Fantasy Baseball Today - OFFENSE! DOUBLE DONGS! Juan Soto Deep Dive & Early Lessons (6/2 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 2, 2021

Luis Garcia is on a roll now (3:56)! Should you add Jonathan Schoop after his fourth straight multi-hit game? ... News and notes (10:00)! Fernando Tatis and Stephen Strasburg both left early, Jack Flaherty is headed to the IL and more. ... What are the effects of the new ball and how much was offense up in May compared to April and last year (17:27)? ... We had a bunch of pitcher regression on Tuesday (22:00)! We also had a bunch of double dongs (28:22)! ... Is there anything to be worried about with Juan Soto (31:24)? ... What lessons have we learned so far this season (35:20)? ... Who were the rest of Tuesday's standouts (46:35)? ... We wrap up with the Orioles bullpen and streamers (58:12)! ... 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. Center field. 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. If June 1st was any indication of the offense that we are going to get for the rest of the season, I think we're going to be just fine. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball. on now Wednesday, June 2nd, a very late start. Thank you to everyone who is out here watching us live on YouTube. Frank Stamphill joined by Scott White. The number is 44.

44 home runs were hit on June 1st, which means... It ain't over either. It ain't over it. That's correct, Scott. There could be more. What is going on, man? Maybe they just swapped in the old balls. They didn't tell anybody.

And this is what we're going to get. Rest the season, though. Very welcome. It would be very welcome, Scott. Yeah, I mean, maybe, but, you know, June is, I mean, look, the calendar flips from May 31st to June 1st. I don't know what the temperatures were like across the country today, but it's not like, it's not like the thermostat turns up from one day to the next, right? But it is very much a normal thing for offense to rise with the weather. And specific, this is something I wasn't aware of.

I mean, you always heard that before. It was just kind of one of those, I don't know, a truism, I guess. But I actually looked into it with the disastrous April we saw for offense, specifically with regard to BAPIP, where it was the league-wide BAP-IP in April was 283, when normally the league-wide Babbup is somewhere in the neighborhood of 295. So 283 is obviously way, way, way down. And that's really why offense was so pitiful in April. But it was up around $295 in May.

I don't know exactly what it finished at, but it was much closer to a normal number in May. And really, the tendency for Babbitt from season to season is it gets better every month until September, then it goes down a little bit, which corresponds to temperature, right? Normally the biggest increase from one month to the next in Babbup is from May to June. That's normally where that increase is the biggest from one month to the next. So as big of an increase as we saw from April to May, and that was huge.

It's probably not going to be that big this year because I don't know what was going on with April. My suspicion is it was unseasonably cold. But as much offensive improvement as we saw in May, we should see even more. Offense should continue to improve in June. Obviously, the home runs you're talking about on June 1st. That's not explained by Babbitt, but nonetheless, offense is going to get better. A very welcome sign. Hopefully, things succumb offense so far up very much so on June 1st.

And I have the numbers. We'll talk about a little bit later on. Scott, you referenced what things looked like in April. Now that May has been finalized. I have that so we can compare that to April. We compare April and May. We'll compare that to last season. Eno Saras wrote an article on the athletic.

about the effects of the new ball and he kind of comes to conclusions as to why we've had so many no hitters. So we'll talk about that. We had some pitching regression, obviously, with all the offense that happened on Tuesday. Some lessons learned throughout the first two months of the season. We'll take a look

at that. What is wrong with Juan Soto? Nothing. R-E-L-A-X. The guy is going to be just fine. He had a monster game on Tuesday. We'll talk about all that, but let's get things started with some of our biggest standouts. Oh, my good. Goodness gracious. All right, Scott, where would you like to start?

I would like to start with Luis Garcia. Luis Garcia, who wasn't that long ago. People didn't know what Luis Garcia I was talking about whenever he brought him up, right? Pitching for the Astros. How long was he going to keep that job? Who is he? Et cetera, et cetera. Well, Luis Garcia is really gaining a foothold in fantasy now,

because on a day, a lot of the pitchers who we didn't see coming regressed pretty hard, Luis Garcia took yet another step forward. Remember his previous start, it was his first six-inning start, and it was against the Dodgers, and it was great. Here on Tuesday,

he has his first seven-inning start, and it's against an even better offense than the Dodgers. It's against the Red Sox. It's against the Red Sox. The numbers for Luis Garcia, in this start in those seven innings, you know, as good as any of his other starts. One run in seven, struck out six.

But I believe even more impressive than the strikeouts is that he had 19 swinging strikes, which, you know, his season-long rate isn't otherworldly or anything. It's pretty good. But to see him do that against, you know, one of the best offenses is baseball. Very impressive. Very impressive.

I think maybe Dusty Baker, was on to something, keeping him in the rotation over Christian Javier. Or maybe they're just trying to preserve Javier's innings. I don't know. But either way, Garcia's in the rotation right now. Your leave pitcher eligible. And he's getting it done even against great offenses. So if he's still out there in your league, I think that needs to change. And he might be available in some shallower leagues.

He is 80% rostered. So I appreciate the people are listening to us, Scott. I've noticed a bunch of the players we've been talking about recently, their roster rate are jumping up rapidly. So Tommy Fam is someone who stayed hot on Tuesday. He hit another home run. He's up over 70. I think he's close to 75% now.

Tyler O'Neill, we spoke about the other day. He's someone that's been climbing over 70%. Same thing with Louise Garcia spoke about him last week after that great start against the Dodgers. Now back-to-back quality starts, his first two quality starts of the season. ERA is down to 2.72. The whip is 1.00. So I do wonder if at some point they're going to kind of jumble

things around the rotation to preserve some guy's endings, you know, maybe Christian Javier jumps back in, but we'll worry about that when we get there. I have moved Luis Garcia inside my top 70 starting pitchers recently, and I think that's warranted with the way that he is currently pitching. For me, one of these seven players who had a double dong on Tuesday, Jonathan's scope, he had three hits, two home runs, he now has four multi-hit games in a row. The underlying

numbers are not great for Jonathan's scope, but I think you've got to point out the fact that he is playing as well as he is. He has second first base eligibility. More of a name for deeper leagues, I realize that if you play in a roto format with a corner infielder and a middle infielder, I think Jonathan Scope should probably be rostered in those leagues. He's only 20% rostered right now on CBS Scott.

What do you think about Jonathan Scope? Yeah, I think Jonathan Scope is pretty consistent from year to year. He had that one huge year for the Orioles. I think it was a top five second baseman that year. and it kind of, yeah, he hit 32 home runs, drove in 105. That was back in 2017. I think it kind of warped people's perception of him so that he could only disappoint from that point forward.

But for the majority of his career, he's been a consistent 20-homer pace kind of guy with poor plate discipline. Granted, that's why he's not standard mixed league material. But the power production is consistent and looks like it's coming around this year. Yeah, so he's kind of boring. look, you know what Jonathan Scope is, but you ride him while he's hot right now, especially in those

deeper leagues. So someone that you can look at, again, the name there, Jonathan Scope, and just give a shout out to two of the best hitters in baseball right now. This is going to be fun to watch all season long. Ronald Acuna versus Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for the home run lead. It's one guy hits a homer, the other guy hits a homer. Next day, same thing happens. They both hit their 17th home runs of the season on Tuesday. Acuna added two steals. That would be, what would that Scott, that would be a sock and two shoes. So, all right, we got to get another sock on there. That would obviously help Ronald Cunia.

Yeah. What's a, what's a sockless shoe? Like a flip-flop or a sandal or there's probably something better. There's probably an actual sockless shoe. Yeah, it's probably one of those weird. You ever seen, they're kind of like workout things where you put them on. They go between your toes too. Oh, yeah, like it has, it's like a foot glove.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I guess that's what it would be. Those are super weird, man. I agree. Anyway, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went four-for-four with three more RBI. He's currently on pace for 48 home runs and 127 RBI over the course of 150 games. So Cunia and Vlad, two of the best hitters in the game right now for fantasy baseball purposes.

Before we get to news and notes, international soccer returns as Konkakoff's top teams face off at the nation's league semifinals in Denver starting Thursday, June 3rd. The U.S. faces Honduras as the Americans, led by Christian Pulisich, look to take advantage of one of their most talented generations in history. Next, regional powerhouse. Mexico squares off against Costa Rica

as they look to set up a final showdown with their archival, the United States, stream both semifinal matches live on Paramount Plus. Head to Paramount Plus.com slash Nations League to get started again. the URL is paramount plus.com slash nation's league. Lots of interesting things going on in the soccer world right now and you can find it all at Paramount Plus.

The news and notes from Tuesday, he had some very big names leave their respective games. Fernando Tatis left against the Cubs. And the last thing that I saw on Tatis was that he is dealing with oblique tightness. So it's not the shoulder, which I guess is glass half full, but obviously obliques can be very tricky. So we'll continue to update you on Fernando Tatsis there. Hopefully doesn't miss any extended time.

Jose Ramir is left due to dehydration. And Stephen Strasbourg was struck in the wrist with a comebacker, but was averaging just 89.9 miles per hour on his fastball before that. He just didn't look right. And now it comes out after the start that he set for an MRI on his. trap muscle. So this is a very rough year so far for Stephen Trosberg, past two years, really. So I wonder if that deep run into the postseason where the Nationals won the World Series if it's had some lingering effects for Stephen Trosberg, who's obviously getting up there in age.

Jack Flaherty is headed to the IL with an oblique injury himself, which he suffered while batting, which is obviously very frustrating because we should have the Universal DH at this point. manager Mike Schilt said it's going to quote be a while so we lose one of the 15 best starting pitchers in baseball for who knows how long because we don't have a universe at DH I wouldn't expect to see him in the first half the rest of the first half I think

so that would bring us to about six weeks on the early end which is the beginning of the second half of the season yep yep that's that's what I'm thinking for Flaherty I'm actually releasing a new IEL stash rankings I have to go 40 deep in the IEL stash rankings this time. The first time I wrote that article,

I only went 25 deep. That was a few years ago. But I can't imagine only go into what, like so many big names get left off. 40 deep. Flaherty is seventh, I believe. So I still have them high up there, like right next to Mike Trout,

who is also probably about six weeks away at this point. I think that's probably the next deep dive that I have to do, is why are all these injuries happening? I don't know if there's any concrete evidence, but obviously, you know, we're coming off a shortened season. I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but, man, more IL stints than ever before. We highlighted last week.

There was a great tweet from Derek Rhodes, who does work with baseball prospectus, that IL placements are up 30% this year. For what reason? I'm not exactly sure. Sixthos Sanchez is one of those players that we've been stashing and waiting for all year long. He has now been shut down due to shoulder soreness,

And I don't think I'm overreacting when I say, Scott. I don't know that we're going to see anything from Sixo Sanchez this year. I think it's fair to wonder, but, you know, we're only one-third of the way into the year. So there's a long way to go. There's a long way to go. Let's keep that in mind. But the problem with Sixtho Sanchez is you can't stash him in an IL spot because he's just in the minors. So that makes him, it makes it hard.

to wait around for him. 100%. Zach Gallen had a successful 30-pitch bullpen session on Tuesday. He's scheduled for another one on Friday. He's trying to return, of course, from the dreaded UCL sprain in his elbow. Trevor Story received a clean MRI on his elbow.

Evan Longoria is day-to-day with a mild intercostal strain. Ramon Luriano was finally moved to the IL with a strained right hip retroactive to May 28th. Max Stasi was reinstated from the IL for those who play in two catcher leagues. He's 13% rostered and hit seven home runs in 31 games last season. George Springer ran the bases and took fly balls as he rehabs his quad. Byron Bucksin has been sprinting while running the bases recently while rehabbing his hip.

Joey Votto started a AAA rehab assignment on Tuesday. We did have four players returned to the lineup that we have been waiting on. Jazz Chishol, Anthony Rizzo, Yulee, Yerdown Alvarez. So that was nice to see. Kyle Lewis went to the aisle very unexpectedly with a meniscus tear. Lorenzo Kane went to the IL with a right hamstring. Adelberto Montesey was out Tuesday after tweaking his hamstring on Monday night. And he's been great since he returned, so it's just very frustrating as well.

Trevor Larnick and Jorge Soler remain out of their respective lineups, though I did see that Larnock pinch hit in that game against the Orioles. And some interesting outfielders that rejoined their teams because of injury. First up, Taylor Tremel, who was destroying the ball in AAA. He was batting 384. He had six homers, three steals, and he homered actually in his first game back here on Tuesday. Abraham Almonte in the lineup for the Atlanta Braves.

He was batting 403 with three homers and 1167 OPS at AAA. We kind of know who Abraham Almante is. He's been around for a while. He's 31 years old. And then Tyrone Taylor, he was another one of those players with a double dong on Tuesday. And he really slowed down, but he flashed a little bit early on. And obviously, you know, you're getting a chance to play every day. and the Brewers lineup in that ballpark.

It's not a great lineup, but it is a great ballpark to hit in Scott. So how would you rank those three outfielder's? It's more so for deeper leagues, but Tramel, Abraham Almonte, Tyrone Taylor. Now, Tramel's the one I have the most interest in. Obviously, he wasn't very good during his first stint, but when he goes to AAA and puts up numbers like that,

it's a reminder of the talent he has, comes back, and Homer's first game back. There's a chance. There's a chance he takes off from here. I mean, I think it's funny you say we know who Abraham Almonte is because I imagine the people listening, probably like, who's that? That's fair. He's been a bit player in the majors before,

and it's had some pretty good minor league seasons in the past. It was interesting. He had 21 walks to 14 strikeouts at AAA, and then he walked two times in his first game for the Braves Monday. You know, 31 years old. my expectations are low for him, but it's just interesting that that's where they turned to fill the,

what may be a, what looks like it's going to be a long-term opening in the outfield for them now. And I don't imagine Almondi is going to be the last place they turned, but it's, I just wonder if they see something in him. I brought up, I don't know if you were on that podcast last week,

but I brought up Drew, Waters as a possibility after Ozuna originally got hurt, Marcel Ozuna, that is. And I don't know if the Braves are going to be aggressive with rushing him to the majors, but he's performing pretty well at AAA and obviously a very highly regarded prospect. So I don't know if it's going to happen soon, but obviously a name to put him on your scout team for now, Drew Waters prospect there with the Atlanta Braves. Abraham Almonte, for those who didn't know, he's played 377 career major league games. He's got a 237 batting average with 18-100.

home runs and 25 steals. So he's been around for quite a while. He hasn't really showed up yet. But he was performing very well at AAA. Definitely a name to look at NL only, and that's probably it, I would say. The effect of the new ball. This came from Enosaris, an article that he wrote over at The Athletic. And it's not really anything that we haven't talked about already, but it was confirmation

on things that we have speculated to this point. So I'll just run through some of the tidbits that I noticed from the. this article and he was basically highlighting why are no hitters happening at the rate that they are and points out that the ball has been slightly deadened in the core and the ball is lighter. As a result, it has less spring, which we've talked about, comparing April's hard hit balls that were homers over a third of the time in 2019 are now outs over a third of the time this year in April. Because the baseball is lighter, it's spinning more rapidly coming out of the pitcher's hand and pitcher velocity is up.

So that's interesting and obviously is a feather in the cap there for pitcher so far this season, which makes sense. Now, Eno did not say this, but he does imply that sticky substances could be a factor as well. And we actually had an interesting video circulating on Twitter on Tuesday night of James Karenchak, his finger sticking to the glove and the White Sox broadcast team calling it out. So I don't know if anyone's going to crack down on this,

but he's not the only one. I've seen videos of John Means doing the same thing with the Baltimore Orioles. But if you do combine this sticky substance situation for pitchers with the fact that this new baseball seems to be already favoring pitchers, based on what I just said, I think that's how we find ourselves with six no-hitters

and historically bad offense through the first third of the season here in 2021. So let's compare the offense from April to May to last season. and batting average up in May. It was 232 in April, 239 in May, so nice little uptick there. It was 245 last season. Babbitt, 283 in April, 2.92 in May, 2.92 Babbitt last year. Okay, so Babbup in May was the exact same as it was for the entirety of last season, which was a two-month season. 24.4% strikeout rate in April, down to 24.0% in May.

that was 23.4% last season. So I think that's already, you're starting to see some of the difference in batting average. A 0.6% strikeout rate can obviously make up for some of that. And then home run to fly ball ratio, which I want to continue to track.

It actually went down a little bit in May, which I found interesting. 13.4% home run to fly ball rate in April, 13.1% in May. Last year, that was 14.8%. So a lot of the hitters that we've talked about, Scott, where their home run to fly ball ratios are down historically.

Juan Soto is one that I was going to highlight today. And we'll talk about a little bit later on. DJ LaMayhew, home run to fly ball rate way down this year. Eddie Rosario, another one, where the home run to fly ball ratio is way down. I think that is basically the main factor in why batting average has been down thus far is that slight increase in strikeouts

and the fact that those home runs have turned into fly ball outs. So I don't know if there's anything else you want to take away from a bunch of information that I just threw at you, but I thought it was interesting. Yeah, I think the home run rate has, you know, that's the one offensive member that is basically held steady from April. You know, I was talking about BABIP, how much that's changed, and strikeout rate has gotten a little better for hitters in May, too.

So, you know, it's actually lower than I thought it was in May. It must have been a bad final week of May for these hitters, because when I looked at it before, the batting average was over 240. but even so, definitely much better than April. But yeah, the home run rate, I think, is we have a good idea of what that's going to look like for the full season. And it's very close to what it was in 2018, which was still part of the juiced ball era, but considered the tamest year of the juiced ball era, that's still going to mean home runs are pretty prevalent. An even higher percentage of offense comes from home runs.

So the game with strikeouts being out, like it's become even more of a three true outcomes game, which is not so great for entertainment purposes. But as the weather warms up, as BABIP increases, it will seem less so moving forward than it's been so far. And that was already true for May. I'm saying it'll be even less so going forward. So with offense being up in May and so far in June, we did see a ton of pitcher regression on this Tuesday, Scott. So I'm just going to run through a few names

and you tell me if you're actually worried about any of these, do we need to drop any of them? First and foremost, your boy, Dylan Seas, at the Cleveland Indians. Supposed to be a good match up here. Three and a third, eight hits, six earned runs. Seems like he kind of got babipped in this one. The hard hits, the average exit velocity

didn't look bad that I saw. Meanwhile, he wound up with a 438 bad up against. So might have just been some unluckiness here for Seas. Yeah, I don't read much into it. the velocity was down 1.2 miles per hour on average on the fastball. The spin was still really high as one of the, one of the liveliest fastballs in baseball. It's disappointing coming off that 10 strikeout effort against the Orioles last time, but I still think Dylan sees as somebody excited, I'm excited to have and excited to see what he does for the rest of the season.

Michael Paneda was at the Orioles also supposed to be a pretty good matchup. Three innings pitch, he allowed seven hits, five earned runs, the fastball velocity down just at the a tad. It had been closer to 92 miles per hour each of his previous three starts. It was just 90.6 miles per hour in this start. He did allow 10 hard hit balls. Paneda is still 91% rostered. I don't think we're dropping Panetta or anything, Scott. I think it's, this is kind of just who he is. he's going to put up clunkers every now and then. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's also disappointing because he came back from the IEL and had one of his best starts of the season. So, felt good about getting, you know, if you're like me and you tend to, to, to,

to give a pitcher in Paneda's range in the rankings. You give him, okay, I want to see one start to make sure he's healthy and effective, and then I'll get him active again. Well, that backfired. But yeah, I think he's fine in the long run. All right. Now this one, Scott's going to run around his house.

A little bit of a victory lap here. And another L for me. Matthew Boyd at the Brewers, four and two-thirds, five hits, five runs, three walks. He allowed three home runs. The walks are up. The home runs have been up recently. He's now allowed 18 earned runs over his last four starts.

That's an 8.02 ERA. Matthew Boyd is still 69% rostered, and I am here to tell you he can be dropped. Yeah. Well, four starts in a row with four earned runs or more. Yeah. So that, what's interesting about it, though, is I thought it was really going to be the home runs that took him down

because he's still an extreme fly ball pitcher. and he hadn't allowed that many homers. That was what was keeping the ERA down. When fly balls aren't leaving the yard, you know, they're the kind of bad at a ball that's most often going to result in an out. And maybe the deadened ball was helping. Maybe.

But it still seemed excessive how well he was avoiding home runs. And what's interesting is the first three of this bad four-star stretch, he allowed a combined two home runs. So this still wasn't the home runs. but on Tuesday in Milwaukee, three home runs. Yeah, that's more like than that boy, do we know and love, or don't love. We know, yeah, I think that's a good way of time. As it were.

So yeah, I agree you could drop him. I never rostered him in the first place. Alex Wood, another one, this whole group, right? Like, we knew these guys were going to regress at some point. Like Alex Wood wasn't going to pitch to a sub three ERA all season long, but up against the Angels, he allowed four. hit seven earned runs, four walks, over three and two-thirds, ending's pitch.

Didn't allow a ton of hard contact, so I kind of just want to put this one in the, okay, he had a regression start, but I still like Alex Wood quite a bit. I'm not dropping him. Yeah, I mean, he entered this start with a career best swinging strike rate, with a career best ground ball rate. Even after this start, Alex Wood's X-FIP is 328,

which is a great X-FIP. Honestly, I don't know that I can say, for sure he won't have a sub 3 ERA this year because he's good at putting the ball on the ground because when he puts the ball in the air, it's in San Francisco. And people forget the first six years of Alex Woods' career, he had a 329 ERA.

You know, it's really just when he started having the back problems in Cincinnati that, like a problem when he was pitching. You know, he was very reliable, at least when he was able to take the mound pre-2019. So, I don't know. I still like Alex Wood a lot. Yeah, agreed. Definitely hold on to Alex Wood.

It just seems like a bit of a blip on the radar here for him. Brady Singer. Ah, yeah, yeah. Up against the Pittsburgh Pirates, five and two-thirds, eight hits, five runs. Four of those were earned. He now has a 7.10 ERA over his last five starts. He's 53% rostered.

I think a lot like Matthew Boyd's got, we can let go of Brady Singer, wherever you're rostering him. Maybe he figures it out, but right now, I mean, he's just, I think he's unalterable. I don't know that the ceiling's that high anyway. Right. You know, I think it's kind of Brad Keller-ish where when he's going well, he'll give you some innings.

But, yeah, Brady Singer's not a big deal. Yeah, just two pitches. I went over to this last night with Chris, right? And of course, we recommended him as a streamer, so we apologize again. This is two in a row where Singer has let us down. but yeah he throws a sinker and a slider. They were talking up the change up in spring training. Nothing has really come of that.

And it's a sinker that, you know, it's 92, 93. Like, it's not a great pitch. So I don't see him getting away with two pitches there for very long. And we're seeing that right now. Chris Bassett was at the Mariners. And while he did wind up with six strikeouts across four innings, he did allow six hits and four runs during that time. So just another one where he's been really good, Scott.

and I'm holding on to him. I'm not dropping him, but just a normal kind of down start here for Bassett. Yeah, I agree. He was so good in May, 252 ERA, more than a strikeout per inning, going deep into game.

Yeah, I'm not going to abandon him after this start. Stinks that it happened against the Mariners, though. Yep, yep. And that was... It could have been a no-hitter, and it wasn't. The seven players with double dongs on Tuesday, Jonathan Scope, Oduble Herrera, Andrew McCutcheon, Colton Wong, Salvador Perez, Eric Haas of the Detroit Tigers,

and of course Tyrone Taylor, who we already spoke about. I think the most interesting one for me here, Scott, is Oduble Herrera, which we kind of talk about in passing week after week, but he's just really solid so far. He's batting 270. He's got four homers now, three steals in 34 games. He's 18% rostered. I kind of think that number needs to double at least. Yeah, so obviously he had the two home runs here on Tuesday,

and in May, Arara had a productive month as well. I believe he hit, yeah, he hit $2.92 with two home runs, three stolen bases in the month of May. So that's really where he started to get things going. The strikeout rate is low, and he's got some speed. He's got some speed. He's going to steal some bases. I don't think he's much more than a,

has the upside to be much more than like a fifth outfielder. So, you know, I think people playing in three outfielder leagues can probably just pay no attention to him. But he is putting himself back on the mixed league map. Back to back, three hit games for Oduble Herrera as well. He has led off in three straight for the Phillies. Andrew McCutcheon has been moved down the lineup, at least against right-handed pitching, because he had a 493 OPS against Ritees entering Tuesday.

that is Andrew McCutcheon. Scott, anything that you would like to add on McCutcheon, Colton Wong, Salvador Perez, or Eric Haas, catcher for the Detroit Tigers. Not really. All right. We are going to take a quick break, but when we return,

what is wrong with Juan Soto? Not really anything, but we'll quickly run through some of these bullet points that I have. And I'll let Scott react. We'll do that next here on Fantasy Baseball today. So we were receiving emails and tweets, What's going on with Juan Soto? Is he a bust this season?

And then he goes out on Tuesday. He goes three for four with a home run, a walk, four run scored, four RBI. He was entering this game hitting 270 with averaging 2.7 fantasy points per game. That is outfielder 35 before Tuesday's monster game. So obviously he was disappointing. I'm not going to downplay that. He definitely was. Plate discipline looks completely fine.

17% walk rate, 13% strikeout rate. the ground balls are up. They are always high for Juan Soto. 55% does represent a career high. His 14.3% home run to fly ball ratio represents a career low. Last year, that number was 36%. Again, this year 14%, last year 36% on the home run to fly ball ratio for Wonsoto. That number has never been lower than 22% in his career.

So I think regression is coming there. He has been struggling against lefties. 195 batting average, 703 OPS this season entering Tuesday, the home run that he hit, came off of a lefty. No surprise because he has been very good against lefties in his career. I'm not worried about that. The only thing that kind of stands out to me is the fact that, Scott, I often say, for Juan Soto to succeed with a high ground ball rate, he has to crush the ball whenever he puts in the air. Last year, 99.5 mile per hour average exit velocity on fly balls and line.

line drives. This year so far, that's down to 97.9, which is still a great mark, but it is down a little bit. That was, you know, maybe that's contributing to the lower home run to fly ball ratio. Overall, I still think he's going to be just fine. Yeah, I haven't spent a second worrying about Juan Soto. I agree. Like, we're getting to the point basically a week from now is when, is when 2020 ended. that number of games. So, you know, you imagine what the off-season conversations about Juan Soto would have sounded like if this season was only that long. Thankfully, that's not a reality.

We really have to, that's not a scenario we have to entertain because it's not going to be reality. And I think in the long run, Juan Soto is going to have an amazing year. You know, it's difficult to compare it to his 2020 because it being such a short season, Juan Soto was one of those players whose numbers just look unreal, arcade-ish,

you know, because they didn't have a chance to normal. He had 351 and slug nearly 700. I mean, this is, he did like Barry Bonds and his prime kind of stuff. And that obviously wasn't going to be repeated. Were we hoping he was a better player than in 2019

when he hit 282, slugged 548, 34 home run? you know, yeah, and I still think there's a good chance he tops those numbers. I still think he's a better player than that. But, you know, if that's the floor, I don't really think we have too much to worry about.

Yeah, I was going to lead this whole entire thing with buy low on Wansoto if you can, but I just, yeah, maybe there are people that are panicking since we're getting as many emails as we are about it, but look, if you can buy low, go ahead. I'm telling you that if you have him, do not sell low. You should keep the faith with Juan Soto.

And it was kind of a weird year for him because he was dealing with that shoulder injury earlier on in the year. And it seemed like the Nationals kind of rushed him back because they weren't playing him every day. They were using him as a D.H. And when they were in American League parks, and he was pinch hitting at times.

He wasn't playing the field. So I think that's probably contributing a little bit to it. But in the long run, I do think Juan Soto is going to be just fine. lessons that we have learned through the first two months of the season, Scott. I'll let you kick us off here if you have a few bullet points, things that you want to hit on. Yeah, anything that you've noticed that, you know, maybe will affect your thinking heading into next year. Obviously, there's still a ton of time for things to get back on track. But a little

early season lessons learned. What do you think? So I think the biggest one, and it just goes into the way offense has changed, you know, perhaps mostly related to the baseball. Hitting isn't disposable the way I thought it would be, the way it was the past two seasons, where it seemed like whether you played in a 12-team league or even a 15-teamor, it seemed like there was an inexhaustible supply

of quality hitters out there. Like, you didn't have to try that hard for hitting if you were just active on the waiver wire, which is why, you know, particularly in like a shallower points league, I went so far as to say, I'll just take good pitchers until, they're all gone. But the way the environment has changed this year,

quality hitters, there's a scarcity there now. There is an exhaustible supply. They're not just constantly out there on the waiver wire. So you have to be a little more protective of the ones you have and you have to be a little more active about seeking them out. a lot of my teams built around pitching. A lot of them are doing great still. Some of them are doing pretty poorly, though.

So I would say if I had known the environment was going to change as much as it has, I might not have been as aggressive going after pitching. But I would also say, I don't feel like pitching has become what hitting was. I feel like pitching is still pretty scarce, particularly the deeper the league you get into. I think the deeper we get into the season,

as offensive numbers improve, as attrition comes into play, which we've really seen a lot of, particularly for starting pitchers the past couple weeks, I think we're going to see even more of that. I think what's happened is that hitting and pitching have both become similarly scarce, which is the way it should be, right?

So, yeah, I think that's basically it. That's a lesson learned right there. Yeah, my number one bullet here is that I overvalued elite starting pitchers, but that might not be the case moving forward for the reason that you just mentioned, that the elite starting pitchers are going to start to separate from some of these mid-tier pitchers that have been overperforming all season long, much like the names that we spoke about earlier that had big regression on Tuesday. So that's something I've learned so far about this season in the past,

but it doesn't mean that that's going to represent the future either. So that was the first point that I had. I think I had too much faith in the mid-tier of hitters. It's not like the elite hitters have been great, though. Like, that's something I wanted to point out. Like, I'm not trying to make excuses. But outside of Acuna, Tatis, and Jose Ramirez, every other hitter drafted in the first two rounds either has underperformed or has been hurt.

So, like, we can't predict injuries, obviously, but you can't just sit here and say, oh, well, you know, if I drafted two hitters in the first two rounds, my team would be that much better. True. What happens if you drafted Muky Betts and Cody Bellinger? Like, where would your offense be right now?

Entering Tuesday, Betts was batting like 247. Yeah, the teams that are doing well, for me, I happen to pick the right hitters. You know, I have like a Jared Walsh or a Shoah O'Hawtani or somebody like that. And the teams that are doing poorly, I happen to pick the wrong pitchers. You know, I got,

Zach Plesack and Zach Grinky and who else? Kyle Hendricks, Kentimaeada, guys like that. So yeah, that's as much as that's as much what it's about as anything.

But see, the presumption I had coming into the season was that basically your only chance to have a competent pitching staff was in the draft. So you're going to miss on

some of those pitchers, but that's your only chance to get the good ones. and meanwhile hitting, you know, you could screw that up completely in the draft and you still pieced together a pretty good lineup. And it hasn't gone quite that smoothly. And I'm not looking for an out here, but I do like to look back and kind of realize, you know, what went wrong while drafting. And the fact that the environment is what it is, Scott, I mean, we couldn't really predict that. They talked about a baseball and they said what could happen with a new baseball this

season, but we didn't really know exactly what that was going to look like. We didn't know it was going to make Alex Wood be, not that that's the only thing that's made Alex Wood, but, you know, guys like Kyle Gibson and all these other pitchers in that mids here that have been that great. We, you know, we couldn't really project that. So that's kind of what feeds into this as well. And we're still learning it. I mean, if April had gone like May, then it wouldn't have been much of a talking point at all. The final two points here, I think they're kind of tie in for me. And And I think I want to have more of an open mind moving forward on big upside hitters in the middle rounds. The Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Yes, he was being drafted than, you know, higher than some of these other guys.

But, you know, he was going between rounds four and six, I think, in most drafts that I saw. And we kind of talked that, talked about that as drafting him for his upside. Little did we know. I mean, his upside was a first round hitter and one of the best hitters in baseball right now. But not just him. Shohei Otani, we knew had a bunch of upside. Nick Castiano's, who I liked a lot. It just didn't really wind up as many shares as I wanted. And then names like Chris Bryant and J.D. Martinez, who we've seen be elite level hitters in the past. And those two in particular, my final point is not to put as much stock into spring training because I was following spring training so aggressively this year, Scott.

And J.D. Martinez had one home run all spring. You had like a seven-something OPS. I was like, I just think you. he's done, you know, I don't think the power is there. Boy, was I wrong. Chris Bryant, he hit 158 in the spring. I kind of used that as like confirmation bias for myself as like, look, Chris Bryant, man, the guy's always heard. He's a shelf of his former self. Like, he's not good anymore. And then, you know, I let that affect me. So I think that's something next year. It's, be more aggressive on those mid-tier high upside hitters and don't be affected as much by

spring training. Yeah, that's, you know, one of my, one of my lessons was actually, kind of similar in a way as your spring training point because, you know, there are players who first showed signs of breaking out in spring training and continued down that path. And then there are players

who thought were going to be a big deal based on spring training, like a Logan Webb. Willie Castro. Where's Willie Castro? Willie Castro, sure. We haven't said the guy's name all year. We were all excited about him in spring.

Jonathan India, Michael Taylor. But, but the thing, so yeah, I mean, Victor Robles. By paying attention to spring training, you probably discovered some players who you're happy with, but you were also misled by certain players that may have influenced your late round decisions. As much as I love John Means all offseason, his spring training kind of scared me away.

I didn't end up with nearly as much of him as I should have. Yes. So I wonder if you come out the same, just not paying attention to spring training. I mean, we have to pay attention to spring training. We have to talk about what's going on. But I wonder if you do yourself just as much harm is good by doing that. And in a similar vein, those short season stats, remember there was a talk, one of the offseason talking points, the preseason talking points was, how much should we value 20, 20 stats, given how short and how weird the season was.

And I'm not really sure how applicable this lesson is to the rest of our lives. hopefully we never see a season that is as short and weird as 2020 was. I sure hope not. It turns out that if you paid no attention to 2020, I think you're not any worse off. There are some players who improved in 2020 or got worse in 2020, and that's basically carried over. But there are many players who it's like they just picked up where they left off in 2019.

I don't think you came out ahead by putting any weight, on 2020. There are certainly specific instances where you could point to it and say, yeah, no, I saw this happened and so, you know, and now look what he's doing. John means being a good example of that, but, you know, you look at like J.D. Martinez or Marcus Simeon or on the other end of the spectrum, Mike Yistrimski. Yeah. You know? Yeah. I just, I don't know that you came out ahead by putting any stock in 2020 at all. Yeah. And then the other lesson I had. here is, you know, I kind of had, I kind of took very extreme positions on both starting

pitchers and saves. Like, taking it to as much of an extreme as I've ever taken anything, to the point that I'm not going to draft any saves in some road of leagues, and I'm still going to be fine in that category. And it's been, in most of the leagues, it's been harder than that. It's been hard. There's been such aggressive bidding on the emerging closers. that I have gotten lucky in some leagues getting Yomi Garcia before he became a thing getting Fire Eisen before he became a thing getting you know

I don't know Seizor Valdez or something maybe he's losing his job anyway but you know it's been more of a struggle than I thought it would be and I'm not saying I'm going the other way and you need to pay up for saves I still think you really want to fade them relative to the general consensus, but you don't want to go with nothing.

You know, you want to give yourself a chance from the get-go. Yeah, maybe try and get one of the top 12 or 15. That's what I usually like to do. Get one of my, not all the way up at the high end. I'm never going to use a top 60,

a top 75 pick on a closer, but I usually try to get one in that 7 to 15 range and then kind of just add on a few names after that in terms of closers. So there you go. A few lessons that we've learned, and I think this is good, and we'll check back in either a month or two from now

and see how things have changed there. But specifically for the spring training, I think that's one that we really, really have to remember and hammer out for next season because it was kind of a rookie move, if we're being honest here. We have about 10 minutes left, and we have a bunch of action that happened Tuesday.

So I am going to just rapid fire. I have a bunch of leftovers, tidbits, and anything that you find interesting, Scott, just stop me and we'll talk about it. Juan Montcada went two for three with two walks and all of a sudden he's batting 301. The power hasn't been there from Moncada, but he's actually having a pretty good season there. So nice to see that. Ahmed Rosario, we spoke a ton about yesterday.

He went one for three with a walk, two runs scored and his fifth stolen base of the season. He is 21% rostered. And I kind of think he needs to be rostered, Scott, in any league that has a middle infielder where you might need some speed. Okay. I hear that argument. I personally don't think he's very good. And I think it's going to be a situation

where you're giving up a lot to get that speed. And based on his history, he's not even that prolific of a base dealer normally. Maybe it'll change with Cleveland. But his history is that he hasn't been. Who would you rather roster as a middle infield of Rosario or Jonathan's scope? Depends what you need.

I think they're both pretty fringy. Yeah. One's power, one speed. Shane Bieber up against the White Sox, seven innings, three runs. He allowed all of those in the second inning and then really settled down. He had 16 swinging strikes on 103 pitches.

And he threw first pitch strikes to 20 of 27 batters. That's three straight games with a 69% first pitch strike percentage or better. He did allow eight more hard hits, but I thought Bieber on the whole was pretty good against the White Sox.

Your mean Mercedes went 0 for 4, and this comes after a May where he hit just 221 with a 619 OPS. Scott, do we need to continue to hold on to your mean Mercedes? I would like to. I think somebody in your league should have him. It gets tricky if you already have your utility spot filled by something else. But really where his May, Cliff dived, was after he hit that three-run home, on a 3-0 count off a position player. And Tony Laruso wasn't happy about it.

From that point to the end of May, he hit 167. So I don't know. Thanks, Tony. It's just a coincidence. Yeah, no, he still has good play discipline. I'm not ready to give up on him. Trey Mancini went two for three with two more RBI. He's betting 284.

The stat cast numbers this season are actually way better than they were. back in his breakout 2019. So you love to see that from Trey Mancini. Bruce Zimmerman, where did this come from? He was up against the Minnesota Twins. Five and a third. Two earned seven strikeouts. He had 19 swinging strikes on 87 pitches.

10 of those were on the slider. He's only 3% rostered. It's got anything to see here with Bruce Zimmerman. There may be because he was a pretty good minor league pitcher throwing, pitching with much less velocity than he's showing now. He's averaging about 92 miles per hour. on a fastball, you know, for being a left-hander

that's not so bad. And he was a legitimate like soft tosser in the minors. And remember, Zimmerman was one of those guys who didn't get a lot of hype in spring training, but you know, he had us all kind of scratching our chins a little bit. Like, hmm, I wonder if there's something here. I'm still wondering that. But I don't think

he's, it's not time to pick him up in mixed leagues or anything yet. Yeah, don't add Bruce Zimmerman. Throw him on the scout team. I think that's probably the most that I've ever said that, those two words on a podcast, but do it with Bruce Zimmern. Tyler Glassnow at the Yankees, seven innings, three runs, eight strikeouts.

He has now gone six plus in nine of 12 starts. Love it for Glassnow. Austin Meadows, I was talking yesterday about how I was so worried about his fly ball rate, and every time I see something bad about the guy, he just shuts me up. So I'm just going to keep saying bad things about him. Austin Meadows with a sock and a shoe,

his 13th home run, his second steal of the season. He now has four home run. runs in his last five games. Miguel Anduhar has homered in back-to-back games and has started six of the last seven for the New York Yankees. He is 11% rostered. Anything there, Scott, or just in the deepest of leagues for now? I hadn't noticed how much he was playing, I'll admit.

I think is the offensive skill set's pretty interesting. He needs to get his contact rate up. He's been striking out a little too much. and his game relies on him putting the bat on the ball a lot. But I guess there's a path to playing time here. So put him on the scout team too. Miguel Andehar. The scout team, the theme of today's podcast.

Miguel Anduhar, just a reminder for those out there. Back in 2018, he was great. 297 batting average with 27 home runs. He's dealt with shoulder injuries since then and has just not had consistent playing time. So maybe he can make something of it now. Aaron Nola and Max Fried both had pretty Mets starts. Max Fried even more so than

Aranola, but I noticed that their ground ball rates were both way up in those respective starts, which is a welcome site because both of them were struggling to get ground balls so far this season. Patrick Wisdom, he now has five hits, including two home runs over his last two games with the Cubs. He's 2% roster. It's got anything here, or just an only? Well, with Rizzo back,

Brian's going to spend, you know, Brian had been playing first base with Rizzo out, so there's less room for wisdom now. Wisdom's not a young guy. He's had a couple 30 homer seasons in the minors, but never for much average. Never hit for much average. So I'm not thinking there's really anything there.

All right. Clint Frazier, another got to get my Yankees in. Nine hits over his last eight games, including one home run and two steals. He's 40. percent rostered. I don't think you need to act on this yet, but when Clint Fraser gets hot, he's someone that can stay hot for a pretty long time. So just monitor that situation.

Another three-hit game for Lordis Gurriel, who is now batting 37 over his last 15 games. He's up to a 260 batting average overall. Robbie Ray was awesome on Tuesday against the Marlins. Six endings, one run, nine strikeouts, only two walks. 22, 22 swinging strikes on 96 pitches. The ERA is down to 3.57. The whip is down to 1.14. You know, poor Adam Azerman. The guy predicted, one of his bold predictions last year, was that Robbie Ray would finish top three in the Cy Young.

He was just off by one year, Scott. Robbie Ray's having a great season. Well, he's probably not having a top three, Cy Young season. That's fair. That was especially bold, that prediction. But, yeah, no, no, Robbie Ray's been great. Robbie Ray's been great

throwing a lot more strikes still missing a lot of bats does give up some hard contact at times but I think you'll accept that tradeoff and this is the best Robbie Ray we've seen

since that great 2017 season I believe it was but he's pretty close to must start at this point I moved him uh did I move him into my top 40 right around there

in my starting pitcher rankings I did something very similar I have Robbie Ray at SP 43. You haven't met SP 36? Look at you, Scott. Very aggressive there. I like it. Kyle Hendricks up against the Padres, six innings, three runs, zero walks, four strikeouts. He now has quality starts in five of his last six.

I'd like to see that from Kyle Hendricks. Tommy Fam stayed hot, one for three with his fourth home run. He had a pretty solid May, 253 batting average. 797 OPS. He was one of Scott's sleepers this week, so coming through thus far. Garrett Richards at Houston, six innings, two runs, four walks, five strikeouts. The ERA is down to 3.75, Scott, but it's kind of deceptive with Garrett Richards. He's walking a lot of battered.

He's not getting a ton of strikeouts. I think it's kind of fool's gold for now. Yeah, you basically said it. All right. Andrew Benetendi went two for five with a grand slam. He's batting 2.91 with five homers and six steals. He's 67% rostered. Scott, does that number need to?

be higher. Three outfielder leagues, Benintendi, must roster? Hmm. I just dropped them in the podcast Points League, which is a 12-team points league with three outfielder, so you're welcome for sparking Ben-intendi. And they're shallower leagues than that. I mean, there's a whole 10-team world out there that probably play with just three outfielders. So I don't. It sounds about right. I don't think there's a stud outcome for Ben-intendi. He's been he's been a lot better than I thought he'd be

but we're still talking about you know a 15 homer 18 steel pace like that's that's very solid that's very solid if he pulls that off with a 290 plus batting average that's a very good season for Ben and Tendi but it's yeah

I mean if he can sustain this place completely he might he might matter in three outfielder leagues all season long but I still see him as pretty fringy fair enough Hermann Marquez up against the Rangers, seven innings, one run, two walks, seven strikeouts. He has a quality start in four of his last five. He's 82% rostered. So if Hermann Marquez was dropped in anyone's league, Scott, you got to pick him back up?

I contributed to the dropping of Hermann Marquez in a 15-team league. Yeah. So me with Ben and Tendi, you with Herman Marquez. I guess, like, he's not a very good strikeout pitcher. and a half his games are at Cores Field. So I'm not sure I need to be that broken up about it. But he has had a nice three-star stretch here with a combined two earned runs.

I will point out those matchups were really good. I think one of those was against the Mets when their lineup was completely depleted. He went up against the Diamondbacks for one of those. So pretty good matchups, but Hermal Rakez is taking advantage of them. Speaking of the Diamondbacks, Eduardo Escobar, another two-hit night, at least.

That might have gone up. But he is now batting 306 with four home runs over his last 15 games, so finding some consistency with Eduardo Escobar. Anthony Rendon went two for five with a double and five RBI. Signs of Life, very welcome. Andrew Heaney at the Giants, six and a third, one run, seven strikeouts, 73% fastballs. His ERA still reigns at 4.76, so we know who Andrew Heaney is.

He's very inconsistent, but he is capable of doing this at times. And the legend, the living legend, Scott, John Gantt, six shutout at the Dodgers, four hits, three walks, four strikeouts. The guy has a 1.60 ERA with a 1.52 whip.

There's going to be, there's going to be reconciliation there. That's my word for John Gantt. Reconciliation. So you would not be rushing out to pick up John Gant. What would the conversations be like in the offseason

if this is where John Gant's numbers ended? Probably be like he's not good, but... We would probably make the same mistakes that we did in ranking Marco Gonzalez as high as we did. But John Gant is 28% rostered, and he has SPARP eligibility, so it is actually worth mentioning in points leagues. You might want to pick him up for that reason.

The call to the pen, some bullpen updates for Cleveland. James Karenchak picked up his seventh save, but it was not all that easy. He has now allowed five earned runs over his last three appearances, a manual Class A had worked the previous two days, so probably wasn't. Seven earn runs in his past five appearances for Karen Shaq. His ERA is almost three now.

All right. I mean, it sounds like a good ERA still, but it was microscopic before then. Yeah, I think he's blown his big chance here. Yeah. I wouldn't surprise me at all if Frank Kona went back to Class A for the save chances. Yeah. So if you play in any category, roto league, with saves,

you should hold on to a manual class A for now. Let's see what happens there. For the Baltimore Orioles, Cesar Valdez was used in the eighth inning to face the bottom of the lineup. Cole Sulzer, who did save a few games for them last year. He was used in the ninth to face the heart of the lineup.

He picked up his first save of the season. Solcer has a 1.74 ERA. In 18 appearances, this season, Cesar Valdez has been struggling. Solcer is only 1% rostered so he's widely available. See, the thing you're what you're, this is not, you should have just ignored

Coles Sulcer in 2020 and gone back to your 2019 opinion, which was, I don't know this guy exists, right? Because if you had come in fresh with Solcer, you might have been stashing him away as a prospective closer for a while now. His numbers this year have been amazing. Coles Sulcer

13.9 K per 9 It's awesome Yeah and like with the significant workload 174 ARA 102 whip 13.9K per 9

So I actually In my pursuit of saves In Tau Wars Which is the league I've struggled in Most to To make up ground in that category I almost I had a bid in to pick up Sulzer

Just like Maybe he's the guy replaces Valdez. Now, I might be too late. I will point out, as many people pointed out to me, that Paul Fry has been very good for Baltimore this year as well. He is a left-handed pitcher, and he has been used in higher leverage situations than Colesilzer recently,

but he had pitched two days in a row, so I think he was probably unavailable on Tuesday. But remember the name. It could probably be a situation like every other bullpen where if there are lefties up in the 9th, They go to Paul Frye, if there are Ritees, they go to Cole Solcer. But if you want to speculate, I think you can do so on both because they've been really good. For the Cubs, Craig Kimbrel picked up his 13th save of the season.

I think there's a lot of stuff going on in this Mets and Diamondback situation right now in terms of bullpens. And let's see what happened. Edwin Diaz blew a save, his first blown save of the season. He allowed three hits and one run. Trevor May came in in the extra innings in the 10th. and then he blew the game. So he allowed two runs there, and he took the loss. Joachim Soria looks like he was used in the...

Eighth. Creighton was used in the ninth again. Ooh, all right. So, Stefan Creighton, he's not dead yet. Yeah, it wasn't a save, obviously, but it was a tie. So, yeah, it seems like how a closer would be used, but they have not been using Crichton consistently that way over the past couple weeks.

Let's wrap up with to stream or not to stream, and we will start with Wednesday, Shane McClanhan at the Yankees, Adbert Alzalai versus the Padres, David Peterson at the Diamondbacks, Randy Dobnack at the Orioles, Drew Smiley versus the Nationals, and Carlos Martinez at the Dodgers.

Well, I would say, I mean, the pitchers with the good matchups are not really the ones I want to mess with. So I'll go McClan at New York, Alzalai versus Sund. Diego and Peterson at Arizona? I think that's the right answer, but it's not really the right answer. David Peterson is never the right answer. There are no right answers. I do like Shane McClainahan and Adbert Al's-A-Qa-Lai quite a bit though. So Thursday to stream or not to stream,

Jake O'Darizie versus the Red Sox, John Gray at home versus the Rangers where he has been very good this year. Tyler Anderson versus the Marlins, Chris Bubich versus the twins, Griffin Canning versus the Mariners and Justice Sheffield at the Angels. You know what I say about the Mariners, right? Griffin Canning against the Mariners, he might throw a no hitter.

So you got to go with him. And probably John Gray versus Texas and I don't know. Do it, Scott. Boobich. Mr. Oh, no, no.

You can't do it? He's out of the circle of trust, Tyler Anderson. Not that he was ever really in it, but he was kind of walking the border. He was, what is it called when you walk a circle around something? I forget what that word is. I don't know. Who's your final one here, Boobitch? Yeah.

All right. I will say Tyler Anderson, famous last words. For Scott, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy. baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.