Fantasy Baseball Today - Kopech's Improved Fastball, Riley Greene's Hot May & Rankings Movers (5/25 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 25, 2023

Michael Kopech has been dominant two starts in a row (3:50). ... Bryce Miller put together another great start (10:45). Is it time to sell-high? ... Riley Greene is having a great May (18:50). ... Matt McLain or Bryson Stott (25:30)? ... Is Ben Lively a thing (31:46)? ... News (37:20): Manny Machado fielded some grounders Wednesday. ... What's the latest on Andrew Abbott and Jordan Lawlar (41:00)? ... Zac Gallen and Joe Ryan are moving up the rankings (46:12). What's going on with Sandy Alcantara? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (54:08). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. What's up and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, May 25th. I am Frank Sample, joined by the Chris, Towers, and the Welsh.

Today on the show, Michael Kopeck did it again. Riley Green keeps up his hot May, rankings, risers, followers, and much more. Before we get started, please like this video and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. And if you're listening on the audio side, download, follow, and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. First and foremost, apologies. We're starting later than usual. We usually start very late. But this is the latest we have started a podcast this year.

I had a bit of a situation, and I debated whether or not to reveal this on the podcast. but let's talk about it. Oh, everybody has a thing, right? Things that they don't like, things that they might be scared of. I don't mess with bugs. Bugs are just,

it's a thing I don't mess with bugs. I had a bit of a situation in my little recording studio here. All bugs? Hold on, all bugs? Because I have a bug thing too. I actually have some recorded documentation of bug things as well.

Are all the bugs or is there a specific bug? Anything that's, I don't know, bigger than your fingernail, Like cockroaches, things that could fly, just cockaroches. Don't cockroaches. Just don't cockroaches are horrifying. They are among the most disgusting of God's creation. It is.

We had a moment in an ITL pot a long time ago where my co-host Bogman and I, we were live on video and it was videoing. And a roach was on his wall and he freaked out and it jumped. And we have that saved. And it was one of the most insane moments that's ever happened. And I one time had a moth fly at me, a giant moth in a room, and I fell over in a chair because it was so starting. People didn't understand the damage that these bugs can cause us podcasters here. But was it a cockroach or was it something else scarier? We have these things in New York well is called waterbugs.

They're big old suckers and they're pretty scary. And I know exactly where it stemmed from. I had a traumatic experience when I was a kid. One flew right at me, big old sucker and just never been the same since. And I also think the movie, the mummy with like the things, the bugs that would come out and like eat the people. Are those like, were you talking like Palo Verde, like could we have Palo Verde Beatles out here? Is that what it is? Like the water bug?

Look up waterbug, New York, just on Google. And I don't know if it's just New York thing. Because we have these giant, it looks like it's these giant beetles that fly. And they're called Palo Verde Beatles out here. So what do you say? Waterbug, New York. Yeah. And look, I don't know if that's, they might be called something else somewhere else.

The point is I had a situation. We figured it out, but there was like no way. I was moments away from texting you guys saying you had to do the podcast without me today because I was not going to step back in this room until it was gone. I looked up. Close the tab. Close the tab towers. I looked up a Palo Verde Beetle and the guy is holding in his hand to Torvice.

But what's worse? The Palo Verde Beetle or the water bug? The Palo Verde Beetle just because it's so big. I'm not looking that beetle thing up until after this podcast is over. Anyway, that's a little background for why we started so late. I'm glad you made it. Glad you made it safe, though. Let's talk about baseball.

This was very upsetting. All right. Towers, let's start with you. Oh, my goodness gracious from Wednesday. I'm still going down this rabbit hole. I'm sorry. Michael Kopeck, who I believe my exact words on yesterday's podcast were, quote, I just think he's bad.

And he had a pretty good start for a pitcher who is bad, I guess. Nine strikeouts over seven shutout innings. hits, one walk that gives him 19 strikeouts with three hits allowed over 15 shutout innings over his past two starts. I don't need to tell you. That is very, very good. And this is not entirely a fluke thing. He has made some changes to specifically his mechanics. Seemingly, he's lowered his release point about three and a half inches. He's added about a mile per hour on his fastball, his slider is more of like a gyro slider or like a bullet slider. I don't know what we're calling those these days, but basically it doesn't move very much.

It doesn't have a lot of horizontal movement. It's kind of coming in and just dropping and he's throwing it a little harder. And over the past couple of starts, he's been really, really good. Like I said, 19 strikeouts to, what was it, three walks, one walk, one walk over that. stretch. Yep. And it's worth pointing out that Michael Kopeck had been really, really awful for like basically a full calendar year before this. I'm looking up his splits now because I want to get the full numbers. His last 365 days before today, he had a 479 ERA, 8.2K per 9, 1.355 whip, 1.77 strikeout to walk ratio.

None of that is good. None of that gave us any reason to believe that Michael Kopeck was a good pitcher. And I'm still not sure that he is. These two starts have been really, really good. It's very, very fastball heavy. His slider remains a pretty middling pitch, the curveball and change up.

It's not that they're non-existent, but he threw 16 of them on 92 pitches today between the two pitches, so it's not a big part of his arsenal. It's really hard to thrive, throwing 70% fastballs. Carlos Rodon does it. Bryce Miller is currently doing it, and Michael Copac is doing it. And there aren't a lot of guys other than that. And so I will remain skeptical of Michael Copac.

However, it's possible that he could be turning in a Carlos Rodon type run here, where he figured out the mechanics, He figured out the shape of the fastball and was able to turn it from a what's been a good pitch over the last couple of years to what right now over the past two starts looks like an incredible pitch. He had 12 swings and misses on 62 of them, a 35% whiff rate. His whiff rate is right up near 30% with his four seam fastball. That's a really high mark for a four seam fastball, especially one being thrown that much. I'm skeptical, but he's shown enough over the past two starts where I will go from, yes, I think you should drop Michael Kopeck in pretty much all leagues to, yes,

I think you should add Michael Kopeck in pretty much all leagues. Do I contradict myself? Very well, I contradict myself. As is fantasy-based. I am large. I contain multitudes. He's shown enough upside over the past two starts that while the likeliest, and this is true of any player that you add on waivers.

The likeliest outcome is he's probably not going to be good the rest of the season. But he's shown enough upside right now that it's worth betting on that high-end outcome. I want to add something. We had our awkward. We were just talking about silence in between the podcast before there. There was that moment. I just wanted to add this real quick. Someone we've cited a whole lot as we should is a very smart pitching mind.

Lance Prasdowski pointed out from his start today that Kopex release point was three to four inches three to four degrees different today relative to his average in his previous three stars, which he was able to maintain his fastball shape. He picked up a mile per hour of Velo and added, it looks like an inch of arm side run. So he was able to keep the shape while altering where he was throwing it, picking up Velo. And the same thing happened on his slider. You were kind of mentioning it, you know, it's more of the gyro, the bullet slider, which in this one, he picked up Velo on the slider and he stopped moving it as horizontal. So he moved it from being kind of a sweep to a bullet. It's just a smart pitcher. You know, it's a smart pitcher making adjustments. These adjustments are

great adjustments to build off for the future to make him, you know, streamer into maybe a long-term hold. And something I mentioned recently with Michael Kopeck is, yes, he got off to an awful start. If you look at prior to this two-star stretch, he had a 5.74 ERA and a 156 whip with six walks per nine. He was coming back from offseason knee surgery. So perhaps it took him some time to get going. But obviously the fastball velo is up and that pitch is working. And right now, Michael Coppeg looks like a great ad. It was two great matchups too. It was the Royals and the Royals who are bad against Reities and the guardians who are right now just bad against everyone. So that's also worth adding. Good time to change to play with stuff. Good time to play with

stuff versus those. Sure. Yeah. But if you want to beat. the waiver wire, he's 68% rostered, and it looks like he's a two-star pitcher for next week going up against the Angels and the Tigers. I proposed this question yesterday. Obviously, things have changed. So, Welsh, I'll start with you. How would you rank Kopeck? James Paxton, who made a start on Wednesday, had his first rough outing. He gave up five runs over three endings pitched. And Bobby Miller, how would you rank that group of three? They seem to be, I don't know, the top waiver wire pitchers over the past couple days. I would rank it Bobby Miller, Copac and Paxton.

I'm a little bit of a Paxton hater. All right, got beat up a little bit. I just kind of like don't believe that he's going to stay healthy and I kind of just don't believe that that stuff is going to maintain. But again, I just might be hating on it a little bit. I like what Copac did here.

This is the type, that's the type of stuff that you want to see. Like you can be like, oh, hey, you know, Gensu, Guardians and Royals, he had like good outings. But you also saw some changes. You saw Velo uptick on multiple pitches. You saw him manipulate the shape.

Those are great signs to, feel a little bit more comfortable about Kopeck, but I'm going to go back to Bobby Miller because Bobby Miller's stuff plus all across the board. He didn't get the whiffs, but he showed off the arsenal. He was hit in the zone. It's a hundred mile an hour fastball.

I think he has the edge on Gavin Stone, and I think he could stick around for quite a while. So I would, I think the upside is clearly there with Bobby Miller. So that's going to be my number one. All right. Well, Welsh, let's go from one Miller to another.

Who you got? Milletime, baby. How about Bryce Miller? How about Bryce Miller? Someone not talking about. in the spring talking to Bryce Miller the great Sarah Lang's on her Twitter accounts

slings slangs slangs on sports Bryce Miller five consecutive outings of six plus innings pitched and five or fewer base runners is first outing is one outing shy I'm sorry of tying the longest such streak since at least 1901. This is very

obscure by the way. It's held by it's held at six by Jacob de Grombe, Shane McHanahan Clayton Kershaw and Zach Ranky. That's great company, but also to point out, this is any time in their career, this is Bryce Miller's start to his career. So think, just think on that for just a minute. But I think he is like a unicorn. As much as I even like Bryce Miller, he's a unicorn to me in that he can be 81% fastball, which is he was in this game, 81% fastball yet still effective. They had a 28% whiff rate

on that fastball, 32% CSW. He just, just, really interesting too, 52% zone percentage, 71% in zone swing percentage and 37 outside. I mean, the guy just, they can't get a read on it. I think a lot it's about his release and how he's able to manipulate that. And then, you know, he can throw in the slider, the change up in the curveball. He can get whiffs where there need to be. The slider doesn't sit in the zone yet he still gets whiffs, 50% whiff rate on it in this game.

And he's still working through. He's trying to, you know, have, you saw a little bit of it in the start. you know, throwing that gyro as he calls it, a bullet slider, however, and he wants to keep implementing the curveball. I'm intrigued. I think there's worry in that he is so dominant fastball, but I just don't think he's needed to get into those other spots yet.

And I kind of think he will. So I think it's insane what he's doing. I kind of labeled him this past week as a sell high just because this is a rookie innings. He doesn't have the secondaries, maybe a little bit of worry, but he's just not walking guys. He's getting strikes.

I guess it's good when you play the A's multiple times. I still am going to kind of slightly lean that he might be a sell high because I told you guys before this, I got a trade offer. And it's a Keeper League with contracts, but I got a trade offer for Sandia, essentially centered around Sandy Al Contra, and I had to move my dollar Bryce Miller.

And that's the space that we're in in Keeper Leagues. And even in redraft, I think this type of conversation is going to lead the value to an even higher point. And there has to be a moment where we look back and we're like, how much higher can this go? It kind of feels like we can only go down a little bit. It does not mean he'll be bad. I'm as big of Bryce Miller fan as anybody, if not more.

But I do think we are at a peak level where I just don't know how a rookie can live off of 80 plus, 75 plus percent fastball and keep going. The league will catch up at some point. But it doesn't mean I want to like jump off the board. But, you know, my goodness, how good he looks. But everybody looks good against him, of course. He's got this basically like straight overhead release point. You know, he, you know, if you watch him pitch, he gets real low.

He kind of dips his left shoulder and brings the right shoulder just straight up and down. And he whips it too. And it can kind of, it's a very, it's a very awkward. It almost, it's one of those pitches. You know, you hear guys talk about it all the time where the guy makes the pitch look faster than it is. And he does that exact thing. He threw a guy, there was one pit. I'm trying to think who was.

Ramon Lariano or Noda, I don't know who it was, but he did this 94 mile an hour fastball. And it looked like it was 102 because a guy could not catch up to it. He was completely off on it. And that's the type of stuff that he does with that arm angle and that release of. And it's special. It's a special fastball, no doubt. It's just how much do we, can we fully believe that not just a rookie, but anybody can be that dominant of a fastball and keep this going. But, you know, he's, look at that company.

Look at that company that Sarah Lange was put. And it's, you know, when we talk about like what makes fastballs effective, a lot of it is, you know, this vertical approach angle where, you know, the ball comes out from like a lower slot. And so it's harder for batters to get their bat path to it. It's a high spin pitch. It's a to get into like sort of the weeds of the movement profile, it's got like a high active spin percentage, which basically means that the spin rate is contributing. to the movement. So it's got a lot of vertical movement, very little horizontal movement. And generally speaking, you want your fastball to rise. It doesn't actually rise, but it creates the appearance of rise. And so you look at it, the average launching on the fastball,

26 degrees. He's given up a lot of fly balls. And you look at it and say, well, that's not great, except that because batters are getting under it so much, it's sort of that Nestor Cortez. It's very much, Chris, like Joe Ryan and Christian Javier. Joe Ryan and Christian Javier, yeah. Visible fastball and they get a ton of fly balls as a result. And he's doing it at 95, 96. Exactly. You know, Joe Ryan's doing it at 91, 92.

And so it's an even more effective. Joe Ryan's another guy who throws a lot of fastballs. So it's all to say that like what he's done so far is really, really impressive. And he's earned his production so far. You look at the ERA, 142, 132, excuse me, he's not going to sustain that, but the XERA, 282 before this start and probably didn't go any higher. So there's a lot to like about him. It's tough to be a one-trick pony in the majors, though. You know, like it's a really, really good trick for this pony to have. And like, well

said, you know, it's possible that like he just hasn't needed the slider or the curb ball or the change up and maybe those pitches can be weapons for him. They haven't been yet. We're afraid on the slider 9%. That's really low. We're talking about a 57 pitch sample size. And to add one last thing with it, you know, when I talked to him in spring, he was so excited to talk about the sliders because he told me, because I was just like, oh, man, that slider. And he's like, I'm throwing two now. And I was like, oh, you're throwing two. And he's like, yeah, my slider has adjusted to now a gyro and a sweeper. And, you know, he said he was more comfortable with his sweeper. And he's like, at the time. So I just want to point out, like, as of just a couple months ago, he was still

learning this new side of pitching. So there is still improvement coming. And he's very excited about the curveball as well. I just don't know what that's going to look like this year. And that's why I say, like, this might be this great, awesome sell high. If, you know, there really are Sandy Al Contra type of things that are going on with a player like Bryce Mill. You might legit have Corbyn Burns being thrown out there with how people are souring on that. I'm not saying it's going to happen. But those are the type of situations you, entertained with a guy like Bryce Miller, Frank. And the last point on him,

exactly what you said, Welsh, and I was watching the game in the Mariners broadcast, they mentioned how Bryce Miller has said, I don't need to throw my other pitches yet, because no one has figured out the fastball. He's like, I'm not going to move away from it until people start to challenge that pitch. So I think it's exactly

what you guys are talking about here. Last point on him, the five matchups that he's had so far. Oakland, Houston without Altuve, the Tigers, the Braves, where, you know, he did give up three runs over six innings. That was, I guess you could say, his worst start, and just face Oakland again.

So the matchups have been really kind so far to Bryce Miller. I think exactly like what we said about Nathan Avaldi yesterday, if you're looking to sell high, you have to get top 20 starting pitcher value for him. You have to get a top, you know, five to ten starter at, like, second or third base or like a top 20 outfielder. It's got to be something worthwhile. Don't just say, oh, Bryce Miller's going to fall apart.

I've got to sell him. No, you have to sell him for like a top 20. or a top 10 at another position. So just keep that in mind. Oh my goodness gracious for me. It's like 20 minutes in, we've talked about three players. But they're three pretty interesting players. Riley Green continues his hot may.

He went two for four with his fifth home run, a walk, two runs scored on Wednesday night. In the month, he's now betting 373 with three homers, three steals, seven doubles, and a 1021 OPS. With a 93.2 average exit velocity, he's got the strikeout rate down to 24% in the month. month, his line drive rate, 35%. Still not hitting that many fly balls.

I think it was like 19, 20%, but the ground ball rate is down. He is hitting more line drives. The ball is going over the fence. And when it's not, it's still turning into doubles, hitting it hard, making contact. Riley Green is up to 72% rostered. I was updating my rankings on Wednesday, and I moved them up closer to like my top 50 outfielders and argument that he should be even higher than that. But Towers, you and I were both excited about Riley Green.

this year. And while it was a rough April, you know, it's very cold in Detroit in the month of April. If he were breaking out, this is what it would look like in the month of May so far. Yeah, like you said, the ground ball rate probably still a little too high overall, but quality of contact, much improved in 91 mile per hour average exit velocity, 44% hard hit rate overall. Uh, expected Wobon contact up to 437. It was 406 last. season still striking out a bit too much. But what we're seeing is he's hitting the ball in the air a little more. He's pulling the ball a little more and he's hitting the ball with authority. And so, you know, these are, like you said, these are the signs of growth that we wanted to see from a

22 year old player with with a high pedigree. So I'm, I'm very pleased with what we've seen so far. It's certainly not a superstar outcome. You know, he's on a, I don't know, 1717 pace or something like that. But batting average, maybe not a 290 hitter, but maybe a 275 hitter with 15 to 20 homers and steals each. It's a pretty useful player. And it looks pretty real. So I'm pretty happy with what we're seeing from Riley Green right now. I'm looking at some roster rates on CBS right now for outfielders. And one name that's set out mentioned this to you in Sky yesterday. Patrick Wisdom has a 50% strikeout rate in the month of May. Fine dropping him. He's still 70.7. 6% roster.

Like, that's a swap that I would make. I would drop Patrick Wisdom to get Riley Green on my team. Mitch Hanager is an interesting one. He had a slow start to the year. He was dealing with injury. He's not playing every day. He hasn't looked great so far. Welsh, would you make a swap like that,

drop Hanager for Riley Green. I would. I told you beforehand, I was like, oh, dang, you stole my... This is a guy I would have picked with Riley Green. I just happened to just perusing stats and looking over stuff and get my brain kind of going up before the episode. And I just kind of happened myself going through some leaderboard stuff on Riley

Green. in the month of May, he has, he's a top 10 WRC plus at Outfield, and he's got the 11th best war of any position player in the month of May. And I think he is, you could look and you could say, oh, he's overperforming, but I think he's just clicking in. And this is a move I want to make. I actually think Riley Green is moving. Like when you said top 50 outfielder, it feels higher to me.

Like, I think those line drives are going to continue to move up. I really think he's got a shot at 20 this year. I think he's got a shot to be a 2015 guy as he's clicking in. And to remember, you know, the other thing I was telling you off there was like, it's so funny, the prospect like realm, you know, the nonlinear path it takes for prospect development and stuff. And we kind of forget like this also sometimes has to happen at the major league level. And guys like Kelnick have clicked this year, Riley Green, both very similar high school products, by the way, two of the better high school contact bats when they came into the minors and both kind of COVID babies, if you will, as far as development. The important times between minors and majors development happened during that time when things were lost. And maybe there are just some of these guys that got stunted at really important times.

It's not one for one because Joe Adele is still in AAA and striking out a gazillion times. But guys like Riley Green and Jared Kellnick, who were both known as good contact hitters, are starting to click. I just believe in Riley Green. I love the month. I think it's putting him in a really positive direction. And he can be hitting two, three for this team for the rest of the year. I think he's just kind of like a silent fantasy assassin really. And I want to pick him up at any cost I can.

So guys like Mitch Hanager, Patrick Wisdom. Absolutely. What about. Here's one. What about Andrew Vaughn? He's been awful in May, 614 OPS. Wasn't great in April, 787 OPS. He's like kind of the same guy he was last year.

And I was hoping he was going to take a step forward. We haven't seen it from him yet. The team also has got to find some playing time for Jake Berger, who's been phenomenal with Eloi Jimenez out, you could think, what if that eats in just like a tiny bit? That's a tough. You know what? I might go Riley Green.

I might be a little reactionary, but I'm kind of a Riley Green guy. I might be willing to make that move. I hate to give up on Vaughn because that's also one of those contact type of hitters who doesn't really put up big power. But I don't know. I think at the end of the year, Riley Green statistically might just easily look better than Vaughn. So I think I can make that move. It's not ranked that way on the site.

I just did that. Yeah. I just made the move. In a Categories League, I think you could do it. In a points league, I still think I would take Andrew Vaughn. It's still a better team context, better ballpark to hit in. So yeah, you know, it depends on the format, I think. But that is a really close question.

Few other names that are over 80% rostered, like Taylor Ward. I'd be all right dropping him for Ryan Green. And Jeff McNeil, who has second base and outfield eligibility, he's 93% rostered, just really not doing much so far this year. I'd make that swap as well. So Riley Green is 72% rostered. Go out and add him in your shallower leagues. Or if you play in a deeper league,

just kind of try and buy high right now because the overall numbers don't look great yet, but the month of May has been really, really awesome. Babib's a little high. Babbs a little high. But you know what? He's been hitting Ritey's really well. $2.99 against Ritey's this year,

which I think is a really good sign. So he'll regress a tiny bit, but it doesn't mean it, like I said, doesn't mean it can't get 2015. All right, let's take our first break. And when we return, I've got some Waverwire hitters. We'll talk about Wright after this.

Welcome back. and a quick reminder to follow us on TikTok, if you'd like to dabble there. TikTok.com slash at FBTPod, or if you just go on the app, you search at FBT Pod. We usually take short clips less than a minute and we throw some highlights over it about all different types of conversations.

I put up one just yesterday about Bobby Miller and his debut, so again, you can follow us on TikTok at FBT pod. Let's get into some waiver wire hitters. And we spoke about Matt McLean yesterday. Hopefully you listen, he was still around like 50% rostered, and it doesn't matter what format.

The guy is back to back days with a home run now, three hard hits in this game, two for five with a double, two runs, and an RBI. Quietly, Bryson Stott has played really well this year. Three for five with a run scored, and he's batting 291 with five homers, five steals, actually ranks higher than his teammate, Trey Turner so far, regardless of format,

head to head points and Roto. It's just kind of crazy. Well, who would you rather have, Matt McLean or Bryson Stott? Oh, that's a really, really good one. You know, it's funny, too, you can't make the argument of like, hey, Bryson Stott, well, like they like to lead him off. Well, Matt McLean's been hitting two a whole bunch for this team,

so they like to play both of these guys. Oh, you're putting me in a tough spot here. I kind of feel like I sometimes get back to that whole upside game where it's like, well, I think Matt McLean's upside is a little bit there. But you know what? I'm going to go with Bryson Stott. And I, this might be against my better judgment here. XBA, hey, plays a little bit closer to the batting average,

which I like is batting average 283. That's kind of maintaining. I'd like the hard hit to get a little bit up there, and I'd like him to start barreling up. But I just think the opportunity in that Phillies lineup, hitting higher, I do think as much as like McLean has a path, there's always that little chance

if the struggles do come in, that Ellie could take over. There's a lot of middle infielers that are going to be playing for spots. I think this is razor thin. I'm not going to kill you if you go Matt McLean over, but I think I might lean Bryson's stock. In slightly deeper leagues,

if you need a middle infielder, Adam Frazier also quietly having a solid season. He went one for four with a three-run homer. Lefty on lefty. He hit it off Nestor Cortez. He is batting 255 with six homers and six steals. So nice little power speed so far from Frazier. And Zach Netto had a big game.

He went three for three, including his third home run. It was a three-run shot, which came off of James Paxton. He's 28% rostered. Towers, who would you rather have between Adam Frazier, who has second base and outfield eligibility or Zach Netto? I mean, maybe you need one. of these two guys as like an injury replacement, in which case, I might lean Frazier, but generally speaking, the range of player that you're in, I'm talking, I'm aiming for upside.

And I think Zach Nettos, the upside play here. So I'd go with him over, uh, over Adam Frazier. A name that has quietly put together a strong month is Spencer Steer, who had four hits on Wednesday, including two runs and two RBI, and now is batting 294 with four homers, 12 runs, 13 RBI. and an 861 OPS in the month, and the fly ball rate is up. It's up to 49% compared to 41% for April. He's hitting the ball decently hard, not blowing you away or anything.

36% rostered is Spencer Steer, first base and third base eligibility. I think it's more of a deeper league play for now. In much deeper leagues. Wow, the twins actually let Edward Julian get a plate appearance today. That's great. He went one for three with a walk

and his third home run seems to be in a very strict platoon right now, only playing against right-handed pitching. Willie Castro, his teammate, went two for three with two steals, and also in the month of May, quiet for him, but 283 batting average, one homer, six steals, and a 724 OPS. Owen Miller, I brought up the name yesterday. I feel like we just kind of like breeze past it, but the guy just keeps hitting homers.

I don't know how, but it's happening. One for three with his fourth homer. He was batting clean up for the Brewers on Wednesday, now betting 3.46 with four homers, five steals, a 915 OPS. Makes a ton of contact, but it's not very good contact. His average exit velocity is in the first percentile in baseball. Welsh, we're talking very deep leaks here. I know you like Edward Julian, but is he going to stick around?

Is he going to play enough? Willie Castro, his teammate, and Owen Miller out there with the Brewers. Yeah, I'm not. I mean, obviously, like, Edward Julian is the most fun of all of these guys. I'm not really into any of them. Edward, with the upside I'd go, simply because Royce Lewis is coming. Whether you like it or not,

the 60-day I-L that he was put on is why he, I don't want to say it's why he's not up because he's got to get enough games under his belt, but he's been crushing the ball. But it is like a technical reason why he can't come up. Eligible to come off in four days. Yeah. So right towards the end of the month,

he can come up. So like if you look at like two players on the same team that occupy a spot where they might want Royce Lewis to be, coming back up. I don't really dive into either one of them, but Edward Julian would be the guy. Fun, streamy pickup for Owen Miller and Castro, but there's no longevity

for me. Willie Castro is one of those guys that like, it might not happen this year. It might not happen next year. There is going to be like a two month stretch where Willie Castro is just like a monster. Because he crushes the ball, man. Like his

max exevalos are routinely in like the 115. range, 114 this season, 115 and 2021. He doesn't, he strikes out too much. He doesn't maximize the contact that he makes. All that stuff is, but he's kind of fun. And

I think he's quadruple eligible in CBS Fantasy League. So, you know, in a really deep league, there's some appeal there. Willie Castro would be Christopher Morel if he was like really good and he could work out and be consistent. Like he's Walmart

Christopher Morel. Royce Lewis, by the way, I'm looking at his games played so far this season in the minors, four at shortstop, four at third base. I know they've been playing Kyle Farmer at third. There was an interesting note about Carlos Correa might actually be dealing with a somewhat serious injury. He's dealing with a muscle strain in the arch of his left foot in addition to plantar fasciitis in his heel. And when asked about the IL, manager Rocco Baldelli said, quote, I think we get to Friday and some of our decisions might be made for us.

So if Correa has to go on the IL, maybe that allows Royce Lewis and Edward Julian to play together. They got Kyle Farmer on that team too, so lots of moving parts. But at least for the short term, it seems like Edward Julian will be sticking around with the Minnesota Twins. Let's talk about a few WaverWire pitchers. We talked about Michael Kopeck earlier and James Pax and Bobby Miller. I think those are the obvious candidates right now. A few higher floor options.

I don't know that there's any kind of crazy upside with this group, but Tyler Anderson turned in a quality start against the Red Sox. He went six innings, one run, three strikeouts in that one. Zach Granky has pitched well over his last five starts. He's got a 273 ERA, a 0.87 whip. Well below a strikeout per inning, no surprise there. Adrian Houser, another strong start up against the Astros. Again, not really sure how it's going on right now,

but five and a third shutout with three strikeouts for him. And Ben Lively has made two starts. Both have been very strong. against the Cardinals in Great American Ballpark. Obviously, you know, the Cardinals are a buzzsaw right now. And he went out there, six innings, two runs, eight strikeouts with 14 swinging strikes. Towers, I'll throw this one your way. Any thoughts here on Ben lively, Adrian Houser, Zach cranky, and Tyler Anderson?

Lively, the couple of starts that he's made have been pretty impressive. You know, the eight strikeouts in each, I don't know how much is there. It's a very fastball-heavy approach. It's not necessarily. like a high velocity fastball. You average 91.2 with it. He's getting pretty good wifts, especially with the slider today,

seven on 22 pitches. My sense is that there's nothing here. I mean, this is a guy who hasn't pitched in the majors since 2019. I think he's 31 years old. He hasn't pitched well in the majors really ever. So I, my sense is that there's not really anything there, but it's, you know,

in deeper leagues, I suppose he's worth a look. He's kind of one of these like KBO reclamation projects. He went to the KBO in 2020 and 2021. And then he pitched in the miners all of last year, now getting a chance to start for the Reds. Again, that's Ben lively. I want to point out with the slider.

You mentioned seven whiffs, a 55% CSW on that pitch on Wednesday. And entering the start, he had not allowed a single hit on a slider. And it had a 53% whiff rate. So he doesn't throw hard, but that slider might actually be a really, really good pitch for Ben Lively. Can I throw out another pitcher who probably belongs in this group?

What do you got? Didn't necessarily have a super great start. Matthew Boyd. Only gave up one run in four and two-thirds innings. I don't know what his roster rate is, actually. I assume it's in the range of these guys, if not, you know, lower than some of them. But the reason I want to talk about him is because I just saw a tweet from our friend Nick Pollock. It was, let's see.

about three minutes ago because he's a night owl two. And he threw his slider 35 times today. He was throwing it harder. 2.2 miles per hour with a change in the vertical and horizontal movement profile. Got 10 whiffs with it. Six strikeouts overall in four and two-thirds innings. I've been very skeptical of the times that we've talked about Matthew Boyd on this program. And I will remain so.

but this was a pretty interesting start with the kind of reworked slider and you know just want to see what where it goes from here. Matthew Boyd is 26% roster so yeah he would fit into this group here if you play in a points league and you're just kind of desperate for a relief pitcher he is SPARP eligible and looks like he's in line for two starts next week against Texas and the White Sox kind of tough matchups the Rangers are you know they've been great against everybody this year

I'm sure they are great against lefties as well. One other name I wanted to bring up, you say Kikuchi, another rough outing here. It's been a bad May for him, turning back into Kikuchi. 6.29 ERA, a 168 whip Welsh. He's still 83% rostered. You know, are we okay dropping Kikuchi?

It looks like he's in line for two-star six week against the Brewers and Mets. You know, both are bottom 10 against left-handed pitchers this year. So do you think we hold on to Kukuchi for that two-star week or can we drop him for like a month? Michael Kopeck or somebody. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

I was about to say, like, context would be important here. Like, if there's just nothing really sitting out there, it's only like, you know, mid-streamy type of guys. I don't know, maybe. I'm not enamored with Kukuchi. I don't think he's a must-one. I think that ownership is going to be dramatically different in that seven-day window, which you guys can check out. It's a great tool, by the way.

It might be one of the best of all the sites is the add-and-drop window. It's the most active that CBS has when you want to go check that out. He will be on probably the top 10 on the most dropped. But especially if there are any of these guys we talk about, you know, like the Kopecks are flying out there. I would rather take my shot on guys like that than Kukuchi. Yeah, my buddy, my childhood friend, Xavier, he's a Blue Jays fan. I saw him tweet earlier today. Could Kukuchi stop giving up home runs, please?

And it's like, well, I got some bad news about the you say Kukuchi experience because if there's one thing that guy does, let's give up home runs. Yep. So next week, Welsh, remind me, we'll do Pete Alonzo home run props against you say Kikuchi. I hate to do it. I actually bet against him today. My two bet I had team total runs for the raise. And I had in another place over two and a half earn runs on Kukuchi. I had a horrible day the day before. I was perfect today. And Kukuchi was to thank for a couple of those. All right. Let's get into some news and notes. Manny Machado played catch and took ground. on Wednesday, he was able to receive the ball without issue, despite the small fracture in his left hand.

Carlos Correa is apparently dealing with his muscle strain, mentioned that earlier. Brandon Woodruff said he resumed playing catch after he recently took a four to five day pause in his throwing program. He's still eyeing a late June return from a grade two sub-scapular strain. Trista McKenzie is scheduled to make his second rehab start

at AAA on Thursday. Ty France was out of the lineup after getting hit by a pitch on his wrist Tuesday night, X-rays were negative. Cardinals manager, Oliver Marmel. What a gem that guy is. He said Matthew Libertor will start Friday in Cleveland. And in case you were wondering, Stephen Matt got destroyed. He allowed six earned runs on 11 hits over four innings pitched on Wednesday night. Yet they refuse to just move him into the bullpen and let Liberator start every time through. There was like a quote about like, oh, well, you know, we've got a roster crunch and we need to

need pitchers and it's like, you guys are carrying three catchers right now. So like any, any roster limitations you have are of your own making. You don't need three catchers. What do you do? The Cardinals are like, they're going to be fine. And I think they'll contend for the playoffs, but just like, I don't know, the vibes are are rotten in St. you think if they don't make the playoffs that Marmal's gone after this year?

How long has he been there? This is a second season. Just the second year. I feel like the Cardinals don't really kind of turn through managers that fast, but it's kind of been a rocky go, huh? Like the stuff with Tyler O'Neill earlier this year? Yeah. I don't know who's to blame technically, but I don't know.

The way they handled that and like the Wilson Contreras thing, it's just, I don't know, very, very odd. I think it's a possibility. I think if they don't make the playoffs, that especially in that division, there's definitely something wrong there. John Carlos then will undergo imaging Thursday, and if it comes back favorably,

begin a rehab assignment this weekend. He's been on the IL since mid-April with a strained hamstring. Brandon Lau was out of the lineup again Wednesday with neck stiffness but expects to return Thursday. Kyle Hendricks, a blast from the past, is back. He's making his debut Thursday against Carlos Carrasco. A little throwback outing there. Welsh, you pointed that out to me, so good job by you.

A good 2018 matchup. This is going to be awesome. Mike Soroka had his best start of the season Tuesday at AAA, allowing just one. run over six innings while striking out eight and could join the Braves rotation next week. So maybe go out there and check in some deeper leagues. Everyone's desperate for pitching right now. See if Mike Soroka is available. Danny Jansen was removed with an apparent injury in that game.

It was replaced by Alejandro Kirk. Anthony Rendon went through agility drills on the field before the game Wednesday. He's on the IL with a left groin string. Omar Reviz will begin a minor league rehab assignment at High A Thursday. and if he takes any playing time away from Francisco Alvarez, we will riot because Alvarez has been great. Two for three with his sixth home run on Wednesday, now up to a 253 batting average and an 822 OPS.

And I feel like every time I watch the Mets, they're talking about how great defensively he's been, right? So it's, I don't know, it seems like he's making strides. I get it, like Alvarez is going to play. I mean, Nervais is going to play a little bit, but I really hope it's not just like Alvarez again. against the lefties and Narvaeis against Fridays because that would suck.

Vince Velasquez will return to the Pirates rotation this weekend in Seattle and Welsh. I did want to ask you a few prospect questions. First up, you mentioned earlier before we started, Andrew Abbott had another insane start in the Reds organization. What's going on there? Yeah, he had 21 swing and misses

WIFs, baby, on what is this Wednesday? Wednesday night. And it's funny because I was, you know, we're just kind of having this conversation about how double A and the tacked ball and whatever like inflated Andrew Abbott and some people were a little disenchanted about him going over to AAA. Maybe some things were kind of eveninging out. I just don't think so. And he had an absolutely insane night, 42% on his fastball, 46% whiff rate on the fastball. They're calling this an unknown pitch, but this should be his slider. 80% whiff rate. He had a

47% width rate and a 38% CSW percentage. This was against the AAA Mets team, who who obviously are down a couple guys because, you know, those guys are up with the majors sitting on the bench and not playing regularly where they, you know, could be in AAA. But Andrew Abbott looks like it's picking up. He's stabilizing even more off of that weird AA stuff. So, you know, who knows what the Reds are going to do at any time. CETS is still down.

L.E. Daly Cruz is still down. Andrew Abbott, as soon as they need something, obviously, Ben Lightley's been kind of working. But when they do need something, it's only a matter of time. You know, there's a couple. pitchers that are on the only a matter of time stage. And if you want to get ahead of it, guys like Gavin Williams and Andrew Abbott should be one of those, just a really great start insane, 21 whiffs over on 47% width rate, very much in on Andrew Abbott, right now.

Andrew Abbott's 17% rostered. Obviously, if he gets called up, it's a tough environment to pitch in and not the greatest team context, but it seems like him and Gavin Williams, who you mentioned, are kind of that next wave of pitching prospects that we should be stashing right now. Any concerns over Jordan Lawler-Welch? I know that he's been struggling. I have him in the Scott White Dynasty League. I feel like entering the season, he was a consensus top 10 fantasy prospect.

But I know he struggled mightily at AA this season. What's going on there? Yeah, I think, I mean, like in general, there's worries because the strikeout rate at AA is very worst. I mean, it's the worst. Now, you do have to remember this is like a 20-year-old kid who, for all intents of purposes, has been pushed relatively aggressively by this team. He was in the AFL last year.

He, in 2022, technically, if you consider and count the AFL, that's four different spots. He moved. He didn't have a whole lot of time before that. I mean, he had two games he played in 2021. So last year was his first major league year. He goes to AA this year, 31% strikeout rate. That's not good.

165 average. That is cringe. But 208 Babip is not playing in his favor. Also, his ground ball, this is like the positives. His ground ball rate. has dropped. It was 50% last year at AA. It's down to 35% this year.

His line drive rate has increased to 28.6. So what I'm getting at is like, okay, has he moved down a little bit? Yeah, maybe sure. Like there's clearly Ellie and those type of guys have moved up. But I think he's at such a low right now because I also think this might even not be quite the time. He might get sent down with how much he's struggles. The struggles are going on.

They might send him to high A. I think it's actually a really good buy opportunity and dynasty for Jordan Lawler. I do think this is going to end the conversation of him coming up. Those struggles are so apparent. And Geraldo Pardomo has been so good. I mean, from a war perspective and from a batting average perspective of what he's done, there's not a need for them to press. And with how he's performed, there's just no way it's happening.

So I think Jordan Lawler can be kind of taken off that he is going to come up this year. And it might get a little bit worse before it gets better. but he'd be a guy I'd be poking around at that you might be able to get him at the cost of like a top 35 or 40 prospect when he's got top 10 upside. Again, that is Jordan Lawler, looked by him in Dynasty, and their GM Mike Hazen, I'll point out.

He said, this is pretty obvious, that he prefers if all prospects could be like Corbyn Carroll, but Spun Lawler struggles as a positive, noting the adversity gives a young player a chance to adjust and figure it out, quote, it's probably more approach, pitch selection, how he's being pitched. But it does seem like obviously they're still sky high on Jordan.

One thing I do want to point out, and Welsh, you kind of touched on a little bit with Andrew Abbott with that tacky ball in AA and the inflated strikeout numbers. Strikeout rate at the Texas League, which is where Jordan Lawler is playing, is up to 25% this season overall. There's a full quarter of all played appearances are ending in a strikeout. Major League average usually hovers around 22 to 23%. last year in the Texas League, it was 23.2%. So just in one year, a 1.8 percentage point increase, that's massive.

That tacky ball is seemingly having a big impact. Again, that is Jordan Lawler. Let's take our final break. And when we return, I've got some rankings, risers and fallers. We'll talk about right after this. Let's get into a few rankings risers. First and foremost, Zach Gallen had a solid start at the Phillies, five and two thirds, two runs loud.

Only three strikeouts. And last two starts have been a little bit weird. The last one against the Pirates is worst start of the year. But just five strikeouts to six walks during that time, it's weird because I'm kind of talking down Zach Allen, but I'm about to tell you how much I moved him up because his K to walk ratio and really everything. It's swinging strike rate, throwing his curve ball more this year.

That has resulted in a career year so far for Zach Gallen. I have moved him up to SP5 in my rankings just ahead of Kevin Gosman, Zach Wheeler, Corbin Burns. I think he's earned that. And Joe Ryan, another name here. He was up against the Giants, kind of a pedestrian start as well. Five innings, one run, four strikeouts.

Eight swinging strikes was actually a season low for him in this one, but still a 221 ERA, a 0.95 whip, well over a strikeout per inning. Great walk numbers as well. And I got Joe Ryan up to SP 20 in the rankings. But man, you could argue he should be higher because, yeah, I have him behind Shane Bieber, who we all know I'm skeptical.

live, you Darvish has been like, okay. Then you get into like the Christian Javier, Max Scherzer, Luis Castillo territory. I don't think that I could realistically move Joe Ryan ahead of those names, but, uh, well, so it kind of seems like you want to. Well, no, I actually want to just bring something up because it's funny that you, you mentioned this on the, uh, cheap plug that in this league pod, we ran a couple of player debates and some polls I put out earlier today. And I happened to put one out that involved around Joe Ryan. Um, it's, it's got like, from 500 votes or something like that. And I asked, who would you rather have rest of season?

Joe Ryan or Corbyn Burns? And, you know, the Corbyn Burns stuff has led to, you know, a lot of concerns, a lot of people. So I'm just curious, who would you guys rather have at this point? I don't know how what your rank looks like. You move Joe Ryan up to 20. I'm going to guess Corbyn Burns is still higher. But would you rather have Joe Ryan or Corbyn Burns? I would still rather have Burns.

I have met SP8 overall. So he's still inside my top 10. I have lowered. He was inside my top five. I dropped them down a little bit. I think he's just been a little bit unlucky so far. There's no doubting how great the numbers for Joe Ryan had been. But given the track record of Corbyn Burns,

I kind of given the benefit of the doubt still. So I'll take Burns there. Towers, any different? Or? I'm, Burns is still top five for me. He's still number five. I tend to anchor preseason expectations pretty heavily still.

And Joe Ryan is like 20. He was 26 last time I updated the rankings. I could move him up a couple more spots. but I have Dylan cease at 22. I think I'd still rather have cease than Ryan despite cease his struggles. So I think that's probably around the ceiling right now. But I mean, look, he's been awesome. We're talking about a guy who has now pitched 234 innings at the major league level

with a 326 ERA, a 103 whip, 251 strikeouts. So like, this is not just a one year flash in the pan of him being good. He's never pitched at this. level and I don't think he's going to sustain a 30% strikeout rate. That's elite. It's really hard to do when you throw, you know, oh gosh. That's a good song. Yeah, I don't know.

I don't. Sorry, my Siri on my Apple Watch must have heard me saying something and decided to play rumors. I don't know what's going on there. 54.4% small sample size picked Joe Ryan over Corbyn Burns. That's a mindline. You tweeted out. might be different, get more votes, but just pointing out 54.4% rest of season on this poll,

whatever you consider that is, wanted Joe Ryan. So you could look at that as great buy opportunity for Burns, maybe a sell opportunity for Joe Ryan, however you want. But I thought it was interesting that the percentage went in favor of Ryan over Burns. Who would you rather have, Wells? I am leaning Joe Ryan a little bit. I think it is reactionary. I'm a little bit concerned with like V-Lo down stuff. Also, Joe Ryan has just been phenomenal. I, I, I, had kind of pointed out, I don't know if it has to be so much about Corbyn Burns falling back where it is that we should be acknowledging the step that Joe Ryan has made. And that split finger has, I think, has completely changed the approach, has changed his game up. And he's been the best

of all those guys. Our team has been so dominant, too, by the way. The three big twins pitchers are all in the top 30 K percentage against Ritey's this year. And there's no other team that has that dominant against Reities right now. So I mean, they are just killing it. I think I might, and I totally acknowledge the recency bias and stuff, but I think I might lean Joe Ryan. Speaking of those twins pitchers, I've got Joe Ryan at SP 20. I've got Pablo Lopez at SP 22. I know he's kind of faltered a little bit late. The K-minus walk and the Sierra are still amazing. So I have him inside the top 24. And I have Sunny Gray down at SP 35. I still like him. I've dropped him down a touch. But yeah, I think as a lot.

like a low end SP3, I think that's fine. A few pitchers that have dropped a little bit in the rankings for me. Nestor Cortez continues his less than stellar season. He was up against the Orioles, six innings, four runs allowed, two more homers allowed. Only three swinging strikes on 89 pitches in this one. Lots of hard contact.

He's given up a ton of fly balls this year. Hard contact, fly balls in this environment this year. I think they're going to turn more into home runs, and that's what we've seen so far. A 5.3 ERA and a 1-27. to whip for Nestor Cortez. Sandy Alconcantzor picked up his first win since April 4th. That was the second start of the season.

He was at the Rockies in this one. Six innings, two runs, three strikeouts. He still has a 486 ERA, 122 whip. Towers, we were talking beforehand. We were talking about how the changeup has been a little bit of letdown this year. And I know someone tweeted asking us about it. I dropped Sandy down to SP9. It's not a huge drop, but, you know, he's kind of boring.

ordering on falling out of the top 10 or top 12. And Nestor Cortez down to SP 46. I don't know if you have any thoughts on either. Yeah, I haven't specifically moved Nestor Cortez down yet, but I think I probably will. Alcantra, you know, you look at like the release point and stuff like that is a little off, you know, his extensions up from last season. It maybe suggests that there might be something mechanically

that's just a little bit off with him. And the change. change up in particular last season. It was his most used pitch. His usage of it actually hasn't changed very much. But he's gone from allowing a 145 batting average against on the change up last season to 33. Nearly a 200 point jump now. The expected stats suggest that that's overstating things.

His expected VA last season was 169. This year's 242. So there's probably been a little bit of bad luck there. And I hesitate to like look at the. stuff plus metrics that are out there because they famously struggle with changeups. We're still not quite sure what makes a good change up because changeups are often as much about how they play with other pitches as they are what that pitch itself looks like. But his change ups have been so good over the past couple of seasons that I do think,

you know, expecting some improvement is not unreasonable. So I still think Sandy Alcounter is going to be very good. And I'm not too worried here. Yeah, I think he will be better too. He has a career high, 14% swinging strike rate. And yet his strikeout rate is either about the same or it might even be down a little bit this year. It's the lowest it's been since 2019, actually. Yeah.

So I know I had him as a bus coming into the year, but I still think better days are coming. I don't think he's going to pitch to like a near 5 ERA for the rest of the season. A few leftovers. Let's start with the good. Martine Perez has now turned in two seven inning quality starts in a row. He was at the Pirates. Seven innings, two runs, three strikeouts there. Shane O. Mac.

Here comes the money. Here we go. Money talk. Here comes the money. Shane McClanahan, another great start up against the Blue Jays. Seven innings, one run, seven strikeouts to zero walks. Love to see the zero walks. He has struggled a little bit with control this season.

Bryce Elder, another quality start. He was up against the Dodgers, six innings, one run, six strikeouts with 16 swinging strikes. And Marcus Strowman. will have his revenge against the Mets. Eight innings, two runs, three strikeouts, only two swinging strikes. So, uh, seems like he might have got a little lucky in this outing here. Welsh, any thoughts on this group? Stroman, Elder, Shane O'Mack, and Martine Perez.

Well, I love me some Shane O'Mack. It is interesting you brought up Elder, though, because he was one of those guys. I just got into weird random guys I was just digging into before we started. And, you know, this performance today, I thought really stood out that slider percentage was at 43. You know, almost double what his sinker was. But the thing that really stood out to me was the zone percentage. He was able to kid that inside the zone, that slider at a 51% rate, which, you know, just bringing it up to be like, I think it's fascinating that this is the type of guy with this pitch

when you can pitch it in zone. And you can like that was like Brennan Faw's big issue. Like it's just going everywhere. It's a low, low zone percentage. One of the worst in baseball. Like he can live off of the slider because he can throw it at any spot. he wants and he can absolutely pump in that sinker. He can get you with that change up. He had in this last start a 33% whiff rate, a 33% CSW and the slider had 12 whiffs.

It was a 50% rate. So that's a number one pitch. And it's just like a long line of like, where do we see some of the best success stories? Hunter Green last year, throwing more. It's different, of course, with a hundred mile or fastball, but throwing more sliders. Oviato has done that this year. Dre Jameson, his best start of the year was when he was dominant or his best performance was in he was dominant slider. It's just when you can throw that slider for strikes, it is such a game changer. And Bryce Elder never really popped off on anything.

But he came out with 16 swing and whiffs in this start against the Dodgers. And it is thanks to how dominant that slider has been. So I'm really turning a corner where I was very dismissive of Elder. I'm in. I'm in if he can keep pitching like this. It's like Oviato on the Braves. Like that's kind of how I look at it. Yeah.

And for Bryce Elder coming into the start, that slider had a 132 batting average against and a 30% whiff rate. You know, the whiff rate, it's not like the best sliders in the game, but he is throwing it more. It's his most used pitch, and that batting average against is obviously really, really good. The bad pitchers, the leftovers here. Kodi Sengo Wilde, once again, at the Cubs, five innings, three runs, five walks to six strikeouts.

He now has three plus walks in eight of nine starts this season, four plus walks in five of nine starts. and Tyler Wells allowed a season high, five runs at the Yankees, three homers allowed. He does give up a ton of fly balls pitching in Yankee Stadium. That's going to be a pretty bad recipe there. Towers, anything on Kodi Senga and Tyler Wells. You are muted, sir.

Ah, there it is. There it is. Scratch the one off your bingo card. No, I don't have too much to say here. Wells, I think he's going to be useful at home. I think the utility is going to be pretty limited overall. Otherwise, and Senga, I have no, there's no way to predict what's going to happen because it all seems to be tied to his control.

And the control was very good in the last start. And it was bad in this one. And I just, I have no confidence that I can predict what's going to happen. I think he's a pretty fringy guy. And I'm not super excited about Khodai Senga right now. Yeah, I don't have much. confidence in starting him. But with that being said, he's a two-star pitcher next week up against the Phillies and the Blue Jays. It's not the best matchups, but I think most people are going to

wind up starting him in that two-star week. So, uh, yeah. I think it's perfectly fine in a head-to-head points league. Even in a roto league, I'd be a little worried. Like, I've got him ranked right around 75, which even in a two-star week is, is pretty fringy. Yeah, I still have him around 60, but, you know, I don't know. Maybe I was just blinded by that previous star where he looks so good against Tampa Man. Let's talk about a few hitting leftovers. Trey Turner went one for five with his fifth home run, a game tying home run that he hit in the ninth inning. He had four hard hit balls. The Phillies fans have actually been whenever I turn the game on, they've been booing Trey Turner.

And frankly, I mean, I guess you can't blame them. I understand why it happened. Yeah, it's never on board with booing your own players. I think it's more hurtful. it doesn't really matter, but I think it probably hurts more than it helps in the long run. So I don't know. That's one of those players I haven't really thought too much about. And I know that's not what our audience wants to think because it's a big name who's been really bad.

And he's hurting a lot of your teams. But I just, I think he's going to figure it out. You know, like we talked about with Juan Soto and, you know, I guess we're on a Kuna last year. Like these types of players tend to figure. things out, even when things look bleak. So, you can also thank me. We ran a poll today of Trey Turner versus Bobby Witt, Jr., where people were at. And literally, like, within 10 minutes of doing it, Trey Turner hit that homer.

And like that, I put it. I did that. That's a reasonable discussion. Like, I'm not saying I haven't moved Trey Turner down at all. I still keep, uh, overall rankings. And he's down to like 20-ish. I've got Bobby Witt at 23. So like, I think you could make a case for Bobby Witt over him, but it's also like as bad as things have been for Trey Turner, we know his upside is arguably the best player in fantasy.

And I just, I don't see much reason to think that at 29, he just lost it. Even though I recognize the underlying numbers are bad. Someone asked me today on Twitter, give me, give me something to feel positive about with Trey Turner. something like that or say something nice about Trey Turner. And all I could come up with after looking at his stack cast Pays was he's still very handsome. That is the only like thing I could point to right now to get to feel optimistic about with Trey Turner. But I still think he'll figure it out. I'm sure he's still fast too, right?

He's a very, very fast. He's a very fast and handsome young man. He's not hitting the ball well right now. That is Trey Turner. Anders Hemenis back to. back multi-hit games trying to pick it back up hopefully bo bouchette went two for four with a double and snagged his second steal of the season wonder franco cannot be stopped three for four with two rbi and his 15th steel of the season only 64th percentile in sprint speed but he is so aggressive it's like

2040 pace yeah that's unbelievable it's great like if the season ended today he's i don't know like a top two round player next year at at the least right it's it's pretty crazy stuff um Oh, this should have been in Waverwire. But Jose Siri went two for three with his eighth home run. And over his last 13 games, he's hitting 267 with six homers and a steal. He's a deeper league ad. He's 14% rostered. If you play in a daily lineup category league,

I feel like Jose Siri is a pretty good player to have in that format. Mookie Betts went two for five with his 11th homer. Glaber Torres, two for four, with a double dong. Jorge Salere does it again. In Coresfield, two for four with his 14th home run. Mike Trout and Shoah Otani homered in. in the same game. It was the 12th home run for each of them.

And two names we've talked about a lot recently. Elias Diaz, another homer. He's enjoying a nice series at home there against the Marlins. And Marcel Ozuna is just on one of those runs right now. So if you play in, I don't know, a five outfielder league, or even if just somewhere you want to ride the hot hand, like when Ozuna gets going,

he kind of just gets on one of these runs. And yeah, he can smash a bunch of home runs. A few bullpen updates for the Rangers, Will Smith picked up his ninth save of the season. For the Diamondbacks, Andrew Chafin and Miguel Castro were unavailable. Jose Ruiz entered in the ninth with a two-run lead, gave up that two-run homer to Trey Turner. For Tampa Bay, Jason Adam entered in the eighth with a five-to-one lead and gave up two runs on a walk and three hits. Pete Fairbanks then pitched in the ninth with a four-run lead, and it seems like Fairbanks is back ahead of Jason Adam in terms of the pecking order.

For the Nationals, Hunter Harvey entered with two outs in the seventh inning to face the top of the Padres lineup. He recorded the next four outs. Kyle Finnegan pitched a ninth inning for his 10th save, and they've been mixing and matching recently. The overall numbers for Kyle Finninggan have been pretty bad this year. For the Cubs, Mark Leiter Jr. Pitch a clean ninth for his second save,

and I guess he's the leader right now, but Adbert Alzali has pitched well, and I think Jeremiah Estrada is a name to watch there as well. for Baltimore, Felix Bautista walked one but struck out two for his 12th save and for the Tigers. Alex Lang picked up his ninth save of the season. To stream or not to stream,

let's start with Thursday. And yesterday, I think we said JP Sears at the Mariners. And we weren't... That's probably the most interesting one. I wish that Braxton Garrett's start was versus Colorado and not at Colorado because I'd be very excited. That's what I was staring at.

That's what I was doing while we were talking. I was looking at Braxton Garrett and I was like, boy, I want to say him. He's got like, I think it's like the one really, really bad start. I'm trying to look up the game log. Since then, he's been really good though, Chris. I think if you take that one start out and that's always cheap, but the 11 earn runs in four and a third inning. So you take that out he's got like a 250 ERA or something.

He's been actually quite good. Yeah, that is Braxton Garrett. On Friday, I think Liberator at the Guardians is fine. The Brewers are really bad against lefties, so I think Alex Wood is in play. Oh, Reed Detmer's against the Marlins, that's great. And Louis Varland versus Toronto, I don't love the matchup, but I think he's pretty good. Schuster is coming off a good start too, and the Phillies haven't been great against lefties. Friday's a good day.

I think Detmer's, Liberator, and Alex Wood are probably my favorites, but Varland and Schuster are like okay, too. I agree with that. agree. All right, we're going to wrap there for Towers and the Welsh. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Peace.