Fantasy Baseball Today - Michael Busch Breakout! Nick Lodolo & Max Meyer Impress (4/15 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 15, 2024

Michael Busch has homered in four straight games (2:10)! ... Colton Cowser continues to crush it (8:55). ... MacKenzie Gore is off to a great start (10:50). ... Let's rank six breakout pitchers from early in the season (13:25). ... Max Meyer or Gavin Stone (22:55)? ... Spencer Strider is out for the season (28:44). ... News (30:48): Bobby Miller went on the IL with a shoulder injury. ... Lars Nootbaar is back (44:01)! ... Any interest in Paul Blackburn or Javier Assad (51:50)? What about Yariel Rodriguez and Jose Butto? ... Start or sit Kevin Gausman, Blake Snell and Jesus Luzardo this week (57:42)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:00:20). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Well, fantasy! Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Hello, and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Monday. April 15th.

I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we're going to recap all of this weekend's action breakouts, all over the place. Breakout hitters, breakout pitchers, the latest we ever wire ads, and much more. But let's just get right into it. Holy cow. How about that? How about that, Scott? You know what that is? That is a Chicago Cubs call that means there's only one place we could start. You are up, my friend. Michael Bush, baby. The breakout has happened. You are too late to, no, you're not too late to Adam. He's only 65% right. rostered on CBS.

But that's a lot more. That's up like 5% just since this afternoon. Yeah, that's gone. It's going up quickly because Michael Bush has homered in four consecutive games. And he's up to five on the year. And his stat pass, his stat cast page is all plastered with red. The exit velocity readings are amazing.

He's shown excellent plate discipline, just like he did throughout his minor league career high walk rate. and the strikeout rates actually not as high as it looked earlier in the year. And it's all been very impressive. It's all reminiscent of what we saw in the minor leagues where he'd need some time to adjust to a new level. But once he got adjusted, he would take off with numbers that were just positively bonkers. And I'm hopeful that that's what we're seeing now.

a couple of specific observations from this weekend with Michael Bush. So one of the things I read the Cubs were working on with him this spring was catching up to high fastball specifically. He was a little late on those during his time in the majors last year, which they were saying is a common problem with players who bat opposite what they throw. Bush throws right-handed, bats left-handed. one of his home runs the one off Ryan Stanick, the Mariners reliever,

99 miles per hour up in the zone. He cranked it out. The other one to just tear on Sunday was a very like a towering home run that I heard the broadcast from both the home team and the away team broadcast and they both off the bat. They were acting like,

I'm not sure if this is going to go, is it going to sneak over? And it was like beyond the whole first section of seats. He hit it so hard for as high as he hit it, that it had all the broadcasters completely fooled. It was almost 109 miles per hour off the bat. So they're not just home runs. They're impressive home runs that Michael Bush is hitting. And as I said, this is after a stellar minor league career.

And, you know, I wish I was more invested in him. I know I was one of the bigger optimists, but you get to a point where like nobody's drafting the guy and you kind of get suckered into not drafting him either. I have him in a few places. Don't give me wrong, but I wish I had him in more. I could have had him everywhere as late as he was going.

And it was always baffling to me because I don't know. It's just like everybody decided, well, if he hasn't made it by age 26, he's never going to make it. And that seemed to be the whole reasoning because I think people were more excited about Michael Bush heading into last season when he didn't even have a job than this season

when he was coming off his best minor league season and he finally had a job but I'll admit like I didn't rank him super aggressively in part because of his age

and the fact that the Dodgers seemingly gave up on him you know they didn't get very much in return for him and but I think what happened there I didn't perceive it as the Dodgers giving up on him because they we had just last

year at the deadline there was like this team is asking for michael bush and the dodgers aren't willing to part with michael bush like that that happened a few times during michael bush's long delay in the miners where the dodgers resisted trading him i think it finally got to the point and it was because they couldn't find a position for him they tried him at second base they tried him and then left field at third base they obviously couldn't stick him to first base because they had freddie freeman and i think it got to a point this off season where they extended max munsey and they're like, okay, we're just going to waste this guy if we don't get anything for him now.

So they accepted two distant minor leaguers for him from the Cubs, which is kind of an odd trade. You don't see two future assets exchanged like that very often. But I think that was the Dodgers thinking. It's just like, we got to cash in now. I mean, we wanted this to work, but we just got to cash in it. And what I was going to say is I still ended up drafting him in a decent number of spots. he's, I think, single-handedly put Scott in last place in the Memorial Magazine, because I've been in last place the entire season.

And I think I moved up from like last place and home runs to fourth this week, in large part, thanks to Michael Bush. But what you said about the fastball is borne out in the numbers. He had a 217 X Wobah against fastball's last season. It's up to 533 so far. And he's seeing more fastball, 60% fastball rate. so far this year, there will be an adjustment, right? Like, he's struggled against off-speed pitches as well. It's a very small sample size in both seasons.

He'll probably start to see more of those because that's the one thing he's crushed breaking balls both years. And so that's the one thing we haven't seen from him yet is hitting changeups and splitters and stuff like that. So that'll be the next thing. But yeah, right now it's all systems go. Michael Bush has to be in all lineups, should be 100% rostered after this week for sure. This will be a big test this week because the Cubs are in line to face four lefties in seven games. They've only faced two lefties all season. And Bush was out of the lineup for one of those.

I don't think he's going to be out of the lineup. Maybe he'll sit against one of the four lefties this week. But I think the Cubs are motivated to get him in the lineup now, obviously. You look at the minor league splits. I looked at the last two seasons at least. And he's pretty good for a left-handed hitter against left-handed pitchers. So I don't imagine that's going to be what sinks him, but it's so early in his major league career.

It's obviously he wouldn't be the first young left-handed hitter to get tripped up by that. So big test for him this week. But I agree, if you haven't added him yet, add him. And I've also moved him up to number two in my sleeper hitters for this week. Again, that is Michael Bush. He is 65% rostered. And, yeah, Scott, you agree that he should be close to 100%

even in like points leagues, just find a way to get them on your roster? I mean, when the rubber meets the road, somebody might suggest a move that I have to say no to, but I can't think of another hitter available on waiver wires that I'd rather pick up right now. Let me ask you about one name. I don't know how he's not out there in many leagues anymore. But Colton Couser just continues to tear it up. Two for three with his third home run on Friday, started Saturday against a lefty. We didn't know if he would be in the lineup that day.

He went one for four with his second steel And then hit another home run on Sunday I think Austin Hayes just got Wally Pipped Yeah, I mean but but what's funny about Kouser starting against the left-hander it was actually Cedric Mullins that was out of the line up against the left-hander Hayes did get a start yeah so bad news for Cole bad news for Cedric Mullins too that Colton Couser is breaking out

Would you guys rather have Kouser or or Bush? I think I'd go Kouser but that's that's real tough they are so fun must add yes it's closer in points leagues because bush is going to walk a lot and cows are probably going to strike out a lot and cows are going to still more bases so that should make you better in roto bases five outfield or spots presumably in a roto league so there there may be some format dependent obviously if you have a different positional need then then that might be the tiebreaker too yeah i i extended my

my beloved Jurassic Park analogy slash metaphor or whatever in Friday's newsletter because sometimes life finds a way through injuries and sometimes the freaking raptors are testing the fences

to find weak spots and that's what Colton Couser just did he just found a weak spot in the fence he broke through it that's how life found away there it's not just a one way metaphor or analogy I don't know The week was, yeah.

The weak spot was Austin Hayes. Yeah. And I totally understand that analogy because I love Jurassic Park. Let's go from one breakout hitter, or I guess two breakout hitters now in Bush and Kouser, to a breakout pitcher, one that we've talked a lot about, Chris Europe. Mackenzie Gore looks really, really cool right now. His fastball velocity was actually down a little bit in this start from the first couple, but still up 1.3 miles per hour.

and he got 12 whiffs with this. It was against the A's caveat there is needed, but 20 whiffs on 90 pitches for McKenzie Gore, matched a career high with 11 strikeouts and five innings, one walk. He's been so impressive, I think, in all of his starts, even though I don't think he has a quality start yet, which is a little annoying, I think, more than anything.

But, yeah, what we're seeing from McKenzie Gore right now is, best fastball of his career by far. The velocity is up one and a half to two miles per hour from last year. Movement profile looks a lot better. He's spotting it up in the zone really well. Slider, it's more of like a gyro, kind of more of a cutter than a slider at this point. And then he's throwing his change up. He threw it less in this start than he had his first two, but still seven changeups

would have been a lot for last season. He had thrown it like 15 to 17 times his first two starts. So got multiple whiffs with all. of his pitches, 12 with that fastball, like I said. I don't know. I mean, I guess the one caveat with everyone is he's throwing harder. He throws 98 miles an hour now. What if he gets hurt?

That's a concern with everyone. But I don't know. Mackenzie Gore looks like he's becoming the guy that everyone hoped he would be when he was the top pitching prospect in baseball at one point. All right. I'm going to give you guys the impossible task of ranking all of these breakout pitchers. who pitched pretty well this weekend. Reed Detmer's,

six and a third shotout innings, seven strikeouts at the Red Sox. Christopher Sanchez turned in his first quality start up against the Pirates. It was six innings, two runs, six strikeouts in that one. Bryce Miller, back-to-back quality starts for him.

Six and a third innings, one unearned run with four strikeouts, 14 swinging strikes in that start. Nick Lodolo returned with a bang. At the White Sox, five and two-thirds, shutout innings, one hit, one walk,

10 strikeouts. Renel Blanco, it's now three straight quality starts for him, and he's now done it two times in a row against the Texas Rangers, which is incredibly impressive. And then the aforementioned McKenzie Gore. So that is six names that you have to rank. I rattle them off again real quick. I will rattle them off.

Detmer's, Christopher Sanchez, Bryce Miller, Nick Ladolo, Ronell Blanco, McKenzie Gore. All right, so I think I go. I'm looking at my roto rankings and this was before their most recent starts but they were all good so I don't think it changes much I had it

Miller Gore Detmers those three are all top 50 starting pitchers for me then I had there's one who definitely moved up this weekend yeah Lodolo was 58 before this start I think he's got to be

top 50 after this then gosh I thought I had the names hand ready and which ones are my missing. Sanchez and Blanco. I think there's a drop after that. I don't know if you guys agree. I found Christopher Sanchez kind of underwhelming this season.

The control hasn't been what we hoped it would be and it hasn't come with like a giant increase in whiffs to make up for it. So that's a little bit disappointing. I still think he should be rostered in all formats. But it's Sanchez and then Blanco for me. I don't know. I mean, yes, San, like, can come up with four pitchers on this list I like more than Christopher Sanchez and they are in order

redetmers nick lodolo mackenzie gore after this most recent start i'm going to move him up to third on that list and Bryce Miller those are the top four i'll go Christopher Sanchez fifth and and ronel blanco sixth i'm just trying to decide if i agree with the sentiment that i found Christopher Sanchez to be a little underwhelming the walker hasn't been as good. The control hasn't been as good. And that was a concern as he was attempting to throw harder and he has been throwing harder. But I mean his start Friday was good. It was a good start. It's the Pirates. 14 whiffs on 91 pitches, one run

in six innings. In fact, two of his three starts have been good. Yeah, his three starts have been good. Yeah. I'm saying relative to expectations, right? Because he had this big improvement in control. last year. We had this, one, the new cutter and then two,

the increase in velocity. The hope, I think, was that either he would sustain the improved control and have this increased velocity that made him harder to hit and help him

pick up a few more strikeouts, or that if he lost the control, he could go back to throwing a little less hard and get the control back. And so far, it's kind of just been like neither of those.

He hasn't been bad. It's a 350 ERA and two out of three good starts. It's just underwhelming. I mean, he was like the 70th pitcher, starting pitcher drafted on average. Yeah, I I still think he's lived up to that.

Right. Right. Right. No, I mean more like what like the breakout talk that we have specifically on this, but I don't think he was like, I think we liked him more than most. Okay. Mm-hmm. I would agree with that on Sanchez. Anything else to you guys? Like, we didn't really talk about Lodolo here, but obviously we should. It was first start back, he had 16 swinging strikes on 91 pitches. It was against the White Sox, and that lineup is completely depleted.

I mean, it wasn't very good coming into the season. It's even worse now. I mean, Gavin Sheets is by far the best hitter in that lineup right now. I guess Andrew Vaughn, I don't know. Yeah, it's pretty gross. Probably Vaughn. It's, it's, it was a bad lineup to begin with, and it's without, it's only two good hitters. So, um, I'm usually not one to hold the opposition.

against a pitcher who has a good start against it. There's probably a better way to word that. You know, sometimes you're like, hey, look at this amazing start. And a thousand people will respond with, look at the opponent. Like, that's, like, they weren't facing a major league team, one of the 30 best teams in the world.

But the White Sox might not be one of the best teams in the world. Yeah, there are Norfolk Tides right now versus Chicago White Sox. Having said that, Nicolodolo's pitch selection of velocity were all very similar to before the leg injury and whatever you want to say about how he performed in 2023 getting strikeouts was not a problem

and he got a ton of strikeouts and a ton of whiffs and that's what I care about most from a starting pitcher. So I was very impressed by Nicola Dolo. Obviously he moves... It's between him and Max Meyer which pitcher gained the most in the rankings this weekend. I would say,

but I would prefer Nicolodolo between the two. I think there's a chance he has a huge breakout this year. That's what a lot of people were predicting for him going into last year. Where would you rank Derek Crochet among that group?

Owee. Because he had a bad start, his first bad start. Still a ton of strikeouts, yeah. He pitches for a bad team. It's not going to get much run support. He has some of the clearest durability concerns

of this group, I would say, probably the most severe durability. And just none of the other guys have, like Max Meyer probably has an innings limit coming off Tommy John's surgery, but like Crochet might throw 100 innings this season, even if he stays healthy. I'm tempted to keep Garrett Grochet.

Like my initial instinct is to keep Garrett Crochet at the top of this list of all these pitchers we're talking about. Detmerz, La Dolo, who else? McKinsey Gore. My initial instinct is to keep Garrett Crochet ahead of all of them. But it kind of feels like a college football

ranking thing, you know, where like, well, we had Oklahoma ranked fourth at the start. So we can't have this team that we ranked eighth at the start overtake Oklahoma when Oklahoma hasn't lost yet. You know what I'm saying? Like just... Yeah, Crochet has the advantage of incumbency.

I think Crochet is maybe the heart. hardest player to value in fantasy right now. Yeah. Because he might be a top 20 starting pitcher. On a per inning basis, yeah. But he's not going to be a top 20 starting pitcher the rest of the way. And every start he makes, he becomes less valuable because he has a finite number of inning.

I mean, I guess every pitcher does. But his is a presumably a really low number because he's only thrown 85 innings since 2020. All right. So here's the exact numbers on Garrett Crochet from Saturday. He allowed five earn runs and four and two, third zinnings, walk three, struck out 10. It wasn't a great start.

Everything was down one to one and a half miles per hour. And yet, he still had the 10 strikeouts. He still had 15 swinging strikes on 92 pitches. His ERA is up to 357 now, but that's to go with a 244 X-FIP and a 158 XERA. So, like, Garrett Crochet has outperformed his ERA significantly at this point as, as good as we already thought he was. and I can't confidently say he's going to be better than Detmer's and Nicolodolo from this point forward, especially when you take into account the team

context, but I just, the kind of, is it four starts he's had so far? I think so, yeah. The four starts he's had so far have just been too good, I think, for me to drop him behind those, even with sort of the tangential concerns there for Garrett Crochet. All right, let's take our first break when we return. We will talk about Max Meyer here on Fantasy Baseball today. Welcome back in. Let's talk about some waiver wire pitchers.

Max Meyer at the top of that list, he's turned in back-to-back quality starts. This one was against the Atlanta Braves. Six innings, one run, seven strikeouts to zero walks, 23 swinging strikes on 91 pitches. 12 of those came on the slider, seven on the fastball. Four on the change-up. He did allow some hard contact, but man, he just leaned all the way into that slider. 54% usage on that pitch, and it was awesome in this start.

He has allowed two earned runs or fewer in all three starts. It's a 2-1-2 ERA. It's a 0.82 whip, 54% rostered. Max Meyer, do you emerge from this weekend saying he is the top waiver wire ad among pitchers that are, you know, like 75% roster to list? What's Lodolo? Yeah, that's the problem. So Lodolo is 79, McKenzie Gore, 74.

Gavin Stone is 68. Myers 52. I would put him right there with like, I think Javier Assad's been pretty impressive. I think Spencer Turnbull has been pretty impressive, but he wasn't good this week. I'd probably take Max Meyer over both of those guys, but I think, you know, the team contacts for both Assad,

also being a SPARP helps. Yeah, I think could make it close. I don't think those guys are especially good. I mean, I know they've been good, but I don't. I'm interested in Turnbull. This new sweeper, the team context, we'll see if he stays in the rotation. I mean, he wasn't very good this weekend. Yeah, no, his most recent.

He had two good starts, and then he had a bad start this weekend. I actually took him out of my sleeper pitchers for this upcoming week, even though he's facing the white socks. I'm not saying he's not a sleeper pitcher anymore, but I had others that I wanted to get in there. Instead, and, you know, obviously Turnbull hasn't been good for most of them. his career to this point. But no, getting back to Max Meyer. So like I was saying earlier, it's between him and Nicolodolo, which starting pitcher moves up most in my rankings based on this weekend. They're two of the biggest risers. Max Meyer's first two starts were solid, but less than a

strikeout per inning. You know, the whiff rate was okay. And in the two starts, Max Meyer had a 10% swinging strike rate. That's actually not very good. So I wasn't totally sold on Max Meyer, But for him to do this against the Atlanta offense, 23 swinging strikes on 91 pitches, he got 12 on the slider, seven on the fastball, four on the change up, which he threw only 15% of the time. And because of that, because he got all those whiffs on all those different pitches, now for the year, Max Meyer, both of his off-speed pitches, both the change-up and the slider, have a 40% whiff rate or better.

Two pitches with a whiff rate that high is rarely seen. and this is from pitcher who throws very hard too is capable of getting some swinging strikes on the fastball as well so I mean he's going to run into workload issues eventually too will Max Meyer but I think this start

for sure locked him up as a member of the Marlins rotation as others start returning from injury and I think this was the first start where he showed us the extent of his upside and considering it was just his third start back from Tommy John surgery? Something to get excited about.

I think I would take both Ladolo and Gore ahead of Meyer. How about you, Scott? I would too. Yeah. And their roster rates reflect that, right? What's Gore at? Gore is at 75 and LaDolo's at 79. Max Meyer, much more available, 54%. I don't think I'd take him over Gavin Stone either.

But he's like right there. He's right at that level on the rankings now for me, which, so I take him over like Luis Heel, I think, who's looked good with the strikeouts so far. So I had a trio of starting pitchers that were under 70% rostered. Meyer, Gavin Stone, and Andrew Abbott. They all pitched well this weekend. Chris, how would you rank those three? I think I would go Stone, Meyer, Abbott.

Me too. I think Abbott's performance this weekend probably assured he stays in the rotation because they have to bump somebody with Nick Lodolo back. I guess Nick Martinez, who has some relief experience, would make the most sense. I think they already announced that, too. They already announced that, yeah. Okay. But like, there are some, if you don't have an IL spot, would you drop Kyle Bradish to pick up Max Meyer?

Well, probably not with Bradish starting a rehab assignment now. I guess that's going to take a while. What? Yeah. But you've gone this far with Bradish. I think I'd have a difficult time pulling the plug on that. would you drop Brandon Fott? Yes, easily.

I wasn't the biggest fought guy to begin with. Who'd you say, Chris? Charlie Morton. Yeah, I'd drop Morden for Meyer. Yeah. Eduardo Rodriguez. Yeah. At the setback.

Nestor Cortez and Luis Severino. Yes. To both. I think that's fine. I'm pretty excited about Meyer. I would actually put him ahead of Gavin Stone. Stone took a perfect game into the sixth inning in the start this start. He wound up with a quality start,

six and two thirds, two runs allowed, four strikeouts, 14 swinging strikes. But overall, I mean, he's been a little underwhelming, I guess, so far. The swinging strike rate is still really good. I like both. I mean, they obviously both had a lot of prospect pedigree, but I just think I like what I've seen more from Max Meyer. It is close between both of those two names. Let's get into, gosh, there's so much news and no. from the weekend. We should probably mention Spencer Shreder is out for the year. I mean, we had

suspicions, but now it's already been confirmed that he underwent an internal brace procedure and we'll miss the rest of this season. I guess the hope with that internal brace is that the rehab won't be as long as a normal Tommy John surgery. Speaking of Tommy John, Shane Bieber did have that earlier in the week, so we will miss both of those guys for the rest of this year, obviously, I don't think there's really anything else to add. Obviously, it sucks, but. I think it's if Spencer Strider had to have surgery to repair his ulnar lateral colligate, well, whatever though, I don't know.

Owner collateral ligament. This is the best case scenario. The internal brace procedure is better than having a full blown Tommy John surgery. She had already had, I think, in college. This is not a second Tommy John surgery. it's internal brace procedure which is basically strengthens and supports the existing ligament. And it's a relatively new procedure that we haven't really seen a lot of pitchers have. Trevor Story had it.

Brock Hardy had it. I think Otani had it. Yeah. Well, that. Otani, they have been very cagey about what specific surgery he had. It's real. I mean, I guess. I just think because the name.

internal bracing procedure hasn't been universally accepted yet. So they just, not everyone is an agreement over the terminology. Is my, what I've kind of read between the lines there. But no, the point you're bringing up, we haven't seen a lot of pitchers have it.

And so I'm glad Strider's going to be back sooner. It sounds like maybe he could even be back at the start of next year. But we know, we're less confident how it's going to go, you know. Looks like Lucas Gialito had it As well Obviously hasn't returned yet, but yes Yeah

Alright let's get into the rest of the news and notes Another pitcher injury This one not an elbow But still pretty severe Bobby Miller to the aisle With right shoulder inflammation A source said the injury is quote Not severe

Miller is hopeful to begin throwing again As soon as next week Okay If they say so Who will be Taking his spot in the Dodgers rotation? Yeah, that's a good question.

They have choice. They have options. I know Emmett Sheehan was recently shut down again. Yeah, he's, and his is a forearm strain. So that was one where, I think initially they were like, oh, he's just body soreness. And now he has a forearm strain. So I wouldn't think he's, I mean. I mean, there's Kyle Hurt would be the most exciting choice, I think.

It might be Walker Bueller in roughly 10 days. He left his rehab. start over the weekend early, but it was because he got hit by a comebacker on his hand. So assuming everything's fine with that, you know, he looks like he's pretty close. So it might just be bullpen day and then Walker Bueller. Yeah, I can see that happening as well. Rafael Devers has missed four straight with left shoulder soreness. He did go through a pregame workout Sunday.

And manager, Alex Cora, expects him back in the lineup Monday. Speaking of which, I hope you're waking up early. Or, you know, when normal people wait. wake up because I obviously wake up later in the day. There's an 11 o'clock game in Boston. It happens every year. It's the Patriots Day. It's Boston Marathon. So they're playing at 11 o'clock. If you're on the West Coast, good luck because there is an 8 o'clock game.

So just keep that in mind for your Red Sox and your guardians. Christian Yellich left Friday after one at bat and then didn't play Saturday and Sunday due to lower back discomfort. And Scott, we spoke about Yellich just last week. This is the only thing that can slow him. up is this lingering back injury. Manager Pat Murphy, Sid Yelich may require a trip to the IL. Joey Weamer, Blake Perkins, and Sal Freelick started in the outfield on Sunday. That was because Jack Citrillo got the day off. But yeah, it sucks because Yelich is off to an amazing start.

Luis Robert, who is on the IL with a hip injury, is trending toward a six-week absence. They released like six to eight weeks initially. So now they're saying, I guess, it looks a little bit more optimistic for Luis Robert. Jake Berger left Sunday's game with left oblique discomfort. He was replaced by Emmanuel Rivera. Garic Cole played catch again on Thursday his second time since being placed in the IL. Aaron Boone said everything went well. Framber Valdez told reporters that he's hoping to resume throwing on Tuesday. He was placed

in the IL earlier in the week with left elbow soreness. Josh Lowe, we haven't heard about him in a while. He will play in two more extended spring training games and if all goes well he could be sent out on a rehab assignment. He's on the aisle with a grade one right oblique strain. Justin Verlander could make his season debut Friday against the Nationals. He threw 77 pitches in a rehab start Saturday. Let's say this is announced Monday.

My guess is you probably wouldn't want to start Verlander, right? First start back? I mean, you like the matchup there against the Nationals, so it does depend somewhat on the context of the league and what else you have. But all things being equal, I always prefer to give a pitcher one start. Yeah. Walker Bueller, as you mentioned, left his rehab start Friday after getting hit on the right hand by a comebacker. Dave Roberts said Bueller will make his next rehab start on Thursday. Jordan Montgomery is set for his D-Backs debut Friday at the Giants.

He got up to 71 pitches in his final rehab start. And like you just said, I think we'd like to sit. Jordan Montgomery, his first time out, see how that one goes. Justin Steele through a 25-pitch bullpen session. Saturday, his first time since suffering a great, one left hamstring strain. Brian Wu threw an up-down bullpen session Friday and could head out on a rehab assignment with AAA at some point this week. Gavin Williams is scheduled to throw a simulated game Monday, his first time facing live hitters since he felt discomfort in his right elbow. Kyle Bradish drew a bullpen session Saturday and said he's ready to begin a rehab assignment at AA around the middle of this week.

Edward Cabrero will make another rehab start at AAA this Wednesday. Salvador Perez was removed Sunday with left groin and hip injuries. If you have Perez, you might want to just make sure you have another catcher on your bench just in case. You need a plug in there. Rangers manager, Bruce Bochie, said after Friday's game that Jose Leclerc will be working low leverage situations temporarily. He pitched in the sixth inning Friday with David Robertson pitching in the 8th, and Kirby Yates pitching in the ninth, how have you guys been handling the Rangers bullpen

just with fad bids this weekend? I'm not dropping LeClerc since it sounds like Bruce Bochie's ultimate goal is to get him back in the ninth inning, and they did say they were happy with how he performed in the sixth. He put on a couple of base runners, so I don't know. I don't know.

I did, however, in those leagues, those 15-team rota leagues where saves are very scarce. I did put in about $50 bids out of a thousand, so 5% of my budget towards Kirby Yates, who appears to be second in line behind LeClerc and not David Robertson, like we originally thought.

Yates is off to a good start. It has plenty of closing experience himself. So I have three 15 team roto leagues like that. I won Yates in one of them for about a $50, 5% bid. And in the other two, he went for more like 12%. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's everything I've seen.

That seems like too much. It's going to be over 10%. And honestly, if you don't want to spend 10% in your budget, it might be smarter to just like throw five out of 1,000 on David Robertson, and just in case, if you've got a roster spot to play it with. Like, it'd be different if they said, yeah, the clerk's out of the job. Yeah.

And too bad. Like, certainly if they said we're going with Kirby Yates now, maybe you throw 20% of your budget. But there needs to be more certainty than what we're seeing for it to be as much as I saw other people spending on Yates. Paul Sewell through an 18-pitch bullpen session Saturday. His first bullpen since going on the aisle with an oblique injury. James and Tyone will return from the aisle this week.

He's 14% rostered. Any interest in James and Tyone? I thought about writing about him for the Waverwire piece that's up on CVSports.com Sunday afternoon, but there are enough interesting pitchers who are fairly widely available that like I think if I was going to add somebody, I'd rather take the chance on Yario Rodriguez, for instance, who I thought was pretty interesting this weekend,

or... Jose Buto? Jose Budo for sure. So, yeah, Tyone could absolutely be useful, but I'm not rushing out to add him. Junior Camerro was activated from the IL and was back in the AAA lineup Sunday.

The race could certainly use him, so if he starts to hit, you know, I think perhaps we could see Junior Caminero pretty soon. Eduardo Rodriguez experienced further tightness in his left shoulder. After throwing a bullpen earlier in the week, he's been shut down. Cardinals manager, Oliver Marmoles said both Tommy Edmund and Dylan Carlson will ramp up the rehab on Monday.

Michael Lorenzen will make his Rangers debut Monday. And I believe that makes him a two-start pitcher at the Tigers and at the Braves. It does. Any interest? No way in a roto league. You can start him. I don't think so either. No.

Who did I have going into the weekend? we talked about him as a sleeper. I don't remember who it was, but I actually ranked Michael Lorenz. Oh, it was Cody Bradford, who's now on the... Yeah. I know. I kind of liked him as a sleeper for this week,

but I like Lorenz and less. I think you could maybe, like, adding Lorenzen, I think is reasonable. But I don't think you can start him in a Roto League, especially. I mean, at the Tigers could work out, but at the Braves... Sure, if you have the opportunity to take him out after the Tigers start,

Even then, it's his first start. He's just not very good. He fooled us. I mean, he didn't fool me personally, but he fooled people for four months last year, and then he got traded to the Phillies, and the truth came out. All right.

Each of Alex Breggman and Tim Anderson missed all three games this weekend due to illness. The Braves recalled Darius Vines, and he'll start Monday against the Astros. He is 4% rostered. Do we have any interest in Darius Vines? He's kind of green. I kind of like them

but this might be a one and done situation certainly if it goes like Alan Weinin's start did for the Braves I mean Bryce Elder's still hanging out there as somebody they could turn to he kind of creeps up on you so Scott did not like the pitcher who threw a no hitter last year but he likes the Atlanta Braves

fringe prospects well we're talking about like we're talking about two different different levels of rostership here. We're talking about vines. Nobody cares about it all. Lorenzen too many people care about. That's that's the reason. I mean, Lorenz is only 23% rostered. Yeah, but it's going to go up. Uh, one more name. Pitching prospect, Nick Nistrini will make his MLB debut for the White Sox Monday against the Royals. And in the minors, he has a ton of strikeout upside, big fastball, big slider, lots of swing and miss, but also trouble with the control and

I don't know, how much faith do you have in the White Sox development? Is it just a name to watch for now? Nick Nishrini, anything there? I mean, he hasn't been the White Sox project for long, has he? So I don't know how much we could credit or... Yeah, I think he came over last year. Yeah. At some point, yeah.

From the Dodgers, so. Yeah, right. No, I mean, he's not high end enough of a pitching prospect to get the benefit of the doubt on the White Sox. Yes. All right. Enough. Names that went to the IL this weekend, Carlos Correa with a mild right intercostal strain. Brandon Lau was officially moved to the IL with that right oblique strain.

Unfortunately, Cody Bradford with lower back soreness. Marco Gonzalez with a left forearm strain. My first thought was, oh my, it's time for Paul Skeens. But then I remembered that Quinn Priesters on the 40 man roster, so. No, they pretty quickly ruled out skeins as a possibility. It's annoying. I think it's, I don't know how you can look at everything and think that the thing that makes the most sense is having him throw 102 miles an hour in AAA, but whatever. They're not asking me.

They think, I think the cue for Skeen's time will be when he first goes four inning in a start. Yeah, when he throws more than three innings and an outing. And then goes five in a star. Okay, now they're ramping them up to call him up. Yeah. I think they're playing it cautiously with them, preserving. those innings and then they're going to ramp them up at some point. May 1st, baby. Let's get it. Paul Skeens. Let's take our final break when we return.

How much can we get to in 20 minutes? I don't know. We're going to find out right after this. All right. Weaver wire hitters from the weekend. Michael Bush, we already spoke about him. Jordan Westberg is also off to a nice start his last five games. Six hits, two homers, two steals. He's 50% rostered, has second and third base eligibility. We know we've lost a lot of third baseman already. Josh Young, Royce Lewis. We just lost Jake Berger this weekend. That's an oblique. My guess is he's probably going to wind up on the IL. We're not taking Westberg over Michael Bush, right? Obviously. Nope. No. But we like Jordan Westberg. There's a lot of interesting things going on. 94 mile per hour average exit velocity, 59.5% hard hit rate for him. I'd like him.

I'd like him if he played literally anywhere else. I just think. Like if Ryan Mountcastle couldn't make it work at Camden Yards, the new Camden Yards, I don't see how any right-handed hitter is going to make it work. But what about Ryan Mountcastle with 10 to 15 steels? Yeah, that's the thing. Well, that's pretty fun. I guess it depends on what we mean. Do I, I can see Jordan Westberg being a top 20 second baseman. There are certain leagues where that matters.

I can't see him being a top 10 second baseman. Fair enough. Waverwire outfielders from the weekend. Welcome back to Lars Neupar, who went one for four with the home run on Saturday, went one for three with an RBI on... Whoops, the home run came on Friday, one for three with an RBI on Saturday.

He's 50% rostered. No, the Cardinals have the fifth best hitter matchups this week. Sal Freelick continues to pick up hits. He had five of them this weekend. He added his third stolen base. Brenton Doyle is off to a nice start for the Rockies. He went three for five on Friday, and then one for four with his third home run on Saturday.

Dalton Varsho, back-to-back games with a home run for him. One of them was a grand slam on Saturday. Chris, how would you rank those Waverwire outfielers? Knewpar, South Freelich, Brenton Doyle, and Dalton Varsho. It's entirely context-dependent, depending on what format you play in. Varsho. I think I'd rank Varsho at the top for a Roto League, either him or Newt-Barr, then Freel, then-Dohel. in points leagues.

I think Newt Bar is the only one that might matter, maybe Freelich, but I think they're all pretty fringy in points leagues. I like Newt Bar and Freelich the most here. And I think they're also the most points league relevant. Mason Win is quietly off to a solid start. Back-to-back multi-hit games on Friday and Saturday. He already has two steals.

He's batting 349 early on, a 32% line drive rate, and a 282 expected batting average that was entering Sunday. He's only 29% rostered. I mentioned the Cardinals have pretty good matchups this week as well. I think this is more so just for Roto-sized League, Scott, leagues that have a middle infield spot,

but I like what I've seen so far from Mason Win. Yeah, I mean, I guess the fact that the strikeout rate is around 20% is the big, like he was striking out so much this spring that I actually dropped him in a 15-te-team 450-player rostered league. I regret that now. You know, he's no more than middle infield viable, and I'd still rather have like a Jose Caballero there than a Mason win. But Mason win looks better, certainly better this year than he did during that month and a half.

We saw him last year. Two names in deeper leagues. What year is it? Because Jesse Winker might be a thing. Four for four with a home run on Friday. He went one for four with his second steal of the season on Saturday. and then Abraham Toro, who is only 6% rostered. No, he's 1% rostered.

Excuse me. He has led off seven straight games for the A's. He had a three-hit game with a stolen base on Saturday. Chris, any interest here? Deeper Leagues, Jesse Winker, Abraham Toro. I think that 1% might literally just be me in the Scott White Dynasty League for Abraham Toro. Winker, I mean, he's making a ton of contact. The quality of that contact so far has not been especially good,

certainly not as good as it was at his best. So I, in an only league, I think it's okay. But other than that, I don't think Jesse Winker or Abraham Tora really matters. I'm much more curious about Jesse Winker. And in fact, in some of my, in like all of my deepest leagues, I picked them up before the start of the season, including the Skywhite Dynasty League. And yeah, I see what you're saying about.

that the average exit velocity is more like the previous two years when he wasn't good than during his heyday with the Reds. But he had a good spring and he's off to a good start and the plate discipline is so good. And I don't know. I'm keeping an open mind. I mean, we're ragging on Anthony Volpe for his average exit velocity at this time a week ago. And now suddenly that's been corrected. He's been hitting the ball much harder on average lately and is looking even more like

the real deal. So hopefully Jesse Winker will follow suit. Something seems different about him than the past two years. I think I read this spring. Obviously, he's had a ton of injuries, and I know he had some, I think multiple surgeries last year. I think I remember reading that finally

feels healthy after all these surgeries that he's had. So it could just be as simple as that, that Jesse Winker is healthy, and he's on a team that's going to give him every opportunity to play in the Washington Nationals. We spoke about Colton Couser earlier. He is obviously awesome right now

and needs to be rostered in every league. He's 78% rostered. Taylor Ward has also been really, really good. He had two more home runs this weekend. He's up to five homers, one steal, 78% rostered. So we're talking really shallow league stuff here. 10 team leagues, maybe some 12 team points leagues. But if you had to make the decision,

Couser versus Taylor Ward, which way would you go? Couser. I guess I'd have to go Kouser just because he's a bigger deal right now and you're not going to have a chance to get him if you don't get him right now but I think Taylor Ward's probably pretty good yeah I think so too

do you think anything's changed because he's what 30 yeah he's 30 I just feel like he's he's been dealt a bad hand man like he just hasn't been able to stay on the field a couple years ago I think he crashed into a wall while making a defensive play last year. You got hit in the face.

It's just, I'm just surprised by all this Taylor Ward enthusiastic. I mean, obviously he's off to a hot start, but normally a player with his track record off to a hot start, we'd be like, ah, it's Taylor Ward. I think how it's going to turn out. So like last year, if he stays healthy,

he probably gets to about 25 homers. I don't think he's great, but, you know, that's the pace he was on. He got to 23 the year before. I don't think he's a great hitter, but I think he's viable. That year before, 2022 stands out as the outlier of his career.

Right. And maybe that's not like, I don't think it's crazy to think Taylor Ward could hit 275 with 75 homers 80 RBI. 75 homers, 25 homers 80 RBI and be like a top 36 outfielder. But Colton Couser could be a top 20 out. Sure. Right, no, I agree with that.

That's why I think Kouser has more upside that's worth chasing and just he's the big name right now. If you don't add Colton Kouser right now, you're never going to have him. Yep. All right, so let's talk about WaverWire Pitchers and part one. It was Meyer, Gavin Stone, Abbott. Did both of you guys rank those? I remember. I think so though.

Yes. I agreed with Chris. Yeah. All right. So WaverWire Pitchers Part 2, we had Paul Blackburn, who has yet to allow a run this season. six and a third shutout innings with four strikeouts against the Nationals. Graham Ashcraft looked pretty good at the White Sox, five and two-thirds innings, two runs, eight strikeouts, and that one.

Javier Assad continues to pitch well. He was at the Mariners, five and two-thirds, two runs, six strikeouts, and Kent and Maeda turned in his first quality start. He was up against the twins, a revenge game. Six innings, two runs, five strikeouts for him. How would you guys rank Maeda, Assad, Ashcraft and Paul Blackburn. I don't like any of them that much.

I'm kind of leaning Ashcraft number one here over Maida because, and this was something I just noticed after this latest start for Ashcraft. So it was against the White Sox, eight strikeouts of five and two-thirds innings, 14 swinging strikes on 104 pitches. But before even including those numbers from that White Sox start,

Graham Ashcraft had a 13.6% swinging strike rate coming into this start. His whiff rate on both his slider and cutter are way up because he's introduced this new sinker that he's throwing a lot almost as much as those two pitches. So he's got three pitches now and the two that he had

before then are looking much more effective as a result. And maybe I'd see more opportunity for a breakthrough here for Ashcraft than any of those other three. I would say in a points league I'd probably go with Assad just because he does have that spark

eligibility. But if you didn't add him for the two start week, there's probably no reason to add him now. Two names in deeper leagues and two names we have already mentioned. Jareel Rodriguez made his debut for the Blue Jays Saturday against the Rockies. Three and two thirds, one run, six strikeouts. It was 12 swinging strikes on 68 pitches. The fastball and slider combined for 84% of his pitches.

So mostly a two pitch pitcher, which we expected. 95.5 miles per hour on the fastball and the slider spin rate, 2866 RPM. Really, really good stuff there for Yari L. Rodriguez. I was looking at the fastball spin rate. The fastball spin rate is top 5%. It's similar to Dylan Cese.

The other thing I would add is, yeah, he only threw the two pitches 84% of the time. He had a five pitch mix, but leaned on those two. He is one of these dudes who changes his arm slot regularly. Sometimes he's more over the top. Sometimes he's almost sidearm. And so while it is a two pitch primarily mix, there are many different looks that one, I could say maybe will help him get through lineups more than once or more more than you would think. The other side of it could be that

when he, when film gets out on him, that gimmick goes away. So, but I thought he was super fine. I thought it was really interesting. The characteristics on the two pitches, even beyond the arm slot stuff, were impressive. And I would rather gamble on Yariol Rodriguez than a lot of that guys on that previous list than Paul Blackburn, certainly.

I mean, I'm not sharing the Javier Assad love that Chris seems to have. So I would take, I was, I was only looking at him in the 15 teamers and I was prioritizing Ariel Rodriguez over him. Fair enough there. Let's take a look at Jose Buto. We haven't talked about him yet.

He looked great for the Mets on Sunday. Up against a Royals lineup that was seemingly crushing everybody entering this game. Six shutout innings with nine strikeouts, 16 swinging strikes on 91 pitches. Any interest in Jose Buto? This week he does face the Dodgers, so I don't love that. But look pretty good here. getting wifts on a bunch of different pitches and stuff.

Yeah, I think he's worth adding. Had at least four whiffs on the four seamer slider and change up. He's up to what 15 strikeouts and four walks and 12 innings through his two starts. So yeah, I think he's absolutely worth adding. I mean, there are like there are other guys that are similar like Yaya Rodriguez and Ben Brown. I think I would put in in a similar tier. None of them are likely to be must start guys moving forward. and I do want to say part of why, like, Javier Assad,

he gets the Marlins this week. So, like, if you need someone for this week, I'd certainly prioritize him over Jose Budo, but Budo has more long-term upside, I think. I don't get where Budo came from, because, like, even going back to last year, we see him starting the majors, and it's like, hey, this guy looks pretty good,

but you look at the minor league numbers. And no, it's kind of reminding me of Christopher Sanchez in that way. Now it took us a long time to come around to Christopher Sanchez. I was thinking the same thing, Scott, actually. Yeah. I saw that it's just high walk rates everywhere. And I don't know, so far, two starts this year. It's pretty good.

So I don't know. Last year, he swapped out a slider for a cutter that seems to have helped. It might be classified as a slider, but it's a harder pitch than he used to throw. Who would you guys rather speculate on Yari el Rodriguez or Jose Buto? Yarioel Rodriguez. I think I'd go Budo. So I guess that means I have to break the tie and I kind of like both in deeper leagues. I'll go with Yari El Rodriguez though.

I think there's a little more mystery there with him. What do we do with these starting pitchers? Three names that had pretty rotten starts this weekend. Kevin Gosman, he's actually been crushed two starts in a row. He got the Rockies in their first game away from Coorsfield. That is supposed to be a primo matchup. It did not turn out that way. Three and two-thirds innings, six earned runs allowed.

Still had 18 swinging strikes on 78 pitches, but he allowed lots of hard contact. The ERA sits at 1157 so far. Blake Snell got knocked around in his second start. He was at Tampa Bay. Four innings, seven runs allowed. He gave up two homers in that start. And Jesus Lazzardo, just a rough spot.

I mean, he's coming off a bad start against the Yankees. Now he has to face the Atlanta Braves, who A, they crushed the ball and B, they probably have seen him before just being in the division. So it's a rough spot for Lazzardo. But yeah, his ERA is up to 765 now as well. Are you guys starting any, all of these names this week? Gosman, Snell, Lazzardo. There's just lots of questions.

I mean, I like Gosman most of those three, even with the struggles lately. But I think he's got the toughest matchup. So if I was going to sit one of them, it might be here. him. I mean, Gosman, we don't normally care about matches.

Yeah, that's why. Snell's doing that Blake Snell thing again. That, you know, I gave him a pass

for the first start back, but he hardly even threw his slider in the second start. So he didn't have all four pitches going. And that's always

been an issue from him, which of his secondary pitches is he going to use and which ones are working? and yeah for each of the last two years right or three years three years each of the last three years he hasn't been good until july yeah or june at least so i don't know i'm i'm i'd be most likely to sit snow i'm not really worried about gosman you get you get you have a 23% swinging strike rate you're doing something right yeah the the the velocity was mostly fine in this one there were there was a late dip down to like nine over his last couple of pitches, but the fact that it bounced back from the previous start, I think is a good sign.

So I'm not too concerned about Gosman, but obviously just because he had that shoulder injury in the spring. I can't say I'm as unconcerned as I would be otherwise. But for the most part, I think Gosman is clearly ahead of Luzardo and Snell. Let's wrap up with some leftovers from the weekend, just some huge performances. is Marcel O'Zuna just picking up right where he left off. Two more homers.

He is up to seven home runs now on the season, which is tied for the league lead. He also has 21 RBI already, which is just, it's April 15th. What is going on? Adolice Garcia, looks like he might be back to running, at least early on. He's got four homers, four steals.

Last season, he was down to nine steals after 25 in 2022. Tyler O'Neill, two for three, with his seventh home run of the season on Sunday. him and Ozuna are both tied. And Jose Altuve had a monster game on Sunday, three for five with two socks and a shoe. He is batting 382, five homers, and one steal early on in the season.

Some pitching leftovers. Got to highlight Joe Ryan. Chris was giving us a bunch of crap before the show. I get it. So far, he's looked really good. Instead a new career high, 12 strikeouts at the Tigers. Six innings, three runs. Only one of those was earned.

He had 19 swinging strikes on 96 pitches. And my concern with him coming into the year was the secondary pitches. Those have looked pretty good so far. So credit, they're different and new. Yes. He's throwing both the slider and the splitter harder than he did last season. He went back to drive line over the offseason to work on those.

Fastballs looked really good. I think we have reason to be concerned about Joe Ryan that the fastball gets figured. out and he relies on that so much, but look really good so far. So I said prior to the season that Joe Ryan was the bust pick I was most confident in. Not so confident anymore. I mean, when you come in and you're throwing your two main secondaries, what, two to five miles per hour harder? Yeah, he's a different pitcher.

He's a different pitcher. Yeah, that's the thing. Yeah. Jose Barrios is off to a fantastic start. He faced the Rockies this weekend. Seven shutout innings with seven strikeouts there. 17 swinging strikes on 100 pitches. And he is throwing his slurve more this season.

He had 10 of those 17 whiffs came on that slurve pitch. He's also getting more ground balls. I don't know. This might be the best version of Barrios that we've seen. I want to see more, but so far so good with him. And anybody else really worth mentioning? He is throwing. that Cutter has not been a big part of his arsenal,

but he is throwing it to lefties in particular about, I don't know, probably 15% of the time if I have to eyeball it, they're not, they don't. And so that's an interesting one because sinkers tend to be pretty bad pitches to opposite-handed hitters. And so,

you know, that's one wrinkle that could help Jose Brea sustain some of this. I want to point out that Christian Javier, his start over the weekend was the most encouraging of the year for him. It was against Texas. He went seven innings, two and runs, five strikeouts. But the 13 swinging strikes on just 89 pitches, that was a season high.

This was the first even with double-digit swinging strikes. And eight of the 13 came on the fastball, which is what he's going to need to succeed. He was relying a lot on a new change-up for his success. And I wasn't sure if that was... I was not buying it, yeah. I was not buying it personally. So it was good to see. Let's run through some bullpen updates for the Pirates on Friday.

David Bednar got the ninth with a three-run lead. He pitched a clean inning for his second save. Great to see. Obviously, he's gotten off to a little bit of a rough start. For the Mariners on Friday, Andrus Munoz entered in the eighth inning with a three-run lead to face two, three, and four in the Cubs lineup. It was Ryan Stanick, who got the ninth inning.

He did give up a solo home run, but picked up his second save. It's Michael Bush. Stanick is 4% rostered. Were you looking to add him in any deeper category slash shorter leagues? Yeah, those same leagues

where I was bidding on Kirby Yates. I was bidding a fraction of that amount on Stanick. I was bidding like six bucks out of a thousand. I don't think I got him anywhere. You might get like 10 saves from him. Yeah, I think.

Are you worried about Munoz, though? I'm worried that he might not get 35 saves. I might only get 25 instead. Right. It's annoying. All right. For the Blue Jays on Saturday, Chad Green pitched the eighth inning with a two-run lead, facing four, five, and six in the Rockies lineup. Yemi Garcia struck out the side in the ninth for his first save. It sounds like Jordan Romano could be back any day now.

For the Phillies on Saturday, Jose Alvarado pitched the eighth inning again, this time in a tie game, facing four, five, and six in the Pirates lineup. Jeff Hoffman pitched a clean ninth and he wound up with the win. I feel like this is maybe the third or fourth game in a row that Jeff Hoffman has pitched in the ninth inning. That sounds right because he's got a couple of saves, doesn't he?

I think Alvarado is truly just their highest leverage reliever. And if it's a tie game in the eighth and it's the heart of the lineup, it's going to be Alvarado. And that's just it. The highest leverage relieverger usually gets the most saves. So I don't know how where you, we should be. I know Ryan Kirkering is back from the IL this weekend. So,

you know, we'll see if he gets in that mix. That would be one other thing that could potentially be a complicating factor for Alvarado. But it could also be the having another high leverage relieverro clears Alvarado to pitch in the ninth more. So would you, would you guys take Jeff Hoffman over Kirby Yates and or Ryan Stanick? I, when I was putting in bids, I'd put it Hoffman. Yates and then Stannick in that order. I think that makes sense. I agree.

All right. For the D-backs on Saturday, Kevin Ginkle got the ninth with a two-run lead. He picked up his third save. For the Twins on Saturday, game one of their double-header, Stephen O'Kert pitched the seventh inning down three to two.

Griffin-Jacks then pitched in the eighth inning with the game tied. And then Brock Stewart pitched in the ninth with the game tied. The Twins eventually won in the extras. And then on Sunday, Griffin Jacks entered with one out in the eighth, a two-run lead, runners on first and third. He gave up a game-tying double, followed by an RBI single.

Jax took his first blown save and first loss. Can we just get Yohan Duran back because Twins' bullpen has been a mess for fantasy? It might work for real-life purposes, but it's just been a mess for fantasy. For the Brewers on Sunday, Abner, Arebe entered in the seventh inning with a one-run lead facing eight, nine, and one in the Orioles lineup. He gave up two runs, took his second blown save and first loss. This was a weird one. It was a little weird, right?

It's getting messy too. Yeah. It's getting messy too. Like, Abner Ribe got those three saves right away, but he didn't exactly look good doing it. And now he appears in the seventh inning against not the meat of the order. I could see YOL Piaumps getting back involved here. For the Marlins on Sunday, Tanner Scott got the ninth inning with a one run.

run lead. He gave up a three run homer to Marcel Ozuna took his first blown save and third loss. I just don't even know who to speculate on in the Marlins bullpen. It's not like anyone there has been Anthony Bender's been very good. Has he? Yeah, I think he's got like

11 strikeouts to two walks and seven innings. He's given up a couple of runs, but who hasn't? The only thing I would say is like maybe AJ Puck, you know, that decision might be coming next week, whether to take him out of the rotation. So that's the one to keep an eye on, I think.

And then for the Oakland A's on Sunday, Mason Miller got the ninth with a one-run lead. He struck out the side and averaged 101.5 miles per hour. Before we go, I got to say, man, watch this kid pitch. If you, like, there are not, there are no other good reasons to watch the Oakland Athletics pitch. But oh my God, this guy is appointment viewing. Like, he might be the most entertainment. player in baseball right now.

I'm not kidding. Mason Miller is absolutely electric. He is unbelievable out of the bullpen. I am having so much fun watching him pitch. To stream or not to stream for Monday. And I think Seth Lugo at the White Sox. Seth Lugo. Martin Perez at the Mets.

Martin Perez at the Mets, maybe. Luis Heel at the Blue Jays is fond. Yep. I think those are the three. Ben Brown at the D-backs? Maybe Ben Brown at the D-backs. I don't know. I'd rather not.

All right. And then on Tuesday, it might be cut off on the rundown. I'm not sure. But I'll give you a few names. Ranger Suarez up against the Rockies. Easy. Easy call.

You say Kikuchi versus the Yankees. Garrett Whitlock versus Cleveland. Jose Cantana versus the pirates. Lance Lynn versus the A's. I've got you, Sake Kucchi in a lot of leagues, and I'm really struggling with whether I want to start him this week. He should be rostered. I think he's not far from that group of pitchers we talked about at the start of the pod. I think he's the top 60 guy. I'd rather have Yusayakouche than Ronelle Blanco.

So he looked really... Even if I'm not starting him, I want him on my team. He looked really good against the Yankees when he faced them earlier in the sentence. I think he's really good. You're forcing me to pick two from Tuesday. Ranger Suarez versus the Rockies. That's the, that's the only one that's a must. But then you say Kukuchi and Garrett Whitlock would be two and three. 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.