Fantasy Baseball Today - Kyle Wright's Breakout, Waiver Wire Adds & Weekend Recap (4/25 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 25, 2022

Are Kyle Wright and Eric Lauer legitimately breaking out (1:15)? ... Ty France is on fire (11:20)! ... Are Bailey Ober and Jameson Taillon worth picking up (16:15)? ... Is Eugenio Suarez must add (26:15)? Randal Grichuk or Joc Pederson? ... News and notes (33:15): Eloy Jimenez is out 6-8 weeks. ... The Cubs scored 21 runs against the Pirates Saturday (41:53). Is DJ LeMahieu back? ... Should you start or sit Trevor Rogers, Tarik Skubal and Kyle Hendricks (49:40)? ... We wrap up with pitching leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (56:00). Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. With fantasy! Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. What's up, and welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, April 25th. Frank Stample, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers today on the show.

We're going to recap this weekend. Scott is going to answer his text message. We've got the latest waiver wire. It's probably from you, Frank. Did you send me a group message a little before the show? I don't think I did. I don't think we got one. No, I don't think so.

I mean, maybe I wasn't included in it. I don't know. It might be, yeah. Who else is texting me at 1120? I don't know. It might be. People I do a show with at 1120. It might be 1,800 Glenn Otto.

We'll get to him a little bit later on. Start or sit, the bullpen happenings. We've got everything. But first, what's up, Susan? Oh, my goodness gracious. All right, let's go with Chris. Oh my goodness gracious for you, sir. I mean, the thing that happened this weekend that actually made me say,

oh my goodness gracious out loud was Byron Buxton's 470 foot walkoff home run today. Oh my goodness. That was a bomb. But for the purposes of the show, I don't know if there's much to talk about with Byron Buxton. He's awesome. So let's talk about Kyle Wright, who might be awesome as well. He's off to a fantastic.

Star, it was what, 12 strikeouts this time, 11 strikeouts against the Marlins over six shutout innings. One walk, which matches his season high. He has two walks through three starch, which is by far the most noteworthy thing that he's doing so far. Yeah, 40% strikeout rate, whiff rate in the high teens. That's all impressive. But the car right was someone who over the part of four seasons entering 2022 had a 15% walk rate for his career, 14.8% at the major league level. It's down to 3% so far. He's got two walks on 66 batters faced. And it's the kind of thing, like, with control, it's so ineffable that it's hard to know exactly whether something like that in a small sample size is for real. But there are things to be encouraged by. He is throwing

the ball in the strike zone more often, 51.7% according to baseball savant. compared to 44.9% for his career, but the bigger change, I think is the fact that he's just, he's garnering a ton of chases. He's up to 36% chase rate so far for his career. That's 26%. And obviously, he's getting a lot of swings and misses deal along with it, both with the curveball, which he's turned into his primary pitch throwing up 34% of the time. He's got a 43% whiff rate with that pitch. But also his four-scene fastball, he's got a 32% whiff rate, which is very good for a four-seem fastball. And Kyle Wright is throwing harder in the early going.

His fastball velocity is up from 93.6 miles per hour last season to 95.3. It was a small sample size last season. But the hardest we've really seen him throw in the major so far. And there were some tweaks to his delivery. He's throwing from a little bit of a lower arm slot. His extension is further. He's getting about four to five inches of extension additionally from what he had. Last season, and actually if you compare it to where he was early in his career,

he's releasing the ball about 6.7 feet on his fastball off the pitching rubber in the first two stints of his career. He was more like 5.8 to 5.7 feet. So that'll make your stuff play up, especially when you're throwing harder. And his curveball's different. He's not, he's kind of reworked his curveball, made it into a kind of tighter pitch that doesn't break as much and it's a little harder. So, you know, at the very least, Kyle Wright is different than the guy we've seen in previous years. Whether he can keep up something like this level of performance remains to be seen, but it would be easier to dismiss if Carr right was throwing the same pitches at the same velocity with the same movement and just not happening to walk people like he did the previous

couple of stints in the majors. The fact that he's made legitimate, tangible changes to his pitch mix, to his approach and even to his delivery a little bit. I think those are, that's reason to be optimistic. And I'm writing a column that'll hopefully be up on the site on Monday. I think it's going to be like eight early season breakouts I buy and three that I don't. Spoiler alert, I don't buy Noah Cindergarde, Zach Pleasack, where Dylan Bundy's starts to the season. I don't think I'm alone there. But Kyle Wright, I mean, I moved him up to the Hazers Lazardo range. Lazzardo had

another good start today. Among the early season breakouts, I have him ranked behind Carlos Carrasco, Kyle Wright, just because Carlos Carasco's got a long track record. But he's pretty much ahead of everyone else, and that's including names like Hazes Lizardo, Tyler McGill, Merrill Kelly,

and Jorheney guys that we've talked about a lot in the first couple of weeks. So I'm very, very excited about what we see from Kyle Wright. Yeah, my original takeaway when I saw his start this weekend, was this is what a breakout would look like for a former first round pick, right? It's leaning into a new curve ball, increased velocity, 26 to 2 K to walk ratio, a changeup that's getting more whiffs this season as well, getting ground balls. Like, everything is there for a potential breakout for Kyle Wright.

It's just a matter of can he keep it up now? So that remains to be seen. Scott, anything you'd like to add on Kyle Wright? Well, not that there's much left that can. Yeah, I just wrote like 250. words on him. So I had it all right there. Yeah.

Yeah. When he made his first start and looked good, I thought, okay, you know, maybe there's something here. The curveball looks different. But I still didn't see him becoming a strikeout pitcher. And he's just gotten better with each start to the point. 20 swinging strikes against the Marlins here, 11 strikeouts. And the breakdown of the swinging strikes, seven on the curveball, four on the sinker,

seven on the fast, the four seamer. Like, it's very impressive. And I, like, he's, I think he's definitely better. Is he going to be the guy he won against the Marlins more often than not? Probably not, but at least I know that's in there now. No. And after that first start, I didn't think it was. That would make him, you know, one of the best pitchers in baseball.

And I don't think he's that. But, yeah, from what we've seen so far, I mean, there's a lot to like about what Kyle Wright's doing. So, yeah, I. And, like, all the batted ball matches. which you would expect when a guy's got up 106 ERA in any stretch, but the bat at ball metrics are all very promising as well. There's a lot looking good about Cowell Wright right right now. Scott,

I know you had a potential breakout pitcher that you wanted to talk about as well for your, oh my goodness gracious player. Yeah, I mean, the pitching performance that stood out on Sunday specifically was Eric Lauer, I would say, the night game against the Phillies. In Philadelphia, actually, he had 13 strikeouts in six innings. 17 swinging strikes on 98 pitches, both of those very impressive numbers, very not what we're used to seeing from Eric Lauer.

But he was great in his previous outing too, and taking this back to last season, though last season in his final 15 starts, Eric Lauer had a 223 ERA, over half the season, basically, ERA just a little over two. The strikeout ray wasn't impressive. I mean, it was fine.

I don't think You know, it's funny Because he's actually widely owned in CBS And he has from the start of the season Even though I almost never saw him drafted Even in some of those 15 team leagues So it was strange Speaking to people who don't play on CPS

I think there's a chance Eric Lauer's out there And I don't think he has The upside we talked about from Kyle Wright But he did make a change Prior to that At the beginning of that 15 start stretch last year that allowed him to put together that low ERA. He faded his fastball in favor of more breaking balls,

more curve balls, more sliders, and he's kept that going into this year. And we don't often see him get the big strikeouts like we did in this start because of it, but he's been getting good results for a while now. So I think Eric Lauer is at least worth rostering anywhere. He's still available. And when he does throw the fastball, Scott,

it's improved in terms of the velocity this season. He's averaging almost 94 miles per hour. Eric Lauer is on his fastball. Last year, that was 92.6. So, you know, he's up over one mile per hour. And watching the game, David Cohn was talking about how Lauer has shortened up his arm angle, much like Lucas Yolito did the past couple of seasons that, you know, helped him get to his breakout. So again, I don't know that Lauer has that kind of upside, but man, Sunday night game was pretty awesome there against the Philadelphia Phillies. To put that into some context, Lauer has thrown through three starts,

12 pitches, 95 miles per hour or harder. Entering the 2022 season, he had thrown 14 in his career. Wow. Just nine last season. So yeah, he's legitimately throwing much harder than we've ever seen. And that always, I mean, I know there's,

you know, you could say we focus too much on velocity analysis early in the season, but like throwing harder is better. All other things being equal. If a guy starts throwing harder, that's generally a good thing. It makes your fastball. Fastballs generate more whiffs the harder they're thrown.

They have better results on quality of contact. It's better. And so even if nothing else changed, it can be even if nothing else for change for Lauer, the fact that he's throwing, you know, one and a half miles per hour harder is noteworthy. Yep.

All right. Would you guys start him this week against the Cubs? They are sixth and weighted on base average versus left-handed pitching. Sure. I would, yeah. All right, yeah. He's only 62% started on CBS. So for those who have Eric Lauer, feel free to get him in your lineups. On the other side of that game, by the way, Aaron Nola was also amazing. Seven shutout innings, one hit, one walk, nine strikeouts. By far his best start of the season. He had 13 swinging strikes on 89 pitches, and the curb ball in particular was pretty nasty in this one. 59% CSW. that's called strikes plus whiffs. So that is just an awesome rate for that curveball. We'll see if Aranola can develop some level of consistency build off of this because we've seen starts like this in the past. It's just they're too few and far between, how often we actually see them. Oh my goodness gracious for me, let's go over to a hitter who maybe had the best weekend of any hitter.

Thai France went five for six on Saturday with his fourth home run of the season. and then three more hits on Sunday, which included his fifth home run of the season. Looking into his profile, he is making a ton of contact. He just has not really been striking out much. I mean, that's been true the past couple of years, but even more so this season.

He's hitting a ton of line drives, so with that comes hard contact. His home run to fly ball ratio is like way up through the roof. So I don't know how maintainable that is, sustainable rather, for Thai France, but it's been an awesome start to the season. him. Scott, is there anything that you've seen under the hood that makes you think maybe this next level for Thai France is real? No, I mean, actually just the opposite because it's, the data

mostly looks the same as last year, but as you pointed out, the strikeout rate is lower. The line drive rate is through the roof. Like, nobody can sustain the line drive rate Thai France has right now. So, yeah, I mean, he'll have to come back. It stands to reason, right? He's hitting, what, 375 now? He'll have to come back down to Earth some. But he's a pretty good player to begin with. So, you know, I'm not, I'm not trying to throw shade on Thai France either. Just you can't expect him to sustain this kind of pace all season. And, you know, while we're on the subject of the data looking basically the same as last year,

another hot hitter from this weekend, Jazz Chisholm, who I wasn't so high on coming into the year, but he had a huge weekend as well. Like, his data is even more. like strikeout rate walk rate launch angle exit velocity like all exactly the same

for jazz chisholm this year the major difference is this barrel rate is twice what it was a year ago it's up over 17% so like he's really when he's making contact it's been

like he's been squaring up a lot of balls he's been squaring up a lot of balls part of it is also he's hitting a lot of balls to the pole side right now. His three of his four home runs and all of his extra base hits have been to the pole side, which I don't know if that's a specific change in approach, but,

you know, it's, I guess it's worth noting for Jazz Chisholm because he does have, you know, pretty strong raw power. So that that would be one way to potentially tap into more of it more often. I'm going to say I'm skeptical with that one too. Yeah.

I'm not really changing my stance. on Jazz Chisholm in spite of the hot start because a barrel rate twice as big as a year ago, that's like almost the definition of being hot. Yeah, no, I think that's fair. I think if you have Jazz Chisholm on your team, though, you are encouraged by obviously this weekend and the fact that he's been moved back up to the leadoff spot.

So he was hitting there mostly most of last year, and after a decent start, he gets moved up to the leadoff spot, and now he's doing pretty well. From one young hitter to another, while we were talking about Thai France, I wanted to mention Julio Rodriguez had himself a nice little weekend as well for the Mariners. Five hits, three RBI, three runs scored, two steals.

If nothing else, I know the overall batting average so looks pretty bad for Julio Rodriguez, and he's still striking out, I get it. He has six steals. So when he's been getting on base, he's got the green light, and he's been aggressive, and he's been successful.

So I think as long as that's the case, they're going to let him keep running. I mean, he really can't complain about O'Leo Rodriguez in Roto leagues because of those 16s. I mean, he's like carrying you in the scarcest category. He's probably been a pretty good investment, even if he hasn't done anything else. And there's reason to be optimistic about the everything else part of it, too. I mean, the strikeouts especially are really, really bad, although there's been, you know, I think some well-documented tough luck in that regard.

He has more called strike threes outside of the strike zone than any other pitcher or any other any other hitter in baseball so far. And, you know, the quality of contact metrics are very promising, you know, in terms of average. He's a velocity, hard hit rate. He's got to make more contact. But, you know, the early returns are more promising than a 524 OPS would make you think, I would say. 100%. He's hitting too many ground balls. It's something I don't like so far.

right around a 54% ground ball rate, but entering Sunday, 60.7% hard hit rate, according to Stackcast, 112.9 max EV. That is an elite number. So, again, the quality of contact for Julio Rodriguez

has been very good. Encouraging signs from this weekend. Let's move over to some waiver wire pitchers, and, oh boy, I've got a lot of these. So let's just, I'll throw, let's see. I have five here that are rostered, 50 and 65%.

And they all pitched this weekend. Dylan Bundy, he makes it 3-0. Chris said he's already skeptical. I guess we'll get Scott's thoughts on that. Jameson Tyone was solid once again, five innings of one-run ball, five strikeouts against the Cleveland Guardians. Bailey Ober was solid on Friday.

Five innings of one-run ball with six strikeouts. Dakota Hudson produced a quality start at the Cincinnati Reds. He's got a good matchup this week going up against the Arizona Diamondbacks. And then Chris Flexon, seven innings of one-run ball,

He has back-to-back quality starts. He is 52% roster. Scott will start with you. Bundy, Tyone, Ober, Dakota Hudson, Chris Flexon. Anyone stand out from this group? By far, the one I want to be invested in for, like, the long term, is Bailey Ober. Who has incredible control, first of all. And while the strikeouts haven't been high in the early going,

it's a 13.6% swinging strike rate, which is really good, suggest there's more strikeout potential to be had there. He's looked really solid in the early going. I'd like to see him start going deeper into starts with more consistency, but, you know, that's been a problem for a lot of pitchers here on the early going. I don't think it's going to be a long-standing issue with him. His change-up in particular, he's gotten a lot of whiffs within. He's hardly thrown it, so I'd like him to see him mix that in a little more.

But overall, pretty excited about Bailey Ober as a potential pickup. The others, yeah, I mean, I don't. I don't see anything to get excited there for Dylan Bundy other than the fact he has a low ERA and he's three out right now like guys not even throwing 90 miles per hour on average anymore and I think I think disaster looms for him. What I've noticed Scott, I just want to quickly interject on Dylan Bundy, the fastball Velo is down. His slider and change up usage is up and that's how we saw him break out in the short

in 2020 season. So if nothing else, I'm encouraged that he's using those secondary offerings more because obviously they're much better than his fastball, which is... They're just fast. They're not leading to swinging strikes at all, really. So, like,

if he was getting a bunch of swinging strikes, maybe I could talk myself into it, but I just I don't see anything there with Dylan Bundy. Right. He is at Tampa Bay this week, so it's a pretty tough matchup to Dylan Bundy. 61% rostered.

Jameson Tion, I think is kind of interesting, especially for the matchup this week. He's going up against the Orioles, so I kind of like that one. He's in my top 10 sleeper pitchers for this week, so if you want to consider him a streamer. Okay. That's fine.

You know, I'm not a big streamer anyway, but for anyone out there who is, Jameson Tyone makes for a decent short-term play. Chris, was there anything you wanted to add on Bundy, Tyone, Ober, Dakota Hudson, Chris Flexon? Nah, I think we can move on. All right. Well, Garrett Whitlock looked,

awesome this weekend. I just don't really know what to do with him because he's bouncing around. This was a spot start for him. Four shutout innings. One hit. Zero walk. Seven strikeouts. He had 11 swinging strikes on 48 pitches. Garrett Whitlock is 58% rostered. Chris, do you just keep him on your team and hope that he's either the closer or a starter? Because if he's anything in between, I'm not sure how much value that has. well like I think it's not out of the question that Garrett Whitlock could end up winning 10 games between a few spot starts and pitching and multi-inning relief and like in an era where so few pitchers are pitching five innings you know the the two to three inning reliever might actually have more value um so I I don't I'm not opposed yeah like I think he's probably someone in categories based leagues especially daily leagues. Garrett Whitlock should be rostered. And probably in

Roto, it's harder to justify and head-to-head points just because his current role makes him so hard to predict in terms of wins and holds and saves and all those things. Quality starts that make up such a big part of pitching value in that format. But, you know,

in a Roto league, his ratios can certainly be helpful. I actually picked up Mike King for my Tout Wars League, just because he's been getting, I'm in the saves plus holds league, and he's getting saves plus holds, and he's been racking up a ton of strikeouts with great ratios,

and I think there's something there with his velocity being up as well. So that's Yankees reliever. So those kind of players can have value. Yep, I was going to ask about Michael King. I was at the game on Friday, and he was amazing. Three shutout innings of relief, eight strikeouts to zero walks. He's throwing his curveball more this year,

which has a 60% whiff rate. So if you play in category leagues, or specifically safe supposed to hold leagues. Michael King definitely interesting. Kegan Thompson is another one that's kind of in that same mold for the Cubs. He's pitched very well out of the bullpen

for them so far, and they're using him in multi-ennings, two, three. Even this Friday, he pitched four shutout endings. So I think Michael King is a little bit more interesting with the strikeouts, but I think Keegan Thompson is right in that mix as well. Scott, some names in deeper leagues

that I noticed from this weekend. Austin Gomber, six shutout innings with eight strikeouts on Saturday. Bruce Zimmerman has now allowed two earned runs through three starts total and against some pretty good competition, the Brewers, the Yankees, and the Angels. 1-800, Glenn Otto, he is back, baby, five innings of one-run ball with five strikeouts. And then Chad Cool was the other name.

He's allowed one earned run over his last two starts for the Rockies. Again, that's Cool, Otto, Zimmerman, Gomber. What do we think, it, Scottie? There are some interesting aspects to all of these guys. But I don't know that's so interesting that I'm ready to make a move for any of them. Zimmerman, I kind of liked him going into last year because he had this great spring, and the M.O. on him was that he was a soft tosser and got to throwing a fastball at a reasonable, a grown-up velocity last year.

But then it all kind of fell apart once the season began. But, you know, another year of experience now. 16 strikeouts in 15. innings with pretty good whiff rate, and you said the competition's been pretty good. So I could see Bruce Zimmerman being a usable pitcher this year. Glenn Otto, I mean, that fastball slider combo was really working for him in this start, just like when he got called up the very first turn last year,

and the minor league track record is very impressive. Yeah, 15 swinging strikes on 75 pitches. That's obviously great, but it got pretty ugly for him pretty quickly last year. so I'm hesitant to jump right on the bandwagon again. Probably the most upside of this group, I would say, is Glenn Otto, if you have to invest in one. I usually go for the upside play. And then Cool's kind of been interesting for a couple years now

because his slider sometimes racks up a ton of whiffs. And that was the case here in Sunday's start. 14 of his 15 swinging strikes were on that slider, which he threw nearly 50% of the time. And he started throwing it that much last year, too. If he played anywhere up other than Colorado, I might be able to muster some interest in cool. Chad, cool, that is. But the odds are just so long, but he'll be able to maintain any level of worthwhile production.

If we're talking about adding pitchers, we've got to drop some too. And Chris, I've been getting some questions about Aaron Savali, who through three starts now has a 9.58 ERA and a 1.94 whip. He is still 88% rostered on CBS. Are you okay dropping him? Yeah. Yeah. That's, yeah. But there's no, like, I think Aaron Savali is fine, but there's, there's no downside to dropping him.

I don't think there's going to be some three-month stretch where Aaron Savali makes you feel really stupid about dropping him. He's a high floor guy who's pitching, like, terrible right now. Would you drop him for any of these four? Sure. Yeah. Glenn Otto. That's fine. That's probably the most interesting one.

So, yeah, go ahead. There was, you know, Sarah said Glenn Otto rated out pretty well by his stuff and location metrics in his first start. So that's a good sign. All right. Yeah, look, I bring it up because in my main event league, which is a 15-team Roto, Aaron Savali was dropped. So I was like, all right, if that guy is, if he's getting dropped in a 15-team Roto League, then I think you could probably drop Aaron Savoy. Yeah. I mean, I'm okay with dropping him because the upside is only so high, as Chris said.

But yeah, I think it would have to be a higher standard. Like if Eric Lauer is available in your league and you want to make that swap, that's fine. Oh, yeah, for sure. But, you know, Savale's velocity's been way down at the start of this year, too. And I know this start, it was on Sunday, right, that he started. Yep. I know the result wasn't good in that, but he got at least halfway to last year's velocity. So it seems like it's trending the right direction.

for him, which we saw with a couple other pitchers this weekend, too. Mm-hmm. And I think it's a good point to remind people that we had a short and spring training. And I was watching the Sunday night game and they talked about how Joe Gerardy said, this start for Aranola is where he would be at by opening day. So it's like guys are still kind of working up and we'll talk about Zach Wheeler a little bit later on, but I don't know, I'm starting to feel a little bit better about Zach Wheeler just because like he really hasn't had much time and the velocity is, is ticking up.

It's climbing, yep. Yep. We'll get to him in just a little bit. I wanted to take a look at some waiver wire hitters. Auh Henio Suarez, the Mariners in general had a pretty big weekend. Thai France spoke about Julio Rodriguez. Auhiorez six hits this weekend, and he's also a solid start. He's batting 255.

Three homers, a 14% walk rate, 25% strikeout rate. That's very manageable for him. Spraying the ball to all fields. Chris, do you think Aeohenio Suarez is a must roster player? He is 64% rostered right now. Probably not in like a 12-team points league. I mean, I guess third base, he might be. But yeah, not necessarily someone who you need to run out and add.

But entering play Sunday, he basically had two, he went hitless in his first two games of the season with four strikeouts and eight-played appearances. Since then, he's hitting 310 with a 10-74 OPS. Now, look, we're talking about a, what, 15-game samples, a 14-game samples, a 14-game sample size overall, so you're taking a seventh of that away with taking the first two games out. But his numbers are arguably even better

than they actually look, or at least he's hit the ball better than his actual numbers. So, yeah, I think it's interesting, given how good we've seen him be in the past. And the strikeout rate is a big part of that. If he can keep the strikeouts in check, you know, Ejofani Suarez has been a very good player in the past.

Yeah, There's one that stands out to me. Patrick Wisdom is currently rostered in more leagues than Suarez. I would make that slot. Yeah, that's an easy drop. Yeah, so I would make that move if Suarez is available in your league. It's got two outfielders that stood out to me this week. And Randall Gritchick has three multi-hit games in a row,

including three for four on Sunday with his first Rockies home run. He's 55% rostered. He's got six games this week, including three in Corse Field. The other one is Jock Peterson, who went three-for-three with a double dong on Sunday. He's 38% rostered. six games this week, only one lefty on the schedule. He is hitting the ball extremely hard. 94.9 mile per hour, average exit velocity for Jock Peterson.

And I'm starting to think you might just be the latest Giants experiment that's going right. So what do you think about these two, Gritchick and Jock Peterson? Well, you'd have to be hitting the ball extremely hard to have five home runs already as a part-time player. I don't know that we're going to see anything new from Peterson. I mean, with the Giants track record recently, it's possible.

but of course, they're probably never going to start him against a lefty. So that raises the standard for how much he needs to produce to factor in fantasy. The good news is five of the six pitchers they're facing this week are righties. So I am in fact picking up Peterson or trying to anyway as a short-term play in a five outfielder league, just a one-off to take advantage of the matchups and the hot streak and everything else. the other one, who's the other one you mentioned? Randall Gritchick. Randall Gritchick.

Okay, so what's interesting about Gritchick is he entered the day with zero barrels. And that's funny because he's hitting over 400, clearly taking advantage of the thin air and fall in the course field where there's a lot of outfield ground to cover and allowing balls to fall in. There may be won it elsewhere. But I almost see that as a good sign for, him because he hasn't

barreled any balls yet and he's still been usable like he still has usable number. We know the power is going to come for him. It's never not been there. Yeah. Long career now. So I think he's one of the more, he might be the single

most under-roastered hitter in CBS leagues actually because around 60% right, a little less even. 55% is what I have written down, Scott. It doesn't seem right. That's somebody can pick So Peterson and the short term, if you're looking for a short-term play, but Gritchick in the long, for the long haul. So make that happen.

Chris, if you need steals, Jorge Mateo, we keep telling people go out and pick him up. He went one for four with two steals in one of the games this weekend. I think it was Saturday. He's now up to five steals on the season. He's just 26% rostered. The other one was Harrison Bader. He went 0 for 2, but he had two walks and three steals in, I believe it was Saturday as well. He's not hitting well so far, but he's not hitting well so far,

but he is definitely looking to run. If you just need Seals, who do you like more, Mateo or Harrison Bader? I would think Mateo has to be the more interesting option. He's run pretty well just since getting to Baltimore.

He's got 11 stolen bases in 46 games, or I guess 12 now in 47 games, since joining the Orioles last season. Part of that was he hit 7. He had a 280 average and a 748 OPS last season in 32 games and he hasn't been close to that good so far this season, but they're letting him run. And that's a big deal because he's going to play every day.

Playing time is not going to be an issue for him. If they're going to just give him a green light, you're going to have to live with some bad batting average and mediocre production overall, I think. But I don't know, if there's not much risk of Jorge Mateo losing playing time, I think he's probably going to be a pretty close to must roster player in categories-based leagues at least. Yeah, and we've been saying that for a while. He has shortstop and outfield eligibility on CBS, dual eligible. He's going to run quite a bit.

Again, that is Jorge Mateo. Last name I wanted to mention here, Josh Naylor, two more multi-hit games this weekend, including his first home run of the season, which came lefty on lefty against Nestor Cortez on Saturday. Nailer is 14% roster. He's got seven games this week. And if you were wondering about Fab,

he went for $69 in one of my 15 team league, 69 out of a thousand dollar budget. So right around 7%. So for those who play in deeper leagues with five outfielders, definitely look to get Josh Naylor on your team. Let's take a quick break, and when we return, we'll hit the news and notes here on fantasy baseball today. The news and notes, unfortunately, my guy,

Eloy Jimenez, cannot stay healthy. Place on the aisle with a hamstring strain that will keep him out six to eight weeks. And I think, if nothing else, this should be more consistent playing time for Andrew Vaughn, who is 73% rostered, and Gavin Sheet. who was only 13% rostered.

Speaking of injured White Sox, Luis Roberts did not play this weekend because of that minor groin train. Chris, if you have Luis Robert, would you start him this week? I mean, they're hoping. They haven't added him to the IL, so I guess they're hoping

he's going to be able to play this week. I would probably try to avoid it, but I don't know. That's always so tough to answer. I think I would avoid it if I can. All right. Apparently, Ryan Presley looked good while throwing a live batting practice session

on Sunday. Reds manager, David Bell, said Tyler Stevenson could miss next weekend series at Colorado, which obviously doesn't sound good for the first half of the week. So I would get Tyler Stevenson out of your lineups. Luke Voigt, the profit pocket man, come on. Was placed on the IL with a biceps injury, catcher prospect. Luis Campuciano was recalled from AAA, but I doubt he plays too much from the beginning. Maybe if he gets a start here or there and he hits, they'll play him more,

but I think it's going to be tough early on. Alex Kierloff will begin a rehab assignment on Tuesday. Mike Kishemsky was placed on the COVID-I-L after testing positive. Anthony Bender did not enter Saturday's save opportunity due to hip soreness and said Lefty, Tanner Scott picked up the save on Saturday, and then it was Luis Head who got the save on Sunday because Tanner Scott was getting rocked in the ninth inning. So fun, musical chairs for the Marlins. Pretty good news for Dylan Floral.

offense and considered. Yes. So Dylan Floral began a rehab assignment on Friday. Chris, would you look to pick him up in category leagues? He's 41% rostered. Yeah, I think he's at this point more likely to get, I don't know, the next Marlin save, but whatever he's active to start getting save opportunities. Michael Conforto will not play the season after recently undergoing shoulder surgery. He can obviously be dropped. What a weird situation. He turned down the qualifying offer, which was $17 million. a shoulder injury in January, now surgery. It's very weird for Michael Conforto. Should have just taken the 17 million. Yeah, I wish I could have 17 million.

Joe Barlow is seen as the Rangers closer by Chris Woodward. Matt Bush picked up the save on Saturday as Barlow pitched Thursday and he was fully warmed up on Friday. So I guess, I don't know. Because he pitched Thursday and he was warming up, they didn't want to go to him on Saturday. Weird. Anyway, Lucas Sims was activated on Friday. picked up the save on Sunday. Scott, would you look to add Lucas Sims? He is 34% rostered. Yeah, I think so.

I mean, it became increasingly clear up to the point of activation that they weren't really viewing Art Warren or Tony Santian as a closer. And it wasn't just that he got the save Sims on Sunday. Eighth inning was worked by Warren. Seventh inning was worked by Santian. It seemed like by the book. use of their bullpen.

So, you know, I don't know anything as far as closers go. That's been made clear already. But my guess is Sims is going to get the save chance more often than not. By the way, I wanted to go back to one quick thing.

I dropped Alex Kerloff in TGFBI, which is a 15-team league. I didn't want to, but how are you guys feeling about that? So there's no IL spots in that league. I think that's worth mentioning. So it's seven bench spots, 15-team Roto. Yeah, I've got a Kuna.

I've got to drop players. I have to drop players I like all the time in those leagues. I mean, as far as what to expect from Kiroloff, I have no idea. Because, like, this is the same wrist he was supposed to be corrected by surgery last year, and it was hurting him. And he wasn't producing at all. So, I mean, clearly it was hurting him. He had a cortisone shot.

Supposedly, it's feeling better. I mean, there's still a lot of upside there, but, like, it, it, I'm not counting on anything from Kirillov. I'm just kind of like crossing my fingers and hoping that this is enough to to see him through and get him back to impacting the ball like he did when he was healthy last year. Yandy Diaz was placed on the COVID-I-L this weekend, but quickly returned on Sunday. As a result, Vidal Bruhan was recalled,

and he started on Sunday. I think he went over three with a walk and I caught stealing. Chris, would you be looking to add Vidal Bruhan anywhere where you need steals he's 22% rostered uh maybe I don't think like 22 sounds about right just because even if he stays on the roster

I doubt he's going to be playing every day um I did notice terror walls with Diaz being activated it wasn't Bruhan because Diaz went on the aisle and they called up Bruhan and the Diaz I noticed was back in the lineup Sunday

I believe Bruhan still played on Sunday yeah he did okay yeah they must have somebody else down. Because I didn't, I didn't notice Taylor Walls has three steals. So I just, I have a hard time seeing Burhan playing enough to, to matter too much. John Means, unfortunately, will undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the rest of the season. Mike Clevenger will make his third minor league rehab start at AAA on Tuesday. He looked good in his first two rehab outings.

Hean Jin Ryu began light throwing on Friday. He's on the IL with forearm inflammation. And Miguel Cabrera got his 3,000. hit on Saturday, becoming the seventh player in Major League history with 3,000 hits and 500 home runs. Job, well done, Miguel Cabrera. Start or sit these questionable players. Stephen Kwan was removed from Sunday's game due to right hamstring tightness and is day-to-day. The Guardians play on Monday night at 9.40 p.m. Eastern Time.

Scott, what do you think about starting Stephen Kwan? I don't think he's of the caliber where you've had. have to take any chances with him. Like, you shouldn't have to. I would try to sit him unless, you know, I just didn't have any alternatives. Jonathan India could return from the IL on Tuesday, dealing with that hamstring injury.

Chris, would you feel comfortable getting India back in? Would probably prefer to sit him if I can. I think I would do it in, like, deeper category leagues with middle infielers. But if you play in like a points league, I would imagine you have a pretty good option. you could go with instead of that.

Josh Bell was removed from Saturday's game with a hamstring strain and did not play on Sunday. His MRI came back, quote, Pretty Clean. Scott, what are we doing with Josh Bell? I don't know what pretty clean means, and he had a knee issue going on last week, too. Yeah.

Like, I want to start. He's, quietly, he's been awesome so far. Yes. Josh Bell. So I want to be able to start him, but I think in shallower leagues, you might have to, you might want to try and sit him just to be extra safe. Josh Bell and

CJ Crone are far and ahead leading the profit pocket so far. Reese Hoskins. He's hitting the ball hard, but the results haven't been there yet. Joey Votto, kind of a mess so far. Joe Votto stuck in a labyrinth

as he tweeted today. Wasn't there a video recently of him turning into the Hulk? I haven't watched it, but I heard about it. I don't know. Someone was making... Joey Votto is on TikTok now, yes.

Yeah, I don't know. He's living his best life. Gary Sanchez, last one I wanted to mention. He did not play this weekend because of abdominal tightness. Chris, would you bench him in two catcher leagues, which is pretty tough because your options are very limited. Well, and you'd have to have a third catcher on your roster,

which is probably not the ideal usage of a roster spot. So I would say just start him. The production you'd be likely to get from any catcher you could add is probably pretty minimal anyway. I was thinking about adding a catcher in one of my leagues, and like, there's just nobody. Tom Murphy, who's not an everyday player, Cooper Hummel, It's just, it's, and this is a 12-team two-catcher league.

So it's just, it's gross. I did that in one league this weekend, Chris, 15-teamer. I have Tyler Stevenson, no IL spots. I picked up Zach Collins as a third catcher. He's hitting well. He's not playing every day. But when he does play, he's hitting cleanup for the Blue Jays. So that's a very deep name for those out there.

Some hitting standouts from this weekend. Crazy. We had a football game on Saturday. The Bears beat the Steelers. 21 Zip. the Cubs scored 21 runs on 23 hits. What is going on? Each of Sayas Suzuki, Wilson Contreras, Ian Hap, Alfonso Rivas, and Nico Horner had three plus hits.

Horner actually had four hits in that game. Sayas Suzuki picked up his first steal. Ian Hap is 58% roster. He's betting 333 early on, and his plate discipline has been very good. 14% walk rate, 19% strikeout rate. Scott, we mentioned Randall Gritchick earlier. who is very similarly a rostered to this, would you rather have Gritchick or Ian Hap?

I'd rather have Gritchick, but Hap, there's reason to be interested in Hap too. Power potential there, I'd say. He had a strong finish last year too, but I think went widely. I know. Yeah.

Nico Warner had seven hits in two games this weekend. I mentioned one of those. He had a four-hit game on seven. Saturday. Chris, are you interested at all in Nico Horner in deeper leagues? He is 17% rostered. Yeah. Yeah, he's got a couple of steals too. His 90th percentile on sprint speed. He's hitting the ball hard enough. He's hitting a bunch of line drives. Yeah, I think there are there are things to like about Nico Horner. I put in a bid for him in TGFBI. I don't think I ended up putting in like 22 and he went for 32. So not enough there, but I might have gotten him in Towers. I got him in somewhere. But yeah, I think there's, there's reasons to be optimistic about Nico Horner as a late, well, the post-hype sleeper who might be breaking out. Yeah, in leagues with a middle infielder, I think, you know, those are the ones you should pay attention to Nico Horner. He went

for $92 out of $1,000 in one of my 15-team Roto League. So around 9% fat budget. Scott mentioned earlier Monster Game for Jazz Chisholm on Saturday night went four for six with a home run and two steals. He also stole another base on Sunday and now has four homers and four steals on the young season again. That is Jazz Chisholm. Ozzie Elbe's hit his sixth home run on Saturday. He's tied for the league lead.

Anthony Rizzo is on fire. He looks healthy. He looks good so far. He's hitting the ball in the air, so it looks like he's kind of selling out in Yankee Stadium. But it's working right now. Two for five with his fifth home run of the season on Sunday. DJ LaMayhew went three.

for four with his second home run. He now has an 11-game hitting streak. I presented something before we started. I said, I think DJ LaMahue might be back. 95th percentile and hard hit rate. 93rd percentile and expected batting average. And Scott just poo-poohed all over it. Yeah, he is hitting the ball harder than he usually hits it.

But he's always hit the ball hard, just in a general sense. And that wasn't his problem last year. his problem was he didn't elevate enough to deliver the kind of power numbers that he had in 2020 and 2019. When the fly balls he did deliver, they sailed out much easier because it was a different ball, right? So, yeah, I don't know if he'll be able to sustain, you know, 92.5 miles per hour on the exit velocity as opposed to 90.5 or 91.5. You know, that's, it's just hard to say, okay, this is the new standard for DJ LaMayhew now. He's going to start, he's going to be hitting the ball this hard now as opposed to how hard he hit it last year. I mean, the launch angle's no different.

Strikeout rate is a little worse. I don't know that anything's really changed for him, but he's off to a nice start. He is indeed. I don't think he'll ever hit for the power that we saw in obviously the short in 2020 or 2019 when he hit 20, home runs, but, you know, if he's healthy, Frank, if he's, if he's healthy now and he hits 300 plus with 15 homers and he's leading off for the

Yankees, he was leading off on Sunday. It's going to be a must start player. I'll take that. Yeah. Yeah, that'd be a good player. That would be like a return to some level of prominence for DJ LaMahue. So that's what he looks like right now. I want to go back to Ozzy Albies for a second. Okay. We talk about home run to fly ball ratio and he has a 29% home run to fly ball ratio

right now for his career. It's to about 12%, but I want to introduce a couple other. He's got a 100% home run to barrel rate, which is a lot. That's,

barrels are actually, barrels are balls hit over a certain velocity threshold within a certain launch angle band that are the most productive type of hits. And right now, barrels have been less valuable

than ever before. Typically a barrel is worth about a 1400 Wobah. That's been the case in the Stackcast era typically. So far this season, barrels have amounted to a 1224. Woba total last

April, it was 1277. So results on balls and play league-wide are worse than we've ever seen, even relative to last year, except for Ozzy Albies, apparently, who also has six home runs on 13 hard-hit

balls. I'm skeptical that a guy with a 27% hard hit rate is going to continue to be among the league leaders in home runs. That is my Ozzy Albi's hot take. That is fair. I know something you brought up before the season, Chris, was that a lot of his home runs were like just barely over the wall last year or whatever they qualified them as. He's still doing it.

Yeah. Eventually, it feels like there will be a regression there, but maybe it's just a skill that he has. Tim Anderson had a sock and a shoe on Sunday, second home run, and his third steal of the season. We had a bunch of double dongs this weekend. judge got on the board on Friday. Two home runs there. Wander Franco hit two home runs on Friday.

Mookie Betts had his breakout game, which we sorely needed. Double Dong with a stolen base on Friday. Mike Trout, three for five with two home runs on Saturday. And then Cody Bellinger on Sunday. Double Dong, now up to four homers. He's batting 2.73, but with a 33% strikeout rate. It's just been kind of weird for Cody Bellinger. I'm rooting for the guy.

I hope that he succeeds. I want to see him get back on track, but like the under the hood numbers are still kind of weird for Cody Bellinger right now. Yeah, I mean, he's outperformed as expected stats by a considerable margin.

But the expected stats are better than last year. Yes. You'll give them that at least. Yes. Look, I feel better about him than I did two weeks ago, for sure. Yeah, I think you have to. But I still don't know exactly.

Like, I'd be hesitant to to pay up for these numbers. I would not be buying Cody Ballinger right now. Yeah. Well, Chris, I guess the natural follow-up is would you try to sell high on Belanger if you have them on your team?

If someone was willing to pay a premium, because like we all had Ballinger as what, a top 35 outfielder coming into the season in our ranking. So like, you'd still have to get more than that, I think, to justify selling. So, you know, just, yeah, I think you'd be looking for like a number two outfielder kind of return for him. I wonder if you could swap him for like to Oscar Hernandez, who of course.

Yeah, I would do that. Most of the year. Sounds like that. Yeah, that's just an idea. That's an interesting one. Let's do some starter sit for some questionable pitchers who had some things either happened this weekend or recently. Hunter Green, the velocity was way down on Friday against the Cardinals. and by way down, it was still much higher

than like most pitchers in baseball. Yeah, but it was down like four miles per hour, right? Yeah, yeah. So he averaged 95.8 miles per hour on his fastball Friday, Hunter Green did, and it was 98.8 entering that start. So it was down exactly three miles per hour, and he wasn't very effective.

Three earned runs, four walks, over three and a third innings pitched. Scott, would you start Hunter Green this week at home against the Padres? I think they're skipping him. I think I saw that just before the podcast. skipping this turn, so no, I won't. And what he said,

his explanation for it was it was just one of those days. So I wish I had more to offer for why Hunter Green's velocity was down so much, but hopefully a skipped turn will help. All right, so do not start Hunter Green. Yeah, I just saw this report

pushback this week. Trevor Rogers, nice little bounce back for him, five innings pitch, 100 run. He had four strikeouts. against the Atlanta Braves, a bunch of swinging strikes. But Chris, it's been inconsistent so far this year. Would you start Trevor Rogers at the Washington Nationals? Yeah, definitely.

All right, let's move over. Yeah, even with him being up and down. I think the matchup is clearly worth starting against. Yeah, he went against Kyle Wright, and I was, Kyle Wright obviously got all the attention, understandably, but Rogers seemed much better. Like, he was even better than his pitching line, and the line was pretty good in its own right.

Yeah, yeah. He had 17 swinging strikes in the start. Trevor Rogers did. So nice little bounce back indeed. Nestor Cortez, another great outing this weekend against the Cleveland Guardian. Six and a third. Two runs, eight strikeouts. He's done a great job of limiting hard context so far this season.

He's only 58% rostered. So I just feel like we need to remind people to start Nestor Cortez. He's at the Royals this week, Scott. Yeah, I don't understand that. How it could still be so widely available. That's confusing to me. Yeah, I think he's over 80% rostered now, but he's just not in everyone's lineup. So it's weird.

Oh, okay. You gave the start percentage. Yeah, yeah. Okay. He's 85% roster. He's only 58% started. So get him in your lineups, basically. He's going up against the Royals who are dead last and weighted on base average against left-handed

pitching. Terrick Scoobel had another great outing this weekend. Six shot out with six strikeouts to zero walks. Back-to-back scoreless outings, Chris, would you look to start Terrick Scouble at the Minnesota Twins? Um, my preference would be to sit him, but I'm pretty skeptical of what he's done so far and just of him in general. But it's not, it's not the worst option. I think he's probably, I don't know, probably not a top 60 pitcher for me right now. So that's pretty fringe against the middling matchup.

All right. Kyle Hendrix got back on track this weekend against the pirates, seven shutout innings, two hits, zero walks, two strikeouts. Scott, would you start or sit Kyle Hendricks at the Brewers? I wouldn't call him must start, but I'd be fine starting him. It just depends what else you have. Yeah, probably better in a points league, obviously, because you know, you can take the hit easier if he does get blown up, but man, it's kind of scary in category of leagues. Three of his four starts have been solid to good.

There was one bad one against the pirates of all teams. but yeah, I think he's okay. All right. Next up is Zach Wheeler. Mentioned him earlier on. He went five innings, seven hits, four earned runs, five strikeouts to zero walks against the Brewers, the fastball velocity, slowly creeping up.

It was a season high, 96.3 miles per hour. Chris, would you start or sit against the Colorado Rockies? That start is in Philadelphia. Yeah, you're starting, Zach Wheeler, especially coming off a, a promising start. Yeah, definitely. Scott, would you be looking to buy Zach Wheeler because the overall results here,

they don't look good, but the fact that his fastball velocity is ticking up is, you know, it's a positive step. Yeah, I mean, the results weren't good in this last start, but it appears he's trending the right direction, and obviously the track record is great. So, yeah, I like him as a buy. The last one here is Matt Brash,

another MAH start against the Kansas City Royals, and he now has 10 walks over his last two starts. Scott, would you start Brash at the Miami Marlins? That's a fine start. That's a good matchup. That's a good matchup. But I was,

like, it's not just the walks. I was looking at Brash's stats, and the swinging strike rate is only 9.7%. Good is like, I don't know, 11.5 and it's 9.7. 7.8K per 9 for him this season.

So, like, I just, for some reason I remembered him striking out a lot of guys and missing a lot of bats and that hasn't been happening the walks are their own issue but it is a good matchup and I do still think he's good

so like I'd start Kyle Hendrix over Matt Brash but I don't think Matt Brash is unstartable and I'm not looking to drop him yet I'm just saying there needs to be some improvement here I would be looking to sell Matt Brash because I think he's pretty good but I think he's the kind of guy who benefits a lot from like the

the pitcher ninjaification of baseball analysis. Like he looks, his stuff is so impressive that the results in a lot and in the way people perceive him are almost immaterial. And I said that in for myself. Like I've ranked him pretty aggressively. And that's while knowing that, you know,

his results have just been okay. And there's a real innings concern moving forward. So I think Matt Brash is someone you can trade for more than he's probably going to be worth moving forward. All right. A few pitchers. Studs being studs I wanted to mention from the weekend. Frankie Montas, seven and a third, two runs, eight strikeouts against the Rangers. Alec Manoa with a quality start in each of his first three.

He was at the Astros this weekend, six innings, two runs, five strikeouts. U. Darvish, great again against the Dodgers. I noticed the last two starts after he got rocked. The cutter usage is way up for you, Darvish. And then Shane O. Mac, Shane McClanahan was great on Sunday against the Red Sox. Seven innings, two runs, seven strikeouts to zero walks. That's back-to-back starts with at least seven innings, two earned runs or less. Scott, anything you'd like to add on, Montas, Manoa, Darvish, McClanahan.

That's interesting, the observation about Darvich. and using the cutter more. I think that's what fueled has turned around in 2019 as well that then continued into 2020. There weren't many swinging strikes in this start against the Dodgers, but he was facing the Dodgers, so maybe we shouldn't fixate on that.

Montas, I don't think the splitters in mid-season for him yet. He's throwing it more than any pitch. It was only responsible for two of the whiffs. He actually got more on the slider. So the fact that he's succeeding without that his best pitch is what I thought of is his make or break pitch being totally up to snuff. I think that's pretty impressive from Lontas. And I'm feeling really good about Shane McClanahan now as well.

Yeah. All right. Let's move over to Studs being Studs Part 2. Chris, you get this group. Jesus Lozardo looked good on Sunday at the Braves. Five innings, one run, eight strikeouts. Garic Cole finally gets on track against Cleveland, six and two-thirds shutout. with nine strikeouts. Lucas Julito made his return. He was at the Twins. Four innings of one-run ball with nine strikeouts.

And then Tyler McGill also got back on track at the Diamondback. Six and two-thirds, two runs, seven strikeouts to one walk. That's McGillio, Gerichol, Jesus Lozardo. What did you see here, Chris? Yeah, I mean,

McGill, the velocity, not quite where it was the first couple of starts, but still up from where it had been before this season. so that's all and all a good sign. I think you're feeling pretty good about him, and he's a top 50 starting pitcher for me moving forward.

I don't think I've been any more aggressive than that in moving him up. Luzardo, I think, has been all in all quite impressive. It's, you know, the velocity gains have been the biggest headline, but I think the curveball usage and his two best starts has been especially encouraging. 44% in this one. I think it was 50% his first start, 11 whiffs with it today. That's a very good sign. And the change-up has, you know, there have been flashes with the change-up as well.

So I think all and all pretty encouraging from Hazel Lizardo. He's a top 50 starter for me right now as well. And Garrick-Call, I think it's just like deep breaths, you know, like it's maybe he's not the best pitcher in baseball. You know, maybe ranking him number one or coming in. of the season. Maybe he shouldn't have been the number one starting pitcher. But like, any concern beyond that is way, way, way premature. And this was a good example of why, especially when there's no apparent changes in velocity or spin rate or pitch usage or picks, like all of the, the things that make Garrett Cole looked like Garrett Cole. And he just was getting

hit hard early on. And like, that'll happen. He gives up fly balls. He gives up hard. He gives up contact occasionally. That'll happen, but it's just a reminder to stay present, stay in the moment, you know, try not to get to, or maybe don't get in the moment with Garrett Cole. I don't know. When he has a bad start, just stay in the past. Maybe is the better way of phrase. Consider the big picture. Yeah, like just calm down. Relax. All right, two final pictures here. I wanted to mention Robbie Ray, strong start against the Kansas City Royal six innings, two runs, five strikeouts. He now has a quality start in three of four starts. He has gone six plus innings in all four of his starts. Zach Gallen put together another

strong start against the Mets, five innings, one run, seven strikeouts. His velocity has actually been up. His swinging strike rate has been up. Scott, are you feeling more optimistic on one or both of Robbie Ray and Zach Allen? Yeah, I mean, Gallen, it's only been two starts for him. I think he only had two strikeouts in the first start, but just the underlying numbers look a lot better than they did for the majority of last year after he returned from that elbow sprain. So I am beginning to waver on my prediction of a season-ending injury for him. I'm still worried about Ray because the velocity isn't anywhere close to where it was last year.

And I think given his tracker, because you have to be concerned about, that. I mean, the strikeouts still hasn't had a single start with even a strikeout per inning. And even in his worst years, Robbie Ray was a prolific strikeout pitcher. So he's been successful more often than not this year.

But I'm just a little concerned about some of those trends. Let's quickly run through some bullpens. I think the Red Sox might be the toughest bullpen to figure out right now. Hansel Robles on Friday, he entered in the seventh inning of a one-run game to face Wander Franco. He recorded the next

four outs. Jake Deekman started the ninth inning. He walked three. He recorded two outs. Matt Barnes recorded the final out, picked up his first save of the season that came against Wander Franco. And then on Saturday, Hansel Robles pitching in the 10th inning with a two-run lead. He strikes out the first two batters. Trevor's story makes an error allowing a run to score. And then Robles then gives up a two-run homer to Kevin Kiermeier for the loss. So it's messy with the Red Sox right now. It's not Barnes. His velocity is still down and he worked on Sunday. He worked way earlier in the game.

So, yeah, it worked the fifth inning on Sunday. Hansel Robles. I've got a bunch of shares. I'm pulling for you, kid. For the Pirates, also kind of a fun one right now. Chris Stratton picked up his second save on Friday. David Bednar pitched in the eighth inning of that game. And then on Sunday, Chris Stratton recorded one out in the eighth inning of a one-run game.

David Bednar faced the... 9-1-2 in the lineup in the ninth inning, and he allowed two hits and intentional walk, but picks up his second save of the season. So they're kind of mixing and matching with those two. Stratton in deeper leagues still. He's only rostered 9% of CBS leagues. For the Minnesota Twins.

How about the Cubs losing three of four in that series and having a plus 17 run differential? Oh. It's the best run differential in a series loss in Major League history, I believe. That is crazy. That is crazy. For the Minnesota Twins, Emilio Pagan picked up his second save on Friday.

For the Orioles, Jorge Lopez picked up two more saves this weekend. Chris, who would you rather roster right now if you had to choose one? They're both right around 29% rostered. Emilio Paghan or Jorge Lopez. I think it would be Lopez. Lopez looks like the guy, and he's been pretty good so far. You know, he's throwing super hard.

His velocity's up two and a half miles per hour right now. So I've got Jorge Lopez in a handful of spots. And I think he's a closer right now, I think. Yeah, I don't think there's much question about it. He's looked good. So that makes him like, what, the 15th best closer in fantasy? You're not wrong. For the Mariners on Friday, Andres Munoz allowed a hit and a walk.

He struck out one for his first save. that was the Mariners first save since April 9th. Scott, Andreas Munoz, do you think he might be the closer for the Mariners? He throws hard, he gets a lot of swinging strikes. Yeah,

I mean, I was putting in some bids for him in those leagues where everybody who gets saves is rostered. But it's, since they traded Kendall Graveman, the Mariners haven't had a dedicated closer. Munoz seems like someone who could be that, but I just have no idea that's happening right now.

They got a lot of guys who seem like they could be that. Yeah. And Seawald isn't available right now. So who knows what that would look like if, if Seawold had been available. So that's what makes it especially tough. I think Second Ryder pitched a ninth inning one day in the weekend too. And he got rocked. Second Rider and Castillo didn't pitch in that game for what it's worth.

Yeah. So. All right. Let's see. What else do we have here? The Royals I wanted to mention Josh Stallmont on Saturday. He pitched in the seventh inning of a one run game. He gave up a single, a Steve.

a walk, an RBI single. Seattle then tied the game and they went on to win the game. And then for the Oakland A's on Sunday, Danny Jimenez, I keep bringing his name up. Another save, his third of the season. Lou Trevino is on the COVID aisle right now. This kid has looked really good for Oakland, so I just wonder,

maybe he steals a few saves from Lou Trevino. Like, I don't think that is crazy. I think it's a possibility. To stream or not to stream, some streamers for Monday, and we've got not many options. It's Kyle Freeland at the Phillies, Miles Michaelis versus the Mets, Michael Lorenzen versus Cleveland,

and Dane Dunning versus the Astros. Is it Miles Michaelis or nothing? Yeah, I would say so. After the way Lorenzen's second start with, I'd be okay with Michaelis. I want to watch Lorenzen, though. See how it goes. Yes.

For Tuesday, we've got Jordan Lyles at the Yankees, Mitch Keller versus the Brewers. Jordan Hicks versus the Mets, Chris Paddock versus the Tigers and Dalton Jeffries at the Giants who you guys laughed at me for last time and then he was great. I think both the pitchers in that game were great.

Yeah, it was Dalton. I'm still not about to recommend Jeffries. Mitch Keller against the Brewers, I'd be okay with, I'd be okay with Jordan Hicks against the Mets if you're okay with how to win. Like, I think the odds are against him going five innings, but he could.

All right. Well, we're going to wrap there. Went a little bit long, but man, so much to talk about every single weekend. For Scott and Chris, I am Frank, thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.