Fantasy Baseball Today - Kyle Stowers On Fire! Injury Replacements & Confusing Pitchers (5/5 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 5, 2025

Kyle Stowers is on fire (2:30)! ... Garrett Crochet keeps providing weird quotes after his starts (8:25). ... Luis Robert has really picked things up (13:52). ... Pete Crow-Armsrong might just be a stud and Riley Greene made history (17:33). ... We have injury replacements for Triston Casas, Jazz Chisholm and Mike Trout (20:43). ... News (28:53): Yordan Alvarez is dealing with hand inflammation. ... Tyler Stephenson returned this weekend (42:28). ... Gunnar Hoglund had a great Major League debut (48:27). ... What do we do with these confusing pitchers (59:53)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:10:00). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow FBT on TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow our FBT team on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@FBTPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CPTowers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CBSScottWhite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@Roto_Frank⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join our Facebook group at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. And first pitch, rushing. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris.

Oh, boy, another weekend, lots to talk about. Welcome into fantasy baseball today on Monday, May 5th. Happy Cinco de Mayo to those who celebrate. I am Frank Stample, joined by Scott White and Chris. Towers. Today on the show, a bunch of injuries. We've got WaverWire ads and drops, six confusing pitchers, and a bunch more. Let's jump in. You can put it on the board. Yes. Yes. It's not often I can play a White Sox sound drop, but Luis Roberts is going to be my player the night. We'll get to him in just a little bit. Scott,

we'll start off with you. Kyle Stowers. Oh, me. Your player of the weekend. Yeah, Kyle Stower. dramatic. So he had the four-hit two-homer game, I believe it was Wednesday, that first kind of get everybody talking. And then over the weekend here on Saturday, a dramatic walk-off grand slam on a day,

another day where he hit two home runs, by the way. And I think when we talked about him last week, I was a little dismissive, the strikeout rate was high the eggs of velocities were kind of meh but you know the hot hitting continues those eggs of velocities go up

suddenly his you look at his stack cast page Kyle Stowers it's not quite like Urkel's report card but I don't know it's like who's like a famous A's and B student like I don't know wasn't

wasn't Zach from saved by the bell I actually googled him He made he got a great one But he was a pretty good one No he got bad grades He got a good score on his SAT And that guy

Yale We call that of Chris Towers Except I did not get into Yale folks I was yeah I think there was probably more competition When you're FIU is the Yale of Sweetwater Florida I have always said so

Anyway Kyle Stowers A lot of 80s and 90s the eggs of velocities are looking better. The max ex of velocity is still middling to high, but it's looking better is the point. It's getting easier to see that maybe there could be some legitimacy to this guy who, oh, by the way, always put up good numbers in the minors in the Orioles organization, Kyle Stowers.

He's playing pretty much every day, sits against tougher lefties, actually has ridiculous numbers in the time he has played against lefties, much better than Ritey's. So he probably should be playing every day. The biggest issue I can see there for Kyle Stowers is a, his zone contact rate is just 74%. That would be the third lowest among qualifiers. And that's not like a total deal breaker.

If you, if you sort by lowest zone contact rating rate in baseball, you'll see a lot of good hitters in there. Rafael Devers is always really high in that. I think Kyle Schwarber. Matt Olson, I think is usually, well, in reason with Mike Trout. Mike Trout has been low in that. So it's, it can be a deal breaker for hitters, but it's not like definitively a deal breaker for hitters. And long story short, Kyle Stowers has now performed to the point that even if you have some baseline skepticism, and you should, you should have some baseline skepticism.

But you have to take the first. fire on him at this point in leagues of any real size. He's still out there in half of CBS sports leagues. I was looking in some of my leagues. He's out there in a few of those. That should not continue beyond today, beyond the start of a new scoring period. I moved him up to number two in my sleeper hitters for the upcoming scoring period. So I think you need to take a shot on Kyle Stowers, see where it goes. No guarantees. I'm not the biggest Kyle Stowers. backer around, but he's, he's kind of forced our hand. I agree with all that.

I do think it's just a hot streak. Stackast has like a rolling 50 plate appearances ex-Woba chart on player pages. And at the end of play on April 27th, his previous 50 played appearances, Kyle Stowers, had a 309 X Wobah, which is about league average. And his most recent 50 played appearances, it's 466. Yeah. So that tells me that it's just a case of him. Like, it's, it's not that he's just been locked in from day one.

I think it's a couple of hot weeks and we'll probably be talking about dropping him in the next couple of weeks. But I agree with everything you're saying, right? Like good minor league track record, a little bit of prospect pedigree. He's been so good that I think you do kind of just have to add him and see. And it is backed up by the expected stats. I mean, for what it's worth. 313XBA 564X slug. are awesome numbers. I don't know if they will remain, but they are awesome right now.

To Chris's point, I sort of made it too, is, you know, go back a week and it wasn't so much that way. It's especially loud production recently, but, you know, to kind of unspool this further, whether you're talking about half the season to this point or all of the season to this point, 10% of the season as a whole or 20% of the season as a whole, it's a small. It's a small. It's a small, small, it's a small sample that doesn't, that, that isn't indefinite in its meaning. The most added outfielder on CBS right now is Andy Paez. Who would you guys rather have Paez or Kyle Stowers? I'm actually fine with it being Stowers, actually.

I think there's a, Paul has just because of the lineup context, but it's very close. I think there's a much better chance Paez finds himself out of a job in the next month than Stowers. Yeah, but it didn't happen. And it felt like it really could have happened over the first three weeks. I do wonder now, I know Highson Kim got called up for Tommy Edmund. I do wonder if Kim hits like he did at AAA, if that might change things. All right.

I guess I'll break the tie. I lean with stowers, but I do like both names quite a bit. Chris, let's go over to you for your player of the weekend. Yeah, let's talk about Garrick Crochet, who's just hasn't been the same guy. And every time he starts, there are quotes. And I haven't really brought it up yet. But every time he starts, there's just like quotes where he's like, yeah, I haven't felt right or my mechanics aren't there. The quote after this one where he wasn't terrible because he hasn't been terrible.

He's not terrible. It was one earn run, five innings, four hits, two walks, six strikeouts. It's a perfectly fine start. And he's been perfectly fine so far. But the quote was, just the way that I'm working down the slope. I feel like there are times when I'm kind of just letting my body weight take me down the slope instead of driving down the mountain right now. It's like I'm able to recognize these things during the start, but I'm not going to try and correct anything during a start on the field. Once I'm on the mound, I'm doing what I can with what I have that day.

And he had a start a quote like four starts ago, I think, where he said like, yeah, my stuff hasn't been there and my mechanics have been a little bit off. And you see it, right? Like his strikeout rate is down 6.6 percentage points. his walk rate is nearly double what it was last season. His ERA was or his velocity was way down in this one. And he hasn't quite been where he was last season. I think even entering this start, he was down about a mile and a half per hour from last season.

So I'm not necessarily saying there's something wrong. And I'm certainly not saying like, oh, it's time to panic about Garrow Crochet, right? Like that would be a silly thing to do about a guy who, even if you don't buy the 204 ERA, the 347 XERA, perfectly fine. You can live with that. It just feels a little ominous at the start of his first long season ever.

I just don't know how this is going to, like his first full season ever. I just don't know how this is going to go the rest of the way. And I'm inclined to view crochet as a sell high candidate based on the way his season has gone so far. I guess the problem with calling him a cell high is how many pitchers do you trust to be better than him? Like for as longstanding as this mechanical issue has been, let's say it's plagued him the whole year. He's had trouble driving on the mound, driving off when he delivers. And his extension, by the way, has been like half a foot down in the early going. He's still been one of the best pitchers in fantasy.

Yes. He's lost a lot of strikeout rate. He still has one of the best strikeout rates among starting pitchers. So it's a lot of high-end pitchers have already been lost to injury, maybe not for the whole season, but for long enough that, you know, we can't really be sure when they're coming back. And you got Crochet, who's one of those drafted as an A-East. and basically performing like an ace,

even if it's been a little... Oh, he's definitely performing like an ace, to be clear. Like, 2.04 ERA. Like, that... There's nothing wrong with that. Yeah. So I don't know.

I mean, I'm kind of encouraged that he's... He clearly seems to be fighting something mechanically, and he's still been this good. Yeah. No, like, I think your point about who, like, he's my number six SP, and I don't feel that confident

about two of the guys in front of him, at least. Cole Regans and Chris Sale. So like, and then I look at the guys below him and I don't feel particularly confident in them either. So no, I think it's a good point about where he is relative to the rest of the position. And I don't know if there are more than five pitchers I would rather have. I need to just move Hunter Green ahead of him. I think I think I need to stop dragging my feet and just just embrace.

the injury risk because on a skills basis, Hunter Green looks like the best pitcher of baseball right now. So you are full stop. You would be more concerned about something causing Crochet's numbers to collapse than something causing Green's numbers. I think the injury risk is fairly similar for both of them. And I think the way Hunter Green is pitching right now is more sustainable than the way Garrett Crochet is pitching right now.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that like it could just be the crochet just needs to do one bullpen session and look at some high speed audio video and boom, he's back. That's on the other hand, we have a two and a half month track record of Garrett Crochet being a high level pitcher. In fairness, we don't have that much more. We don't have a much longer version. Yeah. Yeah. Like the the version of Hunter Green pitching like one of the best pitchers in baseball is basically just right now. because I don't think, like, I guess the last, like, 10 or 11 starts of last season is when it started,

but, like, his strike rate was down last season, walk rate was up. This is the first time the Hunter Green feels like the only risk is held the way he's pitching right now. And that doesn't necessarily mean it's sustainable, but it's just he's pitching on a different level than we've ever seen from him. All right, well, I'm going to mention my player than I very quickly here. Luis Robert talked about him up top a little bit, but he continued his hot stretch into this weekend. he homered on Friday. He had two more steals on Sunday. And over his last eight games, 345 batting average, three homers, eight runs, 9 RBI, 8 steals, 97.4 average exit velocity.

So he is coming alive. The overall line, still not great. I mean, it's a 195 batting average, a 667 OPS, but the 313 on base looks very good. Five homers running wild right now. 15 steals leads baseball. So Luis Robert looks like, you know, the weather's starting to heat up, and so is he.

He's been caught five times already. He's just running wild. That might be the crazier stat. Like, you've been caught five times and they're just going to keep letting you run. That's great. You love to see that. It's the White Sox, right?

It's like, who's going to tell him no? That's fair. Why not? You know, so hopefully, you know, we're past that that cold stretch to start the season,

keeps this going. Needs to stay healthy, obviously too. And hopefully someone comes knocking. A much better team that, you know, look, we do see him on the move at some point this season.

I'll point out for Robert, he's already hit two balls harder this year than he did all of last year, which I take is a good sign in addition to all the base dealing he's been doing. So I think he's trended in the right way. It is worth mentioning, and I know we wanted to move on fairly quickly, so I don't want to spend too much time in it. But like,

for all the talk of like, oh, Luis Robert just wasn't motivated. And like, well, maybe. I don't know. He's a human being. He also did miss two months with a hip injury last year. Like right at the start of the scene. We didn't see him basically.

He played six or seven games before the injury. So that's worth keeping in mind as well that he just wasn't healthy last year. Which, you know, it's Luis Robert. That happened. Let's take our first break. Thanks to everyone for watching. Make sure to hit the like button and subscribe to the channel. If you haven't already, let's take that break.

And we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. wanted to quickly mention a few other players of the weekend. Just huge performances, get this out of the way. Pete Crow Armstrong might. Might just be a stud. Two for five, double dong on Friday, at another home run on Saturday.

He is now batting 272, nine homers, 26 runs, 26 RBI, 12 steals. He entered Sunday as the third best player in Roto, fourth best hitter in head-to-head points leagues. And I know we're getting crap. We all wrote them up as a bus this season. Like, we're not going to get every. everything right. It's a long season, but he has been a stud so far. Like he is a top five player,

regardless of format. Yeah. Well, he has been so far. So far. He has been amazing. Like there's no doubting that. So, but what did I just get through saying? We don't, we don't. It's a long season. Yeah, with nothing's definitive yet. He had a great August last year too. And he could be a stud. I spent some time this week in thinking about what I want to say about P. Crow Armstrong and ultimately I decided nothing. I don't want to say anything because I feel like there's no benefit to me saying anything at this point. Nobody's going to do it. I could say I could say P. Crow Armstrong, you know, I've seen the future.

A week from now he's going to turn into a teradactyl, fly away, never be seen again. And people would still be like, yeah, right, I'm not trading him. So there's nothing I could say. So there's no point. I've given my take on him. It was as nuanced as I know how to be. And I think we just got to let it play out. I will just say his swing decisions remain really, really bad.

Relative to how we typically judge swing decisions. Maybe this is an outlier type talent who can feast off of like he's hit like three home runs already that were below the strike zone. like he's been a bad ball hitter so far and look if you can do that then i suppose it doesn't matter that you have the second or third highest chase rate in baseball and that it has gotten worse since last season i tend to think that at some point that will catch up to him and he's not going to be an elite power hitter but i don't know like we look really dumb right now so i don't i don't know if anybody's going to listen to that anyway. I just think for transparency sake, people kind of just want to hear us say that we've

been wrong about Pete Carr Armstrong. And so we're telling you, we have been wrong about Pete Kromstrung so far this season. Riley Green also wanted to mention he made history on Friday night. He became the first player ever to Homer twice in the ninth inning. And all of a sudden, he is batting 273 with eight home runs and in the late 811 OPS, which is pretty much what we were expecting from Riley Green. and a reminder that we're a month into the season and that you should have patience

because I think a lot of people in shallower leagues probably dropped Riley Green and now he kind of just looks like the player we expected him to be. I agree with everything you're saying. Have patience with everyone except Peter Armstrong what he has done so far is what he will do forever. Yes, exactly. There you go.

The dichotomy between the two. News and notes, lots of injuries this weekend and a devastating injury to Tristan Kossis, who had a nasty spill at first base while trying to beat out a ground ball. Turns out he has a ruptured left Patelor tendon that he has already had surgery on, apparently, which basically rules him out for the season.

Not only that, I mean, could very well affect his career. I mean, this is a very tough injury to recover from. So obviously, you know, thoughts go out to Tristan Koss's young players still want to see him succeed at some point in his career. If we are looking for first base replacements, obviously there has been no shortage this season. A lot of them have already been scooped up, but in shallower leagues, still some names out there.

Jonathan Aranda, 72%, Kyle Manzardo, 63%. Reese Hoskins, 58%, Nate Lowe, also 58%. How would you rank those four? Aranda, Manzardo, Hoskins, Nate Lowe. Aranda, Manzardo, Hoskins, and Nate Lowe. I think that's probably the order I'd go as well. Fair enough. That's why you listed them that way, isn't it, Frank?

I just... You were trying to be economical, weren't you frank? I just listed them in roster. the rate. That's basically it. Slightly deeper leagues. If you need a corner infielder in, let's say a 12-team Rotel league. Ryan O'Hern, Nolan Chanuel, Ryan Mountcastle.

Not nearly as exciting. I still have some hope for Ryan Mountcastle. Yeah, the data looks great on Mountcastle. I think people need to stick with him. Yeah, that would probably be my preference, although

I will say if Kobe Mio gets hot. He did get called up. He sat, I think, one of the first three games, including against the lefty, which isn't great. But if he gets hot, there could be some playing time risk there. Just because I think at this point, the Orioles just got up.

It's hot, right? Like, they don't have, like, time to mess around with like, oh, but his defense isn't great. Like, just if he gets hot and Ryan Moucaustle doesn't, I think there's a chance they just play Kobe Mayo ahead of Ryan Malky. But you're already on the record as supporting hot mayo, especially when you spread over turkeys, right? You know, I just want like, the recipe was in the New York Times. My guy, Kenji Lopez, is the best in the game, and he recommended it.

So this is now two weeks in a row we're organically bringing up you. You slathering your turkey in mayo. I think you guys are the weird ones for not trying. It came out great. But that's all I will say is I think there is some risk that, I mean, there's risk that it happens to Ryan O'Hern. It's just that. Yeah, O'Hern's been playing well. He's been playing well.

He's got his skill set. I just, I don't just hope the Orioles are smart enough. You're right. If Mayo gets hot, then they're going to have to find a place to play him. But, I mean, my gosh, 99th percentile max exit. velocity for Mount Castle, 79th percentile average exit velocity. Strikeout rates a little high, but the expected stats are much better than the actual stats. And I think we're going to see some, like, I don't even think.

As long as he keeps doing that with the exit velocities, I know that the actual numbers will catch up to the expected ones, if not, surpass them. All right, I got one thing, and then we can move on. Someone in the chat said people make grilled cheese by adding mayo on the outside when toasting. no thanks. That is the best way to make a grilled cheese because of mayo's high smoke point. It allows you to cook it at a higher temperature without burning the outset. That's all I'm going to say. A little food science here. This is a pro mayo podcast, both Kobe and Helmonds. I've told you guys before that like my breakout as a writer in high school was on the writing prompt. If I could ban anything from the world, I would ban blank.

And I said mayonnaise. And they loved it. Honestly, Scott, that might be the take that I agree with you most on in your entire life. I don't want. I say this with love. Grow up. No. So Tristan Koss's replacements in the deepest of Lees, Gavin Sheets, Matt Mervis, Eric Wagamon, and Carlos Santana.

As for the Red Sox, they started Romy Gonzalez at first base against a right-hand a pitcher on Saturday and Sunday, but everybody's wondering if this will lead to Roman Anthony getting promoted. And I guess they could put Raphael Devers at first base. I guess they would have to teach him first base and then put them there. It's incredibly hard. Which opens up DH, but I mean, even then, it's like, are they going to DH Roman Anthony or Jaron Duran or Willier-A-R-Bray-U? A-Bray-you won a gold glove last season. So I don't know if this is going to impact Roman Anthony getting called up. Look, a butterfly flaps its wings in Kansas and causes a typhoon.

Like what it may be, but I think you need a, you need to squint really hard at a lot of moving pieces to make this, uh, a Roman Anthony piece of news, especially because he's been dealing with some nagging issues in AAA as well. Yeah, I think it's a shoulder injury he's been dealing with. And it was just a couple weeks ago,

just because Kossis was struggling. They firmly shot down the idea of Anthony moving to first base. And obviously, that's probably partly because they had faith in Casas coming around, and now that's a moot point. But yeah, I still think that's... Honestly, it might be more likely Marcel O'Meyer gets called up because I could see them like playing Christian Gamble at first base before I could see them putting Devers there. Any deep league interest in Romney Gonzalez? Not really. No, I mean, A.L only, but that's it.

All right. Jazz Chisholm was diagnosed with a high-grade right oblique strain and is expected to miss four to six weeks, and he is a tough player to replace, given a unique skill set and his position eligibility, second, third, and outfield. Scott's sleeper hitters this week that have that eligibility, Andy Pahez, Kyle Stowers, T.J. Friedel, Jonathan, India, Max Muncie, and for those in deeper leagues, Trevor Larnick and Eli White. If you were looking for other long-term outfield replacements in shallower leagues, I wrote down Sal Freelich, now he's dealing with a knee injury, so probably want to stay away there. Taylor Ward, Jorge Solair, Jordan Beck.

If you need speed in particular, which a lot of people drafted Jazz 4, obviously Victor Scott and Chandler Simpson, I think they're still out there in like a quarter of CBS leagues and definitely Yahoo League. So if you do need speed in particular, Victor Scott and Simpson are just perfect replacements, I think. I kind of think Jazz Chisholm's going to be out more than four to six weeks.

That seems like a fairly optimistic timetable given the how high grade the oblique strain is. I would be surprised if we saw him. Maybe surprised isn't the right word, but I'm kind of expecting to see him after the All-Star break. The Yankees called a prospect, Your Beat Vivas on Friday, and Aaron Boone said he's going to get a lot of playing time. Any deep league interest in Vivas?

I didn't add him in my All right. League. All right. I mean, he was doing some nice things at AAA this year, but all of his other minor league production has been pretty blah. So I think that's fair. Mike Trout was also placed in the IL Friday with a bone bruise in his left knee. Apparently, he isn't dealing with any structural damage.

This is the same knee that he had surgery on twice last season, which casts some doubt. It's obviously Mike Trout, too, so that we have that aspect. He's just dealt with so many injuries. You know, we mentioned some outfield replacements already, but Andy Pahead. Kyle Stowers, obviously those are the names up top if you are looking to replace Mike Trout. Yoron Alvarez has missed two straight with right hand inflammation. Manager Joe Espada said Sunday

that Alvarez is feeling better and isn't expected to require any medical imaging. Start or sit Yordon Alvarez this week. Start him. Me too. And real quickly, I don't think Trout's going to be a long-term absence. I think it's going to be close to the minimum. But you never know with Mike Trout.

Cole Regens is scheduled to start Monday against the White Sox, lining him up for two starts this week. He missed the start earlier, well, last week at this point, with a groin strain. Do you start or sit Cole Regens? You start him. Lines up for two. Two starts first against the White Sox?

Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, they checked him out pretty thoroughly. Corbyn Burns will not make his scheduled start on Monday due to right shoulder inflammation. Apparently Burns dealt with fatigue over his previous two starts. The hope is that he won't need a stint on the I. and it will make his next scheduled start against Dodgers on May 10th. This feels like a very clear, do not start Corbyn Perns this week, right? Yeah.

Oddly, there is a mild sense of, okay, well, maybe that explains it. At least now we know why. Yeah. I don't know that it's going to get much better, but we have a reason for why he is not getting wifts and not throwing strikes. So explains it. And obviously the Dodgers, so yeah, I think stay. way on Corbyn-Burns. George Kirby began a rehab assignment at AAA on Sunday. Sounds like he could be

back at some point in May. Speaking of the Mariners, Jerry DePoto said he's hopeful. Logan Gilbert will return before the end of May. He is dealing with a grade one flexor strain. This timeline feels a little aggressive to me, but I'm not a doctor. What do I know? Go ahead. There have been somebody had a flexor strain last. year and only missed like a two or three weeks and ended up being fine. I'm completely blanking on who it was. It might have been Brian Wu. I think Justin.

Justin Steele dealt with the elbow thing late in the season. His was tendonitis. There was someone at the end of last season who had, or early last season that had a flexor strain and it ended up being a relative non-issue. I'm going to try to find that. But, yeah, like Ryan Weathers is currently coming back from one. And there's someone else as well. So it's very helpful.

Jackson Merrill. Some players have been hurt before. You heard it here first. That's why they pay me the big bucks. Jackson Merrill appears on track to return Monday against the Yankees. He's been out the past month with a hamstring injury. Do you guys start or sit Jackson Merrill this week? Oh, if he's returning Monday, I think in most cases you'll want to activate.

him right away. That's a really high-end bat. All right. Nick Povetta is who had a flexor strain. He ended up missing four weeks. And that was last year, not this year. That was last year, sorry. Nobody is concerned about Nick Povetta. He's fine and he's pitching very well. You guys mentioned it already, but Kobe Mayo was called up from AAA.

He's one of the Orioles top prospects. 40% rostered on CBS. Were you guys looking to add Kobe Mayo in any leagues this weekend? Um, yeah. I think, look, he, he's still continued to hit at AAA. This is one of those situations where the team seems to be losing faith in him and that matters to me. But I also just don't really know what the Orioles are doing. So I don't know how much I care about them losing faith in him either. And I don't know if that's the smartest way to approach it. But I think he's clearly talented. Um, and has the ability. to get hot and hit a bunch of homers really quickly. What kind of format were you adding them in? So, like, looking at some of my points leagues, really?

Like, I've got one where I've got A. E. E. E. Hini or Suarez is my third baseman. I've got Matt Olsen as my first baseman. I've got Ozzy Albies in my utility spot with Michael Harris on the bench. Like, that's probably not even worth chasing. Right? Yeah. Right? Like, I just, I didn't even think. unlikely I would hit start so it's it's probably context dependent but I would say any like a deep deep any 12 team roto league where you're rostering 300 plus players I have to imagine you have someone less interesting than Kobe Mayo who has been a top 25 prospect for three years in a row now

yeah Tommy Edmund was placing the aisle with a right ankle injury retroactive to April 30th he dealt with the same injury last season eligible to return this Saturday because it was backdated. You won't necessarily be back on that day, but he can return. The Dodgers promoted Highson Kim, 26 years old. He signed from the KBO this offseason. And in the minors, he was hitting 252, five home runs, 13 steals, 798 OPS, 17% rostered.

Any deep league interest in Heisun Kim? Yeah, some deep league interest. I'm still not sure that the bat's going to play. in the majors and the playing time situation is unclear as well. I think he's a good base dealer. I didn't like that he was striking out so much. But the power production, not that the eggs velocities were great, but the power production was a little better than I was expecting.

So there's hope Highson Kim could turn into something. I've seen some excitement about his AAA production, and it's mostly been hitting for power, and that is not something I expect. Kim to do. His plate discipline metrics were not very good at AAA, like 25% strikeout rate. Zone contact rate was I think like 70% or something. It was something pretty alarming. No, it's 85. Oh, was it? Yeah. What I see. According to Stag. Maybe it was overall, his overall contact rate was was low then.

But the average X velocity, 87 miles per hour, the max 106. Yeah. Hard hit rate 30%. I don't think the power. I think he's a slap hitter right now at this point in his career, and I don't know how much he's going to play. So that's, I think, even in a 12-team Roto League, I'm not running out. No, not that depth, like a deeper league. Three pitchers who left early on Sunday. Showed to Imanaga with a left hamstring strain,

Freddie Peralta with groin soreness, and Tanner Bibi with cramping in both of his legs. What are you guys doing with Imenaga, Peralta, and Tanner Bibi this week? I meanaga, I don't know, maybe he misses the IL, but I would be surprised if he didn't go on the IL, even as a pitcher, hamstring injuries. You should just assume hamstring injuries will lead to IL stints. Peralta, I think I'd start. Bybee, I might, like, Bybee's injury doesn't seem like a big deal, but he's also been pretty bad for the most part. And he's going against the Phillies this week.

And even if he gets pushed back two days, that's enough that he doesn't make a start at all this week. So with Bybee, I think it's worth pointing out just to be consistent with my analysis on Corbyn Burns and expressing genuine concerns over him. Bybee's swinging strike rate has kind of plummeted this year. And he only had three whiffs in this latest start at Toronto, I believe. he had four whiffs two starts before that. These aren't strikeouts.

These are whiffs. Three and four for a whole start. He's starting the sinker more. I think he's throwing his cutter more as well. And it just, it all feels like he's finding himself. It kind of looks like if I'm reading the image right on Stackcast and it's on baseball Savon, it's not something I worked with a lot. So maybe I don't.

have a good read on it yet, but it kind of looks like his arm has dropped. His arm angle has dropped. And that's something he could fix, but you could understand why he's not the same picture right now because of it. Does that look right, Chris?

Not at what I'm looking at, but the movement profiles don't look the same. So I think either way, like, he just doesn't look right right now. The comp I was gonna make was also to Corbyn Burns just in that maybe this is just a an excuse to not start them like maybe it's kind of a bonus for you that like you you have an excuse not to start these

guys. Blake'snell is expected to resume playing catch this week. He recently had his throwing program shut down after experiencing a setback with his left shoulder. Randy Rose Arena left early on Sunday due to quote a little bit of a hamstring thing per manning. Dan Wilson. They said it's nothing serious. I don't know. Pay attention on Monday. I would say maybe plan to have a replacement for a Rose Arena.

Red Sox placed Walker Bueller on the aisle due to right shoulder inflammation. Hunter Dobbins will take his spot for now. Josh Lowe has been dealing with back spasms over the past couple days and hasn't been playing in rehab games as a result. Zach Eflin began a rehab assignment on Sunday. And it sounds like he could return later this week. The Orioles have an open spot in their rotation. but I don't think we should chance that, right?

Zach Eflin? I would prefer not to, yeah. Speaking of the Orioles, Grayson Rodriguez, we'll get more imaging done in a few weeks and could be clear to resume throwing at that time. He's been dealing with shoulder, elbow, and lat injuries to his right arm this season.

AJ Smith-Shawver will make his next scheduled start Monday against the Reds, which makes him a two-start pitcher. So he gets the Reds and at the Pirates this week, has got any interest in AJ Smith-Shawver, two-star pitcher? Well, he didn't make the 10 sleeper pitchers for this upcoming week, but his best start was his most recent one in Colorado when he left after taking the ball off the elbow. So hopefully that will obviously was against the Rockies,

and now he's coming back from a bruised elbow. But hopefully that was the start of him maybe putting things together, because the stuff certainly appears to be there for AJ Smith-Sholver. I would not be eager to start him, though, even with the two. Anthony Volpe felt a pop in his left shoulder on Saturday on a diving defensive play. X-rays came back negative, but he was out of the lineup Sunday. He was not available at all, like not even as a pinch hitter throughout the game. You know, he's not a pivotal player, but in like a deeper roto league,

would you start Volpe this week or look for a replacement? I try to start somebody else, but that's, The juice may not be worth the squeeze when you're scouring the waiver wire for shortstop replacements, and you may just want to cross your fingers and hope he plays most of the week. This one stinks as Austin Hayes was placing the I-L with a left hamstring strain retroactive to April 29th. Obviously, he was crushing it off to a great start in his Reds career, but he's on the shelf for now. Uri Perez said that the plan is for him to make a total of eight rehab starts as he recovers from Tommy John. He's already made two, so that looks like early June, assuming that.

there are no setbacks. Other players who went on the aisle this weekend, Isaiah Kiner Folefa, Otto Lopez, and Ryan Feltner. Let's take our final break, and when we return, we'll get into the rest of this weekend's action right after this.

Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today, and taking a look at the waiver wire hitters from the weekend. Tyler Stevenson returned and performed well. Two hits on Friday. Hit a home run on Sunday. Last year, hit 258, 19 home runs. He obviously,

take that at the catcher position, 56% rostered. Would you guys take Tyler Stevenson over Augustine Ramirez, who all of a sudden is not the best hitter of all time? All right, so I've seen some like, oh, Augustine Ramirez, we fell for it again. And like, this is not a Kyron Paris situation. No, I think he's good. I think he's legit.

Augustine Ramirez is a legit prospect. Karen Parris came out of nowhere. And two, Karen Paris, things started falling apart because he was striking out like 45% of the time. Augustine Ramirez, I think he's won for his last 24 after today. And his strikeout rate is like 20% in that stretch. So doesn't actually seem to be much of a concern there. I'm sticking with Ramirez.

I think Stevenson is fine, but he's just fine. And you're hoping Ramirez can be more than fine. Would you take Stevenson over Sean Murphy? No. Would you take same rationale? Now. Over Carson Kelly? Yes, because Carson Kelly, I think once he turns back into a pumpkin, he will be probably like a 40% share guy in terms of playing time. Would you take him over any of Caber Ruiz, Hunter Goodman, or Austin Wells?

I forget who we're talking about. Tyler Stevenson. Tyler Stevenson. Okay. I'll take him over Wells. And who was the second name you mentioned? Ruiz and Goodman. Yeah, I'd prefer him to Ruiz. Not Goodman. I think Stevenson's Likeliest outcome is he's better than Goodman, but I'm okay chasing the upside with Goodman.

Can I mention one catcher who's even more low-rostered who I would drop Cabert Ruiz for? Who's that? And I know Scott hates this guy. Uh-oh. Edgar Cuero is good. And he is playing, he has started, I think, four games at DH already.

like a not insignificant amount of DH starts if I'm correct. Great numbers at AAA. He's making a lot of contact. I think Edgar Cuero is good. Not a lot of power. Good. I think Kiber Ruiz is a more proven version of Edgar Caro. Yeah.

How do you like that? He could even be Kimber WRIES. Exactly. I think two. Oh, jinks. Two catcher leagues for sure. I would look for Caro. I don't think I would take him over any of the names that we just talked about, though.

For the other outfielders, Kyle Stowers, we already spoke about. He has been awesome. Max Kepler is picking things up. He homered on both Friday and Saturday. Last seven games, he's hitting 320 with four home runs. Ryan O'Hern, last seven games for him, hitting 348 with four homers. And what year is it? Because Javier Baez.

That's right. Javier Baez. doing some things. He homered in three straight games from Wednesday through Friday. He's batting over 300. He's got three homers, one seal in 829 OPS.

He's swinging less. He's chasing less. Swinging strike rate is down. His quality of contact is also terrible. But what do you guys think of these names in five outfielder leagues? Kepler, O'Hern, and Javier Baez. Dude, Javier Baez looks awesome in center field.

Like, it's not surprising because he's that kind of player, but he's been really fun to watch playing center field. And I don't think there's anything here offensively, but maybe, I don't know,

maybe he's rediscovered something. The underlying stuff doesn't really buy it. Yeah. And I don't either. I think Kepler is legitimately good. Yeah. I think it's pretty clear. Max Kepler is what we hoped

Michael Conforter would be this year. I haven't ruled out Conforto being that also, but Kepler was somebody who, uh, I know I was hyping up as spring training went on. And then I had him on like the first few sleeper hitters list for the first few weeks. And he didn't do anything. And I stopped putting him on the sleeper hitters list and now he's finally living up to it.

Yeah, I like Kepler for five outfielder leagues. Uh, O'Hern, of course, has the big platoon issue. but he's been insanely productive so far. I didn't realize his strikeout rate dropped to 14% last year, and that's continued this year. That's like half of what it was in his royals days, Ryan O'Hern. So I like both of them fine for five outfielder leagues. Baez, you know, after that good start Andrew Heaney had with the nine strikeouts,

I said it was the fakes thing I've ever seen. I'm going to say that about bias, too, fakes thing I've ever seen. I saw people throwing tons of fab dollars at him. Like you're going to be sad with where that ends up. How about the Tigers, by the way, man? They are playing good ball this season. They're also a great start as a team. A U-till-type player, Josh Smith had himself a nice weekend.

He homered on Friday. He had four hits on Sunday. If you're looking for him on CBS, that's Josh H. Smith on CBS. 53% rostered. Should that be higher? Does that sound about it? Is he still going to play with Seeger back?

He played this weekend and Seeger returned on Saturday. Seeger was D-Hing. I mean, they'll find opportunities to get Smith in the lineup. I would put him behind. Smith led off each game this weekend too. I would put him behind Kepler and O'Hern in terms of my interest. All right. Waverwire pitchers.

What do we think of Gunner-Hogland's debut for the ace? He pitched very well against the Marlin, six innings, one run, seven strikeouts, 11 whiffs on 81 pitches here, 24% rostered. Chris, what do you think of Gunner Hoagland? That's pretty impressive. Not a superstar. There's a little Tyler Malley here where really good fastball shape. 20 inches is an used vertical break.

Yeah, pretty mediocre. velocity. So he probably really needs to be precise with it. And if he keeps it up in the zone, he's got a good change up as well. I think there could be something here. The problem is the brain balls, I don't know, it's one start.

So they weren't impressive for sure. Didn't seem to have a good feel for them. So, you know, if the fastball and or change up aren't working, things could get pretty, I'd be pretty quickly for Hoagland. But I do think he's worth rostering. Yeah, I think he's worth.

adding in 12-team Roto leagues. Yeah, we can chase some upside there. So waivers, pretty much all of my leagues are set up to just have one weekly run of Fab, really, not even waivers, all running Sunday night, just for ease of managing all the different teams I'm on. Every league where Hogland was available, I put, or Hoagland, right? Every league where Hoagland was available, I put in a bid for him. It was like a zero.

You didn't go hogwild? Well, in the 15 team. Were you just saying that to make the joke or were you honestly? I mean, you can answer it. In the 15 teamers, it was more like, you know, one or like 2% of the budget. But most of the times it was just zero in case all my other bids collapsed. I was interested enough that I could find somebody to drop for them if my more interesting bits didn't go through is the point.

And, you know, when he got called up, I pointed out, he just had a 10% swinging strike rate at AAA. And one good start in the majors doesn't change that. I mean, that's pretty unoppressive, particularly against AAA hitters. But at least this first start, the fastball played really well. And if the control is good enough, I could see it working. All right, let's continue on with other waiver wire pitchers. And all four of these pitched well, Grant Holmes, James and Tion, Jose Soriano, J.P. Sears. Scott, how are you ranking that group? Sears, Soriano, Tyone, and Grant Holmes.

That was an interesting star for Holmes, wasn't it? Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in. 15 swinging strikes, 9Ks. The slider was sliding. Conner was cracking up whiffs against that Dodgers lineup. It was his most impressive start of the year. And so I think if you haven't dropped Grant Holmes yet, it's enough reason to hold on. And I think he's clearly more interesting than these others. The second most interesting is Jose Soriano, who really expanded his arsenal in this one. It was, and obviously got better results than he's gotten recently. So he was mostly just sinker, I think it was last year, Sinker Splitter.

Pretty much just two pitches. CER ball. CER ball. Okay. So he's expanded to have a splitter. and a four seamer and just looked like a more complete pitcher in this starting. He throws hard, he gets a ton of ground balls. I don't think Jose Soriano has superstar potential,

but I think he has, you know, number six, number seven type starter and fantasy potential, which is enough to keep him rostered in most leagues. Only 54% rostered. I think it should be higher than that. All right, again, that was Jose Soriano. Next group includes Nick Martinez. Tomoyuki Sugano, Brian Beo, and Ben Brown. Chris, how do you rank this group?

Brown, Beo, Sugano, and Nick Martinez. I don't like these guys very much at all. I think I would go Beo-Sugano, Martinez, Brown, but that might just be league dependent because Martinez is a spark. Sugano's now had three quite good starts in a row. I don't really think there's much here at all. the effectiveness of all the whiffs we saw on the splitter in his previous start they went away and remember that last start he also led with the sweeper which was up like two miles per hour

that went away too he just kind of reverted to what he'd been doing in previous starts sugano so i'm back i'm glad i didn't overreact the other way after the one good start for sagano because i'm back off of it i will say though if i may for nick martinez this was his best start by a long shot. It was a second straight quality start and she'll maybe by the top line result it looks similar to the previous one. But he threw 65% of his pitches for strikes,

walked nobody. And his change-up was getting whiffs like we saw during that stretch last year when he was so effective. It got seven whiffs, 44% whiff rate in this one. That was very similar to his season-long whiff rate on the change-up last year.

So it's just one start for Nick Martinez. But in those deeper leagues where the waiver wires just barren for starting pitching, I think it's reason to resist dropping Nick Martinez, too. If you hadn't already, and if you had, maybe even pick them back up, again, because there's not much interesting out there. The kind of leagues where, like, Gunner-Hoglund is clearly the best pitcher available on waivers, I think Nick Martinez is worth the second look. Some names in Deeper League,

Zach Lattel, Stephen Kolek, Lance McCullors Jr, and Michael McGruevy, they all pitched well this weekend. Deep League names, does anyone stand out here for you guys? No, I mean, I don't, like, I don't think there's that much different

separating, like, Nick Martinez and Tomi Yuki Sagano from Zach Lattel. I think they're all fairly similar, like command and control guys, when they're commanding it well, they can get away with it, but stuff's not good enough. Colac

I did a double take at first I thought this was that guy the Marlins drafted like 10 years ago different Colac this one not very good that's all I have to add it was good to see Lance McCuller's out there

first starts since 2022 he's somehow only 31 years old I think it's extremely unlikely he makes any kind of impact like I added him in one league just to see but I don't think there's any upside there so it's fine to drop them let me ask you about some of these names on the dropometer

Jack Leiter has struggled in two starts since returning from the IL and I just kind of wonder if this IL stint messed up the flow that he was in because look good to start the season still 72% rostered where is Jack Leiter on the dropometer try not to drop them

I think the town is there the upside we've seen I'd hope that I have have someone less interesting than Jack Leiter to drop. But look, all of a sudden, the overall numbers look pretty bad. You know, strike eye rates under eight per nine. It's not at all a guarantee that he's useful moving forward. I still think I'd rather, you know, even drop someone like Sugano who's running hot right now.

I'd rather have take the flyer on lighter just in case this is lighter. He can turn things around. Lighter or Jose Soriano? I think lighter's upside's a little higher, so it probably depends on the state of the rest of my pitching staff. If I don't think I need a starter in the next week or two, I'd rather have lighter and just see. But Soriano is more likely to give us a 380 ERA.

And we haven't mentioned the name because he didn't pitch this week, but Tony Gonsolin, clearly the hottest pitcher on the waiver wire where he still is. And we'd all take Gonsolent over Lider, I assume. Yeah. Yeah. I'd take him over Hoagland. If Grant Holmes and Tony Gonsel were both available, that'd be an interesting one. That would be interesting.

I think Holmes has more strikeout upside. His command's pretty bad. And his fastball's not great. I don't know if I would pull the trigger on dropping Holmes for Gonson. If both were available, I might take Gonson. It's close. Yeah. Yeah, that is close.

I might take Gonsland, too, if it didn't cost me like a bunch of, Fab dollars. Yeah. What about Gavin Williams on the dropometer? I mean, here we are again. Four innings, two runs, five walks, nine strikeouts. Whiffs, not a problem. Getting a ton of whiffs this season, but cannot throw strikes, getting hit hard.

It's a 506 ERA 175 whip, 78% rostered. Where is Gavin Williams on the dropometer? I saw one of the stuff accounts do their like daily round up and it was like, it's always funny when you know the results already because then it's like Gavin Williams had the best stuff plus of the day. And it's like he had a 3.00 whip. Like that that kind of sums up the Gavin Williams experience right now. You can see it working out. There is no reason to believe it's going to. Well, two of his last three starts, he's gotten a ton of whiffs. And he wasn't getting whiffs before then. He was just bad all the way around. So I do think, I do think he's trending the right

way. Is it fast enough? Is the endpoint going to be promising enough to make him worth the weight? I'm not totally opposed to dropping Gavin Williams. I'd do it for Tony Gonsolin, for instance. Would you do it for Gunner-Hoglin? No. I'm hesitant to do it if it's not somebody that, if it's if it's just like a lark like that you know like I don't really think there's much here but I'll take a flyer on it just in case I'm not going to drop Gavin Williams for that because I think Gavin Williams is still a better version of that

than like a Gunner Hoagland is man the sweeper is the only thing working for him at all right now he's just getting crushed when he throws anything else including I mean the cutter it's a very small sample size that's the one thing he's started mixing back in over the last couple of starts. I think he should throw the cutter more because he doesn't really have anything to neutralize lefties. That's also part of the problem with his approach. And so maybe throwing the cutter more could help him unlock something there.

Two other names. I think we can drop both of these guys, Andrew Heaney and Bowden, Francis. See you later. Definitely. I'm going to say definitely both, but especially Bowden Francis. There's just, there's nothing to redeem him there. I think it's fine to hang on to him in a head-to-head points league. I think it's also perfectly fine to drop him.

All right, what's going on with these starting pitchers? Let's kind of move through this here as quick as we possibly can because they are some interesting starting pitchers. But Dillon C struggled again this time at the Pirates of all teams, four innings, two runs, three walks, three strikeouts. It's a 561 ERA 160 whip, and he's at the Yankees this week. So, A, what's going on with Dylan C's? B, do you start them this week?

This is one where like, I don't, like, you did the like against the pirates of all teams and like, yeah, you should pitch better against the pirates. I don't know if matchups matter for Dylan C's. Like I just, it's just does he have it or doesn't he? And right now he doesn't. And so given the fact that it is a tough matchup against the Yankees, they have been the best offense in baseball so far, I believe. I'm fine sitting him this week. I don't think you want to do anything else. I think that's the only thing you can't do is sit Dylan Sees.

And if he goes out and has seven innings of 11 strikeout ball, I don't think any of us would be even the slightest bit surprised. And you just start him next week if he does that. Yeah, fair enough. I think it's just you got to wait. You got to let Dylan Seas play out. He's almost become Blake Snell-like in that way. Yeah.

What about Framberval? who had a bad start against the White Sox is another one where, all right, good matchup. We're hoping it works out here. Five innings, seven hits, four runs, six strikeouts. He's got a 439 ERA 127 whip. Just hasn't been sharp. Got off to a slow start last year as well. Do you guys start for Amber Valdez home against the Reds this week?

I think so. I don't think he's been bad enough to steer me away from him. His velocity was done. down quite a bit in this start two, 2.4 miles per hour on each of the sinker and curve. It was also 49 degrees in Chicago that night. Yeah, there were some cold games this weekend. Yep. Max Meyer, rough outing up against the athletics, five innings, 10 hits, five runs, one walk, zero strikeouts. That's like two starts after a 14 strikeout performance here. He gave up three homers in this one, 12 hard hits allowed. So there have been some inconsistencies recently. On the whole,

I mean, we still have gotten some great starts from Max Meyer, but... Well, did we get Jared Jones? Do we actually get the good starts from Max Meyer? Or did we get only the bad starts? Because that's when we trusted him enough to start him. I feel worse about this than anything I've said about Pete Crow Armstrong, because just the... He has the 14 strikeout effort,

and then immediately after that, his two worst starts of the season by far. And what's happened during these two worst starts is his slider usage has gone, way down. It had been about 50% when he was dominating. Then it went to 33% two starts ago, just 22% this time. And maybe there's a good reason why he's fading the slider. Maybe it's got crushed.

Yeah. So maybe he's like lost the feel for it or whatever. But like he needs it. He needs it to, when he has it, he can dominate. And so maybe it just Benchmeyer for now until you see. him get it back, but I'm not eager to drop him because we've seen what he can do when he does have that slider. Yeah, seven balls in play on the slider in this one, only one whiff.

So already you know there's problems. 97 mile per hour average X velocity on the slider in this one. The movement profile looks most of the same. So I think it's probably just like a command thing. His fastball hasn't been quite as good as well, although the velocity was back in this one, thankfully after it had been down in the previous start. I'm not too concerned, but I gets the light sucks this week.

Yeah. Oh, gosh. Yeah, you can't bench him for that. You just got to hope he, you just got to hope he turns it around this week. Yeah. I will say on the Luis Robert front, uh,

the Marlins have been so bad at, uh, stopping base runners this season. So might be a, uh, might be a good week for Luis Robert in your Roto leagues. More steals coming for Luis Robert. Uh, All right. Nick Lidolo's next up. He got hit hard up against the Nationals.

Five and a third. Ten hits, seven runs. Six earned. 14 hard hits allowed against Nick Lidolo. He's just been a mixed bag. It's like three bad starts, one solid start, three very good starts for him. The overall numbers look okay, but it's been frustrating, and he's at the Braves this week. What do you guys think on Lidolo? He's been the most perplexing pitcher because not only is the performance gone, up and down. The curveball.

Some days it gets tons of whiffs. Some days it gets none at all. And the movement profile doesn't seem to change with that. So I don't really know what's going on with this curveball. And his curveball is kind of his whole thing. Like, Nicodolo is synonymous with Nicolodolo's curveball. And so that's not, that doesn't put my mind at ease to know that it's, that it's just been very hard to read for as an analyst to read this year.

So I think I'd prefer to sit them if I have the options. But yeah, I don't really have a good read on how this plays out. I don't, I wouldn't say I have a ton of confidence in Nick Ludolo going forward. I just know you have to hang on to him. His curveball's been off all year. He's been getting like five less inches of horizontal break. But some days it gets a ton of whiffs. That's true.

Restarts recently where it had. But the movement profile's been off. And for me, even when it's been working, it just maybe it can work, but it hasn't worked consistently enough for me to buy in. So I'm pretty pessimistic on Nicodolo. And I was probably the highest of anyone on him coming in. But he just has not had the feel for that pitch. And kind of somewhat similar with our next guy,

I feel like his best pitch has not really been working for him, has it? Spencer Schwellenbach. Spencer Schwellenbach, a rough start against the Dodgers, weekend three and a three and two thirds six runs allowed still had 14 whiffs last four starts a 717 era 155 whip and he has struggled with lefties this year it's a 272 batting average 809 ops against struggled a little bit against lefties last season as well uh where are we at on spencer schwellenbach what would you say is his best pitch i i think i had read the wrong i i thought his splitter had been struggling it it hasn't been as good as it was last season but it's not

It doesn't seem like that's the main issue. Okay. I don't really see anything to worry about here. I think this is, because there are a lot of, I told you so is going on with Spencer Schwellenbach right now. And that's, that that was one of the things that inspired my frustration with, okay, why are we making broad generalizations this early in the season? especially since this was just his second non-quality start of the year. And he hasn't been as sharp his last few outings. I'm not denying that.

But like, that's how baseball seasons go. Yeah, it's easy to forget in the moment, especially if you happen to be in one of the ebbs or one of the waxing moments rather than one in the waning moments or whatever. I mean, he has a for the year, 392 ERA, 1-11 whip, 14% swinging strike rate. 1.5 walks per 9. Like, this just doesn't seem like

anybody should, any, any Schwellenbach deniers should be taking a victory lap right now. Like, yeah, he had a bad start. He's had two bad starts in his last four. His curveball's been pretty bad. It's getting hit really hard. He's got five other pitches.

No, I, well, it's not just the, because the cutter's also getting hit really hard. And the foreseeing. And it's forcing you. The slider and splitter have been great. Um, whiff rate down on the splitter, but it was a small sample size.

So a 46% whiff rate may have just not been sustainable. What do you honestly think is going to happen? I mean, we could get into the minutia. I don't think it's worth getting into the minutia though. I was maybe a little more skeptical on Schwellenbach. Um, being like a true top 12 type.

starting pitcher. Who has him? Well, nobody ranked him that way, but that was the hope was that he was going to break out and become that. And I was less bought in on the immediate upside, but it's mostly not finishing hitters off, it seems. Because like you said, the swinging strike rate, close to 15%.

That's really good. It's just either he's not getting into two strike counts often enough, or he's not putting hitters away, which sounds like it's a a, but do you think that's a permanent affliction? No,

I just, like he has, him and Gere Crochet have the smallest sample sizes of high level pitching at any level of any pitcher in the top 50.

Like, Schwellenbach and Gersh Crochet does nothing before last season. It's just what they and they were incredible last season. You don't see a lot of 15% swinging strike.

I can't think of a single one who doesn't... I don't think there's anything actionable about it. I just think there's a chance that Schwellenbach doesn't become an ace. Okay, yeah. That's all. That's fine. There's definitely a chance he doesn't become an ace, but I still think... I still think there's not going to be a point where you sincerely consider taking him out of your line.

I agree. Have these starting pitchers taken another step forward this season? We mentioned Hunter Green earlier. Obviously, you know, we can't go too in depth on all. these names, but Hunter Green, Yamamoto, Brian Wu, Logan, Webb, Reese Olson. Those are the five I have written down here that all on paper look like they might be taking the next step.

What do you guys think about Green, Yamamoto, Wu, Webb, and Reese Olson? Yeah, we've kind of already talked about it with Green Yamamoto is in my top 10 now. So I'm basically viewing his face. Yeah. I think that's the biggest. He's just healthy. He's healthy and he's getting, like, it doesn't look like the dot.

are intensely managing his workload like they were for some parts of last season. Wu has, I think Wu's gone six plus every start but one. So whatever workload concerns might have existed for him that appear to be out the window as well. I love watching him pitch.

He is so much fun. I'm a woo girl. Web, we've talked about Web a lot. Yeah, Olson, I really like what Olson's been doing. I mean, it's kind of the same thing he's always been doing. It's just kind of playing out like we always dreamed it would. Like, the fastball's not very good, but his change up and his slider are both so good.

I think one has a 45% whiff rate and one has 50% whiff rate. They weren't far off last year either. And he doesn't throw us. fastball that much relative to most pitchers. It's just getting to two strikes is a chore sometimes. That's the only problem with Resolson. I think that's why, has he gone six full yet? I feel like it's been a lot of like five and a third.

He had a seven, a seven inning outing. Although, I feel like it's been just a lot of just short of equality starts for him. I've been noticing a lot of pitchers who we think of is really good, struggling to go six innings this year. That's been Jack Flaherty, I think, has gone six innings just once. Yeah, I don't even think he, I don't know if he has. Yeah, maybe he hasn't. Yeah.

But anyway, yeah, I think Olson's good. Also with a 53% ground ball rate, which is very high. So even when he's not getting strikeouts, he's getting good outs. So, yeah, Olson trending up. I think he's throwing that sinker more, which helps in a lot of ways. because the four seamers has worst pitch. And they'll just say, I think this might be the best Logan Webb we've ever seen. I think the struggles that he had with the change up last year,

forcing him to find that cutter that he introduced in August, rely more on the sweeper. I think it's all just kind of he had to adapt and he did a really good job doing it. So I'm really impressed with what we've seen from Logan Webb so far. Wanted to mention some hitters who were picking things up. Spencer Stier last 11 games hitting 326 with two home runs, two steals, and OPS over 900. Spoke about Luis Robert already. Vinnie Pass Guantino, Vinny Pee!

Baby! Homeward on Saturday and Sunday, he has four home runs in his past eight games. And Jackson Holiday, three for four with a double dong on Sunday, and hitting 400 over his last seven games. Anything you'd like to add on Stier, Vinnie Pee or Jackson Holiday? I think Stier probably got dropped in too many leagues. Um, still 81% rostered kind of He's pretty marginal in points But I did see him out there in one Roto league

I will be looking to add him Um Scott were you the one who dropped him in that league? No, no I just I know what Roto league it is Um oh we all do Because we're all trying to add him Okay, I need to add my bid Yeah maybe I need to up that bid

I put a low dollar bet on him I'm just kidding I'm just kidding We're not accidentally bid Spencer Steer to like $40 I was just checking to see if they went through already. I do not have $40 left in that league. So, I do.

Okay, you could get him for $40. It's not going to be $40. Totally kidding. Yeah, not adding him anywhere. Some leftovers for the pitchers. Terrick Scoobel, Joe Ryan, Robbie Ray, Max Reed, all big starts this weekend. Anything that stood out for those four.

Freed, Robbie Ray, Joe Ryan, Terik Scoobel. So Robbie Ray is obviously a much more decorated and celebrated pitcher than Gavin Williams. But like, this is what you're hoping happens with Gavin Williams, right? Is that he just goes from looking completely lost

and can't find the strike zone to just locking in and immediately, I think it's 16 strikeouts to three walks over the past two starts. That's what you're hoping for with Gavin Williams. And actually, like, I think that upside's there. It's just that we've seen it many times from Robbie Ray

and we've never seen it from Gavin Williams at the major league level. So that's why I'm more, confident Robbie Ray moving forward than Gavin Williams, which I hope goes without saying. What's weird about, I talked about how something's going to change for Max Freed. Like obviously he's not going to sustain a 101 ERA. I'm sorry, Yankees fans. It's going to be over three in all likelihood, which will still make him a really good pitcher.

Over three would actually be like one of Max Fried's worst seasons ever. Is that right? he's like pretty consistently been a sub three era guy hasn't he he's had uh only one two full seasons two full seasons two full seasons with an era below three okay so maybe it'll it'll be between two and a half and three 25 maybe it'll be below three but not by much um it's weird that he's done this with his lowest strikeout rate and his lowest swinging strike rate and his lowest ground ball rate well at least not the lowest ground ball rate ever, but one of their lower ground ball rates. Like that's all kind of weird, right? That's all the more reason to think, okay, this is not the

best version of Max Fried we've ever seen. Yeah, I agree with that. Some other pitching leftovers, Kevin Gosman, Bailey Ober and Aaron Nola. Anything to add on those three? They all pitch well. This is the first time Kevin Gosman has actually looked like the good version of Kevin Gosman. He had nine whiffs with the splitter. I think there was one other start where he got a lot of whiffs on the splitter. But it, yeah, I think it's only been two starts this season. Yeah, it's been problematic and it's made it hard to buy in. I need to see more than one start, especially since the movement profile still isn't where it was in the past. But his fastball's playing up. If the splitter is 90% as good as it was at his peak,

that'll probably still play. But I'm pretty skeptical still. All right. Some hitting leftovers, Cal Raleigh continues to mash. two home runs on Friday. He is up to 12, which leads all of baseball. Bo Bichette, finally on the board. Hit his first home run on Saturday, added another steal on Sunday. The Royals set a new franchise record

with seven home runs on Sunday. Two for Michael Garcia, one of each for Bobby Witt Jr., Jonathan India, Vinnie P, Michael Massey, and Luke Maley. Geraldo Pardomo continues to impress four for five with two steals on Sunday. Willie Adomis,

three for five with a double dong on Sunday. and Carrie Carpenter has three home runs in his past six games, and he is off to a very nice start this season as well. By the way, Michael Garcia, a late addition to the sleeper hitters for the upcoming week, and in fact, he's number one on the list now. We might be giving him short shrift. He might be taking a step forward here. Yeah.

He's elevating the ball a lot more. He's hitting it to the pole side in the air more. These are Power's always been there Raw power at least Better plate discipline No it's been an impressive start for Michael Garcia

And he still has a bunch of steals He's attempted 12 He has seven He still three just the other day Look the Royals need to generate offense any way possible I know they hit seven home runs in this game But that is not like them

So far this season So yeah they've Most of the time they have to run To help generate offense there For the Yankees this weekend, oh, bullpen updates, I should probably mention that's where we're going next. Bullpen updates for the Yankees on Friday. Devin Williams got the eighth inning with a three-run lead.

He struck out one. Luke Weaver got the ninth and struck out two for his third save. That is three straight scoreless outings for Devin Williams. For the Dodgers on Friday, Tanner Scott pitched in the eighth inning. It was Evan Phillips who picked up the save in the ninth, and he is only 8% rostered. Deeper leagues could Evan Phillips pick up saves the way? that Blake Trinanen was earlier this season?

Kind of feel like maybe. Sure, yeah. Maybe. Yeah. But he's not going to overtake, Scott. No, no. But as a, I don't know, third or fourth closer in a deep roto league,

sure. I think you can maybe pick up a few saves along the way. For the Angels, on Friday, Kenley Jansen entered the game with a tide, and he got rocked. He gave up six runs, three homers, took his first loss, and then he bounced back on Saturday for his seventh save.

for the Guardians this weekend on Saturday. Class A picked up his sixth save, and then on Sunday he picked up his seventh, so just kind of feels like he is back. For the Pirates on Saturday, David Beddard got the ninth inning with the game tied. He gave up a run on one hit, and it was just a crazy sequence

from Fernando Tatee Jr. who hit a lead-off double, then stole third, and he scored on a wild pitch that barely got away from the catchers. I will point out Dennis Santana returned to the team. He was on the bereavement. list. He returned on Sunday.

I think David Bednar is just the closer now, but I don't know if there have been was, did Bettner get, he got one save with Santana active. It did, but Santana was facing the top of the Dodgers lineup in the eighth. So not clear yet. Yeah. For the Giants on Saturday, Camillo DeVal got the seventh inning with a three-run lead facing nine, one, and two in the Rockies lineup. He retired all three.

Ryan Walker, then later picked up. the save, his sixth of the season. For the Rangers on Saturday, I guess they didn't want to go to Luke Jackson after he blew the game on Wednesday. He got rocks in that one. Chris Martin got the ninth inning with the game tied, and he gave up a run on two hits. He took his fourth loss, so Rangers bullpen, it's been a little shaky lately, but I think it's still Luke Jackson for now. For the Marlins on Sunday with the game tied, Hesu's Tinoco pitched a scoreless 7th, Calvin Foshae pitched a scoreless 8th, and it was Anthony Bender, who then gave up a run on two hits in the 9th and took his second loss. And for the D-backs on Sunday, Kevin Ginkle pitched in the

seventh inning with a two-run lead facing the heart of the Phillies lineup. Then it was Ryan Thompson in the 8th and Shelby Miller in the 9th, who gave up two runs. He took a second blown save. Jalen Beeks eventually got the save in extra innings. But I don't know. Do you guys have a feel yet for the debacks, like Ginkle faced the heart of the lineup. I feel like he's been the highest leverage guy and now Shelby Miller blew a save. So I don't know. I would be a little worried about Shelby Miller's job security coming off of this game if Kevin Ginkle hadn't also given up a run earlier in that game.

Yeah. You know? Yeah. It's, I think Shelby Miller has the advantage for now. But it's a very tenuous grasp on that role. To stream or not to stream on Monday. we have Ben Casparius, who's starting for the Dodgers. He is at the Marlins.

We have A.J. Smith-Shavar, home against the Reds. Real quick. Real quick. Justin Martinez did get some good news with his shoulder scan over the weekend. So he may also not end up missing as much time as we feared with the diamond-back situation. Ben Casparius, A.J. Smith-Shawver, we have, no, don't want to use Rup against the Cubs. Shane Smith at the Royals. Griffin Canning at the D-back.

Severino versus the Mariners. Mariners are not a good matchup. No. We got to move past that one. Since they fired their hitting coach in August, they've been the best offense in baseball. It's still fine at Team Mobile because it's such a hard place to hit pitch, but you don't want the Mariners on the road.

That game is in Sacramento too. Yeah. The bottom four spots in their lineup are dreadful. That's fair, but they've still been scoring a lot of runs. So I would not be targeting them. there are some pitchers I like who don't have great matchups. I will go with, man, if I thought Casperius was going to give us five innings, I would do it. But he hasn't gone more than 3.2 yet.

I will probably go with Ortiz, A.J. Smith Schaver and Shane Smith. Yeah, Shane Smith's top of the list for me. I probably go Luis Severino second and Luis Ortiz third. And then on Tuesday we have Gialito home against the Rangers Andrew Abbott is at the Braves Colin Ray facing the Giants Verlander at the Cubs

Liberator facing the pirates I might like Monday's options better Tyler Anderson home against the Blue Jays Jeffrey Springs home against the Mariners Libby against the Pirates I'd go Anderson ahead of Liberator Hmm Anderson is Blue Jays

I'll put him second. Yeah. I can't really come up with the third, probably Verlander, but the Cubs obviously are a tough match. Yeah, I'd go Gioito over Verlander. I think so too, but I do like Liberator and Tyler Anderson the most on Tuesday. We are going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank.

Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, and we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Paramount Podcasts.