Fantasy Baseball Today - Mitch Keller Shutout, Dylan Cease Struggles & Latest Pitcher Injuries (5/9 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 9, 2023

Tony Gonsolin had his first 'real' start of the season (1:44). ... Mitch Keller continues his breakout season with the first complete game of his career (4:00). ... Dylan Cease is struggling big time (11:28). ... The Royals offense is coming around (16:40). ... Mason Miller is dealing with elbow tightness and Max Scherzer's shoulder is not 100% (26:26). ... Christopher Morel was promoted by the Cubs (29:40). ... News (32:24): Jose Altuve is getting close to a rehab assignment. ... Do any of these waiver wire hitters matter (38:06). ... What happened with Tanner Bibee, Jon Gray, Logan Gilbert and other pichers (42:55). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (48:47). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  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/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Well, hello there, and welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, May 9th. I am Frank Sample, joined by Scott White.

Today on the show, we're going to recap all of Monday's games. Mitch Keller through the first. shutout of his career, the first complete game of his career. Dylan Cs continues to struggle. Mason Miller is hurt. We can't have nice things. And much more. Before we get started, please like this video and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. And if you're listening on the audio side, download, follow, and leave a five-star rating. We really appreciate it. Thank you very much. Scott, let's jump right in. He's not a cheetah. He's a lion. That's from the Pirates broadcast a couple years ago. I figured I'd

throw it in there for Mitch Keller, but we'll actually start with you. What was it referencing? You know, Scott, if I gave you 20 guesses on a Pirates player, you wouldn't get it. It's completely random. I thought it was like a Jose Altuve home run or something, but you said Pirates. Pirates. Jacob Stallings hitting a Grand Slam, a walk-off grand slam off Edwin Diaz a couple of years ago. Okay. So completely random. Anywho, why don't you get a starter here, Scottie? All right. Let's talk about Tony G. Tony Gonsolin, who had his coming out party here against the Brewers, six innings, no earned runs. He did allow a three-run homer to Joey Weamer, but they were all unearned runs.

And he'll have three base runners total, just three hits, no walks, six strikeouts. So it's good that he went six innings, first of all. Got a little more leash here after opening the season on the IL being limited early on. But it's not just that. It's that his velocity was up one and a half to two miles per hour on everything. So even being stretched out more, Tony Gonsolin brought the heat. He brought the fire in this start against the Brewers and obviously got a great result. Those velocities were very similar to last year's velocities.

So it seems like he's back to normal now, Tony Gonsolin. And need I remind you, last year he went 16 and 1 with a two. 14 ERA.8-8-whip, 8.2K per 9. Gosh, those numbers surprise me even, and I was the one reminding you of how good they were. They're probably not going to be that good. But, you know, even if he's a 314 ERA instead of a 214 ERA, which would be considerably worse, it would still be great, right?

It would still make Tony Gonsolin basically a must-star pitcher. his career a has 253, so I don't know. I don't know. He's good. Get him started again. Yeah, Tony Gonsland, for sure. This kind of felt like his first real start back, right? Scott, with that velocity up closer to where it was last year,

he averaged 93.2 miles per hour on the fastball in this start. And again, he was right around 93 miles per hour last season. So a really good start for Tony Gonson here. Of course, he does have, you know, quite an extensive injury history. but, you know, the level of investment that you had to play for him in drafts was much lower than it was earlier in draft season. So I don't think it's like a so high kind of situation.

If anything, you could probably make the case that it's like a buy high situation on Tony Gonslyn. Speaking of buying high, might be the case for one. Mitch Keller, who completes a four-hit shutout up against the Rockies, one walk aloud, eight strikeouts, 11 swinging strikes on 103 pitches. and he rode the four-scene fastball in this one, which was up nearly one mile per hour.

One thing I noticed on Monday's slate of game, Scott, is that it felt like velocity was up across the board for a lot of pitchers. I don't know if it was just the weather being better. Frankly, I don't know what the weather was everywhere else, but it was really nice in New York today. So I was like, I don't know. Maybe everyone was dealing with good weather

and as a result, you know, ticking up a little bit on the pitches. But back to Mitch Keller, the breakout season continues here, Scott. 172 ERA, 109 whip, well over a strikeout per inning, 10.2K per nine, the walks are down this year, the lowest average exit velocity of his career, the FIP, the XFIP, you know, it basically lines up, it's right in the mid to low threes. Lots of like here with Mitch Keller. My question to you, I know we usually update our rankings. I think you on Tuesdays and me, I kind of do it like Tuesdays and Wednesdays. How far do you see Mitch Keller kind of boosting up those starting pitcher ranks? Well,

Let's pull it up here. I will tell you that prior to this podcast, I was writing about sell high pitchers. I kind of felt like I neglected the reading audience with my Graham Ashcraft, sell high on Graham Ashcraft take, so they didn't get to benefit the same way the podcast audience did, but I didn't want them to miss out on other sell high picks at pitcher.

And I didn't. I did not include Mitch Keller as a sell high target, probably faked you out with that, right? All right. You didn't think that was where I was going. You had me a little nervous there. Well, like he still makes me uneasy, but it's just hard to find anything in the data to point to to say,

aha, this is what's going to cause him to. This is why he's overachieving. He's going to fall apart because of this. Like everything lines, as you already outlined, everything lines up. Everything supports itself, basically, in the data for Mitch Keller. I still think pitching for the Pirates

is probably not going to be the best thing for him in the long run. But I could move him I'm seeing how low I have Justin Steele still. It's probably going to have to be a fair amount of rearranging happening here between 35 and 60 for me. Right now I have Keller 62nd.

I could get him in the top 50, probably. Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking too. And last week, I was pretty aggressive in moving both Mitch Keller and Justin Steel up together. I have Keller at 52

and steal up to 53. And yeah, they probably should be mid-40s-ish. You know, guys like Chris Bassett and Charlie Morton. Yeah, I think that's probably where some of those guys

are going to settle Mitch Keller and Justin Steele. I did have Justin Steele is one of the sell high pitchers. Ooh. Do you want to elaborate quickly? I mean, he's been, he entered today the third best pitcher in fantasy, and I don't think he can be that good. And as we talked about on yesterday's show, I mean, the fact he's averaging, forget less than a strikeout per inning, he's averaging less than eight strikeouts per nine innings.

So he's really relying on outlier, contact suppression. And I just think that's not a very sticky stat to begin with. It's really difficult to sustain that. And in this particular environment where contact is so damaging, I'm not sure it's a formula for success. Anyway, I feel like the floor is pretty high with Justin Steele, but I think at the long run, he's more of a back end of your fantasy rotation guy than the top five pitcher he's been so far.

So in a landscape where a pitching starved landscape, somebody who's hurting at there will see those numbers from Steele and probably want to buy in pretty hard. That's the whole thing, right? When you're selling high, it's not that I want to get rid of this problem child. It's that I want to realize the gains of this asset. I want to sell it at its peak so that if it goes down, I've sold it as peak. If it doesn't go down, I've sold at its peak.

So I don't even really care. What happens to it after that? I just know that I've realized the gains. And that's the whole idea of selling high. And I think people sometimes lose sight of that. And of course, again, the emphasis on the high part of that, selling high on Justin Steele, not just selling him and saying, oh, you know, I got back a like a top 100 player. Obviously, you'd want to do better than that the way that Justin Steele has pitched so far.

I'm a little bit more bullish, Scott. I get it. I mean, there will be some regression. He's not going to pitch till 145 ERA or a 0.95 whip all season. But, man, I think he is really limiting the hard contact this year. He has done it so far to like 96th to 98th percentile, right, in terms of average exit velocity and max exit velocity. And so I just think that it's difficult,

like that's a really high standard to sustain over the season. And even at that level, his XERA is like three. He's expected DRA is like three, which would be great, but he's probably not going to sustain that level. So I'm thinking low to mid-3s ERA for Justin Steele with modest, write out numbers. Like I said, more of a, more of a fill out your rotation kind of guy than a true standout. Okay. I'm just going to put it out there. Then I'm a little bit more bullish on Justin Steele. I think just the Cubs pitchers in general because they kind of

strike me as like, there's usually one or two teams every year where they sustain a really low bathe because they have really good defense. And I think the Cubs are going to be that team this year. And we've seen it so far with Marcus Stroman and we're seeing it with Justin Steele. So I just kind of feel like maybe they're just gonna outperform some of their underlying numbers for the rest of the season.

This all started with Mitch Keller, who again, I think we'll move inside of our top 50 starting pitchers. I want to give an, oh my goodness, gracious shout out to Wilson Gutreras, his first game back in Chicago as a member of the Cardinals. Obviously, we spoke about his whole kind of,

you know, playing DH moving forward debacle on yesterday's podcast, but, you know, he taunted the crowd a few times there in Chicago. He's having some fun. He went two for four with a double and two RBI. in that game, he had a batted ball.

1.17.5 exit velocity, the hardest of his career. So, hopefully this is something that can, I don't know, help Wilson-Cutreras get going because it hasn't been bad, but he hasn't necessarily been very good either. So hopefully this can help get it. I think that was the third hardest hit ball

in the majors this year, too. I'm sure it's up there because... It's the only one of the top four that didn't result in a homer. 117.5, yeah, it was a ground ball. So it was a ground out. It didn't really matter for anything. But again, just seeing that level of max exit velocity.

So it was the fourth hardest hitball. The three hardest hit balls this year, Matt Olson, Jake Berger, John Carlos Stanton, all three of those were home runs. Wilson Contreras, a groundout. But still, I mean, the fact you hit a ball that hard, that's not something everybody can do. Let's stick in Chicago, Scott. and have this Dylan C's conversation. What is going on?

He goes into the Royals and has another pretty bad start. That is now four bad starts in a row for Dylan Cs. He allowed seven earned runs over five innings pitched, six strikeouts actually kept the walks down in this one. Only one walk total, but allowed a lot of hard contact. Ten hard hits, 92.3 mile per hour average exit velocity against.

And like the other pitchers we've mentioned so far, the velocity was actually up a little bit for Dylan Cs in this one. on the season, he is up to a 5.58 ERA, a 151 whip, still getting lots of strikeouts, but what has gone wrong? Well, the swinging strike rate is actually down nearly three percentage points. The walks are up from 3.8 walks per 9 last year, 4.5 this year. And something that I know if Chris was here, he would point out, is, and you already mentioned

it for when we were talking about, who was it, Justin Steele, that average exit velocity for a pitcher. It's not really sticky. It's kind of hard to maintain like year over year, and it takes a long time for something like that to kind of normalize for a pitcher.

Last year, Dylan Seas was really good at limiting hard contact. This year, it's gone the other way once again. He's all the way up to like 91 mile per hour exit velocity against. The Bavip is up.

The home runs are slightly up. It's got, like, everything that you can imagine going wrong for Dylan Seas in the overall numbers, it looks like it is all kind of coming together right now. Yeah, you mentioned his velocity was up in this start relative to his season averages, but if you compare it to last season, I mean, his overall velocities this year are basically down one mile per hour from last season.

It was better in this start, but overall it's been down on both the fastball and slider, which might correspond to the lower swinging strike rate, considerably lower swinging strike rate, as you mentioned. I can't help but wonder, and obviously there's an implication with this that certain players are skirting the rules or whatever, and so I don't mean to accuse anybody of that without basis for it. But there's supposedly a crackdown of sticky substances this year, unlike ever before, because players kept getting around it. So they keep coming up with new ways to check. in the hopes of finally getting a handle on it. And you look at the swinging strike rate being way down for Dylan,

Seas, and Garrett Cole, and Corbyn Burns, and a lot of high-end pitchers. Again, I'm not accusing any one of them of anything, but when there seems to be a widespread effect there, you can't help but wonder if it's related to that, especially since, you know, when it was immediately enforced, when was that, the summer of 2021, when they first started checking for it, there was at the high ends. The pitchers at the high end seemed to be the ones who suffered the most from that because their stuff wasn't quite as otherworldly anymore.

They weren't separating themselves as much from the pack anymore when they had less grip. And that might explain lapses and control, too. I don't know. it's just a theory. It's just a theory. But ultimately with cease, I mean, there are a lot of,

there are a lot of concerning signs here that, you know, obviously, if it, if it lasts all season, it's probably an issue. I think it's too early to assume

it's going to last all season. I mean, if somebody's freaking out about Dylan cease right now, I'd be more likely to buy than sell. But like, he's kind of, there are a lot of annoying qualities in there. That's why we all had him as a bust candidate coming in

because it just seems like there's a lot that could go wrong with them as overpowering as his arsenal is, as much strikeout potential as he has, and we're seeing that come into play now. It's probably just a rough patch, but it may not be. Look, if you could buy low, like really low, I guess it's something worth looking into because obviously we all saw the upside for Dillen C's last season,

but yeah, I don't know, maybe I'm, I'm just living in the moment too much, Scott, but I am pretty worried about this. And like you said, we all kind of had them as a bus this year. And I threw something out into the universe. Like, this could look like the, like a Robbie Ray disaster type season. And it's, it's kind of playing out that way right now where the walks are up, the hard contact, the home runs, and everything's coming together. And it's just been like a really bad combination so far for Dylan C's. He's going up against the Astros this weekend. And I think we have to recalibrate our expectations for the Astros' offense right now because if you look at their overall numbers this year, they really haven't been good.

So it's not a terrible matchup for Dylan Seas, but I think what he does in that matchup will kind of determine whether or not we want to start him next week when he goes up against the Kansas City Royals once again. Speaking of the Royals, they put up 12 runs in that game on 14 hits, and I had a listener sent me this tweet from Dave Holtzman, who works with the Royals TV, and he tweeted out, The Royals have hit an AL most. 13 home runs in the month of May. 11 of them, including MJ Melendez's home run on Monday,

have traveled over 400 feet, which is the most in baseball during that time. So again, speaking of recalibrating our thoughts, like, all right, this Royals offense is kind of coming around and they're hitting a bunch of home runs. And yeah, so maybe they're not as easy as a matchup as we thought. I mean, who is an easy? Like, if we can't consider the Royals an easy matchup,

then there's no easy matchup. They're 26th and runs scored. Oh, yeah. I had Tigers fans, sweetie Abby Scott, that apparently the Tigers, you can't start pitchers against them either. The Tigers who are 29th and run scored,

and somebody was saying the same thing about the A's who were 25th and runs scored. I think it's just that in this offensive environment, there are no sure things. The A's are going to score 10 runs sometimes. The Royals are going to score. How many runs was it tonight? 12. Yeah.

It's going to happen sometimes. And it's going to happen against good pitchers sometimes. And of course, that was always true, but we're in an even more volatile state here with pitching, with all the rule changes meant to disadvantage pitchers. And so, like, there are no sure things. Maybe emphasize matchups less when you're setting your line. It's just as a general rule. Like, I'm not saying ignore them, but when you're going through your criteria of what makes for, of who to start, who to start, who sit from your pitching options, maybe put the match up a little lower in criteria because it's,

they're all volatile. I appreciate that you're being really rational tonight, Scott, and it's, it's a good balance because I'm actually kind of trending closer to where you've been in the past couple of weeks where I'm just, I'm really frustrated about baseball and fantasy baseball. So, like, you're going back the other way and now I'm, yeah, I'm taking over your role. It's over for me. I might as well just put on my analyst hat. No, I mean, like it's really a stark contrast between my rotissory leagues and my head to head leagues because my head to head leagues are going about like they

normally do, you know, I'm pretty competitive in all of them. It's too early to say where I'm going to wind up, but I'm competitive. I'm very much in the thick of things. I think in all of my head to head leagues. But the roto leagues just been disaster. I'm in last place, last

place in several of them. And hopefully I don't stay there, but it's hard to have hope that I'm going to at this point come all the way back and finish first and anything that I've been in last place and all this time. And I don't know exactly,

I don't know how to make sense of that. I'm still, like, what caused that to happen in that one format type versus the other? I could tell you exactly what it was, Scott. You remember your strategy coming into the season was to wait on pitching because you thought that it would be more like last year's environment

versus this year's environment. Yeah, I mean, like, you know, A, there's not much great pitching to go around in general, but like, yeah, I guess if you waited on pitching and didn't wind up with like so-called aces, then that probably has something to do with it. I mean, it may have. I'm not discounting the possibility. You do think of pitching as being a bigger factor in head-to-head points leagues traditionally than roto leagues. But I've always, I've always kind of disputed that. anyway, because, yes, you're starting fewer in a roto league, but there's a higher threshold that needs to be met for a quality roto pitcher versus a quality head-to-head pitcher. A quality start is always going to be really good in a points league, even though it may translate to a 450 ERA.

Correct. Just to give one example. So there is that, but my roto leagues, by and large, it's the hitting. It's the hitting categories, I'm struggling more than the pitching categories. Well, then I don't know what to tell you, Scott, because that was my...

Because I invested pretty heavily in hitting, right? That was my hypothesis, so, yeah. I do wonder if it might be more the issue with rookies letting us down. Like, I invested in a lot of rookies. That's true. I remember a lot of your drafts. And you have to go deeper into the hitting pool in a rotissory league, much deeper. So you can't afford to miss as much on your... you know, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth hitters drafted as you can in a head-to-headle.

Like, it's just the fact that you have to fill out more roster spots. And I may have missed on a higher percentage of those because I was, you know, playing by the old standards of, okay, this guy's going to come up and he's going to be as good as he could be basically right away, which wasn't universally true, but it was true much more often than it's been this year and really the past couple years. So I just, my theory right now, and it may be a few factors. I mean, the pitching thing may have something to do with it too, but my theory right now

is that I needed, I need to be more rigid in how I approach my mid, late round targets in Roto leagues where there's less to fall back on on the waiver wire. So higher floor plays, maybe. Don't gamble as much in those middle rounds. That's our main night. And just fade rookies in general. Like, not saying don't draft any of them, but maybe only draft one or two. And only if the value is exceptional.

Yeah. All right. Well, that's our take so far on the season. We'll keep you updated throughout the rest of the year. Let's get back to the Royals. I talked about how their offense kind of went off in this one against Dylan C's. Bobby Witt, Jr. went two for five with two steals. He's now up to 10 on the season.

M.J. Melendez, went two for five with his fourth home run. I want to stop there. I have one other name I want to talk about, but MJ Melendez so far, Scott. I know you were not really on this year. I liked him definitely more than you did. He is batting just 208.

It's weird because there's like some good and there's definitely some bad. Like low batting average, the strikeout rate is way up this year. The swinging strike rate also way up the season, hitting lots of fly balls. So fly balls that aren't going out, it's going to lead to a lower badbip,

lower batting average. And strikeouts on top of that explains why MJ Melendez is batting 208. With that being said, when he makes contact, he is hitting the ball extremely hard. 97th percentile in average eggs of velocity, 80th percentile in barrel rate. What are your early season thoughts on MJ Melendez? And are you, would you be looking to buy him right now? Yeah, I mean, I guess if it's a two-catcher league, I mean, one catcher leagues, I'm probably pretty happy with whom ever.

I'm starting a catcher already. so it just doesn't seem like a high priority. But in two catcher leagues, it's more likely his stats go up from here than down. But I do think we're seeing a lot of the same issues he had last year. You know, it was kind of a trendy pick because, you know, a lot of the data look great. The stat cast page looked great for MJ Melendez, but he only hit, what, 2.15, something like that. I think he's really damaged by his home park. You look at his expected home runs by venue.

Most of them are at five or six when he only has three home runs. So that hurts. And I just think between the strikeouts and the launch angle and everything, he's his own worst enemy with batting average. So I don't feel confident that he's going to meet top 10 upside this year. But in a two-catcher league, sure. You can probably get him for pretty cheap. right now. The other name I had written down here, Scott, is Nick Prado, who

no former top-ish prospect for the Royals. He definitely had some pedigree. He went two for three with a double, a walk, and three RBI in that game. And he's betting 357 early on, but also comes with a lot of strikeouts and a lot of line drives. So it's definitely a weird kind of approach. You don't really see that very often. Any thoughts on Nick Prado? Should he be added anywhere? I am not super optimistic about him. The strikeouts have been a huge issue, both between the majors and the minors. Really, it was just that amazing 2021 breakout season in the minors that was, that that's basically the only reason for enthusiasm with him.

And he took a big step back last year. And I just, I need to see a lot more than this to think of him as a fantasy asset beyond like AOL only leagues. All right, fair enough. Let's take our first break. When we're in return, we got a whole bunch of news and knows to talk about here on fantasy baseball today. The UEFA Champions League on Paramount Plus is down to the final four teams and two epic semi-final

matchups. Kareem Benzima and defending champs Real Madrid take on Erling Holland and tournament favorite Manchester City in a rematch of last year's thrilling semifinal. Plus it's a clash of Italian Titans as Inter squares off against A.C. Milan in a battle for city bragging rights. Find out which clubs will reach the ultimate goal in soccer's greatest yearly competition. stream every Champions League semi-final match live exclusively on Paramount Plus. Try it free at Paramount Plus.com slash live sports.

And if you're watching us live on YouTube, you can whip out your phone, scan that QR code in the top right corner. That will also take you to the Paramount Plus app where you can sign up for free. All right, Scott, let's talk about some of the news. And of course, the bad news from Monday was that Mason Miller is headed back to the area to be evaluated after feeling tightness in his right elbow following Sunday start. Manager Marc Cate said the initial suspicion is that Miller is dealing with a flexor muscle issue and that they're hoping for the best. So at least we had that great two-star week last

week. Yeah. I mean, it doesn't, they don't sound terribly optimistic, do they? No. I mean, elbow tightness just in general sounds like it could be a small issue, but they don't sound terribly optimistic and there were a lot of we hardly knew we hardly knew ye takes on Twitter for Mason Miller and that's a shame I mean if if you're in a shallow league and you just pick them up because his roster rate is below 80% still I think then it's probably okay to go ahead and swap them out if you need to in an ideal world you'd wait to hear exactly what the diagnosis is first but you may not be able to wait that long and I'm not that optimistic and I was not, I was not fully sold on Mason Miller as a major fantasy asset anyway, given the team

context, given that, I mean, for as good as this stuff as the strikeouts were, had been kind of underwhelming so far. I think it's okay to move on if you need to. Last week really did impress me with Mason Miller. One thing that surprised me was how quick the A's were to push him and pushes, push his pitch counts, especially someone who's dealt with injuries in the minor leagues as well. So perhaps that's something that contributed to this. Obviously, he throws like 100 miles per hour, so that's probably something that can't be great for your elbow.

Yeah, the news is not looking very good for Mason Miller. Not looking great for Max Scherzer either, Scott, who apparently admitted he's still pitching with discomfort below his right scapula, and he first injured his shoulder last month and had his start push back. Of course, he had that 10-game suspension for the sticky substances as well, but he never went on the IL, and I just can't really imagine anything good coming of this, Scott. Scher admitting that he's pitching through the shoulder thing, the velocity, the spin rates were down in his most recent start. He got rocked by the Tigers, you know, those pesky tigers, Scott.

So given his age, too, like, I'm actually pretty worried about this for Scherzer. Yeah, me too. I'm going to, when I do my big rankings overhaul tomorrow, I'm going to move him down quite a bit. still in the top 20, I think. But yeah, I'm worried about it. I imagine he's either going to go on the IL soon or he's going to injure himself worse and also go on the IL soon.

Either way, it feels like an IL stint is coming. And I'm not just saying this because I'm a Yankee fan on like a Mets hater or anything, but man, it's just... Not just that. How many years in a row, Scott, Can we just, it just feels like with the Mets, what can go wrong, will go wrong every single year. It's, like, frankly, I feel bad for them, but what are you going to do? I'm hoping for the best when it comes to Max Scherzer.

We had a promotion on Monday Scott. Christopher Morel promoted by the Cubs. And then turns out he wasn't in the lineup. So not really sure why they promoted him. But he was crushing it in the minors. He hit 3.30 down there, 11 homers, 31 runs, 31 RBI, 4 steals, and 11, 55. OPS, still striking out a lot. 21% roster has second base and outfield eligibility.

Something that might help him get in the lineup is that Nika Horner left Monday's game with hamstring tightness. So perhaps that's the opening that Christopher Morel needs here. Yeah, could be. And he's like, he can play anywhere but catcher. So he could pick up eligibility

at more positions than second base and outfield even. Though if he is filling it for Horner, Obviously, that would be second base. I am skeptical of Christopher Morrell. It seems like the Cubs are too, given that they sent him back to the miners in the first place and they kept him there for as long as they did, even while he was slashing 3.30, 425, 7.30.

You can't ask for much better numbers than that. But they left him there that long. They brought him up and didn't put him in the lineup right away, as you said, Frank. You said his strikeout rate was still high in the miners. It was over 30% against minor league pitchers. And that was what ultimately doomed him in the majors last year, because remember he came up on fire.

And he was a popular pickup in fantasy for a few weeks, and then he just cratered and didn't end up playing that. The longer the season went, the less Christopher Morel played. And I'm not sure anything has changed for him, since he's still striking out more than 30% at the time against minor leaguers. 15-team league, maybe even a 12-team Roto League,

Roto League, where you have all those line-of-spots to fill. Let's say more than 320 players rostered. Christopher Morel's probably worth picking up just in case because there's a lot of power, there's a lot of speed there, and if he puts it all together, it could be a real prize, but I doubt he's going to.

That's exactly what I was thinking. 12-team roto leagues are deeper where you have the middle infield spot, five outfield spots, like maybe, you know, catches fire a little bit here and gets an opportunity to play given this recent injury to Nico Horner.

We'll see what happens with that. Worth pointing out for Morel last year, obviously interesting power and speed. He had 16 home runs and 10 steals and 425 plate appearances, 88th percentile max exit velocity, 88th percentile sprint speed. So there is legitimate power and speed there.

Will he make enough contact? That is the question. question. Other news and notes, Jose Altuve took live batting practice at AAA on Monday. He appears close to starting up a rehab assignment. Corey Seeger is expected to begin a rehab assignment this Thursday. Nolan Aronado was scratched due to next stiffness and frankly if that's something he's been playing with might explain why the numbers look as bad as they do. Luis Ortiz is expected to start for the Pirates on Tuesday going up against the Rockies and in seven starts in the minors this year, a 2.23 ERA.

26 whip, 29 strikeouts over 32 and a third innings pitch here, Scott. Big Velocity, pretty good breaking pitch as well, only 10% rostered. Any interest in Luis Ortiz of the Pirates? I don't think it's a rush out and add him right away situation, but he is interesting. He was, I debated putting him in my preseason top 100 prospects, and it didn't seem like anybody else was.

So I feel like I'm higher on him than the consensus than the prospect community in general. He did during his time up last year have a 13.1% swinging strike rate. It was pretty impressive. And he has good ground ball generating skills, which I think is still a good thing. So definitely somebody to keep an eye on his Luis Ortiz,

but it's more of a prove-it situation, I think, than like when... I would say when Brandon Fott was called up, but obviously that didn't go well. Like, he's not that same level of prospect, though. Yeah, that is true. And I misspoke recently. I said that Luis Ortiz had RP eligibility on CBS.

He does not. It's only a starting pitcher eligibility there. Travis Darno was activated from the seven-day concussion IL on Monday. Interested to see what that does for Marcelo Zuna's playing time moving forward. Alex Wood could return to the Giants rotation later this week. Carlos Carrasco will make a rehab start at double. on Tuesday. Yoamancata remains on his rehab assignment at AAA and could be back with the White Sox this weekend.

Ramon Luriano left Monday's game after making a great catch in right field. He was later placed in concussion protocol. Chas McCormick was activated by the Astros and was batting seventh in the lineup. J.P. Crawford was scratched with need as comfort. Jose Suarez was placed on the IL with a left shoulder injury. That means there's a good chance Chase Silseth will take his spot in the rotation. Ryan Yarbrough was placed on the IL after a scary injury on Sunday. He took a line drive off of the face.

Luckily able to walk off under his own power. So thankfully it doesn't sound like it could have been a lot worse. I was watching that game. Mason Miller was pitching on the other side. It was pretty scary stuff. So it sounds like Ryan Yarbrough, for the most part, is okay. It's good news for him. Scott, a prospect note I wanted to mention to you.

There are rumors floating around on the Twitter sphere that the Mets are going to call up prospect Ronnie Maricio in the coming days. and in 33 games at AAA this season, he was batting 333 with six homers, six steals, a 951 OPS, and he's always produced big power and speed in the minors, but batting average has usually been lacking for him. Anything we need to know about Mauricio,

and would you be looking to add him anywhere? Deeper leagues. I would say he's less of a priority than Christopher Morel. It would probably be a similar role, kind of a super utility role for the Mets, but there are major plate discipline issues for Ronnie Maricio. The guy doesn't walk at all. And even though he's had great success at AAA this year,

I imagine major leaguers probably be able to exploit that, especially in his first look in the league. But there is big power there. And if he does find his way into close to every day at bats, then Ronnie Maricio might be somebody who has some value. value. I'm just trying to figure it out, like can lineup or roster construction wise, how is he going to make it into the Mets lineup right now? I mean, we know he's not playing shortstop. We know he's not playing third base because Brett Bady is playing there. I guess he

could play second and they move Jeff McNeil to like a corner outfield spot, something like that. It might be a situation where they just move them all over the place and give each of those guys a day off at D.H. Because they have Ryan, they have Daniel Vogelbach, I forgot his first name, primarily playing D.H. And, you know, he's not adding much. Yeah. So I don't, I don't think it's a situation where Maricio is going to play every day. But, you know, that super utility role where the guy plays a lot. Yeah. And just kind of gives everybody a day off here and there. I'm looking at his games played by position in the minors. This is Ronnie Maricio, a prospect for the Mets we're talking about. He hasn't played in the outfield either. It's just been.

second base and shortstop. So it kind of just feels like he's a middle infielder. So yeah, my best guess, again, is like second base and they move McNeil. Well, they were wanting to give him more exposure to positions. I guess if I guess that hasn't happened. So I guess, I don't know, surprising that they would choose now to call him up, if that's even true, because you're saying it's a rumor, right? Yeah, it's not, it's not confirmed yet, but I had multiple people tag me in tweets on Monday and different sources. So it, it seems like there's some smoke there. Ronnie Maricio, again, that's the name to pay attention to.

We'll see what happens. I do need to give Daniel Vogelbach a little more credit than I just gave him because he only has two home runs so I'm thinking, oh, he's not doing anything. He has reached base at a 398 clip, which is pretty valuable. So maybe they will continue to play him.

Gosh, he is such an interesting player. Anyway, let's get into a few waiver wire hitters. Do any of these names matter for Fantasy Scott? We'll quickly run through with some of them. Riley Green, seemingly, you know, since we talked about him, we had that long conversation recently. he's kind of come around.

He went two for four with a double, his fourth steal, and two RBI on Monday. He had two batted balls over 108 mile per hour exit velocity. And over his last 12 games, he's batting 354, one homer, two steals, tons of line drives, also a 64% ground ball rate during that time. He's down to 67% rostered. Scott, does Riley Green matter right now for fantasy?

He is eating up. I don't think he's heating. up enough to win me over again yet. And it's kind of the same thing for Ezekiel Tovar of the Rockies, who's also heating up after doing nothing in April. But it's just like it's not quite hot enough. And in Riley Green's case, there's still the issue of all the ground balls. Not quite enough to win me over.

What about Joey Weimer who went two for three with a double and his third home run? Batting average is low, but is providing some power and speed, not hitting the ball hard, lots of ground balls. Does Joey Weamer matter right now? Well, it matters that I sat him this week in some of those five outfielder leagues where I'd been starting him. Basically every week, I finally sit him

and he has a four RBI game. So, thanks for that, Joey Weamer. I like that his strikeout rate because strikeouts were the big issue in the miners, and it's been fine. It's been about 22%, I think. Which is fine. It's pretty good, actually, for a rookie,

especially, but just doesn't seem to be squaring up the ball often enough to do much at the plate. Certainly squared up that home run today, so hopefully that sparks something for Weimar. I just checked my lone league where I have Joey Weamer as well, TGFBI, a 15-team Roto League, on the bench in favor of Jesse Winker, who I left in my lineup for some reason. They both haven't been good, but gosh. It's really hard to fill out a five-man outfield in those 15-team leagues. Not great. So hard.

Not great. On the same team, Scott, Tyrone Taylor went two-for-four with his second steal. He's 95th percentile in sprint speed. Last year, he hit 17 home runs with three steals. Does Tyrone Taylor matter at all? I'm going to say nah. Okay. What about Gavin Sheets?

He went one for three with his fourth home run. We know Eloy Jimenez is going to be out for the next four to six weeks. It's back-to-back games with a home run for Gavin. sheets. What do you think on him? I don't think much of him either. He has, in 2021 for the time he was up, he looked like he might be a contributor. But the eggs of velocities aren't that impressive. And I think, I think you'd have to be in a pretty desperate spot to turn to him right now. This next one is mostly for one catcher leagues. He's definitely not available in two catcher leagues. Gabriel Moreno went three for three with an RBI and a steel.

He is now batting 318 for the Diamondbacks, but just one home run. Still lots of ground balls, lots of line drives, but it's kind of empty batting average. Got 47% rostered. Does Gabriel Moreno matter in one catcher leagues? I mean, he's outside the top 12 for me.

Yeah. So, you know, I'm sure there will be times this year when he matters when enough catchers are hurt. But right now, I would say, he in one catcher leagues, most one catcher leagues, he can probably deserve. He can probably be on waivers. Okay.

Let's double dip with the nationals. And Lane Thomas went three for five and quietly is picking it up. He's now batting 380 on the season with three home runs and three steals. Joey Menesis went two for four with a run in RBI. He's batting 23, but just two home runs, a 673 OPS. So like we said with Gabriel Moreno, kind of empty batting average, Scott, do either of those names matter? Lane Thomas, Joey Menesis. I'm more inclined to say they do because of all the five outfielder leagues, but they're pretty low end.

They're in the same category as Joey Weimer for me. Yeah. All right. Let's take our final break and when we return, some kind of random pitching performances. Tanner Bybee got knocked around by the Tigers. John Gray had his best start of the season. Actually, something really interesting in that start that I want to get to. And we'll talk about it right after this.

Big thank you to those watching us live on YouTube right now. It is past 1 a.m. Eastern Time. We've got 500 people watching us live. So we do appreciate you being here. And hit that like button. If you haven't already, we really do appreciate it. What do we make of these performances, Scott? We'll kind of just go one by one, little rapid fire.

Tanner Bybee knocked around by the Tigers. He gave up four earned runs, seven hits, four walks, just could not command his fastball. I watched a lot of this start. He just really did not have it in this one. Gave up some hard contact as well. What did you see from Tanner Bybee on Monday? I mean, I'm going to give him a pass for it

as good as he looked in his first two starts him going from zero walks in those first two outings, which was more in line with his minor league track record to having four walks in this start. It did seem like he was just off. I noticed also his slider in particular got hit hard,

and so he was throwing at less. He was throwing more curve balls. So it's interesting to see him incorporate more of his arsenal because he was mainly just fastball. ball, slider in his first two outings. But, I mean, I don't have any huge takeaways from this. I stand firm with Bybee if you picked them up.

Okay. Nester Cortez was just okay. Up against the Oakland AAC won five innings, two runs, four strikeouts, six hits and two walks. You know, the whip wasn't great in this one, allowed a decent amount of hard contact, eight hard hits in this one. The ERA all of a sudden,

Scott is up to 4.74, the whip 1.24. And I noticed the fly ball rate, While it was high last year, it's like way high for Nestor Cortez. 65%. He's giving up more home runs. The bat up is up. So it kind of feels like he's getting dinged by this new environment as well. Are you actually worried about Nestor Cortez at all?

A little bit just because he's such a, and this will sound unkind, but he's such a gimmicky pitcher that maybe the trick doesn't work anymore. That's what I'd worry about with him. But the data still looks strong. I mean, his expected ERA coming into this start is 326. Yeah. Even though the actual ERA is close to five,

the quality of contact remains pretty low, pretty favorable for Cortez. The swinging strike rate, very similar to last year. The outings have been short, and they've been pretty shaky recently, but I'd stand firm with him, too. John Gray just had his best start of the season at the Mariners, seven innings of one run ball, eight strikeouts to zero walks, 20 swinging strikes on 89 pitches, and 10 of those came on a slider, which was up four miles per hour in this start, compared to where it was. He averaged 87.5 miles per hour on a slider, yet the spin rate was down

over 100 RPM, Scott. So I can't really explain it. I don't really know what was going on, but it was a tremendous pitch in this one. And that comes after four straight starts where John Gray had exactly two strikeouts in each of those starts. So I don't know how to explain it. I don't know what got into him. I don't know what got into this slider. I usually you can find insights on Twitter, whether from a beat writer or some data head who has something to say about and I could not find anything about John Gray's slider in this, whether it was being misclassified or what he was doing differently to get it to be up four

miles per hour, but yeah, he got half of his 20 whiffs on it. And it seems like it'll be a formula for success for him. He's up to 79% rostered already. He was one of my sleeper pitchers for this week. I think he got added in a bunch of leagues because he lined up for two starts. But if the second start goes anything like this first start, then obviously he's going to be more than just a streamer for you. Yep. And on the other side of that start, Logan Gilbert actually took a perfect game into the seventh inning and then kind of faltered in that final inning of work. Six and two thirds, two runs allowed,

10 strikeouts, which was a season high, 12 swinging strikes on 91 pitches. And like the other names we mentioned, the velocity up a little bit across the board here for Logan Gilbert, 379 ERA, 0.99 whip on the season, 11.2K per 9, 1.8 walks per 9. And Scott, if you buy that strikeout to walk ratio

for Logan Gilbert, then you can make the case that he's actually a buy high right now. I don't know that he's being valued the way that he should be. His expected ERA entering this star was 286. Pretty good. So that suggests also that he is, he's actually underachieved so far. Yeah. I don't know that I'd go that far, but there's no reason to sell on him.

That's for sure. And lastly, a weird stat line for Anthony Descalfani up against the nationals, right? Good start. It's against the Nats, right? Nope. You know nothing, Frank Stamphle. Seven innings, two hits, five earned runs, three strikeouts. He gave up all five runs in the first and then settled down after that. He gave up 13 hard hits in this one and obviously is pitching more to contact this year, Scott. I don't know. Any thoughts on Anthony Descalvani? Well, it's funny because I thought he was having his Graham Ashcraft moment where I was writing up this article about these pitchers to sell high on

and I was Anthony Descliffeani was going to be in it and then he allowed five run runs in the first inning to the nationals and it's like oh great I'm going to have to take him out now but but then he was great for the next six innings that was the only damage off of him

and so you look at his numbers for the year still has a 280 ERA still has a 0.93 whip so I'm happy that I still get to call him a a sell high candidate because I don't think he's actually this good. Yeah, and if you're trying to figure out how Descofani has made it this far

with the numbers as good, only four walks all season. So I think that's something that's likely to regress moving forward as well. A few leftovers here will point out a few pitching standouts, the studs on the mound on Monday night.

Shane McClainahan, Shane O'Mac. Here comes the money. Here we go. Money talks. Here comes the money. He was at the Orioles and he threw six shutout with seven strikeouts

in that one. Two earn runs or fewer in all eight starts this season. A 176 ERA, a one-one-three whip for Shane McClan. Zach Gallen, another great outing up against the Marlins, seven innings, one run, seven strikeouts for him. It's got anything to add on Shane O'Mack or Zach Allen. I mean, McClanahan might be the actual best pitcher in fantasy. I'm not ready to elevate him there in my rankings. We're going to keep Garrett Cole ahead of him, at least, largely because of durability issues, but in some ways, McClanahan seems to have gotten better from last year, and he was already pretty dang awesome. So, kudos if you have him. Zach Gallen, yeah, nice bounce-back start. He's having a great year as well. Cudos if you have him. All these kudos.

Not quite studs, but very useful pitching performances. Freddie Peralta keeps it rolling up against the Dodgers, six innings, one run, five strikeouts for him. Four team. Four teams. swinging strikes on 94 pitches and Marcus Stroman now has a quality start in seven of eight outings this season up against the Cardinals six innings two runs six strikeouts for him and he actually changed up the pitch mix a little bit he leaned into his slurve more in this one he used it 34% of the time and yeah if he does that more moving forward he could wind up with more swinging strikes and more whiffs and that's exactly what happened in this one any thoughts on Peralta or Stroman?

I mean, Strowman, the consistency of the quality starts, seven of eight, he only had, let's see, I looked this up before the show, Stroman last year

only had 12 starts where he went six plus innings. And he already has seven this year. And that was my big hesitation with him coming into the year. It was just that, okay, if this non-strikeout pitcher

isn't even going to give you volume, then what's the point? Well, he's been great so far. I mean, he may be a sell high in the most technical sense, but he's pretty good pitcher. I wouldn't mind just holding on to him. I made the case earlier in the season that Marcus Stroman is a buy high. And yeah, it probably would have to buy a little bit higher now,

so I don't know that I'd want to do that. But yeah, I'm just going to continue to point out the Cubs pitching staff and their defense. And look at what Drew Smiley has done this year. Like even was Nesky, not getting whiffs. He's kind of turned it around. a little bit. So I'm just a little bit more bullish on those guys. Not really sure what to do with these names got,

but they did pitch pretty well on Monday. Kyle Freeland, seven innings, two runs, four strikeouts at the Pirates. Kyle Gibson. Of course, of course,

Scott. I, you know, I started him, I started him last week up against the Royals who, again, they've played a little bit better recently.

And the Royals and the Tigers. Yep. And I dropped Kyle Gibson in my main event league, most important league. I'm like, nope, there's no way, not starting him against Tampa Bay. Six innings, two runs, four strikeouts for Kyle Gibson. Matchups are irrelevant. That's what we're learning here today.

So frustrating. I wouldn't go that far, but. Yeah. And then Jake Irvin, he had a strong start at the Giants. Six and a third shutout for five strikeouts. For those who aren't aware, he pitches for the Washington Nationals. Scott, anything on those three? Jake Irvin, Kyle Gibson, and Kyle Freeland.

I mean, we pretty much covered the most interesting. angle there with Gibson. I am still not buying into Kyle Freeland in the slightest. Fair enough. Some hitting leftovers, Estuary Ruiz, another strong game. He went two for five with a double and his 17th steel. He is now up to a 277 batting average on the season and he's also up to 75% rostered. So people are listening, Scott, because they're picking them up. Josh Lowe went one for four with his seventh home run. Willie Adomis went one for four with a three run homer. That's back to back to back games with a home run for him. Taylor Ward is coming back around. He had three hits on Monday over his last seven games. He's batting 407 with a home run, six run scored, and five RBI. And Christian

Walker is also hot. He got off to a slow start. He's betting two, uh, he went two for four with his ninth home run. And I think I saw the batting average is now up over two 80 for Walker. So, uh, expected stats look similar to last year. The average exit is lost he's down a little, but it's, it's been, it's been up to last year standards basically since mid-April for Christian Walker. So he seems to be the real deal. And just a little bit of clarity on Estuary Ruiz. I don't think he's actually that good of a hitter. Like he probably needs to be rostered in most every format at this point because he,

with all those steals, he's top 15 outfielder in points leagues even. But he has to sustain, what is this? like an 80 steel pace, which maybe he could do. He stole more than 80 bases in the minors last year. I was going to say, if there's anyone that could do it, it would be hit. Yeah. You're counting on him being a Michael Bourne-like player, which is at this point there's probably a lot of people listening

who don't even remember what Michael Bourne was like in fantasy, but he stole so many bases that he was a worthy starter, even in points leagues, despite not having any power whatsoever. Not nearly as good of a defender as born, but I don't think the A's care much about that. Yeah. So, so like,

don't put too much faith in Ruiz, but you can't ignore what he's doing either. I'm a little bit more of the, the Billy Hamilton D. Gordon era of stolen-based specialist. That predated Boren. Is it? No. Is it?

No, I feel like those guys were after Michael Born. D. Gordon. Yeah. Okay. I don't think we're going to, to get any power out of Estuary Ruiz. Like maybe it's like five to seven home runs, but the steals are legit. He like his average XIV velocity is terrible.

But according to Fangraphs, he does hit a lot of line drives, 25%. So that's really good number for a guy that's going to steal a lot of bases. So Michael Born was like 2010. Yeah, I'd be Gordon. Billy Hamilton related that. I mean, Billy Hamilton's still playing now. I have someone that asks me pretty often, like if they should pick up Billy Hamilton in an AL only league.

If you need steals, sure, why not? I don't think he's gonna play very much. Or give you anything outside of like, I don't know, five to 10 steals. The call to the bullpen, a few updates there. For Tampa Bay, Jason Adam allowed a hit, but truck out three more. He picked up his fourth save

and is 46% rostered. Not really sure where this Pete Fairbanks' forearm injury is, but Jason Adam looks really, really good. So if nothing else, if you have Fairbanks on your team, I would make sure to get Jason Adam as well. It sounds like Fairbanks could be gearing up to return. I saw an update today.

He played catch on Sunday. And it looks like this Rota Wire update was speculating. That means he's close to maybe going on a rehab assignment. So it's still unknown, but it's not like he's shut down. All right. For the Cardinals, Ryan Helsley recorded the final four outs for his fourth save. For the Angels, Carlos Estevez struck out one for his eighth save, and all of a sudden, his numbers look ridiculously good.

We're talking a low one ERA, a sub one whip, and Estevez has looked really good. They knew it all along. They did. Let's wrap out with to stream or not to stream, Scott. And we'll start with Tuesday here. Looking up and down the list. Jameson, Tyot, no.

Brandon fought versus the Barlins. I think I can get behind that. one. Yeah, but there were a couple when we did this yesterday that I liked more. I liked Andrew Heaney at Seattle more and I liked Louis Varland against the Padres more even though that's a tougher matchup. Yeah, it is. What have we been saying all show, Frank? That's if so matter. All right, so Varland fought and Heaney. I don't know if I want to trust Luis Ortiz in his first start but the Rockies on the road. It's not terrible. On Wednesday Taking a look here,

Rich Hill versus the Rockies on the road. I think that's potential. Peyton Batten Field up against the Tigers, though the tigers have been hitting.

Josiah Gray at the Giants. I think that's probably my favorite. I think I'd take Edward Cabrera at Arizona as my number one choice for Wednesday. Diamondbacks are good,

though, Scott. But... What are we been saying? Matchups don't matter. So there you go. I mean, as long as, he doesn't walk everybody. When he doesn't walk

everybody, Edward Cabrera's great. Here are my official three picks. Josiah Gray, Edward Cabrera, Seth Lugo, at the Twins. He's actually pitched well this year. And if you're in a deeper league or desperate, I think Battenfield and Rich Hill are okay. Let's wrap up with two team name Tuesday.

This is from an Apple podcast review from Mike. Mr. Heaney, the Christmas poo. So is that South Park? That is South Park indeed. Okay. Dr. Turk Torkelson. Hmm. I think that's that like scrubs or something?

I think so. Yeah. And then the last one, stop looking at me, Kwan. I think it's a line from is it Billy Madison? Stop looking at me, Swan?

I think it's Billy Madison. It's an Alex Handler movie. I mean, that's in your wheelhouse then. Yeah. Well, this person actually included where they're all from in the Apple podcast review. But I don't like to write them down because I don't want you to know where they're from, Scott. I like to keep the suspense live.

I have not seen Billy Madison before. That's when I've... What? Scott, how can we do a podcast together and you haven't seen Billy Madison? Yeah. No. Sorry. All right.

Sorry. I have not made a point to watch Adam Sandler's entire catalog. Sorry. I've seen quite a few of them, but not that one. I haven't seen his entire catalog. Anything after, I don't know, like, Click or Chuck and Larry. I probably haven't seen.

These next two are from Dave. Never trust a Fought. It's like never trust a fart. Is that something people say? Yeah. Okay. And I fought when I'm Mervis. There's a lot of,

there's a lot of Brandon fought ones today. Probably not the best use of Fought's name. Which, by the way, I think we're pronouncing it wrong. slightly. It's fought. I think you're right about that. It kind of sounds like the word thought. Yeah. Like, I fought the law and the law won. Yeah. Something like that. I think you're right about that, actually, because I remember hearing it. I'm like, uh, they were saying it wrong. This was from Neil. Can't buy me love.

Okay. Grotians of the galaxy. Boy, grossens. It makes an appearance. Okay. I don't walk a do your birdie work. Oh, yeah. Hunter Weather's like gatherers it's a stretch

okay Freddie player Kwan hmm like that visually doesn't connect for me but when you say it out loud I get it okay did you see the movie I haven't seen it

yeah it's not good not good not a fan I have objections to it the last one from Neil is Mervis of Steel Cool. From Eric.

Funk, okay. Funk Soul brother, Tyler Glass now. That's good. Okay. That works. Fought's what she said.

Yeah. All right. From Scott. Not Scott White. Love is a batten field. All right. So from Alex, Vinnie P.

Bibi. Vinnie P. Bibi. Not bad. From bro, strand by me. Strand by your man. Okay. Don't strand so close to me.

Man, it's only half the guy's name. Right. And then he said, I know I missed Star Wars Day, but it was too funny not to send it to you guys. Scott will probably hate it, but Otani Juan Canobey. Otani. Otani.

Obi-Wan Kenobi. Otani. Right. But O'Tani, Juan. Johnny adds too many syllables. Yeah, it does. I don't like it. You're right.

I like the ones that are so bad that they're good. It's kind of like the John Sterling effect for me. It's the Heathcoming special. From Byron, Mervis laughter. Okay. And Mervis Rek. Actually, there's a lot of Mervis ones here. I never thought about him as a stand-in for Nervis.

Yeah. Mervis Breakdown. Okay. Don't be a Mervis Mellie. Okay. Never Nervis Mervis Mellie. Mervis. All right.

Mervis has a bat. Yeah. And bundle of Merv's. So never nervous Mervis. See, I have made the Pervis Ellison connection. And that was one of Pervis Ellison's nicknames, right? Never Nervous Purvis. That's actually exactly what Byron pointed out as well.

Yeah. Yep. From Andrew, Bladayman, Fighter of the Night Manoa. I think this is from, it's always sunny in Philadelphia? It's like dayman, fighter of the nightman, something like that. I've seen just very, very few scattered episodes of that show. From Dan, Sheets Burger, Happ Emilio. Is this some kind of like happy meal?

Sheets burger, happy meelio? Happy, hap amelio. Happy meal? It's no good. Yeah, I don't know. Boo. Did you fought? What's the odor?

What's that odor? Gosh. This is what we've descended too. Yeah. Like an Adam Sandler movie. For sure. 100%. From Gris, you say Mania, I say Manoa. All right. From Michael, it smells like Fott. You know, I kind of like that last one. Because you say, it's like you say Kakuchi. You may not hear that. But visually, it has three names in there and it actually works. Yes, it does. And this last one is from Justin. an eight pound, six ounce, baby Jesus. Okay. Yeah.

All right, we're going to wrap there. For Scott, I am Frank. Thanks, as always, for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a 5-star rating on Apple or Spotify. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.