Fantasy Baseball Today - More Prospects! What to do with Craig Kimbrel? (08/05 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 5, 2020

Frank Stampfl is day-to-day so Scott White is back in the host chair with special guest... Chris Welsh! We start off with the debut crew: highlighting Jo Adell's first game (2:11). Jesus Luzardo looked like a stud in his first start. What should we do with Luis Patiño plus should we be stashing MacKenzie Gore? ... Roberto Osuna needs Tommy John surgery (17:46)!? Where does Ryan Pressly rank among other closers? Mike Trout was back in the lineup Tuesday while Juan Soto was not. ... Three big names on the Cardinals have tested positive for COVID but apparently the team is set to return this Friday (30:28)... And the question of the night: what do we do with Craig Kimbrel (34:32)? Nick Anderson picked up a save for the Rays while Keone Kela was named the Pirates closer once he returns. ... We're updating you on some injuries including Mookie Betts, Robinson Cano, Josh Donaldson and Ozzie Albies (43:33). ... What did we learn from Tuesday night's action (47:48)? Cristian Javier, Dustin May, and Tyler Mahle were all pretty good while Jesus Aguilar homered again in the Marlins return to play. What should we do with Brady Singer? ... Email us at [e-mail]. Subscribe to our new YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @CBSFantasyBB, @AdamAizer, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday 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/ Download our printable Draft Kit from CBSSports.com/draftkit! 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. I drive, center field, and swing. This is magnificent. 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, Chris, and Adam.

Welcome to Fantasy Baseball today. I'm Scott White, and normally my voice isn't the first. one you hear. Normally it's Frank Stamphold, our host, but Frank isn't here right now. Frank has a bit of a power outage he's dealing with in New York, so we're having to pivot here. We're having to pivot. It's me hosting for like the third time ever in the 10, 11 years, however long I've been doing the show. And since I'm in the driver's seat, since I have the power, I'm using it to invite back a very good friend of mine, Chris Welsh, the Welsh is here with us for the first time since he was hosting the show back in the fall,

right? Seems like it was like ages ago. It's good. It's back here. It is funny, though. This has got to be like at this point, the Cubs calling in Craig Kimberl. Like this was like really down the list. Like you really had to have some damage go on.

And poor Frank with the power outage, hopefully he's good to the storms. But I'm glad it's good to see your face again. It's good to be talking with this guy. It is. It is. And yes, we are having to dig pretty deep here first by putting me in the host seat, a rare occasion. When was the last time? When was the last time?

It was years ago. It was years ago. Two or three? Probably. Yeah, probably something like that. And, you know, Chris Towers, Adam Azor, they both have important fantasy football stuff they do on Tuesday night. So that's usually the night for Frank and I. But Frank's not here.

So now it's me and the Welsh. Is it the Welsh? Yes, it is. And we have a lot to talk about here. full slate Tuesday, a couple teams back after not playing for a week plus. And a few big debuts to talk about. We're going to start with that. The debut crew is what I'm calling this segment, beginning with Joe Adele.

Of course, we learned on Monday that Joe Adele would be getting the call making his major league debut. And he was in the line of right away in right field, batting seventh, got his first. tit out of the way. That game is still going on, so we'll keep an eye on that. How excited are you for this debut, Chris? Well, I mean, you know, I like, I love Joe Adele. And back when we were doing the shows, I couldn't stop talking about, uh, talking about Joe. And actually, I want to say it was probably one of the last ones I did with you. It was right when the Arizona Fall League was ending. He was kind of like, um, he was the ultimate get for me in the Arizona

Fall League. And I finally got to him and actually I tweeted about it on date. If you want to go backwards, if you want to go to a Tuesday, you can go and check out my old interview with him. But I'm a huge Joe Adele guy. And I love his makeup. I love his talent. He's a huge power guy. He showed off his speed tonight. So like from like an excitement standpoint, I'm rooting for this guy. I think he's super, super talented. He was actually, you know, kind of near the top of my prospect list. Obviously what, what Luis Robert has done consistently kind of has to, you know, make him jump. But I like Joe Adele, I think more than most people. But, you know, the debut has some holes in it. Like that single that you were talking about was a really weak dribbler poor contact. I think it was like

a 36 mile an hour EV on it. He doesn't have any idea what's going on, at least in the first two at bats, bad strikeout in the second at bat, just took three straight pitches, bad strikeout swing just on. I think it was a slider down low from Dunn, but I still think he's a super, super talented guy Scott. And I would bank on a player like him, at least, you know, I think he's going do the Louise Robert thing because he did miss a lot of time last year. But I'm banking on a guy like him and this is why I was drafting him and I'm so glad to see that they're committed to him as well. They said every day now it's going to be good one in Upton are going to be platooning. Yeah, that's that's big. Of course, it means Justin Upton's fantasy value is pretty much shot if he's

the lesser half of a platoon there. Well, I mean, yeah, I think the Otani stuff is something to really consider as well. Like I had speculated on this Adele thing over on my show on Monday just because like if Otani was going to miss any significant time as a DH, why not bring Adele and put Justin Upton as a DH? So I think we got to watch it. I mean, at least the angels are being pretty positive about Otani, but I'm kind of looking for that. I'm hopeful that like Upton can do something between, you know,

playing his part time in left field and then being able to get in D.H so he's getting like relative full-time work. Yeah. I'm not going to be quick to drop Upton in my five outfielder leagues. And those are really the only formats where I was. even rostering him in the first place. So we'll let it play out a little bit, but it doesn't sound good for him.

At the very least, somebody you can remove from your lineup. Otani, for what it's worth, was out of the lineup today, obviously dealing with a strained forearm that they think he's going to be able to continue hitting through, but he's pretty much done as a pitcher.

Yeah, I think they even said so much that they shut down the pitching. Where are you on Joe Adele? Because I know that it's like, he's kind of dicey because he's got a bad, you know, he's got a bad case of bad swings, but he just makes really hard contact. He showed off his speed.

Even on that stupid little dribbler he had, he was flying and he got to first base. Like, where are you at on him? Especially comparative to guys like, you know, Dylan Carlson and stuff that people are speculating on. Yeah, I would have been probably more excited to add Carlson if he was getting the call. I do think Adele is the superior talent.

I mean, all the prospect rankings show that. It's just the production, particularly after getting moved up to AAA, a very hitter-friendly, affiliate with the juiced ball in the PCL, and he just did nothing and over 100 at bats there. I just was concerned he wasn't ready, but of course, talent is always worth a flyer.

And I actually was working on my rankings earlier tonight, and I managed to get him in my top 40 outfielder. So that's somebody that, you know, obviously needs to be picked up in every league if he's already in my top 40 outfielders. But, you know, he could move down considerably from there. He can move up considerably from there. We just, we'll just have to wait and see. But it wasn't all about Adele the debut news tonight.

Luis Patino, we learned he was getting called up by the Padres. Big pitching prospect. I mean, people talk about the Tigers big three of Casey Mize and Tarek Schuble and Matt Manning. I think the Padre's big three, if you're talking the name Chris Paddock, Chris Paddock and, of course, McKenzie Gore. I was curious who the third was going to be. I was like, obviously Gore and Petino, I'm totally with you. But I wasn't sure who your third was. I'm like, are you going to say like Ryan Weathers or something?

Okay, I'll take that crew for sure. I mean, Patino, he's seen his velocity, like his prospect stock has soared the last year because the velocity jumped up. Now, he is going to be working out of the bullpen initially. So this wasn't a rush out and pick him up everywhere situation. But the Padres can make room for him in their rotation if he proves he deserves it. They can kick out. flu Casey

they could kick out Zach Davies there's room for Petino could easily kick out Zach Dave you know what's funny too is I was thinking about this like how disappointed was your setup that you put on people on Twitter because most people know

or at least that know me whoever does that I'm out here in Arizona and I cover when there's actual human beings being able to watch baseball I cover a lot of these guys and I'm on the backfields and I'd sell Luis Petino when he was pitching an instructor

game before he kind of like blew up and I've been around him and I have a picture with him that I tweeted out and you tweeted out you're like one of these guys will be on the podcast tonight and I was like oh no people are going to be so disappointed when they realize it's not Luis Petino so I felt bad that you set that up you got to bring the people in however you can but yeah he's a great he's a great prospect though big fastball big slider he's he's going to dominate like in a holds type of a format if you're playing in there I think he actually is a pickup I'd be I would be shocked if they put them in high leverage stuff. But I think Gore,

you obviously can see the play here because Gore is more ready, I think, than Petino. But if you're going to bullpen a guy, bring Patino up right now. Gore is for Davey's spot. It'll be really interesting to see how Lucchese goes to see if they would give Patino a shot. And I think his role is going to determine that

because if they go and put, you know, if you see Petino not in any type of a long relief role or back-to-back piggybacks, I just don't see him getting any type of opportunity. So back to what you said, He's just unfortunately not a pickup as much of a sexy name as he is. I just don't, it doesn't make sense unless you're playing holds. But Padres are going to go all in.

And I think what's more important actually about the Patino signing is that it's, it's the Gore very close. Like people should be manically picking up McKinsey Gore because I can't imagine he's not on this roster within the next two weeks. That's a good point because I wasn't even necessarily expecting to see Patino at all this year. And Gore, you know, at least was a chance. I'm not saying no to picking up Patino. but it's kind of a speculative pickup

in the hope that he's dominant enough as kind of a multi-inning reliever that he eventually finds his way into the rotation. And, you know, he might help in ratios in the meantime in those deeper categories leagues. Monty Harrison, he was called up by the Marlins. He started in center field, bad at ninth.

They obviously have a lot of holes to fill with putting half their roster on the IL for presumably positive COVID-19. team tests. We know they got hit pretty hard. You're down in South Florida, aren't you? You might have an opportunity to get on that roster, Scott. Yeah, it's possible. I didn't try.

I have to say. But Monty Harrison is somebody I picked up in my roto leagues. Of course, steals are scarce, and he contributed a whole bunch of them in about half a season's time, a little less than that, actually, for the Marlins and the minors last year. How do you feel about him? Yeah, well, he also contributes a whole lot of strikeouts. This is another one of those guys.

This is that annoying bit that I'll do with prospects. But Arizona Fall League, I spent some time with Monta Harrison, actually interviewed him the day that they got their brand new jerseys and they kind of re-transform. But was more interesting about that is he had spent a couple different stints in the Arizona Fall League. And he had, what I like about him is he really takes the tools of this game seriously because he gets followed to like the Lewis Brinson comps, you know, big power speed guy who can't make contact and is never going to be able to shake

the strikeouts, and he struck out, you know, three times in this one. I think he was 0 for three with three strikeouts of the nine hole. But one of the things he did when I had chatted with him in the Arizona Fall League is he had just kind of altered his game plan instead of trying to hit for power, he was purely going for contact. So then people started jumping on him, hey, what happened to his power? Now you just got empty stats. You're just a contact guy and he was able to push 300 in Arizona Fall League.

So he's made those adjustments. The problem is he just the strikeouts have to fix. And the Marlins don't have a plan for that. I was talking with Craig Mish. just a couple, like a week ago on my show, Prospect One. And one of the reasons, the main reasons, even though it's such a small stint that the Marlins didn't give him a shot out the gate, he had eight straight strikeouts in one of the alt-camp things.

You know, it's just he hasn't changed that part of his game. He's just really, really ultra-aggressive. But if you're looking from like a tool standpoint, he is massive power. And he will try to steal bases. And he's cognitive of the batting adjustments he needs to make hitting for contact. But I think he's in his head. But he's a super, super athletic dude. His brother was Shaq Harrison who played with the Sons and the Bulls.

It's an athletic family, tons and tons of talent, great dude. He's going to get there. I just, you know, he's not a bet I have for this year unless it's like a much deeper league. Yeah, it's more of a category needs situation because, you know, there's a couple dozen players who are really going to help in steals. And you can add him to that list if he's, if he's able to hit enough to stay in the line. I'll run it. I actually undersold how much he ran last year.

23 for 25 on stolen bases in just 58 minor league games. And we pointed out on a show recently. He had six stolen bases in spring training, the very short spring training. He runs a lot. And this remade Marlins lineup has a few potential steel sources that they may run a lot. Well, you know, it's also interesting in that way. Well, what's good about them too is take a look at, you know,

if you're turning the lineup and he's hitting nine, Well, you've got VR and Bertie that are going to be hitting one and two. If you want to get your best hitters in an opportunity, yeah, I think it's a really good point. They would want to move. They're going to have to manufacture runs as much as possible. I mean, the biggest outlier here is getting on base versus stealing those. And how is he going to do? I believe in him.

I just don't know how long this period is going to take for him, that people are going to be able to stomach the strikeouts and the bad batting average until it starts to click. Totally fair. You mentioned it, John Birdie. he was playing second for the Marlins. Of course, Asan Diaz, their intended second baseman, he has opted out since we last saw the Marlins play. So I don't know if that just means John Bertie is the second baseman now. He had two hits, stole his first base of the season,

getting a chance to bat second, like you said. And very versatile player, tons of steals potential. I kind of hyped him as a cheaper, more versatile. version of Elvis Andrews coming into the season. Like, I like that. Could give you similar production, could be somebody who could carry you in a scarce category for cheap. And I think it's even clearer now with some of the players,

the Marlins lost. So if you're hurting for Steele specifically, there's a good chance he's, he may actually be out there in your league. And you can play him in a few different times. He was. You know what he was. I actually, I was able to pick him up in one of my leagues.

The one note to have on him, though, is not that it really matters. He just needs to qualify four second for you, But VR doesn't seem comfortable at short. And I think the team has so much talked about it that once Rojas is back, VR would switch. And he might go back into the outfield. So it would be interesting to watch regardless. But he should be in the lineup every day.

That's like the main point. Maybe he's kind of like a 2.0 version of an Edmund or I even like, I like the Swiss Army knife ability of like Danny Santana. He doesn't have the power. You inverse the power that Santana has for Bertie speed. And then he'll, you know, chuck in maybe a couple homers. Bertie's such a great kid if he's out there.

All right. So a couple more quick notes on debuts here. Dalton Varsho, Diamondbacks catcher prospect who can play the outfield. He finally made his first start. It was in left field. Last check, he hadn't done anything there. But if they could find ways to get him in the lineup four days a week, there's enough potential there in the bat at a weak position like catcher, particularly in two catcher leagues, that he's going to be on the radar. another debut here, at least the role he debuted in,

Jesus Luzardo making his first career start. And it went five innings. He made it five innings, only through 76 pitches, but five sharp innings, two hits allowed, no earn runs, five strikeouts on 10 swinging strikes against the Rangers. I don't think anybody who invested in Luzardo on draft day is going to complain about this outcome, him making his first start here in,

week two or week three depending how you set up your league and him already being capable of going five minutes. Yeah, he's such a monster too from a command standpoint. I've always loved him. He's been at the top right behind McKinsey Gore as far as like in the prospect range of pitchers coming up just because he'll keep pitchers off. He'll switch, you know, how he's going to attack, whether it's a hesitation before he pitches. And, you know, the way he's able to attack the zone just, it's like full bore in this appearance. He had only four balls hit. were over 95 miles on. So only five,

or four hard hit balls here. One was actually for anything. You had ground outs and flyouts. So, I mean, only four hard hit balls in this game coming off of Luzardo. One did anything whatsoever. Lazzardo is such a stud.

And I'm glad to have seen him let, like, I'm glad to the team has let him go five. And I would like them to stretch him out a little bit more because, you know, he's missed some innings over the last couple years. Just let Puck and Lazzardo loose, please. Yeah, if he's,

if he's this efficient, He's going to pitch 5 plus with consistency. I think I don't know that he's going to go 7 a lot because he's obviously rookie and has some health history. But if he's efficient enough, he'll get the innings. And I can't imagine sitting him for his next start after the way this first one went. The talent is so great for him.

What would it take for you to sit him? Because it's a great point that you bring up. I'm not sure there's a scenario where at this point with Lazzardo because he's a strikeout maven, he's got the pitches, he's got the command, he's got the composure, and they already pushed him to 70, 80 pitches. I don't think they're going to quick hook the guy. What's a scenario that you're not, you know,

is it up against Cleveland and Bieber? Is it about the other side of the pitcher? Or is there anything that you would send him for? No, it would have nothing to do with the matchup. I think Luzardo is talented enough that that's not going to be a great concern, unless he's a course field. But that's what I was curious. I was curious.

There's like a course game. Would that be enough for you to even shy away? I'm not even sure I would shy away. It would just be that my rotation is so studly that I can't afford to start a guy who may not go the minimum number. of innings to get a win. That would be it for me. Okay, that's fair. Some other big news, actually, maybe the biggest news of the day, but it was so early in the day that I didn't really want to lead the show off with it,

is Roberto Azuna. According to reports, it looks like his elbow injury is a serious one. In fact, he's going to need Tommy John surgery out for the year, which means the Astros are now in need of a closer. Ryan Presley seems the obvious choice, but he has his own durability issues. You know, the Astros, I don't know, with Dusty Baker there, that they, they, they, they, they, they wouldn't be able to settle on a guy, but kind of an organizational philosophy for them would, would be not to have a set closer if there isn't a guy who obviously deserves it. So I, I guess among, among, uh, prospective save sources, you know, the Cole Sulcers, maybe, maybe Rowan Wick after we saw Craig Kim will have another meltdown. I mean, Ryan Presley's got to be at the top of that list, right? But yeah, at the same time, I'm not. feeling totally confident in him. I mean, like, he's one of those few guys. He's one of the few relievers that was picked up in the majority of drafts I had.

You know, he was one of those top guys that you wanted to piggyback because he was also a ratio player. That's what was so nice about him. So, you know, if we can just talk in like a vacuum of do I have Ryan Presley in save situations for the Astros, I'd feel great. Do I feel great about the Astros right now in Dusty Baker? No, not specifically in his injuries. Pena got, Ray, you got hit up a little bit in the diamond backs, gave up a, gave

up a couple hits and I think gave up a run. I just still think the Astros, especially if Presley lingers a little bit, I'm still shocked that the Astros haven't made moves. You saw me tweeting about that, Scott. You were interacting about where when Verlander went down, I thought that they should start making some moves, especially with how they weren't playing Tucker. I would also be shocked if Dusty Baker's not trying to make some moves to bolster up this bullpen. You also lost Whitley.

So how many more arms does this team have? How many more can they afford to lose? Framber and Josh James looked like garbage as well. So I don't know, maybe but Josh James in a lower leverage role at this point. One inning, he can just let it go. That might be a good option for holds. But to your question, the only thing I would feel confident about is Presley. And he would be, you know, if given the opportunity as the sole guy, he's, you know, probably a top 12, 15 overall closer option.

He's not that far off. He certainly has that upside. He's 46% owned in CBS Sports Leagues. And like, I think he's their only healthy reliever who isn't a rookie. I just don't see who else they could possibly turn to in the role. I just wish you was more durable. That's a dusty's nightmare too, by the way. That's a dusty's nightmare.

All those rookies, he's like, what am I supposed to do with these? I can't do this. Mike Trout was back today and Homer. He is past the paternity leave now. And the threat of him may be opting out permanently because of that. My concern was more that he'd miss a week when he went on paternity leave. It just turned out just to be a weekend. And now it's over.

It's in the past. If you're the person who has trout and you survive the weekend, like there's nothing more to worry about there. How good is a trout? It all seems pretty silly in retrospect, right? The way people were downgrading him the last couple weeks before the season. I mean, hindsight, hindsight feels. But I think there were, there were so many, like, barriers that made sense,

like why you would have downgraded him, even if you just want to take from a game perspective, I suppose, if you're thinking about stolen bases with Yelich and. Acuna, but then, you know, you got potential opt-out. You've got, I was with you. I kind of thought there might be like a week to two weeks. I could even go up for paternity leave. But it also looks even worse when you attach just how poor of a start, Acuna. Acuna has been heating up a little bit, but how about a poor start he's had,

which you've had the same thing with Yellich, Bellinger, you know, all he needed was the diamondbacks. But so many poor starts at the top end of where people were drafting over Trout, it does look pretty, uh, it looks silly in hindsight. But Ocuna is hitting a third multi-hit game in four today. He said his fifth double, stole his first base. So he seems to be coming out of it. It seems to be used to seeing velocity again.

And he's going to be fine. Rest of season, I'd still consider him my number one in Roto, but Trout's right back at number two. And like, I only dropped him to fifth overall in my rankings. I wasn't able to snag him there, but I was seeing leagues where he was dropping to round two. And it seemed crazy then. Anybody who passed over Trout at the end of round one is just,

I'm sure they're feeling pretty stupid. It hurts a little. It has to feel like that. I don't think I did. I wasn't ever faced with that situation, but it would have hurt. Austin Meadows was also back. They made a season debut,

actually, after dealing with COVID-19. He had lead off. He went two for four with the triple. So, yeah, get him back in your lineup. It looks like he's ready to roll. Juan Soto, meanwhile, he was activated. He was off the IEL.

He was cleared to play again. He wasn't in the lineup for the national. You know, he got cleared, in terms of testing, got cleared to return pretty quickly. But he was dancing on the dugout if you didn't see. He was doing like a straight up stomp dance on the dugout. He looked like he was ready to go. But the Nats said that they were going to take it easy with him and Strasbourg. They were going to really ease this situation.

And so he was available to pinch hit. And I'm a little bit worried that, like there was a part of me that said, well, why not just DH him? Like, why not put him in the as a DH? She looks good. Get him some at bats. How far along is this baby in process going to go? And it's going to probably be, I don't know which one is going to tell the story, if it's Strasbourg or Soto, but one of them is going to probably show how long

and how bad this is going to be. I'm worried about Strasbourg, actually, from the news of it. I think Soto's back in the lineup by next week, but it's probably going to be pretty dicey this week. And I bet a lot of people in, like, weekly lineups, they had put him in and they're kicking themselves a little bit. I don't know. I think he'll be back tomorrow the next day, something like that. But you think on the regular, though?

Yeah. I mean, why? There's so much urgency to win now that once you get him in the lineup, what would you take him? I'm surprised he wasn't in today. Yeah, me too. But then they also came out with that. I mean, it came on top of it that he's activated. He's out there, but then they want to take it easy with both of those guys. We just have to, I mean, this conversation is like, what does that actually mean to the Soto owner?

It doesn't mean anything. You'll hold. You don't trade. It's just about lineup construction, but it might, you know, pending what they do with soda like this week, could maybe be this tiny little blueprint about how babyed Strasbourg is going to be at this point.

Like, when is he going to get into a game? And what are those starts going to look like early on? So the news on Strasbourg today is he's progressing to simulated games, at least. So not just, you know, another step forward. Hopefully next week he's finally able to return to the mound. But I've been saying that for the past couple weeks now. there are some rule changes happening here that may have some impact on fantasy baseball

MLB will reduce rosters from 30 to 28 beginning on Thursday but then they will stay at 28 for the rest of the season and the postseason. Remember it was supposed to go down again to 26 after another couple weeks. So it's going to stay at 28. Bullpins are going to stay bigger. what I envision happening because of this is kind of a continuance of what we're already seeing. Bad starting pitchers,

back-end guys for teams, two, three innings, and then get them out of there, while you still are able to have a chance to win the game, basically how they handle back-in starters in the postseason. I feel like we've been seeing a lot of that around the majors, and if rosters are expanded to 28 all-season long, that's going to continue.

It's pretty baffling to me. It's such a stupid move. It's an insane play with everything that's going on, you've had two teams that have experienced outbreaks. You've had teams, we're now going into the second week of a team essentially not going to play for a week. And then to me, this is a clear money play.

It doesn't make any sense. Why would you not keep 30? If anything, I think these guys should have considered up in the rosters with what a disaster it is and what the Marlins have had to experience. I look at this as a sole bad money play teams wanting to get those two contracts off so they don't have to pay it for active roster spots. And I hate it.

I absolutely hate it. And honestly, I think MLB, if we experience anything similar to even what the Cardinals are having, I think there's a legitimate shot they may have to, they may have to pivot off this. But at least the one positive is MLB has been willing to pivot. And I think they're going to,

I think they're going to rethink this by the, I mean, definitely by the end of August, by mid-August, I think they may have to reconsider this because I don't think it's a good look. Well, the move itself is a pivot, not going back down to 26. Yeah, I mean, you're looking at the positive. Yeah, you're right about that. They're not going to keep doing the tiered down. But like, I would love, I would love to, like, what's a justification?

What's a justification to take those two roster spots off with everything that we've experienced? I have to imagine the scenario of what baseball has experience is worse than they were really playing out because there's so many things that they were unprepared for. So to limit the roster size when teams are going through all of this, I just don't know what the argument for competitive advantage to two extra players is versus like the safety and really just the team management. But, you know, that's me. So speaking of the Marlins, they were back today.

As I mentioned, we knew a lot of their players had tested positive for COVID-19. That's why they were away for a week and a half. We have a bit better of an idea now who actually had. has, Sandiocantera, we do has. And he's out, you know, we learned him pretty early on. Caleb Smith also went on the IEL. We don't know exactly why. Draw your own inferences there.

From what we've seen of this so far, I'm basically treating it like a two-week absence. Obviously, it could be more. But, you know, in terms of symptoms, the worst case we've seen is Freddie Freeman, and he was back playing in two weeks. The quickest turnaround we've seen was Juan Soto. Basically, in a matter of days, he got cleared to return,

and it was just a government issue holding him up. So, you know, it could be less than two weeks. Alcantara is already a weekend, it seems like. With pitchers, you obviously have to worry about buildup, and maybe they need some time down at the minor league camp to be ready to start again. But, you know, I wouldn't be so quick to drop Alcantara if you were excitedly picking him up after his first.

And hopefully you can IEL. and wherever you're playing too. Really interesting Boris's comments about pushing back that like they want, you know, these guys that are stuck in hotels and that they're trapped there, that they're wanting them, you know, the hotels to open up ballrooms for like,

you know, pitching sessions. So these guys can have some workout because a concern is, and, and, you know, Boris isn't necessarily wrong about this, is that if these guys are just hung up in a hotel and they can't train,

even if they're asymptomatic and they're, and they can't do anything and they have no throwing program, you know, maybe they're not all as savvy as flarity who put up his bed and did the throwing program against his mattress. If these guys don't have anything, they might be more susceptible to injuries when they come back. So it worries me. It worries me that he misses this time. Do they throw him right back at an alt campsite?

If you are, you're looking at more than a two-week, you know, get over this and negative test. Then you've got a throwing program. Now you're looking at a month. But if they rush him back and he's doing no training, are you going to have your shortoutics? It's a disaster. It's not an immediate drop, but it's very, very cautious approach to any of these pitchers, at least in my eyes, that are hit with this. And if there were available options, I'm more trigger happy than I've ever been before this year.

I'm cutting guys left and right that I don't feel comfortable with or I know there might be a regret. But I mean, you know, I just, I got a tattoo right here, Scott, no regrets. I got to treat that with this season. I'm just picking up guys left and right, whether it's backup closers or, you know, whoever it is that's getting at bats right now. You've got to jump on it. Right. I don't worry so much about the slow starters because that's just.

Oh, yeah, yeah, sure. That's just the way season normally plays out. And you're not going to predict the next week's performance based on the previous week performance. But if there's if there's a buildup issue or an availability concern, like there's, there's not time to wait that out. We're 15% of the way into the season already maybe a little more. So these guys need to start contributing if they're going to have a spot on your roster. So what about the Cardinals?

They've been cleared to resume play Friday, by the way. They're going to miss more like a week as opposed to the Marlins missing a week and a half. It seems like they got it under control sooner. So, you know, the Cubs, they're who the Cardinals are scheduled to face back half the week. Sounds like they'll have a full week of games. I know there's some concern about whether we start them heading into the week. positive tests for the Cardinals include Paul DeYoung and Yadir Malina. There were seven players in all, six staff members in addition to that.

Unconfirmed, but also going on the IEL, was Carlos Martinez. So those are three fantasy relevant players right there, Paul DeYoung, Yadier Malina, Carlos Martinez. Martinez, of course, was having some velocity concerns when we saw him pitch early on. So that I'm pretty concerned about how useful he's going to be from a famous perspective. I don't them. I mean, and I hate it. I've been a Carlos Martinez apologist. I think he's a super talented player. I was rotation over bullpen this year, but luckily, like both played. But man, after seeing the velocity down, after seeing his performance and putting on the I L, I cut bait and I cut bait on whatever spot starting I can do. And I'm essentially treating as a streaming spot. Even though the name is,

the name is there and the talent's there. The guy misses two weeks. He already had a bad performance. There's just no reason to stick around. I don't see the upside play and sticking. around with him. The hitters are easy enough to stash to Young and Molina. I mean, neither of them are universally rostered in fantasy shortstop being so deep to Young. I mean, he's not, he's right there around 20th for me and my shortstop ranking. So in shallower leagues, you know, if you have a full I.L, it may not be worth keeping him, but for the most part, you'll want to hold on to him. Let me throw this out to you. Let me throw this out to you. What about the possibility that this opens up for the weekend, a Dylan Carlson sighting? Now, I know

you could look at like there might not be full on, you know, like a full on run of like, where could he play? Well, what if a guy like Tommy Edmund who's played around fills that shortstop hole that you bring Matt Carpenter off of DH, you let him play third, and then you can bring up Dylan Carlson and then you can just rotate those four outfielders. I just wonder if this opens up this spot for him. I mean, there's already a place for Dylan Carlson to play. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, there is. But like in their brain, their brains. If we're not talking about roster manipulation here, then this might be one of those justifiable things. to Joe Adele.

Like my speculation was if Otani is going to miss some serious at bats, maybe this will push them. Maybe this would be the push for Dylan Carlson to get, you know, to get called up, you know, maybe Friday. I'm expecting Carlson any day.

So yeah, Friday, it could happen this weekend. Well, let me have this guy. Come on. When he gets called up, then I could be like,

look, I called it. It was because of this. Hey, it's on record. Whatever gets us there. Whatever gets us. People can know to credit you on Twitter.

At is it the Welsh. Yeah, that's what we're looking for. We're just looking for the, the credited Twitter. That's all I mean. All right, we're going to take a break here, and then we are going to dive into Tuesday's action,

try to get through as much as we can. You're listening to Fantasy Baseball today. All right. Scott White back here with Chris Welsh, talking about fantasy baseball here on a Tuesday, or actually Wednesday morning. You're going to be listening to Wednesday morning, but we're covering Tuesday action.

Let's not get, you know, lost in the weeds here. Let's talk about bullpen stuff because that has been, you know, outside of COVID, that has been the big storyline. Can we not? Can we not? It's so bad. It's so bad. Craig Kimbril. Craig Kimbril.

So upsetting. Another disaster. His first appearance in four days since then we had seen Roe and Wick get two saves for the Cubs. Kimbril came in for the save. Two hits, two earned runs. Kyle Ryan came in to bail him out. I don't think Ryan is next in line or anything like that. Rowan Wick had worked three of the previous four days,

so I think he just needed a day off. But, I mean, we got to be to the point now where, like, the Cubs are moving on from Kimbril, right, after this? I think he's done. And yeah, for some reason, I thought it was Wick that came in, but you're right, it was Ryan that came in here. I hate to say that one of my highest shares for this year was Kimbril because it was just kind of that mid,

not necessarily my first closer, but you know, mid, good team, mid-tier closer, doesn't cost remotely what anybody else did. And at this point, I'm not even sure it matters. And we've all been hit with it. But I had started preemptively picking up Jeremy Jeffress, which that unfortunately was kind of the wrong play.

You know, though he's being put in the leverage situations. But I have been holding on Kimberl, I am done. I'm officially done. I've been picking up all the guys I don't want to pick up. I've been speculating on Goody and Hernandez and Harrod Diaz, wherever I can try to find saves right now, because Kimberl is putting me in a hole, and I think he's done.

And I think the Cubs are going to be full on committed that he is done. You need to put him, the next appearance he's in, in my eyes, is where the Cubs are down, and they're losing. They're losing by two or three runs. That's the leverage situation that he gets.

I don't know if we get another save. And even if we do, it's just not worth it anymore. So you've got to move on if there's something else out there. And, yeah, in those deeper leagues where saves are just nowhere to be found on waivers and all the prospective options that have been popping up, including Rowan Wick, they've already been scooped up.

Like, I feel like I hold out for Kimbril just until it's totally official. But anything else, were there any safe sources? Like, he's totally someone you could drop. And it's crazy. I don't really understand what's gone wrong for him. The velocity is down, I guess, from the past couple years. But 96 is what he's averaging. That was the same as early in his career.

So I don't know what's caused him to lose it, but it started last year. And it hasn't gotten any better this year. So no command. No command whatsoever. You know it's brutal too. It's like you were kind of mentioning like the other guys that you could speculate on. They're kind of starting to like fade away.

Like Oliver Drake was somebody where when all else was lost, Drake seemed to be one of those guys that was kind of looming around in leagues and he would pick up. And then Nick Anderson, and I'm jumping on the sheet here, but Nick Anderson ends up getting a save on Tuesday and kind of just reviving us all that have invested in him. And it makes me feel worse. So what I'm getting at is like it's a good point where the best out there, might be an Oliver Drake that you have an option on.

And it looks like that's fading. So I guess at the end of the day, you'd be better set keeping Kimbril, but just not putting him in an active roster, just in case he can get it right, if there are no other saves. Yeah, I still don't know what's going on with the raised bullpen. We may never know what's going on with the raised bullpen. But Nick Anderson did get a two-out save. It was with a four-run lead.

So, you know, kind of a strange situation there. I don't think it means Anderson's necessarily. And is the front runner for saves there. Oliver Drake, Jose Alvarado, Diego Castillo, none of them appeared in that game because the race had a four-run lead. So, yeah, still, I still think Drake's the number one save source there.

Anderson, for other reasons, would be the top source to own, but it's very messy. You drop Kimberle for Drake right now? Probably. Okay. Probably. It would depend a little on the circumstances.

Who else is out there? Let's assume there isn't. Let's assume it's just Drake is the best, option out there right now. It's, I hold, I hold Kimbril or Drake. There's no Hiro Diaz. There's no really other speculative save ads.

It's just Drake or Kimbril in a one-on-one match. I do. At this, tonight, I do. Yesterday, I would not. Nope,

nope, I'm holding on to Kimbril because I'm stubborn. And if he gets it right with the Cubs, there are opportunities where there's other guys that, you know, they may be better and locked into their spot, but the opportunities are going to be so few and far between. Tonight,

I'm done. I'm done with Kimberl. not worth it. Yeah. Brad Hand, this is some good news. Brad Hand was called on to protect a two-run lead for Cleveland. He got the job done. And not only that, his velocity was back up.

It was at around 90. It was back up to 92, where it was last year. And he got the save. James Kerinchak had a one outhold before that. Corinchak, of course, got a save while Hand took a day off after a bad appearance. I think hand is probably okay here. Corinchak, of course, is the exciting young upstart looking to take his job. But, you know, hand has been great the past few years.

So if he's healthy, I have a hard time seeing Corinchak overtaking him. It's interesting, too, because, like, I felt like two of the safer options in hand and, like, Yates specifically, those guys have such good options just looming behind them, just waiting for them to screw up the opportunity and just give it to Palmyranz or give it to Corinch. but I'm really happy to see it because I think that Indian situation, Hand was another one of those guys. Handed Taylor Rogers would have been my highest investments. I have more Rogers.

I don't know if I have any hand, just simply because I think the opportunity for wins for that team and for actual save opportunities were there. So I really hope Hand keeps it. But, you know, Perincheck, if he's given that opportunity, he would instantly become probably a top, top eight closing option for rest of season if Han were to fail. But it's a good sign that he didn't.

More good news. Keone Kele. We know he's recovered from COVID-19, and he's back working out at the minor league with minor league team. Manager Derek Shelton confirmed he will be in the closer role, and he's ready to rejoin the pirates. It's a rare instance of clarity. Oh, I think the relievers made it pretty easy for him to have that moment of clarity.

I think Bertie and Kirk, when he was even in there, they all made it pretty easy, like, please, let's get Keller back. And he actually, I've seen him floating around on some wires and people not want to mess around. So that would be a great get if he was sitting out there right now. He was dropped in an NL only league. I'm in. Wow, really. Scoop him up.

So I feel good about that. Wow. Trevor May got a two out save for the twins, but there was a four-run lead. He came in, you know, to clean up a bad situation. I don't think May is in the running for save, so you can ignore that one. Still still some craziness happening in the Royals bullpen. Trevor Rosenthal pitched two-thirds of an inning, the eighth inning. in a game the royals were trailing.

He allowed a home run, but that's not as important to me as the role he was being used in because we know Kennedy is not being put in a position for saves. Greg Holland, apart from that one in extra innings, isn't really. Rosenthal seems like the lead guy, but they're not really treating him like that either. Just wait, I'm just telling you right now,

the next week, you're going to get a Josh Stalmont save, and everyone's going to be like, ooh, Stamont, all of them strikeouts. I just, I don't want any part of the Royal. I don't even speculate with them, unfortunately. I mean, I guess if I was desperate, I would. But I'm trying to speculate. I'm desperate in a few weeks. I'm desperate. And I'm sticking with Rosenthal, but, you know, it's, it's kind of messy

right now. Meanwhile, Jonathan Hernandez, it seems like he's being used as the leverage guy in the Rangers bullpen. He had a big two-inning appearance over the weekend. He pitched an inning in two-thirds today. The seventh and eighth inning struck out two. Look good. But, you know, in the long run, I still think there's a good chance he becomes the saves guy, but the long run is not really something you can wait around for this year. Yeah, another one of those converted starting pitchers. I speculated on Goody, but I won't lie. There's a few spots where, you know, I got plenty of guys dropping down on the IEL,

but I've also picked up Hernandez just in hopes that I could sit around for a week and see if there'd be some clarity to the situation. I think it's going to just be another committee. It's going to be incredible when we look back and we see the amount of guys that we're able to put up, you know, this year, four saves will be more, you know, would probably look like 10 saves in a regular season. The amount of players would be staggering from a save percentage standpoint for teams. It will be staggering comparing with these teams that are going to go with rotations.

And like I said, I lean Goody, but I think they're going to be a perfect example of just leverage moving around. Maybe Jesse Sanchez, maybe Goody for a couple, Hernandez. It's dirty. It's dirty. Some news and notes. I'm going to rattle these off quickly. If there's something that's worth interjecting on, feel free. Mookie Betts dealing with a sore middle finger. was out again Tuesday, but he should be back Wednesday, so no worries there. Robinson Canoe, who looked like he was bouncing back this year,

suffered a grade two adductor strain on the IL. And that's one of those injuries where, you know, it wouldn't normally be a season ender, but the length of season we're looking at here, you kind of think it's a season under, right? I'm right. Dom Smith, baby. Give me Dom.

And And Andres Jimenez. Anders Minnis is getting some run. So it's opportunity. Jeff McNeil, meanwhile, has a low-grade intercostal strain. I don't know that I Where is that? Here, intercostal strain And I ever think it's not a big deal.

Where's my intercostal? Where is my intercostal strain? Point to it. Somewhere in the inner part of your body. I think it's on the bat. I don't know. If you would have said somewhere on the enter of your coastal, you would have killed me.

It killed me there. I don't know where that is. I want to look it up now. I can't do that because I'm hosting. Michael Brantley was held out Tuesday, possibly also Wednesday, quad injury, so that's a little concerning. Nick Madrigal injured his wrist forearm on a slide Tuesday,

obviously a big recent call-up, and hopefully that's no big deal. Tommy Lestella, been out with a neck injury. He returned to the lineup for the Angels, just all kinds of new players or returning players for the Angels today. Their lineup suddenly looking a lot better. He was in front of Adele, by the way. Adele was, they put him at seven to start the season. So if he hits good, I wonder if Adele will move up.

But yeah, Lestella was at six. Josh Donaldson, strained calf he's expected back within a week's time. I don't know if that's something that like that's still, it's not tomorrow, right? And it's a calf strain for a guy with a calf history. I'm a little worried about that. Selfish me was hoping that maybe you could bring

Sano over to third and bring up Alex Kiroloff. Because I think once Alex Kierloff is unleashed on the, on the league, people are going to fall in love with him. But, you know, not so much. Ahmed Rosario dealing with a quad injury. He didn't return to the lineup after leaving Monday. Who's in the Mets infield right now? You've listed off the entire Mets infield.

Who is playing there? J.D. Davis, Alonzo. They've got Jimenez. Who's another player on the Mets on the infield? There's no Mets in left. And you know what? Dominic Smith wasn't even in the lineup today because lefty Patrick Corbyn was on the mound.

But who's on that infield? Yeah, I guess he would have been. Brian Dozier? Probably going to be. I forgot Dodgers back. Yeah. No thanks. Yeah.

No, that's gross. Pete Alonzo. So gross. Yeah. Alonzo. Sounds like Eric Hosmer and his stomach ailment. Sounds like he'll be ready to come off the IL Saturday. And he made some interesting swing adjustments.

So get excited for that return. Keller. Oh, I'm forgetting his name now for the Royals. Brad Keller. Brad Keller. I had Blake Keller in the next one. I knew that wasn't right. Brad Keller will make his season debut Thursday.

He's been out with COVID-19. Ozzie Albys. This is interesting. Albiz has started three of the past four for the Braids, but he's been dealing with an injury, specifically to his, I don't remember, wrist, I think it is. He started three of the past four, but there was a report from David O'Brien of the Athletic after the game.

It was Brian Snitker. He was on the way to trainers to see if they need to rest him more. Albies is one for 16 in his past five games, so he's not doing much with the bat. and he may be ailing here. And he moved to seventh in the lineup. And, you know, Dansby Swanson has been so hot this season. He's moved up to two.

And this was, I wanted to say that Tuesday was the first time we've seen Albies in the lineup with Dansby at two. Because usually that's his spot. And Albi, Albies was in and went 0 for four on Tuesday night and down in the seventh spot. So, yeah. So we're, I think, about 50 minutes, 45, 50 minutes in. Yeah, time management is not easy for anyone. the hosting role, especially one who's not used to it. So we've hardly gotten into Tuesday night action so far.

We're going to try and rapid fire it here if we can. Do it. Christian Javier for the Astros, making his second start after dazzling against the Dodgers first time out. And, you know, he was good. Six innings, four hits, one or run, only two strikeouts, only four swinging strikes, all of them on a little used slider. It's just such a strange pitcher.

Of course, he always got the job done in the minors last year. The numbers were incredible. But he doesn't have that varied arsenal, that eye-popping arsenal, that you expect to lead to a lot of strikeouts. And after eight the first time out, this kind of raises some concern for me. And I would say don't read too much into it with the Diamondbacks. I'm a Diamondbacks fan. They're one of the worst teams in baseball.

They cannot make good contact. Their offense is so poorish. And this was also like a little bit blinded because, you know, the, not that anything was getting away from them, but Bumgarner was just so not good and the dime X is so not good that they just, they just piled on runs. So I, I wouldn't be like, you know, Vince McMahon strutton to the next start with Javier, I would be worried just like you said, because I don't think there's big wipeout stuff. And I think we're about a week away from the Astros needing to figure out their rotation stuff with Josh James being a problem. And hopefully Javier sticks it.

I mean, I picked him up and streamed him, but it was a diamond back. It was a dime back thing. Certainly hold Javier. because we don't really know where he goes from here. Yeah, no reason to cut. Just monitor maybe for his next matchups. That's what's important. Meanwhile, another strange and interesting prospect, Dustin May had his best start so far.

He went six innings, only three hits, two earned runs, and eight strikeouts. The strikeouts had been something I was hoping to see from them at some point. We hadn't really yet, even as good as the stuff looks. Only nine swinging strikes to get those eight strikeouts. And that's such a great number there.

but you know he's he's pitched well enough to stick in the Dodgers rotation Alex Wood is coming back soon somebody has to leave it I presume it'll be May you don't sound sold on him you don't sound you don't sound very excited about Dustin May you just I mean part of it because I don't know if he's going to have a job a week for now you know if I did then obviously roster everywhere but but who's taking away from him what's being take what why are they going to take the I mean he's pitch well you know he's fireballing this is a better performance I think also from like a command standpoint,

then the last one, like what do you think is being taken away from him? Well, I mean, his job back. You think, I mean, I don't think you're,

you're impartial here because you're an Alex Wood guy. I think, I think you're picking too much out of Alex Wood right now. I think Dustin May has performed at a level that they could even consider maybe stretching the rotation out a little bit more with injuries and whatnot. But I mean, it's a fair point.

Curious to see what his ownership is, Dustin May 77% in CBS Sports League. What's Alex? What's Alex Wood? I would imagine it's less than that. Obviously, you're not dropping May after this start, but, you know, it's not like all your rotation problems are cured either. That's good.

Tyler Malley had a good start for the Reds. One hit allowed in six innings, six strikeouts, 13 whiffs, eight on the fastball, which he threw 60% of the time. That's always the story with Malley. He just, he just lives and dies with a very good fastball, and then third time through the lineup. He's terrible, so he never,

he rarely gets a chance to go six innings like this. I am not really motivated to pick, I'm up based on this performance. How about you? Agreed. Agreed. I completely agree. Howie Kendrick hitter here. He returned from a five-game absence for the Nationals for a sore back. Four hits and a home run.

Howie Kendrick has become that guy who could just roll out of bed and start hitting again. He was amazing last year in limited time. When he's been healthy this year, he's been in the lineup every day, that DH spot obviously helping. And he's hitting in the middle of the lineup, too. And you get Soto back. I mean, just lots of opportunity, lots of RBI opportunity, which is great. Do you think of them as a must start when he's healthy?

Yeah, I think so. I think at this point, absolutely. And, you know, we can just get Trey Turner starting to kick off here. Robless, maybe moving back up into the lineup and Soto. I mean, he's just going to be injected in the middle of all of that. He's going to be a sneaky, sneaky RBI guy. Hey, Seuss Aguilar came back after a week and a half off. First game since July 26.

He homered again for the Marlins. That's three home runs and four games. This was a guy, of course, who two years ago had like, I think it was 34. five homers, 106 RBI, something like that, must start type numbers. And I was totally buying into it. I was all about Aguilar heading into last season. Were we too quick to ride him off? I mean, he's just still, like, to me, he's like a super streaky player.

It's not great contact. I don't know. I just don't buy it. But at the same point, though, the sample sizes for this year, is Aguilar the type of guy that can make some decent contact, hit the ball, he has two hard hits from this game alone, And he could do it for a month. Well, guess what? A month is over half of your season at this point.

So he's a must play at this. Ooh, Aguilar or Howie Kendrick for you? Oh, Kendrick. Okay. Kendrick for sure. Making sure. And I would take Eric Cosmer over Aguilar. You know, it's more for somebody who hasn't figured out their corner and field situation yet, Aguilar.

You know, it wasn't that long ago. We thought of him as a study. Throw away. Yeah, you're right. You're right. Brady Singer had another weird start for the Royals. He's kind of gone back and forth with the strike. He struck out eight and five innings, he'll have four and runs, two home runs.

This is, I think back-to-back starts with two home runs for Brady Singer, a guy who, I saw him as more of a ground ball specialist, weak contact type, more than a bat misser. And so I'm just a little perplexed by him at the start of his career here. I'm not really sure what to make of it from start to start. Like, there hasn't been a bad start yet for Brady Singer. I mean, this is the closest to the bad start. You know, he's always reminded me of like, it's kind of like a poor man's Mitch Keller. Like Mitch Kelly, like relies a lot on being able to paint and command.

And Singer's stuff is not wipe out to me. And the, you know, the Royals have so many arms in, you saw, you know, Bubich go out there and, you know, that big whipy arm. You know, he was a big strikeout guy. Daniel Lynch is more of a strikeout guy. He's just going to, he's going to beat you down almost maybe like a concern like a poor man's Mike Soroka, but on the royals. You know, so take that for what it is. You're not going to get the strikeouts. He could go deeper.

He can work on a few. things. He just doesn't have the offensive support since, you know, he's a royal. But I don't, I don't want to invest in him this year. And I wouldn't, I wouldn't have messed with this start in general, but it's not like he would have killed you or anything. What are we going to do with Madison Bumgarner here? Because the basketball is, is still down at 88. The cutter still down at 83. That's like three to four miles per hour lower than last year, which of course was lower than in the prime of his career. And he got by, he got away with it his first two starts. The outcome was okay, but he got crushed here.

Yeah, he was garbage. I don't even think he touched 88 in this game. I was looking at the in-game stat cast, and I thought it was 87.9 he hit. And, I mean, he is down like three and a half to four miles per hour from last year. I think he was averaging around 91 or he's touching 90. He's just not, he was touching 89 in his debut, and he was down even further in this game.

He relies on man with, he just can't set anything up. That's the problem. If he's going to try to wipe out, if you're going to try to wipe out with breaking balls, he can't set anybody up with a fastball so they can go and sit. Everybody can sit on his breaking stuff. And if he pumps in 86, they're going to be able,

good hitters are going to catch up with him. I just don't trust it. I know it hurts to not have a guy like Madison Bumgarner and you see his name and people are going to be tempted to pick him up. But I just can't do it. Obviously, if you don't have better options that are looming out there, you can't stream.

You know, maybe you can sit back and see if it fixes. But we're three starts in here. And I don't trust, and I don't think it's getting any better. And I'm firmly out on Bumgarne, the rest of the year. He was in line for two starts this week. The first one was against the Astros. I think the second one is against the Padres.

I don't know. It wasn't favorable matchups. And I was too scared to start him in my ratio leagues. And I'm glad I'm doing it. Yeah, man, smart. Yeah, I think he's too dangerous to start, period, at this point. And look at the division, too. Not beyond dropping.

Not beyond. No, it's far not beyond. And look at the division, too. Dodgers on. Stoppable. Padres look like an absolute contender. Rocky's offense is still going. Pitchers are playing a little bit better. Giants, you know, I mean, giants are always gianting.

So the Diamondbacks are the worst team in this division, and I don't know how quick they can turn this ship around. And I just, I don't trust, I don't trust Baumgarner right now. Maybe he'll get some run support, but he's going to ratio you to ratio to hell. All right. So Joe Musgrove, obviously not the track record of a Bumgarner. You're questionable, what kind of ups, sight he has. A lot of people were high on him coming in. It was a bad start today for sure

against the twins. You know, so tough matchup there, but he walked five, very on Musgrove-like. And looking back, even though his first two starts were decent, he walked three in each of those. He is a career 2.2 walks per nine guy. Musgrove, like control is his main thing. And it just hasn't been there for him this year. And now we're seeing him get knocked around. How much does this lower Musgrove's stock for you? Yeah, I'm not, I'm not the big. biggest Musgrove guy. I just, you know, the pirates aren't very appealing from wins or runs scored or really anything. If you want to look at a positive, I suppose, is he's almost got a two run differential from his ERA to X-FIP. The only problem is it's a little bit inflated. Or I guess that would be his, yeah, no, for this season, for this season. And he's rocking a six, seven, five ERA with a five X-FIP, which is good. But he has sub four Sierra. So, I mean, he's got the stuff, uncharacteristically, walk. He has high strikeouts, but it's just a bad team, and you've got to hope he can go deep in. He's not a, I don't buy him as a reliable wind source with the pirates this year.

So to me, I'm playing matchups with Musgrove at best. If there's a good matchup, I'd put him in, but I don't, I don't feel comfortable putting him out there on a regular basis. Boring pitcher on a bad team. Like the velocity gains from the end of the last season haven't carried over. So I don't think there's much reason to hope for a breakout. Agreed. Rostera maybe, maybe not, depending on the depth of your league, but not a game

changer for you. If it makes you feel better, I'd rather have Musgrove than Bumgarner at this point. How about you? If it's just to sit on my bench, I'd probably go Bumgarner, but depending on my lineup, I can't put Bumgarner in my lineup right now. There's just no way. If you throw the bench in there, that's an interesting element, but that's close.

An interesting start from a player who's widely owned, Hermann Marquez, his first home start of the year. It was the best start, yeah, seven and a third innings. He struck out nine against the Giants, but still, at course field the place where you're not supposed to be able to use him to earn runs, 15 swinging strikes for the second time in those three starts.

Like, he's, the rule is you're not supposed to start him at home. Two years ago, when he looked like he was transforming into just an out-and-out stud, that began to change toward the end of the year. And then he regressed last year. Like, are we back to seeing Marquez as a must-start pitcher? Like, if only because he's giving you innings, he's giving you strikeouts, I'd be reluctant to sit him even in a home start, right? right now personally.

I mean, maybe the Dodgers is the one I would probably stray away from, whether it was home or away. But at this point, yeah, it's a good call. Why not? Short sample size to be able to run with it.

He's getting those strikeouts. Give me two months of Marquez. It could be, I mean, it could be top 25 SP if it keeps rolling. So, yeah, I buy it.

Pablo Lopez had an interesting start. First start of the year for the Marlins, obviously after their long layoff. Two hits. No, box and five shutout and he struck out seven at Baltimore. I was about to say, I retort. I have one thing to back track, Baltimore.

And now they've been good and I shouldn't, they have a winning record right now, but it was Baltimore. 11 whiffs on just 61 pitches. It was just Baltimore. But Pablo Lopez has been a pitcher who's fascinated me because he's had starts like this before where he looks like maybe he can miss some bats

with a really good change. I've a great control pitcher, somebody who can give you volume. And obviously his home ven, you whenever he's able to pitch there again is good. I think Pablo Lopez, we're going to talk about him as maybe more than a streamer this year. Obviously not super exciting.

This is not something you should expect every time out. But Pablo Lopez is not totally useless in my eyes. I was, and I was wondering, I wonder what his start percentage was of people that would dare, like the Marlins coming back with that lineup against Baltimore, who's winning games. He's 17% owned in CBS,

7% start. I actually feel like from a being, own to start percentage, that is a little bit shocking to me that people had the wherewithal to do that. That's good on them, but that'll go up. I just, I can't imagine anybody. They're victory lapping if they actually started him and this. I wouldn't have had the Cajonis to do it.

A couple of pitchers who are maybe on the fringe in mixed leagues who had bad starts, Matt Shoemaker, six earn runs and four and two with their zinnings against the Braves. He served up three home runs. Stephen Matt's, who actually had a very impressive outing against the Braves first time through, two hits and six innings, I want to say. He just got lamb-baseded today. Who is the matchup? Do you remember who the Mets were facing today?

The Mets were facing, wasn't it? The nationals. Not even a good team. And he's given up five home runs Mats has in his last two starts. So I'm still in on Shoemaker. I think if he's leading with the splitter, you know, there's going to be a lot of weak contact. He just came up against a good offense today and that'll happen.

It's been 10 days, I think, since he pitched too. So he may have been rusty. What offhanded. Not a good team. the nationals. You just threw out that nonchalant like they were Baltimore or something. Without Soto, it's not a great lineup.

I mean, Howie Kendrick, four for four. Howie Kendrick is an MVP of a week. Yeah. Yeah, that's Lance Lynn. You know, he had six in the third innings, three hits, one run, seven strikeouts. It was his worst start of the season so far. That's how things are going for Lance Lynn.

So good for everybody who bought into him. I know I did in a lot of leagues. I did not. So he is a, what was that off-season workout plan he had there, Scott? Have you seen Lance Lynn this year? No. He's a, I mean, like, he's looking a little bit more like me. He's looking less like you if people are watching on video and looking a little bit more like me.

I don't know if that, that's going to be, maybe it's going to be good for stamina and staying in games, but he is a large and in charge. And of course, nobody looks more like you than John Lackey. Ah, the ultimate John Lackey doppelganger, Chris Welsh. I'm going to tell you something. I'm so mad that you did that on this podcast. If you were to come on my podcast where no one listens, totally fine, because everybody else,

I'm so upset that you did that here. And I hate every year I get like a couple like, hey, you know you look like? And I'm like, you, all right, well, that's going to be the lasting impression. I got to get us out of here. Adam's probably going to be mad at me

for however long we went. But good show. Thanks for joining us. Chris Welsh. It's good talking to you again. I hope to have you on again soon. Thanks for having me. Hope to get Frank back soon, though, and everybody else.

We'll talk to you next time. Later.