Fantasy Baseball Today - Lance Lynn's Historic Start, More Prospect Promotions & Waiver Wire Adds! (6/19 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 19, 2023

Lance Lynn racked up 16 strikeouts on Sunday (1:40)! ... Bryce Miller continues to confound with another great start (7:40). ... Sell-high on Andrew Abbott (12:05)? ... Emmet Sheehan threw six no-hit innings in his debut Friday (16:13). ... Bo Naylor was promoted by the Guardians and Henry Davis is getting called up on Monday (21:37). ... Let's rank a bunch of waiver wire hitters (28:25)! ... News (39:12): Pete Alonso is already back! ... Let's rank a bunch of waiver wire pitchers (45:52)! ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (56:30). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Bid on fun FBT experiences as part of the Fantasy Football Today Draft-A-Thon, supporting St. Jude. Here's a spot in one of our 2024 FBT listener leagues: https://www.ebay.com/itm/374754477549?hash=item57411b85ed:g:5p8AAOSwy8lkiJds Bid on a guest spot on Fantasy Baseball Today: https://www.ebay.com/itm/374754456105?hash=item57411b3229:g:P0MAAOSwA~JkiJg3 Bid on a 2024 pre-draft zoom call with Scott White: https://www.ebay.com/itm/374754554172?hash=item57411cb13c:g:b-IAAOSwNLNkiNXc Bid on a 2024 pre-draft zoom call with Chris Towers: https://www.ebay.com/itm/374754517228?hash=item57411c20ec:g:gpgAAOSwObJkgO26 Bid on a 2024 pre-draft zoom call with Frank Stampfl: https://www.ebay.com/itm/374754521463?hash=item57411c3177:g:IjMAAOSwOkNkgO14 Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Well, I hope you didn't drop Lance Lynn like I did. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, June 19th.

Frank Sample, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, Lance Lynn's historic start, more prospect promotions, waiver wire moves, and much more. Before we get started, please like this video and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. And if you're listening on the audio side, download, follow, and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. First and foremost, hope all the great dads out there had a happy Father's Day. Scott, did you get to do anything fun yourself with the kids, with the family? Anything? I was working.

so no, but no, we had a, I took a break for dinner to have a little dinner with them, a little dessert. Nice sit-down meal. So that was good. I don't always do that when I'm working. All right, fair enough. I mean, Eddie Rosario gave you probably the best gift you could get this weekend, huh? I mean, that guy is on fire. We'll talk about him in just a little bit, but let's get started.

Hey now, Scott, you have the Olive Garden Breadstick, so I will let you get a, started. Lance Lynn knows a little about Olive Garden Breadsticks probably and he knows a little about pitching. It turns out, Frank. Frank, what have I been telling you?

After every Lance Lynn start, don't do it, don't drop him. And this is why he finally lived up to all the potential that I feel like remained latent in him. 16 strikeouts Can't say I would have ever imagined him having a 16 strikeout performance this season.

But 16 strikeouts in, of course, a losing effort at the Mariners because why not? Why not get a loss out of it the way Lance Lynn's season has gone? But he allowed just two earned runs in seven, I'm sorry, three earned runs in seven innings, four hits, two walks. 33 swinging strikes, as one would imagine, a 16 strikeout effort would yield. 33 swinging strikes on 114 pitches. Now this is what was kind of, this is kind of the interesting aspect. What did Lance Lynn do different?

The pitch selection, there were some interesting things going on here. So he had been throwing his fastball about 43% of the time. This year he threw it only 23% of the time in this start. And in its place, we're a variety of pitches. He showed us this full arsenal

we didn't even know he had. Of those 33 swinging strikes, six came on the slider on only 11% sliders. Five came on to change up, only 10% change up. So he wasn't throwing many of those pitches, but it was more than usual still. And they combined for 11 of the 33 whiffs,

each of them had better than a 70% whiff rate in this game. So I think he just kind of made use of the element of surprise. And it's like if he has those, if he has those tools in his tool bag and maybe he won't be so afraid to break them out from this point forward but I think more than anything what this start does

is it shatters the idea that the reason Lance Lynn is struggling this season is because of the pitch clock and he's a big guy is he able to is he able to operate at the tempo that's necessary to still find success.

And clearly he showed in a 114 pitch effort having this much success in it that he's capable of doing that. I liked a lot of the underlying numbers to begin with, particularly the fact he was still getting so many swinging strikes

as many as he's ever gotten over the course of his career. So the stuff still seemed to be there. And he did have that three-star stretch earlier this season where he was coming around. I don't want to celebrate rate this too hard because, you know, the way this season's gone with pitching in general, it wouldn't be that shocking if Lance Lynn allowed 16 earn

runs in his next start, but... I'd be a little surprised if he allowed 16 earn runs. Obviously, if he's out there in your league, you need to roster him. And I hope you have renewed hope for him if you've held on to him all this time. Again, that is Lance Lynn. And I saw this tweet from Sarah Lang's, the most swings and misses in a game since the pitch tracking era began back in 2008. This was tied for the fourth most. So only three other pitchers

since 08 had more swinging strikes in a start than Lance Lynn did on Sunday. You know, I just want to like this whole like, oh, Lance Lynn's struggling because of the pitch clock. It's because he's fat. As a fat guy. Like, we're very selective about who we like, okay, Alec Mano and Lance Lynn are bigger dudes.

And so everybody's quick to go like, oh, that's why they're starting. But like, Freddie Peralta's been bad. Sandy Alcounter has been bad. Nobody says it's because they're like, I just, it's an unfair diagnosis of what is a complex problem. And we have seen Lance Lynn notably struggle without the pitch clock. So stop being mean, guys. It hurts my feelings. On Lance Lynn, the last point here, he's 78% rostered.

So again, if he was dropped like he was in my home league. I'm currently trying to pick him back up. Go out and re-ad him. I don't know that we're just fully back in and he's just what we're starting him because he's going up against the Red Sox this week. So you just pick and choose with the matchups. Really, I don't like that one very much.

The Red Sox are ninth in Wobah against right-handed pitching the season. But just a reminder of the massive upside that is nice. I think it's a perfect opportunity to try to sell high. That doesn't mean I think he's going to be terrible the rest of the season. I would certainly take the under on a 675. ERA, which was what he entered this start with. But like, this is a really impressive start. And it might be the start of him figuring it out.

But he was bad for three starts in a row before this. He had a couple of good starts in May as well. So I do want to just, you know, put myself out there saying, like, I think this is as much as anything, a cell window for Lance Lynn, if you, I think rightly have concerns about it. It doesn't hurt to dangle him. But yeah, we're still talking about a guy. with a 651 ERA and 151 whip. And so that gets back to the topic I brought up a few times this year. Does the average fantasy player look more at the season line

or look more at the recent performance? And I honestly don't know the answer at that. Me personally, I probably look at recent performance more. But, you know, that probably varies case by case. See what you can get, but I would treat Lance Lynn as a top 60 starting pitcher moving forward. so if you can't get clearly better than that, then probably just sit with them.

All right. Some other standouts from the weekend, Chris. The other side of that game is who you'd like to highlight. Yeah, Brice Miller, who I continue to find confounding, along with pretty much every Mariners pitcher at this point. But Bryce Miller in particular, actually did change things up in this one. 59% fastball usage, I believe, was his lowest so far.

31% slider. usage was his highest so far. And he had a really good start. Seven innings, one earned run allowed zero walk, six strikeouts. Slider wasn't really a part of that. I mean, it's fine, right? He, you know, the slider was good. Like, he pitched well and the slider was a big part of it.

But he got one swing strike with the slider. And he gave up 88.1 mile per hour exit velocity, which is fine. It's not great, but it's not out. It's not terrible either. It's right around average. It's still the fastball, right? Seven whiffs in this start. Seven balls in play,

89.6 mile per hour average, the velocity. It's just, I still don't quite know what to make of it. I still find him confounding. I still think he's a one-pitch pitcher, but after a couple of rocky starts, this is now what,

two very good starts in a row, six strikeouts in each of the last two, allowing one-earned run. I don't know. on Bryce Miller. My sense is still that he's a cell high candidate. He gives up decent amount of hard contacts so far. He's got the four-seem fastball,

which is an awesome pitch. But the slider, it had a 13% whiff rate coming into this start. It might be below 10% now. I believe he has eight swinging strikes with his slider in nine starts. Is that right? Yeah.

It's a really, really hard profile to make work. And I will completely cop to this might be one of those guys that I just can't get my head around and I might just be wrong about Brace Miller but he flies his success flies in the face of what nearly all pitchers in the majors do

these days like it's Lance Lynn is a high fastball usage pitch and he's like 58% combined with his four seam and sinker this is just four seam fastballs up in the zone you know that there just aren't a lot of guys like that and the ones who are are Joe Ryan has a great splitter.

Spencer Strider has an awesome slider. Bryce Miller, the stuff metrics seem to like his slider, but again, it's like a 10% whiff rate, so I'm not exactly sure what's going into that. He also, I noticed talking to Enosaris on Twitter a little bit about him, his arm slot when he throws his slider and sweeper is about three inches lower than when he throws his four-seem fastball, which could maybe explain.

why hitters aren't swinging through the pitch, but it's all to say, I still think Bryce Miller is a cell high candidate, and he still might make me look really dumb. Yeah, I would agree that he's a cell high candidate, and I think these last two starts, you know, because he had those 15 earn runs and back-to-back starts, and the CRA blew up to 446, and we're like, great, you missed your cell high window. There might be another window opening up here. Yeah. A little crack. His ZRA's down to 368 more impressively is whips down to 0.88. He's kind of doing a George Kirby impression. And I had doubts about Kirby all of last season for the same reasons.

And, you know, he proved me wrong. But he was also, you know, he had a more impressive minor league track record. He had a more impressive prospect pedigree. He had more backing up what he was doing, even if it didn't quite make sense to me. So Bryce Miller, I would classify as a cell high. think, or let me phrase it this way, I do think there's a rookie pitcher out there who is a much more obvious candidate to crash and crash hard in the not too distant future. I know who you're talking about. And it's Andrew Abbott, correct? Yes, it is. Andrew Abbott.

I imagine we'll get into it later in the show. I don't know if they want to blow up Frank's rundown here. I did notice this is random. Jared Schuster has three strikeouts since the last three starts. He's gone like 16 innings total. That's a random stat that I saw that actually did make me say, oh my goodness gracious. You can talk about Abbott now if you want, Scott. I mean, let's talk about Abbott. Go ahead.

Well, I have him as part of the waiver wire segment later on because he's still 78% rostered. So more so in shallower leagues than anything else. But Abbott was at the Astros this weekend. Six shutout innings, four hits, two walks, two strikeouts, only two swinging strikes, excuse me, four swinging strikes on 83 pitches. And his ERA is zero. yet to allow a run in three starts.

But he's doing this with a 6.1K per 9 and a over four walks per 9. Well, I actually, for what it's worth, I actually did add him to the sleeper pitchers for this upcoming week because he's facing the Rockies in Cincinnati and, you know, I had to find somebody. But if that starts goes well,

it's all the more reason to sell high on Abbott, who yes, has yet to allow an earn run this season. But I mean, you kind of, You kind of gave the numbers already. So 12 strikeouts in 17 and 2 thirds innings, nine walks in 17 and 2 thirds innings. That's 6.1K per 9, 4.6 walks per 9. Very similar to what we were seeing from Graham Ashcraft

early in the season when he was preventing runs, but not really doing anything else well. And in Abbott's case especially, it wasn't so much in this Astro start, but overall a lot of hard contact too. I don't even think you need to go. that deep, though. I don't think you ever have to look at his stat cast page to say, okay, this can't last for Andrew Abbott. Because the only reason he was ever,

he ever emerged on the prospect radar is because his strikeout rate was ridiculous. It's not like he was a highly rated guy before that. He was just striking out so many guys in the minor leagues that we had to take notice of him and think, okay, maybe there's something here. He gets to the majors, and he's not striking out anybody. Like, that seems like a problem. What else is there for him to fall back on? He has no pedigree apart from that strikeout rate. It's not going to end well for Andrew Abbott, unless the strikeouts suddenly tick up,

in which case, you know, we can have that conversation. But based on what he's shown through three starts, I don't see it. I made this point on Twitter over the weekend, and a lot of people seem to misunderstand. They kept giving me examples of pitchers who succeeded in the past without a lot of strikeouts like Mark Burley. I'm like, okay, I'm not saying no pitcher can succeed without strikeouts. It's hard to do.

but some could do it, obviously. I'm saying Andrew Abbott doesn't seem like the sort of pitcher who could do that, because the only reason we cared about it was the strikeouts. And especially, I mean, given the context of his profile too, in that he is a flyball pitcher. He pitches in Cincinnati. That's the worst ballpark for home runs and all of baseball. So it feels like there will be some regression at that at some point in terms of the home runs.

And even the swinging strike rate, there's not even a sign that strikeouts are coming, six and a half percent. that would be among the lowest in baseball if he qualified. None of his individual pitches look like great swing and miss pitches right now. Changeups at 24% curveballs at 20. There's not a ton to write home about yet. That is Andrew Abbott and Bryce Miller as potential sell high candidates. I'm just going to skip my oh my goodness gracious player for now and we'll get to him in just a little bit

because I do want to talk about these prospects that got promoted this weekend. Before we do that, every year our friends over at Fantasy Football tonight, They put on a great event called the Draftathon, a whole evening dedicated to helping you draft a great team and to raise money for St. Jude's Children's Hospital. And that's where we come in. Up on eBay right now, there are a ton of listings including a spot in our 2024 listener league,

a guest spot on this podcast, and we also have some 2024 pre-draft Zoom conversations with either Scott, Chris, or myself, whichever one you wanna bid on, you wanna bid on one, you wanna bid on all three, that's completely up to you. Those links are in the podcast and the YouTube description right now

and I think there's a little over a day left in the listings there. So if you do want to get involved and help a good cause, feel free. Again, that is the Fantasy Football Today draftathon. Let's get into some prospect promotions from this weekend. Emmett Sheehan made his debut

and it was a great start. Six no-hit innings, two walks, three strikeouts, only four swinging strikes on the 89 pitches, allowed five hard hits in that game, and looked like a three-pitch mix, 69% fastball, so very heavy on the fastball there, which averaged 95.8 miles per hour, 17% on the change-up, 15% on the slider. This is a pitcher that was amazing in the minors this season. He's 23 years old, 43% rostered, and if he makes a start this week,

it looks like it will come against the Houston Astros. Obviously, Julio Reyes, and Noah Sindergarde are working their way back from the IL. Chris, your thoughts on this debut for Emmett Sheehan. Obviously, the surface level numbers are great in this first outing, but, you know, the underlying stuff not so great. And I don't know if he's going to stick around. What do you think? Yeah, I mean, it's the kind of thing where if he's,

if he's not immediately being sent down, there's always a path. You know, pitchers get hurt. That's just one of the things that's always going to be true about pitchers, as we've seen with Dodgers who are now relying on what, three different three different rookies now or just two in the rotation but they've also gone through

two other ones. It's been a lot of turnover for them and so it's one torn or one sprained ankle or bad pitch and he could have a spot for the rest of the season.

Plus are they really going to give a spot back to Noah Cindergarde? They shouldn't. That's also the question. Yeah. And so, you know, obviously I think we should be picking up Emmett Sheehan

just Sheehan, just be. because the minor league numbers are so impressive and he's a prospect and he's a young guy and the range of outcomes is wide. I think the likeliest case scenario is he's not a particularly great pitcher, certainly not on the Bobby Miller level because he's not that kind of prospect. But, you know, I put in a, I got him for $47 in TGFBI. I think he went for more than that in each of your league. So, you know, that's the kind of bid I'm comfortable making on him. Not a break the bank guy, but let's see what happens.

Again, that is Emmett Sheehan. And I can't talk about Emmett Sheehan. I was just going to mention how much he went for my league's guide and then I was going to give you a chance. Uh, $223 in my 12 team Tout Wars League, head to head points. So again, it was all over the place. Chris said $47 in one of his leagues 223. He went for 104 in my NFBC main event league. That's 15 team roto and $73 in TGFBI, which is also a 15 team Roto league.

So prices are all over the place. Scott, where do you fall on Sheehan? I'm pretty bullish on Sheehan. So obviously I write the prospects report every week. He's, I probably wrote about Sheehan at least two times, maybe three times as one of my five on the periphery. So I only get, other than my five on the verge, I only get five other prospects to choose from every week. And Sheehan was just so impressive throughout the year that I kept coming back to him. It was one of the biggest prospect risers I would save the first half.

Did you give the actual numbers from the miners this year? Nope. He had a 186 ERA, a 0.88 whip 14.9K per 9. His swinging strike rate was 20%. And no, he was not in the Southern League. So he did not have the pre-tacked balls at his disposal. And it's one of those cases where he dominated with the fastball. It seems to have all the ideal characteristics for the modern game, the optimal vertical approach angle and the rising effect.

And that seems to be something the Dodgers are putting. on a lot of their prospects. And Sheehan just really took off with it in a way that got to promote him more aggressively than we usually see from the Dodgers. And so then he no hits a pretty good team in his major league debut. I wish he had more swinging strikes. I dinged Bobby Miller for the same thing after his first start. And obviously that looked foolish in retrospect. If it becomes a pattern where Sheehan isn't getting swinging strikes, okay, then, you know, I might.

be a little concerned. But for his major league debut, considering, you know, he wasn't hit hard at all, I'm very excited. I'd be looking to pick him up everywhere. I had some pretty big bids on him this weekend. And we'll see how long he sticks around.

Like I said, if he's pitching well, it's hard for me to imagine they'll put Cinderguard back in the rotation. There's room for Julio O'Reas and Sheehan both because they sent down, who was that other guy who's not very good? They sent down Michael,

Grove. That was that. Yeah. Yeah. So I think Sheehan could stick around if he keeps pitching well. Okay. And we will compare him to other WaverWire pitchers in just a little bit. Let's take our first break. And when we return to catcher prospects promoted this weekend as well, we'll do that right after this. Quick reminder to download and follow our five minute podcast, Fantasy Baseball, today in five. We usually take the biggest headlines, news, WaverWire players. And that's what we talk about. And just

just five minutes, so if you wanna listen to it in addition to this podcast, or if you just don't have enough time, and you need a quick fix, fantasy baseball today in five. If you're watching us on YouTube, you can scan the QR code in the top right corner and that will take you right to the podcast.

Two catcher prospects promoted this weekend, Bo Nailer with the Guardians, Mike Zanino was actually DFA'd on Friday and perfect timing because Scott and I recorded FBT and 5 late on Thursday night. We talked to Bo Nailer, we said, oh yeah, he could be here soon, What do you know?

He's up on Saturday. He was batting 253 with 13 home runs, two steals, and an 891 OPS in the minors this season. And Henry Davis actually wasn't promoted yet, but he will be promoted by the Pirates on Monday, their first overall pick back in 2021. This season in the minors between AA and AAA, he was betting 284 with 11 homers, nine steals, and a 974 OPS, also 23 years old. Scott will start with you. Which of these two?

Do you like both of these players? Which one do you prefer? They're very unique in that they're catchers, but they both provide power and speed if everything is working out for them. Yeah, you mentioned Naylor had just two stolen bases this year. They both came just at a game earlier this week. He had 20 last year. It was a 2020 guy catcher.

The other thing I want to point out about both of these, you know, you mentioned their batting averages, 2454 for Naylor, 284 for Davis. They're on-base percentages are 393 and 433, respectively. So they're both like on-base hogs, walk a ton, great plate discipline, sort of guys. Henry Davis, of course, was the first overall pick in the 2021 draft. And I feel like the enthusiasms kind of lacking, considerate. Like, just that idea alone.

He was the top players elected in that draft. And, you know, most prospect publications had Indy Rodriguez, another catcher in the Pirates organization ranked ahead of him coming into this season. Rodriguez has fallen off. Henry Davis, obviously, is taken off. Davis's numbers last year were held back by a couple of wrist injuries that he tried playing through. So if you look at the minor league track record and are kind of underwhelmed, you've got to factor that. And obviously, he's been a monster in the minors this season. He's a bat first prospect.

They're both bat first prospects. Davis has gotten some time in the outfield as a way to keep his bat in the lineup, hopefully on days when he needs a day off from catching. And so I think between the two, Davis is the one I prefer. Naylor may have a little bit of edge there in the speed department. Honestly, it just depends how much these guys choose to run, I think. That's going to be the bigger differentiator than pure speed.

So Naylor might have an edge there, but his swing seems to cut off his potential for batting average. He hit only 263 last year. It doesn't have a very high strikeout rate either year. He puts the ball in the air a lot. And it just seems like that hits a lot of infield flies. It seems like that is kind of a flaw in a nailer swing that's going to limit his upside.

Hopefully, in a real life sense, we'll make up for it with on-base skills. And, yeah, I could have some power and speed, as I've already mentioned. but I think that puts a limit on Naylor's ceiling. I feel like for Davis, the sky's the limit. I don't know how good he could be, but it could be pretty studly. It may not be long before he's the Pirates' best hitter, frankly, particularly why O'Neill Cruz is down. And I think there's an easier path to playing time for him because the Guardians have always been, they've really emphasized defense among catchers

basically since Victor Martinez left and have sacrificed a lot of offense for a lot of years at that position. And so I don't know how regularly they're going to start Nailer. He also bats left-handed. Davis, I mean, Davis looks like a franchise cornerstone for the pirates.

And like I said, he could place him outfield when he's not catching. So I think he has a more favorable playing time situation. Chris, the back end of the top 12th catcher has been, you know, shaky at best, I guess you could say. William Contreras, Cal Raleigh, M.J. Melendez. Would you drop any of those players for either Henry Davis or Bow Nailer? I don't think so if only because in a one catcher league,

I don't think you want either Nailer or Davis as your only catcher yet. So it's always tough to carry more catchers than you have roster spots. I'm doing it in one league, but it's not something that I necessarily want to do. but in this case, I want to see, like, I actually, I think they're actually both pretty similar players in, in my eyes. You know, similar, I think they're both 23. There's Naylor 24. No, I think they're both 23. Bring sort of uncommon athleticism to the catcher position.

They both have, you know, double-digit stolen base potentials. And I think there might be some batting average issues for both of them, but they're going to make up for it by getting on base. Henry Davis gets hit by a ton of pitches, which I always love to see. for the ability to stay healthy, but like, yeah, I wouldn't drop any of those guys, but I'd be looking to add. Who are the guys who were suggesting dropping? William Contreras, Cal Raleigh, and M.J. Melendez. That's 10, 11, and 12 in my rankings at least.

I would drop Melendez and Raleigh. You know, in one catcher league, like, you're probably not going to lose them to somebody else if you need to fall back on him. and Melinda's giving you nothing all year Raleigh's giving you nothing recently I'd drop either of them for Davis for sure and I wouldn't mind doing it with Naylor but again like I don't

I really like it wouldn't surprise me if Naylor started only half the time for the Guardians I do worry about that with him the other two catchers I wanted to mention that did something of note this weekend Travis Darno went two for four with a double dong on Friday and perhaps could play more this week

because Sean Murphy is dealing with a hamstring injury and Danny Jansen went one for three with his ninth homer on Friday he also had a double dong on Thursday Scott would you take both of those well other thing to mention is Alhander Kirk left Sunday's game yes a contusion on his hand x-rays were negative but you know wouldn't be a surprise if he missed a couple of games which you know certainly clears a path for Danny Jansen I have a extra game or two this week mm-hmm I'm assuming that we're taking both of the prospects over the two names I just mentioned right Darno and

Danny Jensen. Yeah, I would. I might hesitate with Darno, but it seems like Murphy might avoid the IL. They're not even calling it a full-fledged strain of the hamstring, so I don't know how long Darno is going to see that uptick in playing time. So yeah, I'd take the rookies instead. Let's stick with the hitters and move over to the waiver wire and the outfield, particularly Eddie Rosario was going to be my, oh my goodness gracious player. This guy is on fire. Has homered in four straight so far in the month of June, batting 339. with eight home runs and a 1224 OPS, career highs in terms of his quality of contact, average exit velocity, his barrel rate. So everything looks great right now for Eddie Rosario and obviously plays in one of the best

lineups in baseball. Luis Matos, you know, Chris, you and I kind of speculated. We were worried that he got pitch hit four in his first game. We're like, uh-oh, is he going to play every day? Well, it turns out he did play every day. He's started all four games that were available to him since being called up. He went two for three with a steel and four run scored on Saturday. Jake McCarthy had a big weekend, two for five with a steel on Friday.

He hit a home run on Saturday as well. Andrew Benintendi finally hit his first home run of the season on Friday and then added four more hits and a stolen base on Saturday. Leoti Tavaris just keeps crushing the ball. Two more homers this weekend. And Joey Weimer also had two more homers this weekend. Chris, we'll start with you. And from let's go a point.

League perspective. There's six names here. Eddie Rosario, Luis Matos, Jake McCarthy, Ben Intendi, Lioti Tavares, Joey Weamer. Who are your three favorites in a points league? I think my three favorites, and this might be true of any format, but I think it's Matos, Tavares, and I think there's probably a drop-off after that, but maybe Rosario is third. He's, his season-long numbers finally look pretty good. He's got an 8-16 OPS. He had a 705 OPS five games ago. He's got five home runs in his past four games with 11 RBI and eight hits. So that'll help the overall numbers look a little better. And I don't really think he's going to be particularly useful in fantasy. So I like what we're seeing from Lioti Tavares. He's obviously, I think there's

room for skepticism, but his XBA is 295, X slug 449. This is a guy who, I mean, he's been a top prospect for almost a decade, or at least he's been, he was first on prospect radars in 2017 was when he made his first prospect list. So it's been a long time. But hard hit rates, average eggs of velocities well above his career norms. I don't think the six home runs in June are representative. But I do think he's got more upset than anyone here. And you didn't mention, but Ezekiel Duran, who he's outfield eligible, right? Yeah, he is. Yeah, I might like him more than any of the rest of them. He had four for five Sunday, bring his line since coming back from the aisle to 3.33 with an OPS almost 900 underlying backup metrics largely back it up. I would

actually go with two Rangers in the top three there. The way that lineup is playing too, are top to bottom. They've been amazing. Everything's clicking. I'll, I have Duran as part of like middle infielder is coming up in a bit, but yeah, he is outfield eligible. So if you want to throw him in this mix, Scott, same question for you. We'll do it from a category league perspective. So Rota or Headhead categories, your top three from this group. So Chris may disagree based on what he laid out there, but if we are doing categories, I think Jake McCarthy has to jump to the top list.

That's fine. I just don't have much interest in him in points leagues. Yeah. So he has 12 stolen base. Well, this isn't even counting Sunday's game. 12 stolen bases in 20 games since returning, batting well over 300. It looks a lot more like the Jake McCarthy we saw for the second half of

last year since coming back for the miners and, you know, took a stint in the miners last year to get him right too. I don't know if that's just the trick for Jake McCarthy, but he looks good right now. And I have him as one of my sleeper hitters for this week too. So he's number one, Luis Matto. I'll go number two with him. He hasn't struck out yet, right?

And he's walked five times. So he might end up being more of a points league guy just because that strikeout rate's going to go so low. It's going to remain so low. He has yet to hit a ball even a hundred. miles per hour, which is concerning, as Chris pointed out, on what was it, Wednesday's show last week, his exit velocity readings in the miners, well improved from last year. We're still, they're not amazing.

So I'd like that that could be a problem and it could drop him out of the lineup if he doesn't start hitting the ball harder. But so far Luis Matos has had success when he's made contact, which has been an awful lot. So he'd be number two and the number three would be Tava. Tavares. Leoti Tavaris. Can I throw one more name out there who I like more than all but the top three?

Sure. 49% roster Jake Fraley came back from the IL on Sunday and hit a home run. He's up to, sorry, 20 homers and 15 steals in 124 games since joining the Reds. It's pretty good. Yeah, his ratios have been amazing. You just, the big issue with Frey Lazy's he doesn't play against left-handers. And that's an issue with Eddie Rosario, too. Yes.

Maybe that'll change because of how hot he is. He did Homer off a lefty, Brent Suter, on Sunday. That was one of his two home runs. And I think that was the long one, too. But, you know, we'll see. The Braves face a couple lefties this week. We'll see if Rosario's in the lineup for those games. Yeah, it kind of feels like he deserves to.

It's only a small sample size. Eddie Rosario this season against lefties. He's 10 for 27. That's a 370 batting average with three home runs against left hand at pitching. I think it's just an excuse to get Kevin Pilar in the lineup, but we'll see. Jake Frelly, by the way, the Reds have six games this week, and it looks like there's at least two lefties on the schedule and two TBD. So maybe even more lefties and Frey is just not going to play against them. So it does kind of limit his upside there.

Some middle infielder's in shallower leagues. Brandon Jury had six hits this weekend, including a double dong on Saturday. He's batting 267 with 12 homers and an 811 OPS. Certainly making me look foolish because I thought, you know, he was purely a product of Cincinnati last year, but he's actually been very good for the Angels this season. The aforementioned Ezekiel Duran, who's still just 66% rostered. And Orlando Arcia continues to play well. He had a monster game on Saturday, three for four, with a sock and a shoe, his sixth homer,

his first steal of the season. He's batting 341 now. I keep thinking, okay, his batting out of averages has to drop below 300 at some point. It's going the other direction. He's patting 3.4. That series wasn't in Colorado. It was in Atlanta. 341.

His OPS is close to 900. He's not that good. But his ex-wobe is 344. That's well above average. Yeah. Like, he's been very good this season. That's egg on all of our, every single fantasy analyst's face for how much we crapped on the Braves for starting him instead of, yeah, completely blanking on the name now. Von Grissom.

Von Grissom. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and like, Von Grissom got his chance because Rcia had that IL stint for a hairline fracture in his wrist, I think it was. And it's pretty underwhelming. Grissom, I mean, RCA has come back and it's. He's more than picked up where he left off.

He's been even better. So, gosh, and they signed him to, like, this three-year extension for about, I don't even know that it was 10 million for the whole three years prior to the season. Leave it to the Braves to, you know, get the best deal possible, right? Even against Orlando, Rcia, right? I think we put Ezekiel Duran at the top of this list, but Scott, who would you rather have between Arcia and brain injury? Arcia.

Okay. I will say jury deserves a lot of credit because it's not just that he's been good overall. He hasn't had a he hasn't had an OPS below 775 in any month so far. He's actually been pretty consistently good too. Yeah. The slash line is almost identical to last years. Yeah. Which nobody gave him a chance to do.

Again, yeah, I will be the first to admit. I was completely writing off the possibility of Brandon Drury being good. But here we are. Some players in deep leagues, middle infielers, a prospect named Samad Taylor in the Royals organization, got called up on Saturday. He went one for three with an RBI single and then did the same exact thing on Sunday. In the minors, he had 34 steals in 62 games at AAA this season. Andrew Velazquez is back with the Angels due to injuries. He had three hits and three steals this weekend.

Jacob Amaya, a prospect with the Marlins, was called up on Sunday. He went one for three with his first career steal and Max Muncie was placed on the IL. So Michael Bush was recalled. He is back with the Dodgers and started two of three games this weekend. Chris in deeper leagues here, is there anyone that stands out for in terms of middle infielder? Samad Taylor, Andrew Velasquez, Jacob Amaya and Michael Bush.

Taylor, I mean, the 34 steals in 62 games, that's eye-opening. And so we'll pay attention anytime you see some kind of stand. out skill like that, but I wouldn't expect him to be a consistent contributor. My expectation would be none of these guys is all that good. Amaya, I think he's only going to play against lefties is what I saw at shortstop. And then he's likely to go back down. So it doesn't seem like he's got much upside. Yeah, I'm not terribly excited about any of these guys.

Some deep league outfielders. Kerry Carpenter went three for four with his fifth home run on Sunday. Tommy Fam had four hits this weekend, including a home run on Sunday. he's having a really good June betting 311 with four homers, a steel, and a 10.08 OPS. And Mike Talkman has let off seven straight for the Cubs.

He's betting, he went one for three with a sock and a shoe on Sunday. Scott, how would you rank that group in deeper leagues? Kerry Carpenter, Tommy Fam. Mike Talkman. I like that ranking, Carpenter Fam Talkman. I think Carpenter is the one

who has the chance to break through and not deep leagues. Okay. Let's take our final break and when we return, we've got some news and notes, some waiver wire pitchers. We'll do all of that right after this.

Welcome back and a big thanks to everyone watching us live. 600 people here. We do appreciate you. Make sure hit that like button and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. The news and notes is Pete Alonzo Wolverine because he returned from a three to four week

injury timeline in just one week, which, okay, that's pretty crazy stuff. I hope they didn't rush them back. Yeah, that's just like a little bit concerning that like this is a desperate, desperate team who I think are ninth in the National League wildcard race right now. And so is this, I don't know,

I'm not on the Mets medical staff. I guess that I mean, the Mets medical staff isn't the greatest in the majors, but hopefully it's nothing to be concerned about. Oh, for four with three strikeouts today. what it's worth. Yeah, I was going to say, Chris, you're probably qualified enough to be on the Mets medical staff. Yeah. Are there no good doctors in the city of New York? You would think it wouldn't be that hard to find them. Yep. Mark Vientos was optioned back to AAA as a result. Aaron Judge

received another PRP injection in his sprained right toe on Thursday. And apparently there is a second ligament beyond the toe sprain that's been bothering, Judge. He remains without a timetable. Some good Yankees news. Carl Sordaun is slated to begin. a rehab assignment Tuesday at AA. The expectation is that he'll make around three starts before returning, which takes us to early July at the likeliest. Brandon Woodruff will throw a bullpen next Saturday, June 24th,

as he slowly works his way back from a sub-scapular strain in his right shoulder. He's probably still at least a month away from rejoining the Brewers. Dave Roberts said Sunday that Julio Arias could be activated activated during the Dodgers road trip in late June, which begins June 27th. Sean Murphy was diagnosed with inflammation in his right hamstring and is expected to be held out of the lineup for the next couple days. Scott, would you bench Sean Murphy in weekly leagues?

Yes. All right. Can I, uh, one other thing with the Dodgers, Daniel Hudson, likely also coming back that same Royals series, I think, June 27th. And, uh, you know, he was considered a possible. closer for them. So that's something to keep an eye on. Yeah, for sure. Eduardo Rodriguez through a bullpen session Friday, his first mound work since he suffered the injury to his left index finger. Harrison Bader is expected to return from the aisle on Tuesday. He's been out since late May with a right hamstring strain. Tim Anderson left Saturday's game with right shoulder soreness and then was out of the lineup Sunday. Chris,

would you bench Tim Anderson in weekly leagues? I think it's an easy sit. I think he'll bounce back at some point, but with the injury and the way he's playing, I think he's just said. Alejandro Kirk left Sunday after getting hit by a pitch on his left hand. X-rays came back negative. Scott, would you drop Alejandro Kirk for the Henry Davis or Boehler group? Yeah.

Okay. Lars Nupar is likely to return from the IL on Monday. Chris, would you start Nupar right away his first week back? I'm starting him in at least one league because I don't really have any other options. With Wade Miley back from the aisle, Adrian Houser was moved to the Brewer's bullpen. Mitch Haninger,

went successful surgery on his fractured right forearm this week and is expected to miss the next 10 weeks. Brandon Belak was optioned back to AAA after allowing five runs in his start on Saturday. And then here were all the players that went to the IL this weekend. Really big news out of nowhere on Friday was that Tristan McKenzie went to the aisle with a right elbow sprain. He was scratched from his start.

Scott, do you think this means, obviously we don't have like a timeline or anything yet, but might we see Gavin Williams as a result of this injury? Well, I know Gavin Williams hasn't been at his sharpest, his last couple starts at AAA. And so I actually, in a league where I had him stashed away, I actually had a bid where I was dropping him. I wonder if that went through because I hadn't put those, I hadn't put two and two together there. They could, like, I think the more likely scenario of somebody like Hunter Gattis coming back up. But Gavin Williams is behind only Grayson Rodriguez for best pitching prospect remaining in the minors, I would say. All right.

Alex Cobb went to the I.L. with a left oblique strain retroactive to June 15th. Edward Cabrero with a right shoulder impingement, which means when Trevor Rogers is ready to return, perhaps Uri Perez can stick around a little bit longer. It does sound like it's just a minimum stay for Edward Cabrera. At least that's the expectation. Skip Schumacher said they don't. They don't expect him to skip a bullpen session.

Okay. Mike Clevenger with right biceps inflammation. There was a scary scene on Friday. Tanner Halk suffered a facial fracture after getting hit in the face with a line drive. Obviously went on the IL. Michael Massey with a left hand laceration retroactive to June 15th. Gene Seguera with a left hamstring strain. Patrick Wisdom with a strained right wrist.

Wilmer Flores with a left foot contusion. Gio Urshella with a left pelvis fracture. and Twins reliever Jorge Lopez was transferred from the restricted list of the IL for mental health reasons. A few other prospect updates, Sal Freelik, this was entering Sunday. I think he went 0 for three Sunday,

so that would make him eight for 23 with three doubles, a homer, and two steals since coming off the IL and the minors. And he's 21% rostered. Scott, I think now is a good time to stash Sal Freelik in five outfielder leagues. I actually added him in a few 15 teamers, myself on Sunday.

Yeah, if he makes it that long, he'll be on this week's, in this week's five on the verge for the prospects report. Okay. The Blue Jays were called Spencer Horowitz to provide some depth. He was batting 300 at AAA, but with just two home runs, he went one for two, with two

walks in his debut on Sunday. Scott, is there anything to see here with Spencer Horowitz? I think he's a modern day, Dave Magidon. so probably not. I don't think there's much room for a Dave Magidon in today's game. All right.

Well, I know what. I'll be Googling after the podcast ends. Waverwire pitchers. Like my wife's favorite player, because when the Marlins were brand new in 1993, she met Dave Magidon or something when they're, you know, trying to integrate in the community. Yeah.

Anyway, Dave Magidon. A high contact, high obese. first baseman with like zero power. Oh, all righty. WaiverWire pitchers part one. And we'll start with Andrew Abbott, who we mentioned earlier. He threw six shot out innings

at the Houston Astros this weekend. He's 78% rostered. And I do agree, Scott. I think if you want to hold off on selling high on Abbott, he faces the Rockies this week. They are dead last in Wobah against left-handed pitching. So I think we probably could get another really good start out of Abbott once again.

Brian Beow has now allowed three earned runs or fewer in 10 straight starts. He was up against the Yankees, seven innings of one-run ball with eight strikeouts and 16 swinging strikes against that porous Yankees lineup right now. Braxton Garrett just keeps rolling.

He was at the Nationals this weekend. Actually managed to turn in a quality start. Six innings, one run, eight strikeouts with nine swinging strikes. Scott, how would you rank that first group? Andrew Abbott, Brian Beaux, and Brexton Garrett. Well, okay. Let's take a step back here.

is the one who needs to be rostered most. I think he's going to come crashing hard, but I think just if you're looking at it from the objective standpoint of who has the most value in fantasy as of today,

it's Abbott. So he's won Beos 2, Garrett's 3. But if you're just if you're like speculating long term on upside, I'd put Abbott at the end of this group. Okay. And where would Emmett Sheehan

fit in this group. I'd rather have Sheehan than all of them. Okay. Weaver wire pitchers part two. Dane Dunning turned in a... If I could go on just a little more detail about Bayo, because this was back-to-back seven-inning starts for him. And, like, that was probably the big...

One of the biggest hurdles to clear. He also has a walk issue, but he's allowed two earn runs or fewer in eight of his last night starts, and the one where he didn't allow. Two or fewer, he allowed three. So, like, he's been on a run. It's just most of the starts have been relatively short. So if he's going seven innings of back-to-back,

and that's Braxton Garrett's biggest issue, too, is he had one six-inning start prior to this one over the weekend. And if that changes for him, then suddenly, you know, he looks like a real asset, too, because did you give his numbers over his last seven starts? Nope. Braxton Garrett over his last seven starts. Check this out, Franklin.

213 ERA.87 whip 11.6K per night. I mean, it's a 265 ERA if you just take out the one start against Atlanta. He's been really good. You mean for the season? Yeah. Yeah. That was like a double-digit run. It was 11 earn runs and four in a third age.

It was a disastrous start. But yeah, it's been, other than that, he's been very. good. It's just like you said, there's limited. There's a limit on the upside for Braxton Garrett, but I think like the floor is pretty high. And as much as I like Garrett, I can't take him over Bayo myself. And it sounds like you're not doing that either, Scott. Weaver are pitchers part two. Chris, you'll get this group. Dane Dunning turned in a solid start up against the Blue Jays, six innings of two-run ball with three strikeouts this weekend. Taiwan Walker has now turned in three strong starts in a row. He was at the Oakland A's.

eight innings of one-run ball with eight strikeouts to zero walks. And his velocity has been up big time during each of these past three starts. Patrick Sandoval with a bounce back start at the Royals, seven shutout with six strikeouts for him. And Griffin Canning has allowed three earned runs or fewer in six straight. He was at the Royals as well, six innings of two-run ball with five strikeouts and 17 swinging strikes. Chris, how do you rank that group? Canning, Patrick Sandoval, Taiwan Walker, and. And Dane Dunning.

Sandoval, Walker, Dunning, Canning. I'm not, I'm not super confident on either. I think there are two pairings that I like. I like Walker and Sandival more than the other two. And then I'm not sure what the order is for either pairing. But I got the same pairing's different order. Yeah, I think Walker has a higher floor than Sandoval.

But this, like, he has a 175 ERA over his last six starts. this is probably the best six start of Taiwan Walker's season. Just the fact that it coincides with the velocity spike. Yes. And he's traded. It's interesting. His velocity's way up. He's also throwing his fastball a lot less.

He's traded his fastball for a lot of cutters the last few starts. And I think we know who Taiwan Walker is. And it's not an ace. But it can be a very useful pitcher. So like, if you need someone right now, I think Taiwan Walker is a perfectly viable pitcher to just throw in there. It's been a heck of a turnaround. He had that, was it, 670-something ERA through his first nine starts?

It looked like a pretty disastrous contract, but he's turned it around nicely. And the reason I like Canning over Dunning is Canning's success is coincided with him fading his fastball in favor of more sliders and changeups. And they've both been a good swing of mispitches for him. He's on the lower end. He has the disadvantage of pitching for the Angels and taking less turns as a result. But in some deeper leagues, I'd look into Griffin Canning. Chris, you missed a Dave Magidon reference. I needed you here to vouch for Marlins legend, Dave Magidon.

That's a name. That's a player who wore the teal. Spencer Horwitz got called up. I called him a modern day Dave Magidon. Dave Magidon, by the way, got a mention in the movie Little Big League. Take that. There you go. Take that, Frank.

That's the one where Ken Griffey and Randy Johnson are like, the bad guys at the end, right? Yep. The one with real players. Hey, real players were in rookie of the year. Yeah, but it was just like highlights that... Barry Bonds,

Barry Bonds gets struck out. Striced out. Barry Bonds get struck out by the rookie of the year and goes, ooh. They didn't shoot special footage for the movie itself in Rookie of the Year like they did in Little Big League. All right. Fair enough.

Let's get back into it. We've only got a couple of minutes left. WaiverWire Pitchers Part 3, Julio Tehran has allowed two earned runs or fewer in all five of his starts. He was facing the Pirates this weekend, six innings of two-run ball with four strikeouts there. J.P. France has turned in three straight quality starts. Kyle Hendricks, another solid outing against the Orioles, five innings, two runs, only one strikeout. Like classic Kyle Hendricks fashion. And Wade Miley, solid in his return to the Brewer's rotation facing the Pirates, five shutout innings with four strikeouts.

And his velocity was way up across the board. It was actually pretty interesting. Scott, anyone that stands out here for you, Wade Miley, Kyle Hendrix, J.P. France, and Julio Tehran. I am kind of interested in both Kyle Hendricks and Julio Taran. I mean, Julio Taran's XERA now is 313. He is allowing weak contact. He's allowing a lot of contact, but it's weak contact.

And, you know, he put together several years of being a useful fantasy option. that. He's got to regress from a 178 ERA or whatever it is, but could he remain useful in a streamer sort of way? I think it's possible. The most interesting pitcher is in the next year, but we should just move on. Okay. All right, let's do that. People have been screaming in the chat for us to talk about him, so. Oh, well, now I'm interested to know who it is. Weaver wire pitchers part four. Alex Wood looks solid in him. In his return at the Dodgers five shutout with four strikeouts. It's got to be J.P. Sears, right?

No. He posted a bunch of whiffs up against the Phillies, seven innings of four-run ball with seven strikeouts and 20 swinging strikes. It's kind of interesting. I guess it must be Brian. Woo! It was going up against the White Sox.

Five and two-thirds, two runs. Nine strikeouts, a zero walks. 19 swinging strikes on 91 pitches. Chris, I'll give you the floor to tell us all about. up, Brian. Woo. Yeah, I've got to, I've got to make sure that I didn't spell it as Brian Wood,

because I'm pretty sure I did that at least once in the column that I wrote, because that's just how my brain works. But yeah, Brian Wu, I think he's kind of interesting. I, you know, sort of similar to like AJ Smith-Shava, where he wasn't really on too many prospect, uh, radars coming into the season. He'd only thrown 67 and two-thirds professional innings before this year. but he dominated a AA.

And I don't know, the stuff looks pretty good, right? Like mid-90s fastball, a slider that looks like it could be a very, very good swing and miss pitch. He got, let me see, seven whiffs on 13 swings with the slider and Friday start, 16 strikeouts to one walk over his past two starts. I think he's pretty interesting. I would certainly take him over Julio Taran and JP, France and J.P. Sears, every JP, uh, over probably Griffin Canning and Dane Dunning.

I think he had, I think he belongs in that range, the Griffin Canning Dane Dunning. I think his 20% roster rate probably too low for Brian Wu. Yeah. And he had been leaning on his fastball so much prior to that like he threw it 65% of the time in his previous start and it was down to 43% this time. And like, doesn't seem to be any good reason for that. And hopefully the start convinced him of it. Because he was so unappealing until this start on Friday that I'm a little reluctant to be like all on board Brian Wu now.

But he had a great minor league season prior to his call up and showed us some stuff in this start. So I'm at least keeping an eye on Wu if I'm not picking him up right away. And in classic Mariners pitcher fashion, so far in his, I believe it's three starts that he's made, his fastball and his sinker, account for 77% of his pitches. But as you mentioned, Chris, that slider actually looks pretty good. It has a 38.5% whiff rate. And that's much better than any slider we've seen from Bryce Miller.

So, yeah. I should clarify, the fastball he was leaning on prior to this start was the four seamer. Yeah, he also had more sinkers than this start. Yeah. Okay. Let's just quickly run through some of the leftovers. I was going to point out there's like a handful of hitters that are just having Monster June so far. Maybe not Monster, but like they're getting on track. It was slow starters. Kyle

Schwerber, Teoska Hernandez, Jordan Walker has looked great since returning to the Cardinals. Michael Harris had another huge game on Sunday. He went five for five with his sixth home run. And Ryan McMahon is actually having a really good June as well. He's betting 365 with four homers and an 11.04 OPS in the month. So with Michael Harris, because I was raving about how much, last week I was raving about how much Gunner Henderson and approved his batting average in a short period of time. Michael Harris, it's a similar situation. Over his last 12 games, his batting average has gone from 163 to 249.

Yeah, it can flip exactly like that. And that's why this is a reminder. I know the early part of the season, it matters a lot because you know you don't want your team to get off to a slow start, but it's a really long season. And, you know, talented guys usually. come around and that's what's happening right now for Michael Harris. One hitter that is doing the opposite I've noticed is Josh Lowe really slowing down so far.

Batting 2-17 in the month with zero homers. Does have five steals so that helps, but also a 521 OPS. Obviously we're not dropping Josh Lowe. I don't think we're benching him either. It might just be one of these like, you know, he's going to be up and down kind of kind of place. Yeah, I mean, we'll see where it goes. You know, we saw two very, very good months from him, but that was

the first time we'd seen him succeed at the major league levels. Now there's a new book on him, and we'll see how he reacts. I don't want to make any movements on him one way or the other based on a slow couple of weeks in June, but it's certainly bears watching. I think, I didn't want to go back to the Cardinals just because with Lars Neupar coming back and with Jordan Walker crushing it, like, what's going to happen in their outfield again? We're right back to where we started. I guess Tyler O'Neill's not there, but, you know, Dylan Carlson came back. He missed a couple of games. All of a sudden, that outfield's going to get crowded again. And hopefully, Newt Barr and Jordan Walker are just playing every day, but it's not a hundred

percent guaranteed for both of them. Yeah, and Brendan Donovan has actually played much better in the month of June as well. So that kind of throws another wrench in things. Yeah, he's been playing some second base as well. So yeah, it's a lot of moving parts there. And that was part of their stated rationale for sending Walker down initially. I don't, I can't imagine they're going to do that again. but no, there's no way. It's, uh, you know, we like both Walker and Newbar a lot and hopefully both those guys don't get squeezed. Uh, some other hitting leftovers. I gotta mention Otani, two more homers this weekend extends his league lead to 24 homers.

Uh, now has 10 home runs in the month of June alone. Ozzie Albies, two home runs this weekend as well. He is batting 269 with 17 homers and 52 RBI. Just a home run RBI specialist, Ozzy Albies. Yeah. It's not really giving you anything else. He's on pace for like 80 runs and batting average isn't great, but elite home runs in RBI,

just like we predicted from Ozzy Albies. Well, they've moved him up to second in the order. If he stays there, maybe that run pace will go up. His XBA is up to like 275, I think, which is higher than it's been in a few years. So he's looking really good right now. Yep. Asi Albi is on pace for nearly 40 homers and well over 100 RBI.

It's crazy. Two names that missed the cut for the waiver wire. Lane Thomas, who Scott, I know you originally had as a sleeper hitter going into the weekend. And Christopher Morel, he's heating back up. Two home runs this weekend and over his last eight games, 12 hits and four homers. And I think just three strikeouts during that stretch. It's good to see. Definitely helps.

A few struggling aces. Sandy Alcantra, another clunker at the Nationals. Five innings. Five runs allowed. Only one strikeout, seven swinging strikes on 93 pitches, 12 hard. hits in this game. It is very confusing what's going on with Sandale O'Arvish

has allowed four plus earned runs in six of 13 starts this season. The ERA is up to 4.74 and Joe Ryan, look for most of the year he's been an absolute stud but he allowed six earned runs to the Tigers of all teams still had 20 swinging

strikes in that outing. Scott, anything to add here on Sandy, Darvish and Joe Ryan. Yeah. So I was looking at Sandy Alcantra in one of my Roto leagues comparing his strikeout total for the season with other pitchers on that roster, which were, you know, guys like Jose Barrios, not especially high in guys, Jose Burrios, Chris Bassett, who was another one who struggled this weekend. He's right at the same level in terms of strikeout total for the season. And of course, Sandy Alcantra has never been a big strikeout rate guy. He gets whiffs at a good rate, but not strikeouts.

The total has been good because he throws so many innings, but he hasn't been throwing as many innings this year because he's been struggling. And so the strikeout total is just not that impressive. And of course, the ERA is an impressive. And of course, the whip isn't impressive. And he has only two wins. So I think he's going to pull out of it. But at least in categories leagues, he is providing very little of value right now.

And I wonder if we're almost to the point. where you got to think about sitting him, at least in that format. Points league, I can't see it. Just one positive pitching note I wanted to mention, Blake Snell, the guy is just making up for lost time and all the bad starts earlier in the year. Back-to-back starts with 12 strikeouts, revenge game against Tampa Bay, six shutout, with 23 swinging strikes on 102 pitches, now has the ERA down to 348 on the year. What I find so funny about it is, like, last year it was like, he just needs to

to throw the slider more and then he'll be good. And now he's throwing the slider like less than he ever has. And he's having this like this stretch coincides with his slider usage being really low. And it's just ride to ride. So Mr. Snell's wild ride. And you just get on and you don't worry. You might get wet. But at the end of the day, you'll have a pretty good time.

Such an interesting picture. Blake's now. Some bullpen updates for the Angels on Friday. one day after Carlos Estevez walked three without recording an out, Sam Bachman pitched a perfect eighth and ninth for his first career save, and then on Sunday, Estabez bounced back with his 19th save of the season. For Tampa Bay, on Friday, Pete Fairbanks got the final two outs for his seventh save, and it sure seems like he is just back in the closer's role for the race.

For the Twins on Saturday, Griffin Jacks pitched the eighth inning with a two-run lead, Yoan, Duran, then pitched a clean ninth. inning for his ninth save. For the Cubs on Saturday, Mark Leiter Jr. pitched a scoreless seventh and eighth innings with a one-run lead, and Adbert Alzali then struck out two for his fourth save. And he has- Seems like Al-Zalai is just the closer too. Yeah, he has each of the Cubs has passed two saves. For the Cardinals on Saturday, interesting stuff here. Ryan Helsie on the IL, Giovanni Gallegos pitched the eighth inning with a one-run lead. The Cardinals tacked on an extra run, and then Jordan Hicks struck out the side in the ninth inning for his first save of the season,

then picked up his second save on Sunday. So back-to-back saves here. We've seen Jordan Hicks have value as the closer in the past. Chris, I think anywhere where you need saves, or at least to speculate, Jordan Hicks is only 9% rostered. He's widely available. Yeah, I think that makes sense. I would guess. that Gallegos is going to be the closer moving forward with Hellsie out, but it's just weird that Jordan Hicks pitch back-to-back days, too. I feel like he probably hasn't done that very often. I'm looking. I think it's only the second or third time he's done it all season.

Yeah, and he did it in a save situations. That's weird. Counting on it happening because his ERA and WIP were so high this year, but, you know, he's look great, closing on back-to-back days. Yeah, it's weird. For the White Sox on Saturday, a gentleman named Jesse, Shultons pitched a clean ninth inning for his first save. Kendall Grieveman had pitched on both Wednesday and Thursday, so perhaps is giving him an extra day off.

For the D-backs on Saturday, Kyle Nelson started the ninth inning with a two-run lead. He walked one and gave up a single. He was relieved by Scott McGuff, who then gave up a hit and a run, but picked up his third save. And McGuff now has two of the past three saves for the D-backs. So in deeper leagues, he's 15% rostered. And he's pitched really well over the past month or so. So just a name there to pay attention to. For the Tigers on Sunday, the Alex Lang experiment looks like it is imploding right now.

He entered the eighth inning with a four-run lead. And here was his sequence. Hit by pitch, walk, double. Hit by pitch, wild pitch, walk. He was relieved by Jason Foley, who then gave up a hit and recorded the next six outs for his third save. And he was all over the blind. Lang was all over the play. He had someone in the head.

Michael Taylor. Michael Taylor, yep. Hit him in that. Yeah, he was really rough. Yeah. So in deeper leagues, I actually picked up Jason Foley last week just speculating and I think there's a pretty decent chance

that he gets the next save opportunity for the Detroit Tigers. For the Phillies on Sunday with Craig Kimball unavailable, Jose Alvarado actually pitching the eighth inning with a two-run lead. He gave up a run and then Union Marte struck out the side in the ninth for his first save. Let's wrap up with to stream.

or not to stream on Monday, it looks like the top two names are pretty interesting. Josiah Gray versus the Cardinals and Reese Olson versus the Royals. Yeah, those would be my top two choices. Okay. Yes. On Tuesday, I like what Ranger Swariz is doing right now,

but the Braves probably don't want to get involved there. Yeah. Maybe Savali against the Oakland Aves. That's okay. I don't love that one. Reed Detmer's is someone that I have on a lot of my teams still. I haven't dropped him. I don't necessarily love the idea of streaming against the Dodgers,

but he is my favorite pitcher of this group for sure. Yeah, Tuesday is a weird day because there's interesting pitchers, but tough matchups. I think Yoan Oviedo against the Cubs is okay. Okay. I'll... I wrote Ben Lively up against the first. Yeah, who's he actually going against. I think he's going up against Colorado on the road.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, so that, yeah, we could do that. Lively versus the Rockies is pretty good, yeah. Okay. We're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify.

We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.