Fantasy Baseball Today - Matt Shaw IS BACK, Kris Bubic vs. Robbie Ray & Sell-High Candidates! (5/20 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 20, 2025

The Cubs have recalled Matt Shaw after he was on fire in the minors (2:30). ... Austin Hays needs to be rostered in more lageus (8:20). ... Kris Bubic vs. Robbie Ray was a masterpiece (15:51). ... Sonny Gray bounced back with a big start (20:18). ... Geraldo Perdomo won't stop hitting (21:49). ... News (25:15): Ronald Acuña could be back as soon as this weekend! ... Agustin Ramirez continues to impress (37:23). Any interest in these deep-league waiver wire hitters? ... Sell-high on these two pitchers (50:17)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates, streamers and Team Name Tuesday (55:30). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow FBT on TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow our FBT team on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@FBTPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CPTowers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CBSScottWhite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@Roto_Frank⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join our Facebook group at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Bobby Ray versus Chris Bubich was a masterpiece. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today.

On Tuesday, May 20th, I am Frank Stanfield, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we did have that fun pitchers duel. The Cubs were called Matt Shaw. Two potential sell high pitchers. We'll check in on some early round hitters and much more. Ballet jump in. All right, players of the night, Scott, you're up first.

All right, well, I'm going to go with Matt Shaw because I feel like this was one of the biggest developments of the day. He's back. He very quickly turned things around at Triple. after kind of just meandering there at the start of things. If you'll remember the story for Matt Shaw, the big prospect who found his way on the opening day roster as expected, despite missing a lot of spring training with injury. And he just was not hitting at all.

The exit velocities were in the toilet. He was taking swings according to their GM. He was in survival mode. trying to make contact. And the thing about Matt Shaw is he has this, if you haven't seen him, he has this really goofy-looking leg kick in his swing that seems like it could get out of sync pretty easily.

And that seemed to be what happened. He actually talked about in the off-season in anticipation of winning a job, kind of speeding up his swing to account for the higher velocities in the majors. And between that and the injury of the spring, it just seemed like his swing was all out of sync. and that's why he was getting terrible eggs of velocities

and had to be sent down. And it was a struggle down there at first, trying to sink things back up to get that timing down. But it seemed to happen. Again, very suddenly, he had two homer games, back-to-back two homer games last week, Thursday and Friday. And his final nine games at AAA, Matt Shaw hit 343 with five home runs

three stolen bases. His average exit velocity was 93.4 miles per hour. The max exit velocity less impressive, but he's not going to be a big max exit velocity guy. So he's going to lot. It was 110 was the max. That's plenty. That'll work.

That'll work with everything else Matt Shaw does well. And so he came back. He came back. He was back in the Cubs lineup here on Monday. And he went two for four with a double and a steel. So initial returns promising. I'm not saying Matt Shaw deserves to be activated everywhere. I want to be ready to activate him anywhere, yeah.

But in leagues that have an extra corner infield spot, probably need to pick them up again because there's power and speed and even batting average upside here. One thing he didn't have trouble doing during his first day in the majors was making contact. And I imagine that'll still be true for Matt Shaw. Yeah, his issue. primarily, he was just timid at the plate. He had a 31% swing rate on all pitches, which is bonkers low.

Like Juan Soto has the lowest among qualifiers at 35%. And Juan Soto is a famously pretty selective hitter. Matt Shaw was timid. He was not being, like, it wasn't like, oh, I'm only swinging at strikes. He just wasn't swinging anything. He had one of the lowest in-zone swing rates of anybody. And look, that'll probably always be the case. He's always run relatively low swing rates when we've seen him in the minors.

But it was 40% at AAA by comparison. So I think he just wasn't comfortable at the major league level. And that happens. I love this is one of my favorite type of player situations. the top prospect who gets called up flounders and then comes back because they cost way way less and there's not really anything different about Matt Shaw between this spring when we were excited for him and now like we saw what was it 18 games did he even get that many games at the major league level before getting sent down he had exactly 18 man that was a good good pull um and so

Like 18 games is nothing. Like this is still, you should be almost exactly as excited about Matt Shaw, today getting called back up as you were when we found out he made the opening day roster. This is still an exciting. Look, we have seen him for 18 games and he wasn't good. So I'm not saying that that doesn't matter at all. He was clearly overwhelmed. It's just saying that the baseline talent level hasn't changed or it probably hasn't changed.

So the upside is still what you're chasing and Matt Shaw still has plenty. He only had 35 games above AA last year. He only had like 111 games in the high miners at all. He was promoted very aggressively as well. So it might just taking him a little while to get up to speed and I'm very excited for Matt Shaw now. The downside to this move is that the pipe dream of Michael Bush

shifting third base so that Moises by Asteroes could stick around as a first baseman that's that's out the window and it seems like Ian Hap's gonna return in the next day or two so Moises by Astero's did get two hits here on Monday I think they're both singles and he's been playing DHS basically every day since he came up but I imagine he's about to be sent back down I would think so yeah Matt Shaw is 52% rostered and just eyeballing the rankings to figure out where we can get matchaw up to later in the week when we all update. And I think right around 20th

makes some sense that would put him just behind names like Bohm, Josh Young, Jake Berger, but ahead of names like India, Renhifo, Ryan McMahon, Max Muncie, guys like that. Yeah, that sounds perfect. Yeah, that sounds right. All right. Chris, over to you for your player of the night. Austin Hayes.

Yeah, Austin Hayes just keeps hitting. and he's only like 57% rostered still. I know there's been some injuries that have kind of disrupted his season, but he went three for five today. He's hitting 330 with a 977 OPS right now. And that's a fluke. Austin Hayes is not a 1,000 OPS bat. He might be like a mid-800s OPS bat in Cincinnati.

Like he has a 404 Wobah for the season. well, 415 now after today. He has a 385X Wobah. There's, again, that's a fluke. But a 385X Woba is really good. That is, I would guess, a top 25 mark among qualifiers. It doesn't walk much at all either. Right.

Although he does have a career high 7.7% walk rate. But, you know, the thing with Austin Hayes is he was pretty consistently and above average hitter. It's just that because Baltimore was hell for right-handed power hitters, it was impossible for that to shine through. 2021 was the last year before they moved the fences back. He hit 22 homers and had a 106 WRC plus. The next two seasons were actually better in terms of WRC plus, which standardizes for the offensive environment. A player finds himself in, including home park. it's just because Camden was so hard to hit at,

he looked like a much diminished hitter. And now he's in one of the best hitting parks in baseball. I think if Austin Hayes can manage to stay healthy, I think you're looking at someone who's probably going to hit to 75. He's probably going to hit because he's missed some time. Maybe the pace is 25 plus homers. but I think that's very doable for him. I really like Austin Hayes.

I'm wondering, is he a top 36 outfielder? Well, I'm asking that about like 15 different outfielders right now. Because like I look at it and like I've got George Springer right around 40 and it's like, well, Springer's been great though. He's been one of the best hitters in baseball. But I think that's the right range though. I think like 40 to 50 makes sense for Allison Hayes. And even in a three outfielder league, like, okay, top 36, clearly. But some people use outfielder's in their utility spot.

So yeah, like he probably should just be rostered in all three outfielder league soon. I'm looking now. I got Hayes 52nd. But then directly ahead of him is Hunter Goodman, a must start catcher who happens to have outfield eligibility. And directly ahead of him is Dylan Cruz, who none of us are willing to give up on in the firmest sense. So like that that's kind of how things look at the problem right now. But I like how you put that with Austin Hayes mentioning his, the fact he's only 57% rostered because.

It's way too low. This is where nuance becomes important when we're giving fantasy analysis. Because if Austin Hayes was 98% rostered and people were asking if they could, if they would dare trade him for Jaron Duran, we'd probably be talking down Austin Hates pretty firmly. But that's not the case. He's dramatically under-roastered. He's not 1,000 OPS good, as you said, but 850 OPS deserves to be rostered in way more than 57% of leagues. So, you know, I think sometimes people get frustrated because the obvious this guy is putting up huge numbers and everybody sees.

it guy we will sometimes talk down but you know you could be a really good player for fantasy and still be overperforming and part of our role here is to calibrate your expectations for players properly and right now expectations for Hayes are being undercalibrated at only 57% roster agreed and the stack cast stuff looks good the quality of contact the expected numbers look great and i just looked up the pulled air percentage 28% for Austin Hayes, which is a career high. Last year it was 23% for his career. It's 19%.

So he understands what he needs to do in Cincinnati, pull the ball in the air, and it seems like good things will happen to Austin Hayes, which... It must feel so good to hit a ball to left field in the air and actually have something good come from it for the first time since 2021 for Austin Hayes. Let's get Ryan Malkaston in Cincinnati, man.

Which he was like a 22 homer guy that year, right? The last year before the move does. That was his first full year. He had 22 homers, yeah. What about Taylor Ward, who has homered in three straight? He's got five home runs in his past seven games. He's hitting the ball hard. He's barreling it up.

I think, in fact, he's kind of maybe selling out for power a little bit too much, which has led to a lower bab up here. But clearly in his own, he's right around 55% rostered. Would you guys rather have Hayes or Taylor Ward? Hayes. I think there's more upside. both for, especially for batting average, but also for power. I think it's probably, yeah, I would say that's the case.

Ward, Ward's one that like when things are going poorly, people drop him because there's not a ton of upside. At the end of the season, he's going to look fine. But he never looks like much more than fine over a large enough sample size. All right. Let's take our first break when we return. We'll get to my players, I guess you could say. I'll take the low hanging fruit, the pitchers duel that we got.

We'll do all of that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball. Today we had ourselves a pitcher's duel out in the Bay Area. Chris Bubich up against Robbie Ray. Bubich, seven shutout innings with five strikeouts, 15 whiffs on 91 pitches. And he has allowed a total of one earned run over his last four starts, and he has gone six plus innings in seven of ten outings this year.

Again, that was Chris Bubich. Robbie Ray on the other side, seven shutout with seven strikeouts, 11 whiffs on 94 pitches through 73% of his pitches for strikes. And he has five quality starts in a row. During that stretch, a 164 ERA, a 0.97 whip, 37 strikeouts to nine walks over 33 innings pitched. Both of these guys have, look, Boobich has been great all year. Robbie Ray obviously has turned things around over the past month or so. What do you guys have on these two?

Who would you rather have? Boobich or Robbie Ray. Ray. Ooh. Close. I think in terms of talent, it's probably pretty close. But Frank, you brought out something last week that I hadn't really been thinking about with Chris Boobich. But there's got to be a pretty hard innings limit here, right? Like, this is someone that, like, they threw similar amounts of innings last season.

I think they were both right around probably 50 or so if you include the minors. Robbie Way is what, 32, something like that, 33, has thrown multiple 190 inning seasons before. Like, not throwing a lot of innings is the rare thing for Robbie Ray. Chris Bubich has no track record of having gotten to, I don't think he's even gotten to 150 innings in a season. Maybe if you include the minors. So I have to think there's some kind of inning ceiling for Chris Bubich that is not present for Robbie Ray.

A couple of ways I'll push back on that. One is the Royals are very much contenders and they're probably going to be relying on Chris Bubich right up to the end. The other is that Chris Bubich is only under their control for one more year. This is his first year of fantasy prominence, so it feels like he's just starting out and he deserves all the protections a young pitcher gets normally. But he's almost out from under the Royals purview. So I think that's going to cause them to be less careful with them too. Rightfully or not, I think they're going to be more concerned about what he can do for them in the postseason than what he can do for them in the future. I think that's fair.

I would still give Robbie Ray the edge in endings. And because I think the talent is fairly close, I certainly don't think Chris Bubich is significantly better than Robbie Ray, despite, you know, the 120 ERA gap between them. So I have them, I have them just, Ray the edge. I have them just one spot apart in my rankings. So it's nitpicking.

I probably have Bubich in head to head a decent amount higher just because he is a spark and so those guys get a little boost overall. But yeah, I think they're very close. I bring that up because I don't want to make it sound like I'm down on Ray. I'm not. I think he's must start basically at this point with the way his last five starts have gone. All quality starts. 164 ERA, 0.97 whip 10.1K for 9.

he's looking great, swinging strike great, he's great, he's great. It's all great. Except he walks too many guys, he gives up too much hard contact. And those are two advantages Boobich has over him and why I think Boobich has a better floor than Robbie Ray. Yeah, I think that's all fair. I think on a per inning basis, I probably will lean with Boobich. I do agree that Robbie Ray probably gets more innings this season, but I think both are top 36 starting pitchers, must-star pitchers. And for Boobich, one of the bigger breakouts this season and Robbie Ray, I mean, there was a lot of excitement coming into the season and, you know, had the slow start. But obviously it looks like he has rectified things and is back on track now. Wanted to quickly mention Sunny Gray, who also had a huge start, bounced back here against the Tigers, who, you know, they've all of a sudden been a juggernaut this season.

Six shutout innings with 10 strikeouts. That was a season high for Sunny Gray. 13 whiffs on 90 pitches. He only allowed two hard hits in this one. less sinkers, more sweepers, more curves, more cutters. So more spin in general. I think that's typically a good thing from Sunny Gray, who two of its previous three starts before this were pretty rough.

But Scott, good on you. You said, yeah, just stick with it. This is Sunny Gray. And obviously, awesome start here. Yep. If you try to analyze Sunny Gray too closely, you will just drive yourself insane. Like, it's just, it's not worth doing.

take it from somebody who has been analyzing Sunny Gray for his entire career since back in the athletics days. I don't even know that anybody remembers him pitching for the athletics. He's quite good for the athletics. That was probably the best stretch of his career, actually, and also some bad years. But yeah, he changes things a lot. The results in various categories will be up and down from year to year. but in the long run, he's just a solid pitcher.

Yeah, I think he's kind of in a similar range as Robbie Ray and Chris Boobich made you a little bit behind those guys, but yeah, bordering a top 40 starting pitcher is Robbie Ray. Also wanted to mention Geraldo Perdomo, who just will not stop. I mean, he is, he in another home run here, he's betting 302, he's got an OBP over 400, 37 RBI for Perdomo this season. He's got 11 steals and 899.9. OPS, entering Monday, the 19th overall player in Roto, averaging 3.8 fantasy points per game.

That was better than Bobby Witt Jr., Jose Ramirez, Rafael Devers. Obviously, we don't expect this to continue, but I mean, we're almost two months in, and Pardomo has been one of the best players in fantasy all season. It's crazy. Yeah, I'm starting him in one league, a league where I lost Corey Seeker. and there are what I think are more talented hitters. This is a shallower league. This doesn't have middle end field spot.

There are more talented hitters at shortstop that are available in that league that if I was committing to anyone for the rest of the season, maybe I would go with them over Pardomo. But I'm not. They're still out there. Nobody's picked them up. Eventually going to get Corey Seeger back and obviously start him again. So I'm just happy to ride it out with Pardomo for now.

If Seeger's nearing his return, maybe I'll look for a team that doesn't have a very good shortstop and try to pawn Perdomo off on that team. And accept less than face value, current face value, obviously. I feel like I'm selling high in that scenario. Yeah, that's where things stand with him. I don't think you can sustain it, but I'm happy to enjoy it and maybe even cash in on a trade. for the time being. The weird thing is the 11 steals in 48 games.

He had 9 and 98 games last year. His career high is 16. Pridomo slow. Like, he's faster than me. But he's 43nd sprint speed, 43% on sprint speed. Relative to major league baseball players, he's slow.

And so I don't know how sustainable that is. I certainly don't think. he's a 300 hitter. He's probably a 265 to 270 hitter. See, I think he's one of the more obvious so high candidates in baseball and he'll probably end up with a low 700s OPS by the end of the season. The debacks for what it's worth, they are ninth as a team and steals the season. So they have been pretty aggressive and it just feels like a lot of their hitters have the green light and Perdomo is one of them. I traded him in Tout Wars to Todd Zola for Jonathan Ironda like a month ago and obviously don't feel too great about it now,

but still have faith that Aranda's going to come around. If you're in a stat-cast Sliders League, you are crushing that trade. You may Jonathan Aranda's... Well, it's not. His bars are twice as long. Hopefully it turns into something at some way. Not like he's been bad, but obviously.

No, it's just they need to play him against lefties. Come on. That's what we need. All right, a few things to promote here. Sign up for the FBT newsletter. if you haven't already. If you're watching on YouTube, scan that QR code.

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Let's get into the news and notes. And Ronald Acuna is set to continue his rehab assignment at AAA to begin the week, but he could be a candidate to return this weekend against the Padres. I haven't seen that confirmed anywhere. It just sounds like it's speculation from one beat writer, but that would be pretty awesome.

So the thing, the thing was I remember one of the beat writer saying that when he got to AAA, that's when he would be on the verge of returning. And I was like, okay, so he'll probably spend a week or two in a lower. And then he played one game at the Florida Complex League and then got called up to AAA.

So yeah, he might only spend a week a triple a I don't know well what we're probably missing maybe not missing it but just not consciously thinking about is I doubt his rehab assignment started with him being sent to that low level affiliate like he was probably playing in games at the spring training complex because he's already he's already playing outfield right field every day playing back to back days in the outfield. That's not something you do at the start of spring training. So I don't think it's a situation where like Ronald de Cunia is going through

a spring training right now. I think he's toward the tail end of what would be a normal spring training built up. And if that's the case, then yeah, hopefully this week and that'd be great. The beat writer who apparently that came from was Lindsay Crosby of AthlonSports. So I don't know who that is, but looks like maybe they host some kind of Braves podcast. Locked on Braves podcast. We'll see. I hope he's right.

Hunter Green is on track to return and start Friday against the Cubs. He's missed a few weeks with a right groin train. Are you guys just good getting Hunter Green back in there? Yeah. I wouldn't mind

getting an extra look at him, but sure, yeah. Mike Trout was spotted jogging in the outfield prior to Monday's game. He's still on the IL with a bone bruise in his left knee. Yori Perez will make his next

start, rehab start Thursday at AAA. He made his last one on Friday at single A. He went four innings and got up to 48 pitches in that outing. He's 58% rostered, so still available for now. Not in any of my leagues because I made sure to pick up Yuri Perez in any league that offered IL spots. I managed to find a player who I already had on my L spots, who I thought was a worse IEL stash than Uri Perez. And I imagine a lot of you out there listening can as well. It sounds like he is getting pretty close to returning himself, and he would be much more exciting than any pitcher you could find on the Waver Wire right now,

much more exciting than a Logan Henderson. Dare I say even more exciting than Orion Weathers. Go ahead and make sure that's not somebody you have to compete for later. Pick up Yuri Perez now. It could be like three more starts. If he got up to almost 50 pitches, they've been working him slowly so far. But if he gets up to 65, close to 70 in his next one,

yeah, it could be like three more starts. And we're talking about an early June return, which would be about 14 months after the surgery. And would probably put him at a spot where they don't really need to manage his innings too much. they would probably go try to get him five days of rest pretty regularly. Maybe around the Allster break, skip a start or two. But 80 to 90 innings coming off surgery,

that doesn't seem irresponsible for a guy who's done 100 innings before. So, yeah, no, I think it's exciting. I'm also very happy that they're keeping him just in the spots where we have Stackast data. The Phillies doing that with Andrew Painter also just straight from single A to triple A. Love this. We're getting all the data we want from these guys. And they look like themselves so far.

So that's exciting. As expected, the Phillies option, Mick Abel back to the miners after his stellar debut on Sunday. The Cubs aren't expecting Chotei Imanaga to return until, quote, well into June. He's on the aisle with a left hamstring strain. Speaking of the Cubs, Porter Hodge will go on the IL with an oblique injury. We didn't learn about that until after the Cubs game on Monday, which is pretty annoying for anyone who had Porter Hodge in their lineup.

And they had a save opportunity right away. Ryan Presley pitched the seventh. Drew Pomeranz in the 8th. And then Daniel Palencia got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He gave up two runs on a walk and two hits, took his first blown save and first loss. Worth noting, he should have gotten out of that inning.

Kyle Tucker, I think, just dropped what should have been the third out to extend the inning. It wasn't called an error because as we talked about last week, hit inflation is a real thing. But that, I believe that would have been the last out of the inning. I was watching this game.

I think I recall that that was a pretty tough catch, though, no? Sure. It was still a drop ball. I have to see it. I didn't see it. So you're breaking news to me here. But I think with Porter Hodge out of the picture,

like either way, I don't think, I don't think Daniel Palencia is the answer for the Cubs. And I think with Porter Hodge out of the way, they probably just need to give Ryan Presley another shot at this point. It's been, since they put him in lower leverage work, it's been five scoreless appearances. But more than that, he's more than doubled his swinging strike rate in those five scoreless appearances. And I know we're talking about it's five relief appearances. So it's like two swinging strikes in this one, three swinging strikes.

Like obviously small samples where you could get misleading numbers. But that goes for his stretch with just the 6% swinging strike rate too. you're always dealing with small samples with relievers. It's, I don't know what else they want to see from Presley. They've talked like they eventually want to move them back in the closer role. And this would seem to present them with that opportunity. If they don't go with Presley, A, it probably means they're just done with them closing, period.

And B, could be Brad Keller. He's been interesting in their bullpen. He's throwing like three miles per hour hard. The numbers have been good. Huge ground ball rate. Missing bats, not at an amazing rate, but enough to get more than a strikeout per inning. And he might be a dark horse for saves for the Cubs. I think whoever leads the Cubs and saves at the end of the season probably isn't on the roster yet.

That might be true. To Oscar Hernandez was activated from the aisle. He was batting fifth. He went 0 for 4 with a run and an RBI. High Sung Kim will continue to see a semi-regular playing time with the Dodgers moving forward. Dave Roberts estimated three to four starts per week for Heson Kim. Excuse me. He did start.

Go ahead. He might play three to four starts per week moving forward. I don't know if any of those should be in center field. He looks really rough out there. Oh, yeah? Yeah, it's been an adventure. And he never played center field before this season. I don't think he played center field at all in Korea.

It's not really fair either, right? Someone who's coming over first season in the majors and boom. It's already tough, yeah. Well, that's because, and we brought this up last week. I mean, they have a bit of a logjam now. Edmund is back healthy. He's at second base to Oscar Hernandez in right field. Like, Andy Pa has sat out on Monday, even though he's been red hot just so they can get Hess and Kim in the lineup.

And he started in center field. So, yeah, I mean. And Dave Roberts confirmed that won't be a normal. thing. It was just a scheduled day off the way every player has a day off, I think is how he put it. But Paas is an everyday player. This one came out of nowhere. Rees Olson was placed in the aisle with a right ring finger injury. He tossed six scoreless innings in his latest start on Saturday. Casey Mize threw a five-inning simulated game on Monday and is on track to rejoin the Tigers rotation Saturday against the Guardians. Ian Hap will be activated during the Cubs current series with

the Marlins. He's eligible to return on Tuesday. And as we mentioned, I mean, probably means Moises Biosteros is headed back to the miners when that happens. Justin Verlander is dealing with a slight pectoral issue, but is optimistic he'll make his next scheduled start on Saturday against the nationals. This was one of those ones where he, I saw that he wasn't feeling well like he was ill. And that was their explanation for why he struggled and his velocity was down Sunday, I think. Like three miles per hour. Yeah, and then, oh, no, he's actually hurt. Yeah.

Feels like that happens pretty regularly. Christian Campbell has now sat out two in a row. He's healthy, but apparently the Red Sox are using this as a bit of a reset as Campbell is hitting just 085 in the month of May. And Ray's manager, Kevin Cash, said that Hassan Kim, this is going to be fun moving forward. Hassan Kim of the Reyes could begin participating in the Florida Complex League by the end of the week. He's still rehabbing from offseason shoulder surgery. Last year, hit 233, 11 homers, 22 steals, and 121 games with the Padres. Again, he was with the Padres a couple of years.

Now he's with Tampa. Hassan Kim, 15% rostered. Any interest in stashing him? It depends what kind of league you're in. If you're in the kind of league where Ezekiel Tovar is not rostered, then probably Hassan Kim doesn't need to be stashed. But if you're in this sort of league where the best shortstop on waivers as Isaiah Kiner Folefa,

then probably Hassan Kim needs to be stashed. All right, let's take our final break. When we return, we'll talk about some waiver options. Maybe some sell high candidates. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Some waiver wire hitters from Monday's action. Just want to check back in on Augustine Ramirez,

because I know we talked a lot about him when he first got called up. And I saw some people joking like, oh, he fell off the map, blah, blah, blah. But you look at it, he hit his sixth home run. he's hitting 267 he's got a 930 OPS plate discipline looks fine he's hitting the ball hard expected stats look good I mean everything looks really good to me for Augustine Ramirez and 60% rostered I know we brought up some names in one catcher leagues recently Yvonne Herrera obviously like top 10 guy needs to be rostered I get that

but once you get into that back half of the top 12 like I think I would take Ramirez over Sean Murphy at this point yeah definitely not even close like he's Sean Murphy, I'm sorry, Augustine Ramirez has hit safely in 10 of his last 12 games and like several multi-hit games in there and he's batting over 300 during that stretch.

I don't, like I understand he's not homering every other game anymore because nobody does that. You'd end up with 81 home runs if you did that. It just felt like there was commentary that he like fell off the face of the math. No, I understand. I checked and Scott's math is right on that.

by the way. Thank you. Thank you for confirming that. It's just, you know, the, the overreacting to the week to week is not something that should be happening in baseball. In football, I get it. Even in football, it's kind of, you kind of shouldn't do that, but there's only so big of the sample in football. And it's, the nature of the sport is very different. So I understand. But don't apply that same style of common. to baseball. It's just you got to at least go month to month with it, at least. I've been genuinely confused at the discourse around Augustine Ramirez that Frank is referring to.

I've seen the same thing where people were like, oh, he fell off. Oh, he's a flashing man. It's like at no point has his OPS for the season dropped below 816. This is a rookie catcher who is, I mean, look, it's all. only 23 games, but he was a top prospect. He put up good numbers in the high miners. And through his first 23 games, his OPS has not dipped below 816 at any point.

And the underlying numbers are excellent. So I don't understand why. Like he's going to, he's going to play regularly, despite them having three catchers on their roster. He's going to DH a ton. Yeah. I see no real,

reason to be skeptical of Augustine Ramirez any more than you would be skeptical of any player with a 23 game sample size, which, okay, pretty decent amount of skepticism there, but he's done about as much as you could possibly ask for. Yeah. I would rather have him than Drake Baldwin. Certainly.

I think of the like the pop-up catchers so far this season. It's only Yvonne Herrera that I'd rather have ahead of him. Yeah, I would take Ramirez ahead of Wells, Tyler Stevenson, Goodman, Murphy, Alvarez, Carson Kelly, all those names. It's unanimous. All right. Zekiel Tovar, back-to-back games with a home run.

We spoke about him quite a bit on yesterday's podcast. If you do need a shortstop replacement in shallower leagues, Tovar is the name to look at there. Taylor Ward, we mentioned earlier as well. He is in a home run binge right now, and another name that you can just kind of ride it while it's hot. Chandler Simpson did not start on Monday, but he came on as a pinch runner.

He swiped two more bags, and pretty much is doing exactly what we want. He's hitting 301, he's got 11 steals, he's got 15 runs in 26 games. His 150 game pace, 63 stolen bases for Chandler Simpson, who is 54% rostered on CBS, 26% on Yahoo. I just have to imagine there's a Head-Dead Categories League on Yahoo. There's a team in every one of those leagues that needs steals.

And so it just feels like Simpson should probably be higher rostered than 26%. But the standard Yahoo lineup is just three outfield spots, right? Yeah, but two utility as well. Yeah, even so. I can understand him getting squeezed out. Given the state of the outfield we just talked about, like if it's a head-to-head categories, that's Yahoo's primary format, right? Head-to-head categories.

Yes. I feel like it may have changed at some point. But let's say it is for the sake of argument. I know there's still a lot of those leagues on Yahoo. You're going week to week with it. Even if you're a little light on steals, you might win steals some weeks. But if you have Chandler Simpson occupying one of your three outfield spots

and only three outfield spots, it's hard to make up in the other counting stats. Home runs RBI. He's doing you a big disservice in each of those categories. So we got Austin Hayes, who we are struggling to get. into the top 50, which means in a three outfielder league, you know, he might not be on rostered in every league, everyone.

So I can understand Simpson not being either, because I'd rather have Hayes than Simpson pretty easily. All right, let's take a quick look at some deep league waiver wire hitters. Anything to these names, Hesu Sanchez had himself a big game, three for five with a sock and his shoe. He had four RBI in this one as well. Jake Myers, quietly just doing it. thing. Two for three with a sock in the shoe. He's hitting 300. He's got eight steals, three homers,

794 OPS. And Ramon Luriano has 10 hits over his last four games. He went three for four with his sixth home run. Anything to see here. Hazu Sanchez, Jake Myers, Ramon Luriano. Sanchez does at least have the fact that he's heading lead off right now against Rides. That I think makes him the most interesting of these three. who are on the whole not particularly interesting, I think. Sanchez hits Ritey's well, and as long as Xavier Edwards is out, he's going to be the leadoff hitter against Ritey's. That's what I can say about him.

I looked into Jake Myers. I don't really see much there. There's a little bit of speed, but he's just not a particularly good hitter. The strikeout rate is down quite a bit for him. And some of the underlying plate discipline stuff is a little better, but like the quality of contact is bad. the swing speed hasn't really changed. I don't see much to explain why he's been better except just kind of random variance.

And so I think he's a low enough player on the totem pole that you can probably just mostly write it off. And then Ramon Luriano had like 600 OPS five days ago. So I think it's just a hot streak here. And maybe the hot streak will last a month and he'll be useful for that month. But I don't see much reason to think Ramon Luriano is worth running out and adding. So he played, Luriano played about 70 games in Atlanta last year, close to a half season of nearly every day at bats. After he got off to a terrible start with Cleveland, wasn't playing that regularly. He ended up on the Braves to help with their depleted outfield.

In that 67 game sample with the Braves, Ramon Luriano hit 296 with 10 homers and 832 OPS. And he's had some interesting moments in the past for fantasy. It looks like at least right now with Tyler O'Neill down, he's an everyday player for the Orioles. And he's hitting well. It would have to be a deep league to look into Luriano, given everything I just said about the state of the outfield right now. Like he's well outside the top 60.

But he's at least in the top 80-90 discussion now and in certain leagues, I think Luriano has some relevance. All right. What about some deep league infielders here? Miguel Amaya might be legit good. I don't know. Two for three with his fourth home run. He's hitting 287.

He's got an 852 OPS. Also has the fourth most RBI among catchers this season. Edmundo Sosa had a big game in Cores Field, four for five with his first home run. And I mean, the biggest thing about his fantasy value is that he's stopping Bryce and Stott from being an everyday. player and I mean I get it Sosa's destroying left-handed pitching he's having lefties really well yeah yeah it's just kind of annoying for for those who have Bryson Stott and

Nolan Shenuel three for four with his third home run and hitting for a bunch of batting average lately but we know that there's really not much else in the profile any interest in Amaya Sosa no one Chenuel so if Amaya could become the full-time primary catcher for the Cubs, then I think he would be interesting. And that was the plan coming into the season. It's just Carson Kelly got off to such a good start that they had to give him more at bats. It's basically a 50-50 split right now. And Kelly, let me see, yeah, he's been cooling off.

That batting average is all the way down to 286 now. And I think in the long run, if Kelly continues to cool as I would expect, then maybe Amaya could get more like a two-third share there behind the plate and become pretty interesting at that point, probably still just in the domain of two catcher leagues because catchers so deep this year. But I was careful. I have Amaya as my second catcher in a couple of deep roto leagues,

and I resisted dropping him for Dalton Varsho or Moises by Astero's, even though they were the hot catcher names of the moment. Because that's, I think, Amai. is going to be useful, more useful in the long run. Yeah, Dalton rushing. Did I say Dalton Varshow? Man.

He hasn't been catch-re eligible in like three years. There's a day when I will stop doing that, but it's probably a long way off, unfortunately. The problem for Nolan-Shanuel is how many leagues are OBP leagues? He's a legitimately very good source of OBP. Even last year where he wasn't all that good overall, he has 3.43 OPP. He walks a lot. It's just, that's kind of all he does.

I know right now his batting average is okay, but I think he's probably more like a 250, 260 hitter. And that's, I have a little more hope for the batting average because he is genuinely hitting the ball harder this year, average and max. In fact, the double he hit in this game here Monday, so over 106 miles per hour, Just that double would have been the hardest hit ball from his first two seasons. So he has gotten those exit velocities up.

They're still pretty lame by first base standards, but they're better. They're not so embarrassing for Nolan Shanuel anymore. And he has a very high line drive rate. He has a good tendency to hit the ball to all fields, which is good for batting average. and doesn't strike out much. So like those three things, line drives, all fields approach,

low strikeout rate, they're generally going to lead to a good batting average. But with 12 to 15 homers at a position that really relies on power, Shannonuell strikes me as a good AL only player, like one who you can get for cheap and plug them in your lineup

and the numbers will help to sustain you. But there just isn't the upside for, standard fantasy league play, I would say. At least last season he had 11 steals, but he's not running this year as well. So, yeah. All right, two names, waiver wire pitchers here, two very deep names. I don't know if either of these matter. You guys tell me, Colton Gordon, a solid outing at Tampa Bay,

five and a third, three runs, seven strikeouts. That's Colton Gordon of the Astros, by the way. So a very deep league name there, only 6% rostered. And Davis Martin of the White Sox pitched very well against the Mariners, seven and a third, two runs, three strikeouts. And he's got a 349 ERA 127 whip, but not many strikeouts at all. Do either of these names matter anywhere?

Inhale only. Definitely. Yeah, that's about it, right? I cannot get excited about either of these names. Fair enough. Are either of these two sell high pitchers? Nicola Dolo, look great at the Pirates, six innings, one run, seven strikeouts,

so one walk, 12 whiffs on 89 pitchers. pitches changed up the pitch mix again in this one. It was more changeups and sinkers, less fastballs and curves. I just can't really figure out Nick Ladolo, and maybe that's not a good enough reason to sell high on him. Maybe you just kind of write it out, but he's been a confusing pitcher all season long. And then the other one is, well, I think you're, you're misstating the case, though. The case for Nick Ladolo being a sell high candidate is not he's hard to figure out. the case is that he's not getting strikeouts this season, at least not near the level that we've seen in years past

when we've been excited about Nick Lodolo. He had seven strikeouts today. He has three starts with more than six strikeouts. He has four starts with more than four strikeouts. The whiff rate on his curveball is still way lower than it's been in the past. The whiff rate on his four seamer also much lower. with rate on his changeup also lower everything looks worse right now he he had a 408 xERA entering today so it's not like nick ludolo looks like a disaster but but he's getting away with it

he can't keep getting away with it and he pitches in the second worst home ballpark for a pitcher in baseball to the point where you would expect him to underperform his xERA so if his xERA is around four you would think 410, 415, but also if he's a 20% strikeout rate guy, that's just a pretty boring profile. I'm not saying you should drop Nicodolo, but sell high. I absolutely think you should be trying to sell high right now.

Yes. I mean, you mentioned the strikeouts are down and going even deeper. The curveball is not right. And that's why, Frank, he keeps changing his pitch mix because he's searching for something that works, but it does feel very much like,

Nicola Dolo has gotten away with it to this point. And maybe he rediscovers the curveball. And he goes on to have the, you know, for the final two-thirds of the season, he has a, he's a big breakout pitcher. But I don't think what he's banked so far is evidence of a breakout, which makes him a sell high. Absolutely. What about Luis Castillo, who was great at the White Sox seven shutout innings with five strikeouts?

He had 11 whiffs on 94 pitches, still allowed 10 hard hits. this game against that White Sox lineup. And the whiff rates are down quite a bit on the fastball and slider. The velocity continues to trend down on that fastball. But he does, you know, he's allowed one-earned runner fewer in four of his last five starts. So coming off a nice stretch and obviously a great start against a great matchup, would you guys be looking to cash out on Luis Castillo right now? My only problem is everybody was out on.

Castillo coming into the season and nobody was excited about him at all. And so I don't know if a 320 ERA with 7K per 9 is enough for people to buy in on Luis Castillo. I don't think Luis Castillo is like a top, he might not even be a top 40 pitcher for me at this point just because the strikeout skills have really declined. I just don't know if any. anyone's really excited about Luis Castillo. That's my concern, I guess.

I think with the kind of people we play against, that's probably true. But leagues with casuals, they're not going to look that deep into the numbers. They're just going to see he's producing. And certainly if he has some name value like Luis Castillo does, they're going to, there's a good chance they'll go along with it.

I'm not talking about the people listening. because I know the people listening aren't casuals, but a lot of people listening play with people who don't want to invest an hour a day in a fantasy baseball podcast. It stands to reason that most people playing fantasy baseball are not investing an hour a day in a fantasy baseball podcast.

I don't, I wish they were. That would be great for us, but I don't think they are. And so I think if you're playing against those people, there's a good chance you could sell high on Luis Castillo. And yes, that's worth doing. By the way, it is worth noting to go back to Nick Ladolo,

the change in his his pitch profiles today, the pirates didn't have a single lefty in the lineup. So throwing more change-ups, that's what you would expect against a right-handed heavy lineup. He has not thrown a change-up to a lefty all season. So, yes, you would expect

Lodolo to throw his change-up more against a right-e-only lineup. he has thrown it more against righties than his change, than his curveball so far this season. So that probably explains the pitch mix difference for Lodolo. Just wanted to get that in there. Some hitting leftovers here, Cedric Mullins, one for three with a sock and a shoe,

his 10th home run, his seventh steel. Bryce Terang, who was slowing down a bit in May, had a big game, two for four with a double and his 13th steel. Kyle Schwabber hit his 16th home run, the 300th of his career. Alec Bone looks to be picking things up, hit his third home run, and in his last 25 games hitting 333 with an OPS near 900. I know Lordus Geryl hit a home run in that late game.

Mookie Betts hit two homers. Otani hit his league leading 17th home run. He's, I think I heard on the broadcast. He has 11 home runs in his past 19 games, which is just kind of crazy and Otani type stuff. But any names stand out here, anything to add? Well, I've been struggling with what to do with Cedric Mullins in my rankings because he crashed pretty hard. And to be fair, the expected stats didn't really back up what he was doing at his best. So maybe it was inevitable.

Obviously, his track record is what it is. And while the steals are always good, the home runs are usually pretty decent for a speedster, the batting average is never anything special. And so that's probably where this season is headed for Cedric Mullins too. And I think there's a pretty big disparity between his Roto and points league value. But even in Roto, I'm struggling to keep him in the top 36, I would say, given all those other interesting outfielders. Did want to mention with Lordes Gurell, in April hit 174 with a 528 OPS. In May, it's $299 with a 970 Ops.

he has really turned things around. Some pitching leftovers. Christopher Sanchez turned in a quality start at the Rockies. He had seven strikeouts in that one. Kodaisanga, a quality start at the Red Sox. Six innings, three runs, five strikeouts, but he also has three or more walks in three of his last four starts.

Mitch Keller, a tough luck loss against the Reds, six innings, two runs, one of those earned with five strikeouts. Brandon Fott had a quality start at the Dodgers, but also had zero strikeouts there. Ryan Pepio, a pretty ugly quality start as well against the Astros. I noticed the whiff rates for Pepio and his strikeout rate in general is down quite a bit. And yeah, I think that could be a result of not pitching in Tropicana Field. Yeah, no, I mean, that was one of the things that we flagged coming in is that

a lot of the raised pitchers, but especially Ryan Pepio, really relied on a lot of whiffs with the four seam. and I was ready to have Ryan Pepeo as a breakout candidate coming into the season until they changed venues. And then because Tropicana has had, we've talked a lot about it this offseason, but if anybody forgot, Tropicana has shown really extreme impacts on pitch movement, specifically for seamers. Guys tend to get more induced vertical break. They tend to get more whiffs with when they're pitching at Tropicana versus anywhere else. You see it with visiting pitchers. You've seen it with

raised pitchers. It's been a consistent factor for a long time. So Pepio was one of the more one of the more reliant pitchers on their four seamer for strikeouts last season. And yeah, it's not surprising that his strikeout rates taking a turn for the worse. All right. The call to the bullpen here for the Red Sox I rolled his Chapman picked up his seventh save for the Marlins I don't know.

I kind of feel like the Tanoco thing is just done already because he came in in the sixth inning with a three-run lead facing the heart of the Cubs lineup. He gave up four earned runs and took his second blown save. The Marlins did wind up winning, but the usage is just terrible. For the Astros, Josh Hader,

picked up his 12th save. For the Mariners, Andres Munoz, picked up his 15th, which is tied for the league lead with Robert Suarez. For the Brewers, Trevor McGill picked up his seventh save for the Rockies. Seth Halverson came in in the eighth inning

with a one-run lead. He was charged with four runs on five hits and took his second blown save first loss. Do not talk to me about the Rockies closers ever again. Just I do not care. None of them are good.

And they're on a historically bad team. I have, I want no more mention of the ninth inning for the Rockies, the rest of the season. So I write a bullpen report every week where I look at the 10, usually it's the 10 closer scenarios that are most in flux. White Sox and Rockies have basically been in flux all season, and I've just, I've just stopped addressing them. It's not, it's not worth it. Because there's

nobody's good enough and they're not going to get enough save chances anyway. So why bother? And I'm getting close to doing that with the Marlins too. Yeah, no, like I just, don't, I don't care. Like, Calvin Foshae, Hazers, Tonoco, Anthony, but like, these aren't good pitchers. They have. I know somebody has to get saves. And the Marlins are probably like a 65 to 70 win team where the Rockies might,

Rockies might actually be like a 45 win team. So like there will probably be 10 to 15 more saves with the Marlins and the Rockies. But I just don't care very much. For now, I'm continuing to address the Marlins situation, because I think they have good enough pitching that if they could ever settle on. Like, Tonoco had the blown save, and then he came back the very next day with a scoreless night that got the save. And it's like, oh, look, they're finally settling on Tonoco. And then his last two appearances have come prior to the eighth, much less the ninth. So I'm guessing at this point, Anthony Bender, who has like a 180 ERA, albeit with not so great strikeout and walk rates.

I'm guessing Bender would be the first choice now, but it's almost like they're actively not trying to choose somebody. The biggest thing for me with the Marlins guys is they're just all so bad. I just have no faith in any of them. Yeah. For the Royals, Carlos Estevez picked up his 14th save all the way up to 14 already. Good for him. For the D-backs, Shelby Miller got the final out for his fifth save.

and for the Angels, Kenley Jansen picked up his ninth save of the season. To stream or not to stream on Tuesday, and as we mentioned yesterday, this was a pretty good day here. We have Will Warren up against the Rangers, Nick Martinez at the Pirates, James and Tyone at the Marlins,

Ryan Weathers, home against the Cubs, Logan Henderson, home against the Orioles, Hayden Birdsong, home against the Royals, Gunner, Hoagland, home against the Angels. Yeah, we liked Tuesday's streamer selection, when we talked about it yesterday.

I think I went with Logan Henderson against the Orioles first, then Nick Martinez at Pittsburgh. But I also like James and Tion. I like Tion more than Martinez personally. I like Martinez more, but yeah, sure. They're both plenty startable. I'm not opposed to starting Birdsong against Kansas City. I just think it might be a four-inning start.

coming out of the bullpen transitioning from the bullpen Zach Lattel against the Astros probably going to turn out to be a quality start there's there's there's a will Warren against the Rangers I think is interesting it's kind of like Birdsong it's

there's a good chance it's on the shorter side I actually like Hoagland a lot too I think I would try to him put him thorough on that list behind Henderson and Nick Martinez for me and then on Wednesday we have Andrew Heaney's against the Reds.

Kate Horton is at the Marlins. Tomoyuki Sugano is at the Brewers. We have Andre Palante, home against the Tigers. Shane Smith, home against the Mariners. Logan Evans is at the White Sox. JP Sears, home against the Angels. This is significantly less interesting. Milwaukee's been a pretty mediocre offense,

especially at home. They actually have been the worst offense in baseball at home, which is pretty surprising because it's not a bad place to hit. So I can see Sugano continuing to get away with it at Milwaukee. I could also see him giving up four home runs. The way his seasons worked out, it would be four solo home runs. I think Sugano might be the most interesting of this group, though. I go Shane Smith over him.

Shane Smith, Sugano, and then third would be Kate Horton just because he's at Miami. Yeah, I mean, J.P. Sears versus L.A. is not horrible. The Angels. Oh, yeah. That's pretty good. Dodgers. Yeah. But I don't love any of these. guys. All right, let's wrap up with some team name Tuesday, and these are from Owen on X. Bulls on

parades. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Cease and the sticks. Sure. What's the sticks? Who is you referring to? I assumed it was like a cease and desist, but the other ones are musical related, So I don't know. Well, no, I guess, no. I think that's just a pun. But because bats are called sticks. Okay. Because it's reference to baseball bats being sticks.

Okay. Maybe. And of Rice and Ben. Yeah. This one's from Jake and Casey. A bird song in the head. Kind of reminds me of Uncle Ben's rice. Yeah.

Baseball player Ben Rice. I don't know why I haven't made that connection before. I have thought about that, too. From Jake and Casey, a bird song in the hand is worth two in the bush. You know, I hate cramming multiple names into a team name, but I think this works because Bush doesn't make you, like it doesn't, it's not like a slight re-pronunciation of the word, you know, so it doesn't slow you, just the bird song slowing you down as you read through it.

And you know, if Jason Worth and Brad Hand were both playing and even better, I get four names in there. Jeez, that's like, that's like your kryptonite, Scott. These are from Ryan Rice Cole Miller. Sure. And, oh, I guess, do I have to do this? Sung to the tune of... I like this one because it's also a dumb pun.

Yeah. In addition, do you want me? I'll sing it. You got it. Go for it. To the tune of Creep by Radiohead. I'm a door. I'm a window.

Because I do you all, I'm a door. I like that one. That's a good one. It's bad, but I like it. Yes, he was certain that you would both hate it. These are from Matt. Mitch Spence, None the Richer. These were 100% sent for me.

I didn't see the email, but I can confirm. I don't know if you guys know any of these bands, but these are all great. I've heard of the last one. You have heard Sixpence, None the Richer. that they they sang kiss me and there she goes late 90s she's all that soundtrack I think you know those ones yeah

Snell and Sebastian yep yep band of horses yep yep and death cab for mookie yep and that's the one I've heard of QD instead of mooky would not have thought Scott would know death cab for cutie not not on my bingo card

yeah this one's from Andrew Field of Seams. Sure. This one's from Jason. Here are two Simpson-themed team names. Shelbyville Nine. Yep. And so here's how you improve this one.

Shelby Mill, nine. Boom. And I don't know. Is there something I need to do with this last one? Because it just kind of seems like it's Scott's song. Caminero endorsed by a clown, but it might be a synthesis thing that I don't understand. It's kind of mixing the original song with the endorsed by a clown line

with my Cominero parody in place of Canyonero. Yeah. I don't know. Nice. Good try, Jason. I appreciate the effort. Do you want to sing it, Scott? Because he says you have to sing it to the Canyonero theme.

It doesn't really, they endorsed by a clown. It's like speak singing, you know, as a country fraud truck, endorsed by a clown. Except I can't remember what that transnational. translates to in my parody. God. You know, I just got to give a shout out to someone in the chat who dropped a, uh, a murder of Crow Armstrongs.

That's a good one. That's a good team name. Way to go. Whoever had said that one. I can't. I lost it already. I actually, in my home league,

I don't think I brought this one up. I have, uh, baby got Shwell and Vock. So. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Why not? Let's do it. Yeah. 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. Paramount Podcasts.