Fantasy Baseball Today - Nolan Gorman, Josh Lowe Breakouts, Week 9 Sleepers & Two-Start Pitchers (5/19 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 19, 2023

Nolan Gorman is truly breaking out this season (2:14). ... So is Josh Lowe (7:20)! ... The St. Louis Cardinals are hot, especially Willson Contreras (11:43). ... Julio Urias got hit hard Thursday (14:40). ... Start or sit Tyler Wells, Taj Bradley, Eury Perez and more next week (18:17)? ... Dylan Cease has struggled mightily (30:00). ... Does Austin Hays deserve more attention (33:06)? ... News (36:13): Vlad Jr. has missed two straight. ... Let's get into the Week 9 schedule and two-start pitchers (42:10). ... We wrap up with bullpen updates, streamers and your questions (54:31). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Been tough fantasy baseball today on May 19th. I am Frank Stample joined by Scotty Dubbs. Scott White. Today on the show, let's take a closer look at the Nolan Gorman and Josh Lowe breakouts so far this season. Starter sit questions, our week nine preview, and it was a smaller slate of game,

so I do have some of your emails for later on in the podcast. Whoa, emails on a podcast. I know. Have heard of such a thing. I am a slat, in that regard. Full transparency, obviously. Anyone who listens knows. We just spend way too much time talking about the stuff that happened. It's not your fault.

I don't know how Adam used to do it. I mean, I don't know either. God bless you. I think we just have so much more information now that it's. I think that's it too. Yeah. I mean, it's, you know, every night going through, it's not just box scores anymore, right? It's you're looking at statcast data and pitch mix and velocity and it's, you know, it takes a long time. And frankly, that's why we start as late as we do, but we'll save that for another day. Before we get started, please like this video and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. And if you're listening on the audio side,

download, follow, and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. Let's jump in. Yeah, take a whiff of that, big boy. That is legendary Cardinals broadcaster, Mike Shannon, who actually passed away this year and definitely wanted to work his call into the mix. So I know a few people sent that call in,

and I'm happy to play it, because obviously, very well deserving. Scott, you are up. Oh my goodness gracious. All right. I want to talk about Nolan Gorman here. You. Who had a two homer game. And I mean, you know, he's been hitting home runs all season. He's up to 12 now. That makes him one of the most prolific home run hitters in the game this year. But what might be more notable is he was in the lineup against a lefty and an ostensibly good lefty, Julio Arias.

And not only was Nolan Gorman in the lineup against this lefty, he homered off this lefty, one of his two home runs. And it was actually his first hit of the year off a lefty. So, you know, not many bats because he hasn't been playing

against lefties much. But hopefully this earns him more opportunities against lefties because you look at his numbers and they're fantastic. And like this is kind of, this is a regret. I have Nolan Gorman because I liked him as kind of a post-hyped sleeper

very early in my draft prep we're talking about like when I was first formulating my rankings in October, November I thought Nolan Gorman, okay, huge disappointment is a rookie, I get it, but you know, it's a young guy with a lot of power potential. This could be a nice bargain in second base. And there just seemed to be so little hype

surrounding him. Like, the Cardinals weren't talking them up at all. They had all the surplus of outfielders, especially with Jordan Walker in the mix. Like, how are they going to get him in the lineup? I did not envision a scenario where he'd just be the full-time DH. And, you know, more recently, he's been playing a lot of second base again. He was starting.

He even started at third base in this game. Okay. Well, yeah, I mean, Nolan Aeronado is not going to sit much. I guess Aeronado got a day at D.H. Yep. But he's picked up third base eligibility this year, which only adds to the value. And, you know, it would have been a great pick as a post-type sleeper

because what's helped the power come through is he went from striking out a third of the time as a rookie to now like a quarter of the time. Quarter of the time's fine if you have as much power as he does. There is still the issue of how he's going to fare against left-handers, how much he's going to play against him. But as I said, things are trending the right direction as far as that goes. And I think given that second base, while it's pretty deep and interesting players, it's pretty light on like high-end must-start types.

And Gorman might be emerging as one of the few there. So far, that's exactly what Nolan Gorman has been, Scott, batting 295 with those 12 home runs, as you mentioned. An OPS just over 1,000 at this point in the season. He entered Thursday as the fifth-ranked second-based. basement in Roto, averaging 3.3 fantasy points per game. That's tied for seventh at second base in terms of fantasy points per game. And I think we're probably a little bit unfair to Gorman Scott. You and I both have him ranked 16th in our second base rankings.

And I mean, typically we don't talk about this. We don't, you know, we don't kind of confer on, you know, where you're ranking your players. All right, let's kind of have them in the same spot. Like we each individually do our rankings and this is what we come up with. And look, if let's just say Miguel Vargas was doing what Nolan Gorman is doing right now, we would probably have him ranked as like a top 10 second baseman, right? So I think we do have those concerns about playing against lefties. But, you know, looking at the second base landscape,

you can make an argument that Gorman could be ranked as high as eighth, you know, ahead of Glebert Torres and Tommy Edmund and, you know, Nico Horner and Andres Jimenez and all those names. I guess the question is, why don't we, right? Why don't we have him ranked higher? Well, because I've had playing time concerns largely. But I think what I'm saying is tonight's the night or today's the day where I say, okay, it's time for me to stop worrying about that and just, you know,

I'm eyeballing it right now probably could move them all the way up to 10th. Second base has been one of the most difficult positions to adjust as I, as I update it over the course of the season because there is. such a large group of players who have kind of excelled for stretches and then fallen off. And, you know, they have complicated histories that you don't want to dismiss the upside, like a Brandon Lau, I'm thinking, or a Jorge Polanco. But, you know, at this point, I would say I'm ready to take Gorman over all of them. Yeah, I think so too, right?

I was thinking about it earlier today. And I'm like, well, Nolan Gorman is doing what we want Brandon Lowe to do, right? And even better batting averaged than we've seen Brandon Lowe put up in the past. So yeah, I think it's probably time to move him ahead of Lowe and probably some of those other names as well. Again, starting against the lefty, that's big news there for Nolan Gorman. Not just starting, but hitting that home run off of Julio Arias as well. I think we could say a lot of the same things about Josh Lowe, Scott. And frankly, we might be too low on Josh.

He went two for four with a double and his 10th home run. on Thursday. He has now let off two straight games. He has started seven of the Ray's last eight games. I think it was last week. I had a mini rant about how, look, the rays just need to play this guy because he has been so awesome. And guess what? They listened. He is now batting 306 with 10 homers, seven steals and an OPS just over a thousand as well. Like Nolan Gorman, he's lowered the strikeout rate. Lots of similarities here, Scott. It's kind of a post-hype breakout. This was a big prospect last year. We know there was power, in speed, a huge hole in the swing.

He's kind of fixed that so far this year. The average exit velocity, 87.9 miles per hour. Not nearly as impressive as Nolan Gorman, but he taps into his high end velocity often. And we see that in the max exit velocity, 113.3. That's in the 90th percentile this season for Josh Lowe. And his barrel rate, 14.6%. That's 86th percentile.

He's really fast, 88th percentile sprint speed. So, you know, Scott, we both have Josh Lowe ranked as our, again, we don't talk about this, but 44th ranked outfielder and head-to-head points and Roto. And entering Thursday, he was the 16th best player, not just hitter, 16th best player in that format. So I guess it's a long-winded way of saying, I think we probably need to do the same thing with Josh Lowe and probably move him up the rankings as well.

Yeah, I think the playing time concerns for him are even more pronounced. because it's the raise and they just don't seem to give anybody every day at bats. But he's now started seven of the last eight games. So it does seem like he's raised his own, his standing in their own eyes. You mentioned, you know, the hard hit rate and, well, the max exit velocity was 90th percentile.

The expected slug. So even though the average exit velocity is kind of low, the expected slug for Josh Lowe, this year is 92nd percentile, 547. So it's, Stackast suggests he is legitimately, you know, a top power bat. Yeah, his current slug is like over 650 now. So I probably can't sustain quite this pace.

And that's worth pointing out to is, okay, he's the 16th best outfielder. While he's, for as good as the data looks, he's still overperforming it. And there's going to be some amount of regression. here and where does he wind up, not quite an everyday player. You know, it's going to be lower than 16, I would imagine. But he does bring an element of speed here.

And, you know, I think you could easily make the case for him inside the top 40. So to get him there, to get him inside the top 35, let's say, that's going to mean, for me, valuing him over Hunter Renfro, Stephen Kwan, James Outman, who's kind of slowed down. He had a big homer on Monday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday. At some point this week, he had a big homer. Yeah. But he's kind of slowed down.

I think that's fair. I mean, obviously a big position like an outfield, like the outfield, there's a lot of manipulating you can do in a range of 10 to 12 players and wake up. up the next day and feel completely different about all of them. Yeah. But yeah, I could probably get James Outman up closer to 30th than 45th where he is now. That's exactly what I was looking at too, Scott.

I've got Jared Kellnick at 33 and James Outman at 34. And it kind of feels like Josh Lowe should kind of be right in that range with those other breakout names as well. So I think that would push Josh Lowe up to around 32nd, 33rd in my rankings. and I think that's probably more fair for him. Kelnick, worth mentioning, he's kind of slowed down here in May as well. He's betting 241 with only one home run so far in the month.

So both him and Outman, you know, taking a little bit of a step back, and Josh Lowe just kind of keeping it going right now with the Tampa Bay race. I want to get back into the Cardinals, Scott, because it was not just Nolan Gorman, who had a big game. They are, the Cardinals are red hot right now. They are 9 and 2 in their last 11 games.

They beat the Dodgers on Thursday, 16 to 8. They hit seven home runs total in that game. Wilson Contreras, the other name here who went two for five, had a double dong himself, added six RBI in the game. He's batting just 256. He's now only up to five home runs. But according to stat cast, he has been pretty unlucky. Batting 256, the XBA is 268. The slug right now is 429.

The X slug is 465. A career high 93.1 mile per hour average exit velocity for Wilson Contreras. high 51% hard hit rate and a 10.4% barrel rate, which is right in line with his career. And that was before his big game on Thursday. So I think those numbers are only going to go up. And I think much better days are coming here for Wilson Contreras. I don't know that there's anything actionable, Scott, because it's going to be harder to try and buy low or acquire Contreras after this game. But I guess the point is if you have him, I think much better, much better days are coming for him. Yeah, I don't know. I, maybe.

I had trouble seeing him as any kind of disappointment, really. I mean, catcher is the sort of position where you don't have to be amazing to be really good. And he had been the sixth best catcher in points leagues even prior to this game. So I feel like he was just somebody who slotted in your catcher spot and didn't really worry about. And now with this two-homer game, Wilson Contreras is on pace for about 20, which usually he's between 20. 25. So he seems right on pace again. Yeah. And yeah, I think he's, I think he's totally fine, everything you drafted him to be.

All right. Nolan Aronado went one for four with his ninth home run and has now homered in six of his last seven games. And if you look at the overall numbers, they're basically right back on track. So just a reminder of how quickly things can flip. Obviously not every hitter is capable of, you know, homering that many times in a, you know, one week span. but these are proven commodities and eventually I think most of them are going to come around. Anything here with Oscar Mercado's got a blast from the past on the Guardians a couple of years ago. He thought there was some power and potentially some speed.

He went three for four with two steals and three runs scored in this game. Seems like he was only starting because there was a lefty on the mound. I know the Cardinals have had a bunch of injuries to the outfield so far, but Mercado had 15 steals in the minors this year as well. 34 games played down there. Anything to see here with Oscar and Marketer. I don't think so. No. Well, he's just going to play a reserve role mostly, maybe occasionally starting against the lefty, like you say. But I don't, I don't see him having a shot at making

a real impact in fantasy. Well, who did the Cardinals do all this damage off of? We mentioned earlier. Julio Arias started this game. He only lasted three innings. He gave up six runs, four home runs allowed, and really did not have much working. Only three. three swinging strikes on 68 pitches, the slurve and the cutter were both down 1.3 miles per hour each in this start. Wasn't fooling anybody. And Scott, all of a sudden, 4.39 ERA. The whip is still very good, 1.16. But allowing more home runs this season, any cause for concern with Julio Rius?

Yeah, so we were actually just kind of looking at that together here right before we started recording to see what's going on with him. because now, you know, he had already had a career worst home run rate. Now it's 2.3 per nine innings, which is just laughably bad. So he's been... Four homers and three innings, Scott, that's going to jump that number up quite a bit. Well, right, but it was 1.7 before then, 1.7 per 9, which is still terrible. That's true. And like I said, the worst of his career.

And interestingly, he had his previous worst home run rate, home run per 9 rate, Ereus came last year during the dead ball year, whatever we're going to call it, in retrospect. So, like, it's kind of a continuation of a trend, but in terms of exit velocities, pretty normal, strikeout rate, walk rate, pretty normal. Pitch selection, pretty normal. He is throwing a new cutter this year,

but I figured that would only be something that helps I mean, the cutter has given up I don't know how many gave up today But entering the game He'd given up one home run on it with a Opponents batting average of 148 So yeah, I don't think the cutter Thrown at less than 10% at the time

It's not a major pitch for him Yeah So I don't I don't think that could be the cause of the issue Yeah, I don't really know What it is Maybe the fastball has been a little less effective,

but, I mean, it has. He's given up harder contact on it. He's given up worse numbers on it. The spin rates down 100 RPM. But the whiff rate is about the same as last year. So, like, I'm just to say, oh, the fastball is the problem. I'm assessing it on the results as opposed to the characteristics. And that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to continue to be that way.

So I don't know. I don't see enough wrong here to think that there's, that like Julio Arias is just collapsing and he's going to go the way of Alec Manoa here for you. I don't think that's the case, but the home runs are worrisome. And, you know, if it continues, you know, if he allows more than one in his next start, then obviously the longer that goes on, the more concern it's going to raise. Again, that is Julio Arias. Let's take our first break when we return. I've got a bunch of other pitchers.

I want to ask you, Scott, start or sit these guys for next week. Talk about what they did on Thursday. We'll do that right after this. It's major time on the golf calendar, and the First Cut podcast has you covered with comprehensive coverage of the PGA championship from Oak Hill Country Club in New York. Join Kyle Porter, Rick Gaiman,

and the gang for daily recaps from Rochester as they follow the sports's top stars on their quest for the Wanamaker Trophy. download and follow the first cut podcast wherever you find this one. Let's get into a few pitchers here, Scott, and start or sit these guys for next week. We'll start off with Tyler Wells, who got a bunch of whiffs up against the Angels,

five innings, three runs, seven strikeouts to one walk. He did allow two home runs in this one. He can be prone to home runs. He gives up a lot of home runs, a lot of fly balls, rather. A decent amount of barrels, but he does limit walks. So, you know, if those are solo homers, obviously they won't hurt you as much.

But this is now back-to-back starts with 18 plus swinging strikes. He's up to 78% rostered and he's at the Yankees next week. What do you think about Tyler Wells? Well, I'd prefer to sit him at the Yankees because he is a flyball pitcher who throws right-handed at Yankee Stadium. That just seems like, you know, you're playing with fire there. It doesn't mean you have to start him. I mean, it doesn't mean you have to sit him, I should say. It just depends what your options are.

But that would be my preference, sitting Wells. Even though the results weren't all good in this start, I thought it was encouraging overall for Wells. As you mentioned, swinging strikes have been way up now two starts in a row. And if he adds that to his game, and he's not just a control artist to limits hits on fly balls, I mean, that could really take his game to another level and create another way for him to succeed.

And interestingly, Welles got, the swinging strikes were pretty well divided among several pitches last time out. In this start, he got seven whiffs on his fastball alone. So to get swinging strikes on your fastball like that, I mean, that's not something every pitcher is capable of doing. I think there are limits, like I don't, I don't really see like an ace outcome for Tyler Wells.

I think we're talking about him being, you know, if he can continue as a whip specialist who gets strikeouts, it's sort of the same profile of Bailey Ober at that point and somebody who maybe can be like a reliable number three, number four starter for you in fantasy. That's what I think Tyler Wells is aspiring to. I mean, Tony Gonsolate, that would be a great comp for maybe what he could be

if things continue down this past. So I'm encouraged by what Wells is doing. All right. Tosh Bradley had a solid return to the raise rotation. He was at the Mets and went five innings, allowed two runs. Four strikeouts had 10 swinging strikes on 86 pitches. The velocity was up a little bit here. The cutter up two miles per hour.

The curve up 1.7 miles per hour. And he did lower the cutter usage in this one. It was not particularly good. Only two whiffs and a 14% CSW. but through more curves and changeups here for Tage Bradley and through four starts now has a 3.54 ERA and a 0.93 whip, up to 78% roster, much like Tyler Wells got,

and thrown right back into the fire next week because if he sticks around, it's the Blue Jays and the Dodgers. What do you think about that for Tage Bradley? Yeah, and he's supposed to stick around Kevin Cash when commenting on his promotion said basically hopefully he gets in a comfort zone and can become a reliable option for us.

So he gave every indication, I'm paraphrasing obviously, but he gave every indication that Bradley is here to stay, provided he pitches well enough to stay. And it got good results in his return. We weren't sure how it was going to go, obviously, because in three starts after being sent down, he had a 16 ERA.

he had one more strikeout than home run allowed in those three starts after being sent to AAA. So he was just getting crushed, and it's almost like we have to evaluate him all over again now that he's back. So far so good. Tash Bradley got good results. But I will point out that part of his issue after being sent down was control. And in this start, even with the good result, Taj Bradley, through only 59.3% of his pitches for strikes. That's really bad.

When he was up in the majors previously, he threw 65.6% of his pitches for strikes. It was pretty good. So, I don't know. I'm still unsure how this is going to play out for Bradley. I'm still in the stage where I'm evaluating him all over again. I feel uncomfortable with the idea of recommending him. next week, but he is in line for two starts. And he's among my 10 sleeper pitchers for next week because of that.

All right. Again, tougher matchups there. The Blue Jays and the Dodgers will see what Todds Bradley can put together. Yuri Perez, another young pitcher who picked up his first career win up against the Nationals, five innings, one run, six strikeouts to just one walk, did a great job limiting hard contact, but only picked up six swinging strikes on 78 pitches in this one, up to 87% rostered for Perez, and also some tough matchups next week in a two-star week at the Rockies and at the Angels. What do you think about that for Yuri Perez? Yeah, I'm probably going to start him. He's been good enough in his first two outings to just, for me, he's the sort of pitcher who when he's making two starts, it's automatic.

Yes, the matchups are bad, but I think Gary Perez is good. I would have liked to see more swinging strikes, as you pointed out. And he didn't have a... How many did he have in his first start? Maybe I'm remembering wrong. I'll pull it up for you.

He had Gary Perez in his first start. Oh, he had 16 on 88 pitches. No, so he had plenty in his first start. And then not so much here in the second start. But average exit velocity, 83.8 miles per hour. That's certainly good. He was allowing more contact,

but it was weak contact on average and had more than a strikeout per inning. So there's just not a lot to complain about here, and obviously the upside is very high. So I think I roll with them in a two-star week. If it was just one start at Colorado, probably not. But two starts, one of them being at Colorado, I think you've got to do it.

All right, thumbs up there for Yuri Perez. Nestor Cortez turned in his first quality start in nearly a month. He was at the Blue Jays, six innings, two runs, six strikeouts, with 12 swinging strikes on 91 pitches. Did obviously help that. There was no Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the lineup here. Did a great job limiting hard contact. But the ERA remains over five, 1.28 whip for Nestor Cortez. Scott, do you start at home against the Orioles next week?

Yeah, I think I do. He needed a start like this. His last four starts, Nestor Cortez had an ERA of about 850. interestingly he threw his fastball a lot more in this start normally he throws it about half the time he threw it closer to two thirds of the time and it got 10 of his 12 whiffs I mean he's he's he's one of those pitchers who can get whiffs on his fastball even though he doesn't throw particularly hard so maybe just kind of simplifying things helped him helped him return to the level we're used to seeing him perform at and yeah even though with even though he has a tough matchup next week I think uh I think Nestor Cortez is probably somebody you're going to want to start. Jose Barrios turned in a quality start on the other side of that game. Six and two-thirds, three runs allowed, eight strikeouts to one walk, had 13 swinging strikes on 96 pitches.

Still did allow some hard contact, but clearly a strong performance for him. And over Berrios's last seven starts, a 3.14 ERA, nearly a strikeout per inning doing a good job limiting walks, getting ground balls. Scott, I assume we're good starting Barrios. at Tampa Bay at Minnesota next week. Yeah, as a two-star pitcher, I think probably you roll with him, unless you're just being really protective of your ERA in a Roto League, certainly in a points league.

There's no doubt about it. And I'm still pretty uneasy about Barrios in general, because he can tend to, you know what? His season-long average eggs of velocity is pretty good, actually. It's gotten a lot better. Wow. It wasn't good in this. Like, I feel like analyzing Jose Barrio,

start for start, it's like, ah, good results, but 92 mile per hour average exit velocity. But somehow for the year, he's below 88 miles per hour. I don't know how that happened. But that's 71st percentile. So, yeah, I think you're right to trust in Jose Barrios again. Burrios has a 6.67 ERA and five starts on the road this season, Scott. Would that maybe deter you from starting him two starts next week, both on the road? Nah.

I'd be interested in seeing what the breakdown of that is because obviously you're talking about a total of four starts if one of them was a crooked number. Yeah, I mean, on opening, on his first start of the season, at Kansas City, he gave up Ader and runs. So that would skew the numbers. It looks like all three. All three of his...

His only three bad starts were on the road. Yep. But he's also had a great start at Houston and a great start at Pittsburgh. So I think it's just happenstance that is road numbers are so bad. All right. Some two waiver wire names that could be available. Logan T. Allen, we talk about him quite a bit. He's still only 61% rostered.

He went five and two thirds, one run with five strikeouts. At the White Sox had 12 swinging strikes on 102 pitches. He's got a 304 ERA, but a 146 whip getting well over a strikeout running. The walks are a touch high, and he's got a 363 bad-ip. So that's really high for Logan Allen. Gives up some hard contact there. Again, 61% rostered up against the White Sox. And Tyler McGill turned in his second quality start of the season.

Up against the raise, tough matchup, impressive start, six innings, two runs, four strikeouts, and he's at the Cubs next week. Scott, any interest here in adding Logan T. Allen or Tyler McGill? I'd be much more likely to use Allen than McGill. But I'm kind of at a standstill with Alan. I don't entirely trust him. I don't think he's must roster. I was forced to drop him in the podcast listeners league,

which is a 12-team points league where you might, or generally you're talking about accumulating as much pitching as you can. I was willing to let Alan go. I think they're, you know, he's such an unconventional pitcher. Left-hander doesn't throw particularly hard, but had great strikeout numbers in the minors. and we've already seen some inconsistency here in the majors. I think it gets the White Sox next week.

You could do worse than that, but it wasn't good enough to put him on my 10 sleeper pitchers for next week either. Okay. And it's two starts in a row against the same team, the same offense. And typically for young pitchers, I'm a little wary of, you know, starting young guys against the same offense, two starts in a row. The White Sox typically have been pretty good against lefties this year.

They're about middle of the pack. So I like Alan, but I'm with you. I don't think he's a must roster or a must start at this point. I want to fire up the Wuriometer, Scott, on Dylan Cease here. Worryometer Friday. He did have a quality start, but wasn't very impressive. Six and a third, three runs allowed. Only one walk.

That's good for him, but only three strikeouts. Only seven swinging strikes, which was a season low. And this was against the Guardians lineup that did not have Jose Ramirez in the lineup still gave up 10 hard hits 91.3 average exit velocity the velocity was down one mile per hour on the fastball 1.6 on the slider and all of a sudden a 478 ERA a 139 whip where are you at on Dylan Sees the Wariometer 1 to 10 1 to 10 well I would put it somewhere in between Julio Arias up at the low end and Shane Bieber higher I guess

warriorometer for C. So I'm going to go about six. I was going to say five or six, yeah. Let's say a Reis is a three and Bieber's a seven. I'll put cease at six. And a big part of it for me, and maybe this is related to the diminished velocity, is that I know, I hadn't looked at his overall swinging strike rate,

but I saw he had seven on 91 pitches in this star. It's like, oh, that's pretty bad. For the season, entering the stars, I'm not even counting this start. It's gone down from there, 12.2% swinging strike rate. Not terrible, like in a vacuum. But Dylan Cease is normally like 15%. Yep. It's a big difference between 15% and 12%.

And because Dylan Cease gives up, well, certainly this year he's been giving up hard contact, because he has major control issues, major strike. throwing issues that he's always had, if he's not going to be an elite batmisser, I have a hard time seeing how he's good. And so it could change. I mean, it's still early enough that we don't know how obviously how Dylan C's season is going to play out. But I'm starting to get pretty concerned by the lack of whiffs there.

Yeah, I mean, look, if you think about it, he's nearly four walks per nine. His, the hard contact is way up. It's up four miles per hour from last year. 86.8 last season, 90.7. And that was entering Thursday. And then he allowed even more hard contact in this start. And he's not getting whiffs. So, you know, putting the ball and play more is hard contact.

And there's, you know, runners on base because of the walk, too. It's just a lot of things coming together in a bad way for Dill and C. So I am pretty worried myself. He's at Cleveland and at the Tigers next week. I think you've got to throw them out there against those offenses. The two worst offenses in baseball. Yeah, I mean, they can't start Seas then. Look, but if he comes out of that week with, you know, two rough starts again, it's, all right, we're talking about, you know, lowering this guy in the rankings.

He's maybe not a must-star pitcher. I don't think we're dropping him, but this is pretty concerning here for, for Dillon Seas. A few waiver wire hitters got only two names that stood out here from Thursday. Austin Hayes went three for four with a double and two runs scored while leading off for the Orioles and quietly hitting 312 this season with an. 8.59 OPS, five homers, one steel. The batted ball data is great for Austin Hayes. He's 88th percentile, average exit velocity, 89th percentile in barrel rate, 73rd percentile in max exit velocity. He's 68 percent roster. Do you think that number should be higher for Austin Hayes? Maybe. I don't think he's a big, like, points league play.

Normally you're talking three outfielder leagues and points league. He's not a good plate disciplined guy. So that eliminates 40% of leagues right there. Maybe not quite that many, but a lot of leagues. It eliminates a big percentage of leagues right off the bat. So I don't know that he needs to be rostered in that many more, maybe 70, 75%. I do think he is trending toward a career season here. He's not helped by playing half his games at Camden Yards as a right-handed hit.

with power mostly to his pull side. I know his expected home run number is better than his actual home run number, as you'd expect. And so that that kind of takes some of the wind out of the sales there. But yeah, I mean, I think Hayes will be a solid, like, number four outfielder in maybe number five, between number four and five outfielder in Roto Leaks. Okay. Comparing him to some of the most added outfielder, Scott, Christopher Morel, I think we both

rather have morale, right? Yeah. I would. Yeah, there's definitely more upside for morale. It's, I think speaking to the average listener, there might be some like deeply context where I'd say, oh, you can't drop Hayes for morale, but like, Morel, you should have somebody else

you can drop for morale in that context. How about Hayes versus Jake Fraley? I know you're a fraily guy. Yeah, I think I'd go Fraley just for the same thing, just pursuing upside. Alex Kirillov? I know you're a Kirloff guy. These are all your guys.

Hayes is way more startable than Kirillov right now. So if it's a situation of I have to start whichever I have, then I might go Hayes that way. But if it's just for a bench play, I think Kirloff has more upside. And a little sneak peek at your sleeper hitter, Scott. But Austin Hayes or Jorge Salare? Solair, regardless of whether or not we're talking about the upcoming week.

Yeah, so we were breaking down Solair yesterday. And Chris Towers said, yeah, I'm going to go ahead and give you a sneak peek of Scott Sleeper hitters. Obviously, they weren't out yet. We didn't know what they were. He's like, Jorge Saler is going to be the number one sleeper for next week. You know, seven games going into Corse Field too. I mean, it really does not get much better than that. The other name I have.

It gets better. Oh, all right. There's reasons to like him. even more than that. Very nice. Some news and notes, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was held out of the lineup for two straight because of right knee discomfort, but he did appear as a pinch hitter on Thursday. Tommy Edmund was removed with lower abdomen soreness. Cardinals manager Oliver Marmole confirmed that Matthew Liberator will remain in the rotation. He's up to 41% rostered. And Scott, do you have any thoughts on what Liberator did on Wednesday? I thought it was encouraging.

there seemed to be a little some of the reactions seem like oh he's figured it out he's amazing now I thought I don't know maybe I've just spent too much time on Twitter with baseball nerds stay off Twitter I thought some of the reactions were a little overblown

but it was encouraging I think if nothing else he earned a right to continue to take a turn for the Cardinals and to maybe even be picked up in a few leagues I probably value him about on the same level is Logan Allen right now. Some questions remain,

but I see the upside as well. I'm curious, though, who gets bumped from the rotation? Because are they just going to go six-man for a while? That's what it seems like. I think that Stephen Mats probably should get the boot, but it doesn't appear that will happen as of now. Yeah.

Yeah. Dustin May was officially placed on the IL with a right flexor pronator strain, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said that Gavin Stone makes the most sense to replace May in the starting rotation. Stone had 10 strikeouts in his most recent start in the minors. He's 32% rostered. Scott, would you rather add Gavin Stone or Matthew Liberator? Liberator.

Stone is, if the Dodgers don't rearrange their rotation, he would line up for two starts returning, but I can't. I guess as much as we've kind of, the way Brandon fought has become sort of a punchline since he got called up. And I know his last start was better and hopefully he continues to trend the right direction. But he came with a lot of hype and was just giving up a ton of home runs, getting shelled. His first two or three outings there and kind of became a punchline. I was far more discouraged by what I saw from Stone

when he debuted on that same day, Fought did, because his change-up was supposed to be like a wipeout pitch, something major leaguers would have a hard time hitting. And that wasn't what we saw at all. He got one whiff on it, and he threw it a ton. So maybe he threw it too much. I don't know. It is encouraging that he went back to the minors

and had some success and hopefully you know, it's debuts are weird, obviously. There are a lot of nerves, I'm sure, and just you have to learn, some pitchers have to learn to approach to attack hitters than different way than they were in the minors because it's a much higher level of competition, obviously.

So I'm not trying to pronounce Stone's career dead here on the spot, but like, he showed me nothing to get excited about in his debut. So he's going to take a wait and see approach with him now that he's returning. All right. Liam Hendricks will throw live batting practice Friday and if it goes well is expected to be activated shortly thereafter. Stalling Marte was out of the lineup Thursday due to soreness in his hand. He was hit by a pitch on Wednesday. And while on the Mets, one day after hitting a game tying home run, Mark Vientos was not in the lineup as we suspect. on yesterday's podcast.

Seth Lugo was placed on the aisle with a left calf train. Ryan Weathers was recalled from AAA. Jose Trevino was placed on the aisle with a hamstring train. Kyle Higashioka should start most games in his absence. Gary Sanchez will have his contract selected and promoted by the Mets on Friday. And I can't wait until he's taking playing time away from Francisco Alvarez, Scott. Yep, I tweeted out, all the faults of Francisco Alvarez with none of the ups.

side. That's what the Mets are getting here with Gary Sanchez. And I'm very disappointed in it. Like, it's been all bad news since I moved Francisco Alvarez into my top 12 catchers. It's been all bad news for him because we got Omar and Arvarez coming back soon. I don't know. I don't know how this is all going to shake out for him and for the Mets catcher situation. But I'd rather not see Gary Sanchez get mixed up in it. You and me both, Scotty. The Angels will decide if Jared Walsh will be activated after Friday's game at AAA, and he's 22% roster, did have 29 home runs back in 2021. Scott, any deep league interest in Jared Walsh? I mean, it depends how deep you're talking. 15-team Roto leagues are deeper? I couldn't fit him on my 15-team rosters now.

Scottie, he's got those stacked rosters in the 15-team. I wish. It was funny to be in the bottom half of the standings and feel like you can, you have nobody you can drop. That's a weird, weird situation to find yourself in. Some underperformance for sure. Orioles prospect, Colton Kouser is dealing with left quad tightness and he was scratched from the lineup on Wednesday. Some people thought he was getting called up,

but it turned out just to be an injury. Let's take our final break and when we return, we'll get into the week nine preview here on fantasy baseball today. Big thanks to those watching us live here. It's past 1 a.m. on the East Coast and 519 people here, so we do appreciate you. Hit that like button. and subscribe if you haven't already.

The week 9 preview, Scott, let's start with the schedule for next week. 14 teams have 7 games. 16 teams have 6 games. So that means zero teams have to play 5 games next week. The Rockies. What's going on with the Rockies next week? They got seven home games.

Four against the Marlins and three against the Mets. First time all year. The Rockies have had a full week at Coorsfield. Very exciting. And yet I couldn't get them among my five-bet stitter matchups Because the pitchers they're facing are so tough That doesn't mean don't start your Rockies

Yeah But it is It is kind of a conflict there Between the pitchers and the locale That's pretty crazy man It's late May and this is the first week coming up That they're going to have an entire home stand That's kind of crazy

They haven't had a week yet Where they're on the road the whole time either It was always split home and away That is weird Anywho, starter sit these fringe two-star pitchers. Kodi Senga is at the Cubs and at the Rockies. Coming off that 13th strikeout effort, I think you pretty much have to start him. Yeah, I think so too.

McKenzie Gore is going up against the Padres and the Royals. Yeah, he's a pretty good source of strikeouts. I wish you wouldn't walk so many guys. But two-star week against two bottom six offenses. Don't think the Padres are going to stay there, but they are there right now. Yeah, go for it. Graham Ashcraft. Hope you listen to Scott and you sold high while you could.

He is going up against the Cardinals and at the Cubs. No, I'm pretty scared of him right now. Bottom seven offenses, by the way, Royals and Padres. And. Royals have been better. Probably no Manny Machado in that Padres lineup either. True. Yeah.

Randon Williamson, the same matchups there, Scott, home against the Reds and at the Home Against the Cardinals, rather, and at the Cubs. Encouraging debut, but I need to see a lot more from Williamson, so it's a no from me. And I assume it's going to be a no for Gavin Stone. If he's up, he's at the Braves and at the raise. Yikes. Correct. All right, two-star pitchers to add and stream for next week, Scott, you've got two, four, six, seven names on the list.

Who are they? Okay. Yeah, a lot of good two-star options. Well, goods maybe stretching it a little bit, but obviously getting an extra start. it helps if you're talking about adding a pitcher off the waiver wire. My favorite for this week, barely makes the cut here as a sleeper pitcher is Bailey Ober. Matchups are nothing, special giants and Blue Jays,

but you just had a good start against the Dodgers. So let's roll with it. I think Ober's a good pitcher. Dane Dunning at Pittsburgh, offense that's cooled off a lot, at Baltimore. Pretty good offense, but a favorable venue. And Dunning continues to sport an ear. RA south of two.

So I'll run them out there for the two starts. A little scarier here with Todge Bradley, especially since he's going against the Blue Jays and the Dodgers, but he technically hasn't had a bad major league start yet. So let's go with it. Michael Lorenzen on a nice run. I don't think any of us really believe in it, but he's at KC and home against the White Sox this week

to offenses that rank in the bottom half of the league and run scored. So I think he's a fine choice. choice for this week. Kyle Bradish, opposite end of the spectrum here with these matchups at the Yankees against the Rangers. So it really comes down to whether you're, obviously Bradish is coming off two good starts. Are you willing to roll the dice for that extra start or would you rather play it safe with a one-star guy?

I can't answer that question for you. But I do have Bradish as my eighth best sleeper pitcher for this week. Mike Clevenger, much better matchups at Cleveland, at Detroit. Those are the two lowest scoring offenses in baseball so far, as I mentioned earlier in the show. Clevenger is not that good, but he may be good enough to take advantage of those matchups. This is the real scary one. This will really test how you feel about matchups in two-start weeks, because Brady Singer, one of the hardest hit pitchers in baseball this year.

But the results have been a little better lately, and he goes against the top. Tigers' worst offensive baseball, the Nationals' fifth worst offensive baseball. I don't think I'd do it, but if you're searching the waiver wire for streaming pitchers, streamable pitchers, then I guess he's an option to consider. I feel like you could have just copy and pasted your analysis for Mike Clevenger and use that for Brady Singer because they're both pretty unimpressive pitchers, but the matchups are great for both of them. Single-star streamers for next week, Scott.

Who do you have? I have Josiah Gray at Kansas City. Home runs haven't been his issue this year, but I kind of feel like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop as far as those go. But at Kansas City, it shouldn't be that big of an issue. It's a park that suppresses power pretty well. I'm going to say Jack Flaherty at Cleveland for now.

Now he is making a start over the weekend, and depending on how that goes. May change my mind. But if he picks up where he left off in his previous start, then I like him for that matchup against the Guardians. Read Demers against the Marlins, obviously that's a bad offense. So you could consider him.

All right, let's slide over to the hitters and the best matchups for next week. The Mariners, Marlins, Cardinals, White Sox, and Red Sox, the worst hitter matchups, twins, pirates, A's, Giants, and the Blue Jays. With that said, Scott, your sleeper hitters for week nine. You already mentioned, you're already spoiled, I should say, that Jorge Saler is my number. Number one sleeper hitter for this week, just as it was last week. You mentioned also that the Marlins have the second best matchups, that they have a series, a four-game series at Corse Field. All reasons to like Jorge Saler.

four of the pitchers on the schedule for the Marlins throw left-handed. Jorge Saler against left-handers this year, 367 with six home runs, a 15-20 OPS. He has crushed them. So that's all the more reason to like Jorge Saler. I don't care what format you're in.

You want him active for this week. Hopefully he doesn't get hurt over the weekend. Lars Neupar, still qualifies for this amazingly. I don't know why he's not rostered everywhere yet, but the Cardinals you mentioned have the third best matchup. Only one lefty on the schedule. I think he's a must.

A couple Cubs here who have just been hitting well of late and happened to be rostered in less than 80% of leagues, Sayas Suzuki, and of course Christopher Morel, who we've talked about a lot, but is still available enough to mention here. Their matchups are okay. So I think you, the fact they're hot counts for a lot here. uh jaron duran duran you mentioned the red sox have the fifth best matchups i think he's a pretty easy call given that context

jake burger who is up to double-digit home runs amazingly and seems like he's got the dh job on lockdown even now that yon moccata's back for the white socks white socks have the fourth best matchups seven games going against the guardians and tigers rotations and uh you know they're missing they're sing Bieber and Bybee from the car. It's fun to say their names together. Beber and Bybee. Just sounds like you're battling, talking baby talk. I don't know.

But they're getting all the bad parts of the Guardians' rotation. So it's, you know, really good matchups. Burger, hopefully he can continue to eat. Let's see. Okay. So I mentioned the Rockies have a full week of home games. Brenton Doyle's been hot. I think you can take advantage of that with him. And also,

Elias Diaz, if you need a catcher, no Rocky's hitter has better numbers at home this year than Elias. He's batting 373 with a 964 OPS there. So a good time to use him. Nick Senzel. The Reds are scheduled to face five lefties this week in their seven games. Five lefties. And Nick Senzel against lefties this season,

467 is what he's batting. So good time to use him. Scott, I have to commend you for your very subtle dad joke in there about Jake Berger. I don't even know if you realized that you said it. No, I did. That was intentional.

Pun intended. That's pretty good. Hopefully Jake Burger continues to eat. Let's get it done. All right, so great job there. A quick question on Shohei Otani. I think I want to do this weekly and I guess just try and let everyone know

which way we're leaning. Do you use them as a hitter or a pitcher? next week, it looks like he has one start up against the Marlins. And he also has six home games against the Red Sox and Marlins as a hitter. So which way would you lean Scott? It might depend on what you need for your team,

but if you just had to say in general, Otani is a hitter or pitcher next week? I would say, lean hitter. But, you know, there's, we're at a point now with him where you could go either way any week, I think. I think if he's in line for two starts,

that's the only time I'm for sure going to say pitcher. Generally, I'd lean hitter, but as you say, depends on needs. All right. I did want to ask you about a few Marlins hitters that produced on Thursday here, and obviously they have great matchups for next week. These are more deep league plays, but any interest in any of them. Gene Cigara is down to 16% rostered. He has been dreadful this year. I dropped him in my NFBC main event league, and of course, that means he's having his best week yet. Scott, seven hits, two RBI and a stolen base for Gene Cigara. Brian Dela Cruz hit his fourth home run on Thursday.

He's hitting the ball hard, but just not enough fly ball. So that's why we haven't really seen the power from Brian Dela Cruz. And Xavier Edwards is an interesting name. He started in center field on Thursday. Seems like he might be filling in for jazz chism here. He went two for three with a double, a run, RBI, and his first career steal. He was a former top prospect in the race organization, came over to the Marlins. Has no power, but a great batting average in the minors and a good amount of speed.

Any interest in deeper league, Scott, Seguera, DLC, I guess B-DLC, and Xavier Edwards. Yeah, I think Edwards, if you're talking an NL-only Roto League, which I know you play in, Frank. Yeah. That might be where you look toward him. I do want to say with Brian De La Cruz here, so I mention Jorge Soler's numbers against left-handers, and the Marlins are facing four, and they have the four-game series of Colorado. Brian Dela Cruz entered today batting 3.45 against left-handers, 10 for 29, so we're not talking a huge sample.

But good numbers against left-handers, and obviously he benefits from the series at Corsfield, too. So I talked about only nine hitters just now for that 10th spot. Would you go with Brian Dela Cruz or would you go with Lane Thomas? The Nationals have good hitter matchups as well. Not as good as the Marlins, but good. And Thomas is at a great month of May. He has.

Who would be your choice there between those two? I think I... Can you do my job for me? I think I would go with Brian Dela Cruz. Four games in Corus Field, those lefties on the schedule. It does not get better than that, honestly. All right. I think I might change it, yeah.

Cool. It's a pretty good week for... You know, last week I was wringing my hands over the sleeper hitters, as I often do. But this is a good week for them. I could go deeper than 10 for sure. All right, let's wrap up with some bullpen updates. And we'll start with the Angels.

Carlos Estevez entered the ninth with a one-run lead. He gave up two hits and a walk, but did escape with his 10th save. For the Mets, David Robertson allowed a hit, but picked up his eighth save for the Marlins. Dylan Floro walked one, picked up his fourth save. That was his third in the past four games. He's 36% rostered. If you do need saves out there again, Dylan Floreau. For the Guardians, Emmanuel Class A converted his league.

leading 15th save, nobody else in baseball has more than 11. And for the Yankees, basically everybody was unavailable, except for Ron Maranaccio, who picked up his first save of this season. To stream or not to stream, let's start with Friday. And trying to figure out who I said yesterday, I think Redetmer's up against the twins, James Paxson at the Padres, and I think that was it. Those were the two that I liked. Anything else here for you, Scott?

I think. Let me see if I like anyone else. Not really. I mean, if you were just really having to stretch, I'll say Matthew Boyd at Washington is my third choice, but it's a stretch. I thought for sure, Cal Quantrell, Sky. You're two for two the past two weeks recommending him as a starter.

Yeah, that's true. Let's go Quantrel instead. Boyd would be the fourth choice. On Saturday, I think it's, even though it's a tougher matchup, Louis Varland, we continue to talk about him. You should just pick him up anyway, but if you're just looking to stream him, I think he's widely available still.

And then scrolling up, there are some interesting names here. Brandon Fought looked much better in his last start. At the Pirates, their offense has slowed down a lot. I think that's okay. Yeah, that would probably be my second choice, but I don't like it. Alex Fiatto, very quietly had 13.

swinging strikes in his last start. He's at the Nationals. That's more of a deep league play, but I actually started him in a 15 team league this week. So that's the only reason why I know about that. On Sunday, oh, these names leave a lot to be desired, Scott. But I think Alex Wood at home against the Marlins is fine.

I don't think he's gone five innings in a start yet this year. Obviously, he spent some time on the I-O-I-L, but enough that I don't trust the Giants to give him much run. But there's nobody better here. Michael Walker's pitching well, but Oh.

The Red Sox. The Red Sox. Revenge game, though. I think I'd go with them over wood. Revenge game. It is a revenge game. I think I'd go with them over wood. Yeah.

But it's not something, again, it's really rare that I get excited about a pitcher in this second. So these are all just kind of, you're forcing me to pick somebody. And so that's who I'm going to pick. I am here to tell you that I am excited about Waka and Wood on Sunday. Let's wrap up with some email questions here, Scott.

This one's from Kyle from Northwest Arkansas. Yes, we play fantasy baseball here. This is a trade that I am proposing in a head-to-head categories league. I give Marcus Semyon and Elias Diaz. I get Jose Altuve and JT Real Muto. I think if you could pull it off. Yeah. Semen has been amazing.

I don't want to undersell it. He's... No, he's been... He's been... He's one of the best players in fantasy this year. Well, he's exceeded expectations, and that was, even though we were drafting him as, once Altufe went down, we were drafting Simian as the top second baseman, right? And he's exceeded those expectations.

But Altuvae was the one second baseman we were drafting ahead of Simian before he got hurt, and he's about to come back, and Real Mutual's the top catcher. So I think you have to do it. I'm trying to think of who Northwest Arkansas team would be. So that's the Royals double A affiliate. Northwest Arkansas would be, I guess the Royals would be the closest team geographically to them too. So probably a bunch of Royals fans there, right?

This will surprise nobody, but geography. Not really my things, Guy. I can't really tell you much about, you know, Arkansas or what teams are kind of surrounding that area. So, again, won't surprise anybody. This one's from Brian, Great to Trade, 10-team Categories League, just traded away

Nick Castellanos and Eduardo Rodriguez received Michael Harris and Lance Lynn. Gotta be Royals fans. Yeah, that's the closest team geographically. Okay, so back to the email.

Just traded away Castillas and Rodriguez received Michael Harris. Lance Lynn. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, Michael Harris has got to get going soon.

I know he had two when the Braves played on Wednesday. He had two batted balls with an expected batting average of over 500, but he took an offer on the day. So there are some encouraging signs there. Obviously, it's a smaller sample than anyone else because he missed so much

time with injury. But I would still consider him the most valuable player in this deal, even though he's done nothing this year. And in a shallow league like a 10-teamer, pretty much always going to side with the deal that gets the best player. I doubt that anybody in our live streamer,

right now is from Arkansas, but if you are, let us know in the comments. Are you a, what team do you root for out there in Arkansas? This one from- Specifically northwest Arkansas. True. From CJ, need help on a Kokomo Friday. Head-to-head six-by-six categories league.

Drop one for Nico Horner's return. Ezekiel Duran, Matt Mervis, or Brandon Lau. Drop one. Okay, I would drop. I mean, I want to see what's going to happen with Duran here because he, Seeger's first game back, Seeger D-Hed, and so Duran got to play shortstop still. And that's not going to be a long-term answer.

Will Duran move to left field on an everyday basis? I think he's earned it. Matt Mervis is off to a pretty bad start. He's batting 220 with one homer and a 37% strikeout rate. Yeah, but I think he's the one I'd most likely hold on to of the three. I'm leaning toward dropping Duran either way. I think so, too. He's played very well, but of those three names, I think he's the one.

From Zach, having a hard time figuring out who to drop in my 14 team, six by six categories league. I have Altuve and Stanton about to come off the IL and need to drop two between them, Outman, Newpar, and Jaron Duran. I feel like no matter who I'm dropping, what, no matter what, I'm dropping quality players, but who do you feel has the highest upside rest of season? Your format helps Newpar. Not that I'd want to drop

Newt Bar anyway. So we can't drop Altovae or Stanton, I don't think. So it comes down to Outman and Duran. Here's the thing. I just noticed this today when I saw that Adam Duval

was hoping to come back when first eligible June 8th or something like that. So it's getting close. What happens when he comes back? Because the Red Sox outfield is currently Yoshida, obviously not coming out, Duran and Center, and Alex Verdugo. And Justin Turner is hitting well as their DH. I'll tell you what happens, Scott.

Tristan Kosses optioned. He's been hitting well in May. Justin Turner plays first base. Kossis has been better in May. I mean, that's a possibility, but I want to lean that way. right now. Jaron Duran played a lot of

second base early in his minor league career. I wonder if they would entertain that possibility. But I think,

though I imagine he's going to keep playing for the Red Sox in some capacity, I don't know how they'll figure it out, but they'll figure it

out as long as he doesn't slump here. Even so, I think Duran's the one I'd drop here. I think he has the lowest upside. As much as I

I have been the Duran guy. I have him ranked the lowest of all those players. So I think that's probably it. He actually needs to drop two of these names. Oh, darn it. In a 14-team league, these players should not be free agents, man.

Like, I think you're really... You should try and make a trade because, yeah, these players should not be free agents. There has to be somebody out there who's willing to trade for one or two of these names. I mean, if you... Like, what could you get if you package, Stanton, Outman, and Duran.

Like, Outfield is a position of need for a lot of people. Something pretty good, I would imagine. I don't know if that'd leave you too thinning in the outfield to do that. But, yeah, you could get an ace or something, probably, in a 14-team league. Even if you just do Outman and Duran, and you kind of consolidate that way for one player, yeah, I think that's a pretty good package. So I would try and do that. But if you have to drop one, I guess it would be Duran.

This last one's from Stephen Deere, Manny, Mo, and Jack. Do you know who those all? I had to look it up. I had no idea that is what their names were. Yeah. Those are the pet boys. Those are the pet boys by the way. Yeah. Uh, add drop questions for two leagues, both head-to-head categories. Drop Alex Cobb for Tanner Bybee. That is close. I don't know why I was upset that you didn't know the pet boys. Like, why do I care? Yeah. Um, oh man. I think this is a lot easier for you. You have Tanner Bybee at SP 51. and Cobb at 70?

Yeah, I don't have much faith in Cobb. That's easy. Drop Cobb for Bybee. I have Cob ranked two spots ahead of Bybee, but... Drop gray for Flaherty or Fought? I think I would drop Cobb for Bybee, so I have to make that change in the ranks. Drop Jaze gray for Bybee, and then you keep Cobb.

Are these different leagues? Yeah, it says for two leagues, so yeah, I think it's different leagues. Oh, okay. So yeah, I'll drop Cobb for Bybee, and I would drop Josiah Gray for... Flaherty? I mean, as long as you're not counting on Gray for next week at Kansas City,

I think, like, if you wait for... Ideally, you could wait for Flaherty start this weekend and see if he has a strong follow-up, but if he does, then you may have lost your chance to get Flaherty. Yeah. Somebody else will swoop in and take him.

So I think I'd go ahead and drop Josiah Gray for Flaherty. Flaherty's upside is probably higher just because of the team context. No, definitely. is. Yeah, I would make the swap, but you know, Gray has pitched pretty well this year. But yeah, I would do that as well. We're going to wrap there. For Scott, I am Frank, thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today.

Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. We'll be back again next week. Bye-bye.