just been zero signs of stability so far for him. He's striking out less against left-handed pitching so far. He's still not hitting them well, though. So I don't know what to make of that.

I will say, you know, there was a little bit of like, Ellie Daylor Cruz's new batting stance. He's going to be better than ever this year. And it's like, I didn't really buy into that any more than a slight tweak in batting stance to to buy into a player and that's looking like the right call. He's going to get hot. He's going to have a 950 OPS at some point in a month soon because that's what he does. It's just there will be 600 OPS months as well.

It's just I still think L.A. D.C. Cruz is fundamentally a high variance player. Even with him having a quote unquote slow start, I guess you could say, 257 home runs, 14 steals for Ellie Dealer Cruz. Oh yeah. That's a pretty good pace right now for him. The bad times are never bad with him. It can be frustrating.

But that's very different than bad. It's crazy because you know how talented he is. So it's tantalizing, right? You almost want to see him do it all the time. It obviously doesn't work that way in baseball, but he's such a freak athlete. It's just you just want to see more of it. And so there are consistency issues there with Ellie Dailer Cruz.

Spencer Schwellenbach turned in a quality start against the national seven innings two runs, three strikeouts, but did you notice that he has four strikeouts or less in four of nine starts this season? The whiff rate is down on his curve and splitter. Yet his swinging strike rate was still 13.6% entering the start. So I don't really know what to do with all that, Chris. I would say just fundamentally, if you're swinging strike rate is that high,

I would expect you to have a K per 9 higher than 7.6. But I don't know, maybe it's just like a weird sequencing thing for him right now. He had a relatively higher swinging strike rate than strike out rate last season as well, right? Well, it was also right around 13.5%. And I think he was like 9K per 9 right around there. Okay.

For some reason, I thought he was more. in like the 14% or 14 and a half percent swing strike rate last year. Yeah, he's just been a little worse at almost everything. The walk rate is still very good, but it just kind of feels like it's been a slight step back across the board for Schwabach. Did you know he only has two starts with more strikeouts than innings pitched? There was a start against the Marlins. We had 10 and 8 innings.

Yeah. Then there was a start against the Dodgers where he gets. gave up six runs in three and two-thirds innings, but did have four strikeouts. Those are the only two where Spencer Schwalbock has had more strikeouts than innings pitched. Slider has still been mostly pretty good, especially today, six whiffs with it.

Splitter has taken a big step back, and so has the curveball in terms of whiff rates. That seems to be the biggest explanation for the strikeout rate being down. Schoenbach's in a weird spot where he's clearly not bad, but he's not making the leap to a-dom that we hoped. I think he's just solid. And I'm not sure where to rank him as a result because clearly there's upside, clearly there's talent. Clearly, he's still very inexperienced. And so it could just be a question of like you mentioned, sequencing, putting the right pitches in the right spots and the right moments. Would you rather

have Spencer Schwellenbach or Brian Wu rest of the season? Yeah, that's getting, I think Brian Wu's just a better pitcher right now, right? It's getting much closer. And, yeah, I mean, thus far, I've got to take an L on Brian Wu. I mean, I wasn't worried about performance. It's just health. Now, will he stay healthy? Nobody can answer that question.

But, you know, what he's done on the field this season, six plus innings in every start and he's not walking anybody. It's closer to a strike upper inning. That's close. I'll still take Shwellenbach, but admittedly, I think Brian Wu needs to move up. I think he's more like a top, top 30, top 25 starting pitcher rest of season. Oh, he's 22 for me already.

So, yeah, I think I just need to move him up. Yeah. What about Joe Ryan versus Spencer Schwellenbach? Yeah, that's another really close one. That's the right range, though. I think, you know, Schwellenbach, after the first couple starts, maybe we elevated him too high, like a top 15 of starting pitcher. But I think he's kind of settling into this, you know, low-end SP2 range.

Might be more in that 20 range, yeah. Yeah. Spencer Schroenbach or Logan Webb, one more. I'll take Logan Webb there. I think so, yeah. Yeah, he looks like a different pitcher, and he's just, there's so much volume. He's done it for so long. So, yeah, I'll take Logan Webb over Schwellenbach. Tyler Soderstrom, 0 for 5 with a golden sombrero. Did you know that he has not homered since April 17th, 22 games before tonight, 265 batting average, zero homers, a 644 OPS. Chris, what's going on with Tyler Sotersham? I did know this.

because you mentioned it before the show. And I looked it up. And after the fourth strikeout game, his strikeout rate is up to 28% since April 17th. It was like 24% or 25% before this, so not too alarming. That's the small sample sizes we're dealing with, though. It's only 96 plate appearances that were tired, 97 plate appearances.

So look, I expected Tyler Sotom to slow down. And we had many conversations when he was in the middle of his high streak about how high to rank him and the thing with these kind of breakouts and maybe we have I don't know if I've done a good enough job making this argument that I that I have in the past but what I always want to see is not what they look like when they break out but what they look like after they slump because everybody's going to slump no hitter is immune from slumping except apparently Aaron Judge. and so I think you learn so much about a hitter

from the adjustment to the adjustment. You know, like we were talking about with Jacob Wilson earlier, where pitchers are challenging him, they're throwing a ton of pitches in the strike zone. Now do we see them go away from that? Do we see them start to see if he'll chase and hit some weak grounders

because he's going to swing at everything? It's the adjustment to the adjustment that I want to see in right now. Tyler Stodstrom's going through it. He's struggling. Still hits the ball really hard. Quality of contact metrics. Expected stats is still very, very good overall.

But baseball's a hard sport. And you learn from failure. And we're going to learn a lot about Tyler Soderstrom in the next month. I'm still optimistic about him. But I also like didn't move him into my top 12 at first base when he was super hot. so I have a little more room to hold on him. I've got him there. I've got him inside the top 12.

I moved Torkelson inside the top 12 as well. You know what? He did get moved in there just because of the CASA's injury. I moved both Soderstrom and Torkelson ahead of Christian Walker and Viti Pass Quantino. Okay, I haven't done that yet. I think we've kind of seen enough on both sides where like did those players just look more impactful right now. Christian Walker. It's just, I don't know.

He had the oblique right before the season and the age. Yeah, could just ruin his whole year. Yeah, so a little worried about that. But yeah, Soderstrom still have a ton of confidence in him. And then Brian Wood just wanted to mention he was great against the Yankees, six and a third shutout, six strikeouts, 13 whiffs on 88 pitches in this one. All five of his pitches look useful in one way or another, either generating weak contact or getting whiffs.

And he's got, he has just eight walks and eight stars. and he's gone six plus innings in all eight of those outings. So yeah, I think he's totally worthy of being in that like low end SP2, high end SP3 conversation. Yeah, I don't know if this is a comp that I've, that I stole.

It was either from Enosarres or Nick Pollock, maybe both. They're both very smart. Brian Wood just reminds me a lot of, uh, Zach Wheeler. Yeah. Just like,

obviously he's got a, you know, Zach Wheeler's thrown 190 innings a bunch of times and Brian Wuz never come close. But just, in terms of talent, I think that's the best comp for him in terms of his approach, how he pitches, the depth and breadth of his arsenal. I just so impressed by Brian Wu. And the thing is, this was why I was high on him last year, coming into this season, because last year,

a switch flipped at the end of July. He went from being babyed and throwing 75 pitches every start to throwing 90 plus and going six innings and really getting the chance. to turn lineups over three times and it didn't impact his effectiveness. He was still awesome. I think Brian Wu, the only concerns I have him about him at this point are

can he stay healthy? All right, let's wrap up with some leftovers here. And first up, the pitchers, Dylan Cease makes it two great outings in a row. Max Freed, solid at the Mariners. Mitch Keller had a strong outing at the Mets. And Kodi-Senga on the other side pitched very well against the Pirates.

It's Chris, anything that stood out for Senga, Mitch Keller, Max Fried, and Dylan Cis. Man, Senga still just feels like such a sell high candidate to me. I think this was one of his better control starts of the season. You know, two walks and five and two thirds endings, that'll play. But he's still just really inefficient. 102 pitches to get through five and two thirds innings. Does he have one six innings start? Maybe two.

It's been very, very few, even though he's, you know, He has a 122 ERA. So I, this is one, there are a couple of pictures where I feel like the bottom could fall out. But Kodi Senga is one. I really, I worry about the fastball velocity, still not where it was in his very good 20, 23 season. I'm worried that it's going to get ugly for Kodai Senga soon. Six plus innings in three of eight starts for Kodi Senga. Wanted to just mention with Dillon Cis.

Yes, going up against the Angels, they swing and miss a lot. He had 25 whiffs in this start and 21 of them came on a slider. And that is just, I don't know, I don't know that I've seen more whiffs on just one pitch. I mean, I don't know if I like 65% slider usage. That is wild. That is, that is rare. Just spam it. And it's working.

I never got too worried about his struggles just because this is who Dylan sees is, you know? Yeah. Some hitting leftovers, Spencer Torgelson continues his resurgent season, hit his 11th home run. Boba Chet has three home runs in his past nine games. Jonathan Aranda, sixth home run of the season,

and his underlying metrics remain awesome. Jackson Turyo, racking up the steals. He has six of them in his past seven games. Esoc Paredes, two for four, with his fifth home run. It was a walk-off in that game. Corbyn Carroll did it again. Hit his 14th homer,

and that one came off of a lefty. Fernando Tatis also walked it off with his 11th home run of the season and Nick Kurtz you'll love to see it first career home run for him and that came against the Dodgers so pretty pretty big spot there big game and a nice moment for Nick Kurtz anything to add on these players yeah ESOC Paredes been a little disappointing I think we hope for more than five home runs so far but the overall production is still pretty good obviously

great approach at the plate 26 walks. It's a, what, 15% walk rate so far, still not really striking out. 3.83 on base. That's great. Yeah. And still hitting a lot of balls in the air to the pull side. It's 31%. That's down a little bit. Last year, it was 35%. The year before, it was also 35%. So a little down. I don't know. That that probably comes out to like 18 batted balls over the course of a full season. you'd like to see him get that to where it is, but I don't think that necessarily explains the entirety of the lower power. So I do think Isak Paredes will be a better source of homers moving forward than he has been. Quickly go through some of the bullpen updates here,

the ones that stand out most for the Braves. Ryssel Iglesias was unavailable. Pierce Johnson picked up his first save. For the Tigers, Tommy Canley entered with two outs in the eighth, one runner on with a two-run lead, and he promptly gave up a two-run homer. And then Will Vest pitched both the ninth and the tenth innings and gave up an unearned run,

but the Tigers would eventually win in the 11th. For the Marlins, Calvin Foshae pitched in the fifth inning of this game, and then Jesus Tinocho eventually got the save opportunity. Kind of feels like they've been leaning on him a little bit more for saves, but he did give up three runs, two of those earned, and took his first blown save, first loss. of the season and wanted to mention the reds, Emilio Pagan, got the ninth inning down to run. He gave up a single, but then got out of it. He came back out for the 10th. So maybe they just

overextended him in this outing. The 10th inning with the game tied, and he gave up a three-run homer to Miguel Vargas. So things are starting to creep up a little bit for Pagan, but I don't, I don't know that there's anybody else that they're necessarily going to in that bullpen. No, I mean, Sintian has good numbers right now, but I don't really trust it. Pagan just feels a little unfair to ask him to get two innings, even against the White Sox. He threw 32 pitches, so I would guess he won't be available tomorrow. But yeah, I don't hold that one too much against him. And then to stream or not to stream on Wednesday, we have Logan Henderson at the Guardians.

Edward Rodriguez at the Giants. Eric Fetty is at the Phillies. Hunter Dobbins at the Tigers. Tyone. Yeah, Jameson versus Miami. Home against the Marlins. Yep. That's my favorite one.

I like Hunter Dobbins at Detroit, although I know it's not as great of a matchup. Will Warren again, not a great matchup. Henderson, that change up should work well against Cleveland, you know, with their lefty hitters. So I like it. I think I'd go Tyone, Dobbins, and Henderson as my three favorites.

I would use Henderson over Dobbins, but I am kind of interested to see what Dobbins does here as well. He's got some nice underlying numbers. And then on Thursday we have A.J. Smith-Shawver, home against the Nationals. Tomoyuki, Sugano is home against the Twins. Nick Martinez, home against the White Sox. Honestly, I kind of like all three. Yeah, I like all three.

Smith-Shawr, Martinez, Sagano, in that order. All right. we're going to wrap there for Chris. 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 tomorrow. Bye-bye. Paramount Podcasts.