Fantasy Baseball Today - Joey Wiemer Double Dong, The New Jon Gray & Rankings Risers/Fallers (6/8 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 8, 2023

Welcome to the Elly De La Cruz show (1:00)! ... Joey Wiemer just had a massive game (8:30). ... What do we do with Michael Harris (13:45)? ... This is the new Jon Gray (18:00). ... Jack Flaherty has turned it on (22:56). ... Please add Matt McLain and pay attention to Emmanuel Rivera (26:!6). ... News (33:48): Pete Alonso was hit by a pitch on his left wrist. ... Zach Eflin and Spencer Steer are moving up the rankings while Jarred Kelenic is dropping (39:22). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (50:00). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  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/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. What's up, and welcome in to the L.E. D. LaCruz show on Thursday, June 8, Frank Stamphle, joined by Scott White. Today on the show, rankings, risers, and fallers.

Former top prospects making some noise. two potential sell high pitchers, and much more. Before we get started, please like this video and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. And if you're listening on the audio side, download, follow, and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. Scott, you are here on the show. You now have two games worth of L.A. De La Cruz

in the books to react to. And, oh my goodness gracious. Way to follow up your first day by hitting your first career home run, 114.8 miles per hour, 458 feet. And then on top of that, a triple where your sprint speed

is clocked at 30.9 feet per second, which would rank first in all of baseball in terms of sprint speed. Scott, your reaction. In terms of average sprint speed? Or like... I don't know if that. I was just looking at average sprint speed,

but there might have been like a top speed. So if he averaged what he achieved on the triple, it would be first. Oh, my God. Gosh, like a gazelle running around the bases, these long strides, huge human. Your thoughts? Let's just start there. I mean, he's been everything advertised so far.

It's only two games. It's about as small as the sample gets. But you have to like that, you know, he drew a couple walks in his first game. Honestly, it seemed like Tony Gonsolin was scared to pitch to him in that first game. Even the double that he hit, which also was scalded. I forget the exit velocity. I'm referring to Tuesday's game where he hit that double.

I think it was... What was the exit? 112 miles per hour. Yeah. Even that double that he hit, it was on a pitch way up and out of the zone. So like Tony Gonsolin was scared of him in his major league debut.

So that was encouraging. And then, yeah, that home run was just... It was awe-inspiring. It brought a tear to my eye, basically, because, you know, it's good to see potential fulfilled in that way. He did strike out twice in the second game. He is going to strike out a fair amount. I don't think it's a stretch to say we've, at least in the history of Stacass,

which dates back to 2015, we've yet to see a player who can do quite what Elie de la Cruz can do when he impacts the baseball. And so we don't know what it'll take strikeout-wise to bring down that level of talent. he had no trouble hitting for average in the minors. Joey Gallo struggled to hit for average in the minors, as hard as he hits the ball because his strikeouts were more of,

he was like a 250 hitter in the minors. L.E. Dela Cruz was hitting $2.90, 300, even with all his strikeouts. So, you know, he'll probably be fine as a 30% strikeout guy, but then there's a chance that he's less than that, because obviously the plate discipline improved a lot over his last few weeks in the miners. but the point is it'll take a lot to to keep him from living up to his potential given how hard he impacts the ball and the sort of in-your-face athleticism with everything he

does you mention the running the throwing he is a special talent and if you were lucky enough to add him then you should be pretty excited right now it's got something I haven't revealed to you yet that I did this past weekend In Tout Wars, this is a 12-team head to head points league with Roto-style lineups. I checked earlier in the weekend, and I noticed Ellie Dela-Crues was available. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

How is this possible? Now, in Tout Wars, if you pick a player up, they have to go straight into your lineup. So I'm assuming most people didn't want to pick him up because they don't want to take a zero for the week, whatever it might be. And I picked him up this week, not knowing that he would get called up,

and he's already in my lineup. So I'm getting all these stats, and I picked him up for four, out of a thousand. Four. Yeah, that's great. It's crazy. I love speculating on prospects and tout wars.

You can't do that in TGFBI because that's hosted on the NFBC site where minor leaguers aren't added to the player pool until they're called up. So there's always a bidding war for them. But yeah, people are generally scared to add them in Tout Wars. And so you get these, you get them for pennies on the dollar if you do it ahead of time. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do that with the L.A. De La Cruz, who would have been the best to do it with? But I speculated on him in several other leagues, CBS hosted leagues. And so I'm looking forward to getting him into my lineup next week.

Last point on L.E. De La Cruz, Scott, I've been receiving this question in multiple places on Twitter. I got tagged in a Facebook comment. If you haven't joined our fantasy baseball today, Facebook group, please feel free to join up and ask your questions, ask away. people asking what's the difference between Ellie De La Cruz and O'Neill Cruz and I had to think about it a little bit obviously they're both stat cast standouts, they're very big, huge human beings.

My original thought was that L.A.D. La Cruz's plate discipline was better, but if you compare their minor league plate discipline, it's actually pretty similar. I think where Ellie could have the advantage is the splits because O'Neill Cruz has been awful against left-handed pitching in a pretty small sample size,

but he's a left-handed. batter Ellie is a switch hitter so I think he can have an advantage there but your thoughts on that question the difference between the two yeah as I mentioned a second ago Ellie de la Cruz produced in the minors the last two years and the production wasn't always consistent for O'Neill Cruz he had the high exit velocity readings he had the glowing scouting reports but he wasn't as consistently productive it didn't translate to production as plainly as it has for Ellie De La Cruz.

So that's one thing. I think Elie De La Cruz is just a little bit better, though, in every respect. Like, yes, O'Neill Cruz delivers those outlier exit velocities. It was just this spring we were saying nobody can hit the ball harder than he does. But I think Ellie de la Cruz, edges him out just a little bit. He's a little bit faster. He plays defense better. Everything's a little bit better.

plus we've seen that, you know, the period of three or four weeks, I forget exactly how long it was, his final three or four weeks in the miners where Ellie De La Cruz took the production to the next level and became a much more disciplined.

And was that legitimate growth or did he just get hot or what? But yeah, I mean, it was a comparison I was making when I was writing, writing all my prospects reports this offseason. And, you know, O'Neill Cruz had graduated from that. And I was basically every time comparing Ellie De La Cruz to O'Neill Cruz.

And a line I often used is he's a derivative of O'Neill Cruz right down to his last name, De La Cruz translating to of the Cruz, of the cross, I guess. But, you know. But yeah, it's, it's, he's, he's become, he's become the prototype himself now rather than the derivative. Fair enough. Did you hear the home run call, Scott, for Ellie? I did. All right.

Well, that was an amazing call. And I guess you can figure out where we're going next. That ball had a family! That ball had a family. Welcome to the rotation because that was amazing. Comes courtesy of Ballet Sports, Ohio. Love the call there on Ellie De LaCruz's first home run. So we'll get into our standouts of the night now after Ellie Dealer Cruz, of course.

And we have a bunch of names that we want to talk about. So we're just going to rattle some off back and forth here, Scott. And I actually want to start us off with Joey Weamer, who had a monster game on Wednesday. He went four for four with a double dong. Five RBI had three hard hit balls in that game. And now over his last 11 games, he's betting 378 with three homers, four steals, nearly as many walks his strikeouts, five walks to seven strikeouts, hitting the ball much harder, and he's 16% rostered.

So I think if you play, Even in 12-team outfielder leagues, I think you can kind of talk yourself into him, especially if that's a category format. Maybe the strikeouts and the batting average is a little bit low, but the power and speed is there, and this guy does not get cheated, man. If you watch Joey Weamer swing,

the dude goes for it all the time. I think he's kind of got to learn to cut it down a little bit on two strikes. But he's starting to figure it out, Scott. Your latest thoughts on Joey Weimer? Yeah, I'm hoping he's starting to figure it out. you look at his minor league track record and it's hard not to get excited about his potential. That's why I was throwing huge bids on him.

You know, spring training was wrapping up and it was evident he was going to have a big role for the brewers this year. So last year he had 21 homers and 31 steals between double and AAA, the year before he had 27 homers and 30 steals. Good on base skills in both of those seasons. Had strikeout issues,

but those haven't been nearly as bad in the majors as I thought they'd be. So I've actually been kind of surprised. Again, I threw a lot of dollars at him, fab dollars at him. I've been kind of surprised at how underwhelming the actual production has been, considering strikeouts haven't been the culprit, or at least not the main culprit. So now that he appears to be heating up, the two homers today, last eight games for 81, three homers, two steals. It's a short period of time. And I will note that his heart hit ball today was hard hit, but not as hard as it wasn't like, it wasn't the sort of exit velocity you salivate over.

His hardest hit ball today was 101.3 miles per hour of the four that he hit. So, you know, average exit velocity has been a bit on the lower side. His expected stats don't look great, but maybe the tide is turning. Maybe this eight-game stretch is a sign that he's getting more comfortable. getting a better feel for how major league pitchers are attacking him, and hopefully he can take off. Yeah, five outfielder leagues, I think it's gone on long enough that you can take a flyer on him again

and see where it goes from here. No guarantees, but outfield is shallow, and Weemer has upside. That average exit velocity is a little bit lower on the season, but the max EV 79th percentile, the sprint speed is 92nd percentile. So I just like looking at those as a barometer of just raw, power and speed, right?

And Joey Weimer, I think we could say confidently, does have both of those traits. It's just, can he make enough contacts? And, you know, over the past couple of weeks, he has been able to do that. Joey Weamer is 16% rostered. I wanted to compare him to a few other names, Scott. Former top prospects that are making some noise.

Hazu Sanchez went three-for-four with his sixth home run, and it was a shot. 109.8 off the bat, 445 feet. That's back-to-back games with a home run for Hazu Sanchez. Cut down the strikeout rate this year. Hitting a ton of line drives. Lots of hard contact. Batting 306 on the season.

He's not playing against left-handed pitching. But overall, I think he's taking a step forward this season. And Nolan Jones with the Rockies, he went two for four with a sock and a shoe. His second home run, his second steel. That homer, 114 exit velocity, 483 feet. I know it's course field, but 483 feet, man. That's some crazy pop for Nolan Jones.

here. So how would you rank those three if we're just talking about, you know, five alpha other leagues, players with upside, Weimer, Hesu Sanchez, Nolan Jones? I'm inclined to rank them just like that right now, Weamer, Sanchez, Nolan Jones, with the caveat that if we get some assurance, Jones is sticking around and getting close to regular playing time, he moves to the top of the list. I'm skeptical that's going to happen. He has been playing a lot since they called them most recently, but they don't have, they don't have their full allotment of players right now. So I'm getting more hopeful.

I think at Coarse Field, Nolan Jones has the most upside if he gets the same playing time assurances that, well, Weimer definitely has playing time assurances. Sanchez still tends to sit against lefties. Jones is interesting, though. And one other name I'll throw in this mix.

He's more rostered than the others. Keep an eye on Cabrion Hayes. He went three for five with a triple, had four hard hits in this game. We spoke about him recently. He hits the ball really hard. Just doesn't pull the ball enough so he's not able to tap into the power. But he's got 14 hits over his last seven games

including two home runs. He's 64% rostered and obviously does have some prospect pedigree. It hasn't really worked out for Cabrion Hayes, but we'll just keep an eye on him and see if he can build off of this. Scott, I'll throw it your way. One of your standouts from Wednesday. All right. Let's talk about Michael

Harris because for weeks now that's something people were repeatedly asked about. People want us to talk about Michael Harris. What do we do with Michael Harris? And consistently, we have said, what you do with Michael Harris is hold. And today, finally, he showed why you hold.

Michael Harris had three hits, including a game-tying double that he hit 103.9 miles per hour. He also had a go-ahead home run hit to straightaway center, 443 feet. It was nearly 108 miles per hour off the bat. So two big heads, the result was great

and the underlying metrics on them were great. And they were in clutch moments. So, you know, it wasn't a press. pressure situation like, oh, he's choking under the pressure. That's the positive. He's been bad up till this point. There's no doubt about it. This was only his third multi-hit game all year. Wow.

It was the first three-hit game. It was the third multi-homer, uh, multi-hit game for Michael Harris, which gives you some indication of how bad he's been. But as we've been saying all along, the quality of contact has been very similar to last year. The plate discipline number. the strikeout rate has gotten a little worse, but overall the plate discipline is actually better than last year. At times, the expected stats have looked really good.

They've gotten a little worse too. But like I've noticed, I've done this sort of like in a piecemeal fashion, just kind of when I think to look at Michael Harris's exit velocities for the day. I've looked at them. And so like as consistently as I can ever remember a hitter being, He'll have these games where he goes like 0 for 4, but then three of his batted balls have an expected batting average of 4.50 or better. And it's so like I think there's been a lot of bad luck at play.

It's gone on long enough that there must be some other characteristic to these batted balls that's preventing them from turning into hits that's just, we're not able to measure that easily. But the point is he still makes the kind of contact that should translate to hits if he just fixes something that's a little wrong. And hopefully this was the start of it. Hopefully this is when we can look back and say June 7th is the day that Michael Harris' season turned on a dime

and he got back to performing like an early round player because I think he can and should. And I had this note for later on when we talked about Michael Harris that he is the hardest player for me to rank right now. I have him ranked as my 23rd outfielder. I realize he has performed well below that. He's, again, he's been really bad this season. I get that for someone you probably took in the third or fourth round.

I have this trio of Starling Marte, Teaska Hernandez, and Michael Harris. That frankly, all three of them are pretty hard for me to rank right now. I just look at what Harris did last year and remind myself that he hit 297 with 19 home runs and 20 steals as a 21-year-old who got called up from AA in one. one of the best lineups in baseball, and I can't drop that player. I just can't do it. If you want to bench him, that's fine. But just knowing what his upside is in that lineup, I can't drop him.

And I do feel like it's a bit of a confusing message for people who've been listening to us dating back to preseason. Because we all had Michael Harris as a bust going into this season. And so it's like, oh, well, clearly he's busted. Why don't you just move on from them? I don't think any of us had him as a bust in the sense that he's not going to be rosterable. You know? Yeah. So like, okay, we didn't think he was going to live up to his ADP necessarily live up to his rookie production.

But this is not what we were expecting. And we all think he's better than this. Correct. All right. So that was Michael Harris. Let's get into my next player here, Scott. And that is John Gray. The new and improved John Gray.

My gosh, what he is doing right now. He takes a tough luck loss on a complete game up against the Cardinals where he allowed just four hits. gave up one run, a solo home run to Alec Berluson, 12 strikeouts to zero walks. He had 23 swinging strikes on 100 pitches. All three of his pitches were amazing. They were all on. Nine on the slider, nine swinging strikes on the slider,

eight on the fastball, six on the change-up. And specifically that change-up, I mean, he threw it more in the start, even that was really good. Something that we mentioned with John Gray recently is that he changed his slider back on May 8. He added three miles per hour to that pitch, and it's been that fast ever since.

He's maintained that velocity, so clearly he made an adjustment to that slider, and he's maintained it. And six starts since. He has a .84 ERA, a .65 whip, and just over a strikeout per inning. 44 strikeouts, over 43 innings pitched. Scott, this is a different version of John Gray

than we've ever seen before, and I think I moved him up to, like, SP 50. I guess there's an argument that he should be ranked even higher than that the way he's pitching right now. Yeah. I mean, I was thinking about it, seeing the results of this start,

seeing those numbers from the last six starts, and man, how much should I move John Gray up? So you mentioned he has, you know, the ERA and WIP, 0.840, 0.65. Those are phenomenal over that six-start stretch.

But only 44 strikeouts in 43 innings, and that includes the 12 he had today. What's going on with that strikeout rate? You know, is he really dominating that much? I will point out that. Over that same six-start stretch, John Gray's swinging strike rate is 16.2%, which is nothing short of elite. And prior to this six-start stretch, it was only 10%. So that's a big change and indicates a level of dominance that goes beyond just the pure strikeout rate.

So part of what makes this tricky is John Gray is well into his 30s now, right? He's been around a long – he's 31. He's been around a long time and has never been a fantasy standout before. He's kind of tantalized us with his potential. Of course, many years in Colorado, which is the most difficult place to pitch. But even last year, we were expecting more than he delivered in his first year out of Colorado. So to think he's suddenly now an ace, I don't know. That's more of a leap than I'm willing to take.

But getting him inside the top 50 rest of season. doesn't seem like too much of a stretch. John Gray has not thrown more than 150 innings in a season since 2018. So obviously it has dealt with a fair share of injuries. I actually had a few other names queued up as potential sell high candidates, but I guess you could make the case, Scott, that right now John Gray is a sell high. If you can get top 30 starting pitcher value back for him right now, is that something you'd be looking to do?

Well, that's interesting because, and this was a question we were asked a few weeks ago, kind of when the stretch started for John Gray and were asked again tonight, would we trade John Gray straight up for Pablo Lopez, who is probably somebody I have at the back of my top 30. So that's the caliber of pitcher you're talking about. I lean, yes, but it's, you know, Pablo Lopez himself had a good start here on Wednesday, not as dominant of a start, but it was, let's see, one run and seven innings with six strikeouts against the race. So really tough matchup and he came through. But he hasn't been coming through with that much consistency. And his ERAs closer to four.

I'm not ready to move John Gray ahead in my rankings, but is the gap between them so big that to me, to me, when they're close to equivalent, I'd rather just not do the trade, you know? You know, it's a one-for-one situation like that, unless I feel really confident I'm getting the better player, I'd rather just hold because, you know, it's kind of a do-no-harm mentality if you are going to make a trade.

So that's where I stand with that. I lean slight yes But it's it's a close call Now if you could trade John Gray for Dylan Sees Do like a combo Bylow cell high I do think I do that I know we've been kind of Right we rightfully have some skepticism

About Dylan Sees' ability to bounce back But I think I'd have to do that Just knowing Cease is upside All right Scott your last standout here You wanted to highlight Jack Flaherty Almost forgot who it was Jack Flaherty.

How did I start again? I've been doing a lot of this lately. And I think maybe the most telling aspect of it, it was at the Rangers who've been marauding everybody. Jack Flaherty threw six shutout innings against him. He was on the other end of that pitching duel, the winning end of that pitching duel with John Gray. And he allowed three hits in those six innings.

He struck out eight. He had 13 swinging strikes on 105 pitches, which was pretty good. He did have five walks. He did have five walks, and that's something that hasn't improved a lot in recent starts. But nonetheless, in his last six starts, same length of time as John Gray,

Jack Flaherty has a 150 ERA now. He has a 120-O whip, mostly because of those walks. And it's like two of those six starts, the walks were really high and the rest were fine. So 150 ERA, 120,000. WIP, 9.9K per 9, and his average exit velocity in those six starts is less than 84 miles per hour. Like, he's, it's weak contact. So really, like, the only thing left there that seems concerning for Flaherty is the walks.

But as I've, you know, already alluded to, it's kind of these, like, bouts of wildness that he has, even in this start. So he had the five walks and six innings in this start. Three came in the first inning. He looked, it looked like it was not going to be. a good day for Jack Flaherty. And then from the second inning on, he just kind of cruised. And yeah, just really the two walks

during that six starts span where two, yeah, the two starts during that six starts span where the walks were kind of high. So I don't know exactly where I stand on Jack Flaherty. Stock up, I think is fair to say. I remain wary because his recent history, I mean, pretty much says it all.

why there's reason to be wary. And yes, I'd like to see him throwing more strikes than he is. But it does seem like his stuff is playing again. It does seem like he's effective again. I mean, if nothing else, I think we can call Jack Flaherty must roster again. Not saying he's must start. Definitely want to play the matchups again, play the matchups with him. But he does need to be rostered in all leagues at this point.

Jack Flaherty, 78% rostered. So it could be out there in some shallower, 10 or 12 team leagues. The two players that are rostered just ahead of him, James Paxton and Bailey Ober. I assume you would take both of those over Flaherty, right? Yeah, I mean, both of those guys I've been touting nonstop for weeks, I feel like. So, yeah, no, I'd have to take them over Flaherty.

All right, let's take our first break. And when we return, I've got some, what do we got here? I've got some waiver wire hitters. I've got some rankings, risers, and fallers. We'll do all of that right after this. Welcome back, and this Saturday on CBS, one of the most celebrated soccer tournaments in the world is down to two clubs.

Manchester City meets Inter in the UEFA Champions League final. Our world-class team will be on the pitch with live coverage beginning Saturday at 1.30 Eastern on CBS. All right, Scott, let's get into a few waiver wire hitters that I have written down here. And look, we continue to talk about Matt McLean, Scott. He's 73% roster. I don't know.

Like, just put him in every single waiver wire column until he's 100%. Because I just... Yeah, I mean, that's pretty much what I've done. Right. The last week and a half. Yeah, there's nothing else to say about him. I mean, the guy has been amazing since getting called up, and now he's part of this lineup that just seems so fun,

and they're all playing well together. And just like the top half of that lineup, Matt McLean and Jonathan India, L.A. D. La Cruz. Now Spencer Stier is on fire. They should get Christian Encranacion on trend. hopefully in the near future. So, yes, if Matt McLean is still somehow available in one of your leagues, go out and get him.

The other name here I wanted to mention, Joey Minesis went two for three with a walk and is now batting 305 on the season. The problem is that he's basically a poor man's Luis a rise. He only has two home runs. He's got a 749 OPS. He doesn't contribute anything in speed, and he's in a bad lineup. So while the batting average is good, Scott, Joey Menace's at 62%

rostered. I don't know that it needs to be much higher than that. Yeah, I would agree. And I don't really have much to add there. I mean, I certainly prefer another Nationals outfielder to him.

Lane Thomas. Oh, yeah. Lane Thomas is right up to now. He's approaching 70. I saw it earlier today. He's getting up there. Yeah, he's he is remaining productive and batting leadoff and contributing power and speed and yeah he's been better than joie meneses

for sure yeah lane thomas 68% rostered and he is the name that the welsh and i brought up yesterday as a potential aaron judge replacement if you're just looking for that all around production i think lane thomas is someone that can help obviously nobody is aaron judge uh but yeah i would look at him over a joey meneses three names in deeper league scott that we have not really talked about recently rodolfo kateau Castro went two for four with his sixth home run. He added three RBI. He's batting 268 on the season with 796 OPS. Brandon Belt went two for four with his fourth home run.

And since the start of May, he's betting 337. He only has three home runs during that time. So it's kind of empty batting average. And Will Benson with the Reds spoke about him a little bit during spring training. Had a chance to lead off on Wednesday for the Reds. He went two for five with his first home run. It was a walk-off homer. In 12 games since returning from the minors, he's betting 290 with that one home run and three steals.

Obviously, we're talking pretty deep leagues here, Scott, but any interest in Rodolfo Castro, Brennan Belt, Will Benson. You skipped over the one I wanted to talk about, didn't you? He's in the notes here. Where is he? Emmanuel Rivera. Ah, he's a little bit lower. That's the next segment, Scott. That's the next segment. Oh, okay. All right. Sorry. My bad. So I don't think Belp plays enough, really.

I don't think Benson's going to play enough. He was, let me see how much he's played recently. I've been playing an okay amount. But, you know, Jake Fraley was out of the lineup today. He was a little banked up. He's been incredible lately. Fraley has. Has actually been, what was the stat exactly?

I wrote about him in the latest waiver wire column. He has been in points leagues, which you would think would be Jake Fraley's lesser format. He's been the 10th best outfielder over the last six scoring periods. So yeah, Jake Fraley's not losing his job. And last four scoring periods, I think it was not six. And the other thing is that Spencer Steer, so he was in left field. He started in left field for Ellie de la Cruz's Major League debut Tuesday.

He was back at first base. But they're going to have to play him in the outfield more. With Joey Votto now on his rehab assignment, Christian and Carnacian Strand still pushing hard for a call-up. I think their reds are trying to figure out how to accommodate them all. And I think if steerproofs capable of playing the outfield, that's going to be the easiest solution. So, yeah, I just don't see a lot of room there for Benson.

I know, I know that was kind of a long way around to getting to that conclusion on Will Benson. But we went over some good red stuff. Yes. And the three other players I wanted to get to, these are just players we keep talking about. Scott, you aren't on the podcast yesterday. But the Welsh and I brought up Emmanuel Rivera. And he had another good game. He went three for five with a double and two RBI.

Three hard hit balls. One of those was 109 exit velocity. Emmanuel Rivera now batting three, 16. with an 873 OPS for the Diamondbacks. Gary Sanchez, we continue to talk about it. I don't know how long this is going to last, but he now has four home runs in eight starts with the San Diego Padres,

bat in 286 with a 31% strikeout rate. And I've now brought up Ryan Noda three days in a row. He just keeps kind of doing interesting things. He went two for four with his seventh home run. He added two walks, two runs, two RBI. He was leading off for the Oakland days on Wednesday. He's 8% rostered. So three more names there, Scott, in deeper leagues.

Ryan Noda, Gary Sanchez, Emmanuel Rivera. Yeah, they're all kind of interesting. They're more interesting than the last group. I think in two catcher leagues, Gary Sanchez should be rostered at this point. I'm not saying you should invest a lot in him because it could all go poof very quickly. But he never stopped hitting home runs throughout his struggles in the past. And I mean, this is the best stretch we've seen from him in a while. Let's see, Noda.

No, duh. He, uh, I think it needs to be more than 8% rostered. I think there are enough deep leagues out there that he would be useful in that, okay, it should probably be more like 18% roster, maybe even 28% rostered. But I do think for the majority of leagues, Ryan, Noah, noda, the power is not going to be quite enough for the batting average liability that he is to make it worth. while. Let's keep an eye on Emmanuel Rivera. He's only 2% rostered.

I'm not saying you need to go pick him up right now. But there are some interesting things happening here. You know, the biggest hurdle is going to be playing time, of course, but he's now started five straight games for the Diamondbacks. And what I've noticed is not only does he have a 10.1% strikeout rate in his time in the majors so far this year, which is helping contribute to this. what's he batting like 360 10.1% strikeout rate

much better than in the past. In the minors at AAA this year it was 9.5%. So this has been year long for Emmanuel Rivera, a new skill for him that's developed much more of a contact hitter than in the past while still having pretty good at exit velocities. He's making impactful contact. And I could see it translating to something worthwhile. So let's keep an eye on him.

All right. Well, let's hit some news notes before we get into those rankings movers. And we'll start off with Pete Alonzo, who left after getting hit by a pitch on his left wrist. Thankfully, X-rays came back negative. So my guess is he'll be day-to-day, maybe sits out a couple days, and hopefully, you know, nothing more comes of this. It was kind of curious, too, Scott, your Atlanta Braves, because I saw the previous day,

Pete Alonzo was chirping at Bryce Elder, and then his first at bad, he gets hit by Charlie Morton. I don't know. I don't know. A little sorry. I don't know either. I didn't see it. Can't offer my interpretation. All right. Well, Aaron Judge won't have a timeline for his toe injury until after this weekend.

Jazz Chisholm received a positive report from his foot specialist on Wednesday and will begin to ease into baseball activities while traveling with the team on their upcoming road trip. Carlos Saron threw 20 pitches in a live bullpen session Wednesday. His fastball reportedly sat 92 to 94 miles per hour, which is an important. improvement from what we previously heard. I think the previous report was 90 to 93. So good news there on Carlos Rodon. Willie Adomis was activated from the concussion IL and went two for five with his 10th home run. Jose Altuve was back in the lineup Wednesday.

Thank you, Dusty Baker, for not lying to us. The A's announced that Mason Miller has resumed a throwing program and he's been on the IL since May 11th with a mild UCL sprain in his right elbow. and I think if Mason Miller was dropped and you have IL spots available, sure, you can add him. But I don't want to get too excited about this news because even with this, there's so many hurdles in terms of bullpens and rehab assignment. If Mason Miller does return,

we're probably looking at more than a month away from now. So it's going to take some time for him to get built back up. And best case scenario, he's still pitching for the A's. Also true. Edward Carrera left his start due to a blister on his right hand. He allowed one run over five innings pitched. P. Fairbanks will begin a rehab assignment at the Florida Complex League on Friday. He's on the IL with left hip inflammation. Brandon Lowe will be shut down from baseball activities for two to three weeks due to a herniated disc in his back.

Hunter Renfro was placed on the paternity list and Joe Adele was recalled. He had 18 home runs with a 958 OPS at AAA this season, but it seems like he'll only be up for a short time. I assume Scott, nothing to see here with Joe Adele. So obviously Hunter Renfro is out of the lineup because he's on paternity leave. And Taylor Ward also got a day off. So they had two of their starting outfielders out of the lineup. And they still didn't put Joe Adele in the lineup. Like it's pretty clear.

And it's been clear since, you know, he came up in 2020 and struggled as badly as he did, that the Angels see Joe Adele as just organizational depth. Yeah, he continues. he's to mash in the minors, but his whiff rate on pitches in the zone, his swing and miss rate on pitches in the zone is really bad. And I think probably just a quadruplea player. Yeah. I would love for a, I guess, more analytically inclined team to take a shot

and see if they can get something out of Joe Adele. But alas, I assume we'll have to wait for something like that to happen. Danny Jansen is on track to begin a rehab assignment at AAA this weekend and could be activated as soon as Tuesday. Bad news there for Alejandro Kirk. Danny, nope, just said that Bryce Tarang was optioned to AAA. Andrew Monasterio started at second base with Willia Domus Head Short and Owen Miller at third. Each of the Tigers and Phillies and White Sox and Yankees games were postponed Wednesday due to smoke and poor air quality in the Northeast.

Pretty crazy stuff, Scott. We were talking beforehand. I live in Queens, New York, and it looks like the apocalypse was here for most of the day. It was crazy stuff. And my mom called me. She's like, stay indoors. Don't go out if you don't have to. And I went to the store briefly.

I went to walk. And it's crazy that it legit smells like smoke everywhere in New York City right now. It's pretty crazy. I haven't really dealt with something like this before. But it's crazy stuff. Yeah. Yeah, it is. I did go through something like that in my first year out of college.

I was the sports editor for a paper in South Georgia. And there were a lot of wildfires that summer. And so, I mean, I don't, I don't know if it's, hopefully it's not like that in New York with obviously massive population by comparison. But I just remember the feeling of not being able to get away from it because it was like you'd see this, like you could see it inside the buildings. So like, how are you going to get away from it other than going home? But, you know, the smoke's there in your home too. So what do you do? Yeah.

Yeah. It wasn't fun. Hopefully, hopefully that can get resolved soon. Yeah, thankfully, no smoke inside the buildings, or at least not where I live, but I don't know that this is going to be better on Thursday either, and they're planning to play a doubleheader. So I don't know. We'll see what happens. It's kind of, I guess, up in the air right now. But we'll see. Let's take our final break. And when we return, I've got some rankings movers and the rest of Wednesday's action. We'll do that here on fantasy baseball today. Welcome back. And a big thank you to, everybody watching us live on YouTube right now. 523 people here hanging out.

We do appreciate you. Make sure to hit that like button and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. Scott, I know that you normally update your rankings on Tuesdays. I kind of spend both Tuesday and Wednesday going through all the different positions and updating them myself.

So let's just talk about a few players that have kind of been on the rise or dropping down the rankings a little bit. And I'll throw it your way. We'll start with the risers and a few names that have been on the move for you. All right, well, let's talk about Zach Eflin. He has been a riser for me.

In fact, I just, I just updated it today in response to yesterday's start where he struck out nine. And his numbers for the season now, Zach Eflin, 8 and 1 with a 297 ERA, a 0.96 whip. And right out a strikeout per inning. That's amazing. Yeah. Like who, with the race sign, him this offseason. They awarded him the biggest free agent contract they've ever handed out, Zach Eflin.

And so we kind of laughed at that because, come on, Zach Eflin. But we're also kind of like, you know, the race, they're pretty smart. They're not just going to hand out this money flippantly. They know what they're doing. There's got to be something here that they're seeing. And so, you know, we kind of had that internal argument with ourselves. and I ultimately came down on the side of if the discount is big enough. Like if I can get them for next to nothing, maybe I'll take a flyer on Zach Eflin.

But I wasn't like making that a priority or anything. Well, it turns out the rays know what they're doing. So I have Zach Eflin now just outside my top 40, 42nd, in between Jesus Lazzardo and Lucas Gialito, slotted Eflin. So that's one of my risers. Another riser of mine is Tyler Wells. I'm just totally coming up with these off the cuff. You told me to find them before in, and I forgot.

But Tyler Wells is somebody I moved up a lot. He's actually, I have him and Bailey Ober, like right next to each other in my rankings now 54th and 55th. Because I do see them as similar pitchers. I think Ober's a little better with the strikeouts. I think he has he's shown the ability to to thrive in spite of

slash because of his high fly ball rate for longer than Wells has and also like the home run rate so the reason I say thrive slash overcome this this high fly ball rate is because obviously a high fly ball rate makes you more vulnerable to home runs which normally normally we can We associate high fly ball rates with a rise in ERA.

But in Ober's case, he does a good job of preventing home runs. The fly balls are fly balls, but they're not leaving the park. So they turn into out. So that leads to a low opponent's batting average. He has pristine control too. So that leads to just few base runners overall. Even if he starts giving up home runs, they're going to be a bunch of solo shots. I think Ober's been better at preventing home runs than Wells has.

but Wells still benefits from having a low batting average against. He still has that pristine control. Ober does. He pitches for a really good team in the Orioles. And while I do think there's some ERA risk there, everything else looks good enough that I see him as a fantasy fixture moving forward as hopefully his ranking shows. And I'm there completely with you on Zach Eflin.

I moved them up to SP 43 yesterday, like while that start was going, on and he's just been rock solid all season long. So for most of the reasons that you mentioned, just outside the top 40 for me as well, Jose Barrios, I have him and John Gray back to back. SP 49 and SP 50. They're both on great runs right now. Berrios, his first two starts of the season were rough.

And then after that, he basically looks like the Jose Burrios that we've seen from years past. The walks and the hard contact down this year, the whiffs are back up a little bit for Jose Barrios and obviously he pitches for a pretty good team there. So I'm excited about him. And yeah, kind of just giving him the respect that he deserves again. And Spencer Steer, I moved up to my 15th ranked first baseman

and my 15th ranked third baseman. He has both first and third base eligibility. I just love what he's done since the start of May. He's lifting the ball more. He's making more contact. And obviously, it's a great ballpark. And the lineup, as I mentioned earlier, I mean, this lineup is getting better together.

And just really, really like what he's doing. doing he, I think he stole either one or two bases against Noah's Sindergarde on Wednesday. So I don't know how much stock you want to put into that because anybody can run against Noah's Cindergarde. But I really like what I've seen from Stier. And I thought about moving him even higher, but I got to weigh a little bit for that. But he's, you know, he's just behind names like, you know, Ryan Mountcastle and Thai France and Andrew Vaughn and, you know, those those guys are okay. But if Spencer Stier keeps this up, Like maybe he becomes a standout and he's a better player than those guys moving forward.

I don't think it's impossible, so. Yeah, I actually moved him ahead of France myself, at least in points leagues. Do I still have France ahead in Roto? No, I move steer ahead at Moth. Take that, Frank. Take that. I mean, he's eligible at third base.

Maybe he's going to be eligible in the outfield. Take that. Okay. You want me to give some fallers now, I presume? Let's do it. Who's falling down my rankings? Well, Jose Ibrahim, it was overdue probably. I was given him more benefit of the doubt.

Well, you know, I don't want to say more of benefit of the doubt than he deserves. Obviously, the guy has an incredible track record, but it's gone on long enough. He's now down at 22nd in my first base rankings, which puts him on the verge of being dropped, I'd say, even in some corner infielder leagues. I think I've just It's hard to remain It's hard to hold out any Unlike Michael Harris

It's hard to remain hopeful For Jose Abe, I would say And certainly the difference in age Has something to do with that How about a pitcher faller here? Let's see, I don't want to steal that one Because I've already stolen one from you You can do it if you want, it's fine

Well, I mean it's kind of obvious Bryce Miller. Yeah. It was the sort of situation where until something bad happened, it was hard to say for sure, something bad was going to happen. But it kind of looked like something bad was going to happen because he just wasn't missing enough bats and things have gone really south for him really quickly. He's now down to 66th in my starting pitcher rankings.

And you could make the case to put him even lower than that. Yeah, a similar range for me. I've got Bryce Miller at SP64. He's just ahead of Mackenzie Gore, James Paxson, Andrew Abbott, Michael Waka. I don't know. That's a pretty interesting group of pitchers. So you could argue that he should be behind that group as well. And, you know, verging on a top 70 starting pitcher.

I don't want to completely bury him yet. I still think that fastball is really good. But we've got to see something. We've got to see something this next start out against. I believe he's facing the Angels. So Bryce Miller is a follower for both of us. Patrick Wisdom, I dropped him way down in both third base and outfield rankings. I think he's probably droppable.

I have him in my main event league NFBC. That's a 15-team Roto League, so it's kind of hard. It's like anyone who plays regularly, kind of needs to be on a roster. I haven't dropped him there yet, though I have thought about it. And the other name I wanted to mention, and this one might start up a little controversy, is Jared Kelnick, who I dropped him down to outfielder 34. in head-to-head points, outfield their 26 in Roto.

And over his last 11 games, this was entering Wednesday, 11 games before Wednesday, Jared Kellenick was batting 128 with a 49% strikeout rate. And if you look at his overall season numbers, the strikeout rate is all the way up to 32.6%. So this is a lot like what we've seen in the past,

and I know he had that great first month, but I think just kind of, kind of under the radar, Kellnick has really fallen off, Scott. And I was looking through last 30-day numbers, and I saw how low he was. And I was like, yeah, I'm going to drop him down a little bit. I'm not saying to drop him in general, but I have dropped him down outside of my top 30 outfielders,

at least in a points league. You are muted, sir. You pull the Chris. I was toying with that idea, too. And ultimately, I didn't move him down as much. You still have him 26th here, right? So that's... 26th in Roto, 34th, and head-ed points.

The overall numbers are still good, and I don't... I understand Kellnick's not totally proven, but there's an ebb and flow to every season, and I don't want to be too herky-jerkie with it. You know, oh, he's hot now. Let's move him up 20 spots. Oh, he's cold now. Let's move him down 20 spots.

I'm just being a little more patient with it. If this continues for several more weeks from Kellnick, then I'll act. All right. Similarly to you. But I did move Josh Outman. Not Josh Outman. James, no.

What's his first name? James Outman. There used to be a Josh Outman. James Outman. I've moved him way down. He's like right it around 50th for me now. I moved him down to 68. Ooh.

So. Wow. Hit the road, Jack or James, whatever we want to call you. He's he going. Yeah, he's not even playing. I think each of the Pat. No, today they, they feel. face a lefty, but yesterday they faced a righty.

He wasn't even in the lineup in Cincinnati, right? And that's where you need James Outman to play in Cincinnati. It's a great ballpark. So, yeah, I think we're closer to dropping him, unfortunately. I should have mentioned, if you want to check out our rankings on the site, CBSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball slash rankings. So it's a longer link. But if you ever have a question and obviously we get a ton of them

and we're not going to answer every question, you can go check out the rankings and get an idea of, some of our thoughts there. Let's get into some of the leftovers here, Scotty, and start with some pitchers. Two stud pitchers that got hit hard on Wednesday. George Kirby allowed five earned runs over three and two-thirds innings, 11 hits at the San Diego Padres.

And as great as he is, I still think he's a really good pitcher. He's, you know, a borderline SP2. He just doesn't get as many whiffs as other elite starting pitchers. He dominates with, you know, this elite level control that he has. but when you pitch to contact that much, you are going to be prone to that blow-up start every now and then. And Max Scherzer, kind of a mixed start here. I don't want to completely poo-poo it

because he gave up five runs or five-and-two-thirds. He gave up 11 hits at the Braves. He still had 10 strikeouts and still had 19 swinging strikes. So anything you'd like to add on Scherzer and George Kirby? Yeah, I feel good about the overall trend Scherzer is on here. He's just looked more overpowering his last few starts. he gave up some hits in this one, I understand. That's going to happen.

But as you point out, missed a lot of bats too. And I think that's more, that's a more resilient measurement for a pitcher than how many hits he gives up. I agree with your general take on Kirby. So he's kind of gone. Two of his last three starts have been like his worst two of the season. And then sandwiched right in the middle. He threw eight shutout innings. Yeah.

So I had George Kirby as a bust, you know, not the bus pick I felt the most confident in, but he was technically on my bust list coming in because I wanted to see him miss more bats. Obviously, that's something I highly value in a pitcher. And it hasn't improved. But I have more confidence now in him than I did then. I mean, all the ERA estimators, or at least most of them, XERA. what's the other one? Pretty much all of them.

XERA FIP. All of them basically say he's, like they're better than his ERA now. So the metrics that offer a better indication of actual ability is opposed to just results. They say Kirby's legit good. So I'm going to go with that.

All right. Two pitchers that are maybe sell high candidates. Michael Waka keeps it rolling with another great start, six shutout innings with seven strikeouts up against the Mariners, and he is down to a 3.18 ERA and a 1.09 whip. The reason I bring him up as a potential sell high, his home run to fly ball ratio is 6.7%. It's 12.7% for his career. So nearly double where he's at right now. I do think some home runs are going to pop up at some point here for Michael Waka. Chris Bassett is the other name. Great start up against the Houston Astros.

Eight shutout, excuse me, not shut out, eight innings of two-run ball with five strikeouts. He only had eight swinging strikes. And what I noticed with Bassett, he pitches to contact more than other pitchers and his babbip is 209. 209 in a season with shift restrictions playing in Toronto, where typically babbps are higher

for starting pitchers. It's just, it's not sustainable. It's not anywhere close to sustainable, a 209 babbip. for Chris Bassett. Scott, what do you think about the potential of selling high on either of these names? Boy, it's been a long time since I've done Babbitt analysis. We just have so many other things to look at. But I mean, you're not wrong. I don't know. I feel pretty confident in Chris Bassett because there's only so many pitchers you can feel confident in. And other than two really

terrible starts, he's just been so reliable and obviously has a track record to back it up. so I don't know that I'm I don't know that I could be that motivated to sell him I'm more motivated to sell WACA I'm more skeptical of what he's doing but I think kind of everybody is so it's a situation like how much

you're going to get for him because I think Waka could be a valuable pitcher I mean it's gone on long enough now you know after a year when his ERA was like 322 right last year and we all dismissed it then whatever Michael Waka, he got lucky, whatever else.

Obviously, we weren't valuing him much coming into this year. And now he has this stretch, Michael Waka, where last six starts a 105 ERA, a 0.8 whip. Even the 8.6K per 9 is pretty good. He's outperforming all his ERA estimators, and I expect some regression to come. But I don't think he's... Like, to me, he's, he's more than just, you know, it'll take more than just a bad start or two for him to wind back on the wave, wind up back on the waiver wire.

So I wouldn't want to want to sell him short either. Yeah. And I was mostly playing devil's advocate. I do think that we will see some statistical regression in those two areas specifically for those two pictures. But I also mostly trust them. Obviously, Chris Bassett has a much longer track record. But, yeah, those are the two there. 332 was Waka ZRA last year, not 322.

Yeah, very good. Yeah, he's been really good for, I don't know, over a calendar year now at this point. Some deeper waiver wire pitcher Scott Zack Davies had a strong start at the National's 6 and 2 3rds, 2 runs allowed with 8 strikeouts and 14 swinging strikes. Somebody named Ronell Blanco for the Houston Astros turned in a quality start at the Blue Jays, six innings of two-run ball with five strikeouts and 16 swinging striking. throws his slider a ton. 54% usage and 12 of his 16 swinging strikes came on that slider. Jaime Berea, another solid start up against the Cubs, five innings of two-run ball with three strikeouts.

He now has a 1.85 ERA and a 0.97 whip. Scott, any interest? Deeper Leagues, Jaime Berea, Ronel Blanco, and Zach Davies. Pretty much none in Davies. A little intrigued by Berea. but he's in a difficult spot in the Angels rotation and there are questions of how much volume he's going to give you, I think, beyond just can he sustain what he's doing.

The real wild card here is Ronell Blanco, who pitches for theoretically a good team in the Astros and has some good swinging strike numbers with as much as he throws that slider. A ton of walks in the minors. He only got 16 innings there this year. He had 13 walks in those 16 innings. And the overall track record with the walks isn't great.

So I'm not expecting much from Ronel Blanco, but we'll keep an eye on him. All right. Let's hit some pitching leftovers here. I know that there's going to be someone who tweets at me tomorrow and say, why didn't you talk about Corbyn Burns? It's just going to turn out that I did it really, really late in the podcast. But let's do it. Pablo Lopez had a great bounce back start at the table.

Tampa Bay Reyes, seven innings of one-run ball, six strikeouts, 13 swinging strikes. The aforementioned Corbyn Burns, a masterful start up against the Orioles, eight shutout, two hits, zero walks, nine strikeouts with 14 swinging strikes, a vintage performance there for Corbyn Burns, and the other names we already talked about. So your thoughts on Lopez and Burns. Yeah, it does seem like Lopez has, and I talked about him a little bit earlier, comparing him to John Gray. he's been tough to figure out the underlying numbers

make him out to be better than he is. He has some weird things going on with pitch selection. And last year, too, it was an issue where he underperformed for a very long stretch of the season ended up with worse numbers than we thought he was capable of. So that's why it's hard to get behind Pablo Lopez fully, but also hard to say, oh, yeah, John Gray is definitely better than Pablo Lopez.

So I don't know. It was an encouraging start, especially at Tampa Bay. I do want to talk a little more about Corbyn Burns here because I think for all the concerns we've shared about him this year, seems like he might be getting back on track. The cutter velocity has been up recently, not all the way back to where it was last year, but sort of halfway between where it was early this year and where it was last year.

We're seeing the swinging strike numbers go up for him. Let me see if I could get a... Yeah, I mean, he's been so much better since his first four starts. Since the first four starts, it's been more like 15% swayed striker, which is great. That's where you want to see it for Corbyn Burns. Also, his average exit velocity in this start was below 80 miles per hour. It's been below 80 miles per hour over a three-start stretch. That's about as weak as contact gets on average.

So like everything is looking right for Corbyn Burns again, from the velocity, the swinging strikes, the quality of contact. The strikeout rate isn't, you know, back exactly to where we're used to seeing it. But I feel pretty comfortable saying Corbin Burns is back to being an ace and probably better days are ahead for him. All right. Some hitting leftovers. Juan Soto went five for five with a double and four RBI, the first five hit game of his career. He had four hard hit balls, and since the start of May, 33 games, he's betting 321 with five homers and five steals. Luis Arise had two more hits, and he's now batting 403.

Randy Rosarena went two for five with his 12th home run. It was a walk-off shot. Had slowed down a little bit recently, but nice to see a big game there from a Rosarena. Speaking of big games, Corbyn Carole, this guy is amazing. Four for five with a sock and a shoe. his 11th home run, his 18th steel. He had three hard hit balls in this game, including one at 110.3 exit velocity. Scott, I had a similar concern.

I know you spoke about this a little bit before the season about the exit velocity from last year, and can he tap into that max EV? Can he get there? Can he Corby and Carol do it? And we've seen it. He's been able to do it this year. So he's up to a 300 batting average, a 928 OPS, and his 150 game pace is now 27 home runs.

and 45 seals. You love to see it. I'm almost speechless, man. I moved them up to my 10th ranked outfielder. He's just behind Mike Trout, Kyle Tucker, Julio Rodriguez. I don't know how much longer I need to see him do this before I start actually moving him ahead of those names.

Because at that point, Scott, we're talking about a borderline first-round pick in Corbyn Carroll, and I think he's earned that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if he sustains the pace he's on right now, the batting average 300, the 27 homer, 45 steel pace. I mean. Crazy. Yeah, it's, he's going to be a first round player next year.

Yeah. That continues. For sure. Yordaun Alvarez went one for four with his 17th home run. Bobichette went one for four with his 14th home run. And Tyler Stevenson hit his fourth homer, his second in three games. Starting to pick it up. Again, that's last.

lineup all kind of coming together at once. Will Smith went two for five with his ninth home run. He's batting 305 with a 939 OPS. Ronald de Cunia went two for five with two steals. He's now up to 28 on the season, just one behind Estuary Ruiz. Manny Machado went two for five with three hard hit balls, two of those over 108 exit velocity. And Jordan Walker only went one for two with a single, but that single was 11.3 exit velocity. We have seen some of those big hard hits from Jordan Walker so far. And I like what I've seen. I know he hasn't done anything crazy yet,

but I like what I've seen so far since he has returned from the miners. A few bullpen updates here. We'll start with Oakland. And Trevor May entered in the ninth inning with one out. Runners on first and second with a four-run lead. And he got the final two outs for his first save of the season. For Tampa Bay, Jason Adam entered in the ninth with a one-run lead. he gave up exactly one run

so he took his fourth blown save but he wound up with the win because on the other side Yohan Duran gave up that walkoff home run to Randy a Roserina for the Blue Jays Jordan Romano picked up his 16th save for the Guardians, a manual class A

struck out two for his league leading 20th save for the Dodgers Evan Phillips entered in the ninth with the game tied. He gave up that walk off home run to Will Benson and yesterday We had the Welsh on. He told us he saw Daniel Hudson rehabbing in the Arizona Complex League.

So just the name, someone to stash, because it seems like the Dodgers have been searching for some back-end bullpen help all season long. For the Braves with Ricell Igleson, Unavailable, A.J. Minter pitched a clean ninth for his eighth save for the Cardinals. One-run lead, Giovanni Gallegos pitched in the eighth, and then Ryan Helsley pitched in the ninth, so picked up his seventh save. Just when you think you know, Scott, you have an idea about the Rockies bullpen? Justin Lawrence entered in the seventh inning with a one-run lead, the seventh,

with runners on first and second, no outs. He retired the next three batters in order. Now, that is arguably the highest leverage situation in the game, and he performed admirably. And then he started the eighth inning, and he gave up two runs. So he wound up taking the loss. And if they held on, I don't know who they would have used in the ninth. Would it have been Daniel Bard or Pierce Johnson?

I don't know. I mean, the only thing worse than a Rocky's reliever is a Rocky's reliever with an unclear role. That's about right. And on the other side for the Giants, Camillo DeValle, pitch a clean ninth for his 15th save of the season. Let's wrap up, Scott, to stream or not to stream. We'll start with Thursday, which became a bigger slate because now we've got some doubleheaders playing on Thursday. but even with that it's not a great slate

Josiah Gray up against the Diamondbacks I guess it's all right I guess like gosh Mike Clevenger at the Yankees I don't know he's getting some wits recently they have no Aaron Judge so maybe

this is when we all squirm Frank it make us pick the best of bad options I think you identified them but um... read detmer's up against the cubs that lineup is slowed down hmm

yeah i i mean i probably take thatmers over cleverer so josiah gray one oh what about kyle bradish at milwaukee it's a bad lineup that's not terrible yeah okay so i'm gonna put kyle bradish one milwaukee one then josiah gray against the diamondbacks then read demers against the cubs

okay i think i would swap gray i'll take gray over bradish but it's close. On Friday, Michael Lorenzen is pitching well right now. He's going up against the Diamondbacks. Tough lineup. Garrett Whitlock is at the Yankees. Again, no Aaron Judge.

So I have a feeling, we'll mention them as streamers moving forward. What else do we have here? Tyler McGill at the Pirates. I don't know. Bad pitcher, bad lineup. Rich Hill on the other side against the Mets. Blah.

Adrian Houser against Oakland. He's pitched all right, But Oakland is kind of pesky, man. I don't know. Yeah. I think Michael Lorenzen would be my first choice just because of how hot he is, even if the Diamondbacks lineup is pretty tough.

Yeah. Distant second would probably be Hauser against the A's. He's good at limiting damage because he's such a ground ball pitcher. But a lot of times those ground balls can just turn into hits and he'll deliver a high whip for you, which isn't great. Yeah, I'll take Lorenzen as well.

Then I'll go Garrett Willock, and I'll take, yeah, either Hauser or Tyler McGill. I think those guys are fine. They're okay. We're going to wrap there for Scott. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify.

We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.