Fantasy Baseball Today - Mike Trout Needs Knee Surgery! Brewers Promote Tyler Black! (5/1 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 1, 2024

Mike Trout has a torn meniscus and will undergo knee surgery (3:00)! Who are the top Trout replacements (8:20)? ... Jack Flaherty got ALL THE REVENGE against the Cardinals (18:47)! ... Is Paul Skenes joining the Pirates soon (24:58)? ... The Brewers promoted one of their top prospects Tyler Black (28:30). ... News (31:37): Luis Robert is taking batting practice and running. ... Any interest in adding Jon Gray or Spencer Turnbull (38:13)? ... Let's fire up the Worry-O-Meter for hitters like Bo Bichette and Oneil Cruz (44:10). ... We had ourselves a pitchers duel between Cole Ragans and Jose Berrios (49:40). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (54:13). 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. We're fantasy! Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Hey there, welcome into Tampany Baseball today on Wednesday, and guess what? It's gonna be May.

That's right, welcome to May. Frank Stample joined by Chris Towers. Today on the show, Mike Trout is hurt again. The Brewers promoted one of their top prospects, Tyler Black. Jack Flaherty got all the revenge against the St. Louis Cardinals and much more. But unfortunately, Chris, we do have to start with the bad news. On Mike Trout, who needs knee surgery, he was diagnosed with a torn meniscus. No official timeline, but not expected to miss the rest of the season.

Obviously, this sucks. Trout was off to a strong start this season. Ten homers, six steals. looked obviously motivated, running again. It was really cool to see the side of Mike Trout once again. And it feels like so much of the second half of his career has just been derailed by injury year in and year out. So we are being robbed of seeing a first ballot Hall of Fame player

play out the second half of his career. And frankly, that sucks. So Chris, your reaction? Any idea how much time he's going to miss? Because I know you're usually good at looking into these injuries and stuff. such. Yeah, so I did some research. One, I don't even want to be around anymore. If we can do a second, I think you should leave reference of the week. It just sucks. Like, Mike Trout hadn't missed a game with a knee injury since 2012. And I know there's a lot of I told you so is going around

about, oh, Mike Trout. I told you you can't stay healthy. And anyone who drafted him is dumb and all that. And it's just, he was already discounted. We don't need the I Told You So's. Everybody knew Mike Trout. Everybody was accounting for the possibility of a Mike Trout injury. It just sucks. And I don't believe that the fact that he missed a bunch of time with a wrist injury last year made him more likely to suffer a knee injury this year. I think it's just crappy luck and I hate it.

And I'm upset. Anyway, now to the actual analysis that you asked for. or meniscus injuries have incredibly wide timetables from what I understand because there are three different types of procedures you can have when you have a meniscus injury. Meniscus is a part of your knee that I think provides cushioning during impact and stuff like that. So you can play professional sports without a meniscus. I believe Dwayne Wade had part of his meniscus removed. I remember meta world peace knee run our test had his entire meniscus removed and was back in 11 days after having surgery.

That is a possible timetable here, but it's a pretty unlikely one given Trout's age, given how much he has left on his contract. It seems really unlikely that they would do something that would threaten to shorten his career. So the more realistic outcomes are either what is called a menestectomy, I believe, I'm pronouncing that correctly, which is where you shave off the injured part of the meniscus, and that has usually a six-week-ish timetable. So some examples of that, Cole Calhoun in 2021 had a meniscus tear, was back around five weeks because he got the damage meniscus removed. Christian Pache a year ago, almost exactly a year to the day, April 29th.

He also, I believe, had the meneskectomy and was back June 16th, so about six weeks later. Then one example I found on the long end was Ronald Guzman. Remember him from the Rangers, I believe. In 2021, he had surgery to repair a torn meniscus in around mid-April, missed the rest of the season. Now, the fact that the angels have talked about not expecting it to be a season-ending injury, leads me to believe that it's more like the shorter end of the spectrum. But the fact that it's, they expect him to be back this season,

or it's not expected to be season ending was how it was originally reported, makes me think it could be a repair and it's just that maybe it's a four-month timetable when he can get back in August or September, which obviously would be close to a worst-case scenario. So ultimately it's probably, we're not going to know until they put him under and we

find out what the type of surgery that he had is, but I would guess anywhere from six weeks to three or four months, unfortunately. Yeah, so a very wide range of outcomes there with this Mike Trout injury. And before we move on to the

replacements for him, I guess another aspect of this injury is that when he returns, my guess is he probably won't run, right? Like coming back from a knee injury, you know, this pace that he was on, it was, we haven't seen anything like this from Trout in, I don't know, what, five, six years running like this. So yeah, I think once he does return, we probably have to temper our expectations in terms of the output. But my guess is if he's right and he's good to go,

Mike Trout, he's still going to hit for solid batting average. I know it's a little bit lower so far this season. But he had actually cut the strikeout rate, which, had been a concern in recent years. Yeah. I expected stats for the batting average are much better and obviously had been elite elite power. So as long as he's on the field, I think Mike Trout's going to be an elite hitter.

Just probably wouldn't expect him to run nearly as much when he gets back. Let's get into some Mike Trout replacements. And in shallower leagues, I have five names written down here. I believe they are all under 70% rostered. Jarexon Profar who continues to hit well. He was leading off for the Padres. Brian Dela Cruz, Mark Kana, who's kind of boring, but in a points league. His skill set still plays up there.

And then I think the two more exciting names that we've talked about recently, Wiliere Abreu and Andy Pahez. Abreu had another big game here on Tuesday, 3 for 4 with a double, a triple, run, and RBI. The triple was 114.4 exit velocity. I hate that he doesn't play against lefties, but I think he's a really, really interesting hitter. So Chris, who are, give me your, I guess, three favorites from that group. It's ProFar, Dela Cruz, Kana, Abrae, and Pahez.

It's Pahas at the top for me. And then it might just depend on format. Like, maybe I can just cheat and say Kana at a points league and Willier Abraeu in a specifically daily lineups league. So you can get him out of the lineup when he's not starting against lefties. If I can't do that cop out, I think I prefer Brian Dela Cruz to jerks and ProFar. although I think I probably like a Brayu in Roto more than either of them. Yeah, the problem for a Brayu next week, it looks like the Red Sox only have five games on the schedule,

and as of now, three lefties. Is he only going to play two games next week? I mean, that would be criminal the way this guy is hitting. Yeah, that's tough. Like, it's one of those situations where he's young enough

that you'd hope they just give him some run and just see if he can hit lefties, you know? Yeah. So I, I think. think I would have to agree at least for next week. Pahez is up at the top. And then if you're in a points league, I think one of Kana or ProFar is fine. You can ride

the hot hand with ProFar as long as he's hitting well. I don't know how long this is going to last. My guess is probably not that long. But for right now, he is hitting well. Again, that is Jerks and ProFar. Some names in five outfielder leagues. You might be able to still find some of these. Joey Loprophito, who was

called up by the Astros today on Tuesday when we're recording this. Well, I guess technically it's Wednesday now. Joe Adele, who has hit well recently. Another underrated aspect of this is that the Angels lineup is even worse. Now without Mike Trout, Luis Renhifo, who had a big game. He went two for three with a sock and a shoe. Brenton Doyle has hit well for the Rockies and Jordan Beck, who was called up and he had two hits in his first career game.

Chris, who are your three favorites from this group, Loperfito, Adele, Renhifo, Doyle, and Jordan Beck. This is much more context-dependent. because Renhifo especially, like, that's a sneaky, super valuable play in a Roto league because he's going to hit near the top of the lineup, I would guess, moving forward. He's eligible at like four different positions, I think. Yeah, second.

And he's going to steal some bases. Second, third shortstop outfield, yeah. Yeah. And so technically six different positions in a true Roto league. And that's super valuable just to have a round. But I would probably go a little perfido, Adele, and Beck, just banking on some upside there.

I would honestly rather have any of those three ahead of Jerks and Profar or Brian Dela Cruz as well. Again, just I think there's a more realistic path to sustainable upside, I guess is the way to put it, because I know Jerks and Profar is hitting really well right now. I just don't believe in it. Loberfito, by the way, in his debut, he was batting seventh and was in left field for the Astros.

He went one for five with two RBI in that one. Some names in deeper leagues. You could look at Jacob Young, who is getting some run with the Nationals, and I think he has 12 steals in 22 games so far. He is just running a lot. So if you do need speed, there's Mike Talkman, who's hit well, Tommy Fam, who is consistently batting second for the White Sox. Not a great lineup, but obviously he's getting playing time.

And Wenziel Perez, a name we have not talked about, and it's about time we do, because he's like a former prospect-ish for the Detroit Tigers. And in game two of that double header, he went three for four with a double dong. He has played 15 games so far. He's batting over 300. He's got three homers, two steals.

In OPS over 1,000, he's 24 years old. He's a switch hitter. He's versatile. He could play the infield and the outfield. Last season in the minors had 26 steals. I think he had close to 30 steals a year before that as well. So there is an interesting profile, kind of interesting in a deeper league here.

Any interest in these names? Jacob Young, Mike Talkman, Tommy, Tommy, Fam, Wenziel Perez. So I hope this is a safe place with friends who won't judge me because I have two things I want to say. One, I saw a clip of the Marlins AAA affiliate winning against the Braves AAA affiliate on a walk-off balk. I think there were three balks in the same inning. And I watching it, like I know what the rule for a balk is. But every time I see a balk, I'm like, I have no idea what the umpire saw that. That's my one admission.

And two is that up until about two weeks ago, I had never heard the name one seal Perez. Just going to be honest, he's, was not on my radar. Had a 784 OPS last season. He's been interesting since he got to the high miners. He's been around for a long time,

was signed in 2016 as a 16 year old, but really didn't do much until he got to AA. And since getting to double A, he's played 158 games between the two top levels of the miners, 15 homers, 34 stolen bases, decent batting average, maybe 270. I don't think that this is a profile that is likely to matter much for fantasy. Even the two home runs he hit today were both below 102 miles per hour and exit velocity. So I think it's probably fringe pop, maybe a little more.

speed, but it only matters in deeper rotos, roto leagues, I think, for Wenziel Perez. Who's your favorite of that group? Jacob Young, Talkman, Pham, and Perez. Fam. 16 homers, 22 stolen bases last season. I think he could be a viable five outfielder option in 12 team leagues even.

Yeah, I agree with that wholeheartedly. Tommy Fam, only 9% rostered and has seven games on the schedule next week. So I do think he is someone you could look at. some buy-low candidates. Two outfielders for the Texas Rangers is Wyatt Langford and Evan Carter. Carter's coming around a little bit recently. Wyatt Langford, I know he hit his first

home run over the weekend. It was an inside-the-park home run, which is hilarious. And Nick Castiano's, who actually just had a big game here on Tuesday, hit a game-tying home run in the ninth inning of that one. Chris, are you okay putting the by-low label on all of those names, Langford, Carter,

and Castiano's? Absolutely. I'm kind of amazed at how many people, including maybe some people on this podcast, have been willing to write off Nick Castellanos. He was really awesome last season. And I feel like he didn't get the respect. He deserved 29 homers, 11 stolen bases, 106 RBI. Like, Nick Castellanos was a legitimate five category contributor. And I have no reason to believe that he won't pull out of this slump.

and I like all three of those guys as Bailow candidates. I guess this is the part where I should probably defend why I wasn't really in on Nick Cassiano's. I mean, look, you don't have to defend it. It looks great right now. I wasn't out per se.

Take a victory lap. He was not a target of mine. And I mean, the main concern for me for Cassiano's has always been, and it's very much so the Javier Baez effect. His plate discipline is so bad. It's one of those where it feels like it could just fall off a cliff out of nowhere.

And so I would rather be out one year early rather than one year late, but you're right, Cassiano's was still awesome last year. And my guess is he is going to be much better than he has been so far this season. So I would agree, I think all three of those, if you're looking for the trade market, again, there's Langford, there's Carter,

and there's Nick Cassiano's. Let's take our first break. When we return, we will get to our players of the night, and we will do that right after this. All right, here we are, finally getting to the rest of Tuesday's action, and let's jump in with our players of the night. Oh my goodness. Holy cow, do you believe it?

Do you believe it? Chris, you're up. Player of the night. Do not ever tell Jack Flaherty that a revenge game is not a real thing because that that dude was way hyped up to face the Cardinals today, and it was super fun to watch. He was throwing like 97, 98 miles an hour early in this start. Ended up with his fastball up 1.5 miles per hour from the season so far, which means he was about 2 miles per hour up from where he was last season.

Just utterly dominant. 14 strikeouts. That's a career high in six innings. Struck out the first seven batters he faced. That is a Tigers franchise record. I don't know if you guys know this. The Tigers have been around for a really long. time. Ty Cobb played for the Tigers. That dude's been dead for like 70 years. This franchise has been

around for a long time and nobody had ever done that before. 24 swings and misses on 93 pitches. His knuckle curve was outstanding. His slider was really good. He's got 50 strikeouts to five walks on the season. I believe Jack Flaherty now leaves Major League Baseball and K-minus walk percentage. I know the ERA is still 4.0, but he looks really, really good right now. Yes, he does. For all the reasons that you mentioned, 14 strikeouts, 24 swinging strikes. He opened the start with seven straight strikeouts, which tied an American League record. Velasi was up, and now...

You know who holds the Major League record for that? It was very recent. I'm pretty sure it's Pablo Lopez. I was going to say Kerry Wood, but you might be, you might be right. Sounds like you're right. I said it very confidently, so I hope I'm right. Yes, set a major league record with nine consecutive strikeouts on July 11th of 2022, I believe. Pretty awesome stuff there.

With Jack Flaherty, you mentioned the ERA is at four on the nose. That comes with a 285 FIP and a 218X FIP, 12.5K per 9, 1.3 walks per 9. And this is why we have kind of been pounding the table for Jack Flaherty. Just stick with him. The strikeout to walk race, he was too good, the stuff looks too good, and he's going to come around, and obviously he did exactly that.

Comparing him to the names we spoke about yesterday, Chris, we were ranking breakout starting pitchers. We had Ladolo, Bryce Miller, Garrett Crochet, and who am I missing? It would be Ryan Pepio. Yeah. Where would Flaherty rank amongst that group?

Right in there. Yeah. I think he's right near the top. I don't really see a strong case against Flaher being a top 40 starting pitcher right now. The velocity is up enough that it feels significant. He's throwing about as hard as he has since 2019. Curveball and Slider have both been excellent swing and miss pitches so far this season. before today's start, he had a whiff rate over 40% on both of those pitches.

And that's only going to go up after today. So yeah, it might be recency bias. I think I had Bryce Miller at the top of that group. I might put Jack Flaherty at the top of it. I will update my rankings on Wednesday. Yeah, I haven't done it yet. So I don't want to commit yet because I might get to tomorrow and be like, wait, hold on.

I can't put Jack Flaherty ahead of all those guys. but I might. Feels like a 1A and a 1B situation for me where Ladolo and Flaherty are up at the top. I express a little bit more skepticism with Bryce Miller, although I can't argue with the results. He's been really good. Yeah, no, that's fair. I would put him third on that list, followed by Ryan Pepio and then Gare Crochet.

So for me, it's like Ladolo and Flaherty are kind of in a mini tier of those breakouts. Scott tweeted something about it today where I think somebody asked him like for a glob update. Like, where does the glob start? how big is the glob? And I assume you're having the same issue where I kind of like too many starting pitchers now. Going to SP like 55 feels like SP 40 last year. Yeah.

Where there's just a lot like, McKenzie Gore had another good, not great start today, although it was against the Astros, and I still really like him. Love what we've seen from Tanner Halk. The 30 to 60 range at SP this year, feels really interesting and very interchangeable.

That's why we're kind of talking about this on a per start basis where things are kind of moving up and down. And we have to because, you know, these breakout pitchers are just having huge performances day in and day out, right? Lodolo yesterday, Jack Flaredy today. So it might seem like we're overreacting, but I think that's what we have to do when we're pushing these guys up the ranking.

So I agree. I really like those guys, the Red Sox pitchers who we've talked a lot about. I know. Ranger Suarez. Ranger Suarez has moved up, Kakuji, who we've talked a lot about. Hazis Lazzardo looks like he might be back in like two weeks at this pace. Like we freaked out about that. But yeah, Eric Fetty, I think, belongs at the low end of that conversation.

Nick Povetta is going to be back next week. Ranking pitchers this year. Interesting time for pitchers. Ranking pitchers this year is weird because there's a clear void at the top. We lost Strider. We lost Garrett Cole. We still have really talented pitchers there. We have Corbyn, Zach Wheeler, Luis Castillo, so on.

But once you get outside of the top 15, 20, there's kind of some indecision and there's injured pitchers. Man, yeah, like, I don't know, the 20 to 30 range is weird. And then 30 to 60, I really like so. Joe Musgrove, where does he rank relative to all those guys? I have no idea. I'll let you know tomorrow. Yeah, that's the same. Yeah, so we'll work on that.

Oh, my goodness, gracious player for me. I'm going to cheat a little bit. I don't know that we've ever put a minor league performance. in this segment. But we got to talk about Alec Manoa. Alec Manoa is coming a little bit later on. We've got to talk about Paul Skeens, who had his longest start of the season at AAA.

He threw six shot out innings, four hits, one walk, seven strikeouts, 75 pitches. It was his first start even completing five innings, let alone he went six innings in this start. Now at six starts at AAA, he has a 0.39 ERA, a 0.87 whip, 41 strikeouts over 23 innings.

Let me make this incredibly clear. I don't have any information. But I was waiting for a start exactly like this. I think Paul Skeens' next start will be in the majors. I think it will be with the pirates. Again, I don't have any information. This is just me speculating. I was waiting for a start like this where,

whether it's due to him just being really efficient, whatever it might be, like six innings, and I think they wanted to see him do that, and I think his next start is going to be in the majors. That's just a prediction, a bold prediction. The thing I still struggle with is, one, it was only 75 starts, despite the fact that he was so much more efficient. 75 pitches.

75 pitches, excuse me. He threw 71 in his previous start and only got through four and a third. The other thing I keep coming back to is Skeen's has yet to make a start on four days' rest. Like, as far as I know, Maybe he did it once in college in a tournament or something, but starting pitchers pitch once a week in college. And the pirates have had him pitch once a week this season. His last start was a week ago. And so that's the thing that I'm struggling with is, are they really going to ask this guy to come up to the majors and pitch in a five-man rotation for the first time in his life at the major league level, given how gingerly they've treated him so far?

I have a tough time seeing that, but it's possible that they just, we've already seen them have to pull Jared Jones from a, what, no hitter, one hitter? I think it was one hitter. At the time, he was dominating, but they just said he was only going to throw five innings. It could just be, we're going to go with the six-man rotation moving forward, and that could be the answer. I don't know. I have a hard time seeing them calling him up when he's never thrown on it in a five-man rotation,

but maybe that just doesn't matter and they're only due a five man or six man rotation. Yeah, I totally get why you have that concern, but they're gonna call them up at some point, right? Yeah. And like unless they drastically change their plans

or whatever they're doing in the minors, right? Like that's probably not going to change any time soon. So they could just go with a six man. They have Quinn Priester in the rotation right now too. I think they could do some of that kind of. Oh, they've got like four guys they could get. Three guys they could just get out of the rotation pretty easily. Yeah.

So again, I don't have any information, but that's my guess. I think we're going to see Paul Skeens. His next start will be with the Pirates rotation. I don't know that, but it's just a prediction on my part. Let's quickly promote a few things. A reminder to sign up for the FBT newsletter. If you haven't already, if you're watching us on YouTube, you can scan the QR code that will take you right to the website

where you click on the FBT logo, you punch in your email address, and it's easy as that. Also, if you enjoy the pod, you can leave a five-star rating on both Apple and Spotify. We really do appreciate it. Let's get into the news and notes. Another day, another prospect promotion. This time, the Brewers promoted Tyler Black,

who was Scott's number 42 prospect in his top 100, heading into the season. Tyler Black is 23 years old, the 33rd overall pick back in 2021. And this season at AAA in 25 games, he was betting 303 with 5.3, with five homers, three steals, a 9-18 OPS, really good plate discipline.

He gets on base. He does not strike out. He also does not hit the ball hard, but he finds a way to make the most out of his fly balls. I don't think he's going to be a power hitter by any means, but it's an interesting profile. It reminds me of, what did we say in the preseason? I think it was like Alex Breggman with less power and speed,

or like Whitmerfield. who gets on base, something like that. So it's a pretty interesting profile. Tyler Black is 19% rostered, third base eligible on CBS. Chris, what is your interest level in Tyler Black? I want to be more interested in Tyler Black than I am. The thing that I keep coming back to is one,

like you mentioned, the quality of contact is just really bad. He's played 64 games at AAA, and we have Stackass data for all the games at AAA. Average XIVA velocity 85.7 miles per hour dating back to last season. His 95th percentile exit velocity 104.5 miles per hour, which would have ranked 331st out of 609 players with at least 50 bad at balls. So I think it's at best below average raw power and might be even less than that in games.

I know he's hit for decent power at AA and AAA, but so did Esther Erez, you know? So I have trouble buying into that given the really bad quality of contact. And then the other thing that would, it would be easy enough to overlook that. But he took, he had 47 steals and 84 games at AA last season. He has 11 and 64 games since getting called up to AAA. That's both this season and last. That's about a 25, 26 steel pace. And that puts a lot more pressure on the bat to play up if he's a,

20 to 25 steel guy rather than a 40 plus steel guy. And I just, I don't know how excited I can get about him. And I kind of wish Scott was on because I know Scott really likes him and could make a more optimistic case for him. But look, I'll say this. If you play in any Roto League, you probably need to add Tyler Black either way, just in case. How would you rank the recent prospect promotions, low perfido, Beck, and Tyler Black.

That's the order for me. All right. We'll see where he plays too, because he can play all over the diamond. In the minors, he's played first, second, third base, and center field. So he does offer the Brewer some versatility. They have lots of that on their team already. But they call them up for a reason. He was hitting the ball well in the minors.

Again, that is Tyler Black. The rest of the news and notes, Luis Robert has been taking batting practice and running at 80%. The White Sox previously said Robert could be back. could be ready to return in mid-May. Jesus Lazzardo extended playing catch out to 90 feet on Tuesday, his second time playing catch in as many days. Blake Snell is scheduled to throw a bullpen on Wednesday.

He went on the IL last week with a grade 2 adductor strain. Nolan Jones was officially placed in the IL with a lower back strain retroactive to April 29th. Jordan Beck was promoted, as we mentioned. Chris in leagues with no aisle spots. Do you have to hold on to Nolan Jones? Maybe not in a three outfielder league, but I'd try really, really hard to hang on to him just because, well, it was only four months. They were four really, really good months last season.

I don't want to give up on him based on 26 games. Max Scherzer's scheduled rehab start on Tuesday was pushed back due to thumb soreness. Jordan Montgomery was scratched from his start Tuesday due to the game being delayed two hours because of a B colony, which formed right behind home plate. Did you see the, what? The beekeeper throughout the first pitch after clearing the bees out, got a standing ovation. It was electric, frankly. That's pretty cool.

It's weird because like, imagine being at that game and you have to wait two hours because of bees. Is the concern that like the bees are going to leave the hive and start attacking people? Is the concern that like a foul ball? might spook them and caught like I'm very curious as to what the delay like a two hour delay like we're recording this at 1 15 on uh Wednesday morning this game's in the sixth inning yeah yeah i don't mind having one game on late at night though just look just because we have we have we have baseball on while we're recording i've been watching baseball for like 12 straight hours now this is

great there you go uh Craig kimbril received treatment for his back and was unavailable again on Tuesday, Jake Berger will begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Wednesday. Braxton Garrett will make a rehab start at AAA Wednesday before potentially returning from the IL. Nick Povetta is scheduled to make a minor league rehab start on Thursday. Masataki Yoshida will undergo an MRI on his left hand on Wednesday. Yari El Rodriguez was placed on the IL with thoracic spine inflammation, which comes at a very interesting time because Alec Manoa struck out 12 at AAA on Tuesday.

he had 19 swinging strikes on 92 pitches. Velocity was up across the board. Each of his fastball and sinker averaged 94.2 miles per hour. Overall, it has still been a disaster outside of this start. But it is a really positive start. He's 24% rostered.

Chris, any interest in Alec Manoa? Yes, absolutely. This was a guy who finished top three in AL-Sai Young voting in 2022. Like, not that long ago. I know it feels like a long. time ago. And there were reasons to think that he wasn't actually as good as his results that year. But like, Alec Mnanoa was great in 2022. And he was really good in 2021 too. So I,

if you've got someone like Hunter Brown and Dane Dunning are both 60% rostered right now, I've seen enough from those guys this season slash throughout their careers in Dunning's case. I'd drop them for Alec Manoa just in case. Right. Like just in case he rediscovered 2020. I agree. I'm not even looking at the comments, but I guarantee there's like six people. They're saying,

there's no way Alec Munoz can be good. And like, yeah, I agree. It's unlikely. But this is a player that we've seen pitch like an ace before for a whole season. I will take a flyer on that over guys that I know aren't going to reach that level. I will add one more name to the drops list there.

James Paxson. I would drop James Paxson. Absolutely. Yep. Vaughn Grissom was not activated from the IL because of an illness. We had a pretty wild brawl

in the Brewer's Reyes game. Jose Siri hit a home run and then Freddie Peralta hit him with a pitch later in the game. Both Peralta and manager Pat Murphy were ejected from the game. And then later on there was a play with Adner Eribe covering first base.

Him and Siri had some words and then out of nowhere these guys are throwing haymakers at each other. It was wild stuff. Wanted to mention with Joey Loperfito promoted by the Astros, Jose Ibrahim will be optioned to the Florida Complex League on Wednesday. It's been a rough go and this sucks especially for me.

I've always been a huge Jose Abraeu fan, so look, Father Time catches up to everybody and it might just be that time for Jose Abraeu, unfortunately. Did want to mention John Singleton in Deeper Leagues could have some value. What year is it? On Tuesday, Loperfito started in left field. Singleton started at first. And Singleton hit his first home run of the season. He added three RBIs.

So it most likely will not work out. But in those 15-team Roto leagues, cheap exposure to the Astros lineup, just keep an eye on it. He signed that record pre-arbitration contract a decade ago. Wow. That's wild. Well, now it's happening.

Hopefully, we'll see. Let's take our final break. When we return, we'll get into the rest of Tuesday's action. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in. let's talk waiver wire pitchers. Two names in shallower leagues. They are between 70 and 80% rostered.

John Gray has allowed one earned run or fewer in each of his last five starts. He was up against the Nationals where he threw eight innings, one run, three strikeouts to zero walks, and so far this season, he has just leaned all the way into that slider. It is his most used pitch at 47% usage.

The problem is that John Gray does not really have anything else working for him. It's just that slider. 78% rostered next week at Coorsfield. It's a revenge game, but it's at Coorsfield. Spencer Turnbull pitched well again. He was at the Angels, five and a third, four runs allowed, two hits allowed, two runs, one earned, six strikeouts with 15 swinging strikes.

Just continues to mix in these different breaking balls. He's got a sweeper, he's got a curve, he's got a traditional slider, and they've all been really good for Spencer Turnbull this year. I don't know if they're just going to go with a six-man rotation or give Taiwan Walker the boot. But that's unfortunately. He's pitched too well. How can they take Turnbull out? So unfortunately, Rob Thompson was asked about this on Tuesday or Wednesday.

It wouldn't be Wednesday. That's in the future. It was over the weekend. Sorry, he was asked about utilizing a six-man rotation. I'm reading a story from NBC Sports, Philadelphia.com. And the reason he said he doesn't want to use a six-man rotation is because the Phillies have off days on each of the two upcoming Thursdays. And so that would mean that they're either skipping guys in the rotation or starting them on six days rest. And they don't want to get everyone off their schedules that much.

So at least for the next two turns in the rotation, it sounds like the Phillies are not going to go with a six-man rotation. Turnbull is likely to go back to the bullpen. That being said, that stinks. Two turns through the rotation is two opportunities for someone to get hurt. Pitchers tend to get hurt. Life tends to find a way. And I've been very impressed by Spencer Turnbull. That sweeper seems to have taken him to another level.

I'm not ready to just drop him right now, especially in Roto leagues, which are deeper. replacement levels lower. And you know who's been pretty useful in Roto leagues the last couple of seasons is Matt Straum. Another guy who former starter has been really, really effective out of the bullpen for the Phillies. There have been times when I've used Matt Strom in several Roto leagues over the past couple of years. I could see Spencer Turnbull still throwing four or five innings a week and at least being useful enough to justify not dropping while you wait to see if he gets in the rotation again. So at least in Roto leagues, I'm hanging on to Spencer Turnbull. All right. So you're not dropping, but you're also not adding, right?

Yeah, that's the problem. Okay. Any interest in John Gray? No, honestly. No, I think 78% rostered heading into a start at Colorado is probably too much. Three pitchers between 30 and 60% roster. Tyler Anderson turned in another quality start up against the Phillies, six innings, three runs, six strikeouts with 15 swinging strikes that changeup continues to dominate for Tyler Anderson. Looks like he's in line for two starts next week against the Royals and at the Pirates. That's not terrible. And Kyle Gibson has turned in three straight quality starts.

He was at the Tigers, where he allowed one run over seven innings with nine strikeouts and 15 swinging strikes. The other name on this list is Dean Kramer, who turned in a quality start against the Yankees, seven innings, two runs, four strikeouts for him. It looks like he is in line to face the debacks next week. Kyle Gibson is at the Brewers. Any interest in these names, Chris, Anderson, Gibson, and Dean Kramer. No, not really.

Anderson is probably the most interesting, but I don't see much of anything with Gibson or Kramer. Like Kramer, at least he's got that good home park and great lineup. So as a streamer, you've got a decent chance for a win in any given week, including today. But in a vacuum, I'm not particularly. particularly interested in either of these guys. Tyler Anderson is a 223 ERA that comes with a 478 FIP and a 481 X-Fib. It kind of feels like the Bailey Fulter situation where he's pitching over his head and he's in line for two starts next week.

The matchups are okay, but yeah, maybe we should learn our lesson. In his case, he's just, when he's going well, he is very good at limiting hard contact in a way that could continue to allow him to outrun his peripherals, but even that is, I think you got to have a really short leash with him. One name in deeper leagues, Ryan Feltoner took a shutout into the ninth inning, and then things went sideways. He was at the Marlins. He still pitched really well.

It was eight innings, three runs, three strikeouts to zero walks, only six swinging strikes. He's throwing his slider more this year. Yeah, it's a 513 ERA. The underlying numbers look pretty good, but the fact that he pitches in Coresfield for half of his starts, he's probably not going to get to those underlying numbers. Yeah, and I would imagine that 110 strikeout game

is probably carrying a lot of weight in his overall strikeout numbers. He's only had one other start with even four or five strikeouts, I guess. He's had three with four. So I didn't hate him as a streamer here because the Marlins are putrid, but it's got to be. that specific confluence of events where he's going against a really bad team away from Coors Field to use him.

Let's fire up the Worryometer. One, we're not worried about this player at all. Ten, we are extremely worried about said player and we will, I got four hitters on the list here, Chris. Boba Shet, who is betting 2.13 with one homer, three steals and a 577 OPS.

His average exit velocity and barrel rate are both a career low to this point in the season. The expected numbers look really bad. worryometer bobbashet i'm going to say too i know that's not what people want to hear because i feel like there's been a lot of faith lost in bobaschette over the past couple of seasons but this is so out of whack with where he typically is in terms of not just the results but the underlying quality of contact metrics his barrel rate is one point or two point three percent it was above nine percent each of the

previous four seasons so i think he's just cold and figure it out. I'm not, I have not actively moved Boba shut down. Alex Bregman actually hit his first home run of the season on Tuesday. And so far he's batting 216 with a 577 OPS. Last March slash April combined. It was a 219 batting average with a 697 OPS. So I think this is with it in the range of outcomes for Bregman. He gets off to a slow start. He's in a contract year. Maybe there's some added pressure here. But where is Bregman on the Worryometer? It's the, same. It's a two. He is at least old enough that you could see, okay, maybe Alex

Bradman just hit a wall at 30. It sometimes happens. But I'd be very, very surprised if he didn't turn it around. Corey Seeger is betting 236 with two home runs and a 630 OPS. He missed most of the offseason recovering from hernia surgery, which could be the reason for this slow start for him. Where is Corey Seeger on the Worryometer? You said it runs 1 to 10? Yes. One. One. I can't go any lower than one.

So look, his quality of contact metrics aren't quite where they've been specifically last year, but especially, you know, the last four seasons really. But he still has a 349 expected Wobah. But he still has a 382 expected Wobon contact. 9.8% barrel rate is still very good, even if it's not elite. I, yeah, I have less than no concern about Corey C. All right, let's see if we can get higher than a two. You're probably not going to. I don't know.

Maybe. Maybe. I just looked. I hadn't looked and seen who the next guy was. O'Neill Cruz is batting 241. He's got three homers, three steals, and a 640 OPS. 44 strikeouts are third most in baseball. It's a 37% strikeout rate.

Who has more? I think Kyle Swarber has 45. Okay. Yeah, because like who's played enough to have more strikeouts than O'Neill Cruz. There are two hitters who are tied for 45. I think Schwerber was one of them. Okay. Entering today, Schwerber and O'Neill Cruz were tied at 44. Teasca Hernandez and Joey Gallo and Will Benson. We're right behind them. O'Neo Cruz is still hitting the ball really hard, but lots of ground balls, a 57% ground

ball rate. First question, where is he on the Worryometer? Second question, do you plan to lower him in the shortstop rankings? He's kind of a tough one for me because we all really liked him coming into the season, but he also doesn't have the longest track record. Yeah, I mean, the problem is if I was going to lower O'Neill Cruz, it would be behind guys who are also struggling, but who don't have nearly as much upside, like Nico Horner, Danesby Swanson, Hassan Kim. I know Kim and Horner in particular have not been terrible. Kim's actually been, I saw it today. I think he's averaging 3.1 fantasy points per game. That's really good.

Yeah. Horner is actually hitting the ball really well over the last like two weeks since he moved back into the line. The lead off spot, he just has one steal for the season. And the Cubs are not running at all. Yeah. So I think I could move O'Neill Cruz down in my overall rankings, but probably not much in my shortstop rankings.

Because I do still have faith that he's going to figure it out. The upside is so high. I suspect he'll run more when he gets hotter and is actually getting on base more, but he's already got three steals. I don't know. It's one of those things where, like, as bad as he's been, it's like still a 2020 pace. And that's probably the floor. So I will say four because striker rate is super high.

And the time periods where we were optimistic about O'Neill Cruz cutting his strikeout rate were pretty small. about as big as what we're dealing with right now. So I think you probably project like a 30% strikeout rate moving forward. But I still think he'll be a startable, starting caliber fantasy option moving forward. O'Neill Cruz is 79% started on CBS. And as of now, looks like there's six games next week, three lefties on the schedule. And he was out of the lineup against the lefty today, I believe. I think in a head to head points league, you're not dropping him.

I think you can bench O'Neo Cruz for next week. Unless he has a big rest of this week. But obviously we have time to see what happens there. Let's get into some of the leftovers from Tuesday. And we had a pitcher's duel between Cole Regens and Jose Berrios. Regens, it was six and two-thirds innings, one run, nine strikeouts with 14 swinging strikes on 105 pitches. The fastball velocity was up to 97.7 miles per hour in this start for Cole Regens. and he's looked really good.

I know the whip is high, but he has a really high babb. But I think that will drop as the season goes on. He's been everything that you could ask for, I think. And Jose Barrios also has been really good. He was up against the Royals, seven innings, two runs allowed, three strikeouts, only five swinging strikes on 92 pitches.

He allowed 12 hard hits in this game. 94 mile per hour, average exit velocity. He's got a 144 ERA and a 101 whip. That comes with a four. 403 FIP, a 419 X FIP, and he had a 443 expected ERA entering the start. If you want to sell high on Jose Burrios, now is probably the time to do so. Yeah, I was going to say, go call the person who has, gosh, which of the top 30 starting pitchers aren't really pitching well right now?

Go call the guy who has Tanner Bybee. Go call the person who has. I keep coming back to Musgrove, but. Like Scott said yesterday, you probably want to buy a lower. I wish I felt more confident in it. Yeah. I would trade him for Blake Snell, hoping that he comes back relatively quickly. He's going to throw off a bullpen.

You won't throw a bullpen session. There's not really many clear. There's not a great option is the problem. There aren't clear by low pitchers in the top 30. Justin Steele. Steele's a good one. Kevin Gosman is obvious, but I don't think you could pull that off. Yeah, like, it probably has to be Barrios and another player for golf.

Yeah, like Chris Bassett is kind of the same thing as Jose Brrios. He's just not getting good results right now, so I wouldn't make that trade. Right. Maybe Framber Valdez, that's not bad. If you could do it. Like, I would definitely do that if you could. I'm wondering if you could. What about Grayson Rodriguez?

Would you do that? I'm really struggling with Grayson Rodriguez right now. Because, like, he is like the poster boy of this guy should be better. And I can't quite figure out what it is that's just a little bit off with him. Like his command isn't quite where it should be. And the stuff is all like, it's all like 30% whiff rates on all of his pitches. But the strikeout rate is still a little disappointing. So I would do that.

I do worry that Grayson Rodriguez might just be Jose Burrios right now with a little more strikeout upside. But I would do that, yes. I would do that as well. I also think to throw some hitters out there, if you could turn Burrios into Randy a Roserena, Sure, absolutely. Yes, I would do that. How about any of the hitters we mentioned earlier, Castellanos, Carter, Langford, or would you try and aim higher? I think aiming higher is what you should start with, but I think I would do any of those guys, Langford, Carter, or Castellanos.

I'd also consider, and this one might be a little more controversial, but four injured outfielders that I would trade Jose Burrero. for Christian Yelich, Nolan Jones, Cody Ballinger, and Joshua Lowe. I would try to move him for any of those guys. I just think the upside is so much higher. What about Luis Robert? Sure. Yeah. With him coming back in mid-May if he stays healthy or gets back to 100% health, yeah, I would do that, yeah. Which all of this is to say that I just, we know what Jose Brrios is.

And when things are going really well, when things are going really poorly, he's never, really a different guy. And so I think he's executing in a really high level right now, like we talked about with Ranger Suarez yesterday, where I don't know if anything's changed, except that he's just pitching really well right now. And sometimes guys pitch really well for whole seasons. Yeah. But I tend to think Jose Rios will probably be closer to a three, eight to four ERA guy moving

forward. I agree. And again, this is just a reminder that you don't have to trade Jose Barrio. No, he's totally a top 40 starting pitcher. He's a totally fine guy to have on your team. It's just there's limited upside. He's a stabilizer, not a difference maker. Some other pitching leftovers, Luis Castillo looked awesome against the Braves,

seven shutout innings with seven strikeouts and 20 swinging strikes. Hugh Darvish was solid in his return against the Reds. He threw five shutout with three strikeouts in that one. Freddie Peralta was solid before he was ejected. Five and a third, two runs a lot. seven strikeouts, and Mackenzie Gore, also solid. Tough matchup at the Texas Rangers, five innings, two runs, seven strikeouts with 18 swinging strikes for McKenzie Gore.

The only thing I wanted to point out, and I think this will be a consistent problem for him, he has allowed three earned runs or fewer in all six of his starts. He has completed six innings just once this season. So loses value in a points league, loses value in leagues where quality starts, are a category, but so far, the ratios and strikeouts look pretty damn good for McKenzie Gore. Yeah, I remain extremely optimistic about McKenzie Gore moving forward. And I just, it's been like, the start against the Dodgers wasn't great, but it was really good. And it was against the Dodgers. And then today it's like he wasn't great, but he was really good.

It's against the Rangers in Texas. So I tend to remain very optimistic about him. I will also grant that like everything Reynaldo Lopez is doing looks very similar, if not better, than McKenzie Gore. And yet when Reynaldo Lopez has three earned runs and five innings, I'm like, aha, finally the worm is turning. And then McKenzie Gore gives up two earn runs and five innings. I'm like, yes, an ace in the making. So I will grant that I am being intellectually inconsistent there because I like McKenzie Gore more than Reynaldo Lopez and I believe in him more. The other one, I don't ever want to hear any complaints about Luis Castillo again. I don't care if he comes out next April and has a 12 ERA.

Luis Castillo is going to be fine. As long as he is healthy and throwing 98 miles per hour and doing all the stuff that he does, I don't want to hear anyone complaining about Luis Castillo ever again. Like, it better be the end of Luis Castillo's career the next time I hear someone complaining, because we've done this way too many times over the last few years where it's like, oh, I'm worried about Luis Castillo. I'm going to sit him. He's not good.

And it's like, no, he's awesome. Yeah. Stop worrying. I think two of his last three starts that have been awesome have come against the Braves and in Coresfield. So he's, he is what he is. He's a top five starting pitcher. He's, he's awesome.

He's Luis Castillo. Someone who was not awesome on Tuesday was Logan Webb. He ended his streak of seven plus inning quality starts. He was at the Red Sox where he allowed nine hits, four runs, three walks over just three and two-thirds innings, four swinging strikes on 91 pitches. He allowed 12 hard hits in this game. 99.5 average exit velocity.

That means all of the balls in play against Logan Webb were better than Aaron Judge's exit velocity last season. Just to put that in perspective. And Chris, it's easy to not notice the warts for Logan Webb when he's pitching well, but clearly they are there. He allows lots of hard contact. It was a 425 expected ERA entering the start.

The strikeouts are not where you want them to be for an A, 6.4K per 9, and a 7.9% swinging strike rate. Those are actually down considerably from where they were last year. And even with that, the ratio still look good. The underlying numbers are fine. I want more strikeouts. I have Logan Webb on a lot of teams. I think he's going to be fine, but this was just a bad start.

Yeah, I'm trying to. to figure out like what the what the explanation for why he he he's not getting any whiffs right now because his his whiff rate on his change up is like 15 17 percent it was 23 percent last season and i'm looking like maybe he's throwing more in the strike zone and that's why he's getting more contact no he's actually throwing in the strike zone less than he ever has down to 44 percent zone rate uh he's getting more chases than ever on those pitches out of the the zone, generating more contact on those chases, but that's not a bad thing. On the whole, a contact on a pitch out of the strike zone is probably not that much worse.

Might be even better than a single whiff. So it's frustrating that the strikeouts are low or than they usually are, but I don't really see any reason to be concerned about Logan Webb. Some hitting leftovers, Jared Duran had slowed down a bit recently, but he had a nice game. here he went three for four with a walk and his ninth stolen base he had three batted balls over 107 miles per hour. Paul Goldschmidt showed some signs of life in game two

of their double header. He went four for five with a double and a run scored. Riley Green had himself a day four for nine. Four for nine combined across the double header with a double dong. He is now up to a 388 on base percentage seven homers, 24 run

scored and a 912 OPS. He has been great. Will William Adomis is quietly off to a very good start. He went one for three with his fourth home run. Added four RBI. He is betting 270, four homers, four steals, and 810 OPS. Bryce Terrain continues his great start. He went two for three with a double, a walk,

three RBI, and his 14th stolen base. And Trey Turner, also quietly off to a nice start. Two for five with two steals. He is betting three, 46, with two home runs, 10 steals, and an 866 OPS. any standouts anything that catches your attention here Chris Turner Terang

Adomas Riley Green Goldschmidt and Duran You know Riley Green catch him He was my player I love right Yep Yeah that's he's always gonna catch my attention I think it was interesting

that he batted Cleanup in the second game of the double header The first time he hasn't batted lead off in like almost a month Don't know if there was anything to that Just that was something I noticed But yeah he's awesome

I did write about Paul Goldschmidt. It'll be up on the site on Wednesday on CBSSports.com writing about rankings fallers. I wrote about rankings risers for the month of April yesterday. I wrote about fallers today. And he was my biggest faller at the first base position. It was only from like seven to 10 at first base. But that's like a four round drop in the overall rankings for me. And what I said was if Paul Goldschmidt was finished, this is what it would look like.

Strikeout rates way high, quality of contact metrics all way down. So it was good to see him have a good game. He's going to have to do a lot more than that. But the thing that remains tough about writing Paul Goldschmidt off is, I think it was 2019. I think the year he turned 30. He had his worst season ever. And we were like, well, this is it. Paul Goldschmidt's on the decline phase.

And he turned it around and ended up winning an MVP, what, three years later? So it's really hard to write him off despite a, a lot of reasons to do so. Some bullpen updates for the Tigers in game one of that doubleheader. Jason Foley entered in the eighth inning with one out, a runner on first, and a one run. He was facing nine, one and two in the Cardinals lineup. He gave up a hit, but then got the next two outs. It was Shelby Miller, who got the ninth with a one run lead.

He gave up two runs on three hits. He took his second blown save and third loss. Any concern here with Foley's usage, Chris, or do you think that was just the spot they needed him to pitch in a one-run game. I mean, you would hope that they could trust him for a multi-inning save. I don't know if that's something he's really done very much of. It doesn't look like it as a reliever in the major. So it might just be a situation where they thought the highest leverage was facing that 9-1-2.

It's a little weird, but there hadn't been any situations like this in a long time, really, in like almost more than two weeks now. So I have no concerns there. Jason Foley's the guy. On the other side for the Cardinals, Ryan Helsey struck out two for his league leading 10th save. For the Orioles, Craig Kimbril was unavailable. Jacob Webb got the final four outs for his first save.

For the Rockies, Justin Lawrence entered in the ninth with a three-run lead. Runners on first, runners on second and third. He gave up three runs on two hits, a walk, and a hit by pitch. He took his first blown save. I mean, that game was bonkers. Yeah. The Rockies went up five-nothing in the first inning.

The Marlin scored five runs in the bottom of the ninth, and then went on to win an extras. After Tanner Scott gave up a run in the 10th, although I think it was the inherited, where the ghost runner, placed runner, placed runner. While we're talking about crazy games, I meant to discuss this earlier, but the Guardians and Astros was also pretty crazy. The Guardians went up three zip. The Astros answer back. They go up eight to three.

The Guardians then tied it at eight. They took a one-run lead in the 10th. The Astros then walked it off with a Victor Caratini home run in the bottom of the 10th. They should have left Emmanuel Class A in for the 10th. I don't know what they were thinking there. For the Royals, James McArthur struck out one for his seventh save for the Mets. Edwin Diaz was unavailable. Reed Garrett worked the 7th, Adamadoino in the 8th,

and then Jorge Lopez in the 9th with a three-run lead. He gave up one run but picked up his second save. for the White Sox. Michael Copac got the ninth with the game tied. He gave up a run on a hit and a walk. He took his third loss of the season. Copac is now up to a 441 ERA and a 129 whip. Chris, do you think the White Sox might start to consider other names here? Jordan Leisure. They also just promoted pre-lander Barrowa. I believe Leisure also gave up two runs today. He's been good overall, but not great timing for that. his strikeout rate's only 15%. It's possible that they go with someone else instead of Copac. His usage has been a little weird

where they've gone multi-innings multiple times. I still have a lot of faith in Michael Copac being a good pitcher, but maybe not a great fantasy closer, I guess. For the Twins on the other side, welcome back to Yohan Duran, who got the ninth with a one-run lead. He gave up a hit,

but struck out one for his first save. For the Oakland A's, Mason Miller got the ninth with a three-run lead. Can you guess what he did? Struck out the side, made everybody look really dumb. That's exactly what he did. And he picked up his eighth save in the process.

His strike-out rate's got to be up to like almost 60% now. It's must-see TV. I know people are not going to want to hear this, but something I thought about was, Mason Miller is a cell high right now. Only because of injury risk. Yeah. It's not because the Oakland A's are bad.

It is solely because of injury risk. Yeah. His striker is 55% right now. And when you watch him, it's honestly shocking. It's not higher. I mean, through the first month of the season. He's the best pitcher in baseball right now on a parting basis. Reliever.

I was going to say reliever, but you're right. I believe he has a negative FIP. right now, which is always fun when that happens. So again, it's, no, I, look, we don't have to trade Mason Miller, but man, if you can get the world for him right now, it doesn't hurt to try. Look, everything we said about Mike Trout, every time we talked about him so far this season, was as long as he stays healthy. And the thing about these players who have injury risk, and I acknowledge Mason Miller

had a UCL sprain last year. He has heightened injury risk. just because they're healthy right now, it says nothing about their ability to remain healthy. And so while all pitchers have risk, not all of them throw 101 miles per hour, average 101 miles per hour with their fastball. So yeah, he could stay healthy the rest of the way

and be the number one closer in fantasy, even if he only gets 30 saves. I think the upside is that high. But yeah, it's absolutely possible that, this falls apart fairly quickly for reasons outside of his control. For the Padres, Robert Suarez struck out one for his 10th save. He is tied with Ryan Helsie for the league lead. For the Mariners, Andres Munoz got the final five outs, striking out three for his fifth save.

For the Angels, Carlos Estevez entered with two outs in the eighth, a runner on first with a one-run lead. He struck out J.T. Rilumuto. And then Estevez started the ninth. He gave up a game-time home run to Nick Cassiano's. And then two batterers later, he gave up a two-run homer to Johann. Rojas, Estevez took his second blown save and first loss. He's now up to a 623 ERA.

I don't even know where they would go. I guess Matt Moore is a name that could be on your radar, but they seem to trust Estevez, so. Yeah, I would, I'd be surprised if they had that short of a leash with Estevez, given the dearth of other options. So I wouldn't be too worried about it right now. All right.

And then on the other side for the Phillies, Jose Alvarado entered in the eighth with the Phillies down one run. He gave up a hit, but pitched a clean inning. It was Jeff Hoffman who got the ninth with a two-run lead and converted his second save of the season. To stream or not to stream on Wednesday, and as we mentioned yesterday,

it's pretty rough. Pretty rough on Wednesday here. Um, yeah, I... You should not stream... Like, I could see Louise Heel having a great start. I could also see him lasting three innings and walking five. I wrote at Milwaukee, but he's at Baltimore, actually. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, that's, that's tougher then. Yeah, I would prefer not to start any of these, these fellas. If I had to just give out names, I would say Ashcraft at the Padres. Maida against the Cardinals. My Ada against the Cardinals and, like, Quinn Priester at the A's, I guess. I don't. Don't start any of the.

those players. There is definitely one pitcher on Thursday who I like a lot more than anybody on Wednesday. All right, Chris. Who is he? Edward Cabrera against the Rockies, obviously. Yeah, he's, uh, let's go. Walk rate through his first three starts is only 9%. That's a little higher than average, but way lower than his career average. Strikeout rates like 30% getting a lot of weak contact. I, I wrote about Edward Cabrera as a rankings riser for me, uh, on Monday. And, um, or, Tuesday as a guess of when that came out. And even though the results haven't been great, I feel pretty optimistic about him moving forward.

I have two very important updates from the D-Backs and Dodgers game. First, on their video screen, they had an animation of a B, and it said beat L.A. Awesome work. Love it. Corbyn Carroll just narrowly missed his second homeowner's. Just missed it. Yeah. So, I really thought he got it, though, man.

Wow, that was, I'm surprised that didn't go out. But hopefully, Some good signs coming for Corby and Carol. I know we could use some more power there. We're going to wrap there for 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.