Fantasy Baseball Today - Jo Adell Heating Up, Eury Perez's Return & Struggling Hitters! (6/10 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 10, 2025

Jo Adell is picking things up (3:52). ... Alejandro Kirk is hitting over .380 over the past month (6:09). ... Denzel Clarke had one of the catches of the year (10:39). ... Eury Perez was rusty in his return (13:25). ... News (18:48): Hunter Greene is going for a second opinion on his back and ground. ... Jake Fraley and Max Muncy (ATH) had big games on Monday (26:23). ... Jeffrey Springs racked up the whiffs (28:55). ... Let's get a temperature check on Merrill Kelly, Shane Baz and Yusei Kikuchi (31:47). ... What to do with these six struggling hitters (39:44)? ... Let's do some quick hitters (49:30). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates, streamers and Team Name Tuesday (53:55). 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. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. I'm back, baby. Welcome into fantasy baseball today on Tuesday, June 10th. I am Frank Stample, joined by Scott White.

Today on the show, we'll take a look at Yuri Perez's return. Joe Adele is on a hot streak right now. What to do with these eight struggling hitters? But obviously, the big news of the day was the Red Sox promoting their top prospect, the top prospect in baseball, Roman Anthony. We did an emergency podcast on that. So be sure to check it out.

Anthony was in the lineup batting fifth for the Red Sox and went 0 for 4 with his first career RBI. And before we start, Scott, you, if anyone else listening out there, has ever thought about going to San Juan, Puerto Rico, do it. I had a great time, good food, nice beaches, amazing nightlife. Three days was not enough.

I've got to go back there and really explore because there is so, so much to do. I was, uh, all upset. I couldn't get to everything, Scott, but obviously, good times had by all. Glad you had a good time, Frank. How about you? How did you guys do? Uh, we, we did fine, except, uh, we did skip, we did skip the, uh, streamer not to stream segment heading into the weekend.

and we heard about that. For as little as we like that segment, the audience lives for it. We learned. So don't ever skimp on that one, Frank. Yeah. That was the big lesson of the weekend. That was definitely to your delight, right?

Did you plan that, Scott? Was that your planning? No, I mean, Chris sprang it on me at the end of the show. And I was like, oh, all right. I mean, I wasn't going to complain. But, yeah, no. No, Chris did a great job other than that. and yeah, I'm sure he'll be back on with you tomorrow.

He earned a night of not podcasting, I would say. That he certainly did. Definitely appreciate it, but let's get into Monday's action. Yeah, baby! Yeah, baby. Let's talk about Joe Adele, Scott, who is pretty hot right now, two for four with his 12th home run, three RBI, and over his last 13 games, he has back.

366 with six homers, 12 RBI, hitting the ball extremely hard, 92.3 average exit velocity, 17% barrel rate during that time. He's lowered the strikeouts. Overall, he's lowered the strikeouts this season. Expect the stats look really good. He has underperformed quite a bit. But only 30% rostered. I would say, you know, any five outfieler leagues where Joe Adele is still available,

I would probably change that. What do you think? Yep, I think he's on his redemption tour. now. I think we all caught wind of how good his expected stats look with his recent surge year. And the fact that he has an improved strikeout rate obviously helps with that. The exit velocities are great. Chris did point out on yesterday's show that Joe Adele tends to underperform his expected stats, but his expected stats have never been this good. So it is a huge amount of underperforming them right now.

And hopefully he's about to make up a lot of that. He was a late addition to my sleeper hitters for this week, so far so good with that. And yeah, I would say the odds of him contributing for points leagues are not great because he's still someone who doesn't walk very much, and those tend to be three outfielder leagues anyway. But I agree. Five outfielder leagues, Joe Adele,

has earned a second look for maybe what the fourth time? The fourth time we're giving Joe Adele a second look. How about that? Hey man. Still only 26. The prospect pedigree never goes away, although I guess it does at some point, but, you know, in our hearts, it's always there.

So, uh, Kate quit on the former top prospects. And look, Joe Adele actually had an okay season last year. The batting average was poor, but 20 homers, 15 steals. That's pretty good for five hours. out of the other league. So I want to see more speed out of him. But yeah, so far so good here.

And a recent hot stretch from Joe Adele. A recent hot stretch for someone of your, of on your side as well, Scott. Alejandro Kirk is picking things up. He had a huge game here Monday. Alejandro Kirk went four for five with a home run and two doubles. Good day. Great. But it was in isolation, you might say. Actually not. Alejandro Kirk has been absurd for over a month now, quietly, quietly absurd. Last 34 games, that is over a month. 381 is Alejandro Kirk's batting average. That's right, Frank, 381.

And if you go to his stackcast page, you're going to see an awful lot of red. You know, I hate to reduce analysis to that, but it is a lot of, the most telling thing at times, right? Particularly for a guy who's stagcast page doesn't normally look like that. Average exit velocity for Alejandro Kirk is 92.8. Expected batting average

311. That's 96th percentile. He's striking out just 10% of the time. That's nothing new for him. That's why Alejandro Kirk has sort of been on the tip of our telling in fantasy for a few years now

is just his contact skills or exceptional for that position especially but he's hitting the ball so much harder with regular playing time he looked like he might be putting it together over the final couple months last year after Danny Jansen was traded and he got more consistent playing time but now I think there's even a stronger case for it the problem is that

the last thing most of us need right now is another catcher so how useful is Kirk I mean, two catcher leagues He probably needs to be rostered, right? With that low strikeout rate, if he's able to sustain a batting average, you know, around 300, I think he's going to be

a really nice floor play in points leagues. He's going to be kind of what we want Cabaret Ruiz to be, but the batting average is never there, you know? I think that's possible for Kirk. So I don't know that I'd give up a higher upside option for him. I mean, Augustine Ramirez is still under-rastered. We keep coming back to that name,

and I'd rather have him than Kirk. I think there's a lot more upside there. But I think if Kirk stays healthy and remains reasonably productive, obviously he's not going to keep hitting 381 moving forward, but I think he'll be surprised how high he finished. and the head-to-head points rankings just by, you know, kind of kind of just going about his business. Who would you rather have between Alejandro Kirk and Kyle Teal, who was recently promoted by the White Sox? I would say I would shoot for the upside of Teal, but that's a close call.

It helps that Teal, the White Sox didn't play today, right? No. I believe Teal has started every game. he got called up. And it's hit fine so far. So, yeah, started. It's only three games, but it's a pretty, it's a good early indication that even with Edgar Carrow there,

Teal is going to have, you know, it's not going to be a Dalton rushing situation. Would you drop any of these names for Alejandro Kirk, Francisco Alvarez? I wouldn't mind it. I don't know. Am I wrong about that? Like I kind of just have Alvarez fatigue, I feel like.

And I'm just supposed to keep conceding to that upside. But he's done next to nothing since returning, right? Or has it just... On the season, he's hitting 255 with two homers? Yeah, just two homers. You got to get more homers from that for Alvarez to matter. So, yeah, I think I'd be willing to swap him out for Kirk where that's possible. What about Sean Murphy?

Yeah, Murphy. Yeah, Murphy's just not playing enough. And one other name you mentioned, Cabot Ruiz. I think Kirk is better at this point, yeah. All right, again, that was Alejandro Kirk that we were just talking about. Scott, did you see Denzel Clark's catch on Monday? Of course I did. Oh, my gosh.

I mean, we cannot wrap up, oh, my goodness, without at least acknowledging it. I mean, since he's been up, he has two of the craziest catches that you'll ever see. I mean, like this is, it looks like something out of a video game, like Slug Fest back in the day. You got to tapple these buttons to do a crazy home run robbery. I mean, Denzel Clark is on a different level right now. So it wasn't just a home run, because some some home run robberies look kind of lame if we're being perfectly honest. And it's a stretch to even call them a home run robbery. But this was leaping waist high, body halfway folded over the fence, reaching out and grabbing it.

it was, it almost is kind of scary to watch because when you get that high and you've got that much momentum going, it just seems like it'd be so easy to just flip right over the fence, you know, once your body's halfway hanging over it. I don't know. I hear my mom like gasping when I see a play like that, which I guess makes me an old lady in my response to it. But, but, but yeah, no. impressive home run robbery.

I broached the issue on Twitter because a lot of people are like Catch of the Year, Catch of the Year. It's certainly a contender. But I brought up the Dalton Varsho catch from about a month ago where he fell down in the warning track back to the infield

and just kind of like reaches his arm behind him and somehow the ball lands in it. And like, they're impressive in different ways, I would say. And I think a lot of people, you know, I don't want to diminish either one. But the Varsho catch was just so novel to me. Like, Clark's one of the most impressive homer robberies you've ever seen. It's in the category of like that Indy Chavez catch in the playoffs 20 years ago.

But I've never seen a catch like that for Varshow. I understand it wasn't as important of a catch. I understand it only happened because he messed up. But if we're just talking the novelty of the catch and the way, like how memorable it is. And just how much you, like, that Varshow catch cracked me up, you know? Like I was laughing to the point of tears. Yeah.

No, that was definitely a great one as well. I might lean on the athleticism with Denzel Clark, but there's no wrong answers. I think they're both amazing catches. so far this season. Before we hit our first break, Scott, I did want to quickly run through Yuri Perez's long-awaited return here.

Obviously, not the greatest. He looked rusty in a good match-up at the Pirates. But, you know, I think we get a couple of starts under our belt here. Hopefully we start to get the Yuri Perez of old. He went three innings, four hits, four runs, five strikeouts, had eight whiffs on 70 pitches, only through 61% of his pitches for strikes,

so we'd like to see a little bit more than that. and if statcast is correct. Very different pitch mix here for Yuri Perez. He used a new cutter. He used a new sinker. He did not throw a change up, which is a pitch that he used 10% of the time back in 2023. So a bit of a different version of Yuri Perez here.

What did you see? What do you think? Well, obviously, I hoped for more. I felt like we had to use him since he lined up for two starts and the first of them was against the pirate. It's, you know, obviously makes you uneasy coming back from Tommy John's surgery. But what are you going to do with matchups like that?

If you believe in Indy, or sorry, Yuri Perez had Indy Chavez on the brain. So if you believe in Yuri Perez, you got to just throw them out there, hope for the best. I don't know what happened to the change up because he was throwing it 8% of the time on his minor league rehab assignment. Not that he threw it a ton as a rookie. it was like just under 10% right so it seemed like fairly normal usage at least for the triple a period of his rehab assignment so i don't know why he just completely abandoned it in this start his his slider usage was also down to 21% when it was closer to it was closer to 30 last year and that's one that we often see pitchers reduce their usage of that pitch coming back from Tommy John's surgery. It's taxing on the elbow. I don't know if sometimes they just don't have the same faith in it coming off elbow surgery or if they're just trying to survive without it or why we so commonly see the slider faded like that. Now, 21% he's still lean on it quite a bit. So hopefully we'll see him ramp up that usage going forward. It's a great pitch for him. The changeup was a great pitch for him. I don't know what the deal is with the sinker. I don't know that he needs that, but I would prefer to see him revert more to last years,

or sorry, two years ago's pitch usage, because that version of Yuri Perez was hard to fault. So we'll see what happens to him next time. If you do have a day, if you run a daily lineup league and you have the option of sitting him for his next turn this weekend, I think that would probably be wise. and we will continue sitting him until he gives us a reason not to.

But the upside is huge, and overall it's good news that Yuri Perez is back. I am seeing now that I've gone back to Stackass that some of the pitch classifications have changed. Earlier when I looked, there was a cutter in here. There is no longer a cutter. So I guess that has gone away. Maybe they just misclassified it as a slider here.

So yeah, it's just the only new pitch is a sinker and there was no change-up usage here. but the velocity was mostly there fine for Yuri Perez. In fact, his fastball was up one mile per hour, 98.5 miles per hour on that fastball here with Yuri Perez. So hopefully it continues to get built up and more comfortable and shakes off some of that rust and we get the Yuri Perez that we saw two years ago, hopefully soon.

Before we hit our first break, just a reminder, thanks to those watching us live. Make sure to hit the like button and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. Let's take a break and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. News and notes, Hunter Green is headed to Los Angeles for a second opinion on his back and groin injuries.

And sounds like this is going to be longer than a minimum stay on the aisle. That's what it was last time with the groin injury. But now dealing with two different things going on, it's not great, not great for Hunter Green, who for most of the season when he pitched, he looked like top 10, top 12 starting pitcher in fantasy. So don't like that. Justin Martinez left Monday's appearance.

with an undisclosed injury. He already went on the aisle earlier this season with a shoulder issue. So hope it's not that. I think his last pitch that he threw, Scott, the velocity was down on that pitch, right? For Justin Martinez? Yeah, I was down a couple miles per hour. And that's what happened right before he went on the aisle last time.

So I would keep Shelby Miller close in leagues where saves are scarce. there's really nobody else. Kevin Ginkle struggled so much. He got sent to the minors. So I think it would absolutely be Miller if Justin Martinez were to go back on the aisle. All right. Apparently, Corbyn Carroll is playing through hamstring tightness.

It did not affect him here on Monday when he hit his 19th home run of the season. Shohei Otani was in the lineup after getting hit by a pitch on his left foot on Sunday. Michael King is still resting with a pinched nerve in his throwing shoulder. He hasn't been able to ramp up his throwing just yet. manager Mike Schilt said we're just in a holding pattern to see what it is and the best way to treat it

if there is a better way to treat it outside of just the rest so they're uh they're kind of searching right now shame mclanahan threw a successful bullpen on friday he could return in late july or early august if there are no setbacks tyler glass now scheduled to throw a bullpen on tuesday he's been out since late april with shoulder inflammation Nick Kurtz was activated from the IL and in the lineup betting 6th here on Monday. He's down to 72% rostered. So some shallow leagues. Nick Kurtz might be out there still. Ryan Weathers was placed in the 60-day IL due to a left latch train.

So if roster spots are tight, you can go ahead and drop Ryan Weathers. It's just been, you know, one disastrous injury after another for him. Yeah, it was. weird that all the attention was on what happened with him getting hit in a head by a throwback from the catcher, not even a throwback to the mount. I think the catcher was throwing a second, and whether it just happened to step in front of the throw. And so he went through the concussion protocol.

But it didn't make sense to me. Like, why was he throwing two, three miles per hour slower? Because he got hit in the head. I guess it's possible that he was woozy or whatever. But if he was that bad off and they let him pitch, I don't know. That just seemed a little hard to believe to me. There had to be something going on with the arm. And now they tell us after the lineup lock that, yes, his lat is hurt.

So that stinks. And you can probably drop Weathers in most, I mean, 60-day-I-L. They're putting them on the 60-day I-L right away. It's a very good chance that's a season-ending injury. Yeah. And I guess this is a reminder that, you know, more velocity isn't always a good thing for every pitcher. You know, Ryan Weathers showed up throwing a couple of miles per hour harder this offseason and you know he dealt with two arms slash shoulder injuries right

away so it's not always great for every picture Ryan Weathers was nothing to write home about without that velocity increase so like I get it you got it you got to go to be you got to you got to try to carve out a successful career and risk the injury to do it but but yeah it it it may have contributed to this injury sure all right next up matthew liberator was clear to start Wednesday after his previous start with fatigue-related issues. The Reds promoted their pitching prospect, top pitching prospect, Chase Burns to AAA. So he's 22 years old, the second overall pick in last year's draft. He dominated AAA. 129 ERA.7.1 whip, 11.8K per 9. 34% roster. It's got, I wasn't here last week for the prospects to stash FBT Express episode, but I have a feeling

Chase is going to be a new addition, unless he was there already. Yeah, he probably should be now that he's up to AAA. We did talk about him a few weeks ago how he's probably the best pitching prospect in baseball now. And this move would indicate that the Reds are fast-tracking him. It would be unprecedented. Of course, Paul Skeens made it to the majors. He was the top pitcher taken in his draft, and he made it the following year after being drafted, the very year he made his minor league debut.

And so it would be a similar time. line here for Chase Burns. But it's plausible. And now, you know, we finally get to clear, we finally get to clear Roman Anthony out of the five on the verge, free up that spot that's been occupied by him all year. So it might be a good time to add Chase Burns. And we'll see.

I like it. Spencer Arrogatti played catch from 70 feet this past weekend. He's making slow progress from a broken thumb. He suffered back in April. Max Scherzer is tentatively lined up to begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Friday. He threw a successful 50 pitch simulated game on Sunday. AJ Smith-Sholver underwent Tommy John surgery,

which means he won't be ready to pitch again until probably August of next season, so pretty unfortunate for him. The White Sox are expected to promote pitching prospect Grant Taylor from AA. He's 23 years old, a second round pick in 2023. Big numbers in the minors, lots of strikeouts here, big whiff stuff, but sounds like he'll be pitch out of the bullpen, Scott.

So I don't know if he's just like thrown into the closer role right away, but any interest in Grant Taylor? He's an interesting talent. So I think initially there isn't much fantasy utility here. But if you were to be moved into a prominent role like closer or if, you know, Spencer Strider started his major league careers as a believer and eventually they shifted him to the starting rotation. So if something like that were to happen with Grant Taylor, it seems less likely than it didn't striders case, but I don't think it's, you know, it's definitely somebody to keep an eye on.

All right. Emmett Sheehan of the Dodgers is expected to work at least four innings during his next rehab start. And he's looked great so far in the minors. 9% rostered's got any interest in stashing Emmett Sheehan, maybe in deeper leagues. Yeah. He was a popular sleeper pick. into last year before he suffered the injury. And if he's delivering similar results in the minors, I think that Sleeper Appeal is renewed. It's going to be a little bit muted because he's been out of sight,

out of mind for so long. But sure, Emmett Sheehan is a pitcher of interest. And lastly, AJ Puck has been clear to throw up to 120 feet. He's on the 60-day IL with left elbow inflammation and is eligible to return on July 1st. Maybe he'll be the close. We'll see what happens with Justin Martinez, but AJ Puck might get a month from now.

He might get a second act here as a closer. Certainly possible. Let's get into the Waverwire hitters from Monday's action here. Mostly deep league names, Scott. And I have three outfielders, Jake Fraley, three for four with a sock into shoe. Andrew McCutcheon's been hitting well, three for five with a double and two runs.

Over his last 14 games, he's hitting 309. with two homers, and Jake Mangum of the raise had himself a nice game. Four for six with two RBI. He's hitting 302. He's got 10 steals. Not much pop at all in his bat, but obviously, you know, looks like he's going to hit for solid batting average and some speed there as well. So some deep league names here, but any interest in a Jake Mangum,

Andrew McCutcheon or Jake Fraley? I think we're kind of scraping the bottom of the outfield barrel with these three. I am having a hard time getting Jake Frailey in my five outfielder, NL-only lineup. So to recommend him for anything else seems like malpractice. I did have, for what it's worth, I did have Andrew McCutcheon as a sleeper hitter this week and a bad week for sleeper hitters.

He was only 5% rostered. So far so good with that one. But I don't think long-term Andrew McCutcheon's going to be somebody you want to stick with. Let's talk about Max Muncie. The other. Max Muncie of the Athletics, who is picking things up. He got recalled recently, two for four with a sock and a shoe here on Monday. Fourth Homer, his first deal.

He has three homers in his past five games since being recalled. And at AAA, he was hitting 325. Not much power down there, just three homers, but a 901 OPS. 5% rostered, has second, third, and shortstop eligibility. It's got any interest in Max Muncie of the athletics. It would have to be a pretty deep league for me to, activate him right now. But he is doing some interesting things since returning.

I mean, three home runs now, did you say, in his five games back? Is that right? Yeah. Three and six, three and five, three and five. And he had two batted balls apart from the home run here on Tuesday, two bad at balls over 110 miles per hour. He's, even during this five game stretch, he's striking out way too much. A ton of strikeouts, basically no walks, a very,

thin margin for error here for Max Muncie of the athletics. And I just think, I don't know what it's going to take to win me over to him, but it's going to take more than this. All right. What about on the pitching side? Just two waiver-wire names here. And honestly, Scott, I don't have much interest in both. But maybe you do.

What about Andre Palante, six innings, two runs, three strikeouts, did have 14 whiffs on 92 pitches. and Jeffrey Springs, who would have had a quality start, but he actually had an opener in this game. So wound up pitching in long relief, six innings, four runs, three of those earned, eight strikeouts, 20 whiffs on 85 pitches. Any interest in the Springs or Andre Palante?

A lot more interest in Springs, I would say, and he was a sleeper pitcher for this week. So, man, I really did not feel great about my sleeper pitcher choices coming into the week. So it is, I am genuinely relieved that the week is off to this kind of start for some of them. That's a notable start. Technically not a start, I guess, and that's frustrating that we don't get a quality start for Jeffrey Springs since an opener preceded him. But an impressive outing with the 20 whiffs, and a big part of it was just that he leaned into his best pitch more.

13 of the 20 wists came on his change-up, which he threw 38% of the time, normally 24% of the time. And it's very clearly his best pitch. I don't know if that's an approach that will work for Springs in the long haul because generally change-ups are effective for how they play off the fastball, hence the name change-up. And you can't use it too much because of that.

But it worked out for Springs in this one. And really since the start of May, he's put together a bunch of quality starts, or at least outings the length of quality starts. And that's why he was among the sleeper pitchers in a two-star week. A little bit dangerous because he's vulnerable to home runs, but I think as long as you play matchups with Jeffrey Springs, he's going to remain useful.

Palante, I think there will be times when he's streamable because he's such a good ground ball pitcher. but this is, the success of this start is kind of an isolated incident over his recent work and not going to be enough to win me over to him. I did notice with both of these guys, their previous three starts were equally pretty bad, Palance and Spring Springs. He can get whiffs, but he also has been really, really erratic this season. So, yeah, like you said, I think it's mostly dependent on the matchups with someone else. It was really just one bad stars for Springs.

He gave up six run runs and two innings to the Blue Jays on May 30th. Otherwise, three earned runs or fewer in his last, in seven of his last eight outings, three runs are fewer. And all but one of those is a, well, all but one of those is six innings or more. So yeah, it'd been pretty reliable lately, I would say. All right, let's do a little temperature check on these three starting pitchers. Merrill Kelly continues to dominate this time against the match.

Mariners, six shutout innings with seven strikeouts. He had 14 whiffs on 92 pitches. Two earned runs are fewer in 10 of 14 starts this season for Merrill Kelly. He's down to a 318 ERA, a 0.99 whip. Scott, where are we at on Merrill Kelly, man? How high can we get him up in the rankings this week? Hmm. Well, I mean, we're obviously starting him right now.

I don't think he's going to retain must-start status all season long. I think there will be stretches where he frustrates us. It'll be sort of a Jose Barrios type situation where, you know, for a couple months, you can't live without him, but then I'll have that one month where he gives a lot of it back. So enjoy it now. I have him, let's see, coming into this week, 52nd in my starting pitcher rankings. And I don't see much room for him. to move up from there because you get up to 45,

you got Drew Rasmuss and Andrew Abbott, Tanner Bybee, all pitchers that I'd want over Merrill Kelly. He'll move up a little from 52 because I see Ryan Weathers is ahead of him. But I don't know. It's similar to Tyler Malley for me where, okay, he has to be in the top 50,

barely. But he's not, I'm not going to, like you get to a point in the rankings where there's the pitchers you trust, more or less above it and the pictures you don't trust below it. and he'll be on the other side, the don't trust side of that.

The very highest end of the don't trust side. I do like him more than someone like Malley, just because he gets more strikeouts, right? Meryl Kelly does. And he's more reliable. Like we've seen him do it longer, I guess. I guess Malley's strikeout rate is so low, but it's not like Meryl Kelly is known for getting strikeouts.

No, but I mean 8.7K per 9 and he had, yeah, he's usually like between 8 and 9, I guess. he's 8.2 for his career. Yeah, this is the second highest K-per-9 rate of his career. And I don't know. I mean, I guess, yeah, I guess he belongs over Malley, but maybe like one spot over Malley. Would you take him over Nick Lodolo?

That's close. I don't think so. Yeah, I don't think so either. I think it's the right range, like top 50. That gets them up to 48 for me. Yeah, yeah, back into the top 50. I think that's fair for Mel. What would you take Ranger Suarez or Merrill Kelly?

Oh, they're very similar. I guess the Phillies are a slightly better team. Yeah, I would lean with Suarez. Okay, so he's back down to 49 then. All right. I mean, it sounds pretty good. Just a couple of weeks ago, I feel like we all had it much lower than that. So he continues to work his way up.

What about Shane Boz who was just okay at the Red Sox, five in a third innings, three runs, three walks, five strikeouts. Under the hood, I actually thought this was pretty encouraging for Shane Bosz. 13 whiffs on 76 pitches here. He only allowed two hard hits. He did throw 64% of his pitches for strikes. Fastball was very impressive here and useful for Shane Bosz. I just thought under the hood, Scott, that this start was pretty encouraging for Shane

Bosz. What did you think? I hear what you're saying, but I think it's a strong. stretch. He threw 63% fastballs. Normally it's 47%. And that's not a formula for success for him. That is his hardest hit pitch.

It has a 261 batting average against. It's pretty high. And, you know, he happened to get a decent number of whiffs in this start, but I think it was just, I think it was just variance. I don't really see a lot of reason for optimism for Boz looking at a season numbers, and maybe this start looks a little better than most of them, but not by enough for me to really change my opinion on him. And he has completed six innings just once in his last eight starts there for Shane Boz.

So I haven't met SP 60, you haven't met 67. I probably could get him down a little bit lower. The overall numbers at this point is four. 497 ERA 134 whip. It's pretty bad there for Shane Bosz. What about Yusay Kikuchi, who was masterful against the athletic 7 and a third shutout inning, just one hit, one walk with five strikeouts. He had 11 whiffs on 104 pitches.

He's allowed three-earned runs or fewer in 12-014 starts, but walks this season and allowing base runners have just been a massive issue. It's a 147 whip for Yusay Kikuchi. So I don't know. It just feels like everything is kind of taking a step back here with, with the Angels this season. Where are you at? What's the latest on Kukuchi?

I mean, if he keeps doing this, great, because this was like a night and day thing for you say Kikuchi. His slider usage has been trending up. It was 42% in this one responsible for eight of the 11 whiffs. And I think that was his third straight where it was over 40. But it's been high all season. It's been close to 40.

So I don't know that that really is a game changer for Kikuchi. I think he just threw a lot more. strikes. It was previous four starts, he had four walks or more, and then he issued just one in this. So it's not all about walks. It's the walks are a good indicator. The walks and the strike percentage in general are a good indicator that you're just locating better, and that's half the battle with pitching.

So it may have just been an outlier start for Kikuchi as far as that goes and not something he can sustain. That would be my assumption at this point, but if you've found, follows it up with another start like this, then it starts to look a lot more interesting. All right, let's take our final break. And when we return, struggling hitters, enough is enough, Scott. What do we do with these eight names? We'll talk about that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Enough is enough. What do we do with these struggling hitters? Do we bench, drop, sell low, just ride it out? I don't know. Let's talk about it.

Brenton Doyle, who is hitting 196 with five home runs, six steals, and a five. 66 OPS suffered a terrible tragedy off the field and I realize, look, these guys are human, so definitely could just be affecting him all season long. But underlying numbers actually looks pretty good here, Scott, but some people are starting to drop Brenton Doyle. He's down to 65% rostered. What say you? Are we benching, dropping, selling low, ride it out.

What do you think about Brenton Doyle? I can see dropping him in a points league, three outfielder points league where obviously you only go so deep into the outfield pool. His skill set isn't really geared for that anyway because of the poor plate discipline. I think there's a pretty good chance he bounces back. Like he has to be better than this, right? His stack cast readings are all pretty close to last year.

And so, look, I think he overachieved last year. Brenton Doyle was among my bus picks coming into the year, so that's part of what's going on here. But it's like it's too much. And so I expect he'll get better from here. I think in five outfielder roto leagues, you absolutely hold on to him. But part of it too may just be, you know, look at the state of the Rockies. How are they really, if there is something underneath something that's not, we can't detect in the data that's happening with him?

or is that an organization you trust to fix it? Is the environment there, the emotional environment such that it's just not conducive to turning things around? I think you have to factor that all in. So I've moved Brent and Doyle down quite a bit in my rankings, but not so much that you're going to think about dropping them in a five outfield or league, like I said.

All right. What about Willie Adamas, first year in San Francisco? Francisco not going so well, hitting 193 with five homers, three seals of 584 OPS. The barrel rate is down. The expected stats look awful here for Domas, who I think we all had as a bus this season. Still 89% rostered, Scott. What are you doing with Adomis? Is it a bench for now?

Can you drop them? Sell the name. I don't know. Well, it's probably a points versus Roto thing again in terms of dropability. Or really maybe more head-to-head. versus Roto. It depends on the lineup size. It depends.

Do you have that extra middle end field spot? Because that you're, if you do, the middle infield pool is stretched such that you have to hold on to Willie Adamas. But if you don't, I have missed my number 16 shortstop now. Really, he should, he should probably drop to more like 18 or 19 looking at some of the names I have behind him. And in a lot of leagues, you're just not going to go that deep at shortstop. So last year, you know, Willie Adamas has been useful for several years now ever since he went to Milwaukee, basically. But last year was the first year, he was like a total stud for fantasy. Must roster must start everywhere.

And I think the odds of him repeating that were always long. It's better than this, but not so much that in shallow leagues you have to hold on to him. What about Matt McLean who went 0 for 5 with two strikeouts here on Monday? he's down to a 182 batting average, 587 OPS. The power and speed is fine. Seven homers, 11 steals. I mean, it's just everything else here that's a problem for McLean. He's down to 75% rostered Scott.

What do you think? Bench drop, sell low, start. Matt McLean. Well, second base isn't as loaded as shortstop by any stretch. And so I haven't been able to move McLean as, far down the rankings there. He's still in my top 10, but I could probably change that. I could probably get him down to 15 and feel okay about it.

So I guess what I'm saying is like he's not proven enough or enough of a sure thing. I know he was great as a rookie in 2023, but we had doubt. about him repeating that all along. And it was only, you know, what, two-thirds of a season. So it's not like he has this long track record backing up that kind of production. Striking out more than 30% of the time. That's hard for a hitter who averages 93 miles per hour, average Xadenae and McLean falls well short of that.

So I think he's right on the fringe. You know, if you have a great alternative, second base. And again, it's not a middle infield league. You don't have that extra spot to fill. I think it's perfectly acceptable to move on from McLean. If you don't, if you're desperate for any kind of production at that spot and you're not seeing a clear improvement on the waiver wire, then I, then maybe you just hold on to McLean and hope he figures it out. All right, Scott, I'm going to throw a trifecta of catcher.

your way here. Salvador Perez, who's hitting 229 with five homers and a 622 OPS. J.C. Real Muto, who is hitting 228. He's got five homers, four steals, 650 OPS. And Adley Ruchman, who's hitting 227 with seven homers and a 695 OPS. Ruchman, by the way, last 130 games dating back to last year, he's hitting 206 with a 621 OPS. So, he's been bad for quite some time. I mean, these are bigger names, the expected stats to look good. It's what do we do? What do we do with these three? They look like themselves under the hood.

It's just the actual production. What makes it difficult? Most years, it's catcher, who cares? You just, you're stuck with them. You're clearly not going to find comparable upside on the waiver wires. So you just let it play out and trust that their track records and their underlying data are going to manifest. best in the end. But it's tricky this year because as we've talked about basically every day

for weeks now, there are so many fantasy viable catchers now. These are the ones who've kind of the elder statesman at the position. I know Rushman is still young, but you know he's been ranked one or two basically ever since he reached the majors. So you want to give deference to them, especially when the data looks as strong as it does. But you're actually missing out on good numbers if you do. And it's something I wrestle with every time I update the catcher rankings. I have kept

them more or less I've kept them more or less in the same range where I've had them all along. I think the one who has dropped most significantly for me is Rio Muto. I just recently moved him down to 12, dropping him behind

Augustine Ramirez, and that is a swap you could make in a number of leagues. And also dropping him behind Hunter Goodman, because of his age and because we've seen some signs of decline prior to this year, I'm a little more bearish on Rio Muto than the other two. Perez is old too, and maybe it's all falling apart for him, but he's still hitting the ball as hard as any catcher. And so I'm inclined to think that's going to come around a little more inclined in Perez's

case than Rio Muto's. Yeah, I mean, that's what makes it so tough. and look, expected stats are not perfect, and I know we cite them a lot here, but all three of these guys still have really good expected numbers here with Perez, Real Muto, and Adley Ruchman. So do with that what you will. I know in one catcher leagues,

it's tough to roster two catchers, and I don't know, just say bench Adley or bench Salvador Perez until they figure it out. So I'd probably just stick with it, but I understand it's frustrating. I had to do, I had to make a decision like, that in one of these head-to-head points leagues with only 21 man rosters. So one of those small leagues were talking about with only one catcher spot, of course. And I had picked up Ivan Herrera

during a time when I know Rushman didn't go on the aisle. I have athlete Rushman. I know I didn't go on the IL, but it was unclear if he was going to be available for the week. So I picked up a second catcher for that week. And then I was pressed for roster space. I couldn't carry two catchers. I'm not going to drop Rushman. So I dropped Terrer. And I didn't feel great about it because somebody's going to scoop it up and have a great, great catching option. But I was forced into it. I suppose if I was more tuned into this league beyond just the moment when I have to set my lineup, I could have tried out dangling him in a trade. But that's, that's the sort of, that's the sort of thing you're not always thinking about when you have to manage 12 teams at once.

Yeah, I hear you, man. It is, Sundays and Mondays are definitely very, very tough for that exact reason. All right, let's move away from struggling hitters. I want to do a quick hitter segment here. Just some quick stats or notes on specific names. Ronald de Cunia has looked great since returning. He hit his fifth home run. He's hitting 305.

He's got a 999 OPS. But Scott, I did notice zero steals on zero attempts through 16 games. How much is that worry? you with Ronald de Cunia? It's noteworthy. It is just 16 games. I'm sure this isn't the only 16 game stretch where he's gone without a steal. I'm actually not sure of that, but it wouldn't surprise me if that was the case.

And he did talk about maybe taking it a little easier on the bases. He kind of said it with a smirk on his face. And I know it's not coming down from on high because Alex Anthopoulos refuted that idea. He said they expect him to be who he's always been. And even if they asked him to stop stealing, I'm paraphrasing here, but even if they asked him to stop stealing, they know he won it. So, like, it seems like the Braves still are anticipating him being a base stealer. I think a large percentage of his hits are home runs, and that's part of it.

But I would hope he gets a stolen base soon to kind of relieve our conditions. concerns because I do think it is, I do think it's valid to at least raise an eyebrow at that. Let's stick with the Braves and take a look at Matt Olson, who went one for three with two walks and his 14th home run of the season. Everything looks great for Olson, except the batting average is a little bit lower here, 238. He's currently posting career highs and average executive velocity and barrel rate. The expected stats look great here. So just wanted to inform people that if you have Matt Olson and he keeps hitting like this, I think, better days are going to come. And if it's at all possible to buy, it's not even really a buy low

because he's been fine. It's kind of just like a buy medium. I don't know, just a buy. I would look to do that on Matt Elson because I think once the weather heats up, we could get some, some big numbers here from him. Well, he's, he's been coming into this game with a home run, his last 20, he had slashed 282, 352, 615. So I feel like it's already started for Matt Holson. Yeah, good point. All right. Next up, we have T.J.E. Friedel, who went two for five with a walk and his sixth home run. Just wanted to mention quietly having a great season here, hitting 295, six homers, 40 runs,

nine steals, and an 816 OPS for T.J. Friedel, who is walking more, he's hitting more line drives, he's pulling the ball, and he's been very, very solid overall of this season. That is T.J. Friedel. Brian Reynolds had himself a big game, two for five with a triple and three RBI over his last 21 games. Reynolds is batting 338 with three homers and 19 RBI. I think we're still looking for a little bit more power here, Scott,

but the batting average at least Brian Reynolds is coming around. Yep, it is, and it was overdue, and he seemed like a player who, you know, everything underneath makes him out to be the same. I guess the strikeout rate is a little bit higher, but it's been trending down. It's been trending back toward normal. The expected stats are totally in line with what he's always done. And I think your patience on Brian Reynolds is going to be rewarded ultimately.

And this is what it looks like when a player, when he begins to perform up to what the data said he should have been doing all along and why we hold out hope for players like Salvador Perez and Adley Rushman, even though they've disappointed us up to this point. And the last name here is Yvonne Herrera, who went two for four with his seventh home run. But I hadn't realized he was pretty cold before this game. Previous 16, 193 batting average, one home run, 569 OPS for Yvonne Herrera. Scott, any concern that he's slowing down here? I mean, not really.

His production was like just too good to believe. He wasn't the best catch. ever to play, you know? And so the numbers had to come down some. But he still might be top five rest of season. All right. Let's wrap up with some leftovers here on the pitching side. Zach Wheeler, a strong start against the Cubs. Six innings, one run, seven strikeouts with 17 whiffs on 103 pitches. Chris Sale continues to dominate seven innings, one run, 11 strikeouts. He had 14 wiffs on 103 pitches there. Jose Brillo, six and two-thirds shutout innings with only one strikeout. Obviously, that's not great, but a quality start in seven of his last eight for Burrios.

And Matthew Boyne, Boyd turned in a quality start kind of at the Phillies. I mean, six innings, two runs, zero strikeouts. So I don't know, kind of a weird one, Scott, but anything that stood out to you on Boyd, Barrios, Chris Sale, and Zach Wheeler. Not a lot. You mentioned the velocity being down a little for sale, but his second straight double-digit strikeout effort, and he's up to four this year, which even the best pitchers, that that's usually the most they get all season.

So I think sale, those early season concerns, are just completely out the window now. He's everything you drafted him to be, and you can just enjoy that moving forward. Boyd, the lack of strikeouts, like the complete absence of strikeouts in this start is especially weird, because those had picked

up since the start of May Matthew Boyd had made had made six starts, 10.2K per 9 in them. So he was getting plenty of strikeouts. That's part of the reason why my attitude toward him had changed. I didn't see anything he was doing all that differently in this start.

So I'm going to chalk it up as just a weird thing that happened. The fact that against the Phillies, he could go six innings. He could get away with pitching six innings without a strikeout. still have a good line otherwise. I think it's pretty impressive for Matt Boyd. All right.

On the bad side of things, we had two rough outings actually up against each other. Dustin May, five innings, six runs, five earned with a season high four walks at the Padres. And then Nick Povetta on the other side, pretty bad one,

four innings, eight hits, five runs there. Four earned against Povetta. That's back-to-back starts allowing five runs for him. You know, tough matchup against the Dodgers. Got anything noteworthy, anything concerning about Dustin May or Nick Povetta. Not really concerned about Povetta. He probably was due for a little bit of regression there.

And so back-to-back bad starts, obviously against the Dodgers. You understand any pitcher having a bad start against the Dodgers. I think I'm just going to continue to use Pivotta. Nothing's really changed in my approach with him. May is frustrating, isn't he? He's always been frustrating because how often he gets hurt, but we're seeing now even when healthy there. There's a lot of frustration here for as aesthetically

and like in terms of how the velocities and everything on the pitches, it just feels like he should be more of a bat misser than he is. And he had started to miss more bats. His previous three starts, eight strikeouts or more. That's trending the right direction with the strikeouts for Dustin May. I didn't think we'd see a stretch like that from him, frankly.

But then he follows it up with one strikeout in five innings. Clearly, throwing strikes control was an issue for May and this start beyond what we see from him normally, four walks in five innings, 54% strikes. Like, he's not going to succeed when he's doing that. But you'd like to see him, you'd like to see him, you'd like to see better control from him overall. It's not going to be this bad normally.

All right. On the hitting leftovers here, I am seeing that Josh Naler hit a walkoff grand slam in the ninth inning of that, not ninth inning in extra innings there against the Mariners. So shout out to him. He's actually had a great season here. Kyle Tucker,

who I know hit his 13th home run of the season. Will Smith, I know homered in that late game as well. Freddie Freeman had three hits. So some big names getting things done there on the hitting side of the leftovers. For the bullpins, call to the bullpen for the reds, Emilio Pagan,

struck out two for his 16th save. For the Cardinals, Ryan Helsey, got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He gave up a run on two hits and took the blown save. For the Braves, Riesel Iglesias pitched in the eighth inning with a four-run lead. He struck out two. The Braves tacked on two more runs.

It was Dylan Lee, who got the ninth inning and he struck out too. Scott, I don't know, fill me in because obviously I was away. I know that they kind of skipped over Rysel Iglesias. They said he's not like the full-time closer anymore. What do you think happens in Atlanta? My hounder right now is they go back to Iglesias because trying out Pierce Johnson and having him lose back-to-back games, I think it paints Iglesias in a more favorable. light. I think it reminds them okay. Like, yeah,

Iglesias isn't getting it done, but it's not like we have anybody else that we can trust to get it done either. They could try Dylan Lee next. Clearly, they were lining him up for the save in this one and they just ended up scoring too many runs, so didn't come to that. But I think

after Pierce Johnson faltered, I think they're going to be most interested in getting Aglazius back. And And maybe the scoreless eighth inning with the two strikeouts, maybe that's enough. I don't know that. They might want to see him a couple more times in a lower leverage role to see if he pulls through similarly.

But that's my thinking is that eventually they're going to turn back to Iglesias probably sooner than later because they just, they need him to work out. They don't really have anybody else. It kind of felt like Craig Kemperl was the fallback plan. And then they decided he wasn't. So there's not much else there to turn to. All right, for the Blue Jays. Jeff Hoffman got the 10th inning with a one-run lead. He struck out one for his 16th save for the raise.

Pete Fairbanks entered with two outs in the eighth, a runner on first. One-run lead, he struck out Jaron Duran. The raise tacked on another run. So they have a two-run lead now entering the ninth. Fairbanks came back out, and he gave up two runs on a walk and three hits, took his second blown save. The raise would eventually win in. extras for the Angels. Kenley Jansen got the final out for his 15th save and for the Cubs.

Daniel Palencia got the 11th inning with a one-run lead. He gave up two runs on a walk and four hits took his second loss of the season. Didn't he work the 10th too? Wasn't he coming back out for a second inning, Palencia? He might have. That's what it looks like to me in the box score but wouldn't be the first time I've read a box score wrong if that wasn't the case. I know Ryan Presley's been pitching much better, but but they still seem hesitant to use him in a higher leverage situation. Well, I mean, it's been great. You're just saying that's why they were willing to risk a second inning from Palencia.

No, no, no. I don't think Palencia's roles in jeopardy at all. I just, I think they asked too much from him in this game. I think he just came in in the 11th inning. I think it was just one inning of work here. It was one inning of work, but that was, the 10th and then they scored in the 11th. Ah, yes, you're right.

You're right. Getting it out. You are correct. I reset my other computer so I can't look, I can't like look at box scores stuff right now. I don't know why I did that. I like did some update on my computer and now I can't look at box scores. So that's why I was looking on my phone. It's not really working out very well. Anyway, to stream or not to stream on Tuesday,

we have Noah Cameron against the Yankees, Sawyer Gibson Long at the Orioles, Mick Abel's facing the Cubs. Shane Smith at the Astros, Kyle Harrison at the Rockies. Jose Soriano against the athletics. Yeah, Shane Smith was the only one who interested me here. If Abel had a better matchup than the Cubs, if Cameron had a better matchup than the Yankees,

I could see trying them out. Chris mentioned Jose Soriano against the athletics. But I don't know, he's been pretty shaky lately, and they're pretty good offensively. So I don't love it. I think just Shane Smith at the Astros is the only one I can get behind. All right. And then on Wednesday, we have Billy Falter who gets the Marlins.

Ben Brown is at the Phillies. Chad Patrick, home against the Braves. Zach Lattel at the Red Sox. David Festa, home against the Rangers. Sean Berger. Patrick against the Braves, I feel okay about. You know, Festa against the Rangers. that's a good matchup for a pitcher I like generally,

but he got crushed in his return to the rotation, and I just don't think I could trust in that right now. Lattel at Boston, he's a quality star machine, so that might go okay. It's a little risky. I like what Ben Brown's been doing, but I don't want to risk it at Philadelphia. So just kind of a bad combination of pitchers and matchups here.

Like the interesting pitchers happen to have bad matchups. All right, let's wrap up with some team name Tuesday, Scott. you ready? I might not get the obscure musical references that Chris gets, so hopefully there's not too many of those. Yeah, I mean, you and me both. We're in the same boat. These are from John.

Come in Aranda Mountain when he comes. I mean, that's not obscure. Yeah, no, that one's... We've been singing that one since we're three years old. Jake Burger Meister. Meister Berger. Don't get the reference, but I like the wordplay. A flock of Seegers.

Sure. Yeah. You should Semyon a crown. Okay. Okay. Kirby's Return to Dreamland. I like what you're thinking here. I'm not sure.

I'm not sure it's the best way to use Kirby's name. I don't know. I think we can do better. I think we had not off the cuff, but I think there's a better way to do that. Did you play Kirby games growing up, Scott? Not a lot. I played Kirby's adventure on the original Nintendo a little.

bit. And I've just gotten into playing Smash Brothers with my kids. So my oldest is convinced Kirby is the best character to use and will not use anybody else. So that is my main association with Kirby right now. Is that why you were humming a Pokemon song when we before we started? Yeah. It was. Yeah. Yep, yeah. I like to use Pikachu and Smash Bros. I like to mix it up, though. I don't have one go-to.

I'm not going to go pro. I'm not going to master one character. I like to mix it up. Pikachu is one of my favorites to use Donkey Kong, which are kind of on the opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of how they play. I like Link. I like Samus.

What else do I like? Metanite. Yeah. I'm terrible at Super Smash Brothers. I played it, but I was just never good at it. Kirby Superstar for Super Nintendo, amazing game. It had this like Megaton Punch thing

where you have to crack the earth, and I played it so much as a kid. I absolutely love it. So highly recommend if anyone wants to play a retro Kirby game. A couple of them here from John, The Larnick Pit, and Riley Coyote.

All right. I like him. From Jason, these are SpongeBob themed. The Flying Ruchman. Sure. Weenie Hut, Jr. Camerro. Don't know that one. I'm not, I've never seen an episode of SpongeBob. I've heard of the Flying Dutchman before just because, you know,

plenty of context for that beyond SpongeBob, but. You've never watched an episode of SpongeBob? I think I was in high school when it came out. I had no interest in that. All right, we're going to have to have a talk after this guy. Sawyer Gibson, Law. tall and handsome. You're not going to know any of these, I guess.

Squillium Contreras and Manray versus Barnacle Boyd. All right. All right. From Evan, Dr. Seuss-themed. Horton Sears-A-hoo. Horton Sears-A-Woo. Excuse me. Yeah, it's one of those.

I think it suffers from having too many names in it. What about Veen, Eggs, and Fam? I don't know. I don't know. This one's from Ian. It's also Dr. Seuss-related. Horton hears a Julio. Oh.

Yeah. All right. From Kevin, these are Christmas themed. Choi to the world. Okay. Che-man, Che-Man joy throwback. Yeah, that's deep cut.

We wish you a merrill Christmas. Okay. By-be, it's cold outside. Yep. Heim dreaming of a white Christmas. Sure thing. And some others here. The Wizard of Boz.

Okay. And Juan flew over the cuckoo's vest. Hmm. Hmm. You may have got me with that second name. All right. You may have got me. From Phil.

Houston in the street, Gavin in the sheets. Okay. I don't know. I don't, yeah. All right, let's move on. Raleigh Caps. Yeah. Cow Raleigh.

There you go. Sure. There's a couple here for Chris to sing but Chris isn't here. I can, no, I can't try that one. I'm bringing Shwell and Bach. We could try that one, right? I'm not going to sing these others though.

From Tyler, blacklisted at Ha-Sungs. That's a Seinfeld reference apparently. Yeah, I haven't seen Seinfeld. Aranda Forever. You're giving me a hard time about SpongeBob and you haven't seen Seinfeld? I don't, look, maybe someone's going to crush me

this in terms of cultural significance. I'm not saying SpongeBob is more culturally significant than Seinfeld, but I wouldn't be far. I wouldn't be surprised if they're close. There's so much longevity there for SpongeBob, right? They're still making new episodes of that. Aren't they? I have that wrong. I don't know if there's so. You don't even know. No, I watched it growing up. I don't know if they're still, I don't watch it now, but they still might be making some. Aranda Forever That's pretty cool The Shaw Stank Redemption

Alrighty The Frogert is also Kirstad It's a Simpsons thing apparently But I am not familiar with it Holy smokes you need crews All right That's my Perez I don't know you

That's King of the Hill Classic Maybe the most referenced line in King of the Hill Sigano we're going down Uh-huh. Yimmy E-World, or I guess Jimmy E-World, which is how it's actually pronounced. And last, last kind of who hash. Last can of who hash?

Oh, like last can of who hash? There you go. Yeah. Last canna. Who hash. Who hash, yeah. Yeah. All right. Some pretty good ones today.

I like that. All right, we're going to wrap there for Scott. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rate. on Apple or Spotify. We will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Mount Podcasts.