Fantasy Baseball Today - Kyren Paris Breakout? Kevin Gausman Must Start? (4/10 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 10, 2025

Kyren Paris just hit two more homers (2:30)! ... Should Kevin Gausman just be a must-start pitcher (6:53)? ... Tyler Mahle's fastball is performing well (11:24). ... Max Meyer continues to pitch well (13:47). ... Fried vs. Flaherty was a great matchup (19:54). ... News (22:05): Wyatt Langford was placed on the IL. ... Let's make waiver wire decisions in This or That (32:20). ... Buy or Sell on these players (43:14)? ... Joe Ryan just had his best start of the season (54:50). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (1:00:00). 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. 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. Let's have some fun with small samples. Kairn Paris is now batting 440 with five homers, four steals,

and a 1653 OPS. Who is this? Pretty good. Welcome into fantasy baseball today on Thursday, April 10th. I am Frank Stamphled joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, got some segments planned for you. We've got this or that, buy or sell, we had a fun pitcher's duel out in Detroit,

and much more. Let's get into players of the night. Oh, my goodness gracious. All right, well, we talked about Kairn Paris last night. Scott, you were not here. So we'll give you the opportunity to opine, because another big game here. Two for four with a double dong.

He has started four straight games for the Angels. This was also his fourth appearance in the outfield. So very close to gaining outfield eligibility along with second base. I mentioned the numbers up top. It's five homers, four steals. Minor league track record was not great. Two years ago, flash some power and speed. We learned last night that he changed his swing in the offseason.

He worked with Aaron Judge's hitting coach. and early on, small sample, but the payoff has been there so far. And 52% rostered. So, Scott, what are your thoughts here on Kyran Paris? He's kind of the talk of the town. Should he be a must-add player in fantasy right now? I think in Roto leagues, certainly. You get into head-to-head leagues, you're talking smaller long.

And a lot of hitters, it's a really hard, must-add is a really high threshold. to meet for a hitter in a head-to-head league. So we'll just say that straight right off the top. But yeah, what Kyron Paris is doing interesting is interesting. And we don't really know, we don't really know what he can be with this new swing. I mean, we've seen swing changes totally transformed players in the past. Josh Donaldson, J.D. Martinez, uh, uh, AJ Pollock. Who were you naming Chris?

Daniel Murphy? Uh, sure. Yeah, Daniel Murphy. A lot of examples from 10 years ago, basically. Uh, but yeah, it's, it's, it's interesting because, uh, that hitting coach called it 180 degree swing change. And obviously that would actually be if he started hitting lefty. Yeah, right? Or like with his back facing the plate. That's, you know, just not to be a pedant, but, you know. Right. So I, I think the one thing. we know for sure, Kairn Paris has his speed.

He can steal bases. And I think historically, let me double check this. In the miners, his walk rates have been decent. Yeah. So he can get on base. He can steal bases.

It's just a matter of, can he continue to make high enough quality contact? Can he continue to avoid strikeouts, which he did not do very well in the minors. But those are both issues that the swing changes intended to address. address. I would approach Kyrin Paris with a high amount

of skepticism, but like I was saying for Tyler Soderstrom the other day, this is the time of year where most of the players we didn't see coming are going to pop up. And when one of those guys emerges, if you can afford to make

space for him, you should and just see where it takes you. You shouldn't, if you drafted Marcus Simeon or whatever is your second base. That's exactly the name I was going to say. And you're disappointed in the way he's performed so far. You don't go trade him off because now you've solved the problem with Kyron Paris. But yeah, I think you take a fly around Paris and see where it goes because if nothing else, he'll be able to fall back on the speed. And

Ron Washington says he's going to play him one way or another. They'll find his spot for him. Yeah. Kyron Paris, 52% rostered on CBS. I looked up the sprint speed, 90 second percentile early on in the season here. Some names that are rostered in more leagues than Paris just ahead of him. Willie Casher, I think that's a pretty easy spot. That's pretty easy, yeah. What about Otto Lopez who had the nice start? And now he's, you know, I think he's one for his last 15.

I think he's fine, yeah. Didn't play on Wednesday? Yeah, I'm not, I'm not a big Otto Lopez believer. I think the one thing you can count on him for his speed, which I already said you can for Paris too. Tyler Fitzgerald. Sure. Yeah.

Yeah, I think Tyler Fitzgerald is close to, to slumping his way out of a job, frankly. I don't know who would take his plays, but it was always a long shot that he was going to be able to remain a viable starter in the majors. All right. And, of course, if you had Matt McLean as you're starting second baseman, obviously you're not dropping him. But if you need a replacement while he's on the IL, Kyron Paris makes a ton of sense there as well. Chris, let's go over to you for your Player of the Night. Yeah, Kevin Gosman, who looked like an ace today after not looking like one for the,

the first two starts. He struck out 10 over eight innings against the Red Sox who have been really good offensively so far this season, allowed one on-earned run, four hits, no walks, and I don't buy it at all. And maybe I will grant that maybe this is just my own blind spot because the one thing we can say about Kevin Gosman so far this season is that his fastball looks a lot better. the inverted induced vertical break is up and that has been since the preseason spring training velocity was down in this one but still had the good shape still got 13 whiffs on it on 34 swings it's a 38% whip rate that is a massive number the third highest number of wiffs on the four seamer that kevin gosman has ever had in his career uh the highest was some start last july when i think he also had 10 strikeouts and that didn't signal a huge turnaround in his fortunes.

So I don't really think this does either because the splitter still just isn't there. He had four whiffs on 19 swings with that today, 21% whiff rate with the splitter today. That actually raised his whiff rate for the season with the splitter, which was 11% coming in. We are dealing with really small sample sizes, but Gosman Splitter was not as effective as it has been last year. That's always been the most important pitch for him, at least in terms of his ability to generate whiffs and strikeouts. It was a 43% whiff rate in 2023. It was 33.5% last year. Through three starts, it's 13.5%. I just don't really see how Kevin Gosman can be a difference maker without his splitter. I think there can be starts where he looks really good like he did last year. But I think

what I'm expecting moving forward from Kevin Gosman is more or less what he did last year, which was a 383 ERA, worst peripherals, an average strikeout rate. I just, I think if there's a sell high opportunity here, I would try to take the off ramp with Kevin Gosman. There really could be something here with the fastball, but I do agree it's, can he succeed with just the fastball all of a sudden? because we do need that splitter for Kevin Gosman, and it just hasn't been that effective this season. But looking at his induced vertical break year over year,

last year, he averaged 16 inches of IVB on the fastball. This year, it's up to 18, and this start, it was 19. I mean, that is an elite level mark. According to, you know, the pitcherless website, 18 inches of IVB is 80th percentile for a fastball. So Kevin Gosman is doing something really good with his fastball right now, but is that enough? I don't know the answer.

I did have a buy or sell later on for Kevin Gosman, and it was, just leave Gosman in your lineup. Because trying to figure out when to start or sit him, you will go crazy. So Scott, do you buy or sell that? Just leave Gosman in your lineup. It depends how deep the league is.

It depends how deep your pitching staff is. I can't sit here and say, Gosman is for sure a must start. He didn't look like a must start prior to this start, right? No, we told people to sit him at all. The first start was amazing. I had people yell at me for that. Yeah.

I know he gained some strength in the offseason, so maybe he's just muscling up more. I don't know. But I do agree that, like, how, like, Gossmann was so geared toward his splitter. Like, it was everything for him. And how do you take that away? The weapon that made him who he is and expect him to still be good.

He was here on Wednesday. he was really good, but I agree with Chris's sentiment that it's hard to imagine how that could be a sustainable plan. Yeah, I think baffling is a pretty fair word for Kevin Gosman at this point. Scott, over to you for your Player of the Night. My Player of the Night actually isn't Kyron Paris. You offloaded yours onto me, which was nice. I mean that, it was nice. That probably sounded sarcastic.

mine is Tyler Malley How about this? Two hit the Cubs over seven innings One run allowed Four strikeouts Nine whiffs on 94 pitches So the strikeout number isn't that impressive The width total isn't that impressive

But I will point out Tyler Malley of those nine whiffs Seven came on his fastball Even though it was 40 degrees outside And it was down a couple miles per hour The shape of that fastball was generating whiffs. And that was true in his first start of the season two,

exactly seven. His final start of spring training, Tyler Malley got nine whiffs on his fastball. And if you go back to Tyler Malley's heyday with the Reds, didn't he have like a 210 strikeout season, something like that? You did have the one year where everything came together. Yeah.

That was always the kind of the secret. for Tyler Malley. He had this really difficult to categorize fastball. I'm guessing like looking at the movement profile on it, looking at the whiffs it's generating, I feel like he's gotten that back after the time lost to Tommy John surgery.

And if that's the case, on a good team, Tyler Malley could be a useful fantasy option. I'm not saying he's must add, but we're kind of looking for new pitchers to add after getting through the first wave. and Tyler Malley's kind of standing out to me. Yeah, he is another one again.

It's, I don't want to sound like a broken record, but he's another one with the IVB, like the induced vertical break on his fastball is 19 inches in this start, and he's another one that it grades out 86 percentile, according to pitcher list, in that specific metric. So, yeah, Tyler Malley doing some nice things with his fastball. Does he have enough of secondary pitches here to complement that fastball that we've seen from Tyler Malley

to this point. He is widely available on CBS. 21% rostered, home against the Angels next week. They've kind of been a, I don't know, pesky matchup because they've been hitting some home runs here. So I wouldn't, they're not as easy as a matchup

as they have been in years past, but I don't think it's, you know, I wouldn't completely shy away from it by any means. 21%. Yeah, I think that number could be higher for Tyler Malley. I think we probably should just talk about Max Meyer right now as well because he was, I think probably the best Waverwire pitcher of the day or one of them.

Absolutely. And he went six and a third shutout innings here, four strikeouts at the Mets, which obviously is a really, really tough matchup. And tough place to pitch. It was cold. Chris, you were at the game. Boots on the ground here, scouting Max Meyer. What did you see from this start? And is he a pitcher that, you know, it's kind of entering must add territory, like over that 70, 80 percent threshold?

So the problem for my. He was great in this one, even though the velocity was down, still had like seven whiffs on the slider. That has been a really, really good pitch for him. The fastball didn't get hit hard. The sinker was working, et cetera, et cetera. The problem is just the team context. He got the win today, but that's not going to happen very often. And I would think there aren't going to be a ton of six-inning starts here.

more than last year because I think he's going to pitch better. And I think his Arsenal's deeper and he should be more well equipped for it. But there are still going to be plenty of early hooks. And so I think there's just limited ceiling, even though I do think Max Meyer looks like a pretty good pitcher right now. And so must add, I lean yes, especially in Roto leagues where the win matters, but the difference between a pitcher who gets six wins and a pitcher who gets 10. and wins over the course of the season isn't that great, but it can matter a lot in those weekly leagues. And so I would say in any categories,

league Max Myers probably pretty close to must roster. And head to head points leagues probably depends more on what the upcoming matchups are. I think his next matchup is pretty tough. Debacks. Debacks, yeah. So not necessarily rushing out to add him for that one. But I do think Max Meyer looks very good,

didn't give up a hint until the sixth inning. in this one. It was a very good start, and a very good start to the season. 19 strikeouts, five walks, and 18 innings of work. That's really impressive. Scott, who do you like more in a vacuum?

Meyer or Malley? Meyer, I mean, the team context for Malley is better, but I think the upside for Meyer is higher. And you'd be willing to take a flyer? I'd be willing to take a flyer. I'm a little surprised he's not more roster. than he is already because I feel like he is part of that first wave of pitchers we've been talking up as additions.

I wonder how much Casey Myers is like 20% more rostered. And I'd rather have Max Meyer to answer a question Frank was going to ask. Yeah, that's one of our questions later on, this or that, Meyer or Casey Mize, who's 81% rostered versus 61% for mine. Yeah, I'd rather have Mize, but they're very close in my rankings. I've kind of moved them up together. They're inside the top 70 at starting pitcher. for me now. Malley's outside of that, but he's trending up to. Yeah, I think I slightly prefer Mize as well. I mean, both guys obviously had big prospect pedigree. The team context, again,

that is a big deciding factor here. And not that I think the tigers are amazing, but they should be better than the Marlins. It's, they're both good barks to pitch in. But I'll give Casey Mize the slight edge over Max Meyer there. Wanted to give a shout out to the Brewers who have really enjoyed their trip to Corse Field. They put up 17 runs. on 13 hits. Jackson Trio, two for five with his fourth home run and five RBI. He now has 16 RBI on the season. Again, it's like opening day, a distant memory. O for five with a five with a five strikeouts there. Christian Yelich, two for five with a sock in a shoe, his third home run, his third steal. I believe that was a 465 foot home run for

Christian Yelich and William Contreras back-to-back days with a home run. Chris, you shared a pretty interesting stat before we started about a run differential here on on the brewers yeah entering yesterday's game the brewers were minus 22 for the season they are now minus one that's what a couple of blowouts at colorado will do yeah i saw the rockies are a league worse minus 33 and run differential early on which is not overly surprising if we're being honest was that including today i think that was after two that actually feels low after a 15 run loss. Yeah, no, that's fair. I hope it is after today.

Hopefully I have those numbers correct. I saw a tweet somewhere. Before we get into news and notes, just want to quickly talk about a fun pitcher's duel out in Detroit. Max Fried up against Jack Flaherty. What's even cooler about this specific duel is that they were high school teammates.

And so it was really cool. Their first time facing off against each other on the mound and Max Fried had his first signature start with the Yankees. Seven shutout innings, 11 strikeouts, had 15 whiffs on 97 pitches. On the other side, Jack Flaherty is off to a nice start himself. Five and a third shutout had nine strikeouts, 13 whiffs on 92 pitches. Both guys were great. Both guys were expected to be great coming into the season.

I think there was skepticism on both, obviously more on Jack Flaherty, but do you guys have any overarching thoughts on either of these two? Uh, freed's an ace and he pitched like an ace. I don't have any more thoughts than that. He's awesome. Flaherty hasn't quite locked in yet. Um, I don't think he's gone six innings in any of his starts.

I don't. He has this was, he has not. Yeah. And this was his first like big strikeout game as well. But the whiff rates on the slider and curveball have been pretty good. Fastball velocity is a little bit down. But I,

I still have a lot of faith in Jack. I think the biggest issue for him is he just hasn't been that efficient. Five walks in his 11 innings or 11 innings in his last two starts. And that was a big key to his rebirth last year was getting the control in line. So it got worse when he went to the Dodgers and everything seemed to get worse for Flaherty. So I do hope to see that improve. His last two starts have been against the Dodgers and the Yankees. and he's fared well.

Yeah. He's held his all in there. Yeah. So I... I think I benched him for both of those in a few spots. So I thought about it. I thought about it in one of the leagues where I had him both times. And I actually, for this start, I was like, well, he handled the Dodgers last time.

So I'm going to trust him against the Yankees too. And obviously, I'm glad I did. I would be mostly encouraged if I invested in Flaherty at this point. All right. Let's get into the news and notes. As we know, injuries are piling up. But now we're getting more. solidified information. Players are officially going on the IL. Wyatt Langford placed in the IL due to

a right oblique strain. Apparently Langford felt quote pretty good when he got to the clubhouse on Wednesday, but the Rangers opted to play it safe here. They were called Dustin Harris from AAA, who has put up some interesting numbers in the minors, just not sure he's going to play that much to really matter for fantasy. So you'll have to find your Wyatt Langford replacement elsewhere. We spoke about, you know, Victor Scott and Jung Hu Lee. In shallower leagues, I think those names make a lot of sense. This one came out of nowhere. Justin Steele, following his best start of the season,

went on the aisle with left elbow tendonitis, and he dealt with the same injury back in September of last year, which is clearly worrisome. It's an elbow injury. With that said, he returned pretty quick last season, and he believes that he'll only be out the minimum 15 days. Do you buy it? I hope he's right.

I don't trust his medical opinion. necessarily, though only he can speak to how he's feeling. And it was a short absence last time. And there clearly was no loss of effectiveness while pitching through this cranky elbow. Because as he mentioned, he had his best start as he was coming down with it. So I did not move him down, Justin Steele. I didn't move him down much in my rankings in the hope that it is a short stay. But I can't sit here and say with great confidence that it is.

All right, let's talk about Pablo Lopez, who is going on the aisle with a grade one hamstring strain. The hope is that it's also a minimum stay, and lots of people speculating on the interwebs that Zebby Matthews could be next in line here to replace Pablo Lopez. He has made two starts at AAA, where he's gone 10 innings, two runs allowed, 13 strikeouts. And I believe I saw on Twitter that basically lines up with a similar spot in the rotation. as Pablo Lopez. So we don't know that yet, but it does make a lot of sense. I would add him over Tyler Malley,

given the likelihood of it. He looked great this spring. His velocity was up a couple miles per hour and he already had elite control, at least judging from his minor league stats. Zebby Matthews has gone to the minors and has continued to do it there. His most recent start,

I believe he had nine strikeouts. Yes, nine strikeouts in five innings. previous start 5-1 hit innings one walk between the two of them like he's doing at AAA exactly what you want to see Zebby Matthews do I know some people might be rooting for David Festa who also has who's also interesting

but he's not off to as good of a start I don't think he made as strong of an impression in spring training either so I think this is Zebby Matthews ticket in and while we're not anticipating a log absence for Pablo Lopez if Zebby Matthews holds up his end of the bargain, I think it would be pretty easy for the twins to cast aside

either Chris Paddock or Simeon Woods Richardson when the time comes for Pablo Lopez to return. Yeah, I think that all makes a ton of sense there. I'm glad. He's just glad. Scott is glad. He just wanted us to know that he's glad. I do appreciate that.

You know, Chris, I am not glad because... You know what I actually said? I said, I'm glad you can. could hear it all. You can't, you can't mention it. It's like the Max Meyer had no hitter into the six today. You just can't talk about it. Insult to injury there.

I was going to mention on my Scott White Dynasty League team, I have lost Pablo Lopez, Justin Steele, Zach Eflin in the past two days. That's been a disaster for me too. So yeah, I'm right there with you. I mean, I've, I lost Kirby and Grayson before this. season started. So, gosh. 2014 points league.

It's, uh, and now Reinaldo, too. I'm stuck. It's, it's going to be bad. Fernando Tatis was out of the lineup Wednesday with that left shoulder injury. Mike Schultz said he's optimistic for a Friday return on Tatis. Freddie Freeman will be activated Friday when he's first eligible.

Cotel Marte will miss, quote, a series of weeks with that left hamstring strain. Toro Lvulo added, there's no timeline on it. We just got to let him heal, let him recover. And once we get to that point, we'll start to initiate some baseball activities. So, yeah, no specific timeline, but Ketel Marte is going to be out a while. Spencer Arroghetti will not require surgery to repair his fractured right thumb. He'll be in a cast for two to three weeks before getting more imaging done. Jordan Westberg was out of the lineup due to an upper body injury.

Very vague. This was also the reason why he sat out a game back on March 30th. So he's dealing with something. We just don't really know what it is. it is. Jake Cronaworth was out of the lineup due to cramping on the right side of his ribs. They're hoping he can return Friday as well. Lane Thomas out of the lineup with that bruised right wrist.

Tyler Soderstrom was back in the lineup after dealing with a right calf contusion on Tuesday night. Louise Heel is scheduled to begin a throwing program within the next several days. He's on the aisle with a high-grade latch train. Clark Schmidt will make his final rehab start Thursday. If that goes well, he should rejoin the Yankees after that. The Dodgers optioned just. Robin Ski after his rough start on Tuesday night.

I do want to highlight this one because Landon Nack was also pretty bad today. They've had to cycle through a couple of different starters in recent days. Tony Gonson was really good at AAA tonight, seven strikeouts in like three and a third innings, only through like 48 pitches, so I don't know how close he is. But that's a name to keep an eye on. Tony Gonson has been very good for fantasy in the past. He's coming back from Tommy John surgery. and there could be an opening for him,

even on a stacked Dodgers team. He's a big, like, cat lover, right? I feel like I, do I have that right, Tony Gonselin? That could be right. I might be thinking about someone else, but I think, I don't know, I feel like I've seen some theme Dodger nights and ball and cats. He did have a, he did wear cat cleats for a start once.

So, yes, they had a little furry tail. on them and a little picture of kitties. That's pretty cool. 15% roster for Tony Gonson. So if you're looking to pick him up and stash him, now is it time, at least in some of those deeper leagues. Other players who went on the I.L. Markana with a left abductor strain.

Andrew Benintendi with a left adductor strain. Not confusing at all. Ryan Bliss with a left biceps tear. Wanted to mention a few other prospect updates. Pirates pitching prospect, Bubba Chandler, through four scoreless innings with eight strikeouts. in his latest start at AAA. I think it might have been his first start at AAA.

And then... He's getting the Paul Skeen's treatment. I think we're going to see a similar timetable there. Yeah. So maybe sometime in May there for Bubba Chandler. Yeah, I mean, early May, maybe a month from now. I'm adding Bubba Chandler to the Five on the Verge in the Prospects report. He's replacing Zach Veen.

So there's an opening there. Everyone else remains the same. But Bubba Chandler's the new addition. I don't remember all the names in there, but I'm pretty sure Nick Kurtz was one of them, right Scott? Nick Kurtz was, and he remains. Yes, because he hit his sixth home run already in just 10 games. Trying to figure out how they can get him in the lineup,

the most clear opportunity feels like Kurtz and Soderstrom splitting first base in DH, Brent Rooker plays in the outfield. The problem, Brent Rooker has not played a single inning in the outfield so far this season. He's capable of doing it, but he hasn't done it yet. So I think maybe once we see Rooker, play a little bit of outfield, that might mean they're starting to think about, okay, let's figure out how we can get Nick Kurtz here up in the lineup. So we'll see, do you remember seeing Rooker play the outfield in spring at all? I mean, I remember there was talk in November.

Okay. He did. I believe. Yeah. Okay. I don't remember it in particular, but it's, let me, I can confirm, but I'm pretty sure he did. I'm not sure how to confirm it without going box score by box score, which would take. Um, I'll, I'll, I'll look. Okay. Okay. Let's, uh, take our final break when we return. We'll do a little bit of this or that right after this quick commercial break. Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today. Let's

do a little this or that. Decision time. Some waiver-wire decisions and let's get into it. All right. Well, we spoke about one of these already. It was Max Meyer versus Casey Meis. I believe it was two to one in favor of Casey Mize. Another one that we talked a lot

about lately, but Spencer, Torkelson is still a lot more rostered than Ben Rice. I kind of get it like Torkelson striking out a lot, but still doing some things here. Hit a home run on Tuesday and then came back with another hit and a walk and a run scored on Wednesday. But Ben Rice also stayed hot,

one for five with his third homer. This one came off of a lefty. He had two batted balls of at least 107.9 exit velocity. He let off against the right-handed pitcher again in this game. So he is 66% rostered. Ben Rice's Torkelson, 84%. Who would you rather have? Yeah, I have Rice ahead for all the reasons you kind of laid out already.

It's batting lead off a lot. I think the plate discipline's better. He's hitting, impacting the ball harder, frankly, than Torkelson, certainly at the high end exit velocities. I'm not saying Torkelson can't have a bounce back season and couldn't be worth rostering in his own right. I just think Ben Rice, I feel, I feel like the breakout potential is a little,

it's more like bounceback for potential for Torkelson, I know, but the breakout potential for Ben Rice is a little clearer. The positive signs are a little more positive. And I think there is both more upside and less downside there, particularly if he's going to start playing against left-hand or some. I agree. Also, Brett Rucker did play three games in the outfield that I checked. Mike Curlin's.

spring training lineup tracker. He's got everything in there. So, all right. Worker did get three games in. All right. I have to go box score by box score. Let's get some more. Let's get some more Brent Rooker games here in the outfield.

And maybe Nick Kurt sooner rather than later. Let's speak about Geraldo Pardomo, who is off to a great start, three for four with his second home run. He has hit, he has hit second four games in a row for the debacks with Catele-Martee on the IL. He's got two homers, two steals, 13 RBI, betting 333. Would you guys rather have Geraldo Perdomo or Jacob Wilson if you are looking for a shortstop or a middle infielder? I would say Jacob Wilson. And I'm not going to say what I think a lot of people would like me to say, which is that Jacob Wilson is amazing in the next Louise arise.

And you're crazy if you don't make him a top 12 shortstop rest of season. I don't believe any of that. No. But it's more that I'm pretty confident, Geraldo Perdomo is nothing to care about in fantasy and that this hot start is mostly fueled by his 3.9% K rate, which is maybe Jacob Wilson could do that. Like, he's at around 4% too.

But Heraldo Perdomo is normally like 15 to 20% K rate. And this is not going to sustain. And I think he's still the same player. You look at the exit velocity readings. Average is a little higher. You'd expect that when a guy's off to a hot start. The max exit velocity is, I don't see any real, like, obvious growth there.

I don't know what to expect from Jacob Wilson, but I know he's still not impacting the ball that hard. Maybe he'll have a high enough contact rate. Like I said, maybe he can sustain something close to 4%. And be Louisa Rye's-like. But that is the, that would be peak Jacob Wilson. That is the upside he's aiming for. And I'm not sure it's exciting enough, particularly to position like shortstop.

I mean, shortstop is star studded. I can't get, I can't get Anthony Volpe into my top 15. How am I going to do that for Jacob Wilson? Yeah. Yeah, you need difference makers at shortstop. And I don't think either of these guys are. The only thing I will say is Perdomo will steal some bases. Wilson probably won't.

So it's not a lot. it's probably like 15th. His career high is 16. He was on a similar pace last year. That would be the only reason I would give Perdomo the edge. But I agree, I'd rather just take the flyer on Wilson. Let's talk about Mike Yistremski, who's off to a nice start, two for five with his second home run.

It was a walk-off home run in the 10th inning of that game. He's betting 344, two homers, two steals, a 10-56 OPS. Mike Yistremski or Matt Walner, if we're comparing platoon outfielders, Like outfield four, outfield fives. Walner's in a better park, and I think he's got better power. So I'll go with him, given that they're, the, the situations are fairly similar otherwise. Yeah, it's a similar situation to Geraldo Perdoma.

I guess the best way to sum it up is, you have a better idea, both what Yistrimski and Perdomo are, and it's mediocre at best. And maybe Walner and Wilson are mediocre too, but. It's a situation where you'd rather take the mystery box. Fair enough. Let's talk about the old man, Carlos Santana. It looks like he still has something left or his last four games. He's got five hits, two homers, and a steal.

And Wilmer Flores just continues to mash three for four with his fifth home run. If we're looking for a deep league corner infielder, Carlos Santana or Wilmer Flores. Invent a time machine and go back to adding Ben Wright. or Tyler Soderstrom or Spencer Schroeder or Spencer Torkelson when they were this low rostered. I don't believe in either of these guys. I believe in Santana Moore, believe it or not. I know Flores was very good in 2023. Not as an everyday player.

I think he's more of a lefty masher who spotlights against righties. I don't buy it at all. He's not hitting the ball very hard. I don't think this is going to last. You would expect the average exit velocity to look better for Wilmer Flores when he has five home runs already. It's still like 87 miles per hour. You know, like when you have that many home runs over that short amount of time, normally everything just looks great. And so it's not even worth like digging through the data because it's just going to look good.

But in Wilmer Flores' case, it doesn't. And I don't think he's any different than he's ever been. He's just off to a good stuff. This is, he has a 29% hard hit rate on 34 batted balls, which if I'm doing the math right, that's a, that means he has 10 bad hard hit balls. He has five home runs. Yeah. Like that, that kind of tells you everything. Yeah. Let's talk about Jonah Heim, who is off to a nice start as well, two for four with his third home run. And he was actually the DH in this game with Kyle Hagashioca at catcher. Johnaheim also has two steals early on,

which is pretty interesting. He's, hitting the ball really hard. If you're looking for a second catcher, Jonah Heim or Alejandro Kirk, who is actually rostered in more leagues than Jonah Heim right now. I guess Heim is hot right now, so I'll just play the hot hand there,

but I don't think either of them is particularly exciting. Yeah, that's fair. I don't think the upside for Heim as much to get excited about. I understand he was pretty good two years ago, and maybe his odd start suggests that last year was more the aberration. It was very top-heavy, though.

He was pretty bad after the All-Star break, if I remember correctly, in 2023. Yeah, he was, though he was dealing with some injuries. And he wasn't nearly as bad as last year. Like last year, I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, take time second catcher. I would not think about it too hard. I would just go with somebody until he doesn't work anymore.

All right. Let's talk about two deep league platoon bets. Matt Mervis, who is picking things up, two for five with his third home run, three RBI over his last four games. He's got six hits, three homers, six RBI, and Pavan Smith, who had himself a nice game, three for five with a double, and his first home run. Again, very deep league stuff here,

but would you rather have Matt Mervis or Pavin Smith? Pavin, who I'm hopeful has kind of gotten past an early season stretch here where the Diamondbacks, they've already faced five lefties. And so he's sat more than you expect him to in the long run. But he is off to a slow start with that sporadic playing time. He's striking out about twice as much as he did last year. But if Pave and Smith gets that strikeout rate down around 20%, like it was last year, high walk rate, that's always been there for him.

His expected stats, 293XBA, 529X slug, he was hitting the ball hard, last year. It looked like he made a leap. And I think that leap is the main reason why the Diamondbacks were willing to let Jock Peterson go is because they genuinely wanted to get Pavin Smith in the lineup. And I think the platoon situation is going to leave him for five outfielder leagues and nothing shallower. But I think he's more interesting than Matt Mervis, who has picked up first base eligibility. So you can play him somewhere.

still striking out at like a 40% rate. And there's a lot more reason to believe that's just the norm for Mervis than that Pavin Smith's high strikeout rate is the norm for him. What do you call a guy who builds a road out of molten metal? Paving Smith. A Paveen Smith, yes. I was just spent the last minute or so trying to get there. I think I landed.

I think that was okay. Okay. It was okay. It was okay. It's not the best one ever, but it worked. No, I think it was pretty good. I don't have any this or that for this player, but do you have any deep league interest in Zach McKinstree, who is off to a nice start?

He has started 9 of 12 games. He has third base shortstop and outfield eligibility on CBS. No. The multi-eligibility is interesting, but I think as anything more than an injury replacement now, that this is all, I think this is all Babbap inflated, I think.

He's not even at playing every day, McKinstree. So I think this is AL only very deep league type of play. All right, let's move over to a little bit of buy or sell. Badi Machado, two for three with two walks and his sixth stolen base

of the season. Six steals in 13 games. Last year he had 11 steals in 152 games. Buy or sell Machado will set a career high and steals this season. I was going to ask, what is higher? Mani Machado's stolen base total at the end of the season

or Mani Machado's percentile rank in sprint speed? Because he is 26th, 22nd percentile in sprint speed right now, which is actually up from 13th percentile last year. Although I kind of do think he's faster than that and he just doesn't bother unless he needs to. which we've seen some high profile examples of that from Matrato. So like he has been a better stolen base guy than you would think,

given his sprint speed numbers in recent years. I would sell a new career high, but like when he's already at six and 12 games or whatever, like he only needs 14 and 150 games. That's not far off the pace of what I would have expected. He's not, to be clear, he hasn't been much of a base dealer in his career.

He had the 20 steel season as a 22 year old. old in 2020, 2015, that long ago it was. And he hasn't had a 15 steel season since. He's had four double-digit steel seasons ever. So 20s, a high bar to meet. Stolen base even more than home runs are, you do not expect an even distribution of those over the course of a season. Like some people are freaking out because Corby and Carroll hasn't stolen a base on

April 10th. There's still a good chance he ends the month with five stolen bases or more. And even if he doesn't, I would still bet on him getting 30 plus this year. Even if he doesn't steal a single base in April. And meanwhile, I'd be curious to know how many of Manny Machadoes were part of it on the back end of a double steel.

Or just like uncontested, you know. Yeah. And I'm not sure I could find that out. but I don't think he's just going to, like he, because he's only 14 away from a career high already, I could see it. But even then, you're asking Manny Machado,

who is, whose second most steals in an entire season is 14 to have 14 from this point forward. And I just don't think you can think of steals maintaining their pace like that. I think he's going to drop off. So I will sell. Yeah.

I agree with that. but it wouldn't surprise me if he can get somewhere in the mid-teens this season for Manny Machado. Well, let's talk about Corbyn Carroll. You brought up the name here.

Two for five with his fifth home run. He has homered in back-to-back games. Hard to steal bases when all you do is hit home runs, obviously. He's pulling the ball more than ever. He's hitting it really hard. By yourself,

Corby and Carole sets a career high in home runs. The previous high was 25. This is another one where I expected 20-plus. and now he only needs 20 to match his career high in the next 149 games. So yeah, I'll buy this one. Yeah, I have an easier time buying this one. I think you can actually take more from an early season home run pace.

Not that you can take a lot, but you can take more than from an early season steals pace. He has set a new max exovalo high, right? Yep. I believe so. And I seem to recall him setting a high, like hitting higher exit v. Loz at the spring too. I think he had a high one, like one, one or two really high one in spring as well. He's still really young. And part of his career was impaired by shoulder issues that he seems to be passed now.

So I think it's, I feel good about this one. I'll buy Corby and Carroll sending a career high in home runs. Next up is Hunter Brown, who pitched really well at the Mariners, six shutout innings, two hits, zero walks, three strikeouts, 13 whiffs on 98 pitches. Maybe he deserved a few more strikeouts than the three that he wound up with here, but he's off to a really nice start.

The velocity has been up overall this season. It was down a little bit in this particular start. But buy or sell Hunter Brown is a top 25 starting pitcher rest of season. I was working on the newsletter, and I said, I wrote something like, I think he should probably be a top 30 starting pitcher the rest of the way.

I'm just not sure I can do it. Like, would you rather have Bailey Ober or Hunter Brown the rest of the way? It's close. I think you can make a case for Brown. Like, I updated my rankings here on Wednesday, and I moved Hunter Brown up to 30. But the names that I have in the 21, 22 to 25 range, Nola, over, Bryce Miller, Joe Ryan. Like, Hunter Brown could be better than those guys. Yeah, for sure.

I moved Christopher. So I have Hunter Brown 31st. now I just moved Christopher Sanchez ahead of him. So I did have Brown in the top 30 until I moved Christopher Sanchez. What do you think of that, Christopher? It seems a little aggressive. I mean, I get why you're doing it

with the velocity being up and maybe there's a new level of untapped potential for Sanchez. But you might be able to say the same thing about Hunter Brown. Yeah, I mean, it's not like he's lost in too. Yeah. And it was pretty miserable for the first couple months.

Curiously, he threw his fastball, I think 42% of the, time in this one, which is more than usual. And he took a leap last year when he cut back on the fastball usage. So I don't know that that's a move in the right direction for Hunter Brown. But he got a decent number of whiffs with it and does obviously look good so far. He's not a generally hasn't been a big swing and miss guy. There's been kind of like, there's been a little bit of a Mitch Keller element to Hunter Brown early in his career.

I don't think it's as extreme as Keller. but that makes me a little wary of saying, okay, he's had a good run here. I guess he's just fine because I think a disaster start could skew that at some point. Hopefully not. But yeah, I have him just outside my top 30, which means I'm not going to call him top 25 either.

All right. So it's a cell for you. Is that a cell for Chris as well? Can't get him to top 25. I'm trying to get him to top 30, and I'm not sure who I can kick out for it yet. but he probably should be top 30. I do have Justin Steele, Blake Snell,

George Kirby, Pablo Lopez, and Spencer Strider all ahead of him. So if you just want to move the guys on the aisle behind him, then I guess Under Brown is just about there, but I rank them ahead of him for a reason. Let's talk about Tasker Hernandez, who's off to a great start, two for five with his fifth home run,

three RBI in this one. He's betting 283, five homers, 16 RBI, two steals, 939 OPS. One of the bold predictions that I toyed with this season was that Teosker Hernandez is the most valuable Dodger hitter this season, which would take a few different things happening. Probably players not staying healthy,

but buy or sell, Teosker Hernandez winds up better this year than last year. I'll sell it, but I think it'll be close. I'm not. I don't see much in the skill set to believe that there's like a big leap coming. He's obviously 32 years old as well, so that is a reason to beat that against it. But it's not like I think Teoska Hernandez is going to be significantly worse.

They see what he was last. It's basically a push. So if he hits 34 homers instead of 33 or drives in 104 runs instead of 99, was he better? I guess so. But that's it would be just around the margins. like that. So I sell it also. All right, let's talk about a few quick reliever ones here. Robert Suarez got the ninth inning with a one run lead. He walked one, picked up his league leading sixth save of the season. Buy or sell? We messed up.

Well, I was, I know I messed up in one league where I took Jordan Romano over Robert Suarez, even though I ranked Suarez ahead. And I probably just wasn't on enough sleep and didn't have enough time on the clock and panicked and picked the wrong guy. So I know I messed up in that league. But I was backing Suarez when you guys were trying to write him off. I was the Robert Suarez stand standing against the legions of people who wanted to push him down draft boards. Yeah, I buy this one.

I messed up. Yeah, I think so too. He's starting to change up more and that's an awesome pitch for him. Yeah, it's not looking good for the skip. and haters. And the velocity, too. We were worried about that in spring. It's another maybe lesson of just like, yeah, don't pay attention to spring. But he averaged 99.1 on the fastball last year, 98.6 so far this season for Robert Suarez. Every closer's velocity was down this spring. Yeah, it was just a little bit more worrisome for me for Suarez,

just because he relied on that fastball so much. But he's good so far in the regular season. Let's talk about Jose Alvarado, who recorded the final four outs here on. Wednesday he gave up two hits with two strikeouts. He actually picked up the win in this game because the Phillies took the lead in the top of the ninth, but he's 61% rostered by or sell. Jose Alvarado is a must roster relief pitcher and fantasy.

Maybe not in head to head points leagues, but everywhere else, yeah. If he's just the Phillies closer, then he might be. He'll quickly become must roster in every league, if that's the case. So it's just a question of how sure are we, that I'm pretty sure he's the Phillies closer right now.

The only one else who has been used in that role is Jordan Romano, and I think he's pitched his way out of even high leverage at this point. Yeah. So it really is just Alvarado. Doesn't mean a Ryan Kirkring going to work his way in or Matt Strom or anybody else. I think that's pretty likely to happen at some point, just given Rob Thompson's tendencies. given Alvarado's history.

But right now it does appear to be Alvarado. And I have him 24th in my relief pitcher rankings for Roto. His velocity is up about two miles per hour. And he's got, I guess it's a new curveball. I don't know. He has sporadically mixed curveballs in in the past. But I think he's got like a new slower one that has looked good when he's thrown it. Yeah, I was fun with small sample sizes here.

he's thrown six and a third innings with 12 strikeouts so far it's a 17% K per 17K per 9 2.8 walks per 9 a 0.22 FIP and a 0.92 X FIP so far 61% ground ball rate for Jose Alvarado as well so yeah he has been disgusting let's get into the leftovers from Wednesday's action and talk about Joe Ryan who had his best start of the season at the Royals seven shutout innings with four strikeouts 10 whiffs on 85 pitches.

Still gave up some hard contact in this one, but what did you guys see here? How did Joe Ryan succeed? Did you come away encouraged from some of the underlying numbers? I'm finding him to be pretty confusing. Overall.

So he did get his fastball velocity up over 93 for the first time this year. It was 94 last year. He is throwing the second hardest. It's down from last year, but it's still the second hardest of his career.

He got more whiffs, even when he was throwing more like 92 in previous years than he's gotten this year. So I think he's a good control pitcher. But if he's not missing enough bats or the home runs eventually going to get the better of him, that's my concern for Ryan. I think he could be pretty unpredictable on a start-to-start basis. All right. Well, one other waiver wire pitcher we didn't talk about was Eric Fetty.

who threw six no-hit innings with two strikeouts at the Pirates. More walks and strikeouts in this one. But he had 14 whiffs on 88 pitches. He's 63% rostered. Might be in line for two starts next week against the Astros and at the Mets. So not the best matchups, but a really good start here.

Any interest in Eric Fitty? He's fine to have a round. He's also fine to drop when there's someone with upside available. Him and Max Meyer are rostered in roughly the same number of leagues. If any of them overlap, if you've got Eric Fetty and Max Myers available in any your leagues, just go ahead and drop Eric Faddy. Yeah. One of their name I think you can drop is Sean Burke. If you picked him up after that first start, he's still 42% rostered and he's been pretty bad since. So you can go ahead and drop Sean Burke. What to do with these three starting

pitchers, Nick Martinez, Justin Verlander, and Grant Holmes, all kind of mixed results here. Verlander The final line, like the earn runs bad, but nine strikeouts, 20 whiffs in this outing on 90 pitches. Like, where did that come from? What are you guys doing with-slider? With Martinez, Verlander, and Grant Holmes right now. I actually think Verlander is probably the most interesting of these three context neutral, right? If you're in a head-to-head points league, Holmes and Martinez being RPLs, probably gives them an edge, although I like Holmes a lot.

I don't. I do. I don't think his command is good enough as a starter. I don't think his fastball is particularly good. I know the slider and curveball are good pitches. The slider especially was wicked today. And he threw some to Trey Turner that were just, Trey Turner looked real dumb on a couple of those swings.

That's not something you see very often. But I don't think he's just actually a great pitcher. It had four extra inches of vertical movement. They were talking on the broadcast about how he had worked with Rick Cran. It's to tweak it prior to this start. That's the brace pitching coach. And we're giving him a lot of credit for the way his slider looked in this start. Of course, we saw him post huge whiff rates, like genuinely huge whiff rates during his time as a starter last year.

Brief, though, it was. We saw him work deeper into games than he's eight been able to. He hasn't been that efficient so far. I'll grant that. Too many deep counts, too many foul balls in this start really drove up the pitch count, prevented him from going five innings even though he was pitching well. Well, also eight walks and two starts. Yeah.

Yeah, but it is just two starts. And he's also faced the Dodgers and Phillies in those two starts. And at least in this start, he got a ton of wist, which is what I wanted to see. So I find Holmes the most interesting. Martinez and Verlander, I'd be fine dropping in a standard 12-team league. I'm not saying they'll never be worth picking up again. I just don't think the upside for either is high enough that you have to ride them out through this low point.

By the way, the last time Justin Verlander had 20 whiffs in a start, it wasn't a good start, but the 20 whiffs. The last time he had that many was 2019. Wow. When he did it multiple times because he struck out 300 batters that year. Jeez. I think Verlander was pretty good in this one. I know the results weren't great.

Five run runs in five and two-thirds innings, but only one batted ball with an expected batting average over 400. That's a skill that has mostly remained intact for Justin Verlander in recent years. Now his strikeout rate and whiff rates are up in the early going. He's tweaked his pitch mix and his grips on some of his pitches. I don't know, man. I'm not saying Justin Verlander is back, but he has a 399 FIP and a 360. 68 X-FIP, I think he can still be pretty useful.

Some other pitching leftovers here. Four names who were good to great. Mitch Keller, Brandon Fott, Tanner Halk, and Seth Lugo, and then Shota Imanaga, who was not good, doomed by the home run, gave up two of those here, wound up with five runs over five innings. But anything that stood out to you guys for Imanaga, Lugo, Tanner Halk, Brandon Fott, and Mitch Keller. So Keller also had a what appeared to be an improved slider.

And actually the slider hasn't been a huge part of his repertoire this whole time. It only entered into it last year. He'd been throwing a sweeper primarily and still has the sweeper. But the slider has become a bigger part of his arsenal. Six of his 11 whiffs came on it and this started through 23% of the time. I doubt it really changed. the game for Mitch Keller. He is one of those pitchers

who has a full, full arsenal of pitches, an entire kitchen sink that he throws at the opposition. And so I think if he sticks with that approach, the addition of another pitch, okay, maybe it'll work better some days, but I don't know that it's going to be a game changer for Keller.

So I just thought it was worth pointing out and have continued to remain maddening on a start-to-start basis, better for head-to-head points. than for Roto. I agree with that. Among those you didn't mention here, I just want to point this out,

Ryan Pepio had kind of a mixed start as well, three and runs in five innings against the Angels, 15 whiffs. So he was able to miss bats with all three of his pitches. He did allow three home runs at Swampbrenner Field. So he avoided the home runs There his first start, a great start against the Rockies. Second start there.

The home runs came. And he's not going to give up three home runs every start. But I do think that's going to be the problem for Pepio at that venue, even if he is missing bats like he did in this start. If you want to put out with Imanaga, strikeouts have been not there so far. He hasn't had a start yet with more strikeouts than innings after being basically a one-to-one last year. But he had 15 whiffs in this one, 13.5 percent.

strike rate overall. I'm not worried about Imanaga. Yeah, I think the strikeouts are going to be totally fine for that exact reason that you mentioned. Some hitting left over is Corey Seeger, two for five with a double dong. Nice to see after the report that he's apparently still working through that calf injury. Ellie Dealer Cruz, had that huge game last week. He's been pretty quiet outside of that, but two hits here, two RBI. And I wanted to mention while the strikeout rate is high, 29% for Ellie, 91% zone contacts and 11% swinging Shrike rate. Those are really, really good marks for the underlying plate discipline metrics there for L.A.

Dela Cruz. J. Hulie finished a home run short of the cycle. CJ Abrams returned with a bang, one for five with a sock and a shoe, his fourth home run and third steel. Cam Smith, some signs of life after sitting out Sunday and Monday, two for four with a run in RBI. On Tuesday, he went one for three with a triple and an RBI. and Randy Rosarena,

one of the wackiest games you will see. He had a grand slam in the eighth inning to pull the Mariners within one run, I believe. And then he had a walk-off basis-loaded walk in the ninth inning of that game. So it is a wacky game here, but anything you guys would like to add on these hitters. So with regards to Ellie De La Cruz,

his whiff rate, his whiffs per swing seems to have improved so far, like you said on pitches in the strike zone it's just just pitch decisions have been really swing decisions have been really bad his chase rate is actually lower than last year his zone swing rate is down to 50% though he's just been too passive not swinging at the right pitches um so if he can do both right like if he can combine the improved contact rate and get back to swinging at the right pitches a little more that would be a big deal um

I'm skeptical that that'll be the case. I wasn't really buying the L.A. Dela Cruz breakout arguments, but I think he's better than he's been so far, at the very least. Yeah, I think overall encouraging, but I did notice that he was being a bit passive as well. So we'll see how that play discipline evolves here for L.A. Dela Cruz. The call to the bullpen for the pirates. Dennis Santana fired two scoreless innings across the, ninth and the 10th innings, and he did that with the game tied. He struck out one, and he's looked

pretty good so far for the Pirates. For the Marlins, Anthony Bender entered with one out in the seventh inning, had a two-run lead. He recorded the next five outs of the game. The Marlins tacked on three more runs in the ninth, giving them a five-run lead. Chris, any idea who would have closed out this game if it remained a safe situation for the Marlins? I was not able to see. the bullpen from my seats in the right field bleachers. I texted you like, who's coming in? I don't know. Maybe you can see who's in the bullpen.

Veniziano. I think he was warming at first, but he's a lefty. That might have just been a matchups thing. And then, yeah, the Mervis home run in the top of the ninth made that a moot point. It does kind of seem like Clayton McCulloch. Is that how you say his last name? We've been reluctant to say it so far because I'm not sure I'm saying it right. McCullough, the Marlins manager.

Does anybody know? To be honest, I don't know. Yeah, McCullough. McCullough. Clayton McCullough. Anyway, I'm kind of getting the sense he's going to be a play-the-match-o's type, which is not great on a team that's not going to have a lot of save opportunities anyway. That is a bad situation. For the Yankees, Devin Williams entered the ninth inning with a four-run lead.

He gave up three runs on two walks and two hits. He was relieved by Mark Leiter Jr. who got the final out for his first save. It's been a pretty rough start for Devin Williams, but obviously a really small sample size. For the Reds, Emilio Pagan came on for the 10th inning with the game tied. He gave up a walk-off to run Homer to lose that game. For the Dodgers, Tanner Scott entered in the seventh inning with a one-run lead

facing the top of the nationals lineup. CJ Abrams, James Wood, and Cabert Ruiz. So two lefties there. He struck out two. It was Blake Trinen, who got the ninth inning, gave up a single and a walk, but got out of it for his second save of the season. For the Astros, Josh Hader was unavailable.

Brian Abraeu got the ninth. He gave up three runs on three hits and two walks. He took his second blown save and first loss of the season. For the Guardians, Emmanuel Class A, got the ninth with a two-run lead. He gave up a run on a walk. and three hits and honestly should have blue the save. Did you guys watch this at all? I didn't see this.

So he had bases loaded with a two-run lead. He gave up a single, one-run scores. Mike Tockeman is flying around third base, and he re-interes his hamstring, and he gets caught at home plate, just kind of like hobbling. So like he pulled his hammy, but yeah, if he was just running, I think he would have been safe.

So it would have been a blown save there for a manual clause. see. Yeah, he got a little, he's been a little shaky early on, but I don't see any good reason to think it'll continue. Like, I don't see, other than the results themselves. I don't see any red flags there for Emmanuel Class A.

I agree. I didn't want to blow past the Dodgers thing. It does seem like on the days they used Tanner Scott earlier because lefties are due up in a high leverage situation. Like, it's becoming clear, Blake Trinen is kind of the right-handed alternative. even though it probably should be Kirby Yates, Trinan has consistently been used in that backup closer role.

So in deep leagues where saves are scarce, I think he probably needs to be rostered. Can I say one pitcher thing that's not relief pitcher? We didn't talk about him at all. Sorry, I know we're running long. You say Kikuchi. His arm angle has dropped from 42 degrees last year to 32. degrees this year. So he's throwing from a lower angle. And that is either a conscious choice,

which seems like a bad idea because he finally broke out in the second half of last year. So why would you change that? Or his arm is dropping because he's not healthy. Either way, I think it's bad. So that's something I noticed that is, I'm not saying drop you say Kikuchi because obviously we've seen bad stretches from him and then he figures it out. But I'm okay sitting him for the time. That sounds like a big drop, 10 degree, a 10 degree drop is it? Or I haven't worked with those numbers very much.

Yeah, you don't see, that's not like, like you'll see fluctuation from year to year. Like he had gone from 42 to 44. A 10 degree drop is pretty significant. Yeah. It looks like he's in line for two starts next week. against the Giants and at the Rangers.

Yeah, I would start him in points leagues, I guess, but probably not in Rhodo. I'm not feeling great about him right now. Is it possible? It's just it's neither a choice nor health, but just his mechanics aren't right? I mean, his mechanics could just be off. Yeah, that's also possible.

Again, that was Kikuchi that we were just talking about. Few other bullpins here for the Rays P. Fairbanks, close out the game for his second save and for the Braves, Ryssel Iglesias got the ninth with the game tied. He gave up a solo homer to Tray Turner and took his second loss of the season. To stream or not to stream on Thursday,

there is not much going on here. Soriano at the Rays, Zach Lattel versus the Angels. Really your only options. I think Soriano's fine. I think Lattel's fine. I think they're fine. Yeah.

What about on Friday? We have Tomo Yuki Sugano facing the Blue Jays. We have Mitchell Parker at the Marlins, Reese Olson at the Twins, Eduardo Rodriguez, home against the Brewers.

And I don't know, Griffin, Canny, and J.P. Sears are facing each other, but don't love the matchups. I'd probably go with Rodriguez, Olson, and Sugano in that order. I would go, Olson,

Sugano. Do I want to do Rodriguez? I might prefer Canning to Rodriguez. I like what I've seen from him so far and still don't have a ton of confidence in the athletics lineup that he's facing. Probably should unmute myself. I like Mitchell Parker as well

just because of the matchup here at the Marlins. So I will throw that one in the mix as well. 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.

Mount Podcasts. Thank you.