Fantasy Baseball Today - Let's Rank Stuff! Dylan Cease Looks Awesome & Kyle Hendricks Is Back! (5/5 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 5, 2021

Apologies in advance as we had some connection issues on today's podcast but if you love Scott White, you're going to love this one! How has Dylan Cease made this leap (1:12)? How far should he move up the rankings? The buy-low window on Kyle Hendricks is now closed. ... Is it time to drop German Marquez after another brutal outing (10:06)? ... Let's fire up the Worryometer for Jacob deGrom and Christian Yelich who are both dealing with injuries (14:08). Carlos Carrasco and Luke Voit are close to returning plus we have some prospect updates. ... Let's rank stuff (23:43)! Is Willie Calhoun a must add? Shane McClanahan or Cole Irvin? ... Let's rank some corner infielders who might be available, the UTIL-only bats, and more starting pitchers (29:55). ... Should you go out and get Josh Rojas (35:24)? ... Scott recaps the rest of Tuesday's action, provides bullpen updates, and streamers for the next few days (38:28). ... We wrap up with your emails plus let's rank some food items in honor of Cinco De Mayo! ... Email us at [e-mail]. 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank, @AdamAizer 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

Apologies in advance, but we had some connection issues on today's podcast. The good news is that if you love Scott White, well, you're going to love this episode because you got a whole lot of him. Thanks everybody and enjoy. Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. I drive, center field. This is magnificent. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com.

Get ready to win your lead. With fantasy. Now here's Frank Scott. Chris and Adam. Happy Cinco de Mayo, everybody. Remember always to drink responsibly and welcome into fantasy baseball today. Frank Sample joined by Scott White. This is the ranking edition of the podcast. We're basically just going to rank a whole bunch of stuff on today's podcast. We're going to throw in a few Wauriometers. Jacob de Grom hurt, Christian Yellich hurt. We're going to talk about all of it. What is up Scotty to hottie? Not much, Frank. Another night of baseball to

talk about. That's right. You're right about that. Let's jump right in, man. Oh, my goodness, goodness gracious. All right. Let's jump right in. I didn't forget about all the other, oh, my goodness gracious call submissions, by the way. I'm going to work those in eventually. Continue to send me some stuff in, some broadcasting blunders, some fun calls from around baseball that you want to hear. I'm going to work that into a rotation at the top of the show for, oh, my goodness gracious. But Scott, why don't you get us started with your top standout from Tuesday's action? Well, it's got to be Dylan Cese, Frank, who has made us all eat our words. Remember a couple weeks ago when Michael Copeck had that awesome start filling in for Lance Lynn,

and we were like, well, if only they'd let Dylan Cs go, not sure what more we need to see from him. He's shown us a lot more. He's shown us a lot more his past two outings, nine strikeouts in seven shutout innings. last time out against the Tigers was facing the Reds here on Tuesday night struck out 11 in 6, one-hit innings.

Best two starts of his career. Dylan Seas has now delivered back-to-back, unscored upon, in both. So that's very exciting, but really what's underneath it is revealing in its own way because if you remember last time,

when he had that great start against the Tigers, I pointed out that the spin rate on his fastball was way up. The spin rate on his fastball remained up in this start against the Reds. Dylan Cease's spin rate on the fastball from today and compare it to pitchers who spin rates for the season on the fastball. Dylan Cease's fastball today would check in behind only Trevor Bowers and Corbin Burns' for spin rate. the slider would be behind only Corbyn Burns's for spin rate.

So a lot of action he's getting on those pitches all of a sudden. And that's kind of Ethan Katz, the new pitching coach. That was kind of one of the things he was working toward with Cease and with Carlos Rodan using a core velocity belt, reworking the mechanics in a way that was supposed to generate more spin. I don't know if that's it taking effect. the only thing I could find from C's after his last start, he was saying that he stopped worrying so much about mechanics

and just was just trying to focus on executing his pitches. And he felt like things started to turn around at that point. So I don't know. I don't know. I mean, obviously he wasn't very good last year before Ethan Katz got there. So something must have clicked for him because suddenly he looks like the dominant power pitch sure he was supposed to be all along.

I wonder if he's going to be hearing a call from Major League Baseball with all this spin rate increasing. Apparently that was something they were going to try and crack down on from one year to the next. So, uh, yeah, speculation on my part. Go ahead. Go ahead. Play the skeptic, Frank. That's fine. Look, he's been great. There's nothing I can say about it. Second trade outing. His last two starts, 13 shut out, four hits, three walks. 20 strikeouts on the back of a 21% swinging strike rate. And he's actually been using more breaking off speed stuff as well. I noticed the change-up usage has been up a little bit, the knuckle curve.

He was really always just four-seam slider. He has all this arm talent in the world, but he's kind of just need to find out how to become a pitcher. So that is, it looks like, what he is doing right now. So I like that he is including these four pitches into a legit pitch mix. This isn't just the two-star Dylan's two pitch Dylan C's that we have seen in the past. So he's looked really good. He's 67% rostered on CBS. And as of now, it looks like he is lined up for two starts next week versus Minnesota and versus the Kansas City Royals.

He's a must add, right, Scott? Yeah. No way DC should go enlisted. In fact, I recommended to somebody on Twitter that he dropped Zach Plesack for him. Given the choices he presented me with, I'm not just saying like blanket statement, drop Zach Plesack. But that's the first time this year that I've been presented with should I drop Plessack for him, whoever him is.

And I said yes. So take that for what it's worth. Someone asked me if they should drop Alex Wood. And I said, yes, I would drop Alex Wood for Dillen Seas. But since we're going to talk about rankings so much on today's podcast, let's just try and figure out where we're going to move Dylan C's up to, Scott, because we both have him ranked 85th at starting pitcher. By the time you are listening to this on Wednesday,

we're probably going to have him ranked much higher than that. So how far do we think he's moving up? I am currently eyeing the 50 to 55 range at starting pitcher, which starts with Frankie Montas as Chris Paddock, to Nelson Lamet, who's a mess. Sean Mania, Danny Duffy, Christian Javier. So that's the group that I'm kind of eyeing right now for Dylan Seats. What do you think?

So I kind of, because I was updating my rankings, doing my weekly audit earlier today before the C-start even happened. And when I was doing it, I was kind of seeing Christian Javier as the low guy among those. I don't feel like I can drop. that was kind of the line for me but I want to put I want to put cease higher in there obviously if I was telling somebody

to drop Plesack for him so I guess the starting point is where do I have Plesack ranked and I have ranked 38th so this is where it gets difficult to be consistent I would say I don't want to drop Klubor for him I don't want to drop Otani the pitcher for him

I really want to drop Rodriguez or Nathan Avaldi I think I'm ready to put C's ahead of like Chris Batic and Frankie Milantos Danny Duffy's in that same range too Yeah I think that sounds about right so just outside my top 50 John I know does that mean I have to move Zach Plysack down I don't know I mean every question is different right so if someone's asking you

I have only these players to drop and you do think that Dylan C's has more long term upside than police sec which I don't think is crazy Yeah that's where things I understand what you're saying you want to be consistent with what you're telling people to do versus your rankings, but I do think you can kind of take things a case-by-case basis, where if you play in a shallower league, you kind of want to shoot for more upside anyway. Yeah. That was kind of my thought process. Thank you for explaining it for me.

Yeah, no problem. That's what we're here for, right? All right. So, Dylan C's climbing up right around that top 50 starting pitch range. He has been fantastic over his last two starts. I just want to highlight Kyle Hendricks as my, oh, my goodness, gracious player from Wednesday. there's a bunch of other players that we're going to talk about later on that I could have chose Kyle Gibson as someone I'm pretty excited about as well. But I just wanted to show Kyle Hendricks some love.

And we were telling people there wasn't really anything in the underlying numbers that said he wasn't going to bounce back. So we were all kind of optimistic on Kyle Hendricks. And that by that by low window is now gone against the Dodgers on Tuesday, seven endings of one run ball with one walk, six strikeouts, 12 swinging strikes on 92 pitches. this is exactly what you want to see from Kyle Hendricks. Yeah, remember I talked yesterday about feeling like I couldn't sit Kinta Maeda as much as I wanted to because he had a two-star week coming up. Now, both of his matchups were great.

Hendricks, he gets the pirates next time in this two-star week. So it was kind of the same thought process. I really want to sit Hendricks, but this is a bad week to do it. But the Dodgers matchup between those two pitchers, Maeda and Hendricks, the Dodgers matchup was the one to worry about. And obviously Hendricks passed that test with flying colors. And, you know, I expected him to get back on track eventually. But because there's no heat there, you know, he can't overpower hitters,

like it doesn't take him being off by much to just get throttled. And that's, I think, a lot of what we've been seeing here from Hendricks early in the season. But hopefully this start was him getting back on track. And very thankful I started him in all the leagues I did. I can't say the same for Hermann Marquez. I feel for the people out there who finally got a good start from Kyle Hendricks but then also had Hermann Marquez in their lineups.

Yeah, I can't. There has to be teams out there, right? That just had each other cancel out basically. It's not even... Yeah, beyond cancel. Hermann Marquez was so bad. Hermann Marquez was like three bad starts rolled into one. Eight earn runs and two-thirds of an inning.

That's going to take a while. to recover from that. Sadly, I started him in two leagues myself. So, yeah, I don't have any shares of Hermann Marquez. And I feel like this always happens, Scott, where as soon as we either talk someone up or if we talk someone down or we say like, oh, they're going to come around, like something happens, right? So a couple of weeks ago or last week, we were talking about how Hermann Marquez has looked really good. And it's like ever since then, he's just completely. Right. Well, this was a home star. And, yeah. the story with Marquez

is though don't start him at home. If you're playing a weekly league, he has a week with two matchups like this week, one at home, one away. Yeah. What do you do then?

That's always a dilemma, but he had actually been good at home so far this year. So I was like, all right, let's just roll with him. Honestly, I'm not convinced he's that good,

to be perfectly honest, Marquez. I don't know, I don't know that I want to get burned by him again, particularly in those categories leagues, in a points league, okay,

you can withstand a horrible start, in a points league better than you can in a, uh, in our categories league. And he's better for points leagues because he, when he's on, he does routinely go deeper into his start. So that's a,

an asset that Hermal Marquez does have. Scott the Worryometer on Hermal Marquez. I mean, you drop him. Is he a 6.21? Drop him for Dillon C's. Yeah. Here's the thing.

Like, I know, I feel like if Chris was here, he'd disagree pretty strongly because he was the highest on Marquez coming into the season. But he's been the last two years, you combine his numbers from the last two years, Marquez is less than a strikeout per inning.

I know the road numbers are pretty good, but anytime the pitcher's getting less than strikeout per inning, he has to be, like, he has to really, really stand out in some other way for me to give him the time of day in fantasy, as prevalent as strikeouts are. So I think he's still, I kind of feel like he's still, we're still riding the fumes of that 2018 season when he struck out 230 batters 10.6 per 9.

But he hasn't been that pitcher since then. And again, I think the old rule, even though he was breaking it early this season, don't start him at home. I think we're clearly back to that after this start. So can only use him half the time and not going to give you a great strikeout rate anyway. I don't know.

That to me is, pretty fringy. Yeah, his walks per nine heading into Tuesday were over five. So the command has been brutal for her mom, Marquez. Would you drop him for Dillon C's? Yeah.

Cool. Before we get to the news and notes, I wanted to let you know about what is on CBS Sports HQ this week. As always, CBS Sports HQ is your home to start your sports newsday with live updates kicking off

each morning at 8 a.m. Eastern and HQ is always your home ahead of the evening's action with live picks from the best analyst and cappers in the sports world each day at 6 p.m. Easter time. You may be thinking it's quiet time in sports with the NFL draft over, but you'd be wrong. It's a Champions League week on HQ. In fact, it's the second leg of the semifinals.

And that means we'll have wall-to-wall coverage Tuesday and Wednesday, including latest news. Well, you're hearing this on Wednesday. So you could watch it on Wednesday. latest news analysis picks, lots of picks, coming around both match days. So check out HQ on your computer on CBSSports.com or via the CBS Sports app on your mobile phone or TV.

It's always free. It's always on CBS Sports HQ. News and notes, we got some not great updates on Tuesday. Jacob de Grom was scratched from his start and then the Mets game got rained out anyway. And the MRI showed, inflammation in his right lat

Jacob deGrom will refrain from throwing for the next few days Scott what is your worryometer on this Jacob deGrom injury it's maybe like three because there's always the potential he aggravates and it becomes

it becomes worse I feel like we have an episode like this with DeGrom every year though where there's something happens and it seems like it could be bad and everybody's freaking out and then you know he ends up missing a start or two and and is fine the rest of the way so hopefully that's all it is again it indications are that's all it is again but it's a little higher than zero it was enough that i had i had recently moved him up to first in my rest of season pitcher rankings and this

was enough for me to drop him back to third behind beber and cole christian yellich another one re-injured his back and was placed on the IL Tuesday. He only played one game and that was Monday's action. I believe he had a hit. Manager Craig Counsel sounds pretty concerned too. Quote, last night Christian told us that he's not going to be able to do this on a daily basis and so we need to stop and completely resolve this. At this point, we don't have an answer. And perhaps this is the reason why he's been striking out so much since the start of last year, Scott. this sounds bad for Christian Eilis. What is your worryometer on him?

Yeah, it's probably like a solid five at this point. I probably need to pull him down in my outfield rankings outside the top 10. At least, he'd been holding steady at five for me, just because I was expecting the return to be right around the corner and him to hopefully get back to his MVP ways. But this is, it's alarming that he hasn't made any real progress yet. and backs are tricky.

Backs are tricky. I don't know what it's going to take. And like to Grom, this is kind of something that Yelich, it feels like he's dealt with it on and off the past couple of years. Even when he was in his prime MVP-esque seasons, it always kind of felt like you would hear it pop up here and there.

Oh, you know, he's out of the lineup here, sore back, whatever. So maybe it's finally catching up to Christian Yelich, which sucks because when the guy is going healthy, he is one of the best bats in the game. But yeah, Christian Yelich, there is reason to be concerned about him. There's not really anything we do, right? Scott, it's just hold.

Even if you try to sell him for something, now it's just not the right time to do it. Yeah, a couple weeks ago, we did our survey that we do every Monday where we're presented with five questions that we each give an answer. And favorite buy low player was one of the questions. and I said, Yelich, I'd still be more likely to buy him than sell him at this point,

but obviously with the understanding that it would be at a discount. Carlos Carrasco pitched in a simulated game at the Mets Spring facility on Tuesday. He apparently hit 96 miles per hour with his fastball, and he is expected to make a rehab start on Sunday. Carlos Carasco is coming soon. Juan Soto was activated Tuesday, but was limited to a bench roll. He pinch hit and went 0 for 1 with a strikeout. More injuries.

Nico Horner was placed on the aisle with a left forearm strain. Jake Areietta was placed on the aisle with a right thumb injury. It is expected to be a minimum stay on the aisle for Nico Horner, who was performing quite well and we were pretty excited about. So get well, Nico Horner. Nick Zanzel was out of the Reds lineup with a sore shoulder. He left opening day with a shoulder injury as well. had surgery on his shoulder, so just more for Nick Senzel.

It might be Tyler Naquin time, Scott. So if anything happens to Senzel, probably would see an uptick in playing time for Naikwin. Kevin Gosman was placed on the COVID-I-L with vaccine side effects. He should be back within a few days. Alex Kirillov was scratched Tuesday with wrist-sornness. I mean, this is why we can't have nice things, man. Nico Horner, Alex Kirloff, I hope they're all right.

It should be nothing serious, but come on, man. to Nelson Lemaat returned from the IL on Tuesday against the Pirates. He pitched two innings. He allowed four hits with zero strikeouts. His fastball was down three miles per hour from last year. His slider was down two miles per hour. Scott, what is the game plan here for Denelson Lament? I just cannot figure the situation out for the life of me.

Yeah, it's, I don't know. I don't know. He did not look good. Velocity was way down. As you mentioned, he could only make it two innings. Didn't have a single strikeout, right? Nope. Why would he? His velocity was down multiple miles per hour.

I'm still anticipating an IL stint and would pay, would not pay much of anything for him on the trade market right now. Amir Garrett has been suspended seven games for causing a bench's clearing brawl over the weekend. He is appealing the suspension. Brady Singer is on track to start Wednesday against Cleveland. He got hit on his heel with a line drive. His last time out, Jordan Higgs was placed on the aisle with elbow inflammation. he's expected to miss at least four weeks.

Luis Arise was placed on the seven-day concussion IL. Nick Gordon was recalled for the twins. Eliezer Hernandez with the Marlins completed a 30-pitch bullpen session. He's currently on the IL with a biceps injury. Merrill Kelly was placed on the IL for unspecified reasons. Joachim Soria was recalled for Arizona. Scott, do you think Soria works his way back into the closer mix? Or is it Stefan Crichton's job to lose?

I think Crichton has to lose the job. I don't think Crichton is a closer caliber relievers. That may well happen. But I think Crichton's got it for now. Then again, should we bring up Josh Stamont and what happened with him? Because it sure looked like he had the role for the Royals. In fact, I wrote about in Monday's Bullpen report, or Tuesday's bullpen report, just earlier, Tuesday. I wrote about how confident I was.

Josh Stalmont was definitively the Royals closer. So, of course, he came in in the seventh inning. And Tuesday's game against the Indians. Not only did he come in in the seventh inning, but he gave up three earned runs in that inning ended up taking the loss. So maybe that's on Mike Mathini for using his closer in a non-save situation,

which is a. still kind of a thing that is known to create implosions. Maybe Stomont was thinking of himself as the closer. I don't know. I don't know. Look, if you're still asking me to pick a frontrunner for saves in the Royal's bullpen, it's still Stomont with an asterisk and didn't happen to check who was due up that inning.

It may have been just that it was such a high leverage situation that Stomont didn't want to. Didn't want to lose the game there, you know, obviously. We saw how that turned out. Anyway, let's see. Runner was on, but yeah, no good hitters were coming up. Yeah, I don't know. That's weird.

Yeah. Yeah, I would still guess Stalmon's the guy for the next safe. I mean, he made a day off, but the next safe chance. But clearly it's not as, it's not as locked up as I thought it was. Yeah. The Froyal situation, closure situation, has been one of the toughest to figure out all season long. Yesterday, the Blue Jays said George Springer would be back on Tuesday.

George Springer was not back on Tuesday. He is day-to-day, according to manager Charlie Montoyo. Anthony Rendon was out of the Angels lineup after fouling a ball off of his leg late on Monday night. Matthew Boyd will start Sunday against the twins. Quote, if all things continue to progress with his sore left knee, the Dodgers are likely to treat one of their weekend games against the Angels as a bullpen day, meaning Trevor Bauer is unlikely to make a start Saturday on short rest. As expected, Tommy Lestello was placed in the aisle with the left hamstring strain.

He'll be out at least four weeks. Luke Voight started a rehab assignment on Tuesday. He was leading off for their AAA affiliate, and he finished with two hits and a walk. So Luke Voigt could be back as soon as next week. And a few other prospect updates. Austin Martin, the Blue Jay's first round pick in 2020, is likely to split his playing time in the minors between short short.

stop and center field. He went two for four with a walk in his first game on Tuesday. Nate Pearson started opening day for AAA Buffalo on Tuesday. He'll need to show he can work at least six innings consistently before he's considered for a promotion to the Blue Jays. He finished a game with eight strikeouts and just one walk, but only completed three and two-thirds innings pitched. Joe Adele is starting his minor league season at AAA,

and Mariners pitching prospect, Logan Gilbert will start on Friday for their AAA affiliate. Scott, let's rank some stuff. Got a lot of starting pitchers. We got some waiver wire ads, some John Carlo Stanton talk, who is on fire. Let's start off with some outfielders that might be available in some shallower leagues because apparently none of these outfielders are available in Chris Towers's leagues where he needs outfielders. But they might be available in your league.

So let's talk about them. Rymel Tapia. He hit a grand slam in the first game of the doubleheader on Tuesday. He was batting 317. I didn't see what that updated number is. Andrew McCutcheon hit a double dong on Tuesday. He now has three home runs over his last three games. He is 54% rostered.

Willie Calhoun, we talk about this guy all the time. But his roster rate is still low. It's 46%. He started against a lefty, J-Hap. And he homered off of a leftie, Taylor Rogers, in the ninth. Willie Calhoun's coming on strong. Adolius Garcia, looked like he was starting to scuffle a little bit.

He's now homered in back-to-back games. He's up to seven home runs on the season. So, Scott, rank these four potential waiver wire outfielders. Ryan Maltapia, Andrew McCutcheon, Willie Calhoun, Adelis Garcia. Well, Willie Calhoun is number one with a bullet. He's, I can't leave him unroastered in any league at this point. I think the potential for him to be an impact contributor,

is pretty high, especially given that he doesn't strike out much. That helps him points to leagues especially. But I think it's going to lead to consistency for him too. And really the biggest question is, will they be sitting him against left-handed pitchers? Well, lately they haven't been. And if he continues to perform against them,

as he did today, as he did Tuesday, then, yeah, this might be the breakout. This might be the breakout year for him. It might be the start of something special. now Rymel Tapia it's kind of surprising he has only four home runs his ex-slug at least coming into today was

361 that ain't good that doesn't lend itself to much power and I don't think you should count on him contributing in that way going forward batting average and stolen bases that's what he was expected to contribute at the start of the season I still think that's mainly what he's good for

not sure it's going to be a huge steals total. It might just be a okay steals total. But I see him more as a need filler than just an outfielder. Everybody needs to be starting. And Adelis Garcia is kind of the same way, except power. I see Garcia. You mentioned he was scuffling, but then he's homered in two straight games. I think there's going to be a lot of that, a lot of that.

It's going to play out exactly that way a lot over the course of this season. It kind of reminds me of Hunter Renfro back when Hunter Renfro was usable, but just very one-dimensional with the power. I think Garcia is going to be the same way. Did we lose, Frank? Is the podcast still going, and I'm all alone? I don't know. I'm going to keep talking, though, in case that is the case.

So, I'm going to rank starting pitchers. We had Shane McClanahan make his... second start. He went four innings again. This is what I was worried about with him. Four innings and back-to-back starts, only 63 pitches thrown. And Frank was watching the broadcast. He mentioned to me that the announcers were kind of hinting at. He might only go four or five innings most of the time, McClanahan. It might not be a great situation in terms of picking of wins, but of course the stuff looked phenomenal

again for him. Really good stuff. Fastball that peaks in 100 miles per hour. Really good slider. In for inning, I think McLeanahan's going to be very useful, but it's going to be, you know, it's going to be hard for him to make a points league contribution

specifically if his innings are limited so severely. Cole Irvin. Now, this was a special one. Eight innings pitched. One earn run allowed. nine strikeouts for Cole Irvin against the Blue Jays. And actually his last four starts, the last four starts for Cole Irvin,

a combined four earned runs. So he's been on quite a run here, Irvin has. I don't really get it. I read after his last start that the athletics were having him use his two seamer more because it's a pitch he's comfortable with. And he wasn't really going to do that with the Philly. So they think they may have unlocked something with him. But apart from just allowing few runs,

I haven't seen how that's actually improved things for Irvin. It's not like the swinging strikes look good. It's actually a very low ground ball rate. I was surprised actually looking it up and seeing that Cole Irvin had such a low ex-fip. His ex-fip, you know, I'd expect a kind of middling strikeout guy who doesn't have a good ground ball number. I expect his ex-fip to be on the high side.

362, though, that's respectable. That's perfectly respectable. Now, his XERA is over five, so maybe that's the one to trust here. The fact that he's walked so few guys, I think, is doing a lot of heavy lifting with that ex-fit for Irvin. I don't know.

He looks pretty hitable to me, and I don't really feel like he can keep this going, but this is a nice run he's on. right now. And, yeah. So Shane McClanahan, Cole Irvin, Albert Alzali, who, you know, we've seen good strikeout numbers from recently,

Tony Gonsolin, who we talked about yesterday as the eventual replacement for Dustin May. If I was ranking them, I'd go Gonsolin, number one, actually, over McClanahan because of those any his concerns with McClanahan. And then I'd go Alzalai over Irvin, because I just don't trust the skill level. With Irvin,

corner infielder's to rank here. We got Hunter Dozier, who's been heating up lately. Three straight multi-hit games, two home runs during that span, still batting under 200 for the season. So that's not great, but appears to be turning things around. Christian Walker recently returned from the I.L. C.J. Crone, he hit one out today in game two of the doubleheader against the Giants, actually off of Alex Wood. A hot pitcher there. And then Brandon Belt homered in both games of a doubleheader. He's basically done nothing this season, but it's actually really strong last season, the short season, with the ball flying out better at his home park in San Francisco.

Brandon Bell was actually pretty strong. If I was ranking them, I'd definitely go Crowe number one. I might go Dozier number two, though. I think Dozier was just off to really slow start. but he's not going to be a stud or anything but power maybe in the 25-30 homer range a non not going to be a total zero for steals I think Dozier would be number two there

and man between Christian Walker and Belt I think I'd lean Walker over belt but belt's interesting just I'm just not sure that 2020 season is something he's going to be able to repeat so that's how I'd rank those corner infielders So, let's look at some D. Oh, the D.H. only.

He wants to rank the D.H. onlys here because John Carlos Stanton, of course, had a big game on Tuesday. Now up to a 10-game hitting streak. Four for five with his seventh home run. That is an impressive power display from a guy who we know is capable of doing that. It seems to be hot right now. So rank Stanton, Nelson Cruz, Yorden Alvarez. Show Hey Otani, the hitter. And Fran Mil Reyes,

I go Cruz Alvarez. Hmm. I go Cruz, Alvarez. I think I'm going to put Otani ahead of Stanton because, you know, it gets the stolen bases. It's a big deal. It's got a lot of stolen bases. And Stanton, you expect him to miss time from time to time, right?

I certainly do. So Cruz, Alvarez, Otani, Stanton, and then Reyes. Some more starting pitchers to rank here. here. Wascar I Noah. Let's, maybe he needs to get a Shoheyotani thing going, hitter and pitcher,

because he homered for the second straight start. Wascar I know what did. And it was to straightaway center. It was over 420 feet, I think. And it was a grand slam. Like he was the Braves team, basically on Tuesday night. Continue to do what he's been doing on the mound.

Seven innings. only one run allowed. Four strikeouts in seven innings. Only eight swinging strikes. That's not good. But going to that slider more than 50% of the time makes him difficult to square up even when he's not missing bats.

I don't know. I don't know how long he can pull off this trick, but his ERA now for the seasons down to 236. Obviously he's must roster at this point. Kyle Gibson, he continued to roll merrily long, eight innings, three and runs allowed, eight strikeouts,

17 swinging strikes on 107 pitches. He hasn't been getting a ton of strikeouts this year, but the swinging strike rate is actually quite good. Of those 17 swinging strikes, nine came on the slider.

And it just seems like adding a cutter to his repertoire. It's not a pitch he uses a ton, but it's just kind of, it's kind of helped everything play up. I don't know if it gives another look that's close enough to the slider that's always been so good in the fastball

that it creates some deception there. Even though the strikeout rate isn't great, I feel pretty good about Kyle Gibson because he's getting so many whiffs. I mean, I think he's pretty much must roster at this point. What is that for him? He's got a quality start streak going, I know. Yeah, his XERA is like right around three.

So Stackass likes what he's doing. And then Alex Wood, I half-heartedly recommended him for the start of Coors Field because I got to come up with 10 low-in starting pitcher recommendations every week. So I didn't feel great about it, but he survived it. He survived it, two runs in five innings, only two strikeouts. He'd been getting more of those past couple starts, which is really dominated in his last two outings. But obviously, Coorsfield, a dangerous place to pitch.

I think the fact that he survived it, And was he able to pull out the win? I know he left in line for a win, but they were kind of falling apart there at the end. It looks like... Nope, nope, the Rockies came back and won that game. So Alex Wood didn't get the win. So that's disappointing.

But anyway, between Wascari Noah, Kyle Gibson, Alex Wood, ranking them rest of season. I think they're almost roster. Wood, by the way, is up to 83%. I would go... I would go E. Noah, then Wood, then Gibson. But they're almost roster, like I said. Middle infielders, kind of the low end tier.

Josh Rojas hit a home run here on Tuesday. He's up to five now. Just on a roll here after a terrible start of the season, getting a lot of playing time for the Diamondbacks. Gavin Lux, he's been terrible since the first week. Jonathan India, whatever. Whatever. I can't muster much excitement for Jonathan India anymore.

So I'd rank him just that way. Josh Rojas, one, Gavin Lux, two, Jonathan India, three. And then starting pitchers part three here. This is like really scraping the bottom of the barrel now with Joe Ross, who two-earned runs in five and a third inning against the Braves, three strikeouts.

And four of us five starts this year. Joe Rosses have actually been good. The other was a 10-earned-run-run-run disaster. I don't see a lot to like here. 469 X-FIP doesn't miss a lot of bats, doesn't get a lot of ground balls. I think he's...

I think it's going to come back to haunt him eventually. So I'm not putting much value in him. Mitch Keller, had a good start. Five and two-thirds shutout innings, two hits, five strikeouts. It's only four whiffs for Mitch Keller.

So whatever. Tyler Anderson of the pirates, we've talked about him. His whiff rate this year looks pretty good, though a lot of it. came in the first start of the season when he had over 20 whiffs. And then Daniel Lynch, the recent prospect call-up, made his debut Monday. It wasn't that great, but obviously there's a lot of upside there.

So I'm going to go with Lynch just by default here because of that upside, ranking these four. Lynch number one, Tyler Anderson, number two, Mitch Keller three, and Joe Ross four. I am going to take a break because that's what it's time to do. I'm going to check in with Frank. I'm going to find out if he's going to rejoin me. I'm going to find out if any of this even recorded or if I'm just talking to the few people watching me live. And then we'll talk some more about fantasy baseball.

All right. I'm back. We're going to keep talking fantasy baseball here. Like it or not, it's just me. Frank is gone. Internet's out all over his neighborhood. We're doomed. I'm having to look at these notes I've never seen before.

That's fine. We'll do fine. Will be good. Okay. Clayton Kershaw, shortest outing of his career against the Cubs. It was bad.

It was bad. Worryometer on Clayton Kershaw after this start against the Cubs in which he gave up trying to see exactly what he gave up. It was four runs in an inning. Four and runs in an inning, shortest outing of his career, as I said,

His average fastball velocity was 89.8 down from 91 this season. That wasn't good. Doesn't sound like anything's really wrong with him. He didn't seem too concerned after the start. He just chalked it up as one of those starts and get ready for the next one. I mean, other than the drop of velocity, I mean, that kind of concerns me, but that happens from time to time. He has a 295 VRA after this start. So he had been on such a good run that I don't think there's, I don't think there's, I don't think

there's much to worry about. I'll go a two on the worryometer for Clayton Kershaw. Buster Posey had another great game for the Giants. Started game one of the double header. His batting average at this point is really high. It's up to 382. And he's slugging 735. He had a seventh home run.

And I just, I mean, because it's catcher and like what else are you supposed to do, but go with the hot hand, particularly somebody who has Posey's history. He's in my top 10 rest of season. Why not? Who else am I going to slot there? I just did not see this coming. Obviously, he had a hip injury a few years ago,

and maybe recent years were marred by that. Didn't play at all last year. Of course, sat out of the season. But we haven't seen this version of Posey since, like, 2017. And frankly, he's even looking better than he's. did then. But that was like the last all-star caliber version of Posey that we saw. So sits every third game at his age 34. I mean, maybe you have to expect that. But yeah, looking like a must start for now. I wouldn't mess with it too much. Garrett Hampson,

up to seven steals this year started the first game of that doubleheader against the Giants. I don't trust him as a hitter, but it's good to see that he's running when he does play. Sandy Alcantara had a typical Sandy Alcantara start, I would say. Two runs, six innings, six strikeouts against the Diamondback. 17 swinging strikes, that's obviously a good number. And that's been up this season. He's actually at less than a strikeout per inning now after getting off to a really good start with the strikeouts. So yeah, that's, I'd like to see more strikeouts, but the fact that he's getting the swinging strikes,

his changeup was actually his most thrown pitch in this start and it's been a good swing of miss pitch for him. So I like the changes he's made to his pitch mix. I see him as a borderline ace. Jan Moncada seems to be getting on track. 12 out of 31 now with two homers in 10 games leading up to today's game and had another multi-hit game on Tuesday.

Batting average up to 274. He isn't hitting the ball as hard as we saw in his breakout 2019 season, but the strikeout rate is back down after the awfulness of 2020. I think he just needs to get hot and I think this is maybe the start of it. I think you're going to be pretty happy

with Moncada in the long run. Ronald de Cunni is the first to 10 home runs this year. Trevor Bauer. Trevor Bauer had a his worst start so far, his first non-quality start since his very first start of the season. So Bauer had a stretch of five straight quality starts

and of course they were high quality starts. But this one, he was gone after four and a third, struck out seven, walked four. Frank notes here that he has an 8.4% swinging strike rate over his last two starts. Obviously not very good. It's only two starts. I'm not really worried about it.

Hunter Renfro, I mentioned him earlier in the show. He's actually kind of heating up here, six hits over his last three games, two home runs during that stretch. he's dangerous because when he's bad he is really bad but he can get hot and deliver a bunch of home runs in a short period of time maybe that's what's happening here

if you need help in that category specifically I'm thinking five outfielder league maybe you go with him I don't know wouldn't be me guy but I could see it I could see it call to the pen bullpen section of the program here we

already talked about Josh Stallmont and how he kind of had a problem there, came in in the seventh inning, and ended up losing the game anyway. Still thinking he's the number one guy for saves in Kansas City, but Mathini's been mixing it up and continues to, clearly. Matt Barnes got a five-out save. How about that for the Red Sox?

He has been surprisingly dominant this year, up to seven saves. A lot of strikeouts. He's been one of the more trustworthy relievers, honestly. I'd see him as a top 15 at that position. And yeah, he may be moving up the rank. He's 26 strikeouts in 16 innings. That's awesome.

Only nine base runners allowed. Really good start for Matt Barnes. Start to the year, I mean, obviously he's a reliever. Sam Coonrod picked up his second save for the Phillies. Hector Neris was unavailable. Don't think there's any real issue there. Taylor Rogers. He blew the save.

for the twins. And it's kind of shaky on Monday night, too. Supposedly stepping in, taking that role from Alex Colome. But apparently nobody wants to be the closer for the twins this year because they're just taking turns messing up. Now, I will point out, 231 ERA, even after back-to-back shaky outings for Taylor Rogers. So maybe he gets another chance.

Colomé hasn't done anything himself to earn another chance. think he has one scoreless inning. And then obviously a mess before that. So I don't think they're going to be ready to turn back to him. They could turn to somebody else like Tyler Duffy or Hansel Robles, I guess. But I think they continue to stick with Rogers. And hopefully he does better going forward. Let's do the streamer pitchers for the next two days.

Wednesday streamers, who are my favorites of these? We got John Gray against the Giants. Luke Weaver at the Marlins. Martine Perez against the Tigers. Brady Singer against the Indians. Luis Garcia at the Yankees and Robbie Ray at the athletics. Yeah. Well, as usual, I'm not thrilled by these choices.

But if I remember correctly from yesterday, when we were forecasting two days ahead, I said my favorites were Robbie Ray at Oakland. Brady Singer against Cleveland and Luis Garcia at the Yankees. So I'll stick with that. Thursday streamers. Now this is a,

this is a yucky group. Don't want much to do with any of these guys. But we have a job to do, and we're going to do it. Spencer Turnbull at the Red Sucks. John Gant against the Mets. Mike Fires against the Blue Jays, John Lester against the Braves,

Drew Smiley at the Nationals. Madison Bumgarner at the Marlins, Andrew Heaney. against the race. Clearly, clearly the number one choice is Bumgarner, right? I mean, come a long way for that to be the case, but I think it's two runs over his last three starts,

and the last two, the velocity was back up to where it was his last few years in San Francisco. So he might still be decent, Madison Bumgarner. And the Marlins, of course, is a good matchup. I feel okay about that one. The others, gosh, you're going to make me pick a second and third? I guess Hini against the race just by process of elimination. And the third, John Gant against the Mets.

Open the Mets lineup continues to scuffle. I don't know. Don't feel great about that one. But there are your streamer picks for Thursday. Some emails here to end the show. Thanks for sticking with me. One man show here, at least the second half. We got one here from Allison on the Apple Podcast reviews,

10 team points league. She was offered Chris Bryant for Zach Wheeler. She's loaded at SP and she's been going with Gior Shella at third base. Not so great in a 10 team league. Her starting pitchers, she says

she's loaded. She has Corbyn Burns, Charlie Morton, Max Scherzer, Jack Flaherty, Jesus Luzardo, and Framber Valdez. Those two, of course, are on the IEL. Burns, I think, is still on the IL too, though. That's not expected to be a real issue. So Burns, Morton, ensures their flair to you, so she has access to right

now. She'd be giving up Wheeler. I understand it. I understand it. Brian is certainly an upgrade from Rochella. I think Urchella's good enough. And I wouldn't want, I wouldn't want that strength at starting pitcher to become a weakness. No telling if

Morton is going to be able to turn it around. I think so, but, you know, I think it's an open question. And Burns, is he going to last all season long? I don't know. Pretty confident wheel the Will. Hey, Scott.

I think I'd stick with Wheeler. Hey, we got Frank back. What's up, man? Did I miss anything? I've never been more excited to hear your voice. Man, what just happened? I don't know. Do you tell me?

I don't know. I can't even explain it. That was the first time we've been doing this podcast live on YouTube for, I don't know, the past three months or so and never have had a single issue. But apparently, Queens and Brooklyn has been affected quite poorly by Verizon Internet. So there you go. Back just in time with,

I don't know, Scott, where are we on the rundown? Because thank you for holding it down. I did check my phone to make sure that you were still going. And you were. I was still going. Yes, I didn't quite know what to do.

I wasn't quite sure if anyone was listening. But the show continued on. And we just answered our first email question because I've been flying through it. All to myself. But feel free to continue with, or I never did rank, Mexican food items if you're if you're if you're dying to do that. I know you had it in there.

Yeah. I mean, so I assume you rank everything else. I ranked everything else. I didn't get to hear, but I trust your I trust your judgment. So yeah, look, it's Cinco de Mayo. Let's wrap this up with a bang. We'll, we'll rank some Mexican food items and we'll answer some questions here as well. But all right, Scott, let's go in honor of Cinco de Mayo, rank the taco, the cassidia, and the burrito. I feel like if Chris were here, he would say something about a taco being a hot dog or something like that. A sandwich. Everything's a sandwich.

Right. Yeah. Rank them. Well, it depends. Pretty much never a cassidia number one, I guess. Casadia would never be number one for me. Taco burrito, it kind of depends what purpose it is. It depends where I'm getting it from, obviously.

But I think generally speaking, I'd go, I'd go taco just because every bite's more consistent, you know? Obviously, you need several tacos to meet the, the volume of a burrito. All things being equal, I think I'd go taco. More than anything, though, I'm a nachos guy. You leaving nachos out of here that disappoints me.

I never go wrong with a plate of nachos. I like nachos. I like nachos. I would put them forth on this list. I don't know, Scott, a good cassidia. A good cassidia is really good. You're out on the cassidias, man. Not even close.

It's just, it's not interesting. I eat my share, but because it's easy to prepare. I eat my share. I will go with, let's go, hmm, I like all of them. Burrito's probably the messiest, but I think it's probably the best. Like a good burrito is really, really good too. So we'll go burrito.

Oh, you know, it's, we're sleeping on here. What are we doing? You know, we're sleeping on here is the wet burrito. He ever had a wet burrito? Oh, no. Sounds gross. No. It does sound gross.

It does sound kind of gross. But no, it's got the sauce on it. It's great. Oh, it comes with, yeah, yeah, I've had burritos like that before. Yeah. Yeah, there's some, there's some awesome, uh, some awesome burrito spots right now. I'll go burrito one. I'll go, I like cassidias, man. I'll go cascadia's two. And I don't, I'll go tacos third. But, man, they are, they're all great. Uh, so you answered the first question that we had here.

From Allison, right? This was from Sean on our Apple podcast reviews, 10 team head to head categories. I have Nelson Cruz and Fran Mill Reyes is a free agent. considering picking Reyes up and trading Nelson Cruz. What do you think? Who is a fair trade target? I need help in the outfield. So, yeah, I do think you should add Fran Mill Reyes. And Nelson Cruz should be able to net you at least a top 15, top 20 outfielders, Scott?

Yeah, I would think so. You could trade Nelson Cruz for like a Marcelo Zuna or Kyle Tucker easily, I think, if you wanted to go the buy low route. And I would I think I'd do that I mean the thing about Cruz is he's so old That I don't know He's managed to play pretty close to every day so far

I just don't know that he can sustain that for a full season That's my biggest concern with him Would you trade him for Springer? Yeah I'd trade him I'd trade him for Springer I think For Judge Well here's the thing Here's the thing Here's the thing we should consider

Before deciding We have to rid ourselves of Nelson Cruz. Nelson Cruz isn't going to pick up outfield eligibility. Emil Reyes probably is. He made two starts in the outfield already. How many other appearances has he made?

He's made a total of just those two appearances. So it might be a while before he picks up outfield eligibility, especially if your requirement is more than five. Five's the standard. Yeah, I mean, you don't want to just, you don't want to sell low on Cruz for sure.

But I think, would you do, Judge? I don't think I would. Yeah, because Judge has his injury concerns himself. It seems like, kind of like DeGrom and Yelich, that we spoke about earlier, Judge is kind of always dealing with something. So I don't think I would do it for Judge. But for Tucker, for Ozuna,

somehow if you can get Nick Castiano's for sure, probably won't happen. Springer, as we said. Yeah, Springer as well. This one's from Garrett. Would you trade Wander Franco for Francisco Lindelendos? in a head-to-head points keeper league. Franco could be anything.

He could even be a boat. Yeah. Yeah. He's having a big first game, too. While I was scrolling Twitter looking for other people complaining about Verizon, I saw Wonderfrogos having a big first game in the minors tonight. Yeah. If keeper cost is equal, I would do that.

Definitely want to take the... Proven commodity over Lendor. I don't think a bad first month should change the equation there. Wanda Franco has three hits in his AAA debut, including an RBI triple and infield single. He's fun. He's going to be really good, but I think you actually have to make that trade,

assuming that all things are equal. So I would agree with you there, Scott. This one's from Jack, dear Barry, Robin and Maurice. I'm thinking, I don't know, Barry Lark and Robin Yant. I don't know who, no? these are the Bee Gees. Okay. So many people are probably yelling at their phone right now.

It's so many very old people. We need Chris, man. Chris is our balance, man. He brings the musical elements of things. No, I think Chris's music knowledge begins in the 90s. I mean, he kind of knows his stuff. Anyway, the question, I gave up E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. Havaleigh and Lance McCullors for Aaron Savali and Josh Stalmond.

Swares will be replaced by Cabrion. and Hayes when he comes back from the IL does a 12-team head to head points league Suarez and McCullors for Savale. I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like it, Scott. I didn't like it even when I was sure Zadamond was the closer, and I'm not

sure in a 12-team points league, closer shouldn't be that hard to find that you're trading for one unless he's a stud, you know? No, I, and I just prefer as a pitcher, I prefer McCulloch to Savale. So, yeah, I wouldn't have done it. Wouldn't have been me, guy.

wouldn't have been Scott. Did you mention what happened in this Giants, Rocky's game by any chance, Scott? It was a wild and wacky ending where... Yeah, I did mention that Wood did not end up getting the win. Yeah, because Jake McGee just record... He recorded two outs. He gave up four earned runs.

Camillo DeVal came in to relieve him, and then he gave up two runs, gave up a walk-off home run to Charlie Blackman. Don't look now. Charlie Blackman is coming around. He just needs a few more games in Cores when it's not. knowing they have played some games in courts, but earlier in April, I mean, they were playing through some really terrible conditions there. So Charlie Blackman is second home run of the season,

a rough outing there for Jake McGee. And you know we're going to wrap up, Scott, Austin Meadows. Double dong, baby. He's coming around. Let's go. All right. I guess that's very exciting for you. I have some shares of Meadows, so that's a good thing. He looks good. He looks good. I know the batting averages low early in the season. I'm a little worried about Jake McGee, though, because this is now, he was four in runs today. Mm-hmm. And that means he's up to eight in his past six appearances.

The ERA is up to 5.54. Yeah. Though it's a little misleading because for relievers, you know, one bad outing can really inflate the numbers. Well, it hasn't been one bad outing, though. It's been... Also true. Four.

Yeah. I would imagine Tyler Rogers is an extant line there. Right. He filled in for McGee when McGee was on. I think he was having a reaction to the vaccine. But I don't know, like just knowing Gabe Kapler, I don't know that he would turn to one guy. I think he might mess around for a while.

And maybe ultimately go back to McGee. But McGee's role suddenly appears in jeopardy. All righty. We are going to end this wacky podcast here. Thank you to Scott for holding it down while I was gone. Thank you for everyone who stuck around and watched Scott's impression of Aaron Rogers, who was hosting. Jeopardy recently. It might be the new job for Aaron Rodgers. So thank you, Scott.

We're going to wrap the air for Scott. I'm Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching fantasy baseball today. We will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.