Fantasy Baseball Today - Marcus Semien's Breakout, Luis Garcia Upside & Trade Targets (6/8 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 8, 2022

Marcus Semien is back (1:00)! ... Graham Ashcraft or Edward Cabrera (7:25)? Luis Garcia has some upside (11:40). Garcia or Ezequiel Duran? ... Is there anything to see with Dakota Hudson or Cole Irvin (17:05)? ... Where should you add hitters like Christopher Morel and Oscar Gonzalez (18:55)? ... The Reds offense is back on track (25:05). ... News and notes (31:51): Shane Baz and Stephen Strasburg will both make their season debuts on Thursday. ... Which players should you look to buy-low or sell-high on right now (40:55)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (54:30)! Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Marcus Simeon, you Beast. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, June 8th.

Frank Stamphill joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, a whole bunch of waiver. wire talk, trade targets, buy low and sell high options, some pitchers who bounced back, but let's jump right in. Oh my goodness gracious. All right, well, I will start us off, and today I will take the free square, and I will start us with Marcus Semyon, who just had a massive, massive day. In a doubleheader up against the Cleveland Guardians, he had seven hits, three homers,

two steals, that's three socks, and two shoes. I don't know what you're doing with the extra sock, but you'll figure it out, I guess. He was just, yeah, he was just ransacking the closet, apparently. Yeah. Maybe we call it a, we call that a stool, right? Because you got three legs, something like that? I don't know. Yeah.

Don't forget I said anything. Anyway, if you include these two games, his last 20 games, then he's betting 325 with six homers and eight steals. even before that he was showing signs of coming around recently. But, but I hate to be a Debbie Downer on such a fantastic day for Marcus Semyon. Scott, I mean, you look into the numbers a little bit, even over this most recent stretch. He was better, but the underlying numbers wasn't really hitting the ball much harder. I am encouraged. Obviously, this is a massive day, and I think if you have Marcus Semyon and you held on to him,

you should be happy that you did so. And I think better days are coming for him. but I will say that the underlying numbers still do not look great for Marcus Ayan. Yeah, I'm... And I was kind of saying the same thing a couple days ago when he was first heating up. And maybe in the long run, that's going to prove to be accurate. But the environment's changed a lot here since about mid-May. I was writing about this yesterday.

And, you know, we did a comparison of... We did other comparisons of April to May, but remember the first couple weeks of May, the environmental conditions looked a lot like April and the numbers hadn't really improved yet. So if you take it back to May 15th, batting average league-wide has gone up from 234 to 250. Babip has gone up from 282 to 295. Home run to fly ball rate. This is the one I didn't expect to change that much. It's gone up from 10.4 to 12 percent, which is still a little lower than what last year's overall home run to fly ball rate was, but it's a lot closer.

So I don't know that, you know, obviously, if this is, if this is because of weather getting warmer and humidity going up and the new humidified balls playing better because of that, If it is a result of environmental factors like that, that's only going to get better over the course of the season. Maybe go down a little in September, but it's never going to be as bad as it was at the start of the year. It's only going to get better. So in the long run, I'm not sure players like Marcus Simeon, who I was certainly worried might just be ruined by this new environment. I'm not sure that's going to be the case. And when I say I'm not sure, I'm actually saying I'm not sure. sure. That's not me. That's not just like a rhetorical trick where I'm telling you. Marcus

Simeon is fine now. I don't really know. But I'm open to that idea, especially the way he's teeing off right now. Yeah. The thing is, he's never hit the ball particularly well. Right. You know, last season, obviously, there's a big difference between an 89 mile per hour average XIV velocity and 85 mile per hour average XEGSA, which is where he's at now. But, you know, his big 2019, it was 88.9 miles per hour. That's still right around average, maybe a little bit below average at this point now. It's still better than what he's done this season. And even in this stretch, it's still better than that. But Marcus Simeon's a guy who has gotten a lot out of the limited power he has. And that makes for a very high variance skill set, I think. But the one thing that

I do like and I think go hasn't gone mentioned enough, I guess because it's also part of this recent hot streak, but he's on pace for 30 steals. And so, you know, I don't think he's going to steal 30 bases. He's never had more than 15 in a season, but he is someone who finds ways to contribute even when things aren't going well with the bat. And I don't know, let's say he does have a 2020-esque season where he puts up an OPS rider. around 7 let's let's say 2018 you know he's 706 OPS hit 255 I like 15 homers 14 stolen bases that's not great it's certainly not worth what you paid for him but I don't know it there there's still he's a guy who still brings something to the table even when

things aren't going well you know he's still gonna score a decent number of runs even like he's on a 90 run pace now all of a sudden so I just I certainly think like this could be a sell high opportunity and like Scott said I genuinely don't know if he's going to be able to thrive I don't think he's going to hit 42 home runs the rest of the way to match last season's total or 43 home runs we were never counting on that in the first place but a a Marcus simian who paces for 2020 the rest of the way with a bunch of runs and 255 batting average like that's still probably that's a must start player in a roto league for sure and you know, sort of fringy in point.

And I think he's probably a fringe-ish starter in points. But that's still a good player. Second base has kind of been a wasteland, too. I mean, you get to our 11th ranked second baseman, basically across the board. And that's Jorge Polanco. Semion just ahead of him, Kutel Marte. You know, Marte and Maryfield have come around,

and now Semyon is doing the same. Polanco's been a letdown. But after that, I mean, we have a bunch of injuries. Polanco just got four hits today. Yeah, I mean, there's some signs of him coming around recently as well, but then you get into a bunch of injuries and, you know, players who have been okay, but we still have some question marks like Jeff McNeil and Glaber Torres and Brendan Rogers. Those guys are fine, but overall, if you get, I think, a 260 batting average with 2020 by season's end,

it's a bit of a letdown, I guess, but I think that's still a fine season for Marcus Semyon. Let's move on to Scott. Oh my goodness gracious, from Tuesday. All right. Let's talk about Graham Ashcraft, who had another fine outing, this time against the Diamondbacks, six shutout innings,

three hits allowed, no walks, four strikeouts. He hasn't been a big strikeout guy so far in the majors, but he's allowed a total of three earned runs in his four starts, and the last three of them have all been six-plus innings. and A, I don't know that Graham Ashcraft needs to be a big strikeout guy

because he has, you know, between those four starts he's made, he's produced a ground ball rate higher than 60%, which isn't just a high ground ball rate. That isn't a league ground ball rate. It was above 60% in this game. And the reason he is getting such a high ground ball rate is because his fastball is actually, like his primary pitch is actually classified as a cutter,

and it peaks at 100 miles per hour. So it's been a very difficult pitch for major league hitters to square up. And, you know, that's generated the sort of weak contact that's allowed him to flourish despite the low strikeout rate. So that's A. B, I don't know that he can't become a good strikeout pitcher because he was a good strikeout pitcher in the minors, certainly last year.

And I will reiterate, he throws a cutter that peaks at 100 miles per hour. So he certainly has the velocity to maybe maybe make something of that as he gets more comfortable in the majors gets,

gets, you know, maybe works on his secondary pitches a little more. I think it's a, I think he's very interesting. I think he's very interesting. And obviously he's secured a rotation spot

at this point. point. So I don't know that I'd go so far as to call Graham Ashcraft must add, but I will call him a top 80 pitcher in my rankings, which is certainly going to put him on the fringes of being added in 12 team leagues. Yep. And I think if you picked him up as a two-star pitcher, let's just ride this out and see how long Graham Ashcraft can keep it going. Solid controls so far, getting lots of ground balls. as you mentioned, Scott. If you are debating between Ashcraft and Edward Cabrera, I think I know the answer, but who would you go with Scott?

Edward Cabrera. Yeah, fair enough. Yeah, I mean, he could have been, oh my goodness gracious himself. Yeah, Edward Cabrera, by the way, back-to-back quality starts to open his 2022 season with the Marlins. He goes up against the Nationals, gives up one run over six endings. He had four strikeouts in that start, 10 swinging strikes on 99 pitches.

And he did change up the pitch mix a little bit compared to his first star where he threw a bunch of curves in this second start, and he also mixed in a sinker, which Edward Cabrera did not do in his first start. Chris, would you rather have Cabrera or Graham Ashcraft? And what do you think about both in general? I'd rather have Cabrera. I feel it's a profile that just works out more,

a guy who gets a bunch of swings and misses and has a really good swing and miss pitch. Like Ashcraft, like Scott said, you can see a path to him becoming, you know, more of a strikeout pitcher, but right now he's really getting a lot of contact and a lot of weak contact. He's been exceptional in terms of weak contact, but there's been

some good luck there. You know, the expected stats suggest that he hasn't been as good as he actually has performed, and that kind of goes without saying when you've got a 153-ERA through 4, 114, 114-1-14 ERA through 4 starts, but, you know, even with the amount of soft contact and the number of ground balls he's getting, there's been some good luck there. So he does really need to figure out how to get more swings and misses with, you know, that cutter especially, which is it's not out of the question when you throw 98. It's just it hasn't been there yet. And so Cabrera with that swing and miss change up, especially. I just think that that's a profile that has more upside. All right. Oh, my goodness gracious for you, Chris. We'll come right back to you.

Luis Garcia, who was responsible for the only run that Edward Cabrera gave up. I know we talk a lot about how we don't do enough hitters in, oh my goodness gracious. And Luis Garcia, the first thing that stands out when you look at him, you remember, he got called up in 2020, struggled, 2021, also wasn't good. He just turned 22, 23 days ago. And he is listed at 212 pounds. That's about 20 pounds heavier than he was listed as a prospect. That's not surprising. He's the kind of guy that scouts always thought would grow into his frame a little more.

And he hit a 442 foot home run today. It was 113 mile per hour average exit velocity on it. That is the hardest hit ball he's ever had as a major leaguer. And that's legitimate power. You know, 113 miles per hour is probably going to be in like the high 80 to 90 percentile range in terms of max exit velocity. And max exit velocity is a pretty good stand in for raw power. and Luis Garcia has not hit a lot of home runs in the minors outside of AAA. He has 21 and 78 games at AAA.

Between two seasons. Between two seasons. He never had more than four at any level before that. So could be the ball at AAA is more juice than at the minor league, the lower levels. But I would guess this is a guy who's growing into himself. He's been a top 100 prospect when he was prospect eligible. And he's been awesome. So far in the early going, he was.

was awesome at AAA. And I think this might be a legitimate post-type breakout that we're seeing for Luis Garcia in a way that I think he probably needs to be rostered in all 12 team leagues. Luis Garcia, by the way, of the Nationals. Good luck searching for him. Yes, one of three Luis Garcia's in the majors, plus the Phillies have a prospect who's in their top 10 who's named Luis Garcia. I think there's another Luis Garcia in the majors.

So, yeah, when you search for. Luis Garcia make sure it's the Washington Nationals one not the Houston Astros or Minnesota twins I think San Diego Padre is a reliever yeah yeah yeah yeah a reliever yeah now I'm excited about Luis Garcia too and like the the nationals did him no favor did nobody any favors by calling him up as a 20 year old because because after he was very bad at double a like that there was it was weird they called him up in 2020 he had made it to double a and was not good And they called him up in the shortened season.

Yeah, there were some... Just to try to go spark. Yeah, there were a lot of aggressive promotions during that 2020 season, and he was among them. And, like, he was a top 100 prospect the two years prior. But then he got so many at bats that he got removed from prospect. He didn't qualify as a prospect anymore. He exhausted rookie eligibility already.

So it's kind of made him this... It's made him forgotten, as he said, post-type sleeper here. But, yeah, the last two years in a... minors 314 with an 899 OPS this year and in AAA last year 303 with a 970 OPS. And he seems to be getting his man strength now. And that's exciting because I mean the the the pedigree suggests that he could be he could be an impact contributor if this if this is a legitimate breakthrough and not just, you know. And it wasn't just the one bad ball today. He had four hard hit balls today of at least 98 miles per hour.

So yeah, pretty pretty impressive stuff from him. Chris, would you rather take a shot on Luis Garcia or Rangers prospect, Ezekiel Duran? He's second base eligible on CBS, but should gain third base eligibility quickly. I would say, um, Luis Garcia. But you know, that's mostly just because we've seen. the elite skill in that max exevalo, but I think both are pretty interesting. Scott, who would you rather have Duran,

Ezekiel Duran, or Luis Garcia? I think Garcia jumps to the top of the list for me. Though Duran, Duran had three hits in game two of the double header, or game one, one of the games of the double header today. And he will have that third base eligibility. Of course, Garcia's second and shortstop. It's funny, I had the choice. I wasn't sure when I was doing the weekly fab.

run in some of those 15 team roto leagues where I was looking into players like that I wasn't sure how to prioritize Luis Garcia, Ezekiel Duran and Bryson Stott who homered a couple times over the weekend and now has an everyday job with the Phillies and I

kind of switched around the order depending on the league but I think at this point I would definitely go Luis Garcia than Ezekiel Duran than Bryson Stott One thing worth noting with Garcia is like I said 28 21 home runs and 79 games at AAA over the course of two seasons.

Only two stolen bases. So, you know, possible that won't be part of his game. And I guess it could be more of part of Ezekiel Duran's game. So, you know, in a Redo League, maybe you lean that way. But I'm really excited about Luis Garcia. All right. Let's get back over to some pitchers. Some quick waiver wire mentions here.

Dakota Hudson now has two seven-ending quality starts in a row. And on Tuesday, He was at Tampa Bay. He gives up just one run over seven innings with six strikeouts. 13 swinging strikes. We're not used to seeing swings and misses for Dakota Hudson. The other name here is Cole Irvin, five and a third. Two runs allowed.

Six strikeouts up against the Braves. And over his last four starts, he's got a 3.12 ERA. Scott, both of these pitchers are kind of similar in that they allow a lot of contact. I don't think that they're very high ceiling pitchers, but do you have any interest in Eater either? Hudson or a Coldman. I mean, not really, certainly not compared to Edward Cabrera or even Graham Ashcraft. Dakota Hudson has a career 311 ERA and now 79 appearances, 51 of them starts. So, like, he's terrible strikeout to walk ratio, but he's, you know, good ground ball guy and I think has established himself enough as sort of a freakishly good at run prevention that he's definitely.

the preferred option of the two for me between him and and Cole Irvin but I still consider he's the new John Gantt no I mean he's had it going longer than Gant I think maybe I think maybe Kyle Hendricks would be a more apt example except I guess Hendricks never walked to everyone and had in fewer strikeouts right I remember the days of John Gant last year Chris was his biggest advocate but yeah what is John Gant up to nowadays. I don't know. I haven't seen him in a while. I think he's pitching overseas. Ah, all right. Well, we're rooting for you, John Gant. If you are listening.

Weaverwire hitters, where should these players be rostered? Christopher Morel. He's been hot so far. Two for five with a triple, another home run. And even that dreaded, whatever you want to call it, in left field in Baltimore, could not control Christopher Morel in this one. He is now up to a 298 batting average, three homers, six deals, a 905 OPS. He's 62% and rostered has second base and outfield eligibility. Chris where should Christopher Morel be rostered? Um, I would say any 15 team rubber league, perhaps everywhere. Everywhere. Okay. Oh. Everywhere. I mean, what you're seeing from him is elite tools. You know, he's got

93rd percentile sprint speed. Max Xivilo is in that 90th percentile range and Was it, three home runs in 21 games now? He's a freakish athlete. And he had terrible plate discipline in the minors throughout his minor career. So, you know, it just didn't look like he'd be able to get to his tools enough. He's got like a 26% strikeout rate between the majors and minors right now. Well, yeah, I mean, in the majors, I was going to say, his plate discipline has been excellent. He has a 12% walk rate, about a 22% strikeout rate.

He's been getting on base enough that he's, for over a week now, he's been the Cubs leadoff hitter providing power and speed. And he picked up second base eligibility in addition to outfield. So, like, he can, I think he can, I think he's played other positions aside from just those two as well. So there may be, the eligibility may continue to increase for Christopher Morel. And like, you know, we've seen guys improve their plate discipline for short stretches and then it regresses to what the norm is for them. And if that happens for Christopher Morrell, okay, maybe it doesn't work out.

But if he can sustain something close to this plate discipline, I think the tools are enough to carry him. and, you know, he's already showing that the outcome there is potentially very exciting. It's a power speed threat. Scott, three second baseman that are currently rostered in more leagues than Christopher Morel. Would you drop any, all of them for him,

Wilmer Flores, Tyro Estrada, and Gavin Lux? Yes. All of them. Yep. How about these outfielers? Would you drop Connor, Joe, and or Lordus Guerrillo? Yeah, I think so. I mean, Joe, I kind of has.

because that Coorsfield boost, though it hasn't been that helpful lately, I think, I think in the long run it's still going to pay off for him. So maybe not, Joe, at least not in points leagues. But I would for Gurrey, I would drop Gurriel for either Guriel, frankly, but you mentioned Lordus Guriel. Yeah, I'd drop him for Morrell. All right, let's move over to a catcher, Jonah Heim. I keep waiting for this guy to fall off.

Not that I want him to. I'm very happy for him. But a sock in a shoe. Another home run, another steal. He's batting 260 with seven homers, two steals as a catcher. He still plays a good amount because they like to play Mitch Garver over at designated hitter. He's 57% rostered is Jonah Heim. Scott, do you think that number should be higher?

No. I mean, because he doesn't need to be a rostered in one catcher leagues. I don't think two catcher leagues, he probably does. Two catcher leagues are probably less than 51% of CBS Sports leagues. So I think that's fine. All right, fair enough. Let's move over to his teammate, Nathaniel Lowe, who went three for four in the second game of the doubleheader with six home runs. And entering Tuesday's action over his last 13 games, he was 15 for 47, three homers, one steel.

The barrel rate is up. The ground ball rate is way down. And I brought this up recently for Nathaniel Lowe. That's something that's hampered his power so far in his career is the fact that he's hit way too many ground balls. 38% over his last 13 games entering Tuesday. Chris, are you any, are you interested at all in Nathaniel Lo? Frank, stop trying to make Nathanielo happen. Oh, come on.

I spoke Andres Jimenez into existence, so now I think I'm trying to do the same with Nathaniel Lo. I just, I don't know, we're 1,100 plate appearances into his career and he's been pretty much the definition of just a guy. And like, there haven't really been any part. particularly impressive underlying numbers since 2019 even. So no, I'm passing. All right. Well, I tried.

In deeper leagues, I have two outfielders that stand out to me. Oscar Gonzalez, three hits across the two games on Tuesday. He is batting 364 through his first 11 games. He has five doubles. No homers yet crushing the ball. 94 mile per hour, average exit velocity, and just an 11% strikeout rate. And Lane Thomas,

now has four multi-hit games in a row, and he is just 11% rostered. Scott, let's say in those five outfielder leagues, Oscar Gonzalez or Lane Thomas. Who do you like more? Gonzalez. Lane Thomas, I'm not confident in the playing time. And I'm not confident in the profile either, frankly. If he was running, it might be easier to get excited about it. He's plenty fast, but only one steal.

So Gonzalez obviously has a lot to prove, but he's crushing the ball. He hit for a lot of power in the minors each of the last two years. He's not going to walk at all. So it's hard to see him being particularly useful in like a points league. But anywhere where walks don't really matter, I'd be interested in Gonzalez. Cleveland's been playing him every day more often than some of the hitters much more rostered on their roster. All right. Well, it's a little delayed, but oh my goodness gracious offense from Tuesday. The Reds, they're coming around. They had a 20 run game a couple of weeks ago. Now they put up 14 runs on 16 hits, including five homers. Joey Votto gets in on the fun fifth home run of the season. And he has been awesome since returning from the aisle. He's hitting the ball a lot harder. He's putting the ball in the air once again. So yes, I think Joey Votto. 298 with five home runs 11 walks to 12 strikeouts in 17 games since returning.

All of a sudden, his line for the season is actually above average. He has a 106 way he runs created plus for the season, which is pretty incredible. All right. We will take that. Brandon Drury hit his 11th home run, but he left the game. I didn't see any injury diagnosis anywhere yet for him, if there is one. Tyler Stevenson went two for five, hit his fifth homer. Tommy Pham went two for four with his seventh home run.

and then a few deeper league names. Matt Reynolds, definitely deep league. Two for five with his second home run for NL only players out there. Nick Sanzel, two for four. He's 15% rostered over his last seven games. He's batting 323. He's got two steals.

It's been leading off for the Reds. Chris, anything there? Nixon Zell, deeper leagues? I mean, he's a former top prospect who's shown almost nothing in the majors, but, you know, there's always going to be. be some interest when a guy like that starts to show some life. So I'll keep an eye on him, but it's only deep deep leagues right now. Where would he rank among Oscar Gonzalez and Lane Thomas

for you? Behind them both. All right. And Scott, the last name on this list, Kyle Farmer, two for four with his fourth steel. And when we joined up in this little soiree in stream yard, Scott said, I'm writing about Kyle Farmer. Well, what do you write? I was in the middle of writing about Kyle Farmer for Waver Wire. Yeah, I actually liked Kyle Farmer. as like a bench option in some of those deeper rotissory leagues because for as as star studded as shortstop is, it's a difficult position to fill off the waiver wire. Kyle Farmer, over his final 70 games last year,

I believe that was July 1st on. He hit 303 with 11 homers and an 847 OPS. He both last year and it's continued into this year produces line drives at an elite rate about 25%. and early on when he was dreadful and, you know, offense was down around the league, it's not like his quality of contact is particularly high, so I figured, okay, Kyle Farmer,

either it was just a fluke last year, he's not going to make it in this environment or whatever, but yeah, he's caught fire again here as the weather warms up. 442 with four home runs in his past 15 games. And you mentioned he's he is something of a factor for stolen bases as well. So if I'm prioritizing off the waiver wire,

I'm going to prioritize the upside of Luis Garcia. But Farmer, I think, could be a useful option, just like he was down the stretch last season. I saw somebody make this comp on Twitter, and it just seems so ridiculous. It's like Kyle Farmer is basically doing what you wanted, Javier Baez to do this season, which just sounds crazy. Kyle Farmer's hitting 271.

He's got five homers, four steals, 32 RBI, which I believe ranks top five among shortstops. Glaver Torres. It's been good. Javier Baez stole his first base today. So, here you go. I am. It's coming around.

I'm not dropping Baez for Farmer. I agree. I agree. For what it's worth. You know, I could actually see it in a really shallow league where you can't afford to keep up Javier Baez on your bench and you just want, you're just trying to get something out of your shortstop spot

so you're not buried in those standings. But you'd rather just add Isigal Duran or Luis Garcia. Yeah, I would... If it's so shallow a league that you don't have to worry about losing those upside guys to somebody else, then you're, you know, I could see just playing matchups until one of those upside guys becomes a reliable option. Because you just need production, you know.

Kind of getting out of the weeds. Basically, I'd rather have Javier Baez over Kyle Farmer. Speaking of Kyle Farmer, though, Scott Sleepers, I know we're only a couple of days into Week 10, but it's been a good week so far. Austin Hayes hit his seventh home run. Trey Mancini hit his sixth home run. Alejandro Kirk, what do you know?

Four more hits on Tuesday. He is awesome. What a guy. I wish I had bought low on Alejandro Kirk in so many leagues. I never lost faith in that guy. And so many others seem to. Stick to your guns, Scotty. You know, I wish I had, I don't know how this happened, but it happens every year.

I love Sandy, Sankey, Alcantara, and Shane McClanahan, and just feels like I don't have enough shares of them. I don't know how it happened, but whatever, it happened. Before we had the break. It's because you have all those Charlie Morton shares like Scott and I. Oh, gosh. Don't remind me. I was going through all my team.

How did we all end up with so many Charlie Morton shares? I think he was just duplicating as the, as the track. the season went along and this is the reason why. Anyway, before we hit the break, reminder that you can sign up for our Fantasy Baseball Today newsletter. It's free. Our buddy Dan Schneier does a great job with it and sends it to your inbox each and every morning.

Go to CBSports.com slash newsletters. You just hit the little FBT logo there and then you punch in your email. And if you're getting ready for Fantasy Football, you can support Chris here who does the Fantasy Football Today newsletter as well. We'll take a break and we'll hit the news and notes when we return.

The news and notes, Shane Baz. We were just talking about him. He will rejoin the Ray's rotation this weekend to start against the Minnesota Twins. He struck out 10 in his most recent rehab start. Ryan Yarbrough was sent down as a result. We had a few big boppers leave their games on Tuesday, unfortunately. Mike Trout left with groin tightness, and Pete Alonzo exited after getting hit by a pitch on his hand. I believe X-rays were negative, is what I saw there.

Yep. The White Sox hope to make. Anderson will be able to begin a rehab assignment next week. He's on the IL with a groin injury himself. Carlos Correa said he expects to return from the COVID IL on Wednesday. Zach Wheeler was placed on the paternity list, but it shouldn't affect his ability to pitch this weekend against the Diamondbacks. Obviously, pretty good matchup there. Willie Adomis is expected to be activated off the IL on Wednesday. Over the weekend, they said that would be Tuesday, so whatever. We lost a day, unfortunately. Steven Schrosberg will make his

season debut on Thursday at the Marlins. He's attempting to return from a thoracic outlet syndrome, which is one of the tougher pitcher injuries. So I'm rooting for the guy. I'm hoping he can get back on track. The minor league rehab assignment has looked awesome. But I know, Scott, we haven't been able to find velocity readings. Chris, I don't know if you saw velocity anywhere, but. For Strasbourg? Yeah. I actually did see video of him, assuming the broadcast radar gun was right. I saw video of him hitting 94. And the tweet said he was sitting 94. That would be pretty awesome. It's not much to go on, but if it's true, then I'm encouraged by that. He's already like 80% rostered. So it's not, I'm kind of surprised Strasbourg is as rostered as he is, that the masses

have more faith in him than I do, apparently. Yeah. My expectations are quite low. Yeah. But, you know, we'll see. I think it's the. name too, Scott. I mean, people see Straussberg and I think, obviously, they remember the ace that he once was. The twins confirmed that Joe Ryan will likely require a rehab start before returning to the twins. Sounds like he dealt with some COVID symptoms while he was out. Clayton Kershaw is scheduled for one final bullpen session and then is lined up this weekend to start against the San Francisco Giants. Craig Kimbril was placed on the paternity list and will miss at least one to three games. Daniel Hudson is the next man up

In the meantime Alex Cobb was placed on the aisle With hamstring tightness Retroactive to June 4th Hazus Lazardo has yet to begin A throwing program since landing on the IL on May 12th with a forearm strain And

Chris, this does not sound too good For Jesus Lazzardo Pretty much a month without throwing Yeah, no, it definitely doesn't Because like even if he began a throwing program tomorrow You're probably looking at three weeks to a month before he'd be able to come back. So yeah, I think I don't know.

You're stashing him if you've got the IL spots, but yeah, I would be a little surprised if we saw him before the All Star break at this point. Danny Jansen was placed in the aisle with a fractured bone in his left pinky finger. Nick Lodolo will throw a live bullpen and pitch in a simulated game at Reds spring training complex later this week. Luis Arise left Tuesday's game. due to shoulder tightness. Eduardo Rodriguez will begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Thursday. He's on the aisle with a sprained left

rib cage. Jamer Candelario placed in the aisle with left shoulder subluxation. Just a name to watch. Harold Castro, I was going through some stack cast leaderboards and he was popping up everywhere. His XBA is 334. His ex-slug is 621. I don't know how legit it is,

but just a name to watch, Harold Castro. Travis Darno was out of the lineup Tuesday due to a sore 4th. forearm, which is significant because could mean more playing time for William Contreras. Sayas Suzuki took batting practice on Tuesday, but remains without a timetable. Rocky's third base prospect, this one kind of just flew under the radar. Eli Huris Montero, hope I said that name tonight. Right.

Was recalled and was batting seventh on Tuesday. He was performing quite well in the minors hitting 314 with 11 home runs in the PCL. Scott, any interest in Montero, 4% rostered? Yeah, I mean, he has to, have a role. He was filling in for Ryan McMahon today. I think it was just a day off for McMahon. McMahon has committed a lot of errors at third base this year.

Of course, he's played second base and first base in the past. But the Rockies have fixtures of both of those spots, presumably. So I'm not really sure where the path is from Ontario, but he's a, like I've liked him for a while. I drafted him in the 2014 Dynasty League a couple years ago. I ended up trading him for Jake Garietta, I think. But back when Jake Garietta wasn't good anymore. But yeah, no, he makes contact at a pretty good rate, hits the ball pretty hard.

He's been crushing it since the start of 2021. 889 OPS, 28-Homers, and 500 plate appearances last year, 11 and 217 this year. So Elehires Montero is a name. You want to know because obviously if he does get regular bats, half of him at Corrus Field. Good surprise. But I just, I don't see the path for it right now. Can I, since we're on the topic of prospects, can I go back to one item? Sure.

Do we think there's any chance that Gabriam Moreno gets the call for the Blue Jays with Jansen on the aisle? He's a top 25, top 10-ish prospect, depending on who you ask. He's at AAA. He's hitting 323 there. He's a catcher. So, you know, just figured I throw that out there. Jansen was on the aisle before and they didn't call him up. That doesn't mean they won't this time. But I assume Zach Collins is healthy. Yeah, that's who they called up in the meantime.

Yeah. Okay. I don't think so. I mean, I guess there's a possibility. It's definitely a name to bring up. Um, he's only played 38 games total at AAA, Gabriel Moreno, and he only has one home run this season, you know, 7, 83 OPS. So he, he's hitting for a high batting average, just not really much power right now. Yeah, he's only played 70 games between double A and AAA so far in his career. So yeah, I would, you know, wouldn't be surprising if they kept him down for more. But just that was the, the first thing that came to mind when, when you mentioned Jansen. All right. Um, and we've seen other prospects get called. up with way less minor league experience so far this season. So just a name to remember there. Gabriel Moreno.

We had some returns. Tyler O'Neill was reinstated. He was batting fifth in the Cardinals lineup. Austin Meadows was reinstated. Also batting fifth for the Twins. The Tigers. He does not play for the Twins. And then Hunter Renfro was reinstated by the Brewers.

I don't think this is fantasy related, but it was surprising. Joe Madden fired by the Angels in the midst of a 12-game losing streak. They are still playing. game is five to five in the ninth inning. And the first thing that came to my head was like, maybe they'll play Joe Adele more because for whatever reason, Joe Madden just did not instill a lot of confidence in Joe Adele.

And then they didn't start Joe Adele. For one of the worst, he didn't have a key RBI double after Trout left the game. But yeah, there was that. And then there was the weird Marlins, like, 90-minute team meeting. before the game where Don Maddenly came out was like it basically said like it sounds like

these guys hate each other it was so it was weird he was like yeah I think they might come out flat today they won 12 2 so I guess they didn't come out flat but there was that was that was a weird lot of weird quotes from that one he didn't get into it but yeah it sounded like I got the impression in in both of the cases actually that it was uh personality personality disagreement like players upset with each other or in the case of Joe Madden upset with Joe Madden. And yeah. Joe Mann's stick has kind of the raise sheen has worn off. And I think his stick has kind of been exposed as being kind of shallow.

He did. I was watching the game and I saw a graphic that said he hasn't made the playoffs as a manager since 2014. I mean, it's gosh, that seems. so long ago. Is that even possible? Geez. That sounds right. Anyway, yeah. Joe Madden, let go by the Angels.

Let's get into some trade targets here, some buy low and some sell high options. Chris, we will start with you. You can give me a hitter, a pitcher, wherever you want to go with this, but a bi-low player that you're targeting right now. I would like to try to buy Tyler McGill before he comes back from the IL, which I believe is happening this week, right? He's coming back from that biceps injury. Yeah, he's with the Mets on the West Coast, expected to pitch later this weekend.

His overall numbers are not great. 4.41 ERA especially stands out. But if you remember, he had eight earn runs in an inning in third in his final start before the injury. That was about a month ago. Before that, he had a 243 ERA with 248 FIP, 36 strikeouts and 33 in a third innings. The velocity games that he showed very early on didn't quite stick. but Tyler Miguel looked like a very good pitcher before the injury. Biceps

strain, not necessarily the kind of injury that I'm super worried about moving forward. So I think Tyler Miguel is someone that I'm going to view as a top 40, maybe top 36 starting pitcher when he's healthy. And I think you can probably get him for less than that before he comes back. Yeah, he was pretty awesome earlier on in the season. Some people might have forgotten how good he was and the number is kind of inflated from that bad start. So Tyler McGill is someone you can look to buy right. now. Scott, who are you looking to buy? Well, I'll go with a hitter.

I did mention Matt Chapman yesterday. I'll give you a new name today. You'll have to buy a little higher on this guy. But the other Matt who the athletics traded in the offseason, Matt Olson, I think, is a clear buy low.

He still impacts the ball like an elite power hitter. He had some problems with launch angle early on, but that's improved lately. It's getting closer to where it was last year. Mostly, though, the fact that he hasn't, early on in his career, he had issues with contact, and he hasn't this year. The strikeout rate was crazy low last year. It hasn't been quite that low this year.

It's been 23% versus 17%. But it's been good for a player with Matt Olson's power potential. And I just think, I think he's very close to going off. And, you know, he's the sort of guy who could get hot for two weeks and suddenly be among the major league leaders in home runs. And I think especially given that first base is the one position with some access, there's a good chance the guy who drafted Matt Olson has another first baseman who's performing well and maybe he doesn't even feel like he needs to deal with Matt

Olson at this point. So it just seems like somebody who, who is in a good spot to be traded. Weird that he's on like a 20 homer pace. And I agree. Pretty much everything else looks fine. So, yeah, I would absolutely try to buy low on Matt Olson. He's still, I think he's still a top five first basement for me.

If not, he's, yeah, he's top three for me. So I haven't moved him down at all. All right. And I noticed early on in the season, the ground ball rate was very high for Matt Olson. And so far in the month of June, he's not performing great so far, but his ground ball rate is 12%. So he's hitting lots of line drives and lots of fly balls.

He's trying to get back on track with some of the power there. Some by-low hitters for me, two outfielders that stand out, and I know the expected stats are much better than the actual stats so far for both of these players. Nick Castiano's, who was awesome last year, and we're worried about him originally leaving Cincinnati because the home road splits weren't as good, but he still hits in a really good ballpark.

Really great lineup. I mean, say you want about their defense and overall what the Phillies have done, but that lineup is still very good. So I'd be looking to buy on Nick Castiano's. And the other name is Marcel Ozuna, who obviously did not play much last year and he comes back this year.

He's still impacting the ball very hard and stackass numbers look pretty good for Marcel Ozuna. It just hasn't really happened yet. And I feel you can say that for a lot of the Braves hitters. You're just talking about Matt Olson, Scott. But yeah, Ozuna and Castianos, do you guys have any disagreement?

Would you look to buy those guys as well? Yeah. Yeah. I agree on both. Yeah, I agree on both too. I would add Kyle Schwerber, who I considered for my pick. I did too. He just went on a home run binge last week and is up to 14 now.

So I wonder if you can still buy low on Kyle Schwerber. OPS is still, yeah. OPS is still like the 770 range, but yeah. Yeah. I've mentioned this many times. Like his batting average is all five. I think it's still sub 200. but everything else looks good.

The home runs runs RBI. I think he even has like two or three seals, Kyle Swarber. So yeah, if you can pull it off, something I would look to do as well. All right, Chris, a sell high. I felt more confident in saying McKenzie Gore was a sell high candidate a few weeks ago.

But I'm still going to say it. And maybe that just reflects poorly on me and my decision-making process. But I still think there are, while there are a lot of things, to like about McKenzie Gorn. I think he's going to be very good moving forward. I think he's obviously pitched performing over his head. That goes without saying with a 150 ERA, but he has a 315 XERA. So I think that kind of sums up the gap in between where he should be.

He's got an 87% left on base rate, 2.6% home run to fly ball ratio. And I think he might be a little out over his skis in terms of the strikeout rate. He's at, what, a 28% strikeout rate? 30% strikeout rate. His CSW is 27.7%, which is right around average. His swinging strike rate is 11.2%. That's not particularly impressive. He does have, you know, a four-pitch mix with a slider that gets very good swing and miss numbers

and a change-up that's been very good and limited usage, but he thinks, with his fastball and his curveball more than anything. And those have pretty middling swing and miss rates. So I just, I don't know, I like him a lot and I'm excited to see him continue to pitch. But, you know, a 64% fastball usage rate, it's hard to be really good in this offensive environment that way. He doesn't get enough whiffs. I think McKenzie Gore is a sell high candidate. Brace yourself, Chris, because the Twitter comments are definitely coming for you on McKenzie? That's fine. That's fine. I'm used to people saying I'm an idiot on Twitter. You know, it's like, it's like water off a duck's back at this point. Is that, is that a saying

water off a ducks back? Yeah, you never seen like the way like water just beads off a, off a duck's back? I'm going to have to watch some videos after this podcast. I don't know if I've ever seen that. All right. Well, I'll just throw up myself high because I think he's kind of in a similar category as McKenzie Gore. And it was Michael Copac. who actually had an amazing start on Tuesday against the Dodgers. Six shutout innings, one hit, one walk, eight strikeouts.

He had 13 swinging strikes, and he did it with this fastball slider, heavy approach, and that's basically who he's been so far in his career with those two pitches. His ERA is 1.94. His ex-fip is 4.46. This is Michael Kopeck.

His bad bib is very low. He just got to a strikeout per inning today after this start. The swinging strike rate, is below league average. He allows a lot of fly balls. There could be an innings limit at some point for Michael Kopeck. So I kind of feel like he's in a similar category as McKenzie Gore.

Scott, what do you think about those two as sell high candidates, Gore and Kopeck? I don't think I would. I mean, look, it's never a bad idea to see what you could get for them. There are certainly pitchers, and I rank ahead of McKinsey Gore. and if I needed a hitter, I could see using him to get a hitter over some of the other pitchers that I have. But like just in a,

just in it like in a vacuum, I wouldn't be that aggressively shopping either. I think, yeah, Copac showing improvement with the fastball is a good sign. Obviously, if it's a points league, he has that RP eligibility, which makes them indispensable. The weird thing for him is the slider

just has not gotten swings and misses this season. It was, you know, obviously he was pitching out of relief mostly last season, but he had a 36% whiffray with that pitch last season. It's 18.5% so far. I'm not entirely sure what to make of that because it doesn't seem like it's a particularly different pitch and he still seems to have quite a bit of confidence in it. But that's been weird, but that could also be a reason to buy.

You know, if you think that the slider is going to be, be a better pitch moving forward that that could be a reason to to have faith in michael copac but yeah i i i don't know i especially with the guys with inning limits it's like it's easy to forget that when they're pitching really well but like those both guys are probably going to get pulled off at some point you know if not just shut down you know they'll they'll have stretches where they're not going as deep into games or whatever so it's it's really hard to do, but you can also potentially take advantage of the fact that maybe people just kind of forget that, you know, Coveck through 78 innings last season and didn't pitch the year before, right?

Didn't pitch the previous two years, was it two or three years that he hadn't pitched? Two years. He didn't pitch 2019 or 2020. So like, you know, he might be more like 125 innings and he's already a 51. Yeah. I don't think he's going to get completely shut down. Like he'll probably go to bullpen at some point, but it's just how useful is that later on in the season? Scott, a sell-high candidate for you. Well, I feel pressure to find a hitter now since you both picked pitchers, but I think it's it's hard to know what's going on with any hitter. So it's I don't feel like I have a confident choice for a sell-high there. So I will pick a pitcher as well. I'll go with McKenzie Gore's teammate, U. Darvish. And it's a good time to do it because

you Darvish had a great start here on Tuesday. Seven, two-hit innings against the Met, six strikeouts, no walks. And like he's been pitching deep into games. I believe he ended up winning this game, right? So he is up to, oh, I closed his page. That was his, what was it, his fifth win? Fifth win and eighth quality start.

Yeah, yeah. So, like, he's been getting plenty of points. He has gotten his ERA back below four, obviously coming off a really good start. But even with this start, I mean, the strikeouts have been down all season. 7.2K per 9 is his season-long strikeout rate. His swinging strike rate, which is normally 12 to 14%, which would put him among the top 12, 15 pitchers in baseball. It's 10.6% this year.

So, again, and there's not a clear loss of stuff there, but he's just been so hard to figure out from year to year, from month to month. The fact he's not getting strikeouts, like even when he's had stretches in the past where he struggled is because there were too many walks or maybe he was getting hit too hard, strikeouts have never been an issue for you, Darvish.

He has been a strikeout machine throughout his career. And so I just, I'm losing faith in him. You know, he's 35 years old. He's no spring chicken. And he may just be, he may just be in a decline phase of his career. So I think I'd rather not risk it. I'd rather not risk the lack of strikeouts causing other problems as we move forward or potentially some of those other ticks that Udarvish has had showing up.

and I'd consider shopping I'm coming off this great start he's someone who if I remember correctly he his spin rates fell quite a bit with they did sticky substance ban yes forcing fastball early in the season was in last season was like in the 25 to 2,600 RPM range after that it was in the 2,400 RPM range this season it's more like 350. So, you know, the biggest change for you, Darvish so far has been a real lack of swings and misses on the fastball is whiff rate dropped from 35 to 15% with the fastball, which is going from elite best in baseball to pretty bad. And that could be directly related to, you know, a drop in spin rate. And he does have some name value too. So I think that can add to trying to sell high on

Darvish right now. I think that's a natural transition into a few other pitchers who bounced back on Tuesday. Obviously Darvish was coming off a rough start his last time out, but Kyle Wright gets back on track with his longest start of the season against the Oakland A's eight innings, two runs, seven strikeouts, 20 swinging strikes in this start. He lowers his ERA to 2.41. And then Ranger Suarez post his first start with zero walks this season. he was at the Brewers seven innings two runs, five strikeouts, but only had five swinging strikes. Got a ton of ground balls in the start for Ranger Suarez. Scott, anything you'd like to add on Kyle Wright or Suarez from Tuesday?

No, I mean, Kyle Wright was great. Kyle Wright was great and the walks were down and the swinging strikes were up. And I was worried because he gave up three hits and two runs before recording it out. And I'm like, oh, man, I'm going to have to defend Kyle. right again. People are getting tired of that. But then he was, he ended up having arguably his best start of the season. All right. Let's move over to some other pitching leftovers from Tuesday. Jeffrey Springs has now gone five plus innings in four starts and he went six shot out in this one. He had five strikeouts against the Cardinals. Justin Verlander posted a season high 12 strikeouts

against the Mariners. Alec Manoa is now 10 for 11 in quality starts this season. Though He only had two swinging strikes in this start. Six shutout, but the whip was a little bit high. Terrick Scoobel, three seven inning starts in a row. He gave up three runs, had nine strikeouts to zero walks. Chris, anything that stood out for Scoobel, Manoa, Verlander, and Jeffrey Springs. Yeah, I mean, Manoa, like the strikeout rate this season is pretty pedestrian. But he was really good at limiting hard contact last season.

and he's been even better so far. The expected Wobon contact is down to 317. That's one of the best marks in baseball. So, you know, he's pitching over his head, a 181 ERA with, you know, an average strikeout rate, probably not sustainable. But I don't really think there's any reason to be concerned that he won't be very good moving forward.

You know, I don't think he's an ace, but I think he's quite good. Yeah, I think he just has to remain in our top 20 pitcher ranks because, again, like, the glob is a mess once you get outside the top 20s. So, you know, the way Manoa has pitched, he deserves to be a top 20 starting pitcher. And that's where he's at right now.

Scott, is there anything going on with Carlos Rodon? I know we spoke about him recently, but he needed 98 pitches to get through four innings up against the Rockies. This game was not in course field. It was actually in San Francisco. He only had eight swinging strikes. Just hasn't been the same since he got rocked

by the Cardinals on May 15th. Are you worried at all about Carlos Rodon? Kind of. I mean, he's not a proven commodity. And one six-inning start in his last five. During that time, only 8.3 strikeouts per nine innings. His swinging strike rate is about the one I mentioned for you, Darvish. Not good.

So, you know, five starts. That's basically half his season, right? I don't know. I'm worried I may have jumped the gun moving him into my top five at starting pitcher. The one thing I will say is there is like last season he threw his change up 12% of the time. He threw his fastball 58% of the time. This year he's basically stopped throwing the change up.

And he's up to 66% usage worth of fastball. You know, the nice thing is his fastball is awesome. But he does have, you know, I think a couple of adjustments that he can probably make. You know, throw the slider more, throw the change up more. and possibly stem the tide. So I'm interested to see what the next few starts look like for him. The hitting leftovers from Tuesday, Jazz Chisholm had a monster game of his own,

a double dung, including a grand slam, off of a 3-0 pitch. You love to see it. You love to see it. Ronald de Cunia had a double dung of his own. Jorge Soler, two-for-four hit his 12th home run, and since May 1st, he's looked like Jorge Saler. 254 batting average, 10 home runs over his last.

30 games. Jorge Jose Abraeu has gotten back on track as well very sneakily, you know, two for four, a lot of two-hit games recently. He's now up to a 260 batting average overall. His last 15 games, 386 with four home runs there. Jorge Polanco, four hits of his own. He hit his seventh home run. Last 14 games, 286 batting average with three homers for him. The Bronx bombers were out in full effect. Aaron Judge hit his 22nd home run. Rizzo hit his 14th and John Carlson hit his 12th, and Yordon Alvarez, went one for three, hit his 17th home run of the season. The call to the bullpen, some bullpen updates here. For the Guardians, Emmanuel Class A struck out two for his 10th save.

Kenley Jansen picked up his 15th. For Tampa Bay, good luck. Andrew Kittridge entered in the eighth inning with a one-run lead. He gave up a walk, two hits, and boom, we got a tie game. Brooks Raleigh pitched in the ninth, and then Colin Poshay gave up a run in the 10th, but he wound up with the win. How did that happen? Well, on the other side for the Cardinals,

Giovanni Gallegos pitched in the eighth inning with the game tied one-to-one. Ryan Helsley pitched in the ninth, with the game still tied. Drew Verhagen came in for the save in the 10th, and he gave up a walk-off homer to Taylor Walls. For the Rangers, Joe Barlow picked up his 11 save. For the Brewers, Josh Hader,

you don't see this every day. He entered in a one-run game. Give up two solo homers, takes the blown save in the loss. I mean, literally had not seen. seen him give up a run. Is that true? Did he have the first run to give up this season, wasn't it?

Wow. I mean, I feel like I probably did see something crazy like that recently. Well, he's awesome. For the Astros, Ryan Presley got his 11th save. Corey Canable walked three. Very stressful ending for him, but he picked up his 10th save. And Daniel Bard, I just saw picked up his 12th save as well. To stream or not to stream, let's start with Wednesday.

Alex Fayetteau at the Pirates. Pirates, you say Kikuchi at the twins, Dane Dunning at the Guardians, Adrian Houser versus the Phillies, and Alex Wood versus the Rockies. Who do we say yesterday? Wood. Dunning and Wood. I think you said Fayetteau.

Yeah, maybe Faiado, but he'd be third on the list. Yeah, I kind of like Faiado there. For Thursday, we have Zach Eflin at the Brewers. Connor Pilkington got scratched on Tuesday. I guess because of the double header, They shifted things around. But he will now pitch Thursday against the Oakland A's. James Caprillion at the Guardians, J.T. Brubaker at the Braves,

and Bruce Zimmerman at the Royals. I'm okay with Eflin at Milwaukee. Not the best matchup, but I think he's the best pitcher of these. Pilkington versus Oakland, I might take advantage of that matchup. The others I don't want any part of. Yeah, I agree. I think it's Pilkington, Eflin, or bust. We're gonna wrap there. For Scott and Chris, I am Frank, thank you all for listening and watching fantasy baseball today.

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