Fantasy Baseball Today - Luis Severino Pitching Well, Rankings Movers & Orioles Promoting Cade Povich! (6/6 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 6, 2024

Luis Severino had one of his best starts on Wednesday (2:30). ... Aaron Nola is working his even-year magic (9:35). ... The Reds' lineup went off against the Rockies (15:05). ... The Orioles are promoting one of their top pitching prospects Cade Povich (23:40). ... News (29:30): Corey Seager left with a hamstring injury. ... Who are our latest rankings risers and fallers in Fantasy (34:05)? ... Albert Suarez pitched well again, this time against the Blue Jays (49:32). ... Beat the waiver wire by adding these Pirates hitters (53:11). ... Any concerns with Dylan Cease (58:29)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:00:43). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @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/ 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 lead. Well, fantasy! Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Hello, welcome in South Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, June 6th. I am Frank Stanfield, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers today on the show.

We have rankings, risers, and fallers. Nick Povetta was awesome. Dylan C's has slowed down a bit. Plus, the Orioles are promoting another one of their top prospects. Let's jump in. All right, I believe that's the first time we've used that call, and it's one of my favorites. Let's start with Scott.

You're up. All right. And we talked beforehand that I am going to talk about Luis Severino. That is the pick for me. Luis Severino had a good start. At Washington. One run and eight innings. Those were the most impressive parts of the stateline.

He gave seven hits. He struck out four. He walked nobody. I guess that's good. And actually, that's encouraging because Severino's walk rate has been high. In spite of the high walk rate, in spite of the low strikeout rate, with this start, Luis Severino has a 325 ERA and a 114 whip on the year. Pretty good.

And I've been kind of torn on what to do with him in my rankings. Every time he has a bad start, I kind of want to be completely out on Luis Severino, but then he turns around and does something like this, and it's like, well, okay, maybe he's not so bad, really. The thing is, he's very different, a very different pitcher than the Louis Severino we've observed in the past. He's pretty much abandoned the change up completely, and the slider he throws now is a very different slider than the one he used to throw. And it's not even, like, his top two pitches are both fastballs, fastball and sinker, four-seamer and sinker. And it's reflected in the batted ball profile against Severino. He has a 51% ground ball rate this year, which is way higher than he's ever had before.

He's kind of turned himself into Marcus Stroman, I feel like. With the groundball approach, K-per-9 rate in the sevens, a one. walk rate that's kind of high considering he doesn't get a lot of K's. And it's working just like Stroman's works for the most part. I just wonder if we can trust in it. And I've not been the biggest Stroman guy in fantasy anyway. I feel like he is... He's fine.

He's what? He's fine. He's fine to have around when things are going well, but you have a short leash with it. Right. Yeah. And he's in some ways, like he's libeling, strikeouts, he's a liability in whip. And if that's like who I'm comparing

this new version of Severino to, yeah, I mean, I'm, I wouldn't say I'm excited about him, particularly in this pitching environment. And yet he is useful. If he keeps doing this, if he keeps being mixing in these one run outings along with the occasional one where things kind of go off the rails, then like, that's usual.

I don't know. I guess I'm saying that Severino, like the Severino we once knew and longed for is dead. He's gone, he's not coming back. And this new one, he's still usable. He's still usable. But like if you needed to drop him for something more exciting, I don't think it's the worst idea.

Yeah, I think I've made this comp a few times. But it reminds me a lot of Noah Sindegarde in 2022. Remember, he got signed by the angel. I think it was his like first year back from Tommy John surgery. And he was fine. He had a 383 ERA, which you have to keep in mind. 2022 was a very different offensive environment. That was actually still a better than average ERA.

He had a 383 ERA with the Angels, got traded the Phillies. Things kind of went off the rails from there. That's kind of what I'm expecting to see from Louis Severino is that, yeah, it's working right now. He's a different pitcher, different scales. scouting reports on him than what we've seen in the past. And at some point, it's probably going to stop working, right? Like, you look at a guy who's getting,

you know, 7.5Ks per 9, walking 3.5 ground ball rate is high. That's good, but it's not Framberfall Des walk rate or ground ball rate. And, yeah, I think ride it while it's lasting, but I don't really expect him to keep a, a sub four ERA moving forward, even in this offensive environment. Maybe it's 38, 3.39. But in this offensive environment with a guy who doesn't get strikeouts, it seems pretty easy

to replace that. Like I said, ride him when it's going well. It's totally fine to keep Luis Severino around right now. But just look at Marcus Stroman last year. It's really hard to be, you can find pockets of success with contact-oriented ground ball pitchers. it's really tough to do that for a full season. One positive I'll throw out there for Severino,

and I've noticed this for a lot of pitchers recently, most notably what Max Fried is doing right now. Severino's doing a really good job, limiting hard contact, 87.6 average exit velocity that's down almost three miles per hour from last year, and he's getting a lot of ground balls. So weak ground balls, typically that is a formula that could work. Obviously, the swinging strike rate is way down. The expected ERA entering the start was 3.48, so that's still pretty good.

I mostly agree with everything you guys have said. I don't think he's like a must add by any means. He's the top waiver-wire pitcher from today because there wasn't much going on. But he's only available in shallower league, 75% rostered, does get the Marlins next week. So I do like that. I'm not as pessimistic as Chris. I would think a mid-to-high-3s ERA for Severina, which is normally what we expect from Stroman, too. It's just a mid-to-high-3s ERA from a non-strikeout pitcher who also,

walks a decent amount of hitters. Just isn't that valuable. Would you drop any of these three for Severino? Jordan Hicks, who gave up two earned runs over three and two thirds. It's two subpar outings in a row. The overall numbers are still good, but he hasn't thrown more than five innings since April 27th. Jordan Montgomery got clobbered by the Giants.

He allowed six earned runs over two innings. He's up to a 680 ERA. And, I mean, hopefully this is the last push that everyone needs. if you're if you still have James Paxson on your team I mean he got destroyed it was six earned runs calling that one for a while over over one and two thirds innings we just still have a one to one walk to strikeout ratio pretty close it's it was two walks and two strikeouts today um all three of those pitchers are 84% rostered or higher would you drop any of them for severino 30 walks 33 strikeouts for paxton I would drop yeah I would prefer severino to any of those three pitchers the only one that gives me some pause is

Jordan Hicks because I think Jordan Hicks is better, but his outings are so short and he's not getting any more strikeouts than Severino is. So it's just, he's just not as useful. He's RP eligible, I guess, which could come into play in points leagues. But still, if you're not, if you're not able to pitch beyond five innings more often than not, they're just, you're just not of much use to anybody. All right, Chris, let's go over to you for your player the night. It's Aaron Hick. Sorry. Aaron Hicks. Whoa.

Yeah, well, you see what happened there. I'm talking about Aaron Nola. We were just talking about Jordan Hicks. It's Aaron Nola, who is my, oh, my goodness, player of the day. He had, what was it, seven strikeouts over, sorry, five strikeouts over seven shutout innings, I believe. Yes, that is correct. And it's really weird because this was the quote unquote ace that nobody wanted coming into the season.

And all of a sudden his ERA is, sub three and his whip is sub one. And yet he also has the lowest strikeout rate of his career since he was a rookie. And he has his highest walk rate since 2020. And I mean, his walk rate is still good. His strikeout rate is still above average. But it's, it's very interesting to see the results that Aaron Nola is getting so far. And I mostly just wanted to see just a temperature check.

See how you guys are feeling about him. his changeup whiff rate has completely collapsed, which that's pretty consistently been either his best or second best with pitch. It's down to 15% entering this start. And maybe that's just the explanation for why the strikeouts aren't there and he can get that going and it'll be fine,

but it's been a weird start to the season for Aaron Nola. Yeah, I was more worried about him a month ago when all of this was still going on. but he's obviously on a different level of pitcher. Like, you know, Corbyn Burns the past couple years. His strikeouts have been way down, but it hasn't mattered. And I kind of suspect that's the way it's going to go for Aranola.

I'm not totally at ease with it. His FIP and XFIP are both about the same as last year. But the expected ERA is lower. So he is doing better with the contact he allows. And maybe that's because every pitcher is in this environment. If things warm up this summer, maybe Aaronola will be in some trouble. I don't know. Maybe I'm being kind of Pollyanna about this,

but Aeronola is delivering such good results that I'm kind of just inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. Guys, I left it there for both of you. It's obvious what's happened. It's an even year. That's all you need to know about Aranola is that the baseball gods for some reason they give Aranola the power of luck in even years

and they don't give it to him in odd years and that's clearly what's happened. But in all seriousness, I did move him up to SP 11 in the starting pitcher ranks here on Wednesday and I was pretty much out on Aranola. I had him as a bus coming into the season. I should have known better with the even year.

But I think he's just kind of doing it the way that we've seen like Logan Webb and Framber Valdez. Not that he gets a ton of ground balls, but he's just an accumulator who's pitching really well, and we've seen those other two succeed the past couple of seasons. I think that's pretty much what Aranola is doing right now. And so as long as he's pitching this well, I think he's like a borderline SP.

Well, I mean, look at Max Free. Yeah. We could have said the snake, like with the strikeouts being way down and some of his secondary is not getting nearly as many whiffs. Oh, is he going to fall apart? and then he gets 13 strikeouts in one game and kind of immediately. Yeah, his strikeout rates pretty much where it's supposed to be now.

Right, right. Yeah, I think those guys are very comparable. I both have them inside of my top 15. So if you told me you wanted Max Fried more than Nola, I think that's totally defensive too. One distinction that I would draw between Nola and Freed, and I do have Nola ranked ahead of Freed, but I'm not 100% sure I should.

And the key distinction there is if Nola's, going to be a 23 to 24% strikeout rate rather than a 25 to 29% like he had been the previous three or four seasons Freed is arguably the best limiter of hard contact in baseball

and ground balls yeah and he's done that for five years like we're talking five years in a row where he's been top 10% in average eggs of velocity allowed some of the best expected woe bond contact nola is doing better in that regard this year, but typically is more like average in terms of limiting hard contact. And that's a stat that takes a very long time to stabilize for starting pitchers.

And so I'm I'm more willing to believe that Nola's, that Freed's current approach will bear fruit. But I also believe Nola will start to get strikeouts at a higher rate than he has been at some point. just because this is such a low strike area for him. So all in all, I agree with you guys. He's SP 14 for me, so not quite top 12, but that's splitting hairs, I think. Yeah, back into that top 12 is just so weird right now. We'll talk about Dylan Cease a little bit later on.

He's looked a little bit more vulnerable recently, and obviously Pablo Lopez has been a letdown in terms of the ERA so far this season. So just that, you know, 8 through 15 range is just kind of, kind of weird, and yeah, I think there is a lot of splitting hairs involved with those rankings right now. Oh my goodness gracious for me, I just want to talk about the Reds lineup here because they enjoyed their Wednesday in Corsefield. They put up 12 runs on 12 hits. T.J. Friedel is a name we have talked a lot about recently. He went one for two with a walk, a sock, and a shoe.

His second home run, his fourth stolen base. In seven games since returning, he is batting 250 with a 438 on base percentage. two homers, six runs, seven RBI, two steals. And like we said recently, this is your last chance in a shallower league if T.J. Friedel is out there. He's 69% rostered. I moved them up to, I believe, outfielder 40 in my rankings. And Scott, I know you have them a little bit higher.

You know, one name that stands out, I haven't just ahead of Wyatt Langford. Would you guys drop Wyatt Langford for Friedel? Yeah, I would. I mean, the league's shallow enough where you could even think about dropping White. Langford, I would. Yeah, because I think

Friddle is only out there in shall release anyway, right? I think I have. I think I did do that in one of our head-to-head points leagues this weekend. Yeah. A few other names. Go ahead. Like, Wyatt Langford could obviously

heat up this summer and deliver on all his rookie, on all the upside we thought he had. But I only want to roster three outfielders. And T.J. Friedel is much more playable than Wyatt Langford right now. And I think he'll be good.

He was good last year. I think he'll be good again. Other names that I moved T.J. Friedel ahead of Colton Couser, Cedricin, Sederick Mullen, Jackson Meryl. So those were some more renowned names earlier on or coming into the season, and I would be fine dropping any of those for T.J. Friedel. Jammer Candelario went two for five with a home run

and two steals in his last 30 games. He's betting 282 with six home runs, 17 RBI. Those two steals, which he picked up. and an 849 OPS, 75% rostered. I don't think there's huge upside here, but if you're looking for a floor play, if you've been struggling at first or third base, I think Candelario is fine.

Spencer Stier went one for five with his seventh home run. It was a go-ahead home run in the ninth inning of that game. Batting average has come down, but still seven homers, 11 steals, 40 RBI. It's been, I think, overall, very good season for Spencer Stier. And Jonathan India is a name we haven't talked about much recently. He went one for three with a grand slam, had five RBI total in this game. Last 12 games for India, 389 batting average, two homers, 13 RBI, one steel.

He's 47% rostered. Chris, the reason why I can't get too excited about it is because so many middle infielders have emerged recently between Davis Schneider, Joey Ortiz, Nick Gonzalez, Mason Wayne. I can't really get too excited about adding Jonathan India right now. Yeah, because Jonathan India is not an especially high. floor player or a high ceiling player whereas all those guys are pretty young and experienced which is a proxy for upside for the most part whereas we feel like we pretty much know what jonathan india

is i think the biggest thing that i want to see and i don't know if it's likely to happen is if he moves back up in the lineup now that he's getting hot because he opened the season as the lead off hitter for the reds that seemed like a really valuable situation and then he got off to a miserable start and he got dropped eighth. And it's just going to be really hard to have the counting stats that you need, especially in a pointsley, which is probably his better format if you're hitting eighth. So the problem is,

are they going to move Ellie de la Cruz down? Maybe against some righties, but probably not all that consistently. He's going to still hit at the top against... You mean against lefties? Yeah, I have such a mental block around switch hitters and trying to like talk about, yes, he is worse as a right.

right-handed hitter. So against lefties, he does get moved down. But with Friedelback, with Candelaria locked in, I don't know if we're going to see India move up. And so that's the thing that I struggle with. But I do think he should be fine moving forward. The one thing I'll point out with India is he's not one of these players who has basically the exact same batted ball profile.

And it's just not playing as well with the ball not caring as well. His ground ball rate is way up this year. which obviously isn't good when you're playing your home games in Cincinnati. I want to give an honorable mention to Royce Lewis, who is now three for three on the season. What does that mean he has played in three games? He has homered in all three games. Let's see if the streak will continue on Thursday.

I'm pretty sure he's already like 16th among third baseman and wins above replacement this season. Is that he was at point four entering today and hit another home run. So I'm just going to assume it's point five. and that's going to move him ahead of Nolan Aronado. So, yeah. Royce Lewis's expected stats coming into today were very funny. It was obviously just a two-game sample, but.

Yeah. Like, he should have been basically should have been batting a thousand. Please, just stay healthy. Yeah, and we're going to talk about Rankings Rizers, and I was very aggressive with him since he's back. And, I mean, honestly, if we said it yesterday, but if you told me he was going to play 80% of the games the rest of the way,

I think I already did move him ahead of Machado actually today. This makes it 18 home runs in his last 35 games, playoffs included, I believe. Jeez. It's just, I mean, going off memory there. He's got a 952 career OPS now in 285 play appearances. That's still a really small sample size,

but it's hard to overstate how impressive Royce Lewis is, given everything he's had to overcome. Let's just do it now. He's sixth. I moved him up to ahead of Machado today. He's seventh. I still have Hassan Kim in a Roto League ahead of him. But other than that, yeah.

Yeah. Well, I'm happy I tweeted out my rankings update. Yeah, I had Royce Lewis on the rise. And I have him ninth. So compared to you guys, it's like, all right, did I even really move him up? Yeah. Why do you hate Ross Lewis?

Why do I hate him? I don't know. Before we hit the break, just want to say that we are aware that the audio podcast didn't post on Wednesday, and we do apologize. We've notified the appropriate parties, and they are on it,

but unfortunately, it is out of our control. So hopefully today's podcast uploads without any issues. If not, you can always watch the pod right here on YouTube.com slash fantasy baseball today. Let's take our first break, and when we return, another prospect promotion by the Orioles. We'll talk about that right after this.

Welcome back in. It's been a busy week for the Orioles, as they're promoting yet another prospect, and it is a pitcher this time. Kate Povich will make his Major League debut at the Blue Jays on Thursday, and Povich is a 24-year-old lefty third-round pick back in 2021.

He's made 11 starts at AAA this season, a 318 ERA, a 11-1-11 whip, 75 strikeouts over 56 and 2-thirds innings. That's 11.9K per 9. The timing is interesting because he's actually coming off a pretty rough stretch in the minors, but it sounds like the Orioles wanted to give Kyle Braddish an extra day of rest,

and so that's the reason why they are calling K. Povich up. He's 24% rostered. With that last note, Scott, I mean, I think as a general statement, we're excited, obviously, for this pitching prospect to make his debut. I don't know if he's going to stick around. What do you think? Yeah, I don't know either. I did read on the Orioles team site that they have a lot of games coming up without many off days. So they were thinking about going six-man during that stretch. I imagine if Kade Povich gets bomed in his debut, he would not be part of that six-man rotation, I guess.

But if he does, and if he pitches well, maybe he could stick around for a few turns anyway. I think Kade Povich is a more exciting prospect than Spencer Schwellenbach or Adam Mazur. Scott, I have bad news. It turns out it's major. Oh, yeah, I asked you about that after the podcast. Oh, how devastating.

Oh, I've never been more disappointed in a pronunciation of a name in my life. That is, oh, just ruined my day, Frank. I do want to just get some thoughts in on Povich because I feel like this. I had some, but. Okay, sorry, go ahead, go ahead. We got derailed by this Adam Major thing. Grouchy Scott. I love it. Disappointing.

So Povich doesn't throw especially hard. Fastball in the low 90s. He's thrown only 61% of his pitches for strikes at AAA. And even though he has nearly 12K pro 9, it's only a 12% swinging strike rate. So I'm not sure that he's as good as the numbers look. But the numbers are so good. that, you know, obviously we have to pay attention to him as he's making his major league debut.

Yeah. I just, every year there are, I don't know, a handful of pitching prospects who get called up that the fantasy community seems a lot more excited about than the prospect community at large. I feel like Brandon Fott is a good example of this in recent years. And this is a guy who in 2022 had a 450 ERA. in 2023 had a 504 ERA. He was never particularly young for any of the levels he was at. Not that he's old, but he's 24 now.

So it's not like we're talking about a guy who you can write off some of the struggles as just being young for his level. The stuff grades are fine. The change up sounds like a really good pitch, which is a big thing for a left-hander. But I don't know. It's 11 starts in 56 innings where he's finally throwing strikes. and now everyone's really excited about him. And it's just, this is not even really throwing strikes is the thing.

Yeah, this isn't a top 100 prospect. It's not a guy who lights up the radar gun. It's not a guy who generates a ton of swings and misses, especially on pitches out of the strike zone, which is, you know, one of the biggest issues for him last year is it's actually, he didn't like throw out of the strike zone a ton. He just couldn't get chases.

And so I have been pretty consistent. in anyone who pitches for the Orioles, I think can be fantasy relevant because if you're just a league average pitcher, you're going to win a decent number of games and you're going to have a pretty good ERA in that ballpark. But I don't see... I've seen a lot of excitement about him in fantasy circles,

and I don't quite see it with Kate Popovich. Just to avoid a little Brandon Fott slander here, baseball America did have him as the number 27 prospect. entering last year. Yes, entering last year, his prospect stock really rose. He was like 27 to 35, I think, at MLB in Baseball America.

Baseball perspective is more like 85, I think. 27, Baseball America, 59, MLB, 83 BP. But like, remember early last year, Brandon Fott was kind of a meme. Like how much we were talking about him and how critical a lot of fantasy people were for the Diamondbacks not calling him up. And it turns,

You're too online, Chris. He's just a decent picture. I don't think most people were thinking like that. There was a lot of excitement. Last point on Kade Povich. The top four most added starting pitchers on CBS are Matt Waldron, Ben Brown, Tyler McGill, and Ryan Weathers. Would you take Povich over any of those?

What were the names again? Sorry. Waldron, Ben Brown, Tyler McGill, and Ryan Weathers. I would not take Povich over any of those. I'd think about it in Tyler McGill's case, but I want to do it with much excitement. Yeah, I think I would over McGill, just because I don't really see a ton of upside there, but yeah, I don't see a ton of upside with Povich, and we're not sure he's going to stick around anyway. All right, let's get into the rest of the news and notes. Kyle Tucker has missed two straight

with that bruised right chin and might not be ready to play on. Friday either. Day to day. We'll get you the updates as we learn more. Corey Seeger left Wednesday's game with left hamstring tightness. He missed 31 games with a left hamstring injury last year. This has been a problem throughout his career, the left hamstring.

And I know they're saying these day to day for now. My guess, you know, the pessimist that I am is that he will wind up on the aisle. So if we are looking for replacements in shallower leagues, J.P. Crawford is 65% rostered. Jose Caballero, 64.

I think very clearly one in a points league, one in a categories league, if you need them. Any interest in his teammate Josh Smith, who would theoretically be locked into more playing time. He went three for four with a stock and a shoe on Wednesday. And he's batting 290. He actually has 30 run scored in an 817 OPS. 53% rostered. Any interest in Josh Smith? I mean, if you're interested in J.P. Crawford, I don't know why you wouldn't be interested in Josh Smith.

It's a pretty similar profile, and Josh Smith has actually been the one performing of the two. And that's a pretty easy standard for me with hitters this year. Are you performing or not? Because so few are. I don't think Josh Smith, like I can't sit here and say with confidence that Josh Smith deserves to be a part of the Rangers lineup for the next three to five years. But he's good at hitting line drives and working the count and has been productive. enough that I think he would be a pretty high priority

if you're looking for a shortstop off the waiver wire or an outfielder or anywhere else he's eligible. And then in deeper league Zach Netto is 30% rostered. He added two hits and his seventh home run here on Wednesday. Edmundo Sosa, 17% David Hamilton, 15%, Paul DeYoung,

9%. Obviously not much excitement about, yeah, actually kind of like Netto, but those other three not much excitement and those are names only in like 15-team roto leagues, things like that. Rangers Juarez has been cleared to start Saturday against the Mets in London. Good news for him. Edwin Diaz will begin a rehab assignment at Singale on Thursday.

He's eligible to return on Tuesday, June 11th. It sounds like they're trying to get Edwin Diaz and Francisco Alvarez back on the same day there next Tuesday. Mani Machado exited Wednesday's game with an apparent leg injury. He was just like grabbing at his quad. I don't know. We'll see where that goes. Christopher Morel was removed after fouling a ball off his left foot. Alex Bregman was scratched from the lineup due to a lingering left hand soreness. Blake Snell was officially diagnosed with a mild left groin strain following an MRI. Tristan Kossis said he should be clear to swing a bat by the end of this week.

He also indicated he's hoping to be activated right around July 1st. Mason Wynn was out of the lineup Wednesday due to a lingering back issue. Stalling Marte was scratched due to a right knee issue. Cutter Crawford's next scheduled start will be pushed back to early next week, which means he's no longer a two-star pitcher this week. Tyler O'Neill made his return to the Red Sox. He was in the lineup batting fifth. He finished two for four with a run and RBI.

Robert Gasser was officially placed in the IL with a left flexor strain. The Brewers were called Aaron Ashby, who started on Wednesday. I believe it was five innings of two-run ball. He also walked five and has been pretexted. That's been the issue for him in the minors this year, too. Been really bad in the minors this season. This one, kind of a surprise. The Giants option, Luis Matos, back to AAA.

He was two for 22 in his last six starts before this move. Are you guys all right dropping Luis Matos? Absolutely. Yeah, I'm trying to think of a clever thing to say. But yeah, he's going. Adam Major will make a second start, and it will come this Sunday against the D-Bag. You know, the way you said it, it's kind of sounds like. Adam Azer. Adam Azer. I actually listened to the football podcast today and Adam Azer actually brought up Adam Majer's debut and it was pretty fun to hear him talk about it. Kenza Maita was removed from his start after just two pitches with abdominal discomfort. Josiah Gray has been cleared to begin a rehab assignment with his first start likely to come this Sunday at Single A and the Astros announced that Jose Orkitti had season ending elbow surgery on Wednesday.

Let's talk rankings, risers, and followers. As always, you could find all of our positional ranks on the website, CBSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball slash rankings. A lot of slashes there. That was a lot to say. Or on the CBS Fantasy app, so like we did last week, three players that are either moving up or down, and we will start with Scott.

Who was a Hoover standout rankings movers this week. All right. I got a couple big names for you here. Juan Soto is the new number one in the outfield. He takes the top spot there. It's a pretty tight group of four between Juan Soto, Kyle Tucker, Aaron Judge, and Mookiee Betts. And they all bring different things to the table. But every, like, Juan Soto was my preseason ALMVP pick.

I think he was for one of you two as well. I think Chris. And like he's lived up to. everything we wanted him to do going to New York. He's back to being a batting average standout. He's on pace for a career high in home runs. His run-in-R-B-I production is, I think he's on pace for more than 120 of both. It's so good, especially in an environment where offense is starved.

We're all starved for offense. Not a big base dealer, obviously, and Kyle Tucker steals bases, Moogie Betts steals bases. I think Juan Soto is enough of a standout in those other areas. I mean, especially batting average. Batting average. So bad across the league that, yeah, I think he deserves to be the number one outfield. Like you look at those numbers and it's like, well, what isn't he going to sustain of this? And I think he can sustain all of it.

So he might be the top player in fantasy, frankly. So yeah, Juan Soto's. I think in a categories league, I would only argue for Bobby Witt ahead of him. But Soto is currently the number two player in Roto. and I moved them up to number one in outfield rankings as well. Yep, yep. Okay, so that's moving up. A couple guys moving down, Vladimir Guerrero,

and this may strike you as odd because he's batting over 380 last I checked over the past month or so. So the batting average is coming up, but last I checked, and maybe I should check now as I'm talking, it's only two home runs during that time, Yeah, he's basically

Luis Arise. Yeah, basically, right? And you look deeper into it. It doesn't seem like Vladimir Guerrero is showing any inclination to correct the issues.

You know, to elevate the ball more, to pull the ball more, to do the kinds of things he'd need to do to take advantage of his massive power potential in which which case a month-long stretch of him hitting over 300 is about the best we can hope for. And certainly he's not going to be able to sustain that rest of season.

So I've finally made the decision to drop Vladimir Guerrero behind Josh Naylor in my rest of season rankings. Naylor, of course, not having any trouble hitting for power among the league leaders with 16 home runs. His strikeout rate is only 16%. He is batting 229 or he entered Wednesday batting 229. but expected batting average with that low strikeout rate is more like 280. He's one of the biggest underachievers, according to Stackcast in that area. So I think it's much more likely at this point, Josh Naylor's batting average corrects than that Vladimir Guerrero's home run production corrects.

So yeah, I've gone ahead and made that switch. Josh Nailor had a Vladimir Guerrero. And finally, finally, Josh, or I'm sorry, Jackson Merrill has moved down for me. There are things to like about Jackson Merrill. He's shown potential as a rookie. I think he has a bright future, but he's not even playing every day anymore for the Padres. He's batting in the lower third of the lineup. His counting stats are just dreadful.

And I think that made it pretty easy to drop him outside of my top 25 at shortstop behind recent risers like Ezekiel Tovar and Mason win. Yeah, and this was the concern with Merrill that I had. is that it was a worthwhile bet on a top prospect with a big pedigree who's only 21 making the leap to the majors. And I think he's acquitted himself relatively well. The problem is it's just it is not yet a profile that is finely tuned for fantasy. Yeah. Like he's a good athlete. He has two steals and 61 games. I think he's a good, I think he's a good real life player. Yeah. I think he's a better real life and fantasy player right now. And look, it's also worth pointing out he has a 287 Wobah. He has a

341X Wobie. He's one of the biggest underperformers in baseball. Maybe that's being a left-handed hitter at Petco Park. It's always been a tough place to pit play. But yeah, I think that's a reasonable move down for him. Yeah. Yeah, I dropped him down outside of my top 50 outfielders. I think that makes sense with Jackson Merrill. I did want to point out with Vlad. I looked up over the past, like since May 8th, he's batting like 387. His pull rate is just 35% during that time. So you're absolutely right, Scott. It's like he's not pulling the ball more.

It's a 55% ground ball rate during that time. So it's pretty frustrated, frustrating with Vlad Jr. Chris, over to you, three players who are moving up or down in the rankings. I made the aggressive move up with Christian Yelich. He is my outfielder number nine. There is still a gap between him and Corbyn Carroll. in my overall rankings, which you can find in the trade values chart on Thursday morning.

But he is a top 36 overall player for me. He's a top 10 outfielder. He has shown really no signs of slowing down since coming back from the back injury. And that would have been the concern, right? Given his recent history and the way back issues have really derailed his career, you would think or you would be concerned

that Christian Yowl's coming back from that back injury would have some problems. But he really hasn't. He's still hitting the bull. extremely hard. There's still a ton to like about his five category appeal. He's a great points league player. So love what we're seeing from Christian Yelich.

Have any of you moved him ahead of Corbyn Carroll? I haven't been able to do it, but I do have him up to ninth as well. Yeah, I don't really know what to do with Corbyn Carroll. No, yeah. 100%. Yeah. And I'm kind of just holding my breath that things correct for him because everybody who has him is so invested in him

and like obviously the upside is far beyond what you'll find from the outfielders rank below him so yeah he's the he's been he's been the most frustrating player in fantasy

maybe frustrating isn't the best word I mean the biggest disappointment in fantasy the biggest whatever I think frustrating is perfect more for it there's a long way to go and he may not be a bust when we look back on the season, but yeah, it's been bad. He would have to have

the best four-month stretch maybe in baseball history to make the numbers look respectable. It wouldn't be unprecedented. I mean, that's true, but Gunner Henderson last year. Yeah, I mean, it's and he's certainly talented enough to do it,

but we just have nothing. We have no inclination that's coming for Corby and Carroll. There's nothing to point to with him and say, ah, yes, but he's doing this well. So that's really frustrating. I've also, I tend to be less aggressive with my in-season rankings moves than you guys. And that's not a good or a bad thing.

It's just true. But I did finally move Kevin Gosman outside of my top 15. So he was probably the biggest faller. He's down to 20 for me, which is still five or six spots lower than or higher than you guys have. I don't want to give up entirely. And obviously neither do you because you haven't been as a top 30 starting pitcher. but it's been a really frustrating season for Kevin Gosman. And I don't know if he's just not right from that shoulder issue that he had in spring training or what.

But the strikeouts haven't been there. The whiff rate on the splitter has been way, way down. And it's starting to feel like early career, Kevin Gosman, where there could be a moment where that light switch flips on and he figures it out. The splitter is devastating. and he looks like an ace, but right now he's not there. And then, again,

I'm going to assume that I haven't moved Jordan Montgomery down as much as you guys have. Yeah, he's 63 for me. That's probably still way too high at this point. Because, like, the thing with Montgomery is,

I feel pretty confident he's going to figure it out. The track record there over the previous three or four seasons was really strong, not ace level strong, but it was like, consistently above average pitcher. And I think he can get there. But man, this is another one

where there's just really nothing to point to. Even the XERA is 472. Strikeout rate is way down. Yeah, I think he's dropable in this environment. Kevin Galsman. He doesn't have the same movement on his curveball. And maybe that's something he'll figure out, as you say, Chris.

But that specifically seems like the problem for me with Jordan Montgomery. That's an vital pitch. to him and it's just not doing what it's supposed to do. Last thing I'll add on Kevin Gosman, because he was a big follower for me as well. I moved him down to SP26. The expected ERA, according to Stackcast 524. Yeah, that's bad.

And the 11.2% swinging strike rate is his lowest since 2017, the last time he pitched in Baltimore. So that's been a really long time. He just, he doesn't look right. He doesn't look right. Remember, the thing with Kevin Gosman, I'm going to use my baseball here, is that splitter has always been really important thing for him. And early on in his career, he just didn't throw it early on in the season

because he would develop these blisters in spring training. There's a lot of friction when you throw a splitter. If you look at the camera. And that's not the issue. Like he's throwing the splitter about as often as he normally does. It just hasn't been right. And the shape on his fastball is a little off. And he's throwing the fastball in the strikes on a little more often.

We've all got, we're all going to have baseball as here we go. Franks rummaging around for, yeah. This is a pokey ball. A pokey ball. A pokey ball golf ball. And that's worrisome because we at least have a history of Kevin Gosman figuring that that out. If we can't point to that, what is what is him figuring it out look like from here?

That's the question I have. Now, there have been stretches. There have been flashes of brilliance. There have been multiple moments. I think this season we've been like, yes, Kevin Gosman's back. But then he follows it up with, you know, six rounds and four innings or whatever it is. So I'm remaining hopeful but not optimistic, I think is the way I would put it. I'll quickly run through the three names that were moving around the rankings for me.

Nick Povetta, I moved up to SP 45. I think he just kind of got buried when he was injured. And I was a little bit skeptical when he came back. There were some bad starts. but obviously he had an amazing outing on Wednesday against the Braves. He threw seven shutout innings, one hit, two walks, nine strikeouts, 18 whiffs on 91 pitches, and he looked fantastic. The ERA is down to 340.

He's got a 0.94 whips, strikeouts are there. The one question I have with Povetta, the control has been fantastic. Will that remain? My guess is probably not, but I mean, we saw last year, even with bad control, he was still a really useful pitcher. The control got a lot better. for Povetta after that stretch in the bullpen and when he came back looking like a world,

that was a big piece of my, I forget if he was a sleeper or a breakout for me, but whichever of those, that was a big reason why I was so high on Povetta. The question for me is he's one of the few pitchers allowing home runs. And so will those be an issue? If he maintains the strikeout to walk ratio, I don't think it'll be a big issue.

It hasn't been so far, but you can understand why there's the discrepancy between his ERA and WIP. Povetta, so I mentioned, moved up to SP 45. One spot ahead of someone who moved down quite a bit. That was Bailey Ober down to SP 466. Last four starts a 758 ERA, a 168 whip, and just a 7K per 9, lots of walks, six homers allowed during this recent stretch.

It wouldn't surprise me if he gets back on track. But I think maybe just we as a fantasy community might have elevated Bailey Ober a little bit too quickly. And so he has moved down quite a bit. and Cedric Mullen, so I spoke about earlier, he's down to outfielder 52. He is batting 178 on the season with a 539 OPS. The power and speed is still useful. There's no doubt.

Six homers, 12 steals, but he's no longer playing every day. There are games against right-handed pitchers where Cedric Mollins is not playing. And I would drop Mullen's for any of T.J. Friedel, Jesse Winker, Ian Hap, names that we've talked a lot about recently. Okay.

Yeah, I haven't specifically. made that move yet, but that doesn't sound unreasonable to me. All right, let's take our final break, and when we return, the rest of Wednesday's action right after this. Welcome back in, let's talk waiver wire pitchers, and Severino was the highlight of the day, and the rest of these names, not as exciting, I would say. Jose Soriano, a quality start against the Padres, six innings, two runs, one of those earned, one walk, one strikeout, just through a ton of sinkers in this start, and wound up getting a lot. of ground ball outs. He kind of is what he is. 25% rostered.

Might be in line for two starts next week and he is a spark. So do with that what you will. Albert Torez, solid again at the Blue Jays, five innings, two runs, four strikeouts, had seven whiffs on 84 pitches, only 16% rostered. And like we said with Povich, as long as you're just a decent pitcher, you could have value on the Orioles. Jose Urania, that Jose Urania, he has been pitching, pretty well for the Rangers. He was up against the Tigers. Six and two-thirds, one run aloud, six strikeouts. And Joey Estes, who is a starter for the Oakland A's,

took a perfect game into the seventh inning against the Mariners. He went six and a third shut out, one hit, zero walks, five strikeouts, had ten whiffs on 78 pitches. I would assume it has to be deep league, Scott, but any interest in any of these names, Joey Estes, Jose Urania, Albert Suarez, and Jose Soriano. Well, as we've discussed earlier this week, I'm very interested in Albert Suarez, as long as he's holding down a rotation spot. I think he's actually good.

He's had a sub-2 ERA this year in the swingman role he's been filling. Velosty is way up this year from when we saw him previously, which was years ago because he's 34. And even though the strikeout rate is unimpressive, the swinging strike rate is very impressive. So I think there's a chance the strikeouts could go up. Obviously, has the Orioles offense backing him. He's a clear number two. I don't even know that he's number two. Yeah, yeah, I'll put Severino ahead of him.

Severino, then Suarez, and then the others are kind of just streamer types, I think, with Jose Soriano being the most interesting. Do you guys see any reason to, for opposites? optimism with Joey Estes, who's had two really good starts in a row now, three hits in 11 and a third innings between them. It's just the fly ball rate is so outrageously high. He has a 17% ground ball rate. I mean, it is hard to find a ground ball rate that low.

And you can understand him limiting hits because of that. Yeah. But it's a great ballpark. It's a great ballpark to do that. too. And he's going to give up a lot of infield fly balls. So like there are but no, I don't buy it. He had a 6.

He had a 604 ERA at AAA, but that was Las Vegas where fly balls are very bad news. Infield pop-ups might turn into home runs there. I don't know how to look this up or where to find this information maybe you guys do, but he

throws his fastball a lot, Joey S's. It could be that he's like one of these vertical approach angle guys where he just he's kind of like a poor, poor man's Joe Ryan or he's trying to pull something off like that. But I don't know where to find that information. In any case, the strikeouts aren't impressive. So, yeah, I doubt it matters that much.

I think we can move on from Joey Estes. Yeah, no need to talk about two-time Marlins opening day starter, Jose Orania, either. Gosh. All right, so let's talk about WaverWire hitters and two names you might want to beat the WaverWire on. Key Brian Hayes and Nick Gonzalez. Why is that? Well, they have six games

next week, three of those in Coresfield. So, I'll be interested to see if the pirates are in your top five hitter matchups. We've just, we've just done 20% of the work at least for Scott's sleeper hitters article next week. There you go. Key Brian Hayes. Might be able to throw Jack Swinsky in there.

You guys, you guys make you look bad. This takes me hours to figure out, and you did it in two minutes. Henry Davis, just, yeah, it's all pirates. Let's go all by us. Why not? Six games since returning for Kibryan Hayes. Six hits, one homer, four runs, four RBI, and two steals.

The problem is that in a small sample, ground ball rate is way up, once again, the season for Kibrian Hayes. Nick Gonzalez, we've talked about a lot, but if you're in the market of streaming, second baseman, middle infielers, whatever it might be, he's 54% rostered and obviously has those great matchups. Chris, anything to add on Hayes and Gonzalez? I mean, Hayes, I still want to believe in the talent, but like you said, the approach has taken a giant step backwards this season. And I haven't seen any reason to think that's changed.

So if you have a roster spot to play with, there hasn't been like a ton of guys lately at third base, especially who I want to pick up. So if you want to go add him, that's fine. But I don't see like a reason to believe that he's about to break out. Would you rather Hayes or Candelario? Candelario for me? I think so, yeah. Yeah, I would go that way as well. We did get some signs of life from Zach Giloff,

but I think we need to see more. I don't think this is actionable just yet. Two for three with a sock into shoe, his fifth home run, his sixth stolen base. Last six games for Gelloff, it's seven hits, two homers, two steals. But the plate discipline has been a disaster, and the batted ball data all messed up this season.

for Gelloff. It's lots of ground balls, lots of infield fly balls. The line drive rate is way down. The expected stats look terrible. So I think Gelloff is a talented player. We saw some of that last year, but we need to see more. I don't think this is actionable just yet. It's kind of the opposite of Jackson Merrill, where you look at Gelloff's home run and stolen base tolls. I think he's, the pace is like 20 homers, 22 steals. It's just he's striking out 33% of the time and he's hitting 193. So it doesn't matter yet. But if he starts to get the strikeouts down, you can see how very easily

Zach Galloff can look like a very, very good fantasy option. When you say the pace, you're saying 162. Okay. Yeah. Okay. But he's missed time. So that's missed time. Yeah. Some hitters in deeper leagues,

Brendan Rogers has quietly turned things up recently. Two for four with a double three RBI. Last 14 games, betting 327 with two home runs, seven doubles and 12 RBI. Elliot Ramos is a name that we spoke about recently, Scott, but he continues to impress. He went two for two with four walks and his fifth home run.

Jason Hayward has low keep and pretty good since returning. Three for four with three doubles and two runs scored. Corey Jolks is a name we have not talked about. He plays for the White Sox, if you were wondering. We saw him with the Astros a little bit last year. Two for four with a walk and his second home run, he has started 11 straight and he has led off two in a row for the White Sox. And welcome to the Big League.

Justin Henry Malloy, two for three with his first career home run. It was a pretty good shot, too. 105.9 exit velocity, 413 feet. Scott, any interest here, deeper leagues in Justin Henry Malloy, Corey Jolks, Hayward, Elliott Ramos, and Brendan Rogers. Well, the most interesting, as I talked about two days ago, is Elliot Ramos, who has started now 24 straight games for the Giants and has the kind of exit velocity to sustain this sort of power production.

The four walks, that's interesting because that's not something he's supposed to be good at. And he strikes out too much, which could cause the whole thing to fall apart. But the opportunity is there. And I think there's enough upside that in deeper leagues, five outfielder leagues, Elliott Ramos is deserving of some attention. And yeah, I'm interested in Justin Henry Maloney. that it was such an impressive home run is, I think, going to be uncharacteristic. He has good power numbers in the miners, but optimal spray angle guy.

So kind of a Davis Schneider situation rather than Justin Henry Malloy just being a straight-up masher. And he has yet to walk in three games, which is also unusual. It's really like actually, I think Davis Schneider is a pretty close comp here for Justin Henry, Henry Malloy, because they both are expected to walk a ton. And while the exit velocity readings aren't impressive, they maximize their home run output by elevating and pulling the ball really well. So obviously, Maloy has to actualize that in the way Schneider has. But if he does, then he'll be of interest.

Any concern over these two starting pitchers, Dylan Sees did turn in a quality start at the Angels, six innings, three runs, six strikeouts, but he allowed two more homers, and over his last five starts, CIS has a 586 ERA, 134 whip, and he's giving up a lot of fly balls, lots of barrels so far this season.

And Renel Blanco, two subpar outings in a row. He was facing the Cardinals, five and two thirds, four runs allowed, two walks, two strikeouts. Everything else under the hood was actually good. There was 14 whiffs, didn't allow a lot of hard contact. It feels a little bit like a tough luck outing,

here for Ronelle Blanco. But Chris, any thoughts, any concern over Blanco and Dylan Cis? With CIS, not really. I think there's a little bit of Blake Snell there where when things are going well, it's not a terrible opportunity to try to trade him, but it's not, not someone that I'm worried the bottom's going to fall out. I am worried about that with Ronell Blanco, though, because he's a guy who you look at the ERA and it's 278 still. You look at the XERA and it was 326 entering this start, which is very good. And you look at the. FIP and XFIP, which don't take quality of contact into account. And they are 422 and 419, respectively, Sierra, which is another a little more advanced

version of those was 410. If he is a quality of contact standout, then I think Renal Blanco can remain a viable fantasy option, but the ground ball rate's not elite. The command is not elite. the strikeout rate is pretty average. So that's really the one thing, quality of contact, that Renal Blanco looks like an outlier in. And that, as we said earlier,

takes a long time to be able to tell when a player, when a pitcher has that skill. And so my assumption is that Renal Blanco remains a sell high candidate even amidst these struggles, although I think you probably miss the window to really maximize his value. he's in the like, I think in the 60 to 70 range at starting pitcher for me. He's definitely a globy pitcher. Fair enough.

Let's get into the rest of the pitching leftovers. Paul Skeens had an up and down start against the Dodgers. Obviously a tough matchup. Five innings, three runs, eight strikeouts to one walk. He did allow two home runs in this one. What happened to the splinker? I don't know. He was throwing it more than 40% of the time.

in the last two starts, and I think it was in this start more like 20%, half the usage, gave up two home runs. He's a ground ball pit. Like, he's, he's, he's, Skeen's is probably in large part because of this blinker, a big ground ball guy. So I don't think we'll see him give up multiple home runs in games very often.

Well, and I think there were a couple things. One, there was a lot of talk about Paul Skeen's as a prospect and how he didn't have ideal, fastball shape. And what that means is he doesn't have ideal fastball shape for whiffs. Now, when you throw 102 miles an hour, that doesn't really matter.

And I think that was overblown. But it does mean that he should get ground balls with fast balls, even though it's a four seamer and not a sinker. The other thing is, I don't know if you guys watched this start, but he came out just red hot. And I had like seven strikeouts

in the first three innings, and they were all on fastballs pretty much. and specifically to Shohay Otani, the first played appearance. I think it was all fastballs, and he went down on three straight swinging fastballs. I think he struck him out, if I'm remembering correctly,

he struck him out again the next time around. And then it was the third time that he tried to go up and in with two straight fastballs again. And Shoha Tani, I don't care who you are. Shohayotani's too good to see the same pitch like seven times and three at bats

and not eventually figure it out. It was actually, it was a second plate of, it was a second plate of, yeah. Yeah, he was out to prove something. But yeah, I think he threw, it was something like seven four seamers in the first two plate appearances to Shohei Otani. And yeah, that's, I get it.

You're pumped up, it's Shohei Otani, you want to blow it past him. That's not the greatest strategy against arguably the best hitter in the world. So, you know, I think there was a little bit of that, but no, I think he's, I think I moved him inside my top 24, maybe top 20 in my latest update. So yeah, he's a top 20 for me.

I'm very excited about Paul Skins. The rest of the pitching leftovers, Carlos Rodan turned in, has turned in six straight quality starts. He took a perfect game into the sixth up against the twins, six innings, two runs, nine strikeouts, which were a season high, 18 whiffs on 100 pitches for Carlos Rodan. Jose Burrios turned in a quality start against the Orioles, six innings, two runs, three walks, to two strikeouts. He actually leads baseball with 11 quality starts in 13 tries. And Logan Gilbert could not get any run support, but it was a strong start at the A's. Seven innings, two runs. One of those earned with five strikeouts to zero walks. He's got anything to add on Gilbert, Rodon, and Jose Burrios. Well, yes, on Rodon. So this was the third start in four where his change up was a good

swing and miss pitch for him. 18 swinging strikes overall, four came on the change-up. Three starts and four. But here's the thing. It was the first start where Carlos Rodon's curveball was also a good swing and miss pitch.

A pitch that he had thrown like 3% of the time coming into this game. He suddenly throws 11% of the time and gets three whiffs on it. So normally with Carl, like normally with pitchers, Carlos Rodon, who've struggled to develop a robust secondary arsenal where like, just stick to your best pitches, it'll go great. But he keeps breaking out these new pitches that are working for him.

And it just, it makes me wonder how high the upside is. So I believe it was late April when I was saying you could drop Carlos Rodan. And I think that's going to go down as the dumbest thing I said this year. Well, Scott, there's a lot of season left. No, I'm just kidding. I mean, look, before the season I said, Victor Scott was going to be a top 150 player. Didn't you put money on him to lead baseball and steals? Oh yeah, I did. Absolutely. You know, we all have our...

Sitting 200 at AAA. Maybe the dumbest thing I said this year will be you can drop Wyatt Langford for T.J. Friedo. We'll see. We shall see. Last pitcher here, Zach Eflin made his return up against the Marlins, four innings, two runs, three strikeouts to zero walks. Velocity was up in this outing. That's the encouraging sign. The problem is that...

He only basically used cutter, sinker, fastball, which is not really what we want to see from Zach Eflin. I don't know why he has gone away from the pitch mix that worked last year, but for some reason, he has. Chris, it looks like Eflin might be in line for two starts next week against the Cubs and at the Braves. Will you be starting Zach Eflin in those matchups? Yeah, I think I will. It's been a frustrating start to the season, but while the strikeout rate is way down, The walk rate is also way down in a way that has led to a still pretty good set of underlying numbers. So it's been a frustrating season, certainly as someone who had him as a top 25 starting pitcher and drafted him in a bunch of places.

But I remain hopeful that Zach Offlin's going to get right moving forward. Some quick hitting leftovers. Hitter's slowly coming around. Nolan Aronado has three home runs in his past seven games. We'll see if he can continue to build off of that. Yiner Diaz has now homered in three straight. He had a 39 game homerless streak from April 12th to May 31st. But June? New player, Yiner Diaz.

Nick Castellanos, last 13 games batting 264 with four homers, four doubles, and nine RBI. Some other hitting leftovers, Jaron, had himself a nice day, two for five with a triple and his fourth home run. Rafael Devers, two for three with a double dong, three RBI. Francisco Lindor looks like he's pretty close to just being back. his last 15 games, batting 359, three homers, three steals, and a 1,000 OPS. Shohei Otani, we mentioned homered off of Paul Skeens. It was his 15th of the season.

Jonah Heim had himself a much-needed big game, three-for-five, with his sixth home run. His previous 19 games before this one, he was betting 129 with a 404 OPS. And Fernando Tatis went 4-4-4 with an RBI. Rough, rough go for the Padres. They just got swept by the Angels. I don't know. They just been a very up and down team and obviously lots of injuries right now for the Padres. I want to go back to Castellanos real quick. I know we're about to end. But I think I want to find the stat. But I think it's since he hit his first home run of the season. Remember, it took a really long time. He's on like a 30. Yeah. He hit his first homer on April 26. Since then, he has 8 and 37 games. That's a 35 homer pace plus a 100 run, 90 RBI pace.

in that time. The batting average has been low, but Castianos has basically been Castianos for a month and 12 days. I think he's going to be fine. And the Phillies are one of three, maybe five lineups that you want the most exposure to you right now. It's, you know, it's the Yankees, the Dodgers, probably the Phillies, right? I mean, they're probably the third most exciting lineup, I would say. Yeah, in baseball. Some bullpen updates for the Cardinals, Ryan Helsie. struck out two for his league leading 20th save for the Rockies. Jalen Beeks entered with a one-run lead. A one-run lead, no more.

He gave up a two-run homer to Spencer Steer and was eventually charged with five runs. He took his fourth-blown save, third loss. I don't know where the Rockies go from here. For the Phillies, Jeff Hoffman entered in the eighth with a two-run lead facing six, seven, and eight in the Brewers lineup. He struck out one. Jose Alvarado got the ninth.

He struck out the side for his 11th save. For the raise, Pete Fairbanks struck out one for his eighth save. For the Blue Jays, Yemi Garcia pitched a scoreless ninth. He struck out two. He wound up with the win. For the Oakland A's, Mason Miller entered with one out and two runners on in the eighth. He got the final two outs of the inning. He came back out for the ninth.

He gave up a solo homer to Julio Rodriguez, but did eventually pick up his 12th save. And for the Angels, Carlos Estevez was unavailable. Matt Moore pitched a clean ninth for his first save of the season. To stream or not to stream on Thursday, it's a short slate, and we don't have many options. I, look, you should not stream on Thursday, but if you absolutely need to, I would say J.P. Series against the Mariners and Cal Quantrell at the Cardinals. I would say Mitchell Parker against the Braves, reverse Homer. Yeah, I think I could see Randy Vasquez having a good start, but I'm not going to recommend any of these guys.

Watch belly falter throw a complete game and then everyone picks him up and then he's terrible next week. So that's going to be my bold prediction. You heard it here first. On Friday, we have the Irvins, Jake Irvin against the Braves, Cole Irvin at Tampa Bay.

Ryan Weathers is facing the Guardians. They are really good against lefties. I don't know if I want to do that. Maybe Cooper Criswell at the White Sox. What do you think? I mean, the White Sox are so bad that maybe His last start was a little better, but I don't.

Yeah, I don't see much reason. The White Sox are so bad. It hasn't worked out the past couple days, I'll point out. James and Tyone got crushed. Yeah. Yeah. I like the Irvin's. Cole Irvin, then Ryan Weathers, then Jake Irvin.

Those are my Friday choices. All right. We're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye bye.