Fantasy Baseball Today - Jared Jones Continues To Impress, Top Prospect Promotions, & Struggling Hitters (4/17 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 17, 2024

Jared Jones looked awesome again, in just 59 pitches (1:50)! ... Ryan Weathers had everything working on Tuesday (9:30). ... The Rangers are promoting Jack Leiter on Thursday and the Dodgers just promoted Andy Pages (17:15)! ... News (22:42): Ozzie Albies was placed on the IL. ... This Orioles lineup is mashing right now (28:40)! ... Could any of these four pitchers be mid-career breakouts (34:53)? ... Let's fire up the Worry-O-Meter for Nick Castellanos, Paul Goldschmidt and other hitters (41:34). ... Any interest in adding Jon Gray or Casey Mize (51:10)? ... Buy-low on Tanner Bibee (55:56)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (57:52). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Welcome in South Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, April 17th. I am Frank Sample joined by Chris Towers. Today on the show, we've got some fun prospect promotions to talk about.

We'll fire up the Wurometer for six struggling hit. early on in the season. Jared Jones and Rangers Suarez were both awesome once again, and we will get into those names right now. All right, Chris, you are up. Your player tonight? We've got to talk about Jared Jones at the top, right? I think so.

I don't think there's a more interesting or exciting pitcher in baseball than Jared Jones, who just, I mean, just casual dominance. Yet again today against, the New York Mets, five shutout innings. I guess kind of disappointing that he only had five shutout innings, but he mentioned after the game that that was the plan no matter what happened, basically, that he was going to throw five, five innings, whether it took him 90 pitches or, in this case, 59 pitches.

And I get it, it's frustrating to see him pulled when he was cruising that way, but I find it hard to hold the fact that he was so good that he was pulled after 59 pitches against him. I don't know about you, but I've seen like some consternation like this is going to hold his value back. And I don't know.

He's awesome. Maybe he can't stay healthy, but he struck out seven. He allowed one walk or one hit, no walks. How high is too high to rank Jared Jones right now? That's the question I'm asking myself because if you told me Jared Jones

and every other starting pitcher in baseball, we're going to throw 160 innings this season. Top 10? Maybe. Is he one of the 10 best pitchers in baseball right now? Like, I'm trying. I think I have gotten criticism at times for being too slow to change my opinions about players at times.

And in this case, I find myself having to pump the brakes on how high I want to rank Jared Jones because I think he might be Spencer Strider. He might. I don't know. He has maybe the best fastball and baseball right now. Based on the Stuff Plus model on VanGrafs,

he has the best slider or fastball and baseball. He also has a slider that's like a top 15 pitch in baseball. His curveball and change up, which he rarely throws, also look really good by the Stuff Plus metrics. He has, I think, two walks in his first four starts, which was the biggest question coming in for him. I don't know. I'm trying to not get too excited about Jared Jones,

but I didn't have him as a top 75 starting pitcher coming in. I've moved him into my top 30 already. I moved him to 26 after 10, which is just behind Joe Musgrove, Chris Sale, and Joe Ryan. Now, I think you could quibble with Joe Musgrove, certainly given how he's pitched, but he has a long enough track record that I'm not going to hold that against him. And then Joe Ryan is another guy who doesn't have a super long track record of success,

but pitched like an ace in the first half of last season. Then he got hurt. Comes back out this season has this harder slider, harder splitter. And he's pitching like an ace. He's been just as impressive as Jared Jones arguably. Thank you to my cat for contributing to the conversation. I'm going to move her. Excuse me.

And so I've moved him right behind Joe Ryan because I just can't really justify moving him ahead of Joe Ryan. But like, then I look a little higher in the rankings. I'm like, I don't know if Hazel of Lozardo is better than Jared Jones. I have him like eight spots higher. So maybe I just need to move Hazel Lozardo down, but I don't want to overreact to his poor start. Grayson Rodriguez seems more bankable than Jared Jones, but we haven't seen a stretch this good from Grayson Rodriguez yet.

I don't know, man. I think you can absolutely make a case that Jared Jones on a perning basis right now is one of the 12 best pitchers in baseball, and he threw like 126 innings last season. So I don't see why he can't get to 170. I think where you moved him in the rankings, I haven't updated my rankings yet. I plan to do that on Wednesday.

I think it makes sense. I think it's a good hedge of your bet because for every start that he looks this good, you could just keep moving him up. You don't need to do that yet, right? Like you don't need to put him in your top 20 or top 15, but for every start that he looks this, dominant, he could just continue to leapfrog some of these either veterans that haven't looked

as good or guys that are getting off to slow starts, the Lizardos, Max Fried, I know his last start was good, but he struggled, Blake Snell off to a slow start. You know, Chris Sale, you still have him ranked ahead, I have him ranked ahead. It's kind of been a mixed bag so far for Chris Sale. Same thing with Joe Musgrove. So for every start that Jared Jones looks this dominant, we can continue to move him up. But I think where you have him right now makes sense. I mean, This is like maybe the most aggressive ranking I've ever had for a pitcher four starts into his career. But I really do think like, I think the Spencer Strider comp is the upside comp certainly. And I don't know, man.

This was the second highest strike percentage in a start in the pitch tracking era. So since 2008, he threw 50 of 59 pitches for. strikes in this start. It's just, it's hard to overstate how good he is, and somehow he has one win and four starts. Yep, that's, I think partially, I can't say it's a Pirates thing because the Pirates actually have been pretty good this year. Yeah. There's a lot of luck that goes into wins and losses for pitchers, so I'm not going to quibble with that, but I did want to bring up some other fun Jared Jones stats that I saw on Twitter here on Tuesday. Per the Pirates account, Jared Jones now has seven or more strikeouts in each of his first four career games.

He is the first major league player since 1893 to accomplish this feat, joining Masahiro Tanaka, Steven Strzberg, and Jose de Leon. Very interesting group of pitchers here, Jose DiLeon. Jose de Leon always shows up in those kind of things, and it makes me really sad that he was never able to stay healthy. And then this one, per Sarah Lang's, Jared Jones's 73 swings and misses are the most by a pitcher in his first four career starts in the pitch tracking era, which you mentioned dates back to 2008.

I think another reason why I wouldn't move him up too aggressively yet is the fact that he did only throw 59 pitches in this start. And I get why the pirates are going to do this, and I understand that it's going to frustrate some people for fantasy. It frustrated me here on Tuesday. I have Jared Jones in a few leagues. I would love to get the quality start. It didn't happen.

And as you mentioned, it was predetermined that he was just going to throw five innings coming into this one. And they're doing that to kind of prolong his longevity for longer into the season. season. So I think that kind of will leave some meat on the bone for fantasy because on a per start basis, he's just not going to throw as many innings as other pitchers. Now, there will be other starts, I think, where he's allowed to go six, seven, but then there's also going to be ones like this where maybe he only throws four, maybe he only throws five.

And I think that might limit his upside from a fantasy perspective. Yeah, I think that's reasonable. It makes getting to a top 12 finish pretty difficult. I don't think Spencer Shredder was a top 12 pitcher in his first season when he only threw 131 innings. But like I said, Jones threw 126 last year. So I do expect him to beat that if he stays healthy. Obviously, this caveat goes without saying,

but if he stays healthy. He's a young pitcher throwing 98 miles an hour. So unfortunately, yeah. Please, please stay healthy, Jared Jones. He is off to a tremendous start, and yeah, he's obviously looked amazing. Let's talk about my player of the night. Ryan Weathers of your Miami Marlins. He set a career high with 10 strikeouts up against the Giants,

six innings, two runs allowed, one walk to 10 strikeouts. He had 19 swinging strikes on 90 pitches. Nine of those came on the changeup. Five on the sweeper, three on the fastball, two on the cutter. 43% CSW. He had everything. working. Apparently left this start early due to cramping in his left hand and obviously it was still an amazing outing here. Change up the pitch mix a little bit. Sweeper was his most used pitch at 34% followed by the changeup and then the fastball was his third most used pitch.

And entering the start, the sweeper and the changeup have been really, really good for Ryan Weather. So if his fastball could just be passable at 95, 96 miles per hour from the left hand side, with two really awesome secondary pitches, there might actually be something here with Ryan Weathers. He's only 16% rostered. Looks like he's in line for one start against the nationals next week. Chris, are you looking to add Ryan Weathers? I guess probably in deeper leagues first, but what do you think about this start?

Yeah, I think anytime you see someone go out and strike out 10 in a start, you probably need to at least consider adding them. I know we've had a handful of big performances like that, and there were a handful of big pitching performances today. But like, if you're in the kind of league where you were considering adding Jack Leiter, who we'll talk about shortly, I think Ryan Weathers is in that same conversation as a low likelihood but high upside bet. You know, he's looked, his last start before this was pretty good.

The one before that was pretty good. It was mostly just the first start. That was, you know, three-armed runs and four innings. but yeah, I think Ryan Weathers has looked solid so far. He would clearly be behind Edward Cabrera, right? Who we spoke about yesterday? Definitely. What about Ryan Weathers versus Yariol Rodriguez and Jose Buto,

who we spoke about on Sunday's podcast? I would probably, gosh, I think I would go weathers ahead of both of them, but I think it's probably closer with Budo, than Rodriguez, just because I don't think we're going to get a lot of innings out of Rodriguez. We didn't mention this on the last podcast, but he was a reliever almost entirely in his time in Japan. He might not have started a single game there, actually. And he didn't pitch last season in organized baseball because he was trying to get out of his contract.

So I would be surprised if we got 100 innings out of Yario Rodriguez. So that's enough to put Ryan Weather's ahead of him. Now, I might go with Jack Leiter. the Rangers prospect who is getting called up to make his debut on Thursday. I think there's a lot of really interesting things about him. Don't just look at the really ugly minor league ERA with him. But those are the kind of upside pitchers I'd be aiming for. Last one.

Would you go with Ben Brown or Ryan Weathers? I think I'd go with Ryan Weathers. Yeah. I mean, Ben Brown might have a rotation spot with how Kyle Hendricks is pitching right now. Oh, gosh. Even with James and Tyone coming back, I apologize for your.

and a lonely labor team. Don't mind me, geez. But I think I'd probably rather have weathers than Brown. All right, yeah. I think I would agree with most of those. Again, it's more so for deeper leagues. If you play in a shallower 12-team

points league format for now, I think I would kind of take a wait-and-see approach with weathers, just because I have to imagine there are some other interesting starting pitchers still available in leagues that shallow. Want to give an honorable mention. Shout out to Mookie Betts, who went five for five.

with two doubles, two RBI, and two runs scored. And it's early on in the season, but he was my NL MVP pick, Chris, and so far so good, he's hitting 380. He's got six homers, three steals, 22 runs, 18 RBI, and 1190 OPS to open the season. And I'm just seeing now I have this crazy Cubs and D-Backs game on. It was down to the final out.

The score was 11 to 10, Adbert Alslai, and for the save. Kutel Marte, a game-tying-hying home. run with two outs in the ninth clutch. Most underrated hitter in baseball right there. Catel Marte.

Yeah. Another one. Just stay healthy. He's, you know, whenever he's on the field. He's pretty awesome. Let's quickly promote a few things.

Thank you, everyone, for watching us live. Like this video and subscribe to the YouTube channel if you haven't already. That's YouTube.com slash fantasy baseball today. And a reminder that you can always

find FBT and our five-minute podcast, FBT, and 5 on Spotify. Let's take our first break. When we return, we will talk more about those prospect promotions right after this. Welcome back in. We got the news of a pair of prospect promotions here on Tuesday. The Rangers are promoting Jack Leiter to make a start on Thursday against the Tigers, 23 years old, second overall pick back in 2021.

And it's mostly been a struggle for Jack Leiter in the minors, but he made some tweaks towards the end of last season. He showed up this spring, pitched decently. there. And he's off to a nice start this season in the minors. Three starts at AAA, a 377 ERA, a 0.98 whip, 25 strikeouts over 14 and a third innings. But most importantly, just three walks. Control has been probably the biggest issue for Jack Leiter in the minors. He is 34% rostered. Chris, where would you be looking to add Jack Leiter right now? Yeah, I mean, the path kind of reminds me of McKenzie Gore. Remember, he was the top pitching prospect in baseball.

I think entering the 2021 season, if I have my timeline correct, by 2022's off season, I don't think he was even a top 100 prospect on most lists. That's what it feels like with Jack Leiter. And that's not to say he's going to figure out in the same way that McKenzie Gore has. But last year, he went from AAA down to the team's training complex in Arizona to work on his fastball in particular, but also just his delivery and his pitches. and came back and looked better, as you said, over the end of last season. The stuff looked really good in spring, even if the results weren't necessarily great.

And then the stuff has been really good and the results have been terrific so far. It's only three starts. But I think even in your 12th team leagues, you should be looking to add Jack Leiter if you have a Ross spot to play with. Now, if Ryan Weathers and Edward Cabrera are available in your league, specifically Edward Cabrera, like I would prioritize Edward Cabrera. ahead of Jack Leiter because he already made the start

where he did the thing we're hoping Jack Leiter can do, right? Yeah. But if Jack Leiter comes out on Thursday and strikes out nine in five innings or six innings would not be surprised given how he's looked at AAA. I know Enosaris tweeted that his stuff, I think,

was fourth ranked among all AAA starters. So far, so that's a pretty good sign. So yeah, I think Jack Leiter is definitely someone worth adding, Certainly in all 15 team leagues, if you have nightly waiver runs and even in 12 team leagues, I'd be looking at them.

So we mentioned yesterday that Max Meyer was sent down. Would you be our right dropping Meyer for lighter or Ryan Weathers? Yes. All right. The Dodgers are, well, already did, promote outfield prospect Andy Paix. And that's spelled Pages, but it's pronounced Pahez.

So for anyone wondering how to pronounce his name, 23-year-old prospect known mostly for his power. He missed most of last season after undergoing surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder. He was off to a nice start at AAA, hitting 371 with five homers, an 11% walk rate, 18% strikeout rate, 91.3, average exit velocity.

I was texting with the Welsh earlier because I remember somebody telling me this spring that Pahas looks like a completely different player, like just in phenomenal shape. and it was the Welsh. I was like, that was you, right, who told me that.

And he said, yeah, he looks phenomenal, his best shape of his life type thing. He went one for four where the run scored two strikeouts in his debut here on Tuesday, 17% rostered.

Where, if anywhere, Chris, would you be looking to add Andy Paquez of the Dodgers? So the problem is he's one of these guys who will probably hit, you know, 25 homers,

25 to 30 homers at his peak, but might have to sacrifice some batting at every. average to do that. Although the quality of contact this year at AAA and the gains he's made there could maybe give him a little more room to hit for average without sacrificing power, but he's not going to run much. I think he's been more of like an eight steel guy in his minor league career. So it's a tough needle to thread, but look, the Dodgers love him. He got a lot of hype from people around the team this spring. The fact that he's hitting the ball.

as well as he is right now coming off of labrum surgery last year, I think is a really interesting sign. I think he only played like 34 games last year, got hurt in his first game at AAA, unfortunately last season. So, yeah, I think certainly all 15 team leagues, any NL only league, Andy Pahas needs to be added.

But again, if you have a roster spot to play with, I don't mind being aggressive on these top 100 prospect call-ups who may not, work out, I think the likeliest outcome, perhaps, is that Pahas doesn't work out, but I don't mind being aggressive just in case it works out, because you probably have someone boring

who isn't going to be added immediately on your roster if you need to drop someone. Yeah, I think in five outfielder leagues, for sure, if you have an empty roster spot, obviously 15 teamers, 12-team five outfield leagues. I think he's kind of fringy in that format, but yeah, yeah, let's see how he finishes out

the rest of the week. I know most people's waivers run over the weekend, But of course, if you have a roster spot to play with, I think we would prefer to take the shot on Jack Leiter before Andy Pahez. But if you're looking for power, he is someone who might be able to provide that. Let's continue on with the news and notes.

Ozzie Albies was placed in the IL with a fractured toe on his right foot. He suffered the injury on a hit-by-pitch Monday and Albies won't require surgery and could be sidelined two to three weeks. Luis Guillorme started at second base on Tuesday and Michael Harris was moved up to second in the Braves lineup So if there is a silver lining for anybody,

it would be Michael Harris' fantasy managers right now because obviously he moves up. Looking at some replacements, Chris, for Ozzy Albies. In a head-to-head points league, each of Jordan Westberg, Jorge Polanco, and Jonathan India are all under 75% rostered. I think it's very clearly, has to be Westberg. He's just playing out of his mind right now.

So we're in agreement there. In a Roto or Categories League, there's Jose Caballero, say down Raphaelah, I don't know, I included him here. He's just so bad, yeah. It's not off to a great start. Yeah, I would much rather prefer Caballero. And then in deeper leagues, it's ugly at second base man. Jared Triolo, Kevin Bigio, Davis Schneider, Ahmed Rosario.

Anybody stand out? I'm trying to, let me see. I was looking at under 40% rostered on CBS and. Yeah, um, I wrote about waiver wire targets. I usually do a deep league targets. Let me see who I said. Luis Garcia, seven doubles in his first 13 games,

really, really good quality of contact. He was only 7% rostered as of this weekend. So that's one to consider. I'd probably prioritize him over Triolo and Bijio and Schneider and Rosario. Christian Yelich was officially placed in the aisle with a lower back strain, and the brewer started South Freelich,

Blake Perkins, and Jackson Trurio, in the outfield on Tuesday. If you're looking for outfield replacements, Will Benson, Lars Neupar, South Freelick, Mitch Hanager, Jose Siri are all under 60% rostered. Chris, you have a favorite of that group? If I don't need steals, I think I'd probably go Hanager. I think he's the best hitter of that group.

So yeah. I think in a points league, I'd probably go with Neupar in a Categories League. If you need steals, I'd probably go with Benson or Siri. if you're just looking for a little bit of pop, I think I would agree on Mitch Hanager. In deeper leagues, Jesse Winker, Jonathan Clase, and Ryan O'Hern,

they're all under 20% rostered on CBS. Jesse Winker, again, I'm pretty skeptical. I don't know that I'm completely buying it, but he had another good game here on Tuesday, two for three with his second home run. It came off of a lefty too, so. The quality of contact has just really not been good so far. He did have two hard hit balls today,

so maybe that's starting to turn around. I think he had like a hundred mile per hour double on Sunday or Monday as well. So maybe he's starting to figure it out a little bit and turning it around. So I don't know, in deeper leagues, Winkers fine. Yeah. Rafael Devers was removed due to left knee discomfort. He also missed time with a shoulder injury over the this past weekend. Garrick pulled through from 75 feet and came out of it all right.

We'll see how his arm responds. Both Jordan Romano and Eric Swanson were active. on Tuesday. Romano thrown right back into the fire. He had a two-run lead in the ninth inning. He allowed one run, but did pick up his first save. Velocity looked fine. So I think we're all good there with Jordan Romano. Can we go back? Sure. To a outfielder that we did not mention. Yep. Who you got? I know we're annoyed by it because he's blocking guys that we're more excited about. But Ryan O'Hern just keeps hitting. I mentioned. And he's he did mention him. Okay. Okay. Yeah, there he is. He's only 16% rostered. Hit another home run today, I believe. Yeah, it's been like a year straight of Ryan O'Hern frustratingly hitting well for, you know, for our purposes because we want him to get out of there, even though he's been good, which is maybe says something about our priorities

and our unwillingness to accept when veterans are actually productive, but that's a discussion for a different time. Yeah, I was thinking about that as well. Just that we want to see Heston Kyristad and Kobe Mayo, but... They could be anything. They could be Ryan O'Hern. Yeah. I had someone in the mentions today saying, asking,

what if Ryan O'Hern is just mid-career breakout Max Muncie? And I didn't... It's unlikely. I didn't have a retort. I was like, well, why not? He might be. I don't know. I guess we have to see, like, a larger sample from Ryan O'Hern.

Josh Lowe is slated to begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Thursday. Ray's manager, Kevin Cash, said that Lowe might not need too much time at AAA, given how well he's been feeling. Tyler Wells was placed on the IL with right elbow inflammation. And if we're looking for a replacement in the Orioles pitching staff, I think John Means could be ready soon. If not, I would say pay attention to pitching prospect Kade Povich, who's off to a nice start at AAA.

Sayas Suzuki is expected to miss roughly four weeks due to a moderate train in his right oblique. Yohan Duran through a 25-pitch bullpen session Tuesday and expects to face live batters on Friday. Tyler O'Neill cleared concussion. protocol, but will sit Tuesday and Wednesday before potentially rejoining the Red Sox on Thursday. Salvador Perez has missed two straight with a left groin strain. Gabriel Moreno was scratched Tuesday due to a right thumb contusion. Garrett Whitlock was removed from his start due to left

oblique tightness. Jay Cronerworth out of the lineup with calf tightness. Brett Bady was removed due to left hamstring tightness. Lots of tightness. DJ LaMayhew is expected to begin a rehab assignment this weekend. He started the season on the IL with a non-displaced fracture in his right foot. And White Sox manager Pedro Grifold said Eloy Jimenez and Gavin Cheats could make starts in the outfield. Not sure that's going to help Eloy Jimenez stay on the field. Let's talk about those Orioles. I just wanted to run through. Their lineup had a huge game here on Tuesday. 11 runs against the twins, 15 hits, including three homers. Gunner Henderson off to a tremendous start. He is batting 275, five homers, 12 runs, 14 RBI, four steals.

Chris, Gunner Henderson's 150 game pace right now. 53 homers and 35 steals. I think I'd take the under. I would too, but... On both of those, but he's real good. Based on the quality of contact, if he's going to run this much, he might just play himself into a first-round player. I mean, that was the thing about him last year is like he didn't run

that much, but he was athletic enough that if you were looking for a reason, he could take a step forward. I think one, hitting like he did in the second half overall, and then two, running a little more. He's 84th percent on sprint speed. He only had 10 steals last season, but he's already up to four. And that's a pretty positive sign. Ryan O'Hern, we already spoke about him, but he went two for five with his fourth home run. He had four hard hits in this game, all of which were over a hundred mile per hour exit velocity, five walks up five strikeouts. just crushing the ball early on. 93.3 average XIVor velocity.

He's not going to play against lefties, and that's going to be a problem next week because there are six games on the schedule, and it looks like there are three lefties as of now. Things could change, but I think Ryan O'Hurne, especially if you're playing a daily lineup league, great player to have in that format,

just get him in whenever he's playing. Jordan Westberg, another big game. Two for four with his fourth home run, two RBI. He had three hard hits in this game. The home run, went to left field. Don't tell Scott White. It went past the cutout.

It was a 400, four-foot homer in this one. And Jordan Westbergs is off to a tremendous start. He's 71% rostered. Chris, I'll give you some names that have a higher roster rate at second base. Jorge Polanco. Who would you rather have? Westberg. Jeff McNeill.

Westberg. This one's fun. Nolan. I will stick with Gorman, but yes, that is very fun. of you to ask me that question and not have to answer it yourself. I would take Gorman as well. We both like Gorman coming into the year. Bryce Terrang.

I think it would have to be Westberg. Yeah. I think it's format dependent, maybe. I think it. So the thing with Terang is he had, what, four, seven steals in the first, like, four games of the season. And I think he has one since then. That sounds right.

since then. Two in his last 10 games. There's like still a 32, 32 steel pace. I think he will be a valuable source of steals. I just don't know if it's necessarily, he's going to be that, the giant outlier he looked like early on.

It might be another Ramon Luriano from a few years ago, if you remember that, when he had like eight steals in the first five games or whatever. Third baseman who are more, rostered than Jordan Westberg, just above him, Matt Chapman? Westberg. Michael Garcia.

There were an awful lot of victory laps after the first like four or five games for Michael Garcia and it's been pretty quiet since then. Jordan Westberg. That one is close because I like the... The counting stat potential for Michael Garcia is better because of the lineup. He's going to steal more bases probably.

I think the Orioles lineup is better but Garcia leads off. Yeah, now that's the... the big difference is Westberg's hitting what seventh most days? Yeah, six or seventh, I think. Yeah. So, that one's close. I think I would stick with Michael Garcia, though.

That roster rate just needs to climb. I think Westberg has to get up over 80%. And so we can stop talking about him. I think Westberg versus Christopher Morel is a really interesting one. Very similar players. Morel probably in the better parks. And maybe that's a reason to take him. But I think in terms of talent, it's very close.

Who would you take? I'll leave Morel ahead for now. I might go with Westberg, just because he doesn't strike out as much, so he's not going to be as streaky, and he hits the ball as hard, if not harder than Morel, at least so far this season. Yeah, that one's really close. I think I'd go with Westberg.

One player in the starting lineup who did not pick up a hit, the only one was Jackson Holiday. He went 0 for 3 with a walk and two strikeouts. It's a very small sample size early on here, Chris, but I'm sure there are concerned, Fantasy managers out there. Jackson Holiday is one for 22 so far with 12 strikeouts. That is a 52% strikeout rate.

He entered Tuesday with a 78% ground ball rate, 84.4 average exit velocity. I think the good news for Holiday is that because this lineup is so good, there's no pressure on him to perform. As long as he's sufficient defensively, the leash is going to be pretty long for Jackson Holiday. I think.

Yeah, I mean, it's, I don't know. It's not like Tony Kemp was giving them much. more than that anyway. So yeah, I, he looks overwhelmed right now. Like, he has a 50% whiff rate on fastballs. That is totally untenable. He is hitting everything into the ground. He's striking out way too much. Like, if a player were not ready for the majors, this is what it would look like. But it's 22 at bats. So I'm not going to panic about him. I'm certainly not dropping him. Maybe you sit him if this continues for the rest of this week, but I'm not going to overreact. The only, I guess, argument you can make against Jackson Holiday, and I don't think this

is going to happen, but if the Orioles really want to field their best team, they could go with Westberg at second base, and they could call up Kobe Mayo to play third and see what happens. But again, you're going from one prospect to another then, and I just don't think that's going to happen. I have to imagine they're going to give him more than, you know, what has it been seven games? Yeah, for sure. Just wanted to acknowledge the slow start there. Absolutely.

Let's talk about some mid-career breakout pitchers, question mark, maybe. These guys all pitched pretty well here on Tuesday. Ranger Suarez, my bad. We're just getting to him now, 30 minutes into the podcast. Yes, he was amazing. Second complete game of the season, not by Ranger Suarez, but just- Okay, that's what I was wondering if there was one before that. That's what I was about to look up at.

It was Ronel Blanco's no-hitter. Oh, that's right. He did throw a hitter. You're right. You're right. So Suarez up against the Rockies, a seven hit shutout, one walk, eight strikeouts. He had 18 swinging strikes on 112 pitches. Seven of those on the curve, five on the changeup, four on the fastball.

One on each of the sinker and the cutter. He only allowed five hard hits in this game. It's a pretty standard pitch mix. I noticed the velocity for Suarez is down on the sinker this year. Maybe that's on purpose. Maybe he's able to command his pitches better or specifically. the sinker when he's, you know, takes a little bit off of it. What I've noticed mostly, Chris, is that he's keeping the walks down and the ground ball rate

is back up to where it was a couple of years ago, 62% ground ball rate. If he does those two things together, we might have a mid-career breakout-ish type season here from Rangers Juarez. Yeah, I mean, part of the problem with the mid-career breakout is it kind of already happened for him, right? 2021, he was incredible. 2022, he was pretty good. So, yeah, I buy that he could get back to where he was in 2022.

When he was a 365 ERA pitcher, you know, you'd hope for a better whip if the control improvements stick. But the problem is you apologize for not getting to him until 30 minutes into the episode, but he's 94, 96% rostered something on, 85% rostered on CBS Sports League. So it's not really actionable, right? Like I could say sell high on Ranger Suarez. Is anybody buying Ranger Suarez? Is anybody getting give you a significant piece for him?

That's part of the problem. I think it's fine to be optimistic about him. I think it's fine to believe that he can be a useful pitcher moving forward. But I'm not buying him being an ace or anything like it or even really like a top 50 starting pitcher. But he could be in the 60 range. Yeah. I think a mid-career breakout for Rangers Juarez would mean he elevates himself

to that Jose Barrios Merrill Kelly type production, right? Where that's like a top 40 starting pitcher doesn't have massive upside, but just a really, really solid starter week in and week out. But I guess, yeah, if we're talking actionable, if you want to try and sell high on Rangers Juarez for Jesus Lazzardo or Blake Snell is absolutely, yeah. Those would be easy calls.

Okay. Three other names here who might be mid-career breakout pitchers. Usay Kikuchi has turned in back-to-back quality starts, this one up against the Yankees, six innings, one run, nine strikeouts to just one walk. Aaron Savali has a quality start in three of four outings, this time against the Angels. It was six innings, three runs, eight strikeouts to zero walks.

He had 16 swinging strikes on 101 pitches. And Ronaldo Lopez is three for three on quality starts. First two matchups, admittedly, much easier. at the Houston Astros. That's a tough place to pitch. Six shutout innings, seven strikeouts, excuse me, 14 swinging strikes on 94 pitches. The velocity's down this year.

He's throwing 95, 96 miles per hour. But the secondary pitches have looked pretty good for Ronaldo Lopez. He's up to 80% rostered. What do you think, Chris, about the mid-career breakout chances of Cacucci, Savali, and Ronaldo Lopez? I would rank them,

Cacucci, Savale, and Bernardo Lopez in terms of how interested I am in them. Lopez, we saw stretches like this from him as a starter in the past, and he never really sustained them. I still suspect that that's the likeliest outcome, that especially in Roto leagues, I think the ratios could get pretty ugly at times. But in head-to-head points leagues, I think you just leave them in your lineup as a spark and don't worry about it. So I think he does clear that lower bar. Kukuchi, I mean, we're going on close to a year of him pitching, not at an ace level, but at a really high level. You're talking like a 36 ERA, a 193 strikeouts over his last 33 starts, a 1,25 whip.

Like that's what we were hoping for from Kodi-Sanga, right? Like, that's, that's potentially a top 25, top 30 starting pitcher. I get that there's been a lot of ups and downs in Kukuchi's career. And if we're being honest, mostly downs. Um, but I don't see why he shouldn't be a top 50 starting pitcher in the rankings moving forward. Yeah, I would agree with that wholeheartedly Kikuchi has been great. Really, all four of these pitchers have been really good so far to start the season again. That's Svarez, Kikuchi, Savali, and Rinal.

Lopos. Let's take our final break when we return. It's time to fire up the Worryometer for some mid-round hitters. We'll do that right after this. It's a Worryometer Wednesday, and today we're talking about mid-round hitters. I've got six names that I think we're going, I don't know, between picks 60 and like 125. So let's start things off with Nick Cassiano. Someone I knew you drafted a lot of Chris, 169 batting average. He's got zero homers, a 408 OPS.

to me, the drop-off or what would make me worried about Nick Cassiano's is the plate discipline. And so far, that's really not a concern. He's just, it feels like he's hitting a lot of lazy fly balls right now. So, where are you at, 1 to 10, the Worryometer on Nick Cassiano's? Yeah, like the quality of contact isn't good for Nick Castionos, but it's not terrible. So far, he's hit one ball 109 miles an hour. His average X velocity is 89. His hard hit rate's 42%.

right around where it was last season. So I don't think there's too much reason to be worried about Nick Castiano. I think he's just a streaky hitter who's off to a pretty bad start. And just spoiler alert, my worryometer is going to be pretty low on all of these guys. So how are we calculating, calibrating this? Zero. No concern at all. 10 is drop them.

Sure. Four, three. Yeah, I just wanted to mention some of these names because these are the ones we're getting lots of questions about it. I think mostly people just want to hear us acknowledge the name and know that they are struggling. And I guess that's the main point of this exercise today. We can talk about Paul Goldschmidt, who's betting 190.

Believe he hit a home run on opening day, has not done much of anything since. He's got a 5.30 OPS. Strikeout rate is a little bit elevated for a hitter who's pushing 40 years old now. the quality of contact is down. Warrior level on Paul Gulchman. I want to just check one thing on the pushing 40.

All right. He's only like nine months older than me. Let's pump the brakes on pushing 40. I thought he was older than that. I'm not. He's only 36. He doesn't turn 37 until September. He's closer to 40 than 30.

He is closer to 40 than 30. That is true. but I just know if I was going to be worried about any of these guys it would definitely be the guy who's pushing 40 the strike rate being up the fact that he's not hitting the ball hard like those are all really concerning signs he hasn't hit a ball harder than 105 miles per hour so far this season it's very early but the quality of contact metrics are all pretty poor

relative to where they've been heck relative to anybody really. So yeah, I do think Goldschmidt is more concerning than probably anyone else here just because of his age.

Yeah, I'll say a 5.5.5. 5.51. Yes, that is Paul Goldschmidt who's actually pushing 37, not 40. I was off by a couple of years. Glaver Torres is batting 206 with zero homers. He does have three steals. It's a 556 OPS.

Plate discipline looks good. Quality of contact is all right. What I've noticed is he has a 17% infield fly ball rate. Those are automatic outs. So I think that's contributed to some of it. I think he had an injury, maybe late in spring or early in the season. I feel like he got hit by a pitch on his hand or something like that. I want to say it was a hand injury.

That sounds right. So that might be contributing here. Woriometer on Glaver Torres. Two. Yeah. Like he's striking out a little bit more, but it's 21% it's hardly concerning.

He does have a batted ball up at 109 miles an hour. This is max exevalo. Average exofilo is pretty good. I think he's just not locked in yet, but I'm not too concerned about Glaver Torres. Jordan Walker is batting 184 with zero homers, zero steals, and a 556 OPS.

He is hitting the ball really hard, 92.1 average exit velocity, but a similar problem to last year, 56% ground ball rate. worryometer on Jordan Walker. Yeah, he's a worm burners. Is that a thing that people say? I think so.

He's burning some worms right now because, yeah, like you said, he's hitting the ball really hard. 92.1 mile per hour average eggs of velocity. It's just too often on the ground or, frankly, in the harmless range of fly balls, you know, too high or too low. So I don't know. I think he's probably going to figure it out.

The fact that he's hitting the ball hard does seem like a pretty good sign. But I mean, I was talking to a friend earlier who was asking about him. He dropped Jordan Walker for, gosh, I can't find it. I don't want to waste anybody's time. And that's exactly what I'm doing. He dropped Jordan Walker for Jackson Merrill. Like I have Jordan Walker ranked high. higher than Jackson Merrill.

But I think that's a reasonable move to make because you're talking about two extremely young, extremely talented players. I would say Jordan Walker probably has the higher ceiling, but Jackson Merrill is doing it right now. And I think that's a reasonable move to make. I wouldn't drop Jordan Walker for, I don't know, Ryan O'Hern or whatever, like, veteran guy who's off to a good start, you know, fill in whichever version of that you want, probably a higher end version than Ryan O'Hern to make the point. But Mitch Hanigur.

I wouldn't drop him for McHanager. I wouldn't drop him from South Freelik. I wouldn't drop him. Probably not for Lars Neupar. But I think that one's interesting because Lars Neupar was probably a little better than him on a per game basis last season.

I might do that in a points league. Yeah, I think in a points league, that's okay. What about Colton Kouser? Not that Kouser's available anymore, but... Yeah, I think... I think I'd probably have to do that. I think so too. Zander Bogartz is betting 2-11 with one homer, one steel, and a 5-62 OPS. Quality of contact is bad so far. 84 mile per hour, average exit velocity. He also has some kind of pop-up

issues right now. 14% infield fly ball rate. Wariometer on Zander Bogarts. Again, because he's 31, it's going to be a little higher. You know, I think I could trend towards like a 4.6-3 on Zander Bogart's, but he's still making a ton of contact. He's never been a guy who had outrageously good quality of contact. He's consistently outperformed his expected metrics. So like his expected Wobos actually 327. That's the best that's been since 2021. And Zana Bogartz, like I said, is a guy who pretty consistently outperforms his expected metrics.

So I'm going to revise that downward and say 3.42 on the Worryometer. Spencer Torkelson, 209 batting average. Zero homers and a 577 OPS. He is not hitting the ball very hard at all. He's not doing anything well right now. No, no. Well, he's making contact. The plate is a plan is, yeah, it's not terrible,

but it looks like it's just a lot of lazy fly balls right now. Where are you at Worryometer on Torkelson? Yeah, one in five of his batted balls so far has been a pop-up, which is there are different ways. ways to measure that. Fan graphs uses infield fly ball rate, which uses fly balls as the denominator. Baseball savant uses all batted balls, and he's at 20%. So that's really bad. Wow. I think he's probably just not locked in, and I think he's probably got to find his swing, the fact that he's making a lot more contact than normal, but it's a lot of weak contact suggests that there's probably some kind of mechanical thing that Spencer Torkelson needs to fix. but I think it's fine to be worried about him

because he's by no means a sure thing. We saw an entire half season where he was pretty awful last year to spice some good underlying metrics. So I'll drop Spencer Torkelson a five on the Worryometer. I think it's fine to be a little worried about him, yes. And I'm building in excuses here for Torkelson,

but I think for Tigers hitters early on in the season where it's cold and they're playing, a bunch of other AL Central teams where it's also outdoors and it's cold. So I think you can kind of, you know, add that in as another reason why some of these guys might get off to slow starts in that division. Chris, who would you be looking to buy low mostly on of the hitters we just spoke about? Castellanos, Goldschmidt, Glaber, Jordan Walker, Bogartz, and Torkelson. Probably Glaber. Yeah.

Because the quality of contact was really good last season. He's become a pretty good base stealer. So I do think once he figures that out, he'll be a very valuable player. Also, just, I don't know, everybody seems to want to give up on Nick Castellanos. And I don't. So I think you could probably get Castellanos pretty cheap. I would imagine there are some people who might even be considering dropping him. And I would not do that as we discussed.

So I think Castionis is a pretty good by low target. Let's get back into Tuesday's action and Waverwire pitchers outside of. Weathers, who we already spoke about. John Gray turned in his first quality start of the season. He was at the Tigers, six innings, two runs, seven strikeouts with 16 swinging strikes. Casey Meis turned in his first quality start. He was opposing John Gray facing the Rangers,

six innings, two runs, six strikeouts to zero walks. Only seven swinging strikes still allowed some hard contact in this outing. Jose Cantano was solid up against the pirates, five innings, one run, four strikeouts in that one. and Lance Lynn at the Oakland A's, seven innings, two runs. One of those was earned. Only one strikeout to one walk. Not the most exciting group ever, Chris,

but do you have any enthusiasm for any of these pitchers? John Gray, Casey Mize, Kentana, Lance Lynn. I think over the past week we've probably mentioned about two dozen pitchers who I would be more excited to add than any of these guys would be more excited to add, Edward Cabrera, Ryan Weathers. I'm sure there are a bunch of other names besides ones that pitch on the Marlins

but they're not coming to mind right now. Jose Buto? Jose Budo, sure. Jack Leiter? Jack Leiter, absolutely. John Gray is going to be useful for stretches and then he's going to have stretches where he's just not very good.

You're not going to really be able to predict when those happen. It's just the John Gray experience. And then Casey Meis, I was optimistic about him coming in because the spring numbers were pretty good. but he wasn't really getting a ton of strikeouts in the spring even though he was pitching well and facing a lower level of competition

and now he gets to the majors. And I just don't know where the whiffs are supposed to come from. His slider, his splitter, his curveball, none of those have been good swing and miss pitches, really at any point in his major league career. And that makes it extremely difficult to buy into Casey Meyes despite clear talent. It's just, I don't know, the feel for pitching maybe isn't there yet.

And I can see a stretch in Casey Meis's career where he looks like a really good pitcher. I just don't buy it right now. If you want to beat the waiver wire for two-star pitchers, it looks like Kintana is home against the Cardinals and at the Giants next week. And Lance Lane is home against the D-Baxon at the Mets. Though... All-name points leagues for me. Yeah, I just don't really trust the talent of either of those pitchers. so do with that what you will.

If you're someone like my dad who will pick up any two-star pitcher ever and just play them, then those are some names for you. Two names in deeper leagues. We already spoke about Ryan Weathers. Jose Suriano, effectively wild at the Tampa Bay raise, five innings, one hit, one run, but five walks, six strikeouts,

and he completely changed his pitch mix from the first start that he made. He ditched that splitter that he used 13% in his first start. He made the curveball his must. most used pitch. That looks like a nasty pitch. And he averages 99.4 miles per hour on his fastball. I think there could be something here. I would be more willing to pick up Jose Soriano over any of the names we just mentioned just because there's a chance.

Yes. Just because he's less proven mediocre than the other guys on the discussion that we were talking having before. I think I'd be fine with him. I probably wouldn't drop Casey Mize for him. But I think given the lack of proven mediocrity there, it's fine. The thing with Soriano is it's just I can buy him getting some strikeouts. The command looks pretty poor and surprising amount of hard contact so far in his major league career for how good the stuff looks based on the eye test. So I can't say even at 8% that he's too low. low roster. He's not someone I'm, I'm actively looking to add. He is RP only. So if you play in,

I guess a deeper points league, he's just a name to know that is Jose Soriano. Is he a two star pitcher next week? Because that could change that. Then I would say maybe in, in a lot of points leagues he's worth adding. But I think he's a two star pitcher this week. And it looks like he's facing the twins next week. Okay. Well. And they strike out a ton of it. They strike out a lot. They really like striking out. That's like their favorite thing over there in Minneapolis. So Half of their lineup has already hurt, so. Yeah, although they did send Matt Wallner down, so that's like three strikeouts off the top that you can't count on.

That was mean, I'm sorry. Yeah, what did Matt Walner ever do to you? Come on, man. Well, strike out like 75% of the time. Ah, you're right. Let's get into some of the leftovers, buy low or heck no. Tanner Bybee edition.

It's been a weird start to the season for Tanner Bybee. He was at the Red Sox, five innings, one run allowed, only three strikeouts. 10 swinging strikes on 92 pitches. He limited the hard contact in this one. Two walks over five innings. It's fine. I would have liked it to be a little bit better, I guess.

He changed up the pitch mix a little bit in this one. He threw his change up in his curveball a little bit more. I think more importantly, the fastball velocity was up for 10 or by, but he averaged 95.1 on that pitch today. And entering the start, I believe it was 93.6. So he got that up, closer to where it was last year. Chris, would you be looking to buy low on Tanner Bybee right now? I think Tanner Bybee is a very solid buy low candidate.

He got good swing and miss results on all three of his pitches that weren't the fastball prior to this start. Didn't get any with the slider today, if I'm remembering correctly. Yeah, it was the slider that he didn't get any whiffs with, but he got some with the changeup and curveball. So those still look pretty good. Fastball velocity being up, that's one of those things like you mentioned. with Spencer Torkelson, I'm going to guess he's pitched in some pretty rough weather so far. So Tanner Bybee's velocity being up to 95.1,

actually slightly up from last season. I think that's a pretty good sign. Yeah. All right. Would you trade Ranger Swares to get Tanner Bybee? Yes. Yes, I would. I did move Bybee down in my rankings.

Below Jared Jones, below Sunny Gray. him versus Chris Bassett, that's an interesting one that I have to give a little more thought to. I think I'd go, I think I'd go Bybee still, but it's the more upside. I think the strikeout upside is higher for Tanner Bybee. So I think I would still take him over Bassett as well. Some other pitching leftovers,

Grayson Rodriguez has turned in a quality start in three of four starts, and this one was home against the twins, six innings, two runs, six strikeouts. and that one. Logan Gilbert, another quality start, up against the Reds, six and two-thirds innings, one run, six strikeouts to just one walk. Jordan Hicks battled his way through five innings at the Marlins, five innings, two runs, three walks to five strikeouts.

He entered this start with three walks in his first three starts, and then he had three walks alone in this start. So he's always struggled with control. He obviously wasn't going to keep up what we saw early on in the season, but I thought it was encouraging that he's still. still kind of made it through this one unscathed. Dylan Seas was also wild but turned in a quality start at the Brewers, six innings one run, seven strikeouts to five walks,

and Hunter Brown bounced back from that horrific outing last time with a quality start against the Braves. So it is impressive to do that against them, six innings, two runs, three walks, three strikeouts. I just don't really get the Hunter Brown thing, Chris. He gives up a lot of hard contact. He doesn't get many whiffs. he walks too many batters.

So he's still young enough where he could turn it around. I don't want to dismiss that possibility. But anything you'd like to add on Brown, Cease, Hicks, Gilbert, and Grodd. Yeah, I mean, if you were thinking about dropping Hunter Brown and you didn't do it after the last start, I guess you wouldn't do it after this one. But I agree.

There's not a ton to be optimistic about. He's going to be in the 60 to 70 range of starting pitcher at best after I update things, probably below 70. So I don't, I don't have any problems dropping him if you want to. Grayson Rodriguez, one interesting thing I noted,

um, that has not shown up on baseball savant, but I did notice baseball prospectus, uh, pitch grading system. They have him throwing a slider and a cutter, whereas I think baseball savant just has a cutter for him. And the cutter velocity has been down like one and a half to two miles per hour.

I think that's because there's two separate pitches there. There's a slower slider with a little more horizontal break than there's the harder cutter. Slider rates out pretty well, according to baseball prospectus. Pitch pro, I think is what they call their pitch grading system. So that's something to keep an eye on because the cutter has been pretty bad for Grayson Rodriguez. I think he's really good. I don't know if he's going to become the ace. We hoped he would be as a prospect.

but I think Grayson Rodriguez, I feel very confident that he's very, very good. And so it's just, is he more like a Logan Gilbert? Or can he find that next level? I was just going to bring that up. The shape is going to be different than Logan Gilbert. He's not going to have quite as good command

as Logan Gilbert, but like, look, I've got Logan Gilbert on like three of my teams. I think he was underrated this spring. I think he's a very good pitcher who just gets, we tend to do this thing. where when we have high hopes for a pitcher and then they just become good,

we kind of underrate them a little bit. Jose Barrios had that a little bit in his career at times. So I don't want to underrate Grayson Rodriguez, and I certainly don't want to write off the potential for him to make an ace turn. He hasn't given us a ton of reasons to think that that's happening yet. And then Dylan Cs, I just want to say, I'm glad I didn't watch this start because this is like a classic Dylan C's start

where if I had watched it, I would have moved him down in my rankings because I hate watching him when he's like this. I also hate his change-up. Have you seen this dumb pitch that he's throwing? No. He's throwing like a 65-mile-an-hour change-up. Oh, Zach Ranky style.

It's basically an ephist. But he's like noticeably slowing his arm movement down. And I hate it. I keep seeing jiffs of it. And it's like, wow, look at this pitch. And it's terrible. That's all I want to say. He only threw it one time today, so that's my old man rant.

Fair enough. It's not a real pitch. Some hitting leftovers, Bryce Harper. With some signs of life, two for four with his fourth home run, he added three RBI. He's betting 215 early on in the season. Still hitting the ball really hard. I think he's going to be fine. Mike Trout, one for five with a walk, and his third stolen base.

284 batting average, seven homers, three steals. I'm saying, there might be a chance here. If he stays healthy, 40-20? Mike Trout? It's not crazy. Stephen Kwan is off to an incredible start. Three for five with the walk and two runs scored. He is batting 372 early on in the season. 18 runs scored in 17 games played. Tristan Kossis is heating up two for four with his fifth home run.

He's homered in three of his past four games. Signs of life from Nico Horner and Ian Hap. Horner went four for five with a double, a triple, two runs. He actually let off in this game. It was against a lefty. Ian Hap, three for four with his first home run of the season, a grand slam in that crazy game between the D-backs and the Cubs. And speaking of which, Lordis Gurell continues his awesome start.

He hit his fifth home run of the season. I think he's up to 20 RBI already. So yeah, it's been a great start for him. Anything you'd like to add here, Chris? A couple of names, Harper, Trout, Quan, Kassas, Horner, Guriel? Trout, it's not just that he's running. He's also cut the strikeout rate down to, I think, below 20%

at least it was coming into this start it was down to like 18% entering today so we mentioned in the off season that there could

still be room for Mike Trout to be a truly elite fantasy player and what we're seeing right now is Mike Trout looking like a

truly elite fantasy player so fingers crossed and then there was a really good piece in the athletic today by you know Saras about

it was about Stephen Kwan Jackson Merrill and C.J. Abrams three contact oriented hitter who are trying to tap into more power. Stephen Kwan, the guardians talked about this

being kind of an organizational thing, but specifically with Stephen Kwan trying to hit the ball with a little more authority. He does have two home runs so far, which is pretty good for a guy who only has six as his career high. He has a 16% hard hit rate, and an 85 mile per hour average exit velocity. He is not pulling the ball more often.

It's hitting a ton more line drives and a lot fewer ground balls. So maybe that's just he can, you know, kind of finagle his way into some power that way. But it was an interesting read, I guess, would be the way I would phrase it, even if I don't know if I necessarily buy, that there is a power breakout coming for Stephen Kwan.

Bullpen updates for the Tigers. Andrew Chaffin pitched a clean eighth with the game tied. The Tigers took a two-run lead. Chafin stayed out there to face Evan Carter, who he struck out. out and then Jason Foley got the final two outs for his fifth save of the season. For the two, Marlins, not the twins. Tanner Scott got the ninth with a three-run lead.

He walked two, but picked up his second save. For the Angels, Carlos Estevez got the ninth with a two-run lead. He gave up two runs on three hits, took his first blown save. The Rays would eventually win that game in a wild game in X-Reynes. And yet, arrow pointing up for Carlos Estevez. Yep, because. Because Robert Stevenson is not coming back anytime soon, it sounds like. That is correct.

For the Mets with Edwin Diaz unavailable, it was Drew Smith, who got the ninth. He struck out two for his first save. For the Red Sox, Kenley Jansen got the ninth with a one-run lead. He gave up a run on three hits, and it honestly should have been more, but Williara-Brayu made an awesome catch in right field. So shout out to him. For the Guardians, Emmanuel Class A got the 10th with a one-run lead. He gave up a hit.

He allowed the Ghostrunner to score. He took his second blown save, but wound up with a. the win. For the Braves, Reisel Iglesias entered with two outs in the ninth, a full-run lead. Runners on first and second.

He got Victor Carrotini to ground out for his fourth save. For the Cardinals, Ryan Helsley struck out one for his league-leading seventh save of the season. The Mariners continues to be messy for Andres Munoz.

I get why they want to use him in big spots and the highest leverage situations, but I think it's going to limit his save output this season. He entered with two outs, in the seventh, a runner on first, a two-run lead. He gave up a walk and a single,

but Julio Rodriguez saved the day by throwing Ellie Dale Cruz out at third base. Then Munoz also pitched a clean eighth inning. Ryan Stannick started the ninth. He walked two, he got two outs. And then it was lefty Taylor Saucedo who got the final out for his first save.

Do we just assume this is going to continue happening, Chris? It's just whatever the biggest moment of the game is, that's when Munoz is pitching. Yeah, I think that's probably okay to assume. And sometimes that'll be the biggest moment will be in the seventh inning.

And that'll be frustrating. But the highest leverage situation is often the ninth inning. And so I wouldn't be too concerned that like he's not going to lead the Mariners saves. It's just that maybe he gets 65% of the saves instead of 75% of the saves. That's a reasonable concern.

Maybe it's 25 saves instead of 30 saves. That's fine. I think that's a reasonable concern. concern, but nothing actionable there. I do want to point out Ryan Helsley early on. His velocity was down like three miles per hour. It's not quite where it was last season, but he averaged 98.9 miles per hour with his fastball. He's been right around 99 the last couple of outings. So I think we're no concerns there. Just stay healthy. We might have concerns in the Brewers rotation, in the Brewers bullpen. Excuse me. Abner, Arribay entered in the fourth inning down four to one.

he gave up three hits and a walk, but he didn't allow a run. Yoel Pai Amps pitched the ninth with the Brewers down 6 to 2 at the time. Both pitchers' ERAs are pushing 6. Aribe's whip is much higher. It's 1.96. My guess is if there was a save opportunity tomorrow,

it probably goes to Pai Amps, I guess. I would think that's more likely than Uribe. Um, Uribe's just been like his K minus walk rate is like 8% right now. That's really, really bad. The thing about him was we knew the command was going to be bad, but the strikeouts have not been there so far. And as long as that's the case,

it's going to be really hard for him to be a really good pitcher. Is Trevor McGill hurt? He is. He's on that concussion. Yeah. Concussion. So that's why he's only thrown two innings. So that would be the one where if they were going to,

try someone else, it would be him, but he's not available. So, yeah. To stream or not to stream for Wednesday. There are some interesting options here. I think Andrew Abbott at the Mariners, Paul Blackburn against the Cardinals, Stephen Matt's at the A's, Severino against the Pirates,

Waka at the White Sox, Dunning at the Tigers. I think they're all viable. Chris, who are your favorite three? I would probably go... Even Lettel versus the Angels. Yeah, I think Letel versus the Angels is an interesting one. I'd probably go Abbott, Waka, Severino.

Severino versus Letel is interesting. Severino just doesn't have a slider right now. It just has not been a good pitch for him. Also, we didn't mention Carlos Rodon, but his slider looked better today. So hopefully that's a sign of good things to come, but I remain pretty pessimistic about him. But those would be my three. Waka, Severino, and Abbott. I think I would agree, though, I've got a good feeling about Stephen Mads at the Oakland days as well.

On Thursday, it's a very light schedule. There's not much to choose from Jack Leiter in his debut. Do you dare do it at the Tigers? It's not a terrible matchup, so I could see it working out. I could see Griffin Canning being okay, but he's been so dismal this season that I don't think you could risk it. So no, I think Jack Leiter is. is the one if I had to stream anybody, but you probably shouldn't be streaming people on Thursday

as the takeaway here. Yeah, lots of options on Wednesday. Get your streamers in then, and then we'll pick it back up for the weekend. 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.