Fantasy Baseball Today - Justin Steele Out For The Season! Waiver Wire Replacements (4/14 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 14, 2025

Justin Steele is out for the season with an elbow injury (2:18)! ... Who are the top Steele replacements for this week and long term (4:06)? ... What about waiver wire pitchers in deeper leagues (12:55)? ... Jung Hoo Lee had a huge weekend (22:13). ... Michael Busch got his revenge against the Dodgers (25:27). ... Sean Murphy is hitting for power right away (28:55). ... Who are the top shortstop replacements from the weekend (31:33)? ... News (36:00): Jake Cronenworth went on the IL. ... Who were the top waiver wire hitters from the weekend (48:17)? ... What to do with Dylan Crews (55:40)? ... We had some outstanding pitching performances (1:01:38). ... Start or sit these pitchers (1:05:33)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:11:44). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CPTowers @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. What's up and welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Monday. April 14th.

I am Frank Sample, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we had some truly outstanding. Pitching performances this weekend. Michael Bush got his revenge on the Dodgers, waiver ads, and injury replacements. Speaking of injuries, unfortunately, that is where we need to start. Justin Steele out for the season

with an elbow surgery, per Jeff Passon. Cubs left-hander, Justin Steele will undergo reconstructive elbow surgery and missed the remainder of the 2025 season. Unclear yet whether it's a full Tommy John or primary repair, but his season is over regardless. Awful news for the Cubs who are off to a great start. It is awful news for the Cubs.

It's awful news for fantasy managers as well. Justin Steele likely drafted as your SP3, I would say, most likely. Maybe SP2, SP4, depending on the size of your league, but this is a very big loss for fantasy. Colin Ray, likely to take a spot in the rotation for now. Deeper leagues, NL only, sure, but I don't think we have much interest in Colin Ray.

Before we get into replacements, I mean, any just thoughts on the magnitude of this injury and how it affects, I don't know, the fantasy landscape and the Cubs, I guess. It's a bummer because Steele was coming off his best start.

He, I think, has been kind of perpetually underrated for a couple of years now and people didn't really take him seriously because of his limited repertoire, but it's a bummer. He's fun to watch pitch.

She's very good. And now he's out until next year. And he's probably going to have to convince everyone all over again that he's good. And it is worth noting he's had Tommy John surgery before back in, I believe, 2017. So if it's Tommy John, it would be a second, even if it's just the internal brace. It would still be repairing a previously repaired. So it's a long odds for him to come back as the same guy, unfortunately. Yeah.

I think that's all well said. If you're looking for replacements for this upcoming week, Scott Sleeper pitchers in order. Jeffrey Springs, Grant Holmes, Mitch Keller, Easton Lucas, Tyler McGill, J.P. Sears, Landon Rup, Jameson, Tyone, Eduardo Rodriguez, and Osvaldo Bito. Rodriguez, by the way, this weekend, six in a third innings, two earned runs, three strikeouts,

and he is at the Marlins. So obviously, that is a really good matchup. Let's get into just other Waver Wire pitchers that stood out this weekend, People need Justin Steele replacements and all the other pitching injuries that we've dealt with up to this point. First group includes Hayden Wisniewski, Chase Dolander, Matthew Boyd, and David Peterson. So differing level of skills, differing level of matchups this week. If you guys need the matchups, I can bring those up for any of these pitchers.

But are there any of those names that just stand out long term for this season? Wesniew, Dolander, Matthew Boyd, Boyd, and David Peterson. You know, I didn't feel like it was a great weekend. for pitchers to pick up off the waiver wire. In my own leagues, the pitcher I was targeting most, was Easton Lucas, who of course didn't pitch this weekend,

but now lines up for two starts because of how the Blue Jays rearranged their rotation. And he's kind of a mystery box. So he'd be higher on the list than, than I think any of these guys. Well, maybe not Dullander. I mean, Dolander. I'd much rather have Dallander.

Yeah. I don't know that I'd much rather. I think I was prioritizing Lucas over Dallander because I just think Dahlander is going to be unusable half the time in all likelihood. If he becomes usable in the road starts, which is, I think, a very big end. He was very good in his first road start, right?

Right, but you know what happens with Rocky's pitchers. It's hard to maintain two different approaches at home and on the road. and the difficulties of course, fields kind of just ruin them everywhere a lot of times. And then obviously he has a terrible offense backing him. So I'm not saying Dallander would be low on this list. He'd be high on this list because you're kind of looking for that mystery box since nobody here stands out as, oh, I have to have this guy. I will say for Hayden West Nesky, who did have a 10 strikeout performance. Lance Brasdowski had some interesting things to say about him, so I'll just read what he tweeted out.

Astro's overhaul of West Nesky seems to have focused on his lefty approach, new curveball, big reduction in sweeper usage, cutter usage doubled, foreseen located more armside up away as opposed to middle, middle in. righty approach was always sound sweeper commande plus so it seems like he's saying that he's going to be less vulnerable to lefties now interestingly West Nesky did up the sweeper usage in this start through it more than 40% of the time

I'm guessing let me take a peek at the lineup I'm guessing that's because they had a lot of right handers in the lineup it was the Angels and yeah very righty-heavy lineup Nolan Shanwell Elbats left-handed, but of course he's not that intimidating for an opposing pitcher.

So that probably had something to do with West Neski's approach. And I've said before I'm not the biggest West Nesky guy. You'll find bigger believers in him than me, but it's been solid so far. And is relief pitcher eligible, too, if you need that. I think there were some interesting pitchers this weekend. I don't think. I actually think Dahlinder was probably the closest to like a must add. And even that, I don't think he actually is.

I want to give a just. a mention here to Matthew Boyd, who's looked pretty good so far, and he was good last year. I know that Matthew Boyd has kind of been like a thing at times throughout the past decade, and he has burned us many times. But last year in eight starts with the Guardians, he was really good. 272 ERA 113-13 whip, 10.4K per 9. So far this year, it's a 159 ERA, 118 whip, one trike out per inning. And he just looks solid.

And obviously, has a great team backing him here with the Chicago Cubs. 16 whiffs at the Dodgers this weekend for Matthew Boyd. So I think he's someone that you can probably use in the right matchup. I didn't realize his fastball velocity was up. For some reason, I thought it had been down, but it's actually up a mile per hour. So that's a little more interesting than I thought. Yeah, okay, Matthew Boyd, moderately interesting, yeah.

All right, next group includes another cub, Ben Brown, who is great at the Dodgers, six shutout innings with five strikeouts here. Shane Smith continues to pitch well against the Red Sox this time. Six innings, two runs with three strikeouts. Edward Cabrera, solid in his season debut, five and two-thirds innings, two runs, five strikeouts. Change the pitch makes up quite a bit in this one.

And David Festa was okay in his season debut against the Tigers. Four and two-thirds, one unearned run with four strikeouts here. Anybody stand out from this group, perhaps? Festa, Edward Cabrera, Shane Smith, and Ben Brown. I think these guys are all like sort of interesting. I don't think any of them are like pound the table. You need to go add them right now. Brown, it's an overstatement to say he's a one pitch pitcher.

It's not that much of an overstatement, though. His fastball is not particularly good. His curve ball is incredible. It's just kind of all he has. And so there's going to be some really good pitch, some performances like this. I don't think it's going to be sustainable. unfortunately, I think we're past hoping that Edward Cabrera can be consistently good, but maybe the light goes on at some point, and maybe this was a sign of it.

He ran into a little bit of trouble in this one later on, but went like way less fastball heavy in this one. And that's kind of interesting because his fastball command is kind of always the biggest issue for Edward Cabrera. He throws his change up and his slider really well. So maybe going to those more can make it work. And then I think Fest is pretty good. I don't think he's a difference maker, but I think he, I think he belongs in the rotation moving forward.

I don't know if they'll keep him in the rotation, but that's, I think he deserves to be there. I think he has the tools too, right? He has his new age fastball, David Festa, elite extension, 20 inches of induced vertical break. It looks like the secondary is a really good too, with the changeup and the slider.

I think one thing that could hold them back is when the twins call up pitchers like early on in their career, they really do limit them a lot. Like they only let him throw 64 pitches in this start. And I think if you're depending on, like, if you need quality starts, I don't think David Fest is ever going to be allowed

to go six innings. Ever? Well, maybe he's really efficient. But I just feel like the twins kind of play it safe and they're pretty cautious with their starting pitchers. At least their young pitchers. he is okay so so david fest obviously this isn't his first go around um he was up for 14 appearances 13 starts last year he did go 6 and 1 but only 1 a lot of 5 inning starts remember he had a 13%

swingy strike rate during that time which is good i got to be honest i still prefers zebby i said i said uh easton lucas mixing up the first and last name easton lucas right i said i said he was the main pitcher I was picking up the highest priority off the waiver wire for me for this weekend. It was actually Zebby Matthews in the leagues where he's still available. It doesn't sound like he is going to start Monday. I know some on the Twins beat speculated that that was the case. Yeah, there had been some chatter. And it looks like Joe Ryan is scheduled to go then, but it's not going to be long.

And I just, I think the impact is going to be immediate for him. Again, that was Zeb Matthews that we were just talking about. Out of this group, we didn't really talk too much about Shane Smith. He's just been solid so far. At least five and two-thirds innings in all three outings. Has a lot of two-run runs or fewer in all three outings. Winds are obviously going to be hard to come by here. But I've been pretty impressed by what we've seen so far.

So for me, I like Matthew Boyd in the first group. I like Shane Smith and David Festa here in the second group. I do agree that I would prefer to stash Zebby over both of those pictures that we just talked about. Yeah. Next group include. I do like Shane. Smith. I wish you didn't pitch for the white socks. That's going to make it hard. The next group here, Matthew Liberator, a strong start against the Phillies, six shutout

innings, seven strikeouts, 14 whiffs and really leaned on the slider. The velocity was up in this one. Andre Palante, where did this come from? Not entirely sure. Seven shutout innings with four strikeouts also against the Phillies. Jose Katana pitched very well in his Brewer's debut at the D-back seven shutout with only two strikeouts. And Will Warren picked up his first major league win against the Giants, five innings, two runs, six strikeouts, 14 whiffs on 91 pitches. We're getting a little bit deeper here into the player pool, but do any of these names pop out? I mean, these are, there's some pretty interesting stuff happening with all of these guys. I'm not sure any of them are priority ads off the waiver wire, except in very deep leagues,

but I could see them becoming that. So, Payante or Palante, sorry, Andre Palante of the Cardinals. He is one of the best groundball pitchers in baseball. In fact, he has a 70% ground ball rate currently, which is just insane. His slider has a 52% whiff rate. He hasn't been getting a lot of strikeouts. He's mostly leaned on getting weak contact, but he has a pitch there that's missing bats when he needs to draw on it.

And he was useful at times last year, too. I don't think he's somebody to totally write off. Liberator, of course, has a top prospect pedigree, were kind of past the point of thinking about him in those terms because it's been such so long of such mediocrity. But a great start in every way here on Sunday and all of his pitches were up one to two miles per hour. The slider got 11 whiffs on its own.

And so maybe if he's able to work at a higher velocity like that, there could be something there. We'll see how the next start goes. It may just be a one and done for Liberator, but I'm at least curious to see how that goes. And Will Warren, he has like a 45% whiff rate on his fastball, which is like twice as high as a good whiff rate on that pitch. Now, a lot of good it's done for him,

but it's hard to imagine if he sustains anything close to it. he sustains two-thirds of that. It's hard to imagine Will Warren won't be a strikeout guy. I mean, that wasn't even the pitch getting all the attention this spring. It was the sweeper that pushes 3,000 RPM, which is also something you rarely see. So some really interesting characteristics there on Will Warren's pitches. Now, he hasn't turned in a start. I guess the start that comes closest to getting excited about was this one over the weekend against the Giants, two hits and five innings.

But I think he is interesting. So we'll keep an eye on Will Warren as well. All right. A couple of their deep league names. I'm just going to throw a bunch of names at you. And if anyone stands out, just feel free to talk about him. Andrew Abbott, Tyler Anderson, J.T. Ginn, Luis L. Ortiz, C. Kyle Hart, Joe Boyle, and Davis-Martin, Joe Boyle, and Davis-Mart.

All had good starts this weekend. Chris, any of those names stand out. It was Davis Martin, Joe Boyle, Kyle Hart, Luis Ortiz, J.T. Ginn, Tyler Anderson, Andrew Abbott. Yeah, Luis Ortiz Started throwing a lot more Four Seamers and Cutters in this one Especially to Lefties

And that worked really well for him He got eight whiffs With the four seamer in this one I don't know how sustainable it is I still think he's more like a SPARP But I don't think there's like A huge difference between Ortiz And someone like Shane Smith

Who's probably a little more rostered They're both I think primarily interesting For the SPARP eligibility Guardians got a good pitching factory there. Although they had a lot of good things to say about Luis Hortez after this start. Doesn't seem to be working for Tanner Bybee or Gavin Williams so far. Yeah, I mean, Bive is going to be fine.

Generally, we defer to the Guardians. Kyle Hart, I think this was just the Rockies away from Corse Field. They did not score a single run in that series against the Padres. Michael King had it. Yeah, it was the first time that's happened since 2017. And not to the Rockies, although it wouldn't be surprising if it was also that the last time. But yes, that's really bad.

Joe Boyle is probably the most interesting of this group because the stuff is just ridiculous. He throws like a closer and usually looks like a closer trying to start. He usually doesn't actually pitch all that well. He throws really hard. Gives up a lot of walks, but there's huge strikeout potential here. I think he probably ends up in the bullpen for the raise long term,

but he did give up five no hit innings, seven strikeouts, 12 whiffs on 74 pitches. I just don't know if he sticks around in Tampa. And he had a good spring, but walks are always a concern. He had six walks in his first eight innings across. two starts at AAA. So I would guess the likeliest outcome for Joe Boyle's. He doesn't matter for fantasy,

but he's super interesting. Yeah, a lot of interesting arms, not a lot of like must add arms. Boyle, I'll just add with him that the Rays do have a seven game week coming up. So I could see him getting another turn. They're just sticking with a six-man rotation. And then who knows what happens over the course of the week? And a life could find a way if he has another good start.

But I wasn't picking. I was glad I already had him stashed in an AL-only league and that I didn't drop him there. But I wasn't looking to add him in any of my normal-sized leagues. I will throw a mention here to J.T. Ginn, who we talked about on the Prospects episode last time. His fastball, his sinker, is up two miles per hour this year. and it was helping him to big strikeout numbers at AAA

and he looked good in his return to the majors here against the Mets, five and a third strong innings, 11 whiffs on 89 pitches. The thing is he doesn't need to be a big batmissor because he's such a good ground ball pitcher. So it helps. It could take him from just somebody who stream on occasion

to maybe J.T. Ginn does turn into somebody we're rostering in all leagues. Too early to say that now, but there are definite reasons for optimism with JT. Ginn. All right, again, those are all the waiver wire pitchers, some deep names up top. We went over names that you can use this specific week.

Scott Sleeper pitchers for this upcoming week. Again, the big news is that Justin Steele will be out for the entire season due to elbow surgery. Let's take our first break before we do that. Just a reminder to hit the like button if you're watching us live. Big thanks to those who are here. We appreciate you and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. Let's take a break and we'll be back right after this.

All right, welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today. I'm realizing now that I did not change the, oh my goodness gracious from Friday, which was, of course, Scott's impression of Susan Walden. No, don't do it again. So I will not. I was just filibustering so I can change it for a second. But let's get into the players of the weekend.

Oh, my goodness gracious. All right. Chris, kick us off. Player of the weekend. All right, where the Huli Gans at? Jung Hulie is off to just a remarkable start. And he put a caper on a big weekend with a two homer game against the Yankees on Sunday. That's three homers and three games in that series.

I think one of them was a Yankee field special, at least, maybe both. But he is hitting 375 with a 1232 OPS. And while Auburn, Obviously, Junghuli is not that good. Entering today, he had a 461 expected Woba and a 428 Woba. So the two homer game aside, Junghli was actually playing pretty much up to his underlying numbers. And that's a big deal because this is a guy who makes a ton of contact,

but there were a lot of questions about how good the quality of contact would be. Is this just another Masataki Yoshita? It does not appear to be because while he's got a great, great approach at the plate. He also hits the ball hard enough to not be a total zero when it comes to power. His average exit velocity so far this season, 90.1 miles per hour for Jung-Hoo-Lee, that is 56th percentile in the majors. Last season, it wasn't quite as high, but it wasn't far off. You know, we're not talking about a Luis Araya's skill set here where there's just no power. I think Jung Hewli can balance contact with quality in a way that I thought about

maybe is he a top 30 outfielder the rest of the season? He's running a little bit. He's in a good spot in the lineup. I'm not there, but I could get there. I mean, easily in points leagues I could get there. But maybe. Yeah, maybe overall. There are probably I mean usually by mid-season enough outfielders have dropped out enough of the like we're chasing upside with this guy outfielders have dropped out that some of the some of the more downs the

some of the downside cases end up creeping up in the rankings and I could see that for lay not that he is just a floor case like there is you know but he's he's sort of like Stephen Kwanish and that he's probably not going to be, you know, there's a limit to his upside. Yeah. Yeah. I do think that that's all fair, but the skills so far, and there is a bit of like a mystery box here because like we just didn't really get to see Jung Huli that much last

season, but makes good contact. I think if nothing else, he'll hit for good batting average, but a little bit of power, maybe a little bit of speed. And the fact that the Giants trust him to bat third in that lineup, he's already got 16 runs and 11 RBI. I think the counting stats could be pretty good. Not that the Giants lineup is great, but they're solid. They don't really have any holes. They're just solid all around. So I can see the counting stats actually being pretty good here for Junghuli this season.

He's up to 85% rostered on CBS. Only 64% on Yahoo. So if you play on Yahoo, I just check to make sure that Junghuli is not available. Scott, let's go over to you. Your player of the weekend, somebody who loves revenge. Yeah, a big revenge weekend for Michael

Bush. The biggest game came Saturday when he went four for six with two doubles, a home run, what should have been a second home run. A grand slam, Scott. Yeah, it would have been. Four batted balls over 100 miles per hour and two others above 95. So six hard hit balls that game for Michael Bush. And then he followed that up with another two for four performance in a home run Sunday. So Michael Bush has got to go. going on. His expected stats look great. His strikeout rate is lower than last year. And of course, improved over his rookie season two. I think he's really finding his footing in the majors now. And

it's funny what's happened at first base. Doesn't this often seem to be the case where when a position looks weak going into his season, new players come and fill in the gaps because, of course, We've had Tyler Soderstrom and Ben Rice and Spencer Torkelson and Kyle Monsardo is kind of falling off lately here and doesn't quite have first base eligibility yet, but there's still a lot to like there for him and he'll have first base eligibility soon. So in the podcast for the People League, it's 16 teamer. I remember I got boxed out at first base despite all my warnings to all of you out there not to let that happen to you. I got Ben Rice and Michael Bush both very late, and now they're both doing so well. I don't know who to start at the position.

I'm the one who picked up Tyler Soderstrum in the original podcast league, but I already have Bryce Harper. So I've been kind of shopping him a little bit, Soderstrom. Might just hold on to him for my D.H. I don't know. But yeah, a lot of good options emerging there. Bush has not started a game against a left. left-hander yet this year.

And of course, they signed Justin Turner late to be a platoon option with him. But Justin Turner's 40, and he wasn't that good last year. If Bush keeps this up, I imagine we're going to start seeing him some against left-handers. And who knows? Who knows what kind of year it could have? I think he's part of the discussion now, even for 12 teamers. It was really unfair that they had to start Justin Turner today. I don't know if you guys saw the stat.

I think he entered today like 0 for 14 for his career against Tyler Glass now with like nine strikeouts. I think he struck out three times against him. Oh. It was, yeah, it was rough. Yeah. Michael Bush, by the way, if you are thinking about picking him up and starting him this week, the Cubs have six games on the schedule. It looks like zero lefties as well.

So that would bode well for Michael Bush this upcoming week. Scott, with all that said about the first base position, I think we're still ranking him at the bottom of that list, right? Below the Ben Rice's and Torkelson and Sodorstrom. Until we see Bush start against the left-hander, I think we have to. Rice keeps starting more and more against left-handers. Mazzardo does... All but one of his home runs have come against lefties, I believe.

Yeah, and he was out of the lineup against a lefty Sunday, Monsardo, but he started at least against half of them. All right, my player of the weekend is going to be Sean Murphy, who went two for four with a double dong on Saturday and hit a home run earlier in the week in his first came back from the IL. He's only 52% rostered, and the reason we bring him up is in one catcher leagues,

we often talk about the back end of the top 12 is you should really just ride the hot hand. And right now, Sean Murphy, despite, you know, a limited sample here, his first week back, he's the hot end. Like, he's hitting for home runs right. away and you know I think as this Braves lineup slowly starts to pick things up and they you know all all kind of starts to gel together here I do think better days are coming for the Braves lineup

overall so if you are one of those people who just waited in a one catcher league I I think you can pick up and go ahead and start Sean Murphy and like there was a part of me that was like riding him up today I was like yeah but he struck out like eight times his first 20 plate appearances or whatever it is and it's like well yeah but Logan a hop he's got like a 40% some strikeout rate too. And I think Shea Langalear's strikeout rate is super high. And like, you can, there are very few catchers who you can't find a significant red flag in their profile. It's just can you do enough to overcome it.

And Sean Murphy clearly can. Well, here's the biggest change for Sean Murphy. He wears glasses now. Yeah. That is, yeah. Like, remember, his first year with the. Braves. He had an average eggs of velocity of 91.5, a max of

11.14.7, 251 batting average 844 OPS. And that was coming off a good year in Oakland the year before. Like, he looked like an emerging elite catcher and then he fell off so completely. We blamed it on injuries. Maybe he just wasn't

seeing the ball that well because this is not like he switched from contacts to glasses. I think he did experiment with contact at one point. He tried contact and spraying and didn't work, yeah. But like, he just wasn't wasn't having corrective lenses at all. Like that's kind of a big deal in baseball, being able just to see the ball.

And I kind of think the way Sean Murphy's going and as much help as the Braves offense needs, I know Drake Baldwin started one game since Murphy came up, but I don't think they're going to be able to play him enough to keep him around because they just got to keep Murphy's bat. He's a good defender too, but his bat especially in the lineup. Yeah, I think all fair points there on Sean Murphy, who's off to when I start.

Again, only 52% rostered. So in one catcher leagues, if you need the help, go ahead and snag Sean Murphy. Let's get into the news and notes from The Weekend. And we have other injuries outside of Justin Steel. There are always injuries, of course. Middle infield injuries. CJ Abrams went on the IL with a right hip flexor strain. Paul DeYoung started at shortstop on Sunday with Ahmed Rosario at third base.

Mason Wynn also placed in the IL with lower back spasms. Thomas C.J.C. is slated to receive a regular playing time at shortstop, only has second base eligibility to start. I think C.J.C. is a name for deeper leagues, but were there any clear shortstop placements that you guys were looking at if you lost, like, C.J. Abrams or Mason win this weekend. I mean, this is the shortstop is just not very good outside of the top, I don't know, 15 to 20 options.

There's just like the difference between the haves and the have knots. And I'm not even talking about the high end high end guys. I'm talking about like 12 to 15. There's just such a stark drop off that it's really hard to find guys who are not 80% rostered who are even worth a look. Like I, you know, I've been trying to make Max Muncie happen. And he's got like a 480 OPS so far. You know, like when I wrote the waiver wire column today,

top shortstop was Jordan Lawler actually because he's played a bunch of second base lately and I just wonder if they're starting to try to get him up to replace Cotel Marte. I think he's played like five of his last six games at second base. Interesting. There just aren't a lot of interesting shortstops out there unfortunately.

Yeah, that is always the rub with shortstop because it's high defensive threshold. So it's been a star-studded position. been deep in a drafting sense in recent years, but then certainly in middle infield leagues when you have to find a replacement, there's just nothing to be found. So I like that idea of stashing Lawler. I don't think Seguacy is particularly interesting. He might be the best you can do, though, in a lot of things.

Like I'd take him over. I think I'd rather just take the flyer on Adele. I'm a door. I don't think he's eligible. But he's only second base. Yeah, well, Seguacy is too, right? Yeah, but Sejc will get to stop. Yeah.

I think in shallower leagues, Jacob Wilson is on your sleeper hitters for this week, Scott. Haraldo perdomo, while we don't think it's going to last, I mean, he is hot right now and he's batting second in the D-backs lineup. So I think he's another name you can look at. In leagues with middle infield spots, Isaiah Connor Fletfele, like, I don't think he's very good, but he's running early on this season.

He'll hit for a little bit of batting average. So again, it's like the lower you go, it's not very exciting. Joseph Ortiz, I think is kind of interesting. He just hasn't really done anything yet. So 26% rostered there for him. He is playing every day. He's a great defender, so you know he'll be on the field. But how much of an impact can he make?

I guess Deeper League, the name that probably stands out is Chase Midroth from the weekend, who wasn't great, but he had like three walks on Friday. He had another hit in that game. I mean, that's the thing about his skis. still set is at the minor league level, he walked a ton. For a guy who has like zero power, he really walked a lot. And it's just, can you keep that up against major league pitchers? That's really hard to do.

It's really hard to have a high walk rate when major league pitchers know that you can't challenge them. And so I'm pretty skeptical that this is going to work. But yeah, in a deeper league, I think my draw is pretty interesting. He'd be a lot more interesting if he could. could steal 25 bases. Like, it's that kind of profile where his career high, I think, is 13. And it's like, man, if you were like a 25 steel guy, the pieces would come together a lot more easily. I agree with the overall prognosis and express something similar on Friday's show.

But the glimmer of hope for me is that he had already hit three home runs at AAA and looked like he might have been doing a launch angle thing. And if you actually look at the exit velocities for Chase Midroth last year, for a guy that is regarded as having no power. They weren't bad. They were like 88 and 108 average at max. So we're not talking about Jacob plus in year. That's averageish, yeah. Yeah, we're not talking about Jacob Wilson

in terms of exit velocities. Yeah. All right. Let's keep moving on with the news. Jake Cronerworth was placed in the aisle with a non-displaced right rib fracture. And Jose Iglesias is in line for more playing time for those in deeper leagues.

Again, if you need that second base or middle infielder. Some good middle infield news. Matt McLean is expected back. when first eligible on Tuesday. Are you guys okay throwing McLean back in the lineup? Yep. I'd want to see confirmation that he's activated, that there isn't some kind of last minute change.

But yeah, I would, as long as he's active, yeah. Spencer Shrider remains on track to make his season debut Wednesday against the Blue Jays. I assume we are a start on Shreder. Already queued him up. I already pulled him out of the IL spot and stuck him in the lineup where you have him. I was happy to see that there is one other person in the world who is at least entertaining the possibility that Spencer Strider might not just step back onto the field

and be Spencer Strider immediately. And it's Scott White because I thought I was the only person who's like sees his velocity down like three miles per hour from 2023, I believe. And everyone's like, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. The latest guy was two. Don't care.

Don't care. Yeah, I think it's down two from 2020, three from 2022. Okay. Everyone's just like, doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. And it's like, well, it might matter. I think he'll still be good. It's just, you know, I, I'm expecting more like the 15th best starting pitcher the rest of this.

Yeah, I think there's a lot of ways it could go. He's, he's introduced, it seems like he's broadened his arsenal a little bit. Yeah, they're going to change up and curve a little more. And it could be like we saw. for a lot of pitchers this spring. He's just not letting it go completely yet because it's not in games that count. It could be that he will be fine

with reduced velocity because the shape of the fastball is okay. But then you look at the Grom. I would just put it, I think Spencer Strider's going to be great, but I would feel better if his velocity look normal. I'd feel more confident in that.

I just, I think he will be great. I think people are just acting as if it's a full, Oregon conclusion that he will step on a mound 12 months and 14 days after having surgery and be exactly the same guy he was before. That's all. Kutel Marte resumed baseball activities on Friday. He remained several weeks away from returning, but this was obviously a positive step for him. The Rockies were called Prospect Adele Amador on Sunday.

He just turned 22 years old. Ten games at AAA this year hit 275 with a 408 on base. Two homers, three steals, 858 OPEO. 11% rostered, any interest in adding Adelao Amador in leagues with middle infield spots. So he was hitting the ball really hard in AAA. 92.1 mile per hour average exit velocity, 108 mile per hour max exit Velo. That was higher than any he had last season. It's small sample in last season, but it was also a very small sample in AAA so far.

So that's pretty interesting. He's got plenty of athleticism. He's one of those guys that scouts have always liked more than the underlying numbers. And he was an above average hitter at AA as a 21-year-old last season. So I think Amador is pretty interesting. I don't think he's a must add, but I hadn't seen that he got called up. But that's pretty interesting. Yeah.

I think his prospect stock was unfairly dinged last year. because people regarded him as like one of the up-and-coming middle infield prospects, like one near quickly rising that list heading into last year, and then he got off to a slow start at AA, and then he got called up for some crazy reason and was terrible. It was clearly rushed. Finished last year very strong. And I think deserves to be treated as the same prospect we thought Adela-Amador was going into

2024 and now he's back. You can take advantage of his stature being lowered in the minds of people by just leaving them out there for now, I think. Like a lot of times, the prospect of this caliber, you just have to pick him up because somebody else will if you don't, but I don't think that's going to happen in Amador's case. So outside of the deeper leagues, I was kind of leaving him alone for now. Clark Schmidt will make his season debut Wednesday against the Royals. last year was the best that he's looked in his career.

He's 66% rostered. Could be a pretty, you know, seamless Justin Steele replacement, I guess. Do you guys have interest in adding Clark Schmidt? Sure. Yeah, that's a fine one compared to some of the other ones we were bringing up. I would take Schmidt over,

I think any waiver wire pitcher we talked about adding, except maybe Zebby Matthews. All right. Brandon Woodruff began a rehab assignment at AAA on Saturday. he allowed two earned runs over three and two-thirds innings striking out five. He averaged 92.3 miles per hour on his fastball, which was down three and a half miles per hour from the last time we saw him back in 2023. I'm probably at Schmidt over Matthews.

Thinking about it more. Okay. Trevor McGill underwent an MRI on his knee recently, but it came back clean. Then on Sunday, it was reported to he'll receive a second opinion. This news came after he had. a brutal blown save on Saturday night. Who would be next up for the Brewers if something were to happen to Trevor McGill?

Yeah, they've got a lot of interesting arms in their bullpen, but I don't know who's actually been like working those high levered situations. YOL Paiamps is often just really solid, so it might just be him. He doesn't have the upside of an Abner or Eribe. He's been really bad so far.

Uribe? No, Pai Am says. I know one terrible outing. Yeah, he doesn't go to a rate of 19.06. That's pretty bad, yeah. You know who it should be. Oh, I know.

Yo-ho, yo-ho a pirate's life for me. Yeah, that is Craig Yo-ho, who's also a great start in the minor leagues as well. I was looking to add him in a few spots here on Sunday night, but the problem in like, tout wars and other leagues is where if you add him, he has to go into your lineup. So it's tough.

I do think like if Trevor McGill went on the aisle, which right now it doesn't sound like that's going to happen. But if it were to happen, they would probably just call up Craig Yoho. Will he be the closer right away? I don't think so. I think it would probably be Abner Uribe. I think Uribe would be in the mix.

He's kept the walks in control, which was the big issue for him last year. Jared Koenig, I don't know how you pronounce that. He was really good last year. There's some upside there as well. Yeah, I guess Uribe. All right. Say Suzuki left Saturday's game due to a right, due to right wrist pain and was out of the lineup on Sunday.

So monitor his status. I think that was on a stolen base attempt. Yeah. So that's a little worrisome. Brenton Doyle has missed three straight with a quad injury. We don't know too much as of now. Have you guys seen anything? Are you starting Brent and Doyle?

I mean, you can only backdate for three days. So I feel like they're got to make a decision tomorrow. So if he's in the lineup, I'm playing him, but I can't. if they don't announce it ahead of time. Later lineup locked tomorrow, thankfully. First game isn't until 6.40 Eastern time. Oh, that stinks. Jonathan India left Saturday with right quad tightness.

The injury is considered mild, though he was out of the lineup on Sunday, so that's another one to watch. Lane Thomas has missed five straight with a right-risk contusion, and I do think in shaller leagues, he's probably not even rostered, but in five outfieler leagues,

you might want to plan to bench Lane Thomas this week. George Springer left Sunday after tweaking his left wrist during a bat. X-rays came back negative. We spoke about this already. Zebby Matthews will not be called up to start Monday against the Mets. Hopefully it is soon after that. Connor Norby started a rehab assignment on Saturday. He's 39% rostered, a name that you can look to pick up in Roto or Categories leagues.

Joey Bart missed two straight with lower back discomfort as a result. Henry Davis was recalled. Henry Davis mashes the minors, not the majors. so far. So do you guys have any interest in two catch leagues in Henry Davis? Can't say that I do at this point. Do they have four out catchers on their roster right now? Or are they just,

is Andy Rodriguez just the backup? Yeah, I guess Andy Rodriguez is just the backup. I don't, I don't really understand the plan there. It is the pirates after all. Joey Bart is, I don't know,

he continues to hit really well at AAA and then do nothing at the major league level when he gets called up. You mean Henry Davis, right? Henry Davis, yeah. So, look, Joey Bart figured it out eventually. Henry Davis isn't that old. Maybe, I don't know. Grayson Rodriguez is through a side session Saturday,

his third throughout his rehab. Clayton Kirshall will begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Wednesday. He is not eligible to return until May 17th. The twins reinstated Brooks Lee from the IL and San Jose Miranda back to AAA. The Marlins placed Nick Fortez on the IL with a left oblique strain.

and instead of promoting their top catcher prospect, Augustine Ramirez, they brought up veteran catcher Rob Brantley. Cowards! Why would you do this? Whatever. It's annoying for fantasy. The Braves...

Augustine Ramirez is having an awesome start, by the way. He's having $298 with like 900 OPS. It's dumb. The Braves option, AJ Smith-Shallver, back to AAA with Spencer Shrider expected to return. A little bit interesting that they chose to stick with Bryce Elder over Spence.

AJ Smith Chauver here. I think they urgently needed a bullpen arm because they were just overtaxed. And Smith Chauver had just taken his turn. So it just lined up better to send him down than Elder. And probably Smith Schaver will be back after the minimum 10 days or whatever. All right, other players who went on the aisle this weekend,

Richard Fitz with a right pectoral strain, Ben Joyce with shoulder inflammation, Marcus Stroman with left knee inflammation, and Tyler Freeman with a left oblique strain. Let's take our final break when we return. We'll get back into this weekend's action right after this. Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today. Waverwire hitters from the weekend.

And Josh Young, this is very shallow league stuff to start here, but Josh Young's 78% rostered. He is mashing since his return. Five games, eight hits, one homer, four runs, five RBI, and one steal. Trevor Story off to a really nice start, three for four with his third home run on Sunday. head steals on both Friday and Saturday as well. He is batting three.

Six. Six steals. Batting 308 with three homers and six steals. He's up to 77% rostered. If they were dropped in, I guess the shallow sleeves would be points leagues, are Josh Young and Trevor Story names that need to be rostered in that format? Not Trevor Story.

31% strikeout rate. He's not hitting the ball very hard. I don't think he's rosterable. And in a 12 team head to head points league. Young, maybe. Because I think he's good as long as he can stay healthy. The Josh Young Hive is here.

We call ourselves the collective unconscious. That's a little psychology humor for you. I think Josh Young is really good. I think he just has to stay healthy and he's a 25 homer guy. I don't think Young is good. I think his exit velocities are Chase my Droth alike,

but much worse plate disciplines. So, yeah, I don't know. Even that home run he hit coming off the IEL was like a 340 foot shot. It's worth acknowledging. He had a 91.8 mile per hour average exit velocity for a whole dang major league season. He did. There was that one year. Chase Myroth had an 88 mile per hour average eggs of velocity against AAA pitchers.

I think you are being extraordinarily unfair to Joshi. Wow. Okay. I think you're putting too much on 2023. 92 hours per hour is a really high exit velocity, and he hasn't been healthy since then. Yeah, he also hasn't been good. I will mention that those are related. Trevor's story, by the way, only 40% rostered on Yahoo.

So if you lost Abrams or Mason win on Yahoo, then I think Trevor Story is a name you can look at in that format. Yeah, I think I do prefer story. I don't think either young or story is going to be worth your time in a points league, except on an emergency basis because they're young, doesn't walk enough, and strikes out too much normally. And story strikes out too much too. Let's talk about Cam Smith, who is waking up so far. Two for four with a sock in the shoe on Friday, his first career home run,

his first career steal. He did sit two games on Sunday and Monday of last week, but five games since then, six hits, one homer, six RBI. one steal, down to 72% rostered. If anybody maybe prematurely dropped Cam Smith, would you be looking to re-ad him? He is now both third base and outfield eligible. He's hitting the ball pretty hard from what I've seen.

Ideally, yes, but I got to admit, I've been tempted to drop Matt Shaw on a shallower league. Like, I don't want to do this again. I went through the whole thing last year. it usually takes rookie hitters two months, two whole months to find their footing and then they're great. But two months,

seems like a long time from now. It is a long time. And roster space is limited. Somebody's going to benefit from dropping camps, from somebody else dropping Cam Smith in all likelihood. If you have the roster space, having Cam Smith is absolutely worth stashing. I agree.

Not someone you can start right now, not sure how consistent. in the playing time's going to be, but it's a rare opportunity. Like a lot of the guys we're talking about on waivers once the first couple of weeks of the season are out of the way are just guys, just retreads who had a good game, basically. And Cam Smith is more than that, potentially. We don't know, but at least there's uncertainty there. So, yeah, I would rather add Cam Smith than Christopher Morrell to name one retread.

we're talking about. Three outfielders that could be out there in shallower formats. Taylor Ward, who has five home runs in his past five games. Jorge Soler has four homers in his last eight games, and Christopher Morel had a huge game on Friday, three for four with a sock and two shoes. That's his first home run, his first two steals of the season. I will bring up with Morel.

51% rostered, second third, and outfield eligibility. The race have the third best header matchups this week. So if you are just kind of chasing that week to week production, I think Morel is the name that you can look at. But what do you guys think about Ward, Solair, and Christopher Murrell? Probably like three outfieler leagues. Ward and Salare are probably under-rastered. But I get why they're under-rastered because they are the boring retreads

that we were just talking about where like, you know, Scott, you mentioned something earlier about like when attrition takes over at the outfield position, Zhang Hulie could very easily be a top 30 guy. I think Taylor Ward was like the number 23 outfielder last season. And you look at the numbers. It's like, well, how'd that happen? It's just because he stayed healthy. He's one of those guys that like you're never excited about drafting.

You know the upside's not very high. He's, he's nice to have a round. I think Jorge Salar is probably the same where it's like there's a reason they get pushed down draft boards. But once all the guys we were excited about talking ourselves into who, you know, flop or get hurt, it's like, ah, Taylor Ward. at least he's going to play every day and will be productive. He's not going to be great, but we'll look at the end of the season. He's going to have 25 homers. He's uncanny the way his season breaks down generally.

Tremendous in April and September is Taylor Ward and horrible in every other month. And so there's that. I don't know that you can really like bank on that happening year after year, but that has been while it's gone for Taylor Ward in his career. Couple names in deeper leagues. We already spoke about Chase Midroth. Again, if you need that shortstop replacement, I think that makes a lot of sense.

Matt Mervis is on a homer binge right now. He had two more home runs this weekend. He has homered in the last three games that he has played. He does not play against lefties overall, but he's hitting 294 with a 1077 OPS. And Kyle Stowers had a nice weekend for the Marlins. Seven hits, four runs, six RBI. Where are you guys looking at either in some of those deeper leagues this weekend,

Matt Mervis or Kyle Stowers? I was looking to add Mervis in a 15-team Roto League just because I've lost some hitters and, well, maybe he'll give me some power. I don't really feel good about it. He strikes out over 40% of the time. He's not playing that consistently. He's not even first-based eligible yet, is Mervis, though that's, I guess, in CBS leagues he is. I was looking at somewhere with stricter eligibility requirements. but yeah, it was just, I was looking into Matt Mervis,

but it was just to fill a need more than I got to get this guy for the upside situation. All right, what to do with Dylan Cruz? He has sat out two in a row against a right-handed pitcher, and we know that he is off to a very rough start. And now if he's, I mean, I don't want to say he's falling into a short side platoon, but I guess it is a possibility. I mean, what are you guys doing with Dylan Cruz right now?

Is it a man yet? No. I'm not dropping Dylan Cruz. Bench him until he turns it around. Maybe the nationals are done with him and they send him down or keep benching him, but I'm not going to give up on a player of that talent who I drafted that early this soon. It's just not going to happen. There's a reason you have a bench.

People always act like you just don't have benches. and like, like, you can just, like, like I'm looking at the chat right now. You got to drop Tristan Casas. Well, no, you don't. You can just put him like, I get it. It's frustrating, but like you have five to seven bench spots, presumably. You can just put a guy there.

Like the, it does depend on the format. Yeah, if you play in a daily lineup league, it's, it's like those are more valuable, you know. I was thinking like the standard CBS head to head points format where you have five bench spots and you're i'm trying to get them all filled with pictures i get it but like it's not an ideal i might have a one hitter on my dropping dylan i i think you are more likely to regret dropping dylan kossis or lars nuke bar or whoever i'm just looking at the all the players and the people in the chat are saying suck right now to get all your players who you think suck out um you are much more likely to regret you are much more likely to regret

dropping those guys, then you are to regret not adding Easton Lucas. Well, it depends how many losses you take in the meantime, I guess. But you're not losing. Like, if you lost because you didn't pick up Easton Lucas, I'm sorry. Like that I apologize from the depths of my heart. That one's on me then. But I mean, we might just play head. We might just play head to head points differently.

But like, I try to cram as many starts as I can. to my lineup. I agree, but you still have five bench spots. At least. That's not very many. And I'm just talking in that one format. And I'm, it's more than one.

No, I'm talking about that one format. No, I'm saying it's more than one bench spot, though. Oh. Yeah, it's more than one bench.

Like you probably have a player who's less interesting than Dylan Cruz or whatever upsidey pick who isn't playing well right now. I don't know. It's been my experience. in those shallower head-to-head points leagues that there are always good hitters on the waiver wire.

So they're just more expendable. And they're rarely good pitchers on the waiver wire. But like it's just that way. I don't want to overemphasize that format. Like the general rule, like why would you drop Dylan Cruz? And I'm not even suggesting to drop Dylan Cruz in that format. So maybe this conversation has gone on longer than you should. I'm just saying those are the formats.

Like I'm going to drop Jonathan India in a head-to-head. points league because I can't start him this week. That's the only reason I'm dropping him. He has an injury tag next to his name. I can't start him. So I'm going to drop him for a second baseman I can start. But when normally, Rodologic would be like,

you want to drop a player just because he has an injury tag next to his name. So that's what I'm getting at. My frustration this time of year is like, why are we skipping, why are we treating mid-April like it's the end of the season? and we're reflecting back. Like, why do we want to rush to the end of the season

and say, clearly this didn't work out with this guy? Like, we've got almost six months to go. So we've got to pace ourselves with these takes on how good players are. It's 10% of the season so far. That is just, that is nothing. And we do this every year.

And I know, Frank, you want us to move on so we can move on, but it's just, it's 10% of the season. of the year. Your opinion of a player cannot change that much in 10% of the year. Unless something drastic happened, if you liked Dylan Cruz enough to draft him at his ADP, which was like 125, there's just no way that your opinion of him can change that much in 12 games that he's played. Like, it's just that, that is not how baseball works. The sample size, the information, it doesn't matter, he could strike out 50, 50,

percent of the time and it just doesn't matter like it just it matters if the nationals lose faith in him but for the most part which and look cruise does not have a long track record and yes you are right to point out that he has been sat against two right handers and maybe that is the the the start of them losing confidence in him in which case that is a signal but that he's been bad I just don't care like I really do not care that guys are struggling or hitting really well. right now. It matters when you go from Jung Hu Lee, who was like 50% rostered to, yeah, he should be rostered everywhere because the opportunity

cost of adding a guy is nothing. The opportunity cost of dropping a player with Dylan Cruz talent is incredibly high, especially when you're going off 37, 45, whatever played appearance. It's just not enough information to make an informed decision. If you don't want to make an informed decision, that's totally cool. Like, it's your team. But if you're asking us whether you should drop Dylan Cruz or Tristan Kossis or whoever,

whatever top 150 pick is struggling, we're going to say no. Or at least I am. Let's get back into this weekend's action. Some truly outstanding pitching performances. Michael King tossed the first complete game and first shutout of his career against the Rockies. Two hitter with eight strikeouts there. Garrett Crochet took a no hitter into the eighth inning against his former team. The White Sox, seven and a third.

one hit, one run, 11 strikeouts there. Nick Povetta, seven shutout against the Rockies, of course, with 10 strikeouts. Cole Regens makes a double-digit strikeouts in three straight, seven and two-thirds innings, two runs, only one of those earned with 10 strikeouts to zero walks. And Hunter Green just continues this amazing start. Seven shut out with eight strikeouts against the pirates. He has gone seven-plus innings in three straight with seven-plus strikeouts in all four of his outings. And it's like a six and a half walk rate over his last 16 starts. It's been

really, really good. Yeah. I know we don't want to like, like, we pretty much just went over this. We don't want to change our opinion too much, you know, three weeks into the season, but has anything changed for any of these pitchers? Michael King, Garrett Crochet, Nick Pavetta, Cole Regens, and Hunter Green. Well, most of them were ranks so high to begin with. I don't know how to rank the many higher. Yeah. You might think about moving Corbin Burns behind some of them,

not all of them. I wouldn't move them behind King, for instance. But yeah, we're talking about for Reagan's crochet, King, we're talking about

consensus top 15, if not top 12 guys. And they've performed like it and great. Yeah, there's just not much room for Nick for anybody, but Povetta and Green,

really, to move up. I think Green was probably around 30 for, all of us coming into the season, maybe between 25 and 30. He's in my top 20 now. He might just be a top 12 guy as long as he stays healthy if he's a 6 to 7% walk rate guy. For his career, he's been closer to 10%. But if we're talking about a 30% strikeout rate and a 6% walk rate, then all the stuff

I talked about in the offseason about how much is quality of contact improved, that matters a lot less because the margin for error gets a lot wider. So I still have a lot of questions about his ability to stay healthy. He's never thrown more than 151 innings. He's only done that once. But doubting Hunter Green feels real dumb right now. Oh, for sure. I mean, I was one of the loudest speaking out against Hunter Green.

The biggest thing for me is still injuries. And that we don't know. We won't know until the end of the season, whether or not it worked out or not. I think there's always a sell high window there. He was pretty brittle green even before adding a couple miles per hour and now averaging almost 100 on his fastball. So it's that is the one like performance wise, I'm down with green. But it's just I don't expect him to give me an ace workload. So I'm not ranking them quite like an ace.

And I might entertain the thought of selling high. obviously you got to get something really, really, really good at this point. Povett is the other one that has a chance to move up. This was his first dominant start where he had the big strikeout numbers, and it came against Colorado in San Diego. It's worth noting. But 10 whiffs on his fastball, which had 21 inches of induced vertical break, which is insane. He does seem to have a sinker that he's mixing in now,

and he got five whiffs on that pitch. even though he didn't even throw it that much. So he's looked decent until now. Had a great start. I'm certainly not moving him down. I'll have to look later this week to see how much I'm moving him up. But if you draft a Povetta, you should feel pretty good about him right now.

What's going on with these starting pitchers? And should you start or sit them this week? Which for some might sound crazy. But Tanner Bybee has been inefficient so far this season. and he's 57% started on CBS. He's at the Orioles this week. What do you guys think? What's going on?

Start or sit? I think there's a lot to worry about here. So it's not close to a drop situation for Bybee. Would you sit him? Depends what your pitching depth looks like, how shallow the league is. I would be open to the idea if I was excited to start someone, and the only way to do it was to Minch Bybee against the Orioles. I'd be fine with that.

Yeah, his, I think it's just execution right now, which can turn on a dime. It's just we don't know when it's going to happen. I do expect it to happen. What about Jacob de Grom, who was at the Mariners this weekend? He gave up three runs, four walks, two homers allowed in this one. Still had 16 whiffs, but the underlying numbers don't look great, and it's kind of been a mess here.

What's going on with DeGrom? Do you start him against the Angels this week? You know, I think the one scenario we didn't account for with DeGrom is just what if he's not good? Because he looked good coming back from Tommy John's surgery last year, and that was with the velocity being down a couple miles per hour. And again, we say he's lost a couple miles per hour. He is now working at the velocity he was at when he was winning Cy Young's. He stopped winning Cy Young's when he started throwing harder because he couldn't last long anymore. But yeah, it's been it's been kind of rough.

I think he'll be fine in the long run. You just hate to waste starts where he's actually healthy. Because you need him to make a high impact for as long as he is. And if the tradeoff works and he does manage to stay healthy this season, then it doesn't matter. Like if he's more, if he's a 350 ERA pitcher, but he stays healthy the rest of the way, that's awesome. That's a win at what you drafted him at. It's just that was why my question coming in was. is Jacob de Grom actually intentionally throwing less hard,

or is this as hard as he can throw? And he says this is an intentional thing. I have no idea. Like it's a question of, is this him throwing at 85% or is this him throwing at 95%? That's a big deal. And I just don't know what the answer is. But I think he's still a must start guy.

I still definitely start him against the Angels. I do. I don't know if we have Chris Sale on the rundown. We do. Okay, because that's another one that we're starting him, but yeah, it's not been great. No, he's actually been quite bad, but his underlying numbers look a lot better, and his velocity was way up this weekend. The biggest thing that stands out for me, he has a 407 babb up against right now, and last year that was 314. Also, Chris Sails left on base percentage is really low so far. So if you're worried about the injuries with Sail, you probably shouldn't buy low.

But if you still just trust the talent, then he kind of looks like one of the pretty clear buy low pitchers right now. So there was talk on the Braves beat that they were worried about his velocity lagging Chris Sail early on. It didn't seem that low to me, but that was the talk that, oh, maybe something's wrong with them because his velocity's down. It was about 1.7 miles per hour down entering.

this start. It was way up in this start. Way up. He averaged 96.2 on his fastball. It was 94.9 last year. And all the pitches were up. So only had one start last year with a higher fastball velocity. I almost wonder if he was overthrowing on purpose to make the point that he's healthy. Because we have seen Chris Sale do stuff like that before. But yeah, he appears to be healthy now. I think location's an issue. I think location's an issue for Grom, too, by the way. We didn't mention that. The walks were the biggest issue in this latest start,

and he threw only 57% of his pitches for strikes. His comment, DeGrom, this is, after the game was, I've just got to do a better job throwing the ball where I want to. That's the bottom line. So that's what he's attributing it to, and I think there's some evidence to back that out. Again, that's DeGrom. Sale.

But that was the whole point. The whole point was he's throwing less hard so he can pinpoint it. Yeah. That's what he said. Yeah. I mean, I think health was something he brought up to, but yeah. Three other pitchers, starter sit this week. Jackson Job, who actually picked up the first win and quality start of his career.

He is home against the Royals this week, but still only two strikeouts. Sandale O'Constra has been a bit iffy through three starts. He also had 11 days off between starts here. He had the paternity leave. He is at the Phillies this week. And Roki Sasaki looked better against the Cubs, five-inings. one run three strikeouts, but you know, still giving up a lot of hard

contact. It's not ideal. It's more walks than strikeouts so far for Sasaki as well. He's at the Rangers. What do you guys think about these three? Job, Sandy, and Sasaki this week. I don't think you can start Sasaki right now. I will say when I saw that the Cubs won that game 16 to nothing,

I assumed that Sasaki had a disaster start. And it was actually all the other pitchers who got rocked. He wasn't terrible. but yeah, he just hasn't shown much in the way of the ability to be a viable fantasy option. I kind of lean that way for Jackson Job as well. I'm waiting someone smart to give me an explanation for why there is such a divergence between what he looks like and what the stuff models say and what his results are because he just does not miss bats.

My hunch is that it's just bad control, but I'd prefer not to start Jackson Joe. against Kansas City. And I'm okay sitting Sandy Alcounter against Philadelphia right now. All right. Let's get through some other leftovers from the weekend and some pitchers here. Chris Bubich was human,

still turned into, still turned a quality start at the Guardians. Ties Bradley shut down the Braves, Yamamoto dominant against the Cubs, and Christopher Sanchez solid at the Cardinals. But notice he's still just giving up too many hits this year

and the whip is high and maybe this is, just part of who Christopher Sanchez is. But did you guys see anything from Sanchez, Yamamoto, Taj Bradley, and Chris Bubich? A ground ball guy is going to have a higher whip. I mean, Babbit. Well, also maybe whip, but especially Babbip is what I was trying to say. And so if the added velocity causes the strikeouts to increase, that'll counteract that for Sanchez. Obviously, it won't affect the bathep itself. But it'll, help to prevent, keep the whip down by preventing contact in the first place.

So it wasn't his best start, obviously, Sanchez, but I still think, I don't think you should judge him primarily on this start. I think overall the trend lines are up on him. Yamamoto's look really good, and he is not throwing his hard. So I don't know. It's working for him. But everything's down, I think, close to a mile per hour, but he looks great. And good.

I'm glad. Yep. A couple of their names here. Drew Rasmussen continues to pitch well. Also continues to be limited. He has gone 70, 79, and 80 pitches in his first three starts. Brian Wu looked great against the Rangers. Seven innings, one run, seven strikeouts.

And Kodi Senga, a strong start at the athletic. Seven shot out innings with four strikeouts. Chris, anything here on Senga, Brian Wu, and Rasmussen. The Mets are being really. careful with Kodesanga, even in this one where he was super efficient, which is not usually how he pitches. He only got 79 pitches in his seven innings. Strikeouts haven't really been there. Only one outing this year with more than four strikeouts out of his three, I believe. I don't know what's up with that because the fork ball is still really good, but the rest of the stuff hasn't

been there. I think Kodi Seng is probably fine, but probably not a huge difference maker. And I think Rasmussen, like this is just going to be the deal with him. It's a combination of his injury history and pitching on the raise. I think they're just going to treat him with kids gloves all season. And it's, there's going to be a few six-inning starts out there. But for the most part, I think it's going to be an earlier hook than you'd like. And Brian Wu rules. He's awesome. On to the hitting leftovers here. Nice weekend for Luis Robert, one for three with two steals on Friday, then a sock and a shoe on Saturday. A huge week in general for James Wood. He didn't hit another home run on Friday. He had three walks and a steal on Sunday.

Esoc Paredes, his first big weekend with the Astros. He homered in each game. A big weekend for Buxton, one for four with a sock and a shoe on Friday. Two for four with another home run on Sunday. Fernando Tatis returned on Friday. He was dealing with that left shoulder injury and he looks fine. Two for four with a sock in a shoe on Friday and one for four with another home run on Saturday. Torkelson continues his nice start. He has a left shoulder injury. He has a He had two home runs this weekend and a big game for Pete Crow Armstrong on Sunday night baseball. Bit of a homecoming there for him. He's from the California area with his family in attendance.

Three for four with a double dong for Pete Crow Armstrong. Anything here on these names? Mom's an actress. Of course he's from the Los Angeles area. That's right. I will just point out like Issaq Paredes is a good example of why overreacting to 12 games is bad because all of a sudden he's on a 30 homer pace and hitting 276. Like his numbers look exactly like what we would have expected them to in any 15

game stretch of the season. And three games ago, he was having a horrific start. I got some, I was getting some shade about him about hyping Peridt is so hard, heading into the weekend. And I was just like, he'll be fine. And at least one of those was just a Crawford box special, I believe. So we even got the concrete. pre-evidence of the case for Isopradis.

It wasn't for the croppered boxes. He'd only be on a 20 homer pace. He's homered in a third of his games in Houston so far. So if he keeps that up, it'll be a great season. Going to be a great season, exactly. The call to the bullpen for the Reds, Emilio Pagan picked up saves on both Friday and Saturday.

He's now up to four on the season and is only 28% rostered. We'll see what happens when Alexis Diaz is back. for the Marlins on Friday Anthony Bender entered with two runners on in the eighth inning a two run lead he gave up a walk and then a three run double took his first blown save and first loss

on Saturday Bender was unavailable Calvin Fosier picked up his first save and then on Sunday Anthony Bender pitched the eighth inning with a four run lead gave up a hit and a walk but got out of it and then the Marlins blew the game open after that I don't know if there's like a trend

or if it's just all right Bender in just the biggest spots in the game And then whoever closes it out, it's neither is that good. Yeah. Yeah, that is part of the problem. I did pick up Foschet and in the leagues where I was dropping him. I was able to get him back. Cost me some FAB dollars.

Maybe just a waste of time. But saves are scarce. And so Foshae, like the Marlins bullpen feels like the only one that's kind of in flux right now. I thought that'll change soon enough. But there were no other emerging save sources over the weekend. All right. For the Tigers on Friday, Tommy Canley got the ninth inning with a two-run lead. He gave up one run on three hits but picked up his second save.

He's only 31% rostered and kind of just looks like the guy for the Tigers right now. Yeah, Brant Souter, he's tied with Brant Suter. That's his name, right? Brandt Suter for the team leading saves. I think it's Grant Hurter. Hurter. That's it, Brand Hurter. Who hurt you?

by calling him Souter. There's another pitcher named Suter, right? Yeah, Brinth Suter. Yeah. That's what I was thinking. No, but he has two saves and Tommy Canley has two. Herders both are three-innings saves. So I think there's nothing there.

I think that's just Camley. All right. Next up, we have the Dodgers on Friday. Blake Trining got the eighth inning with a three-run lead facing six, seven, and eight in the Cubs lineup. He retired them in order. And then it was Tanner Scott, who got the save in the ninth inning.

For the Phillies on Saturday, Jordan Romano looks like he is kind of back in the mix for high leverage, I guess. He pitched the eighth inning with a three-run lead facing the heart of the Cardinals lineup. He gave up a hit, but that was it. And then Jose Alvarado got the ninth inning. He struck out one for his third save of the season. For the Royals on Sunday, Lucas Ercig got the final out for his...

Final out in the eighth with a two-run lead. It was Estevez who got the ninth inning and picked a pin. his fifth save, it really just kind of feels like Estevez is the main guy in the ninth inning there for the Royals. And then for the D-backs on Sunday, Justin Martinez pitching the eighth inning with a one-run lead. Facing four, five, and six in the Brewers lineup, he struck out two. And A.J. Puck got the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He walked one, struck out three for his third save of the season. And what if they're just both great all season, right?

Like, what if they just both get 20 saves and give you awesome ratios? I don't think it's crazy. It might happen. yeah I mean the 15 to 25 for both of them seems reasonable

I think it's unlikely both get to 20 but 15 plus for both I do want to point out with Romano his philosophy was back a little bit in his two outings

over the weekend he was down to 93.5 miles per hour with his fastball last weekend they talked about identifying some mechanical issues and he was averaging 95 and 96

in his two appearances so that's good. I don't know if it matters, but it's better than it being down. Fair enough. To stream or not to stream on Monday, well, Scott, your favorite, Ethan Lucas is going up against the Braves, so I don't know how much we actually trust it there.

We have Landon Rup at the Phillies, James and Tyrone at the Padres. I mean, Lucas looks like the best one, and the Braves have been a good matchup so far. I don't think that'll always be so. And Lucas, in two starts, he's carried over the high swinging strike rate and high fly ball rate from the minors.

So there may be something there. I would strongly prefer to avoid this group of players. Well then, Chris, you're not going to like Tuesday either, where I think Tyler McGill at the Twins might be the best. Landon Nack is going up against the Rockies in L.A. Although, I could see it. I don't think NAC is very good, but the Rockies on the road just look all.

awful. Jake Irvin at the Pirates. I don't think Irvin's very good, but the Pirates offense is pretty bad too. Yeah, I think Tyler McGill is a decent start. I think Verlander, like I know it's a tough matchup,

but I think he's better than the rest of these guys. And then Land and Nack. I mean, I think the Rockies away from course field, especially that's the first game. Or first game outside of course? No, they just played a series in San Diego.

Okay, that's right. That wasn't San Diego. So, yeah. I think NAC is fine, but I think he's not a great pitcher, so it's mostly about the matchup, but I never feel great with that. Yeah. Works for me. You looking for me to say something?

I just, you know, I wanted the seal of approval there from Scott. Yeah, it's fine. Yeah. You know, love Scott loves giving his seal of approval on mediocre streamers. Yeah, it's honestly his favorite. We're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today.

please make sure to follow and leave a 5-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Paramount Podcasts.