Fantasy Baseball Today - Kershaw's Perfection, Robbie Ray Concerns & More Waiver Wire Pitchers (4/14 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 14, 2022

Clayton Kershaw was perfect through seven innings on Wednesday (2:20)! Should you look to sell high? ... Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit three home runs again (10:55)! ... How are we handling Cody Bellinger after his strong game (16:22)? ... What do we do with Robbie Ray and his decreased velocity (19:56)? ... Should Andrew Vaughn be added over Connor Joe or Steven Kwan (25:05)? ... Triston McKenzie or Merrill Kelly (34:00)? ... News and notes (40:15): it sure looks like MacKenzie Gore is coming soon. ... What do we make of all the aces from Wednesday (47:40)? ... We have some hitter standouts to talk about (55:42). ... We wrap up with bullpens and streamers (59:47). Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection 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. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. So I've been waiting for that first monumental day of baseball, and I think we just got it. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, April 14th. Frank Stamphill joined by Chris Towers, here to break down all of Wednesday's action.

The Dodgers were awesome. A bunch of aces were on the mound. More velocity concerns. And of course, much more. But let's talk about two generational players. One being 23 years old. The other, just a little bit older. 34 years old.

Our players of the night are brought to you by my favorite perfect game call of all time. Can you name it, Chris? Is that David Cohn? I'm assuming it's a Yankees. No. Because it's your favorite. No.

It's my guy, Hawk Harrelson. Oh, okay, Mark Burleys? Yeah. I was watching that in my freshman year dorm, I believe, because that's the Dwayne Wise catch, right? Yeah, so that was the play before, and then that was the final out. Yeah, so that I was watching,

we had like, sort of in 2007 or 2006. We had like a 60 screen, like one of those projection flat screen TVs from like the 90s. And it was like me and one other dude that I didn't know watching this random. I feel like it was a day game, I want to say. It was a day game, yep.

Yeah, that's my distinct memory of that. And just losing it when the Dwayne Wise made that catch. It's still maybe the greatest catch I've ever seen in my life. It is like that and the Indy Chavez catch from the NLCS, which like does not get the credit it deserves. Yeah, true, man. Yeah, it was both amazing catches there. Chris, why don't you start us off?

And obviously the reason we're using the. perfect game is, I guess the perfect game that should have been for Clayton Kershow. I mean, yeah, Clayton Kershaw, seven perfect innings. He looked phenomenal. He was, I mean, he was basically just throwing sliders half the time, 51% of them. He had 17 swings and misses on 41 sliders today. He had 20 swings and misses total. So that tells you 17 of those came on 20 sliders. That was 17 of his 20 swings and misses came on a slider. That is ridiculous. His slider looked unhittable today.

It's, it's interesting. His velocity was down, 0.7 miles per hour. You know, at this point, with Clayton Kirshall, we've done this last like four seasons. Oh, is his velocity up, is his velocity down?

I don't think it really matters. The thing with Clayton Kirshall here, and it's kind of what we talked about with Carlos Rodon. And it's, you know, there are probably a few other guys like that as well where it's, he answered the first,

question. We still don't know if Clayton Churchill is going to be able to stay healthy and make it through the whole season. I think it's pretty fair to be skeptical of that, but he answered the first question and arguably the most important, which is is he currently healthy and currently himself? And Clinton Kirchall looked like himself. What was it? 13 strikeouts in seven innings?

No hits, no walks. Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. Absolutely absurd. Didn't give up a hard hit ball. Just about as good as you can be. And yes, he only only went seven innings and they pulled him out of the, out of the game after seven innings in a perfect game and teeth were gnashed and flesh was rended or whatever the saying would be. And it just,

he threw no more than four innings in any of his spring training starts. He had UCL damage last year. He didn't sign until spring training started. He got this, this would typically still be spring training in terms of the schedule. So everything about it makes it perfectly reasonable that he was pulled from this game. And if this start had happened two weeks from now, there's no way he gets pulled from this game. So we don't need to do our little culture war like analytics are ruining baseball.

We don't need to do this. He didn't get pulled because Dave Roberts is a terrible manager. He got pulled, as Clayton Kershaw said after the game, because he hadn't thrown. You know, he went three months without throwing and then start. throwing in spring training. He's still ramping up. This was about as promising a debut as you could have hoped for for Clayton Kirshaw. And yeah, I mean, again, we don't know if he can stay healthy moving forward, but he looks like himself right now. And that's the most important thing. You know, I see both sides of it, Chris, the whole debate, you know, pull them from a perfect game. But,

like, I would have loved to see it. I think most baseball fans obviously, like, you know, this is something that very, very rarely happens in this game that's been around for. there have been 24 of them in like 23,000 major league games ever. Exactly. So that's what Jeff Passon tweeted earlier. And I get that. I wish the circumstances had been different. Yeah.

Like that's it. It's not like this isn't like a, oh, we got a, we got to criticize. Like it's just, it was just weird. It was just that it happened today. If it had been two starts from now, he's probably okay to go 100 pitches and they let him go. You know, like it just, that's, just the reality of the situation. I think he blamed the lockout afterwards and like Rob Manfred.

He's like, blame that. I didn't get my opportunity to get built up correctly. Yeah, we, spring training, from when spring training started to now, spring training would normally still be happening. And so, yeah, that's the reason he's not. That's the reason why none of these pitchers are throwing, like everybody's throwing 65 pitches in their starts, 75 pitches. Like, oh, yeah.

That's the reason. And that's just the reality of the, of the current landscape. And if he gave up a hit in the first inning, he probably would have been out after 60 pitches. 60 pitches, 70 pitches, something like that. So I think they pushed him even a little bit further. Let's bring it back to fantasy here, though.

It leaned all the way into the slider. You mentioned how great it was in this start. He threw a slider 51% of the time. And that's a lot of what we saw from Clayton Kershaw last year, where he threw it 47%. So this is kind of the evolution of him where he's really leaning into that as his main pitch. and as great of a career as he's had,

I pointed this out in the off season. His swinging strike rate last year was 16.7%. That was a career high for somebody who has been as amazing as Clayton Kirchall has been in his career. And it looks like he's just kind of picking up where he left off last season. It's just now a matter of can he stay healthy?

Unfortunately, Chris, I have to ask, do you look to sell high after a start like this because he does have the name value? you. And obviously, this was an amazing start. Yeah, I mean, like, I'm looking at the rankings. I had him as my number 25 starting pitcher coming into the season. He's answered that first most important question of, you know, is he right? And so I think I can move him up to top 20 probably. Like, I think having seen this, like, it's, it's an interesting question. Like, would you rather have Clayton

Kershaw or Joe Musgrove or Clayton Kershaw or Jose Berrios. You know, someone who doesn't have the upside he does, but obviously, you know, doesn't have the injury concerns he does. Max Fried. I think that's a good range. And yeah, I think selling high is not a terrible idea.

I mean, remember, we did this with Jacob deGromam in spring training where we said one start, we saw one start and all of a sudden people were taking Jacob deGromen in the first round in some high stakes leagues. And we had, I think he went top five in one. and, you know, we did the same thing. He answered the first question, is Jacob de Grom himself? And the answer was yes.

But unfortunately, that doesn't mean he's going to avoid injury. You know, it just means that he's currently healthy. And this was what we talked about all coming up through spring. So I do think, like, if you could get a premium for Clayton Kirschel, I don't think that's a bad idea. But, like, I don't know. There aren't that many starting pitchers I feel super great about who were ranked ahead of him. Like I'm looking,

Udarvish, no, I don't think I would trade him for Udarvish. If I could get Logan Webb, and I was skeptical of Logan Webb coming in, I think I would feel okay about that. Frankie Montas, maybe. I think it would be hard to pull off a pitcher for pitcher trade, Chris. Yeah, I think if you're looking for something here, you're probably trying to flip him for a hitter who is off to a slow start. And we're talking, again, whenever we say sell high on this podcast in season,

that's exactly what we mean. Don't just sell for the sake of it. I understand that he's injury prone, but when Kirchow pitches, we all think that he's going to be very good. So if you can get a player who is being drafted inside the top 50 coming into the season, who's off to a slow start,

names like Mani Machado is off to a slow start. Yes, absolutely would do that. Just Marcus Semyon. I don't know, that's a little bit more. I didn't like Semyon coming into the year, but I would do something that you would do. Trevor's story has like barely played if anyone's like worried about him.

that's something I would do. Zander Bogartz hasn't done much yet either. This is what we're talking about. Again, like a top 50 player. So if you could do that, sure, look to move Clayton Kirshall. It doesn't hurt. Just like shop them around and see what someone's willing to give up. Would you train Clayton Kirschall for Shane Bieber?

Oh, man. I think you'd have to. Yeah. I don't think you'd feel good about it. I think so. But like, honestly, if we see one more, like one or two more Beber starts, like what we've seen so far where the results are just mediocre. and we have the velocity and the spin rate concerns,

they might be ranked at the same point, like after four or five starts. Yeah, I mean, based on what we saw from Clayton Kirchall, like if what we've seen from them so far is at all indicative of how they're going to pitch this season, then, yeah, I mean, they're moving towards each other at the very least. But, you know, we were talking beforehand, Chris, and you said all the aces have not shown up so far.

So I think that will make it even easier, If you wanted to move Clayton Kirshah and sell high on him, someone who has Shane Bieber or U. Darvish, or both of those guys on their team, they're like, I need to figure this out, I need to go out and get a starting pitcher, I need to make a move right away. They're going to panic and they're going to look to do something. So that's the fantasy manager that you want to pounce on right now. Again, Clayton Kirchaw was fantastic.

Another player who was just absolutely ridiculous on Wednesday night, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. A triple dong. Not one, not two, not three. Yes, three. Yes. What am I saying? Well, not two, but three home runs, two of which came off of Garrett Cole.

He becomes the youngest player ever with multiple three homer games at 23 years old. His father, Vladimir Guerrero, Sr. is a Hall of Famer with 449 career home runs, and he never had a three homer game. Obviously, the game has changed a little bit. There's more like launch angle involved. That's still, that's stunning. It's very weird. It's very weird. But, look, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., he is just kind of feels like he's in his own category right now. In terms of plate discipline, pitch recognition, hit tool, power, just all of those things combined. And we saw it last year, hitting over 300, 48 home runs. I don't know if he's going to do exactly that again, Chris. And there's not really much actionable here just to say, like, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is amazing. But, man, someone who just blends. the hit tool and the power together,

like we've really only seen from guys like Albert Pooholz and like Miguel Cabrera in the past. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing that that makes him such a special player is like to be a top five overall player, to be even a first rounder, like a legitimate first rounder, not a fringe guy without stealing bases. You know,

we're talking about only a handful of guys over the past decade, you know, past two decades, I guess, Miguel Cabrera, Albert Pooholes. Even Freddie Freeman steals. basis. So yeah, Vladimir Guerrero is absolutely ridiculous. Any concerns that he wasn't going to be able to sustain what he did last season, I think are safe to put the bed. It's worth mentioning it looked like he was leaving this game after his first played appearance because he got spiked. He got stepped on at first base by Aaron Hicks. Not spiked. He got stepped on.

Yep. His finger was all bloody. It was pretty gross looking and came back, I think, the next inning and hit a home run. And it was, that home run was one of the more ridiculous home runs I've seen in recent years, because it was probably five inches inside. And he turned on it and hit it 115 miles an hour on a 98 mile an hour fastball. This was like, this wasn't like an inside corner pitch. This was like off the plate. And he goes out and hits it the other one, or pulls in.

And it just the bat control, the strength, the bat speed that he has is, is unbelievable. He's just, again, nothing actionable here. Just you love to, you just want to, you want to rave about a guy like that, you know. Again, like two of those home runs came off of Garrett Cole, who has been one of the best pitchers in baseball over the past, like handful of years. The other one comes off of Jonathan Loisigua, who's established himself as one of the better relievers in baseball. It's just, it doesn't matter who you throw out there. Vladimir Grotto Jr. He is just that guy at this point. Speaking of the Yankees Blue Jays, Chris, did you have the fortune of hearing John Sterling call

John Carlos Stanton's flyout as if it were a game-tying home run? I believe it came in the eighth inning of that game. I didn't watch it live. I have been listening to Yankees Radio lately this season because I can't watch them with the blackout rules. So I have been tuning in and look, I know the guy's an institution. and I will say this the good news is you didn't have to hear

his terrible home run call for John Carlos Stanton which like is he like it sounds when he says it his like John Carlo Nospolo whatever like it sounds like he

has heard someone say it once and is trying to remember and like look for papers to like read it like when he say it's the weird I don't understand the appeal. I know it's a, you had to be there.

You had to grow up with it. I get it. But at least we were spared that. Yeah. I've said it before. John Sterling, he's the radio broadcasts for the New York Yankees. He's so bad.

He's good. It's just like, I love him in like a grandfather type of way. Like, just you feel like you're listening to your grandpa, just like call a baseball game. So that's how I consume games. Usually I have Yankees radio on.

And then I have like the quad box going with like, all the games on my laptop. So that's usually my setup that I've got going on for the night. So I heard it and I started freaking out. I'm like, what? Stan just tied the game. And then this is actually what happened.

So this comes courtesy of WFAN. Swung on. There it goes. Deep left center. That ball is high. It is far. It is gone. But caught.

It is gone but caught. Those two things cannot happen together. It's just, oh man. Look, I want to give him the benefit of the doubt just because, like, you know, he's, he's an older guy. But, man, this happens at least once per month throughout the season. It is, it's tough. The camera guy on TV also got fooled. Yes.

So it was, you know, it was tough, I guess. All right, enough of the Yankees and the Blue Jays. Let's get back to the Dodgers because I want to talk about Cody Bellinger, Chris. I think might have been listening to our Wuriameter podcast yesterday. They hit back-to-back-to-back home runs on Wednesday, started by Bellinger. Gavin Lux hit the next one, and then Austin Barnes hit the third home run of that trio. And Bellinger has really become quite polarizing on fantasy baseball Twitter. It's like one day there's a victory lap.

One day there's a victory lap that he sucks. The next day, there's a victory lap that he's back. We're six days into the baseball season. Everything about it seems like people are rooting against him at this point. Like, I don't like that. Like, I don't know. You don't have to like stake your reputation on somebody being bad. that I don't, I'm not a fan of that.

That I always drive, like, I want to be wrong about the, like, I want to be wrong when I say Nolan Aeronado is not going to be good, you know? Yeah. Like, it's annoying when, like,

I have like six Cardinals fans tweeting at me every time he hits a home run, but like, that's good. I want every player to be good. So, yeah, the Cody Ballinger discourse has been frustrating. I'm rooting for him.

Yeah. And it's too early to say anything overall. But over his last three games, he does have four hits, a home run. and a steal. Chris, would you try and buy Bellinger if the manager is just trying to get rid of him? Say like, oh, he hit a home run. I got to try and sell Bellinger while I can. Would you try and acquire him if you can on the cheap? It depends how cheap, you know, because the person who has

Cody Bellinger on his team, or their team, presumably liked Cody Bellinger the most going into the season. Now it's entirely possible that you drafted when Cody Bellinger was going like 90th overall in most drafts. And that, that's, you drafted when Cody Bellinger was going like 90th overall in most drafts. And then the person who drafted him got spooked by the bad spring training and all the strikeouts and all that stuff. And, you know, maybe that person is much lower on him than they used to be. And, like, I think I only have Cody Ballinger on one team this season. And it was because he ended up going, like, 142nd in one of my points leagues. And if you can get him valued that way, you know, like a, like a legit, like mid-round type of player, then yeah.

But I think there are still a lot of reasons to be concerned. He did hit the ball hard three times today. I guess technically one of them wouldn't quite be classified as a hard hit ball. It was 94.4 miles per hour has doubled today. Had another 97 mile per hour one and 106. So, you know, like those were his hardest hit balls of the season pretty much. The problem with Cody Bellinger still is he, there was just, there was nothing promising about what he did last season. And there was nothing promising about what he did last season.

in the spring. And so far this season, there's really been nothing promising about what he's done. He's still striking out a bunch. He's still swinging and missing a bunch. He's still not hitting the ball very hard. So there's just, there's a lot that Cody Bellinger still needs to prove. So yeah, the price would have to be really low. Okay. Yeah. So far, he has a 32% strikeout rate and 18% walk rate. That's a seven to four strikeout to walk ratio for Cody Bellinger. But signs of life the past couple of games. Yeah, if it's on the cheap, I would be looking to acquire Cody Bellinger. I was, I know you and then Scott as the offseason went along, you guys were both team Yelich, but I, I wavered towards the end, but I still wound up with, I think, three or

four shares of Cody Bellinger. So I do have some faith, some optimism that as a season goes along, he will look better once he gets into a routine. Speaking of Worryometer yesterday, Chris, I was about to call you Scott. You are not Scott. You're Chris. And we spoke about Shane Bieber and how worried we were about the velocity. That brings me to another ace who has concerns of his own. And that is Robbie Ray, who granted was pitching in some terrible weather in Chicago. It looked like a monsoon. There was this huge downpour. And for some reason, they just let them play through it. And he got rocked. Six and a third, 10 hits, six earned runs, three home runs allowed, only nine swinging strikes on 88 pitches.

That is a 10% swinging strike rate. The fastball VLO once again down three miles per hour in the start. The slider down 2.6 miles per hour. That was very similar to his first start of the season. He gave up, wait for it. 13 hard hit balls. Keep the weather in mind here, Chris. What are we thinking about Robbie Ray?

Are you panicking? I don't really know what we would do. Obviously, we're like we're not dropping it or something. Maybe we bench him for now until he looks a little bit better. 13 hard hit balls. That's alarming. But that is also who Robbie Ray is. In a lot of ways,

he shares that with Shane Bieber and that these are two guys who, when they do get hit, they tend to get hit really hard. And with Robbie Ray in particular, we've seen how ugly things can get when he's not getting, you know, he needs to be an elite strikeout pitcher. He also needs to,

you know, have at least decent control. Last year he had very, very good control, and he was one of the best pitchers in baseball. So I don't know. It's really hard to know what to make of a start like this because I do think of Robbie Ray's throwing, I mean, we're not talking about one mile an hour down. He's three miles an hour down on his fastball right now. He has 91.7 miles per hour with it in this start.

If that's who he's going to be this season, he's probably going to be pretty bad. Like just full stop. I don't feel like it's the kind of thing that I need to even couch. Like if Robbie Ray is going to throw 91 miles an hour, given what we know about him, given how hard he historically gets hit already, I can't help but be very pessimistic. Yeah, it's not great. I can't say I'm less worried about him than I am Shane Bieber. I guess Robbie Wright doesn't have the shoulder issue from last season to deal with, but that's about the only thing he has going for him in comparison to Shane Bieber.

So very disappointing, very frustrating so far. The only thing you can hope for is it's been cold. And maybe that's why he hasn't quite been able to get his velocity to where it needs to be. I mean, his max today was 94 miles per hour. His average last season was 94.8. that's, there's no way you can't, like, you have to be alarmed by that. That, it's just, yeah, it's, it's worrisome. I think the Robbie Ray situation is very, very similar to Shane Bieber. If you can get face value for him that you paid on draft day, whether it was a third or fourth round pick, it's something that I would look into doing.

But if you have to sell low, I would rather just hold for now. There is a chance that his value plummets after this, but I wouldn't sell low. I would hold. And then let's see what happens a couple of starts after this. Again, like as grim as we're making it sound right now, it still is just two starts. that in mind. There's a long season ago. The thing about velocity is, velocity

does not take a long time to stabilize in the same way that like exit velocity does. Exit velocity like you probably just shouldn't cite average exit velocity for a while for a hitter because it's just there's too much noise and with pitchers average

velocity is just a measure of how hard the guy's thrown. There's no like well, you know, there's varying fact like he it's just how hard he's thrown. and that stabilizes really quickly. One pitch. Like if a guy throws 95, he threw 95. But that's not to say, it's not fate, you know,

just because a guy's throwing 91 right now doesn't mean he'll be throwing 91 forever. This is typically, this is something that a lot of B writers talked about. This is typically the time in the schedule when you're talking about spring training, where a lot of guys are, you know, pitching through dead arm or are, you know, having problems with velocity and then they are able to get back. So it's it's really hard to know what to do with those guys because right the Robbie Ray and Shane Bieber that we're seeing right now are going to be pretty bad pitchers. The Robbie way Ray we're seeing right now is going to be a bad pitcher. I think Shane Bieber can survive a little more because he doesn't have the control problems.

But like if Robbie Ray is going to be throwing 91.4 miles per hour, whatever it was today, he's probably going to be bad. That doesn't mean he's going to throw this velocity forever. Yeah. All right, let's get to the waiver wire a little bit earlier in the show than we have some of the past other ones. And Andrew Vaughn, I want to talk about it. Let's get back over to the header side of things.

Andrew Vaughn goes two for three with a walk and a run scored. He is batting 4, 62 on the season, but has only started three of five games. And Chris, I get that you want to put young players in a position to succeed, and they've done that by playing him mostly against left-handed pitch. pitching. But if he's playing this well, I feel like eventually you have to expand his role. I don't know how long it's going to take Tony Lutuso to do that. Andrew Vaughn is currently 66% rostered. He might be out there at some shallower leagues, some three outfielder leagues.

How excited are you about adding Andrew Vaughn knowing that there's some playing time concerns? This Gavin Sheets thing is just like, it's too cute by half. He had an 830 OPS last season. He's a 26-year-old. He has a 6-year-old. He has a 784 career OPS. Like that should not be getting, I don't care about platoon splits. That should not be getting in the way of playing time for Andrew Vaughn. I think it's just ridiculous.

But, you know, he's going to have to hit his way into a bigger role. And that's one of the things that I always like to say is, you know, life finds a way, right? Like if Andrew Vaughn keeps hitting like he has been so far and his exit

velocities and hard hit rates, I mean, we're talking about 10 batted balls. So it's very, very small sample size, but he is hitting the ball incredibly hard. He's got really good plate disciplines so far. I think, I don't know if it's still true, but I think entering today, he had not swung and missed at a pitch yet. He still has not struck out. So like, given what we thought Andrew Vaughn could be, it looks a lot like this. It's, again, very small sample size, but a guy who

can hit for power, hit for average, put the ball and play a ton without sack. sacrificing power. So yeah, I've got him stashed in a bunch of places and it just hopefully he keeps hitting and can force their hand one way or the other. Okay. Would you prioritize him over Stephen Kwan and Connor Joe right now? That's really hard because those guys are going to be more useful right now. I think Andrew Vaughn's upside is higher than either. I think it depends what you need. If you're just looking for a speculative

even then I think you'd still have to go Kwan or Joe just because of like we talked about yesterday of that opportunity cost of not adding them. You know, there's a chance nobody adds Andrew Vaughn. You know, they see the playing time and then they just pass. There's no way someone's not going to add Andrews Stephen Kwan in the next few days in your league. You know, it's amazing that he's not already rostered 100% of the time. Yeah, I mean, it's up there now. It's 75%. So there are probably very few leagues where Stephen Kwan is still available.

Connor Joe is at 61%. I agree with your assessment. If you need someone to play now, Kwan and Joe for me, I think, yeah, Vaughn probably still has the most upside, but you just have to expect he's probably not going to play every day for the short term,

and then hopefully that'll build up as the season goes along. Miles Straw is also a great start. He went four for five with a walk. His fourth steal of the season already on Wednesday. He has six walks to four strikeouts, something that he showed us in the past. He has a good eye. for a, you know, speedier type player, makes a good amount of contact.

He's 52% rostered. That, to me, Chris, that sounds like every category league is probably covered on CBS right now. But now we start to get into the conversation of should he be rostered in any points leagues or just three outfielder leagues? Maybe if you play in a five outfielder points league or like a 20, I mean, 20 team is too deep, but 15 team points league. Like, I, I, in, even with his plate discipline, I just have a hard time seeing Miles Straw being one of the 60 or so best outfielders in the points league. I just, I think the production is, is the profile's too limited.

But yeah, any league where steals matter a lot, Miles Straw should already have been rostered. He should have been drafted. And he is presumably already rostered. If he's not, yeah, he's a, I would. prioritize him over Stephen Kwan and Connor Joe if I was in a categories league. 100%. He needs to be rostered in every single categories league. Whether you need speed or not, add him and then flip him to someone else who needs speed because someone is going to need it. He is, Miles Straw, by the way, 94th percentile in sprint speed already has four steals. I think

he's going to run a ton this season. Very interesting player. In deeper leagues, Chris, a few names again. I'll just read off the name. You tell me maybe what size league this player should be rostered in. Owen Miller, this is now the third day in a row. I'm mentioning his name. Three for five with a double dong this time. He is 11 for 21 on the season. He has just two strikeouts, seven extra base hits, 9% rostered,

and I believe he started five games in a row now taking over to the first base job for Cleveland. He has seven games next week. Where should Owen Miller be added? I think we're still leaving him for 15 team leagues. I just, I don't, I don't know if I buy it. Like, he's hitting the ball hard. which is a good sign. He's not striking out,

but it's still such a small sample size. And there's guys like this every year, you know? In 12-team Roto leagues where you have a middle infielder and like corner and five outfielder, you know, maybe I'll just add him for the bench right now and see if anything comes of this. I'm not going to drop anybody of value, but if you just have an Oprah roster space,

I would take the shot on Owen Miller. His teammate, Oscar Mercado, two for five with a home run. His third homer in the last four games, he is just 5% rostered. And Chris, I mean, we've seen the upside from Mercado in the past. We have to go way back. I think it was like 2019 or 2018 when he was really good,

but we've seen it before. 15 and 115 games, yeah. Yeah. Should you add him anywhere? I would like to see him run because I think that's the, basically the only way he's going to really have a chance to make an impact for fantasy. And he can be indecent enough bat, but you know,

you need him to be a 15 plus steel guy to really be worth rostering. I think. So I would probably leave him for 15 team leagues, but if we see him start to run, then things get a little more interesting. Two corner infielders who are off to hot start so far. Mike Alfranco, eight hits over his last three games,

including two doubles and a home run. He's crushing the ball so far too. It's 96 mile per hour, average exit velocity, and I think either two or three more hard hits on Wednesday. And then G-Man Choi with the Tampa Bay raise, he hit his second home run in as many days He has nine hits over his last five games. Chris, deeper leagues.

Are you looking at either one of these? Michael Franco, G. Manchoi. I would probably pass on both of them in a 15-team mixed league. I think they're NL-only types. I mean, like Michael Franco. That's a name that I haven't had much interested in about four years. I just, I don't know. It's entirely possible that he's tapped into some of that latent ability

that made him such a big prospect. early on, but he just hasn't hit the ball consistently hard enough in his career for me to react to, you know, really what is three good games because he had done nothing before that. Let's hit a break before we do that. Remind you to join our Facebook group if you haven't already. Facebook.com slash groups slash fantasy baseball today. Lots of people asking questions there. It's a fun community. Every single day, waiver questions, trade questions. You ask it. Everyone's commenting on it, having fun. People throwing like me. in there making fun of me, making fun of Chris.

Join the fun again, Facebook.com slash groups slash fantasy baseball today. Let's take a break and we'll return right after this. All right, so let's talk about some waiver wire pitchers quickly. Tristan McKenzie, strong showing against the Cincinnati Reds. Four shutout, six strikeouts to zero walks. He had 13 swinging strikes on 67 pitches. I love that the VLO was up in the start as well, Chris. 70% rostered, so more of those shallower leagues, I would still put him

behind Tyler McGill, Lazzardo, Cobb. Brash. But after those, I think he is the next one up for me, Trissa McKenzie. Yeah, I think that's fair to say. And you know, you and I especially were both really interested in him coming into the season. There are. I think some people might have dropped him, Chris, because he made a relief appearance last week. And then they thought he wasn't going to be a starter. But no, this is his role. And when the V-Lo is up, this. is what he's capable of. Yeah. And so that's the question is, you know, can he, one, he needs to just have better control than he did last season. Things were really bad early on. He had like eight walks per nine in the first half or something crazy like that. He doesn't have the

velocity to like, like he can't be a power pitcher. He's got to be a little bit of a finesse guy. And he's going to get hit hard when he does give up contacts. So he needs to get a lot of swings and misses. That's what we saw today. And yeah, I, I, I, I think I would prioritize all those guys you mentioned before. Matt Brash, Alex Cobb, Hazelardo, Tyler McGill. But I think he's very, I think I would probably also prioritize Merrill Kelly over him right now. And Hunter Green is another guy that we've talked about in recent days. It's weird.

There's been a lot of interesting pitchers from the waiver wire stretch, not so much from, you know, while all those high-end starting pitchers have been struggling. but yeah, I think he's in the 60-ish range at starting pitcher. Yep, I moved him up a little bit, and I also moved up Merrill Kelly. And he's someone, you know, Scott and I have been talking up quite a bit, this change-up that he's been working on in the off-season. He had another great start against the Astros on Wednesday. Again, this is Merrill Kelly, five-and-a-third shutout, six strikeouts to two walks. Not a ton of swinging strikes.

The Astros are a tough team to strike out. He used five different pitches, 13-plus percent of the time. The change-up usage was up again in the start compared to where it was last year. Merrill Kelly is 49% rostered, and it looks like he's in line for two stars next week, at home against the Mets, and on the road against the Washington Nationals. I like Merrill Kelly a lot, Chris. I would still keep Tristan McKenzie over him, though. Yeah, it's probably a situation where I don't know if I would drop Tristan McKenzie for him,

but if they were both on the wire, I might take the flyer on Merrill Kelly, if that makes sense. you know, really interesting stuff. His velocity's up. It wasn't up quite as much today as it had been in his first start. So that's something to keep an eye on. Didn't get a ton of swings and misses within this start either. So, you know, there is definitely, Merrill Kelly definitely feels, you know,

if his velocity's not going to be up, he kind of feels like a guy who's just got that, like, kitchen sink approach. But I don't know how many of those guys without great stuff really thrive. So, yeah, McKenzie probably has more upside. I think Merrill Kelly is in that next tier of waiver ads. The Andrew NeNeese, the Nestor Cortez,

and I would put Merrill Kelly at the top of that tier. But the other names that we've mentioned, I would take Merrill Kelly over Kyle Wright, too. I think he's also kind of in that tier. Chris, anything to see here with Josiah Gray, who made a pretty good start at the Atlanta Braves, five shutout, only one hit allowed, three walks, five strikeouts.

He's 51% rostered. Looks like he's in line for two starts next week against the Diamondbacks and the San Francisco Giants. I think Josiah Gray is really interesting. I just, you know, the problem, he's one of those guys who's got like a fastball that gets hit really hard. And he's had some control issues as well. That was the issue for him. Last year he got hit really hard and then gave up a lot of walks as well. So, you know, he hasn't quite overcome either of those issues.

He did give up like seven hard hit balls in this start. So yeah, I'm interested in Josiah Gray, but I don't think he's there yet. You know, definitely more of a wait-and-see kind of guy. Yeah, he's behind Merrill Kelly for me in terms of if you're deciding between one of those two to add right now. Nicola Dolo, we got a question earlier on Twitter, Chris, asking if we should hold on to Nicolodolo, who's one of the top prospects for the Cincinnati Reds. He made his debut on Wednesday four innings, seven hits, five runs, three walks, four strikeouts. you know, I looked into the start.

He didn't seem that bad. You know, maybe it was nerves or something. Only four hard hit balls here. The spin rates on the curveball, over 2,700 RPM. I thought that was very interesting as well. 49% rostered. If you have Lodolo on your team,

would you hold him? Yeah, I think holds the right call. Like, I would probably rather have Tristan McKenzie or Meryl. But if it was like Josiah Gray, I don't know if I would drop Nick Lodolo. The problem with Nick Lodolo, though, is he's not, he is a top prospect, but he's not, you know, he's not Hunter Green. He's not the guy who's viewed as like this high upside pitching prospect.

He was, you know, a first rounder who was drafted more for his ability to move quickly. He was drafted in 2019. He's already the majors. So mission accomplished there. But it doesn't necessarily project to have the overwhelming strikeout. production, although he did have that in 50 and two-thirds innings last season with 678 strikeouts for what it's worth. He reminds me of Aaronnola, Chris. They're very different pitchers and the way that they pitch is very different. One's lefty, one's

righty, but just in terms of being drafted early and for the hope that he would move quickly through the system and, you know, a solid middle of the rotation guy. You know, if he becomes an ace, sure, would love that. But I think that they're very similar in that way, Nicodolo and Aranola. Let's get into some. news and notes. Blake Snell is expected to be placed on the IEL Thursday. That means McKenzie Gore is on track for his MLB debut Friday against the Atlanta Braves. Mackenzie Gore is 58% rostered.

All right. I'm trying to calibrate all of these waiver wire ads. So not, because there's so many, Chris. I updated my rankings today and that was after this news. So I do have him behind Matt Brash. I have him behind. So Matt Brash is below McGill, Lozardo, that group from Tuesday.

I have him behind Tristan McKenzie, but I have McKenzie Gore 64th overall. So some guys that I have behind him, Alex Wood, Hunter Green, Merrill Kelly, Tanner Halk. Yeah, so I would, I think McKenzie Gore absolutely needs to be a high priority. He was arguably, if not, the consensus top pitching prospect in baseball a couple years ago. His mechanics got all out of whack, and he just wasn't particularly effective last season. 393 ERA and 12 starts across the minors had really bad control issues, 5.0 per 9. But before that, he was, you know, there was no flaws in his profile. He had thrown 101 innings in 2019, 12.0K per 9, 2.5 walks.

per nine. We saw in spring training. He only had three walks and 12 innings with 16 strikeouts. He made his first minor league start, zero walks to seven strikeouts. So they believe the Padres that they fixed whatever mechanical issue that he had last season. He's reworked his mechanics. He used to have this like weird like hitch in his mechanics where he kind of hid the ball behind his back and would kind of stop mid mid release. That's not really what he does anymore. It's a much more normal version of that. And so, you know, if that helps him get strikes, he's got great stuff.

I'm very excited to watch McKenzie Gore pitch today. All right. Alex Kirillov was placed on the IL because of that surgically repaired right wrist and does not have a timetable. This is just absolutely brutal news for Kirillov. Trevor Larnick was recalled by the Twins. He is 5% rostered for those in playing deeper leagues. He's got a lot of pop.

Trevor Larnick does, but lots of strikeouts as well. Toasker Hernandez exited early with left side discomfort and is headed for an MRI. If he misses extended time, we could see Rymel Tapia pick up more playing time for the Blue Jays. Elo Jimenez left after fouling a ball off of his ankle. X-rays came back negative. John Means left his start to two left forearm tightness, and I hope it's nothing too serious, but that sounds scary, obviously. The name to pay attention to is Grayson Rodriguez.

He's arguably the best pitching prospect in the. the game. The problem is he's only made one start at AAA and the Orioles don't really have a reason to rush Grayson Rodriguez. So kind of like how we mentioned Gabriel Moreno the other day. I'll just mention Grayson Rodriguez. Put him on your scout team. Let's see what happens. Max Fried left in the sixth inning of his start. It's kind of like Adley Rushman. Sorry, where like I don't think anybody has any question about whether Grayson Rodriguez could come up and pitch effectively in the majors right now. I was reading, I want to say it was Fangraph's top 100 prospects, and the write-up was referring to him as like not just the best pitching prospect in baseball,

but like a potentially generational type pitching prospect. So, yeah, he, if he got called up, he would absolutely be in that. Like I would have him ahead of Matt Brash. He would be in that. He's just Lazzardo, Tyler McGill-Range. All right. Max Fried left in the sixth inning of his start after being struck by a comebacker in his leg. He said afterwards that he feels fine. Trevor Bauer will remain on administrative leave through April 22nd in a joint agreement by MLB and the Players Association.

He is still 80% rostered, and I understand Trevor Bauer theoretically has upside, but you really need to ask yourself if it's worth rostering him and missing out on all of these waiver wire pitchers that are emerging, now. So I would probably be willing to drop him for, you know, one of the bigger names like Lazzardo or Tyler McGill or someone like that. We really haven't seen him pitch without the sticky stuff. Yeah. I'm not gonna like we know he was using sticky stuff. He made it very clear. We've seen that effect guys. He hasn't pitched in a year. Uh, almost. So yeah, I think I would much rather add one of those waiver wire pitchers.

I would rather take a flyer on McKenzie Gore. I'd rather take a flyer on flyer on Grayson Rodriguez. I think I fully expect to see Grayson Rodriguez in the majors before Trevor Bauer. All right. Trevor Story returned to the Red Sox lineup Wednesday and went two for three with an RBI. Corey Knavel was reinstated from the COVID-IL after the reported flu-like symptoms. Elliot Ramos was sent back to AAA after Wednesday's game. He was two for six with a walk and a run scored. So all the

leagues where I added him seems like it might be kind of useless unless they just them back up. I don't really know what the Giants are doing right now. Gene Seguro left after being hit by a pitch in his left arm, he experienced some numbness in his hand, but said he hopes to play on Thursday. J. Baez was scratched Wednesday due to right thumb soreness. A.J. Hinch said he's hopeful Baez will return on Thursday as well. Ken Giles is still about two weeks away from throwing because of a tendon strain in his middle finger. Lance Lynn started his throwing program on Wednesday and said that he's further along than anticipated in his recovery from knee surgery. Brandon Crawford out of the lineup Wednesday with a wrist injury, hopeful he can return on Friday.

Aaron Ashby will make his first start of the season. Sunday against the Cardinals, it's unknown whether he'll remain in the rotation, but lots of upside. Yeah, he has RP eligibility for those who play in Points League. So cross your fingers, hope he performs well, and they leave him in the rotation after that. Luis Patino was transferred to the. 10, from the 10 day to the 60 day IL with that left oblique strain. So he's going to miss a long long time.

That's a bad sign, yeah. Yeah. Kyle Lewis has started taking live batting practice at the team's spring training complex. The Mariners outfield will get even more crowded once he returns. If Julio Rodriguez or Jared Kelnick or both of them honestly are still struggling, one of them can find themselves on the outside looking in once Kyle Lewis returns. So I'm rooting for those guys to perform, but we, We just haven't seen much so far, Chris.

Yeah, nine strikeouts and 18-plate appearance or 17-played appearances for Kalanick so far has been especially bad given what he did last season. There's still time, I would say. They probably have like three weeks before Kyle Lewis is likely to be ready for games, if not longer, given that he hasn't had spring training. So there's still time, but yeah, those guys got a hit. If they hit, I don't think it's a concern.

But yeah. But if they don't hit, then you probably don't want them on your fantasy roster anyway. Yeah. We've got about 10 or 15 minutes left here, Chris, and there's still a lot on the rundown. So let's try and speed through this. For each of these aces that were on the mound, let's try and do like 20, 30 seconds of analysis

and move on to the next one. Kyle Hendricks at the Pirates, three and two thirds, six runs, four walks, four strikeouts. Chris, if Kyle Hendricks is walking this many batters, there is just no way he is going to be successful. No, that's, he can't be. Like, that's, there's no, like, ifs or butts about it.

So we'll just see. You know, he's earned a bit of the benefit of the doubt, but, you know, he doesn't have a super long leash for me. For what it's worth, he was also crushed last year by the Pirates, 6.66 ERA over five starts. Next week, he's in line for two starts against Tampa Bay and the Pittsburgh Pirates. Would you actually start him there? I think he's really fringy anyway, actually. like, I would drop him for McKenzie Gore. All right.

Max Scher labored through his start at the Phillies. Five innings, one run, seven strikeouts to three walks. No command early on, Chris. I was watching this. He walked the bases loaded in the first inning, managed to wiggle out of it. Was there anything you noticed with Max Scherzer? Nothing stood out, you know, a bad inning, but velocity was fine, movement was fine, spin rate fine, all that stuff.

So I don't think there's anything there. He had a bad inning. Aranola. It really wasn't even that bad of an inning. Yeah. Aranola with another subpar start against the Mets. Three and a third. Three runs, three walks, two hit batters, five strikeouts.

Just another one. I was watching this game. Could not locate any of his pitches. He also gave up four earned runs to Oakland in his first start. I get the frustrations, Chris, that people have with Aranola. Yeah, I mean, I had someone ask me today if they would draw, if like, if it was an overreaction to drop Aaron Nola or Blake Snell for someone like Hazers-Lizardo.

I actually don't think it would be an overreaction for Blake Snell. I wouldn't do it necessarily, but given that he's already on the aisle, Nola, I think it is too early. But, yeah, I mean, the concern right now is that last season, the peripherals were great and the results were bad. you know, he's not really getting swings and misses or strikeouts so far. It's two starts, so it's too early to be too concerned, but it's not what you wanted to see. Eduardo Rodriguez had a start to forget against his former team, the Red Sox, three and two

thirds, seven runs. Only two of those were earned. Jamer Candelario made an error in the fourth inning, which would have been the third out. Instead, five runs come around to score after that. Chris, you and I both liked Eduardo Rodriguez. He has not looked at. great towards first two starts. Yeah, a concerning thing here would be that he threw his fastball, 77% of the time. In this one, you know, might just suggest that he didn't have a feel for his other pitches, but yeah, if he's going to be a high fastball usage guy like that, then I'm not really going to be too interested in him, but it's too early to be super concerned about that.

A rough outing for Chris Paddock in his twins debut, four innings, six hits, three runs, but actually, I mean, drop him. On paper, it wasn't a terrible. Just drop him. Yeah. Honestly, like, his velocity was down three miles per hour.

His spin rates were still, like, I don't, I just, either he's not healthy or, like, I don't know what the alternative would be, but yeah, if he's throwing 92 miles per hour with his fastball,

I just, I can't see any way. Chris Paddock is, is, a viable fantasy starter. I would rather have McKenzie Gore than him. I would rather have

any of the waiver wire pitchers, Tristan, Tristan McKenzie, Merrill Kelly. I might rather just stash Grayson Rodriguez than Chris Paddock because there's no way

I'd be starting Chris Paddock right now anyway. I would rather have you say Kukuchi than him. He's only 26% rostered. So he's probably only on deeper league teams, but like if Reed Detmer's is available, I would rather have Reed Demers than Chris Paddock. I would rather have Nick Ladolo than him. I would rather have Andrew Heaney.

I would rather have Stephen. Like, there's a lot of pitchers I would have to go through before I got to Paddock after what we saw today. We saw a pitchers duel in San Francisco. Logan Webb, eight innings of one-run ball, seven strikeouts. He had 15 swinging strikes. Quality starts in each of his first two outings. On the other side, Sean Mania Strong once again, six endings, two runs, six strikeouts in this one. Chris, anything that you'd like to add on Logan Webb and Sean Mania.

Feeling a little stupid on Logan Webb. He looks real good. That's about all I got to say on that. Yeah, 38% CSW. We're probably going to reference that stat more this year. It's called strike plus whiffs in a start. Hot plus. League average last year was 28%.

So to put that in perspective, Logan Webb 38% in this start. Lots of ground bowl outs. His change-up usage up so far this season as well. Frankie Montas had a strong outing at the Tampa Bay race. Six and a third, two runs. One of those was earned. Six strikeouts to zero walks. And Chris, I noticed the splitter usage, as much as it was up in the second half last year, it's been up even more to start this season. Yeah, and that's a very good thing. You know, it's like Alex Cobb. It's like Kevin Gosman. You know, that splitter's a really, really valuable pitch for those guys.

They thrive when they use it as their primary pitch, and that's what we're seeing so far. Montauss velocity is down a little bit, but it's mostly on the splitter and slider, not the fastballs, which is interesting. So something to keep an eye on. All right. Let's get to opposing him with Shane McClanahan. He made one mistake in the start, and it wound up being a three-run homer to Matt Chapman. He still had eight strikeout, 16 swinging strikes. His fastball villa was actually up 97 miles per hour. Chris, anything to add on Shane McClain.

It was Sean Murphy that hit the home run. No, I mean, that's the thing with Shane McClanahan based on what we saw last season. He's going to give up home runs. And you just got to hope that they are with no runners on base as opposed to two. But that's mainly the issue here. Yeah. And last year it was his fastball that got crushed. The curveball is actually what he gave up the home run on in this start.

Garrett Cole, Chris, now has a 5.59 ERA over his first two starts. He still had 17 swinging strikes. Look, he got beat by Vlad. I don't know if there's anything to add here. He threw a cutter 13% of the time. That's a new pitch. He did not use that at all last season. So that's kind of interesting to me.

Yeah, I'm not 100% sure what to make of that at this point. Because, you know, the Yankees are one of those teams that's on the sweeping slider or sweeping, breaking ball. Banwagon, so maybe it's an attempt to kind of differentiate and make the slider, which he threw a little, with a little less velocity, 1.7 miles per hour down. In this start, maybe it's kind of to give a different look

to pit hitters in that way. I don't think there's much to be worried about here. Garrick-Cole does get hit hard when he gets hit. And it just, I don't know, it's Vladimir Guerrero. Like, that's really all that went wrong for him today. It's just like Vladimir Guerrero went nuclear. Yeah, that was it.

Corbyn Burns was back on track at the Baltimore Orioles. Seven shutout. Three hits, one walk, eight strikeouts. Anything to add on Corbyn Burns? No, it looked a little shaker. Early on was worried it was going to be another rough start. He got hit hard a little bit, but no, he looked fine. A quick buy low or no thanks, bro.

And we'll start with Eddie Rosario. He is off to a one-for-20 start. But April has far and away always been the worst month of his career. By low or no, no thanks, bro. I did mention Eddie Rosario in my piece on Monday as like the type of player I would drop for Stephen Kwan or Connor Joe, just because I feel like he's, I don't want to say replaceable, but I don't think he's necessarily a difference maker. And so, you know, there's a chance he goes unrastered while he's struggling.

But I think he'll be fine. I would buy low on him in four. five outfielder leagues if you can do that. Yeah. And if that's the thing is if it's a points league, I think that's, that's where he's especially replaceable. Yeah. Kyle Swarber went over four with three strikeouts over his last five games. He is 0 for 18 with eight strikeouts. By low or no thanks, bro. I would happily buy law on Kyle Schwabber if anybody's worried. I mean, this one's easy. Kyle Tucker, he's over half. He'll happily buy law on Kyle Tucker. I just wanted to mention he's batting 1.30. His XBA is 395.

So sometimes like that that's the thing like it's six games or whatever like these things happen. Yeah. Trent Grisham over four batting 138. He has let off every game but one by low or no thanks bro. You know, Scott said on Twitter that he would drop. Trent Grisham for Stephen Kwan. And my initial reaction was like, oh, that's that's an overreaction. And then aren't they kind of similar play?

Like isn't the best case scenario for both? of them fairly similar. Like Grisham, probably less batting average, maybe more power and speed, but you're probably hoping for 1515 from him, whereas Kwan, it's more like 1510. Yep. I think, so I think Grisham could have a Robbie Grossman type season from last year. Sure. Like, I could see him going 2020. Yeah. Whereas it's a lot harder to see that with Stephen Kwan. Um, but yeah, I think I'd be, I think I'd be okay dropping him in a three outfielder leagues for sure. Okay, so you're not buying a load though? No, not

really. Alright. Some hitting standouts that I wanted to mention from Wednesday Jose Ramirez, you know, with Miles Straw and Stephen Kwan heading ahead of him, he is going to have a lot of RBI opportunities this season 3 for 4 with his third home run of the season. He is just off to

a great start. Brian Hayes 4 for 4 with a double and he is hitting the ball very hard, but Stackas has him at a 70% crown ball rate, so that was an issue for him last year. Let's get that ball in the air a little bit more. Please, Kibbrien Hayes.

Brandon Nimmo, he heard Scott and me talking smack about him the other day. He homers in back-to-back games. He has eight hits over his last six games. The Polar Bear Plunge. Pete Alonzo, three for five with his second homer of the season. Five more RBI. Spencer Torkelson hit his first home run of his career. Austin Meadows, two for four.

He's now eight for 17 to start his Tiger's career, a 55% hard hit rate thus far. Launch angle is still too high, so something I'm going to be paying close attention to with Austin Meadows. Tim Anderson and Luis Robert hit back-to-back home runs. Anthony Rizzo was off to a really good start. Two for four, hit his third home run.

He looks healthy. I think that's the biggest thing so far, and he was leading off on Wednesday against Jose Barrios. So I moved him up quite a bit, Chris. I moved him, I think, up to 15 in my outfield ranks because obviously look, Yankee Stadium, if he's healthy, what did I say? Outfield?

First place. Yeah. So I like what I've seen so far from Anthony Rizzo. And Stephen Kwan, he swung and missed. And then he struck out looking against Nick Ladolo. So I thought that was notable. I think the swing and miss was also a foul tip, which technically counts as a swing and miss. But also still not, you know, in the spirit of it, if not by the rules.

Yeah. Look, it was going to happen eventually. A few bullpen notes that I wanted to wrap up with here. Tanner Rainey gave up a hit, but picks up his second save of the season. 26% rostered. I know we were skeptical coming in, Chris, but he's very clearly looked like the Nationals closer. If you need saves, you need to add Tanner Rainey. Like this number 26%, I think that needs to be higher. Yeah, I don't feel great about him moving forward, but I do think he's clearly the first option for the Nationals. and there aren't a lot of guys we can say that with confidence about. For the Boston Red Sox, Matt Barnes pitched in the sixth inning in a 7 to 2 game.

Jake Deekman entered in the eighth inning with the bases loaded. He, uh, with a four run lead, he struck out two, then gave up two runs. Hansel Robles recorded the final four outs for his first save of the season. He is 2% rostered for those of you in the deepest of leagues. But the Red Sox are a mess. That does sound like Deekman is more the closer than anyone else. I don't know if there is a closer, but coming in in that situation, like that, that's a closery situation.

Ryan Presley was pitching the 10th inning with a one-run lead, the ghost runner on second. He gave up two runs. He took the loss there. Notable that his fastball velo down 2.4 miles per hour, and he averaged less than 94 miles per hour on his fastball. in only three games last year, out of 64 appearances. He has averaged less than 94 in all four of his outings this season.

So I don't know if it matters that much. He's looked good outside of this outing. But I think it's not... Yeah, that was one of those things that I saw in spring training towards the end that his velocity was down. And then I saw someone who writes about the Astros say, like, that's not unusual for him in spring. And so given that we're still in spring,

calendar at least, roughly. I think it's okay to give him the benefit of the doubt here. I'm certainly not moving him down. All right. I got Gabe Kaplard. Scott did not because he was all over this. He said, nope, it's Camila Duval. And so far, that's who it's been. He entered the ninth in a one-run game,

and he faced the three, four, and five in the lineup. Barely escaped with the save, but he did convert the save. I guess it's Deval for now, but the Giants a mess. The Oakland A's Lutrovino gave up a hit and a walk in a two-run game, but he converted his first save. Jorge Lopez recently converted a save for the Orioles. He entered in the ninth inning in a tie game.

He only recorded two outs. He gave up two runs, and he took the loss. Everyone else here, Romano another save, Hater another save. Liam Hendrix, he's been hitable so far. Let's pay attention to that, but picked up his second save of the season. Okay. To stream or not to stream, I didn't get a chance to write the season. down. So bear with me. I'm just going to read some names off of MLB.com. And, uh, Chris,

you let me know if you like any of these. Cole Irvin at Tampa Bay. Oh, you want me? No. No. Josh Fleming versus the Oakland A's. That's more interesting, but still no. Oakland A's have sneakily actually been pretty good offensively. So I don't know. Maybe they're not the streamer team we thought they were. Uh, I think they are. J.T. Brubaker up against the Nationals. No, I think he's interesting, but I would pass. How about, I'm going to say that this is Yohan Adon. He's going up against the Pirates.

I would pass. I think that is the right decision. Kyle, Kyle Gibson is kind of fringy against the Marlins. Fringy because he's too rostered. He's like 76%. More a yes than anyone here. Yes. Dane Dunning at the, at home against the Angels. No, I want to watch it, but I'm not starting him.

Okay. Justin Steele, no, that's at Colorado. Kyle Freeland at home against the Cubs, no. Nope. All right, let's move on to Friday. Let's see what we have here. Jordan Lyles against the Yankees, no. Nick Pavetta against the twins at home? Probably not, but better than anyone from Thursday.

Mitch Keller against the next. Nationals? No, I'm, I'm in wait and C mode with him. I, he's he's hold, but not start. Eric Fetty at the Pirates. No. Let's see. What is Ack Aftan's roster rate? I think it's up there. He's pretty good in his first start though. And he's going up against he's 67%. He's worth he's worth a look. Yeah, for sure. That's a, that's a good call there. Anyone else here? How about Reed Detmer's at the Rangers? Um, I would rather start him than anyone

we've mentioned today, except for Eflin. I agree. Miles Michaelis at the Brewers. No. Kyle Wright at the Padres. I think that's okay. Yeah. Yeah. Padres lineup is not hitting so far.

They might struggle a lot without Fernando Tutsis. Jake Odorezi at the Mariners. I think he's a perfectly fine streamer. situation. And anybody else? No. Vladimir Gutierrez against the Dodgers. No. All right, we're going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball. Today will be back to get tomorrow. Bye-bye.