Fantasy Baseball Today - Most Traded Players! Paddack Deep Dive & More Injuries (5/27 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 27, 2021

Who would we rather add between Luis Garcia and James Kaprielian (2:00)? ... News and notes (12:05)! Marcell Ozuna is out 5-6 weeks, Corey Kluber is shut down for four weeks, Framber Valdez returns Friday and more. ... Is Chris Paddack back on track (19:22)? ... Who are the most traded players on CBS (23:15)? Target Robles and Hiura and dynasty? Is now the time to buy on Blackmon, Meadows, and Nola? ... Should these roster rates be higher (43:41)? Which of these starting pitchers should you add? ... We have bullpen updates and streamers (52:48)! ... We wrap up with some of your favorite Fantasy Justice dilemmas (57:00)! ... Email us at [e-mail]. '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: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank, @AdamAizer 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. I drive. Centerfield. What 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. All right, let's do this. Welcome into fantasy baseball today on Thursday, May 27th. Frank Stamphill joined by Chris Towers today on the show. most traded players on CBS. We're going to do a Chris Paddock deep dive. I've read an interesting article that I want to tell you all about.

More injuries because today ends in a why, so why wouldn't there be? We're going to recap the rest of Wednesday's action and we will get to your fantasy justice question. So I hope you're ready to judge the people, Chris, and give us a verdict. I never want to judge the people. The people are great.

The people pay our salaries. So I'd really rather not judge. the people. I'm in a good mood, Chris. How you doing? I'm a little sleepy, but I'm good. It is late. It's past midnight here on the East Coast, as it normally is. Yeah, it's fine. I'm good. I just got a, you know, it's that kind of thing where, like, I know I have to work at midnight, but like, I start feeling sleepy at like nine, and I'm like, well, I can't take any caffeine. It's not just be up all night. And so I just, I'm powering through it. I'm good. Let's go. Does it have that effect on you? Because I, I usually, well, they don't

sponsors or anything, but I usually slam like a Red Bull an hour before the podcast and that's why I'm always like crazy and jittery and high energy and stuff. And then as soon as the podcast ends, I just want to go right to sleep but I have to edit the podcast and that's how the rest of my night goes. You know, falling asleep

is very difficult for me as is. I can't have any, anything putting me off. I feel you. I feel you there, man. Sleep. Not the easiest thing to come by. Oh my goodness gracious. All right. Let's recap some of Wednesday's Endouts. Where do you want to start, Chris?

I think you got to start with Luis Garcia, who had a very, very good start against the Los Angeles Dodgers, six innings, two hits, no earned runs, one walk, seven strikeouts. There were 100 pitches, only gave up six hard hit balls. But it wasn't just what he did on the mound, but what happened away from the park,

I guess, for the Houston Astros. What happened in the training room? Maybe. Or in the manager's office. Lance McCullers was placed on the aisle with a shoulder injury, which kind of came out of nowhere. And Christian Javier, do I have that right Christian Javier was moved to the bullpen?

That is correct, yep. So even with Jake Oteresey likely coming back soon, it sure seems like Luis Garcia is going to be in the rotation moving forward. Yep. And we got a bunch of Astros news today. Framber Valdez is going to make his season debut on Friday against the Padres. a top 25 starting pitcher in both fantasy points per game and in Roto last year,

someone who routinely went deep into his starts. So good news there on Framber Valdez. And Jake Oteresee will start on Saturday. So you have those two entering the rotation. Luis Garcia remaining in the rotation along with Zach Granke. Jose Orkidi made a rehab start at AA on Wednesday night. And it looks like that's going to be the five moving forward. I think Orquite's expected to be back by next week. Christian Javier's in the bullpen, as we mentioned, and Lance McCuller's is on the IL. Seemingly out of nowhere, as you mentioned.

But Luis Garcia was great. It was actually his first quality start of the season. He usually goes only around five innings pitched, but this was different. Obviously, going up against the Dodgers, 11 swinging strikes. The ERA down to 2.93 with a 1.02 whip for Luis Garcia. And if you're playing points leagues on CBS,

he has SPARP eligibility, which, you know, coming into the year, Chris, we were like, oh, spark is so bad this year. And now it's kind of good because the player I'm about to talk about is James Caprillion, who had another very good start.

But outside of those two, we have Freddie Peralta, we have Alex Wood, Nick Povetta has been serviceable-ish. Same thing with Cole Irvin. There's been a pretty good amount of SPARP pitchers so far this year in points leagues.

Just going back to Luis Garcia. He's only 43% rostered. It looks like he's in line for a two-star week next week versus Boston at Toronto, which is actually at Buffalo now. Not the greatest matchups, but I kind of feel like in a two-star week, he should be rostered in more than 43%. Yeah, and just to be clear, this is Luis Garcia of the Houston Astros.

I know Luis Garcia of the Washington Nationals was just called up. Not that guy. I think going into next week, he probably needs to be about 70 to 75% rostered just because of the two-star week, maybe a little higher. He's been really good. You know, it's, like you said, he's not going deep into games all that regularly, but 47 strikeouts to 40 w or in 40 innings, only 15 walks, 3.308 ERA. There is a lot to like about Luis Garcia who also has a very good minor league track record to back him up.

Yep, 100%. So I do think if you are looking for a two-star pitcher for next week, Luis Garcia, he's thrived in even some tougher matchups as he did again on Wednesday. James Caprillion, my oh my goodness gracious player from Wednesday. A standout for me. He was going up against the Seattle Mariners, seven shutout with two hits, two walks, only four strikeouts,

only four swinging strikes on 94 pitches. So a bit of a mixed bag here, and something I didn't love to see, he averaged 91.7 miles per hour on his fastball. That velocity was up over 93 miles per hour in each of his first two starts. But what I did take away is this quote that I saw in the recap on MLB.com.

And Caprillion had this to say, not my best stuff today, to be honest. It was one of those mental games where I had to compete. Catcher Aramis Garcia did a really good job of helping me make adjustments, just move the ball and get ahead of the count, knowing I didn't have my best stuff,

I wanted to go out and use my defense. So I think the fact that he realized that, made adjustments mid-game, still managed to go seven, albeit, you know, not against a great lineup, a lineup that's been no-hit twice. I thought it was overall encouraging for James Caprillion, Chris.

So I would rather have Luis Garcia than Caprillion. I think long term, you know, he might not have a spot in the rotation if everyone's healthy. But I think as long as he's pitching like this, you should add him in deeper leagues. I agree with that. Yeah. I think, you know, with Caprillion, it's not, I guess this was a little bit of a disappointing start because it seemed like he might be, you know, someone who's capable of getting more strikeouts. And obviously, you know, the explanation he had makes sense to a point.

but I don't know. I think there are reasons to be skeptical. But the fact that he's RP eligible in points leagues makes a huge difference. And yeah, I think he can be something like a major league average starter moving forward, hopefully. Also in line for two starts next week for Caprillion, it's one of those mixed bag ones

where he's at Seattle. Okay, fine. I usually don't love pitchers facing the same team twice, two starts in a row. But it is Seattle. He's at Seattle. and at Colorado. So obviously you don't love that second start,

but Seattle hopefully can make up for all of it. So there you go. Two SPARP eligible players, pitchers, that should probably be rostered in more leagues. James Capillian and Luis Garcia. I want to give a shout out to Mike Schilt. Chris,

I don't know if you saw this, but it was wild. And I mean, how can you not agree with Mike Schilt, right? So the story, if anyone doesn't know, Giovanni Gallegos

was told to basically take his hat. Change his hat. Because there was like a dirt spot on it that could have been a substance or something that he wasn't supposed to have on his hat. And then after the game, Mike Schilt, well, he threw like a tirade in the middle of the game and he was ejected. But after the game, he was just brutally honest with the media. It was like 10 minutes. He just went up there, ripped baseball, ripped the commissioner's office, said, look, you know, I got to stand up for the integrity of the game and the fact that, you know, there are all these other guys using all these substances in baseball and no one's cracking down on those guys.

And then you're coming after my pitchers who may or may not be using stuff. He was kind of on the fence with it. That was kind of weird. Just like, kind of like he basically admitted that Giovanni Gallegos was using foreign substances. It was basically he was saying, you know, he was wearing sunscreen and also he had rosin. Rossin is legal. I don't know if like intentionally mixing rosin and sunscreen is legal.

But there was actually a really good. article on the athletic a couple weeks back by Enoseres, where he did some studies on what substances increased spin rate the most. And sunscreen and rosin was a relatively minor increase, you know, maybe 50 to 100 RPMs on average. And there were some other substances that were like 200 to 300. So, you know, it was, it was kind of weird that he was like, hey, look, he was just doing this one thing. but other guys are doing other things. But no, he's 100% right.

I'm shocked that there hasn't been basically just like an escalating, that manager called out this pitcher, so we'll call out his pitcher kind of thing. Because every team has guys doing something like this. Yeah, that's why you can't really call other people out, right? It's because you know, to an extent, your players are doing the same things.

And he kind of hinted at that too. Like, he was, again, he was like on the fence, the way that he was doing it, but just completely ripped the commissioner's office and the fact that MLB has turned a blind eye to this whole pitchers using foreign substances, and I loved it. I thought it was phenomenal.

So if you haven't checked it out, go, it's like a 10-minute rant of him just sitting up there and defending the integrity of the game. So I thought it was awesome. And just like specifically mentioning that like, there are guys who are doing things that are making them much better.

And I think that the general consensus at this point at least as much people who've thought about it and done some research is that like something like Rawson and sunscreen, let them use it. It increases their grip. It makes it the game more safe, but it doesn't necessarily

cause them to have a huge competitive advantage. But he did mention, you know, there are guys seeing giant jumps in their spin rate as a result of what they're doing. It's like, that's where the issue comes in. Trevor Bauer. It did seem like that was, I mean...

He's like the poster child for it, but... Yeah, because he said, like, oh, there are some guys who are using stuff that's like, you know, helping them have career seasons. And it's like, oh. Yeah. You know, maybe the guy. And he specifically pointed out people who are making money off of it, right? It just so happens.

Trevor Bauer just got this massive contract and won the Siong. So, look, I'm not just going to call out Trevor Bauer because I'm sure there's a bunch of pitchers doing it. Garikull, whatever, I'm a Yankees fan. I'll say, like, he's probably, he was probably one of the first people to be doing it with the Astros. So, you know, I'll call everyone out. I saw a video earlier in the season. of John Means fingers sticking to his glove. He's clearly doing something with it.

Let's just like, Moby should just have a substance that every team gets like large shipments of that they leave in the dugout and you are allowed to use that and that is legal. And anything else, there is a zero tolerance policy. All right, so we've already gotten way off track here. But I do want to give a shout out to everyone who's here watching us live on YouTube.

Again, every night Sunday through Thursday, we usually go live right around midnight, a little bit past midnight, so thank you for staying up late for us here with us on the East Coast. And if you're on the West Coast, it's a lot easier to watch us. So if you haven't already,

subscribe to our YouTube channel, it's YouTube.com slash fantasy baseball today. Thank you again for those who come out and hang out with us. Some news and notes from Wednesday. Marcel Ozuna is expected to miss five to six weeks after dislocating two fingers on his left hand on a slide that he had on Tuesday,

where he hit his hand on Raphael Devers' cleat. he was off to a slow start, but this is still a pretty big blow, obviously, for the Braves and for fantasy managers alike. And I speculated on Twitter, Chris. I don't know if it's going to happen anytime soon, but Drew Waters is a prospect for the Braves who has been pretty good. He's slowed down a little bit. The batting average is down to 250, but he's got three homers. He's got five steals at AAA. So maybe there's an opportunity for him here, but your reaction to Marcel Zuna. It stinks. It stinks. I don't know. This season's just been ridiculous. And it's hard to make sense of why it's happening.

Some of it's obviously, I think, related to 2020 in the shortened season. This is just bad luck, though. And I don't know. Zina was someone who I was definitely looking to buy low on. And now I think you can probably only really buy low on him if you're doing pretty well in the stampings. Yeah. I do think once he gets back, he'll start hitting better. If you're in like 10th place and you're desperate,

you probably need to just try to trade him for someone who's decent right now. And I dropped Ozuna down to Outfielder 36 in my rankings just behind Mark Kana, Charlie Blackman, Ramon Luriano, just ahead of names like Dylan Carlson, Joey Gallo, and Tommy Edmund. And you can argue he might even deserve to be even lower than that, but that's kind of where I slotted him in for now. Again, that's Marcel Ozone. He's out five to six weeks. We could do a whole Astro segment.

We spoke about them already. But Frember Valdez, if he's available in any shallower leagues, he's 69% rostered right now. Nice. Make sure you get him on your team. He was great last year. Groundball pitcher.

Got a good amount of strikeouts. Has an awesome curve ball. Jake Otero Rezzi will start on Saturday. He's 30% rostered. Chris, interested in him in deeper leagues or not so much? Yeah, in deeper leagues. but you need to see what kind of shape he's in before you, before you think about adding him in a 12 team league for sure.

But, you know, in a 15 team league, Jake Oterese probably should be rostered. We had a bunch of Yankees news on Wednesday. Corey Klobber, again, unfortunate guy coming off a no-hitter. I don't know if that played into it, the fact that he threw as many pitches as he needed to in that start, but he has a sub-scapular strain in his right shoulder and will be shut down for at least four weeks.

Davey Garcia has been recalled and will start this weekend against the Tigers. He's 28% rostered, but I mentioned this on yesterday's podcast. Davy Garcia had been struggling mightily at AAA, a 5.17 ERA and is 1.60 whip. So much like Oterese, he's kind of rostered in that same range right now. Chris, is he another name in only deeper leagues? Davy Garcia? Yeah, I mean, I think I'm more interested in him than Oteresee, but that that's just the allure of the relatively unknown and relatively unproven over someone like Oterizu, who even at his best has mostly just been pretty average.

The problem with Garcia is the control. You know, that was an issue when he got up to AAA in 2019. And it's been an issue this season. Obviously, he only made one major league start three walks and four innings, but 12 and 15 and 2 thirds so far at AAA. And, you know, since he basically, got to the upper minds. It's been basically a walk every other inning. And I like his stuff. I think he can be a good pitcher. I think he can generate a lot of whiffs.

He's got, you know, good fastball that he can, you know, it's kind of deceptive. But the control problems really make it hard to see how he's going to be an impact guy unless he just gets much better. Yeah. It wouldn't surprise me if he has a good start, this first one out against Detroit, just because it's the Tigers lineup, and obviously that's a good matchup. But a name to pay attention to Davey Garcia there with the Yankees. Luke Voigt has a grade 2 oblique strain. Apparently, he started feeling it last Saturday.

He was expected to miss this weekend series with the birth of his child. So, you know, I don't think those things are related. He probably is legitimately just dealing with an oblique strain. But once DJ LaMayhew returns, I assume he'll play first base. Rugnett Odor will play second, Glaber at short and Gio at third base. So Yankees lineup is depleted,

but the cavalry is coming. John Carlos Stain will be activated on Friday. The Yankees Blue Jays game was postponed on Wednesday, which delayed Alec Manoa's debut. Another day, he will start the, I believe it's the first game of a doubleheader on Thursday. Cody Bellinger is expected to rejoin the Dodgers on Saturday. Byron Bucksin is still having trouble decelerating and is unlikely to begin a rehab assignment immediately.

Manny Machado is out for his sixth straight game, though he did make a pinch hit appearance on Wednesday. Nelson Cruz returned to the Twins lineup. Nick Senzel had knee surgery and is out four to six weeks. So the guy, I think he's talented, but he hasn't really shown it on the field consistently. And he hasn't really been on the field that much because... Andres have been a real issue even going back to the minors. It's a bummer.

It's a bummer there for Nick Senzel. Nico Horner, another one, just returned recently from the IL. He goes back on with a left hamstring strain. Austin Hayes to the IL with a left hamstring strain as well. Brandon Belt went to the IL with a mild left oblique strain. David Dahl to the IL with a left rib contusion. It's just how many players are going to go on the IL every day. Chris Davis is set for more playing time for those in A.L.

only leagues. Marco Gonzalez is expected to return to the Mariners rotation next week. Yerdon Alvarez was scratched Wednesday with right wrist soreness. Anthony Rizzo is dealing with back stiffness. Dominic Smith is dealing with a knee issue, which he suffered on a slide on Tuesday. Michael Kopeck is day-to-day with left hamstring soreness. And finally, some good news. Michael Paneda.

from the IL on Wednesday, and he was great against the Baltimore Orioles, six innings, one run, two walks, eight strikeouts on 19 swinging strikes. Both the strikeouts and swinging strikes were a season high for Michael Paneda. He is down to a 2.62 ERA and a 0.99 whip. However, Chris, he is one of these pitchers in that mid-tier where if you can turn him around for one of those by-low hitters, I would look into doing it right now. Oh, yeah. I mean, I think Panetta's okay.

but he's not a top 70 pitcher for me. So I'm not really viewing him as someone who, you know, even needs to be on your roster. Whoa. I have him 58. Scott has him 56. You have him 66. So isn't that fringe?

But I think he should be on a roster, Chris. I mean, he's got a 2.62 ERA. The underlying number say he's been lucky, but I think as long as he's pitching. Yeah, I guess that's my thing. is like if I needed a roster space, if I had a bunch of injuries and Michael Panetta was the worst pitcher on my team,

I wouldn't necessarily feel terrible about dropping him. But if I could move him for Cabin Biccio in a Roto League, I would definitely do that. All right, let's take a closer look at Chris Paddock, who also had a mix bag of his own. At the Brewers on Wednesday, six innings, two hits, one run, zero walks,

only two strikeouts, only four whiffs, only 68 pitches. However, I looked into this. He was pinch hit four in the seventh inning. There was a runner on third base in a tie game, and so they were looking for an opportunity to take the lead. They didn't do it. They actually took the lead in extra innings.

But Chris Paddock also allowed eight hard hit balls. So that's kind of like the bad side of things. But the spin rate on his fastball, I'm going to throw a bunch of stuff your way here, Chris, and then you could just react to it. The spin rate on his fastball remained up. 2290 RPM in this start for Chris Paddock. He averaged 2230 RPM back in.

2019. So now this is verging on, I think it's even before he got hurt, that the spin rate on his fastball has consistently been up and higher than it was back in 2019, which is what we wanted to see. We want to see the spin ball, spin ball. Fastball high up in the zone with a high spin rate, and that's what he's been doing. He has a 1.42 ERA in four starts since returning from the IL, however, only with 14 strikeouts in 19 innings pitched. I read this great article from Kevin A.C. of the San Diego Union Tribune earlier, which highlighted that the break that Chris Paddock had while he was on the IL dealing with COVID,

it was much needed. It was like a mental break for him, and he needed to get away. And basically it highlighted how he talked to all of his teammates and stuff and picked the brain of Joe Musgrove and U. Darvish and Blake Snell and how there's more life on his fastball. And there's confidence in the curve.

So before the IL, he was only using the curve 6% of the time. since he's returned, that number is 11.7%. So he's basically doubled that usage. And Chris, we don't normally talk about the mental side of the game often here, but this quote stuck out to me from Chris Paddock. He said, I started believing you suck and you need a third pitch.

If you read that stuff and hear that stuff, eventually you start to believe it. Whenever you get dragged down in that hole, it's hard to get back out of it. But I think it was a good learning experience for me because now that I'm getting out of it, I'm not going to go back in that hole because I know how to get out of it.

So a bunch of stuff, spin rates and curveball usage and mental side of the game, where are you at on Chris Paddock? Still pretty meh. All right. I mean, the spin rate's a good sign, but he's still not...

I mean, the swinging strike rate obviously hasn't been there. He actually got hit pretty hard in this start, 91.3 mile per our average eggs of velocity. He's been okay at limiting hard contact this season, but not great. You know, he's been pretty much average. And so I just kind of look around at everything that he's doing.

And I don't necessarily see anything that he's doing well enough to make me think that he's about to figure it out. He could. But I just don't think it's there yet. Yeah, I get the skepticism 100%. I think he's moving towards getting back to the pitcher he was back in 2019. I don't think that we're there yet, but I think that there are encouraging signs, like the curveball usage being up and the fact that he has more confidence in that pitch now,

the spin rate being up on the fastball. And I think if we kind of just get all of those things working together at the same time with the change up getting back to that devastating pitch, then that's how we get Chris Paddock of 2019 back. And I think we're getting closer to that. I don't think we're there yet, but he's back in the same. inside my top 50 starting pitchers. The confidence is growing. I agree with you. Not 100% there, but I feel good. I think we're on the right track with Chris Paddock. So I wanted everyone to know what was going on there. The most traded players on CBS, Chris, let's, I want to take a dive inside

the mind of the fantasy manager that's playing on CBS and try and figure out why did they trade for this player in what format might they be trading for this player. And would we be doing the same thing. And this one I just don't get. It's the most traded player on CBS right now is Dane Dunning, who just allowed seven to earn runs on Wednesday against the Los Angeles Angels. So I don't know that we have to say much about Dane Dunning outside of why were people either trading away or trading for Dane Dunning in this instance. I mean, he'd been really good in the month of May so far and, you know, trying to look at, I guess he hadn't been a two-start pitch, anytime recently.

But yeah, it could have just been a people are selling high on him kind of thing. I don't think there's much reason to think he has a ton of trade value though. Yeah, I just maybe from like a dynasty perspective, I don't know either there. It's just

Dane Dunning's kind of been doing it with Smoke and Mirrors. He's someone I liked coming into the season but he doesn't get a lot of swinging strikes. He doesn't throw all that hard. He realizes in like a 91 mile per hour fastball. He's kind of crafty. He has like this slur of pitch that he uses. He's fine.

I think people were probably just trying to sell high on him. I don't think that... Yeah, look, I think he's fine. Yeah. I think he can be like a 375 IRA guy moving forward. Yeah. I wouldn't say there's like a reason to be trading for him necessarily. The second most traded player on CBS leagues right now is Charlie Blackman.

And he is someone that we're still waiting to come around so far this season has got off to a pretty slow start and obviously he's up there in age he's 34 years old now he is batting just 243 with a 358 slug however that comes with a 300 expected batting average and a 448 expected slugs so is this a classic by-low situation right now chris yeah it's so weird because guys who play at course field half the time generally actually their their out-expected stats are worse than their actual production, just because the expected stats don't necessarily quite seem to know how to handle course field. The thing with him is that he just, he hasn't been good at course field at all. It was the same thing for Trevor's story, though.

So I know some of their games earlier in the season were like snowed out and stuff. So I think there was some like weird weather going on there that that might have factored into that. But I think it's a buying opportunity. The 300XBA, Chris, is the highest it has been in the Stackass era for Charlie Blackman, which is saying something because he was awesome for years. Yeah, I mean, he's not striking out much

and he's done that without one, he's walking more, which is oftentimes you'll see when guys start walking more, it comes along with an increase in strikeouts just because you're working deeper in accounts and you're seeing more pitches. But he's also hitting the ball harder

this season and it's a mile and a half hour harder than it was last year. So it's not necessarily just because of the new ball. So there are definitely some promising signs for Charlie Blackman. I'm trying to think, where did I end up with him? My rankings up at 27 and outfield. So I'm still not giving up on him. I think it is probably worth trying to trade low, trip by low. Yep.

I have him at outfielder 33. Scott has him at Alfeelder 29. So we're all kind of in the same range there. If you can turn Alex Wood into Charlie Blackman, would you do it? I think so. Yeah. I'm not sure what my trade values chart says, but I think I'm pretty sure I would have Blackman ahead of Wood in that as well.

We don't have to spend too much time on this next one, Chris, but Victor Robles, one of the most traded players on CBS. And I think if you play in a dynasty categories league, that's probably something that makes a lot of sense to do now while he's hurt. And I know that you've pointed out that the steals were up in the month of May, which correlated with his spot in the batting order. Yeah, he hit either leadoff or ninth in 26 games, 23 starts before going on the aisle. and he had six stolen base attempts. So if you divide 23 by 6 or 6 by 23, you multiply by 150, that's a 39 steel attempt pace.

In 12 starts, otherwise, he had one stolen base attempt. We're dealing with small sample sizes, but the eighth spot in the NL lineup is generally speaking where the fewest amount of stolen bases happen because teams don't necessarily want to make an out on the bases with their pitcher up and, you know, leave a situation where the pitchers lead on, leading off an inning or something like that. So, I think if he comes back in Bat's ninth, Robles is probably going to be a

270-ish hitter with good steals. Would you say the same thing for Kestin Hira? I know that you were much higher on him coming into the season. He's a tougher one to evaluate Chris because just in general, there's no better time to try and buy him in Dynasty if, if you think that he's going to get back to the player we saw the first season that he was called up back in 2019, where he struggled at first, but those final two or three months, he was awesome. And then we were drafting him as a top 60 player last year, and he's been awful ever since.

So this one's really tough because I just don't really know what their career trajectory is going to look like for Kesson Hira. Yeah, I mean, it's, there's no doubt there's talent there, but he's clearly lost. something and he needs to find it and it's not clear if he found that in his time at AAA you know you mentioned the mental side of the game with Christian Yal it's one thing that I was reading about Kesten Hira is he actually I can took him like a week to report to AAA when he got sent down and that was because he actually I believe he's from California he went back home and spent some time with his mother who has cancer and he said that's basically like the first time he's been able to spend

Mother's Day with her. And, you know, since he started playing professional baseball. And so, you know, that's the kind of thing that also could have an impact on a player from the mental side of things. Whether, you know, he'll be better and specifically be good enough to be a fantasy standout moving forward. I'm very skeptical. But yeah, I think in a Dynasty League specifically, this is probably the right time to

try to buy. That's interesting that you bring up too about his mom. I didn't realize that about Kessin Hira, but I would like to not exploit. That's not the right word, but acknowledge things like this that are happening for players because we don't do it often. And it's real.

I remember Gene Seguera when I think he was like second or third year in the league, he had a terrible tragedy where he lost one of his kids. And, you know, he was not the same for like two or three seasons. Like these guys are human, man. Like stuff happens. So, yeah, I think the hard thing with that is we don't know one way or the other what the impact is going to be. Some guys can be hampered by it and that's totally natural. And some guys can, can, you know, for whatever reason, kind of play through that kind of off-field thing.

And everyone's different. And everybody responds to those kind of situations differently. So, you know, it's really hard to say one way. or the other, you know, whether there's much to take from that when we learn that kind of information. But it's important information to note at the very least. Let's try to breeze through some of these other ones, Chris. Nate Pearson, one of the most traded players on CBS. I think these are all kind of dynasty related right now. He's another one where it's tough because he's dealt with so many injuries the past couple of years. And you just

don't really know what his role is going to be long term. Is he a starter? Is a reliever? You don't really know. So would you be looking to buy? in a dynasty league on Nate Pearson or just stay away? Nate Pearson was drafted in 2017, and he has thrown 150.1 innings so far as a professional. And, you know, obviously 2020, there weren't a lot of opportunities to pitch, but he was also hurt.

He really has not been able to be on the mound much, and that's a really important skill for a young pitcher to be able to show. So I think I would be willing, to buy if the price was really low, but I think there are very good reasons to have questions about what Pearson is going to be able to contribute moving forward, unfortunately. For Austin Meadows, Chris, he is one of these players, one of the most traded on CBS right now as well, and he is still batting just 219. He has nine home runs, only one steel that came on a

double steel where he was the trail runner, so he has not been running this year. And the launch angle is just way too high. He's hitting too many fly balls, and it's affected his batting average. So from a redraft perspective, are you more likely to buy Austin Meadows or stay away? You know, you start to look at the splits and heading into the last season, it was like, oh, this guy can actually like hold his own against lefties. He's been brutal this year against lefties. And last year. Yes. And, you know, even in 2019, I mean, he had an 837 OPS against them, but he did strike out nearly 30% of the time. I think it's fair to wonder whether Austin Meadows will be able to pull out of this

and whether he's going to be able to prove to be an everyday star. I'm still, I still have a lot of faith in him because I believe in the talent. It's not quite Kest and hero levels, but it's a similar version of it where it's just something's wrong

and whether he's able to fix it is going to be the key moving forward. And I'm optimistic but not certain. It's the launching. for me. I pay close attention to him because I have a lot of shares and he's just hitting too many fly balls. I don't know if it's he's affected by the shift and he's kind of just, all right, let me hit it over the shift rather than into the shift. But whatever it is, I mean, I would like to see the launch angle come down, maybe try to just square some balls up, line drives,

ground balls the other way, whatever it might be. I think he's talented enough to do it, but he just hasn't really done it so far this year. So that's Austin Meadows there. Christian Yellich, we spoke about the other day, very polarizing player right now, giving the injuries. Where did you fall on that one? More likely to buy or stay away? I think if you are in first place, it might be a time to move Christian Eilich. And if you are in need of a big boost, now is the time to try to buy him. Okay. So a big swing on the upside there with Christian Yelich. Aaron Nola is another one of these players, early drafted, you know, second, third round pick coming into 2021 against the Marlins

on Wednesday, six innings, one run, three walks, six strikeouts with 14. swinging strikes, and his curbball usage was back up, which I like to see. It was his most in the start since May 4th. So, Aranola, this is an easy buy for me, Chris. If you can find someone who has been at all worried about him, I would be looking to pray on that.

Yeah, he's got his best XERA since 2018. I definitely think this is the time to try to buy Aranola. The last one I'll bring up is Nolan Aranado, who we have not spoken about together in quite some time, Chris, and I know that you were skeptical of him coming into the season, and I do have an Apple podcast review from Trenton Andrew 7, who call this out. Nolan Aronado is currently first in the NL and extra base hits.

I don't know when he left this. It was probably last week, so excuse me if these are not factually accurate anymore. But first in the NL in extra base hits, fourth in the NL in home runs, seventh in batting average, second in RBI, fifth and slugging percentage, 10th in war. Can we get some apologies for Mr. Aronado yet? I don't know why we have to apologize

necessarily. I mean, he's having a good season. He's having more than a good season, Chris. He's having a very good season. Yeah. Yeah, no, and all right is good. I mean, yeah, he's not the guy he was in Corsfield, but he's very good. He's on pace for 30-ish homers.

good RBI and run numbers, but not like elite. He's on pace for 95 to 100 RBI, maybe 85-ish runs. He's having a good season. I think he's quite good. I think maybe it was Scott and I who talked about Aeronado recently, but basically I think what we were worried about coming into the season, Chris, was that he might be 75 to 80% of the player he was in Coorsfield, and he's been more like 80%.

to 90% of that player. So he's got an 880 OPS this year. He was consistently, you know, 930 OPS or better in Coorsfield. So if he settles in, you know, 875 to 900, that's still a very, very good player. It's not who he was, you know, back in Coorsfield. But yeah, I will say he has outperformed what I expected from him. So the thing that's tough is for a long time, he has been someone who outperforms his expected stats. In 2020, he actually had a 308.

and a 288 ex-woba. So even in a down year, he's still outperformed it, and he did so every single season, which makes sense. He played half his games at Coors Field. Like I mentioned, Charlie Blackman,

most of those guys outperformed their expected stats. He's doing it again this year by 42 points, which is just about what he typically did when he was in course field. So the question is, is this like a Chris Bryant situation where because he hits, you know, so many of his line drives and fly balls to the pull side, maybe he's able to outperform his expected stats

or is it's just a small sample size fluke and there's really no way to answer that right now. We'll need a full season plus of him playing not with half his games, of course, to really get a sense. Sell high or no thanks, Guy, Nolan Aronado. I wouldn't mind selling high, but it's not like a you need to get out before the bottom falls out.

I think he'll be very good. Yeah, I would agree with that. If you enjoy the podcast, please feel feel free to leave us a five-star Apple podcast rating and drop a question in the review. We'll answer it on a future podcast. We actually have a few of those APR questions that will answer real quick right now, Chris.

This one's from J.Pert 21. Would you trade Alex Wood for Jameson-Tyone and Denelson Lamet? I don't need the extra depth, so I'm leaning towards keeping wood, but feel like Lamett could be great down the stretch. I'm pretty much at the point right now where I'm not necessarily expecting anything

from Denelson Lamet. He is starting on Friday against the Astros for what it's worth. He had been used as a reliever recently. Yeah. And it's kind of like, like I have him as a four in the trade values chart and head to head two in Rodo,

which basically means he's pretty close to not adding much value to a trade. I would guess, I closed the window, so I can't confirm for sure, but I would guess I have wood ahead of Tyone. I have wood way ahead of Tyone. I have Tyone.

actually a little ahead. I think Wood's really good. So many injury questions, so many performance questions. You know, he's been very, very good in spurts. You know, his career has been like, I think he had one really good season overall, one really great half season with the Dodgers, and it's just been like, we've never seen consistency from him. And obviously, Tyone hasn't been a model of consistency himself.

But before the injury, I think he was starting to show more of that. So would you do it? Would you trade Wood for Tyone and Lamet? Yeah. I would not, but it is close. Make sense. This one's from High Rise 2, 3, 4, grade to trade, 10-team Headside Categories League,

Raphael Devers for U. Darvish. That is pretty close to a push, I think. I agree. Head-to-head or categories? Head-side categories, yeah. In a head-to-head categories, it's probably Darvish, but if you've got an overabundance of pitching,

like Raphael Deffers is an elite hitter. I feel like we kind of haven't talked enough about how good he's been this season. And basically since the start of 2019, he's had a 20 game bad stretch at the start of last season, basically was what it was. What, like, took him 23 games to hit his first home run. Yep.

He's great. He actually leads, baseball and RBI's right now. 43 of them. He hit a three-run homer on Wednesday. Yeah, he got a 543 OPS, 14 games into the season last year. He hit his first home run.

All right, do I have these numbers, right? All right. Either way, he was awesome for most of last season. His bad and ball data is really, really good. I think he's the guy he was in 2019, which is he was a top five hitter that season. I don't think he'll be quite as

good, but the counting stats have been there. I think he's a great hitter overall. Doesn't he actually have like three steals so far this season too? I think he does. He might have a few caught stealing as well. He's not efficient on the base paths at all. But yeah, I think he's three for three or three for six. He's probably going to give you something like six to eight steals for the entire season, which is not nothing, but obviously he's not a major contributor either. I think it's a push. I think it's a C. It's whatever you needed. If you needed pitching, I think it's a good trade. I think if you needed Devers on the other side of it. I think it's a fair trade as well. The last one, he was eight for eight on steals in 2019 as well. So he's 11 for 11,

over his last three seasons, or 11 for 22. Yeah. This last one's from the Sabre 12. Mackenzie Gore, CJ Abrams, and Will Smith the closer for Wander Franco and Dylan Sees in a dynasty categories league. I don't think Will Smith has hardly any value in a categories league. Most relievers don't, especially not ones in their 30s. I think getting Wanda Franco in this trade is a pretty significant win, especially with some fair questions about McKenzie Gore at this point. I agree. I like this.

I would say that's pretty much an A. Obviously, Wander Franco is the best player in the trade. I think the next two best players are the ones you're giving up, but I still think that's worth doing. All right. We're going to take a quick break, but when we return, we're going to take a look at some roster rates for hitters.

Do they need to be higher? some waiver wire pitchers from Wednesday and the rest of the action that you need to know about. We'll do that next on Fantasy Baseball today. Do these roster rates need to be higher? Miguel Sino at 1 for 3 with his ninth home run of the season. Seven of those have come in May. He's 71% rostered Chris does that number need to be higher.

No. No, I don't think so because I don't know where you're going to play him if you plan ahead-to-head points league. I mean, maybe you're desperate and you lost. Maybe you had Marcelo Zuna. Mike Trout and Fran Mell Reyes on your roster, and maybe then you can find a spot for him. But I think he's pretty much just like a Routa Power Specialist. Agreed.

How about Nick Madrigal? He has back-to-back three hit games, and all of a sudden he's betting 301. The problem doesn't really do anything else. He has one home run and one steal on the season. 68% roster for Madrigal. Does that number need to be higher? Again, I don't think so.

I don't know why they're not letting him run. that's the big thing. If they were letting Nick Madrigal run, he's 82nd percent down sprint speed. He was like a 35 to 40 stolen base per 150 games guy. In the minors, if they let him do that, I think he could be a very,

very good roto option, as is, I don't know, 68% is probably a little high. Yeah, he's kind of like David Fletcher, when David Fletcher is good. He's been very bad this year,

but that's kind of, Or Luis Arias. Yeah. I mean, those are all, or even someone like Miguel Rojas, who doesn't necessarily make quite as much contact as those guys, but is a batting average only kind of player.

I think Miguel Ross might be better. Yeah, I was just going to say that. I think he's probably better than Nick Magigal. He has been, that's actually a factual statement, and he might be better moving forward. Miguel Rojas has been like kind of sneaky good

for like a couple of years now. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm not being like facetious. actually has. He's been solid. Yeah. Tommy Pham went two for four with his six stolen base on Wednesday. He now has six hits, six runs scored, and

three steals over his last six games. Slowly coming along. Fifty-two percent rostered. He has seven games next week, Chris. Is that number too low for fam? 52%. I guess with seven games next week, he'll probably be in Scott White's sleeper

hitters, call him. We'll see about the matchups, but yeah, I guess what is a 48% 52% that feels a little low I suppose

there are still some pretty good signs like his ex-woba is really high 361 he's at 288 for his overall

loba I guess he's worth adding it's if you're in a three outfield or league though are you

really going to use him that much and maybe categories if you need speed but yeah

I I think that's where he just kind of falls short is that he just he might be a little better in a category

in a points league in terms of his overall ranking, but there are fewer spots for him. How about on the starting pitcher side of things? Your favorite waiver wire pitcher from Wednesday? We already spoke about Garcia and Caprillion up at the top, so I would say we'd like them more than these names. Maybe not. I don't know. You tell me, Chris. Griffin Canning was up against the Rangers

delivered a quality start. Six innings, three runs, seven strikeouts. He's 33% rostered. Merrill Kelly against the Giants. six-ennings, two runs, six strikeouts. That's three straight quality starts for Merrill Kelly. He's got a nice two-start week next week versus the Mets at the Brewers. I like that a lot. Tristan McKenzie back in the Cleveland rotation. Thank you, Zach Plesack for aggressively taking your shirt off. And McKenzie was at the Tigers five shutout with five strikeouts. And the last one I'll mention Mike Minor at the Tampa Bay Rays, five endings, one run, four walks, meh, nine

strikeouts. Yeah, we like that. So between Minor McKenzie, Merrill Kelly, and Griffin Manning, Chris. These are kind of deeper-ish options, but who's your favorite of that bunch? I don't know what's gone into Merrill Kelly, but he's been really good for like a month now. And he's coming off of thoracic outlet, which is like unheard of us. Yeah, literally over the last month, his last start, going back to April 27th, he has made six starts. He's averaging over six innings, just over six innings per start, 36.2 innings overall. He's got trying to do some math in my head right now. Is that six strikeouts tonight?

So he's got 39 over those 36 and two-thirds innings. And like a 325 ERA. I don't necessarily know what's going on. And he's really only had one really good strikeout start. That was last time out against the Dodgers when he struck out 12 and 7 innings. This has been an interesting stretch for him. I would say my favorite waiver wire pitcher of this group is probably Griffin Canning. But Kelly with the good match.

matchups last next week. He's probably got to be 50% rostered for week 10. I wonder. We should do every Wednesday, well, now it's Thursday morning, but on this podcast, when we do it together, Chris, we should try to predict who's going to be on Scott's sleepers. And I think that Tommy fan might be one of them. Merrill Kelly might be one as well. So it's kind of like beat Scott White Sleepers, right? Like, can we figure them out before they happen? I like those matchups quite a bit. We'll do some quick studs being studs, pitchers first, and then hitters. If anything stands out to you, Chris, just stop me and talk about it. Carlos Rodon had a tough luck loss against the Cardinals. The guy just keeps chugging away. Six innings, one run, zero walks, 10 strikeouts,

22 swinging strikes, 16 of those on the fastball. Entering the start, he was the number three pitcher in fantasy points per game. Tyler Glass now against the Royals, eight shutout with 11 strikeouts to two walks. He threw a career high, 49 sliders in the start. His previous high was 36 that came earlier this season. Tyler Glassnell was amazing.

And of course, the biggest stud of all. I mean, we're bearing the lead. How did it take us 51 minutes? I was about to call you out for it during the previous segment. It's just so ridiculous. John Gantt,

I mean, of all the dramatic things, John Gantt being John Gant and throwing a John Gant, which we came out the other day and we said, you know, five shutout, three, four walks, couple of hits, it'll give you a strikeout per inning, that's John Gant. That's exactly what he did against the White Sox. So from now on, moving forward, five shutout with at least a 1.50 whip. That is a John Gant. The guy, he's, I prefer, this is the definition I prefer. I did some

research earlier on. All right. So he has made 27 stars. since the start of 2018. And in 11 of those starts, he's allowed two or fewer runs with three or more walks and five fewer strikeouts. So about 40% of the time that John Gant has started

in the last four seasons, he has been below a two to one strikeout to walk ratio with two or fewer runs allowed. I think that's a John Gantt. He leads the majors in such starts going back to 2018, even though he's only made 27 starts.

So I believe that is the John Gant. I believe Martin Perez was tied with him coming into tonight's start in John Gantz and Sandy Alcantara has nine. John Gantz, but only won this season. So he's really slipping. Yeah, Martine Perez is a prime John Gant kind of guy. I can see that.

I think that's a really, really good call there. So we're being, we're completely kidding. Like, don't add John Gant. If you want to stream him in the right matchups, I mean, he's actually... Every matchup has been the right matchup. I mean, you always call him out as one of your streamers. So shout out to you, man.

The biggest advocate. He's, like, objectively not that good. No, he's got like, he's very bad. He's a low three's ERA over 200 plus in his major league career. This year, he has a 1.81 ERA with a 1.57 whip. That does not add up. That does not add up. Studs being studs, hitter edition.

Raphael Devers, we already talked about him. He went two for three. Actually, he might have even had more. I haven't updated this because they were. a rain delay, but that game just ended. He had at least two hits with his 14th home run. He's now leading baseball with 43 RBI. That's Raphael Devers.

Number two in RBI at the season, Trey Mancini. He has 42 of them with 11 home runs. He's awesome. He's basically back to 2019, Tray Mancini. That you actually do love to see it. Jose Altuve hit his sixth home run. He's batting 311. Adolice Garcia ties the league lead with Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Garcia has 16 home runs now. Matt Olson, we haven't talked about him. Maybe he's someone we have to give a little bit more love on a future podcast, but he hit his 13th home run. He's got a 264 batting average with a 9-12 OPS and Mitch Hanigar, another one. Maybe we haven't given him enough love, but he went two-for-four with a double in an RBI. He is a top-10 outfielder in both points leagues and Roto right now. The call to the pen, some bullpen updates, and there are a lot.

I mean, there always is. The twins, Hansel Robles got his third save, both he and Tyler Rogers had been used three of the last four days entering Wednesday, so they opted to go with Robles instead of Rogers, and Robles is still just 20% rostered for those of you in deeper category leagues who do need saves. For Oakland, Jake Deekman recorded four outs for his sixth save of the season. He's 43% rostered. For the Tigers, Michael Fulmer was using the eighth inning. This one has kind of bounced back and forth as well. He was using the eighth to face 9-1-2 in the order in the Cleveland lineup, and then Gregory Soto was using the ninth.

He picked up his fifth save of the season. For Tampa Bay, they went with the newly acquired JP Fire Eisen in the ninth inning instead of Diego Castillo, who hadn't pitched since May 22nd. And JP allowed a game tying home run to Andrew Benintendi. They did wind up winning that game, two to one. So Fireocin got the win. He pitched two winnings, actually. So are the racers back to being the first?

raise, Chris, is this, I don't know. I don't know why they're not using Castillo. They should have used him here. Yeah, I guess that's what he had three days off coming into this one. I don't know, maybe coming back from the aisle, they want to give him some extra time. Maybe he wasn't feeling well. You know, those kind of things might not get reported. But it's definitely frustrating.

It definitely does seem like they're back to being that. And I also just want to say team name Thursday. song of JP Fire-Eyson. I noticed that too because when I phonetically spelled out his name, I listened to how they said it on the broadcast and it literally sounded like fire ice end. And that was it. So I appreciate that. For the Giants, their bullpen, Jake McGee was used in the eighth inning to face David

Peralta, Carson Kelly, and Josh Reddick. So two lefties there. Tyler Rogers used in the ninth and he picked up his sixth save. So that looks very matchup based right now with the San Francisco Giants. For the Angels, Reisel O'Eglacias got his eighth. For the Padres, Mark Mawanson got his 17th.

For the Cubs, Craig Kimbril got his 11th. And for the Marlins, Yemi Garcia picked up his ninth save. To stream or not stream for Thursday, Chris, give me your three favorites. Antonio Sensatella at the Mets, Spencer Howard at the Marlins, Tyler Anderson versus the Cubs,

Brady Singer at the Rays, Shane McClain-Mackan-Vos, and Carlos Martinez at the Diamond Beck's. I think I would go Singer who I think probably needs to just be rostered

more than just the streamer range. Then I would go Howard and McClanahan. I really wanted to say Tyler Anderson, but I don't know about the matchup. Yeah, he got destroyed his last time out too.

So I'm with you. I think I would put McClanhan second on this list. Spencer Howard. Yeah, that makes sense. Spencer Howard, I'm fine with it. I kind of toyed with the idea

of Sinsettella just because the Mets line up is so, was so bad, Chris. So I could, yeah, I could see him having a good start.

Yep. How about for Friday? Justice Sheffield versus the Rangers, Jordan Lyles at the Mariners. Randy Dobnack versus the Royals. Martine Perez versus the Marlins. Mitch Keller,

your boy, versus the Rockies. That game is in Pittsburgh. And Alex Cobb at Oakland. This is a very bad list. Yeah, it's not great. I think my preferences would be.

I think Perez is number one. Yeah, Perez. I'll be at that game. It sounds like it might get rained out, so who knows? Oh, I hope that doesn't happen. I'd be very disappointed. I just bought tickets to Yankees Red Sox next Friday. Oh, man, that'd be fun.

I should check if there are tickets available for that. Oh, yeah, they're widely available. I mean, you're gonna, they're more expensive, obviously, because it's a Red Sox game. So I'm like, I'm sitting high up in the nosebleeds and I'm spending like $50 a ticket, but whatever. That's not bad. I might do that, yeah.

Yeah. Uh, yeah, Perez, Cobb, and I think I'll go dobb neck. Yeah, I like that call. Let's wrap up with some fantasy justice for all. Shout out to everyone who sent in your fantasy justice questions. This is a lot like fantasy cops, which they do on fantasy football today.

Used to be the regulator's segment here on FBT, but we can no longer do the regulators song. So if you have an issue with your league commissioners, basically something that's not fantasy related, email us in and we'll try and come to a conclusion for you. This one's from Tony. My league is a 10-team points league where we assign wins to the top five teams each week and a loss to the bottom five teams each week.

This morning, one of the people in the league looked back to week three and noticed that the scores on CBS show different now than they did on that Monday following the scoring period. We have been able to identify that the team that finished fourth had their points reduced somehow by four points, which dropped them to sixth place. the commissioner kept a spreadsheet with each week's scores, which is actually the only reason we were able to figure out which team had a scoring change.

He typically updates that on Monday afternoons, so the update was likely at some point after that, which seems odd to us. If anyone ever needs to find this, by the way, if you play on CBS, if you hover over the scores tab in your league and you click on stat corrections, you can go back to any week

and see the official stack corrections that happen in baseball. So just a shout out there if you need to know. So the team that was originally in sixth place once that win at this point, the team that was originally in the top five, is questioning when a scoring period should be final and also wanting to be able to know what the actual scoring change was

that would have pushed him into a loss instead of a win. Who gets the win? I think it's whoever got pushed up into the top five should get it. I mean, scoring, you know, these scoring changes suck, especially in fantasy football,

but they happen all the time. Again, you can find them on the website, and you can find exactly what it was that happened. So I think you kind of have to honor the scoring change, no, Chris? Yeah, I mean, I'm trying to figure out, okay, Chris Paddock apparently had, this is probably what it was. Chris Paddock went from one earned run allowed to five earned runs allowed. That sounds, it sounds exactly like four points.

Yeah, so that's probably what it was, although you would think with that kind of change, there might have been a hit. involved as well. But yeah, I guess that was his start on April 20th, maybe. I don't know. I kind of think both teams should just get a tie. I don't really think there's like a right answer there.

The official MLB scoring says that the guy who got the stack correction wins or the guy who benefited from the stack correction wins. But I think the most fair way to do it is to just give them both a tie. Or give them both a win if you can. But yeah, I don't think there's a right answer there. I guess I would lean towards leaving it if there is a right answer. But the other side seems equally legitimate. This next one's from Colin.

We had a trade this week for the first time. This is a 10-team category league. I'm writing to you because two of our managers have agreed to Yasmani Grandal and Christian Yelich for Alex Verdugo and Wilson, Contreras. The problem I see with this trade is that the managers are in a relationship with each other, which raises suspension, and the team receiving Yelich is currently in third, and the other is in second to last place. What do you think should be done about this? It doesn't seem like, it's not a great trade, but it doesn't seem terrible either. Grandal and Yelich for Verdugo and

Wilson Contreras. This might have happened a while ago, though. okay so I think like if you're going to do this and like tell them they can't make this trade you kind of

have to tell them to break up right you can't trade with any significant others I like this is not it's not a great trade for the team giving up uh yellage but it's it's not that bad you know we were talking

the other day. I'm trying to remember who Scott said he would give up. He wouldn't give up for for Yelich. I think it was Winker. Yep. And I actually have Fertugo higher than Winker. Yeah. So I don't think it's,

it's not a great trade, sure, but it's not a greed. It's definitely not vetoable unless you're going to tell those people they can't be in the league. I'm very anti-vito trades too. So I think this trade is fine. You let it go through. But as someone who plays in a league with my dad,

I never trade with him because if I did, the whole league would just, they would go crazy. Yeah, I'm in a football league with my wife and we can't trade together. There have been times when it's been like there's an obvious trade that we should make and we just can't.

Yeah. This last one is, oh man, it's pretty long too. All right, let's try and skim through this one. From Josiah, Dustin's team is not very good

and has decided to focus towards 2022. He has traded away players for 2022 draft picks, etc. As part of this, he has deployed a controversial strategy of benching all his hitters if he takes an early lead in average and OPS early in the week, in hopes of winning those two categories and then punting the rest of the hitting categories. This has had mixed results, but Dustin argues that based on the talent on his team, he would rather try to lock in two hitting categories than potentially losing all of them.

Some in the league are not happy, saying that it is lame and unfair because he is being non-competitive and it affects the outcomes of matchups and the standings. As commissioner, I think that as long as he is playing within the rules, he can manage his team however he wishes.

So, one, should Dustin be allowed to manage his team in this manner, or is he compromising the integrity of the league? Well, answer that question first, Chris, what do you think? Yes. Secondly, it was suggested... I think he's doing both. Secondly, it was suggested that we should,

create a minimum at bat's rule to qualify for hitting categories. Most teams are on board, but not everyone. Well, you can't change a rule midseason unless it's unanimous. So I will, I'll just throw that in there. Yeah. Like if you wanted to change the rule and you shouldn't, like you can't change rules midstream. Um, my personal view on this and this comes up a lot when people are like, well, I just don't play a catcher because they'll wreck your ratios or, uh, you know, whatever. You got to feel the full lineup. You got to feel the legal lineup.

Like that's just maybe call me a stickler for the rules or what have you. But like the angels can't go out there and say, well, we're only going to have six pairs in the lineup today. Because we only think we have six good hitters and we don't want to waste any outs on Taylor Ward. Like you can't do that. You have to have your players in your lineup. I play the leagues where I'm commissioner, if you don't have a legal lineup, your score doesn't count.

And I think that's the way it should be. If he wants to drop all of his players and only start Luis Arias and start a bunch of bench guys who never play or minor league guys who never play, fine. But you can't just not have guys in your lineup. I strongly believe you should have to field a full lineup. I do think that a at-bats minimum for the week in a head-to-head categories league makes sense. Although we don't talk about it often, but it probably should be a thing because for this reason, you know, what if someone just has like a 1,000 batting average after one day and they just, they want to bench the rest of their hitters, right?

They're going to lose obviously anything, any accumulative statistic, but I guess that's within their right to do so unless your league has rules against it. So I'm in favor of the minimum at-bats. for a head dead category's weekly league. So I think justice has been served. For Chris, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching fantasy baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow.

Bye-bye.