Fantasy Baseball Today - Kelenic Heating Up, Pitcher Adds & Chris Sale Conundrum (4/13 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 13, 2023

Jarred Kelenic has homered in three straight games (1:55)! ... Add Kelenic or these outfielders (9:11)? ... Drey Jameson looked good in his first start (11:15). ... Brad Keller is doing something new this season (16:48). ... Add any of these pitchers in deeper leagues (21:40)? ... How did Taj Bradley look in his debut (26:20)? ... What do we do with Chris Sale (31:35)? ... News (37:03): Corey Seager is out at least four weeks. ... We have more waiver wire hitters (42:00). ... Buy, sell or hold these pitchers (49:05)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (57:30). 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. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. What's up and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, April 13th. Frank Stamphill joined by the Welsh and Chris Towers.

Today on the show, we're going to recap all of Wednesday's action. How did the prospects do in their debuts? Team Name Thursday, that's right. I just keep pushing it off. I think I have a pretty good feeling that we'll get to. Team Name Friday, let's go! Yeah, yeah, let's just keep talking. And we'll just, you know,

we'll just get back to Team Name Tuesday anyway. Before we get going, make sure to 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. It really helps, and we appreciate it. We're recording this obviously on Wednesday night. really, really early Thursday morning.

Last week we had the Welshon, Grayson Rodriguez's debut. This week we have the Welshon, Taj Bradley's debut. I like the sound of this. I can't really wrestle really well. I was trying to do my pie-piper of prospects as I tweeted out,

come ye prospects, come and join me for fantasy baseball today on Wednesdays. It's a much better visual for those watching. It's a much better visual. than what you guys just heard. So apologies. All right. So we'll get to Todd Bradley a little bit later on. But let's jump in. Oh my goodness gracious players of the night. Oh my good goodness gracious.

At a girl, Susan. And towers. We'll start with you, bud. Yeah. Let's get the Jared Kelnick discussion kicked off. He hit one of the most impressive home runs I can remember seeing. I've never seen someone hit a home run to that like second deck of seats in center field that Riggley. field until Jared. Jared Kahnick did that today. 482 feet, the second longest home run. Anyone has hit this season.

He's now got three straight games of the home run. It's a fun thing to think about what his line looked like four days ago. I think he was slugging 400. Now he's slugging like almost 600, if not higher. We're at that point in the season. Jared Kowling, 68% rostered in CBS Fantasy leagues. I think that should be 100%. but you know someone immediately after that home run asked me on Twitter is Jared Kalanick for real

and I don't know how to answer that question because he is just not playing into lefties he has three played appearances against lefties he has a 450 something on base or OPS against lefties in his career and so when we're talking about like his chances of being a legitimate must start fantasy player that's kind of the thing that I need to see You know, obviously he'd never really hit anyone before this season. So I don't want to write off the fact that he's crushing right hand at pitching so far. But until he's an everyday player, until he's hitting lefties at a reasonable clip, I think there's always going to be a limitation to his game.

And if offense is going the way it seems like it's going, guys who are part-time players and hit for a lot of power but don't give you counting stats. Like those guys will have limited utility. So I think Jared Kalenick is probably a must roster player. I think he's probably a sell high candidate coming off a three homer stretch or a three, three game homer streak. But I really, really like what we're seeing from him as well. So do you think if he's, um,

if he is any type of like platoony like you're talking about, do you actually think that really truly limits him though? because all it's doing, kind of in my mind a little bit. And I obviously agree, like, what he's doing right now is so insane. It's 60% hard hit rate. It's a completely red savant page, which has probably never existed for him. But, like, they're putting him in the best positions to succeed, which is going to breed more confidence, which is going to carry over into other spaces and probably give him some opportunities.

Like, do you really think if he is hitting primary versus right? It is a, like, real limitation to where he was before? Because I kind of think, I think he can, baseline. Like, if you could trade high, that's cool. I don't know who's buying high on Jared Kellner. He's kind of a guy I think maybe you just kind of sit on and ride because I think at the end of the year, even in some of this like lefty, righty limitations, he could still be a 20 homer, 10, 15 stolen. I mean, I think he can still do it taking away the worst part of his game. So I'm not sure if it's so much a limitation. I think it depends on what level of

player we think people are going to value Jared Kellanick as. If it's as the 42nd best outfielder in fantasy, then I agree. It doesn't really matter if he's going to play every day against lefties because he can probably, if what we've seen is at all for real, then he can, like, if he can be a Jesse Winker type against Wrighties, then I do think he is someone who could be like one of the 45 best outfielders in fantasy. you think about your three team, your 12 team three outfielder leagues,

your Yahoo sized categories leagues or your CBS Sports Points leagues, that probably puts him on the outside looking in. Yeah, maybe you could put him in your utility spot. Maybe, you know, you can find a spot for him. But I think he's probably a pretty fringy starter in that instance. I think there's a lot to like here. And if someone views him as

say a top 100 type of player right now, I think you try to trade him. Or even like, I'm trying to think of some guys who were being drafted around 100th overall. Like, if someone offered you Christian Walker for Jared Kalanick, I would do that trade. There's a lot to like about Jared Kalanick.

I think he's a very exciting player. But Christian Walker was someone who two weeks ago, we thought was clearly better than Jared Kalnick. And I don't know if a three game stretch where Jared Kalinick's hit a home run, is enough to change that for me. I think Carlos Correa is another example. Salvador Perez, I think you might be able to do that for, you know, guys who are off to slow starts, but I don't really have concerns about, you know,

less so someone like, I don't know, if someone offered me Christian Yellich for Jared Kalenik, I think I would take it, but that's a little iffyre just because there are questions about Yelich, but I don't really have a question about Salvador Perez. You know, I think he's going to be fine. if I could move Kalenik and something for Salvador Perez, I would do that. See, that's interesting because I think there's this like space that exists sometimes with fantasy players

where, you know, their performance based on market value just can't equal up. And there's really not going to be a point where they equal up that they just sit in limbo. Like, I actually kind of think on a higher scale, Jeffrey Springs lives in that space where it's like, what he is doing for you doesn't equate to what anyone will give up. up. So it's just limbo again. Like you just should hold and you should just ride the wave. And that's in a much bigger positive way. I kind of think Kellnick is in that same space because I think we live in like a what if you brought it like Walker was like a super fascinating one that you brought up. But I think it still might lack kind of some of the upside that people are starting to see with this lottery ticket that they got that I still don't know if it matches up. But I think that's like a really logical trade that you could make to try to take advantage of what Jared Kellnick's doing. Because if he is, you know, limitations being against righties. going to at some point have some actual struggles, probably not going to have a 60% hard hit rate the whole year, it's going to come back down,

and you would probably be regretting not taking a 35 plus home run hitter in Christian Walker. And still has not, I mean, he's only got three home runs. All of them have been off fastballs. I think last year, all but one of his home runs came off fastballs. For his career, something like 80%

of his home runs have come on fastball. So he still hasn't fixed that biggest issue yet. Whiff rate on both breaking and off speed pitches, over 40%. So I just, I think he's a very interesting player. I'm excited about what we're seeing for sure. But I think there are clearly limitations as well. Yeah. And that is Jared Kellanick that we're talking about 71% rostered. I do agree in shallower three outfieler leagues. I think he's still a must add just to see where it goes. But yeah, yeah, I think there is a clear, you know, ceiling on what

he could do counting stats wise if he's only playing against right-handed pitching. But you guys are talking about the splits and everything. It kind of reminded me of Jock Peterson from last year. He only played against right-handed pitching, but he was amazing last year. So I don't know, can we get an outcome like that with like 10 to 15 steals? Maybe if everything works out for Jared Kelnick. Again, he's up to 71% rostered. The other outfielders that I had as ads from what they did on Wednesday, Jorge Soler, we spoke about him last week too, but he's only 49% rostered, so he's still out there. Jerks in Pro Far, he's starting to get going now, has six hits, two home runs over his last five games.

And Lordes Guerriel had his little breakout game with Arizona, went three for five with his first home run. He's been hitting in the middle of that lineup. Though he did sit two of the last four games, so I thought that was kind of interesting. Are you guys taking Kelnick over all those names, Solair, Profar, Guerriel? Solair's a really interesting one because my initial thought was,

well, Solair's maybe a more sure thing, but Kellynx's got more upside. But, like, Solair is a guy we saw hit 48 home, runs back in 2019. Now, that was the peak of the juice ball era. He hit, what, 27 and 2021? I think Kellanick probably has more upside because of the speed. But like, if we get to the end of the season at Jorge Saler has 36 home runs, I wouldn't be surprised. He's hitting the ball really, really well right now. He's making enough contact. I wouldn't, if Kellanick and Soler were both out there on the wire, I wouldn't pick up Saler ahead of Kalanek. But my.

sense is that Solair will be the more useful player, at least in the short term. And he's doing what he needs to do. I think he's top 10 in like barrels per plate appearance already off the season. Big hard hit stuff. Yeah, I think it's tough. Definitely over pro far. Who is the third one? Who's the third one you threw out?

Guriel. I love Guriel when he's hitting three in the lineup, but that lineup is turning over a whole lot more. There's a lot of flexibility, a lot of playing time. I don't know. I think from a speculative standpoint, Kellnick over all those guys. But I think from a stability, standpoint, everybody of a pro far is probably safer for what you know you're getting into.

And in a points league, I think I'd take pro far ahead of Calnick, just at the top of the lineup. He's, yeah, top of the lineup. He's an OBP guy. He'll just, I think, have more opportunities. All right. Well, oh my goodness gracious for you, Welsh. Who do you have? Oh, my, it was Dre Day.

We're going to talk about Dre who got to get the not spot start, you know, taking in this spot of the rotation. for Zach Davies, shocker. I'm talking about a Diamondback here, but it's not the guy that's on my wall or anything like that. It's Dre, who, a little bit of a surprise to people, only had 54 pitches in the game, which was less than ideal,

but he was great in it. I think he gave up only three hits, had some strikeouts. And one of the things we saw was we saw this continued mixed usage of his slider. And the slider, though it was less than I wanted it to be, because in that one replacement start, he had for Baumgartner, I think, at the beginning of the year. It was like 39 to 40% something like that slider usage. 24% tonight.

But in that usage, a 75% whiff rate on that slider. Six of eight swings were whiffs. And he was able to set everything up with the sinker and the four seam through a little bit of a change up. The pitch mix was great four pitches at 10 plus percent to keep guys off track. And he was able to go four, give up nowhere in runs, three hits and 50-something pitches. Once he stretched out,

because a couple of people were panicking about that, once Drey Jameson is actually stretched out, I actually thought, I know we're going to talk about one of the rookies that had a really great performance today,

but Drey Jameson, this performance, I think, is a baseline piece for you to see what the rest of the year is going to look like because he wasn't wild. He was effective. The pitch mix was good.

They know how to pitch him, and that slider sets up everything, a la what change with Hunter Green. And I think that's like a big change that's happening here. So once he's stretched out, I don't think he's giving up this job anytime soon. And there's big strikeout potential on him. I thought it was pretty impressive.

It was a great day, guys. Yes. And his previous relief appearance, he only through 26 pitches. So he was right around double that in this outing. And I think that's, you know, I think that's by design. And I think next time out,

maybe we see him go 60 to 70 pitches and then he'll just continue to build from there. I think the no walks here is key for Dre Jameson. Huge. When he struggles, it's usually with control. I noticed the slider, while it was amazing, the velocity was up 2.3 miles per hour compared to earlier appearances this year. So he's throwing it harder and it looked amazing in this outing.

A couple of Waverwire pitchers that I had him compared up against here who pitched on Wednesday. Tyler McGill looked decent against the Padres. Edward Cabrera only walked one. I mean, that's a win. That's a win in my book. Edwardo Rodriguez turned in a quality start at the Toronto Blue Jays, no easy task there. Well, so would you take Dre over those other three names, McGill, Edward Cabrera, and Eduardo Rodriguez.

Those are all tough names, and it's tough for me. It's a bad question for me, because there's obviously people who are going to be Homer, Homer. Like, Edward Cabrera is fun, but he's too wild. I think he's actually the highest upside of all those players, but he's just too erratic. McGill, that one kind of jumps out to me with the team context, but you know what? What? Dimeback's first place. First place in the NL. West. They've got offense going left and right. They seem to know how to manage him. They've got one of the most underrated defenses in baseball, the fastest outfield, bar none with two gold glovers on the infield when Nick Ahmed plays. I'm going to go with Dre. And I know it's kind of a homer play. But I think the upside is for him to stay in that rotation for the rest of the year. And he's showing better consistency than a guy like Edward Cabrera is. And Bordeaux Rodriguez is super, again, inconsistent on a bad team context. I really think this might be about McGill. versus Drey and it's a you know, Dre 2000 for me.

Yep. I actually think it's Cabrera versus Dre. Just again, looking for the upside there. I think then it you drop off a little bit. Then it's McGill drop off again. And then you get to Eduardo Rodriguez. Towers, who are you taking, Dre Jameson or Edward Cabrera?

I'll go with the Homer pick on my side and pick Edward Cabrera. I think they're both very close. I think they're both very similar. If they keep the control in control, if they keep the walks under control, I think both Edward Cabrera and Drej Jamison can be very good, but I think there's just a little more stuff with Cabrera.

I guess I got to break the tie, don't I? You don't have to. I liked both of these guys. Yeah, I'll just let it go. Let's move on. No, I'll go with Edward Cabrera. It is super close. Boo.

I liked both of these guys coming into the year, but finally a little bit of optimism here for Cabrera. Look, I'd find out if you have just a dead roster space, I would try to find a way to have both all my team. He's a weird pitcher, man. Most pitchers feel most comfortable throwing their fastball for strikes. And that is not Edward Cabrera at all. That has never been him.

He just does not have command of his fastball, especially, you know, actually either the sinker or the four seamer. It's really weird. There was a great piece on baseball prospectus about him today that talks about that. And it's just like, man, if he can just figure that out, and that should be the easiest thing. he can be really, really good. Yep, yep. Edward Cabrera, I noticed in that start on Wednesday against the Phillies, he really leaned into his curveball.

He threw it 39%. That was only 18% usage entering this start. And it was a really great pitch. He had five whiffs on it, 44% CSW. So maybe that's the next step in progression for Edward Cabrera is throwing that curveball more. And obviously, we know he has a really good change up when everything is working.

You know, there's one name I haven't mentioned. as a waiver wire ad yet. And that's Brad Keller. He was up my, oh my goodness gracious player of the night. And yesterday, I said, let's pay a little attention to Brad Keller because he's doing some interesting things so far. And then he went out. And he looked really good against the Texas Rangers.

Six and two thirds, one run, seven strikeouts to just one walk. He had 11 swinging strikes. He is throwing a new curveball 25% of the time this year. And it was great in the start. Five swinging strikes, 46% CSW. and you might be wondering, why do we keep talking about Royals pitchers, right? What did they do in the all season?

What has changed with this team? And to me, it's very obvious. They found computers. Yes, yeah. I forgot who it was. There was someone on Twitter a couple years ago who made a joke about the Rockies Analytics Department being like a, I don't know,

just like an old guy on a computer, like Dave Gettleman in football or something like that. But I imagine it's more like, what was his name in Lost, just continuously every 15 minutes running to put in the code like 4, 8, 15. Desmond. Desmond, thank you.

He's like Desmond just running in every 15 minutes. And then in that other time or however long it was, he just goes and sits there. I think that's like the analytics team. They're like, oh, we have to have a stat. And he goes in. He's like 4, 8, 15. That's the Rockies developmental system. Well, I think it was the Royals before this season as well.

They hired a new manager of this offseason named Matt Quitrero. And he was the bench coach for the Tampa Bay raise the previous three years before this. So obviously coming from one of the most analytically inclined franchises in baseball to the Kansas City Royals, which is not, I think that's why we're seeing some of these improvements and new pitches and new mechanics from guys like Chris Bubich and Brad Keller. And I kind of want to jump on it early before everyone else kind of figures out and it's too late. And then you miss out on these guys. Look, two weeks from now, Brad Keller could get blown up twice and I'll be like, whatever, I look dumb. But on the off chance that I am right about this theory, I kind of want Brad Keller on my team.

The question is we're talking about a bunch of great pickups. So would you take Brad Keller over any of the other pitchers we mentioned? So the other pitches we mentioned were Edward Cabrera, Dre Jamison, Tyler McGill, and Eduardo Rodriguez. I think I would have Brad Keller towards the bottom of that list, but very similar to McGill and Rodriguez. And if you wanted to take a flyer on him instead, I think that's perfectly reasonable. He's got the, like you said, the new curve ball that he hasn't thrown. It's interesting because it's almost exactly the same velocity as his slider, but it's got a different movement profile.

It doesn't break as much horizontally. And I don't know, that could be a really, really effective approach. You know, it might make it really hard for hitters to pick up on him. So, yeah, it's interesting because he was last season, I believe, a slider primary pitcher. 36% of the time was the slider. Yeah, I don't know. I think Brad Keller's definitely doing some interesting things. It's worth keeping an eye on.

And if you've got a roster spot to play with, I would absolutely pick him up. Yeah, I don't think he would jump really any of those guys, but he's in the same territory. One thing I really like is that it's a continuation of spring going into this year, like those results, and it's just been like this longstanding stretch. Would you have Brett Keller over Chris Bubbage?

Or is Chris Bubich, I know he's the hot. He's the Fab King from this weekend. Everybody loves him. Everybody picked him up. He's the new hot thing. But do you would you rather prioritize, Boobitch or Keller? I think I would take Boobich just because he had much more swing and miss in his most recent outing 19 swinging strikes against the Giants the other day.

But I think they're both in that same territory. And, you know, I'm interested in both, but I think it's Boobich by hair for me. Giants also, I want to say a little bit of a misnomer. They're like the number one strikeout team in baseball right now. So like just throwing out like 19. If you want everyone wants to always play conversion rates, you know, it's like, oh, well, this guy did this against this team. And, you know, well, the race.

raise. They played a lot. The conversion rate is probably like 14 swing and misses towards a normal team because the Giants are at the very top, not to be dismissive, of course. But we have to we have to be kept honest, Frank. We have to always be kept honest about everything that we ever say in it. And let's make sure we have the proper conversion rates. But Chris, do you feel any different Boobich or Keller? I would go boobitch over Keller, but I think that's an interesting point. You brought up about the competition that he's faced. And, you know, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I think that's an interesting point. I, I think for me, it's more just, I think the changes that Bubis have made might give him a little more stuff. You know, and that might just be me holding Keller's rep pre-20203 against him a bit too much, just having the slider.

You know, the curveball could really unlock things for him. So I think it's pretty close. Yeah. If I'm ranking just those four, it would be Edward Cabrera, Trey Jameson, Bubich, Brad Keller, and then that drop off to, like, McGill and Edwardo Rodriguez. I had some deeper league pitchers that I wanted to mention. Griffin Canning made his return to the Angels rotation. First starts in 2021 after battling various injuries. And yeah, he actually did look good.

Again, going up against the Nats, so it's a very good matchup. Five innings, two runs, four strikeouts, to zero walks. 15 swinging strikes on 69 pitches. That is a 22% swinging strike rate. Ken Waldichuk turned in a quality start at the Baltimore Orioles. I dove a little deeper and it really wasn't that impressive. Peyton Batonfield made his first career start, and he was okay against the Yankees,

four and two thirds, two runs, only one of those was earned, three strikeouts, 15 swinging strikes on 66 pitches. That is quite a bit there. Well, so it's, you know, 15 teamers, anything deeper than that. People might be looking at some of these names.

How would you rank those three, Griffin Canning, Waldichuk, Peyton Battlefield? You know, Battenfield's really kind of cool because I just saw him a couple weeks ago and I have some video out of Battenfield. I saw him playing against the Dodger. and he was up against Diego Cartaya and Eugnale Diaz and some of that crew. And he's definitely got, the classification is always tough because it looked like he was throwing.

It was like a harder cutter. But it also, I think he manipulates it into kind of slide. What was the, you know, I didn't even go look at the pitch mix of everything of how it was classified. It was all classified as a cutter pretty much. Yeah, mostly cutter. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And I think, because I think he can vary it a little bit because I think it used to be more of a slider.

Yeah, I'm taking a look here, not to belabor the whole thing. Yeah, it was cutter 48% of the time, and they don't have any good Velo stuff on it. My whole point of this is not his profile. Like, it's cool. I don't think there's not to be dismissive about Tosh Bradley because Tosh Bradley was really great today. But also, like, the profile on these guys. Batonfield is definitely like a pound the zone type of player, always low strikeouts compared to innings pitched, pitching to contact and stuff like that and working a lot off of this cutter.

And the cutter was really dominant today. So he's not really, I'm not jumping at the wire for him because this is also like an extreme spot start situation. And, you know, they have Tanner Bibi that's sitting out there as well. Logan Allen showed up on Enosar's stuff plus. I think it was like number seven overall in AAA start. So they just got so many arms. I say all of this to be like, I think he would be number two. Give me the names again.

Canning, Waldachuk and Battenfield. Yeah, I would actually go canning at the top. and then, you know, that leaves that out. Because I was really impressed with Canning. He was someone I love back in the day. The swing and miss in this game, I think, even though it was the Nationals, Nationals have been a little bit tough and at the top of their lineup can be tough, but guys like Luis Garcia, I'm not going to dismiss it just because it was the Nationals,

but that would be my order. Towers, any thoughts on those three? I have the exact same order. I think, you know, the fact that the slider was effective for Canning in the first start back, that's always been the key for him to really good pitch. when he's right. So, yeah, he's definitely below the other guys we've talked about, but in a deeper league, certainly worth picking up.

I meant to bring this up earlier for, oh, my goodness gracious. But shout out to Max Muncie. I mean, two double dongs in one series against the Giants, he just absolutely owns them. Apologies to Giants fans out there. I know you're going to tweet you. But Max Muncie, yes. And shout out to Papa Ev or Papa Ev,

if that stands for Eggs of Lost. on Twitter, he gave me permission to use Maximum Muncie as his nickname, which, look, the way he's playing right now. What about Maximus Muncie? Picking off, building off the gladiator talk from yesterday. Ah, yes. Yeah, you missed a whole bunch Welsh. We'll fill you in. Let's take a break. I read the plot synopsis of the leaked Gladiator 2 script for them yesterday. It's wild stuff. Go check it out. That was post podcast. And yes, it was very wild. I don't know if we would have been able to actually read it on the podcast.

It's pretty out there. Let's take a break and when we return, we'll get into Tage Bradley's debut here on Fantasy Baseball today. CBS Sports Golato Network, the first of its kind, free 24-7 channel dedicated exclusively to global soccer.

Coverage is now streaming on the CBS Sports app. Pluto TV and Paramount Plus. Get your morning started off on the right foot with morning footy, our weekday soccer culture-driven morning show beginning at 7 a.m. Eastern Time. Plus don't miss the rest of our top-notch programming, including live matches and

re-airs, original studio shows, highlights, documentaries, and much more. CBS Sports Golazzo Network is the ultimate year-round streaming destination for fans of the beautiful game. Let's get into the Tampa Bay Rays. They are often running as hot as can be 12 in a row for Tampa, and let's talk about the pitchers in that game. Todge Bradley had a successful debut up against the Red Sox five innings, three runs, eight strikeouts to one walk, nine swinging strikes on 78 pitches. And frankly, I'm a little surprised they let him throw 78 pitches because he hasn't thrown more than 55 in any outing this year. In the minors, it was only two.

But we were looking at a three pitch mix here, 54% four seam fastball, 29% cutter, 14% curveball. He averaged 95.8 miles per hour on the fastball, so it was throwing very hard. Got hit around a little bit, his final inning of work. But up until that point, the guy looked. It's basically untouchable. Welsh, thoughts on Taj Bradley. He's 38% rostered.

Where does he fit in with that group? Dre Jameson and who was the other one? Edward Cabrera. Edward Cabrera. Where does he fit into that group? Boobitch and Boobich. I think that's actually a really fast. I had a lot of people asking,

should I drop Boobich for Tage Bradley? And it was like the total like Twitter question of fantasy baseball. Everyone's like, oh, drop all the fab on Boobich, boobich. And then as soon as there's anything else exciting, like should I drop him for Tosh Bradley? I don't feel like I'm getting anything right

because I was actually just talking negative about not thinking that the raise could bring him up and then all the sudden they brought him up. I think what's clearly in our face is that like Eflin's going to come back. They've still got Fleming Glass now is going to come back. So I still look at a race team that doesn't get

crazy hyper-aggressive and wonder like, what will they do? I think it was a good start. He did kind of fall apart at the end a little bit. I don't think there was a great book on everybody being able to figure him out. His fastball, I thought, got a few. maybe swing-throughs that maybe won't long-term.

But he also pounds his own. He's a command guy. And his curveball is great. His curve ball is a great table setter that is going to throw guys off. And this is a guy, like, I love Tage Bradley. He's a top 10 fantasy prospect on my prospect list. And you could see a lot of the reasons for it. I just don't know if the team would make that full commitment.

So getting back to your question, like, there's upside. And I don't want to be dismissive because I was like, oh, they're not going to bring him up. And all of a sudden he's up. So I don't want to be like, they can't keep him in the rotation. I would still go Dre at the top. And then, you know, Edward Cabrera and him, I think it really, I'd probably go Edward Cabrera because I think that's safer. And then maybe from an upside perspective, I would go,

I think Taj lives with the rest of the guys. You kind of know Brad Keller. You kind of know what you got on Boobitch. And then you sit here and you look and you go, okay, well, Taj Bradley, if you were to stick, the fantasy upside is great. The strikeouts were there. That curveball, I think, is going to induce a whole lot more.

And that curveball in itself, if he throws it a bit more, well, the cutter, it's going to set up the fastball to get some of those big fastball strikeouts that we love to see with some guys like Spencer Strider does it a lot. So, yeah, I would go with him as that next tier after the top two guys. I was super impressed by that curb ball as well because everything that I've heard is big fastball, big cutter. And even the Tampa Bay Ray's broadcast when I was watching the game, they were surprised by how much, A, he was throwing the curveball and how good that pitch

looked for Tage Bradley. So he's 38% rostered. The biggest question right now, is he going to stick around? And we just don't know the answer. I mean, they said Zach Eflin is out for, it looks like it's going to be two starts. But they've had this combination of like Jalen Beeks and Josh Fleming throwing where, you know,

he could, Taj Bradley could easily go into that spot in the rotation. But then Tyler Glassnow is going to be back at some point too. So there's a lot of questions. There's a lot of moving parts here. I'm interested. I think there's a lot of upside. But I don't think that I would take him over Dre,

Edward Cabrera, or the Royals guys right now, Chris Towers. What do you think? I think I probably agree with that. If you wanted to take him over Brad Keller, I think it's fine. I think you could be chasing upside there. But yeah,

I think all of the reasons why we've historically been a little lower on Ray's prospects and raised pitchers in particular, especially the guys who aren't completely proven, I think apply to him. So it's unlikely you're going to see a lot of seven-inning starts. It's unlikely you're going to see a lot of six-inning starts here, even if he does stick in the rotation. I think he's a very good pitcher.

it's so hard now because like he had a 26% strikeout rate in the minors in AAA last season. And it's like, well, that's, or no, that was between double A and AAA. And it's like, well, that's pretty good. But it's not elite anymore for a top prospect, which is wild because he's striking out a quarter of batters. His swing and whiff was 26% by the way, I want to throw out. The thing I'd point out with him, and I didn't mean to like jump into talking about is also like the called strikes. You know, his CSW was like 35%, which was really great. This is like a command guy.

So the pitch mix of keeping guys off of what he's going to throw. And I think that curveball, which throws all the equilibrium off is going to allow him to like lock into more called strikes. So you, I think, you said it best to everybody. It's like, you've got to figure out like,

are you chasing upside or are you trying to play for maybe a little bit more of like a long term safer bet? And that's where like the differences between Bubbage to Taj Bradley, maybe even Edward Cabrera and stuff like that come into play. On the other side of this start, I guess arguably the biggest news of the day, right? And people are freaking out on Twitter and asking me all these kind of questions. What do I do with Chris Sale, who is clobbered once again at Tampa Bay, four innings pitched, six runs allowed, five of those earned, did have six strikeouts to two walks, eight swinging strikes on 81 pitches. He went slider heavy in this one.

He's throwing his sinker more than ever before this year. And speaking of the sinker, both of his fastballs, the four seam and the sinker, they are getting. clobbered right now. If you look at the batting average against, the slugging against entering the start, and then the amount of hard contact he gave up on those pitches on Wednesday, it is really, really bad. And I think that's part of the main issue for Chris Sale right now. And maybe we were just overly optimistic coming into this season. I mean, it's too early to say that for sure, because he's only made three starts. But he has made 14 total starts over the past three years. Maybe we just put too much on his plate. And we were expecting too much of like,

not vintage Chris Sale, but close to vintage Chris Sale. And maybe we were just expecting too much too soon. Chris Towers. What do you think about Chris Sale? And would you be looking to buy low right now? He's terrible right now. He's not doing anything. He's missing his spots by a foot and a half seemingly on every pitch. He's, he looks like a guy who's made 14 starts in the last three seasons. I would be trying to buy low, but I can't say with any amount of confidence right now that Chris Sale is just going to be fine. I think he will be.

I have faith that, you know, his track record and the fact that like the velocity's okay. It's not great, but it's fine. Like I have enough faith that he'll figure it out before long, but it's blind faith for sure. The quality of contact metrics are disastrous right now. he's missing his spots, like I said. He's not really generating the kind of swings and misses that we want to see.

So I just, I can't give you anything specific to say, hey, Chris Sale is going to be just fine. It's just that I believe he will be. And that's, it's up to you whether you have faith. When I was thinking about it, that was exactly how I thought about it as well. Chris, it's just, he's the ultimate wild card right now. We just don't know. there isn't enough of a recent track record. We know what Chris Hale used to be.

We just don't think he's going to get back to that. But can he get back to 80% of that? That's the question. And right now, we frankly just don't know. So if you think that will happen, then yes, you should be go out. You should go out and buy on Chris Hale. But you got to bench him. I mean, there's no way you can start him right now.

You need to see a couple of good starts from him before you can trust it. I was going to say he's 60% started in CBS. Next week he's in line for two starts. Angels and the Brewers. No, I don't think you can start him. Even in two-star week, maybe in a points league, but not in a roto league. He's done too much damage to your ratios now to be just to be able to justify starting him.

All right. Let's move over to another pitching matchup. That was actually very fun. I mean, even on paper coming in, two of the hardest throwers. I mean, they're like kind of mirror images of each other, but not really. Hunter Green going up against Spencer Strider. And Hunter Green actually outpitched strider in this one. Six innings, three runs, 10 strikeout.

That's at zero walks. 21 swinging strikes for Hunter Green. Spencer Strider on the other side. Five innings, three runs, nine strikeouts. 23 swinging strikes. Two pitchers in the same game, 21 plus swinging strikes. Just absolutely amazing stuff.

The big key here is the control for Hunter Green. It's, you know, zero starts. That's everything for him. Welsh. What did you see here? Any thoughts on these two? Hunter Green, Spencer Strider. Yeah, it was interesting too.

If anybody plays into the betting market, It was really high strikeout number because it was against the Reds. It was nine and a half. And I actually played the under on it. And he got up to nine as Spencer Strider did. Yeah, I mean, I thought this was like kind of quintessential of both sides. You know, I've watched every single one because I've had some piece of Strider. I've got him in multiple fantasy leagues.

But also I tend to play any bet I can with Strider up or down. And he's definitely, he's been a little bit wonkier. Like he is an overpowering pitcher, but some of that mix gets a little bit loss from him and he's just kind of like stacking up. He's stacking up innings. I think he was like 31 pitches through one, I think, through the first inning today. And it's been,

it looks like it's really difficult for him to get through games. But overall, I mean, you know, Spencer Strider, for better, for worse, you just write it out and you feel great with it. I'm always continuously very interested in,

uh, what Hunter Green is doing. And did you just say this? Did you see too that Hunter Green had a 17% undefined pitch use here? Same with. There seemed to be something going on with the stat cast data in that one, because I believe Spencer Strider had a similar. It must have been just like one inning,

someone tripped over a cable or something. Because, yeah, it just, it didn't track those pitches for, for both of them. The same thing, the same thing happened the other day for Graham Ashcraft. He had undefined pitches and it was in Atlanta. So something's going on there. Because I was wondering, I wasn't watching the game. So I tweeted out a picture of Hunter Greens pitch, pitch data.

And just wondering if, like, maybe those were changeups that got misclassified. Now, he only threw four changeups, or at least from what people were saying when they were watching, it didn't look like he was throwing a lot of changeups. Okay. Well, let's hit some news and notes before we get to another break. We knew it was likely Corey Seeger would miss time,

and it turns out it's a grade two hamstring strain. He'll miss a minimum of four weeks, just absolutely brutal blow at the shortstop position right now. Josh Smith started at shortstop Wednesday, was betting second for the Texas Rangers. A name to watch in deeper leagues. If he's going to bat that high in the order, just let's see what Josh Smith can do.

Towers, did you receive any tweets about Byron Buckson on Wednesday after we had a scare? Yeah, I mean, people did the, oh, he can't stay healthy. And it's like, yeah, he got, he ran into someone on the base path. So I don't know. Like some people make their own bad luck, I guess.

I was wondering what the mentions were looking like following that. Yeah, crashed into the ground, a collision at second base. seems to have avoided any serious injury. Thankfully, Byron Buckson. Apparently, Bryce Harper is preparing to play first base this season,

which will be fun for his position eligibility next year, assuming he's 100% healthy. It does not change his timetable. No. Notably, but makes it more likely he'll play in the field. Mm-hmm. This season.

Sounds like he's targeting a late May, early June return. That's the latest on Bryce Harper. Justin Verlander is expected to begin throwing off a mound this weekend, and is scheduled to make a move. make at least one minor league rehab start before being activated off the IL. Joe Musgrove could make his next rehab start as soon as Friday. We got news the other day that he needed a cortisone shot in his shoulder after taking a fall.

It's like a diving play in the field and a recent rehab start. So we've got the fractured toe and we've got a cortisone shot in the shoulder. Don't love it. Don't love it for Joe Musgrave. I'll tell you, one thing I just want to add with him, I'm very excited to see what it ends up, like, showing up when we can have like baseball savant and metrics on it. But the rehab start he did right before the end of spring training that I was at was the first time he had thrown. And I think I might have mentioned it here.

I just don't remember. But in the dugout, I was standing right next to the dugout. And I heard him talking to someone about a new change of grip. And he loved it. And he was talking about it. He's like, it felt good because he was just popping strikes up there left and right. And he really, really was comfortable with this change of grip. And he was kind of ooing and awing about it.

So just as like a little thing to throw out there, something we could pay attention to is to see how effective. that is and how effective he is off at his first start and watch that change up. Love it. Love it. Let's see. Lars Newbar will begin a rehab assignment on Thursday. He's down to 79% rostered on CBS. So just go check to see if somebody dropped him in shallower leagues out there, 10, 12 team leagues.

What's that? You picked up Orlando Arcia to replace one of your injured short stops? Well, he left Wednesday's game after getting hit by a pitch on his right wrist. Thankfully, X-rays came back negative. We'll see what happens the next couple of days. Yandy Diaz also left after being hit by a pitch on the right arm. Masataka Yoshita out of the lineup with a sore right hamstring, but is expected back on Friday.

DJ LaMayhew was out of the lineup with quad tightness. Anthony Volpe let off and as a result, he went one for four with a double. I think he had that double in the first inning and then just did nothing after that. Kyle Bradish is set to make a rehab start at AA on Friday, and it sounds like he could return next week. Only 24% rostered. He's got some upside. for those in deeper leagues

if you want to take a shot on Braddish. Brutal news for Kyle Farmer needs dental surgery to realign his teeth after getting hit in the face by a pitch just really, really rough luck there. Honestly, lucky it wasn't worse. I think that was the takeaway

from pretty much everyone around the twins. It's just like shocked. It wasn't more serious than that. Yeah. Kyle Garlick is expected to join the twins as a result. Derek Hall is expected to be sidelined two months after following surgery on his right third.

Thumb. Hermann Marquez was placed on the IL with a right forearm strain. Nolan Jones was recalled from AAA and was off to a hot start. He was batting 359 with six homers and the minors. Another name just to watch in deeper league, see if he gets some playing time with the Rockies. Jesse Winker has missed three straight due to an illness. L.A. Huris Montero has missed two straight with a left hand issue. Randall Gritchhick is apparently two to three weeks away from returning and is 14% rostered. Again, five outfield other leagues when he returns.

You know he's going to play for the Rockies. Matt Manning, on the aisle with a fracture in his right foot, and it sounds like Michael Lorenzen will return to the Tigers rotation this weekend to replace him. J.T. Breubaker underwent Tommy John's surgery on Wednesday, and some

prospect, National's outfield prospect, Robert Hassel is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment at Singale A, and he's missed some time with a wrist issue. Andrew Painter is scheduled to play catch out to 60 feet on Friday, and the Phillies are clearly being cautious

following Painter's UCL sprain from spring training. And hopefully it all works out and, you know, we see him at some point this season. Let's take our final break and we get back. We'll get into the other action from Wednesday here on Fantasy Baseball today. Welcome back and I missed a few waiver wire ads earlier. Some Super League outfielders. T.J. Friedel went three for four with a run and an RBI.

He is batting 350 early on this season but is not making much hard contact. 19% rostered. Chas McCormick, two for four with a walk. his fourth stolen base and two runs scored. He has led off five straight games for the Astros, which is pretty interesting. You know, the top half of that lineup is pretty good. The bottom half, not so much.

But hey, whoever... I love him, by the way. I love, like, I don't know what his ownership is right now. I'd be curious to know, but I think... 29%. I think that's crazy criminally underrated. They, like, they did this last year with Jeremy Pena, where they oohed and awed about how Jeremy Pena

could be the lead-off guy. They love McCormick, and they've given him the green light, and a lot of the broadcasts very early on in the year was talking about how McCormick now has a green light. And he's not as fast as he is just like a really good base runner. And I think he is sneaky, sneaky good. And I like T.J. Friedel in there, but like Chaz McCormick, I want to call him the

must-mus pick up, but I think he should be way more owned than 29% or under 30%. Okay. So any five outfieler leagues, absolutely should go out there and get Chaz McCormick. Franchi Cordero went one for four with the home run, has now homered in four of his last five games with the Yankees. Looks like he's only starting against right. handed pitching for now. He's got six games next week, but three lefties on the schedule. If you're playing a deeper daily lineup league, I think he's kind of interesting because

whenever there's a writing on the schedule, just kind of throw Frenchie Cordero in there. But towers, at the same time, I don't want to chase what's already happened. Like, I don't know how many more home runs Frenchie Cordero is going to hit, but it just kind of has this like Matt Carpenter vibe from last year. Or like, you know, he got a shot and he ran with it, you know? Yeah, a little bit. I'm, he's always. always had the physical tools and maybe this is just him establishing a new baseline. But like he had 275 plate appearances last season. He had eight home runs.

So I don't want to overreact to a handful of home runs early going. I don't know. I've just never believed in Francho Cordero when a lot of people have been interested in him. So I maybe that's just my bias and I can't get past it. But I just I don't think there's, I just don't think the all around skill set is there, I guess. Frank, you not going to put Willie Calhoun on there? You can't put your boy Willie? Well, that's the problem with Franchie right now.

He's taking some time away from my guy, Willie Calhoun. Who had an RBI single the other day, by the way. I won't point that out. I thought of you. He does anything. He just breathes. I'm like, oh, where's Frank? Where's Frank?

Dude, I have a group chat with my friends where anytime he does anything, I just texted immediately and they get so annoyed. So I love it. I'm just going to keep it rolling. Some middle infielers that could be out there. Nolan Gorman. I feel like he's mostly added already. He's 73% rostered,

but he went one. for four with his fourth home run. He's got six games next week, one lefty on the schedule. These other names are more widely available. Josh Rojas off to a nice start. He went three for four with two doubles, two runs, and an RBI. He has three hits in three of his last five games and has started five straight. One of those was against a lefty for the Diamondbacks. He is 57% rostered. Bryson Stott had two more hits and his third steel while leading off nonetheless against Edward Cabrera. He's batting 420 early on. And I, of course, why, wouldn't I. Had some Phillies fans yelling at me on Twitter because we dismissed Stott too quickly

on yesterday's podcast. So I'll bring him up once again. Maybe your opinion has changed one day later. Edward Julian, finally. He made his debut and we're finally talking about him. He batted eighth in the lineup for the twins. He went 0 for two with a walk. He is widely available. I'll pull up what his roster rate is on CBS. It is 23% Chris Welsh. How would you rank those three Rojas? Stott and Edward Julian, do you think Julian six round for the twins? Well, I mean, I hate to say it, but I think with like maybe Farmer Down,

that might be like one more reason why they could keep him, keep him around. I just don't. I don't think it's going to be crazy, crazy long term. I had a little defensive miscue in this one. I love Edward Julian.

I love him long term. Or as he said, you can call him Eddie, as he's allowing people to call him Eddie. But I think, gosh, I got to tell you, like Rojas and Stod are really, really close to me.

I'm kind of torn between the two. Stott has been stinging the ball, and he's actually got more stolen bases in Rojas. The thing I like about Rojas right now is he is, like, their predominant leadoff hitter with the Diamondbacks, and that offense is just moving. So I probably would, Rohas Stott in the tier,

and then Julian is behind it. I'm just not crazy aggressive. I'll defend you from the Homer calls, because, like, I don't see much in Bryson Stott right now at all. Like, I don't know. Sometimes, you, you throw dice and we tried to do a craps analogy a couple weeks ago. I couldn't remember what it was.

But sometimes you throw the dice and good things happen a bunch of times in a row. And it's statistically unlikely and isn't likely to continue happening moving forward. Bryson Stutz just kind of racking up like a huge babbip right now. And he's not really doing anything else. He's 23rd percentile on average exit velocity. He's 40th percentile. on hard hit rate. He is tied for last place in the majors with the three of us in barrels with zero.

I think like you're hoping for an empty batting average. And look at shortstop, that might be the best you can hope for right now with how many injuries we've had. An empty batting average and some steals might be the best you can hope for. I think he's probably like a poor man's Nico Horner. Is he under Julian for you? No. I honestly, I think I'd rather just taking a shot on the upside with Julian,

unless I absolutely need someone to start right now. You know, one thing I get weird about with probably and obviously I'm like a prospect guy is when a prospect comes up in a replacement because of injury thing, I feel like I give them a little bit less credit than them coming up on their own merits. Like when they come up and it's like, okay, the guys played so well and they're going to come up and that gets me excited. And like if that's how Tosh Bradley came up and Julian, I would be a bit more excited. I'm just a bit more pessimistic right now because it's like they're obviously their performance

is a reason that they got the call up, but the only reason it happened was the injury. So like Julian and Taj Bradley, I just don't feel crazy optimistic that they're going to stick around like long term, especially Julian with the amount of players that that team has. And Alex Kierloff and Polanco are both on a rehab assignment right now. And that's two more pieces that will be back up here shortly. No, I agree with that. Yeah. I would take Stod over Julian right now. I just the way that, you know, He's actually, he's going to play every day. He's, you know, getting some lead-off opportunities. I think that, you know, Nico Horner, like, poor man's Nico Horner comp is actually kind of fair for Stott.

He looks more confident this year. That's one thing that I'll say, like, I saw on that bat the other day against Jesus Lazzardo with the bases loaded, and he had an opposite field two-run single, and it was actually pretty impressive, like full count, everything. So that was impressive from Bryson-Stot, but, yeah, I don't know how much upside is there. Let's quickly talk about some starting pitchers. I had some names here written down for buy, sell, or hold. Like, what do we do with these guys? right now.

Blake Snell. I was at the game, at the Mets game, Mets first Padres, on Wednesday. And it was just like quintessential Blake Snell. Five innings,

four runs, three earned, five walks, five strikeouts. I just don't understand. He threw his fastball 72%. And it really was not

an effective pitch. He only used a slider 18%. And the underlying numbers for the slider were amazing in the start. I just, maybe he didn't have a feel

for it, But it kind of looked like he did based on the numbers at least. I don't know. And can I ask you a question? Sure. Was it sunny at the game today? It was very sunny. Did you look up and stare at the sun for any amount of time?

No, I don't think so. But I was sitting... Why not? I was sitting in right field. And there was a point where the sun like started to hit us. And then we moved to another section. Why didn't you look at the sun? Because it hurts.

It's not good. Because you know better. Yeah. If you did, look at the sun and your eyes had gotten hurt. Would you have blamed the sun? Absolutely. Exactly. Are you telling us that we need to cut out a box and put mirrors in it to watch a Blake's knell start? Is that what you're getting at? Uh, that's not a bad idea. Okay. Yeah. Um, it's, it's just to say, this is just who Blake Snell is. And I think at some point,

I think it's healthier to take people where they are, not where we want them to be. We want Blake Snell to be someone he's not, and that's a pitcher who is not maddeningly inconsistent. And maybe that's just, he's just always going to be maddeningly inconsistent, and you just have to forget about it. You just have to not think about the fact that Blake Snell is going to have

stretches where he looks like an absolute world beater, and he is going to have stretches where he looks like bad. I don't know what word I was. I was looking for a word that I probably would want to say. Yeah, I wouldn't want to say them on the podcast. It's a family-friendly show. And then at the end of the year, he's going to have a 3-3-Ear and 12 strikeouts per 9 and 140 innings. And that's just, it's just, you just got to zone out.

You got to go zen. You got to just go lifeless. Go limp on the, on the Blake's now experience. I feel like he's like the pitcher version of like what Justin Upton used to be. It is super streaky. And like, he's doing what we wanted him to do, by the way, right now. We don't want them to throw a registered changeup in this. The problem is you can't throw your fastball 70 plus percent of the time.

His most effective pitch out of that game was the slider. And it had a 75 percent whiff rate, but he threw 18 of them for 18 percent. So it's like, you know, let the other pitches set that up and then let the slider be effective. So it's like the Trey Jameson thing. I'm screaming at the time of just throw the slider. That's your most effective that's setting everything else up. And I don't think Snell feels comfortable right now. And you're right.

It's just going to take time. He's going to drive you crazy. I thought he was a buy right now. He's clearly not, but he will pick it back up and God knows how long it's going to stick. Maybe it'll be like last year, two bad months to start and he'll just ball out the rest of the year. Who knows? So yeah, maybe wait until June before you buy Blake's now. But I do think he's going to be a buy at some point.

He goes up against the Atlanta Braise next week. I think if you could afford to bench him there, I probably would. Embarrassing story from this game. Again, I was at the game. I was sitting in right field, the front row, and Starling Marte is throwing balls over into the crowd, you know, after he gets done warm it up. He throws him right at me.

I was, like, in the process of taking a picture of him at the time because I was going to tweet out. I was like, hey, Starly Marte, he's right here. And he throws the ball right at me. And I, like, like, fumble my phone, fumble the ball, and then I just dropped the ball. And, like, I've never had that habit to me at a game before, ever, before, like, where they throw a ball right to you,

and it was yours to keep. And I wish you had been like filming or recording it. We could have got those like reporter videos where you're like, Hey, look, it's Starling Marte, everybody. And the ball just comes right at the camera. It's just like a really good picture. That's a missed opportunity. I'm sorry, Frank.

That's a, that actually will probably stick with you for quite a while that Starling Marte wanted you to walk away from that game with something memorable. And you do, unfortunately, it's a forgettable. Just a memory. Just a memory. I was so embarrassed. Like, I'm sure nobody else around me even cared, but I cared.

And for like the next two innings, I was just like sulking. I'm surprised you didn't get booed. Maybe I have a wrong perception of New York, but I feel like you should have gotten booed for that. Guess what? We're not getting the team name Thursday today. We're just going to save it for next week.

I got a few more names here. I'll just give you a name and you tell me what you're doing with them. Buy, sell, hold. Lucas Yolito, bounce back start at the Twins. Welsh will throw your way, buy sell or hold, Jolito. I'm a buy. I'm a buyer on Gialito this year. I think it's taking them a little bit longer to kind of get going.

The strikeouts were there. He was rattled. when he hit Kyle Farmer, and I think that kind of set him back a little bit, but he was able to restabilize. And all the big changes he made in the offseason, they're not going to make him back to this, like,

maybe you saw a young type of contender, but I think it's going to make him come back to being like a good piece in the rotation. So yeah, I'm going to be a buyer on Giulio. Towers, Sunny Gray, five shutout with five strikeouts up against the White Sox. Apparently he was battling an illness, and that's why he was limited to 78 pitches,

buy sell or hold. I would hold. I think you can make a better set. sell case than a buy case, but we've seen Sunny Gray be very, very good when he's been healthy for the most part. So I think, I don't know, I think he's one of those guys

that the perception is that he's not very good, so you probably won't get very much from him in trade. So I would just hold. I think he's going to be fine moving forward. Marcus Stroman, I'm going to take this one. He's now three for three in quality starts, and he was up against the Mariners, six innings, two runs, six strikeouts with 12 swinging strikes, fastball and slurve up nearly one

mile per hour each. and I am buying on Marcus Stroman. I know who he is and it probably does not have crazy upside but he is stable and he's giving you strong innings so far and there's not many pitchers that are doing that and he has a much better defense behind him this year.

Obviously we hope Danesby Swanson's all right with the injury but Nico Horner is good at second base. They got Cody Bellinger in center field now so the defense up the middle is fantastic for someone who gets a lot of ground balls in this new like shift restriction type of era that we're in. in in baseball. So I am buying on Marcus Stroman right now, if possible. Logan Gilbert had a strong

start on the other side. Six and two thirds, one run, seven strikeouts. Welsh, buy, sell or hold. I'm going to say hold. I do want to say I love Logan Gilbert and I'm floating a little bit unfortunately closer into like a cell territory. But you know, I'm going to say let's hold because he's still keeping batting averages down, not giving up a much of hard hit. It's at least in the top 50 percentile overall. Strikeouts are also up for him. Last year was 22.7 early on this year. It's up 31 and he started experimenting, I believe, with the splitter, the additional splitter. Yeah, so I'm going to be a hold on Logan Gilbert. I think he's a really, really, really smart pitcher and needs to get his feet under him for a little bit more this season. I like to see the

strikeouts come up a little bit. I like to see the consistency roll a little bit more. And maybe see that split figure go a little bit more. He's throwing it 9% of the time with a 50% whiff rate. So smart guy making adjustments. K numbers are there. Just maybe not quite the results. It's a hold. Towers, you get Jack Flaherty. And I didn't plan it this way, but it just happened to work out. He was solid at Corse Field. Five and a third. Two runs allowed. Six strikeouts. Only one walk following 13 walks in his first two outings. Change the pitch mix. He threw his slider 45% in this one. The velocity was up. What do you think? Buy sell hold. he's a very very difficult pitcher to figure out after the first two starts i was completely out now i would say hold

uh if somebody views him as like a top 40 starting pitcher i think it would be okay to try to sell him but i doubt anyone is they have access to the same podcasts and data that are all skeptical about jack flaredy as you do so i would say hold if you haven't dropped him my sense is that it's going to go poorly for him but the The bounce back in velocity over the last two starts in particular is good to see. So I'll hold. Okay. So I'm pitching leftovers.

Look, Kevin Gosman had 11 strikeouts and we're getting in it like the one hour mark. I don't think there's really. I mean, he's awesome. What are we going to say, you know? Yeah. Look, he still gave up three runs to the Detroit Tigers, but eight innings, three runs, 11 strikeouts to zero walks, 20 swinging strikes. He was fantastic.

The velocity was way up compared to his first couple of starts. So if you were worried about that, don't be. Jose Orkitti, solid at the Pirate 6 shutout with two strikeouts. Though he did have 15 swinging strikes, and he's completely changed his pitch mix this year, moving away from the four-seem fastball throwing his secondaries more. So maybe it will lead to more swings and misses, more strikeouts for Jose or Kiti. Zach Wheeler turned in his first quality start of the season up against the Marlins, six innings, one run, six strikeouts there, 15 swinging strikes.

And his velocity on all of his pitches, up nearly one mile per hour. Good news for Zach Wheeler. hitting leftovers, of course, the Welsh is on, and Corbyn Carroll hits a homer. Love it. Doesn't walk. Never going to walk, never going to walk, ever. It's never going to happen.

But he did crush a homer, which was nice to see. I was telling you guys off air, there's a clear book out on him. Pitches are attacking him up in the zone. He is struggling getting at that. He's kind of getting hyper-aggressive as well, I think trying to fix that. He's a good enough hitter that I think he will, but there's still some big old warts in his game, yet at the same time, this rookie has three homers and five stolen bases, so it's going pretty well still.

400 feet to the opposite field, too. It's pretty impressive stuff for Corbyn, Wander Franco, another big game, three for five, with a triple double. Two runs, two RBI, added his third steal of the season in that game. Bobby Witt, Jr., running wild in Texas. He went three for five with three steals in that game. Good to see it. The stars were on display at City Field as well.

Juan Soto hit a 453-foot home run. Pete Alonzo, 431-foot home run. Lindor also added his second homer, Brandon Nimmo, three for five, with five hard hit balls. Five balls over 95 eggs of velocity. Pretty impressive stuff for Brandon Nimmo. One mention one other player. Yep. We didn't get to him in the outfielders waivers, but Alec Thomas is doing some really interesting stuff in the early going. He is. He is. He had four hard hit balls today, including two over 105 miles per hour. his average eggs velocity, max eggs of Elo, hard hit rate,

Ex Wobah are all solidly above average. So there are some interesting things going on here with Alec Thomas that have not necessarily shown up in the production yet, but he's someone that I have stashed on my bench in a few leagues and would not surprise me if we got a little Alec Thomas breakout in the coming days. All right. The call to the bullpen, some updates here for the Mets. David Robertson entered in the seventh inning.

likely the biggest spot in the game. Two run lead, two runners on, Juan Soto coming to the plate. Robertson got out of that. He pitched the eighth. Adam Adavino got the ninth inning and picked up his first save. Kind of looks like they're just going to use Robertson

in the biggest spot, and sometimes that won't be the ninth inning. So obviously you want to roster him, but keep that in mind. For the twins, Jorge Lopez pitched the seventh with a one-run lead, facing the bottom of the White Sox lineup. Yohan Duran got the ninth,

and with a three-run lead, he gave up a run, but picked up his third save. For the Diamondbacks, Andrew Chafin entered in the seventh with a four-run lead. The base is loaded. He gave up a two-run single to Christian Yelich. Miguel Castro pitched the eighth. Scott McGuff, who spent an entire night on the paternity leave.

Like, why did they even do that? He was gone for one night. And then he pitched. He's old-fashioned, Frank. He's old-fashioned. He's like, let's get back to it. He pitched the ninth with a four-run lead. Well, there's two things here.

Obviously, you're a Diamondbacks guy. What is your feel for the D-Backs bullpen? and I mean, look, Andrew Chafin, if anyone in the history of baseball has ever looked like a closer, it's that guy. No, it's him. Also in this, he made an awesome, awesome glove side catch off of Yelich

to take away probably a hit. They put him in a huge high leverage situation. He's their guy. He is their guy right now. They're going to go there. Joe Mantipa is also rehabbing right now. He was an All-Star last year. That's one of the better pieces I thought he could go into the bullpen.

But I actually think that Maniply could play maybe more of the high leverage situation and Chafin become a true number, a true closer at the end on the 9th, which I'm a little bit chocked about. I really didn't think they would go that way. I thought it would be Ginkle. They tried it with McGuff. He blew that. But it is Andrew Chafin right now. Just watch Joe Maniply when he comes back and see what happens.

All right. For the Marlins, A.J. Puck pitched a ninth and the 10th in the 10th and picked up the win in that one. For the Phillies, Craig Kimball entered the top of the 10th with that runner on second. and gave up an RBI single. For the Angels, Carlos Estevez was unavailable. Jose Quijada picked up his second save. And if you play in,

you know, 15 team, roto leagues and just super desperate for saves, I think Kihada's a name. He's only 3% of us. Is that ever available, by the way? Like, every time I do this show with you guys,

I wasn't available. Like, he's never available. I don't feel like he's ever out there. I don't know. Does he exist? I think he got his first save either yesterday or two days before, two days ago.

I didn't see it, so I don't believe you. For the Tigers. What a man? Alex Lang got the eighth inning. He looked dominant, and they brought in Trey Wingenter with a two-run lead in the ninth. He loaded the bases with no outs.

He was relieved by Jason Shreve, who then blew the game. For the Braves, AJ Minter, pitch a clean ninth, picked up his second save. I think he sold the guy while Rice Liglacius is out, but let's watch Nick Anderson. The regulars, Emmanuel Class A got the ninth with the game tied. He gave up an unearned run, took the loss.

For the Yankees, Clay Holmes, walked the bases loaded in a one-run game, but picked up his fourth save. For the Cardinals, Ryan Helsey struck out two for his third. Is that back-to-back days? Because if it is, they might be lying already

about that whole like back-to-back thing. Yeah, it feels like it is back-to-back days. So why did you lie to us, Cardinals? I don't understand. For Tampa Bay, Pete Fairbanks gave up a hit, but picked up his second save as well. Streamers for the next couple days. Thursday, Cole Irvin versus the Oakland A's.

Yay or nay? Maybe. I think it's fine. Revenge game, baby. Let's do it. Corey Klobber at the Rays. No. Revenge game, don't do it. Bailey Falter at the Reds. I wouldn't. Nope.

Johnny Brito versus the Twins. No. I might. I actually might if I'm playing upside. Nick Martinez versus the Brewers. No. All right, and then we get to Friday, and I didn't write this down, so I'm just going to scroll through the games here.

Let's see. Marco Gonzalez up against the Rockies, their first game away from Corsefield. I can see it being good, but Marco Gonzalez isn't. So I can't in good conscience tell you to, but Coorsfield Hangover, soft tosser, finesse pitcher.

I could see it being bad for them. Pass. How about Justin Steele, who is a popular ad right now at the Dodgers? Tough matchup. I would hope to avoid it against the Dodgers. I might. Dodgers.

also a little swing and missy right now. So, steal, maybe a get right steel game. I could, I could do it, but there's risk.

Michael Walker coming off a 10 strikeout game going up against the Brewers. Yes. I probably wouldn't. Johann Oviedo at the Cardinals. No.

No. Who else we have? Clevenger versus the Orioles. That's in Chicago. I avoid it. Tyler Wells on the other side at the White Sox. Nah.

Nope. Tanner Halk versus the Angels? No. Pass. Anybody else here? Taiwan Walker. Oh, love that guy. At the Reds. That's probably more interesting than most of the ones you mentioned. Yeah, I could do it. I don't know if Trevor Rogers is rostered enough, but he's going up against the D-backs. What do you think? Nope. I, yeah, not the way he's pitched so far. All right. Well, not many streamers in next couple of days. We tried. We're going to wrap there for Towers and the Welsh. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today.

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