Fantasy Baseball Today - Oneil Cruz Fractured Ankle, Kris Bubic Hype & the Drop-O-Meter! (4/10 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 10, 2023

Kris Bubic looks like a new pitcher (2:20)! ... Wander Franco might finally be breaking out (7:34). ... Sonny Gray looks incredible so far (11:10). ... What other pitchers might be available on the waiver wire (14:42). ... Oneil Cruz has a fractured ankle (25:35)! What happens now? ... News (34:26): Carlos Rodon will throw live batting practice Monday. ... These pitchers look like they're breaking out (43:14). ... Let's fire up the DROP-O-METER for some starting pitchers (47:25). ... Which hitters are available on the waiver wire (51:30)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (57:12). 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.  Fantasy Baseball Today is a finalist in the Baseball Category for the Sports Podcast Awards! Quickly create an account and vote here: https://www.sportspodcastgroup.com/sports_category/best-baseball-podcast/ Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. What's up and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, April 10th. Frank Sample joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we're going to recap all of this weekend's action.

and the unfortunate news, O'Neill Cruz has a fractured ankle, so we'll get to that and give you some replacements through the waiver wire or maybe go out and make a trade in your league before we get going. Make sure to like this video and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. And if you're listening on the audio side, make sure to download, follow, and leave a five-star rating. It really does help, and we appreciate it. Happy Easter to those who celebrate, Scott.

I assume that you are just filled to the brim with peeps right now. I have not eaten a single peep today as a matter of, fact, as I say often when the peeps conversation is initiated, I don't actually eat all that many peeps. But I hope some of you listening did get a chance to sample. And maybe, maybe that bite persuaded you. You know what? This isn't quite as vile as Randos on the internet told me it was. No peeps for me yet. I say yet because my parents gave me this huge eastern. basket filled with candy and stuff. They, I mean, it's, it's cute.

I appreciate that they do it. You still do things as if I was like 10 years old. And it's great. But at the same time, I haven't actually, I haven't actually opened up the basket yet. So there might be peeps inside. I don't know. They want grandbabies to do that with, Frank. That's what they're telling you.

I've got a cat. That's about as far as it goes. Let's get into this weekend's action. And we'll start off with an, oh, my goodness, gracious player from the weekend. In a year that has been so improbable. the impossible has happened. And of course, that is the famous Vin Scully's call on the Kirk Gibson home run. And Scott, we will start with you.

With me? Okay. So I am going with Chris Bubich today. And let's just start with what Chris Bubich did here on Easter Sunday. At San Francisco, no runs in six innings, two hits, No walks, nine strikeouts. On just 76 pitches, he had 19 whiffs. Seven on the fastball.

Five on the change-up. Five on the curveball. Looked pretty much amazing, unlike we've ever seen Chris Boobich look before. And I'm going to do something now that I don't do very often. I am going to promote someone else. I, I, for my, you know, my whole all shucks attitude. everything. I'm actually like Ash Ketchum. I want to be the very best. And so I don't often promote other people because I just, you know, I just want you to look at my stuff and just,

like all the love for me. But I am going to promote a guy named Lance Brasdowski, who I've known for a while. Does great work. I've done, I've played in a few fantasy leagues with him over the years. And kind of when he was just starting out, getting his foot in the fantasy baseball industry. but he's a genius, basically. I think you should follow him on Twitter because this was an act of genius what Lance Brasdowski did because he called this for Chris Bubich

after his first start, which was nothing exceptional. It wasn't terrible. It was okay. But I saw this tweet of his afterward and I'm like, and like it stuck out in my mind because when has everybody,

like when's the last time somebody's been excited for Chris Boopich? It's probably been like three or four years. years. But he wrote on April 5th, Lance Brozdowski again, Royals Chris Bubbage looks like an entirely new pitcher. His velocity is up about two miles per hour across the board. His extension is also up six inches and it's lowered his release height by two to three inches. He talked about how the four seamer isn't sinking as much. It has kind of that rising action now because of the lowered arm angle. He talked about how he has a new slider that earns a really high rating for stuff

plus. He talked about how his change up also, it's also improved. It's getting more separation with the four seamer. And basically just raved about Chris Boobich. And it was part of like a larger, it looks like he, you know, copied like a note pad with the notes on like four or five different pictures. And he's been sending out these notes every night. He did some work with drive-line baseball in the past. So he seems to have a lot of access to information that the rest of us don't. I know the way he pointed out

that the way he measures like vertical movement is different from what you see on statcast. So like he just has access to information the rest of us don't. So like, and then Chris Boobich goes out and has this amazing star. And so first of all, like,

props to Lance Brasdowski. Like, I am going to be all over these notes the rest of the season. I'm probably going to be referring to him a lot if he keeps having success with these calls. Because clearly he's, you know, he's, like I said, he has access to something the rest of us don't and seems to be making very good use of it. So I am all in on Chris Bubich now. Like I said, 19 whiffs on 76 pitches and at least five on three different pitches. and looks like one of the potential

early breakout candidates off the waiver wire this year. There are a few good pitchers who stood out this weekend that I would like to add off the waiver wire, but Chris Boobitch is at the top of the list. And we're going to get to all those names. Chris Boobich, only 4% rostered in CBS leagues. He does go up against the Atlanta Braves this week. So the way that I have been approaching him so far is that if I win him or add him, In leagues, I'm probably not starting him, just because it's a really tough matchup against the Atlanta Braves.

But the two leagues where my fab has already run, he went for 86 out of 1,000 and 37. So somewhere between 3 and 8%. Scott, you won him in Tau Wars, right? How much did you win him for? So that was only 12. And Tau Wars goes, Tow Wars waivers runs a couple hours before the NFBC leagues. So I thought, okay, I'll go 25 in those NFBC leagues. And of course, I didn't win him in those. I think the average person listening out there

probably won't have to bid that much on him. You know, that's out of $1,000. But, you know, if you go four or five in your league, you're probably going to win him. If your waivers run daily, you might be able to get away with going one or two. But the point is he's a very obscure name with a very lackluster history.

And so not that many people are going to be on him. But Lance Brosdowski has made a believer out of me. All right. is Chris Bubich, and we'll compare him to other waiver wire ads in just a bit. Chris, oh my goodness gracious for you. Wanda Franco, who we hoped would be a breakout candidate, and we kind of saw a little bit of it last April, and then he got hurt and was never quite the same. He may be breaking out. You know, one thing that's interesting, he had two home runs this weekend, I think, went

four for 13 overall. Very good weekend. He's hitting the ball a lot harder. overall, like on the whole, his hard hit rates up to 40%, average eggs of velocity up to 90%. He's also hitting the ball in the air more, so his barrel rate is up to 20%. These are all very small sample size. We're talking about 30 batted balls or so in the early going, but he's managing all of this without striking out more than he typically does. We're talking about a 22-year-old who may be growing into his power, and that's an exciting thing to see because this is a guy who when he was a prospect we thought could be a

I mean as a prospect he wasn't far off from a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. He didn't put up quite as impressive numbers in the minors as Vlad Jr. And he hasn't done it in the majors so far. But he's also, you know, struggled to stay healthy and hasn't had consistent playing time as a result of that. But yeah, Wanda Franco, four home runs in nine games, looks like he might be figuring it out. And what I like so far too, Chris, is that three of his four home runs have come against right-handed pitching.

He kind of has had weird splits so far in his career, despite being a switch hitter. He's been much better against lefties than he has been against righties. So I do like that aspect. Just oozing swag, too. Did you see the home run on Friday, the slow-mo of that where he just like launches the bat? It was amazing. So I love what we've seen from Wanderfranco so far.

You mentioned the fly ball rate is up to 50%. It's never been above. 34% in any of his first two partial seasons. So something to watch moving forward, but yeah, that definitely could help fuel a break out. And one interesting thing going back to spring, we were worried about that quad injury. Well, if you look at a sprint speed, it's down to 32nd percentile,

which sounds really low, but he already has two steals. So I do think, you know, it could be just a case where he's, you know, kind of saving himself and picking his spots and, you know, trying to stay healthy, but also, So, you know, still being a contributor on the base paths. And, you know, I don't think he's going to be a 30 steal guy or anything. But like, if Wander Franco hits 20 homers and steals 10 bases, he's probably going to hit 300. And he's going to have a really nice season.

And 20 homers certainly isn't the ceiling based on what we're seeing right now. I don't think 10 steals is the ceiling either. Sure. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, look, if we're talking 95th percentile outcome, we could be talking about like a 30-20 season if everything goes right. Oh, yeah, 95. 95th percentile outcome is he's competing for an MVP, I think. Yeah, absolutely.

That is Wander Franco. Shout out to the race, by the way, nine and oh, the final unbeaten team in baseball. Have you seen the like list? They have like the third best run differential through nine games in major league history. And it's like the 1884 Oklahoma stock barons and the 1876. Like, it's just like something that no team has done in like, literally 150 years. I know there's,

it's outrageous. Their schedule has been very, it doesn't matter far, but yeah, they have been. Other teams have had easy schedules to start the season and haven't outscored.

I think they're plus 56 through nine games or something. Yeah, that is, that's pretty insane. Oh my goodness gracious for me. And I've got a group of pitchers that kind of look like they're breaking out and one that might be re-breaking out.

And we'll get to those a little bit later on. But Sunny Gray is the one that I really wanted to highlight. You're going up against the Houston Astros this weekend. Seven innings of one-run ball, 13 strikeouts tied a career high to just one walk. 16 swinging strikes on 98 pitches. Eight of those coming on the slider, six on the curve, two on the sinker, and through two starts.

He's moved away from his fastball, and he's made his curb ball his most used pitch so far. He is throwing it 31.5% of the time. And there was a report before the season that Sunny Gray said, last year, everything just kind of like crept up on him the season because they were, you know, they had the holdout, the lockout last year. And then he just didn't really get built up in time for the season. And so he felt like he was always behind.

And as a result, he was battling injuries. And he said, you know, he felt much better coming into the spring training. And so far, I mean, it's working out. We've seen enough of Sunny Gray that, you know, maybe this is just an early season blip. But to do it against the Houston Astros, I know it's, you know, not a complete Houston Astros team right now. It's pretty impressive stuff. So Sunny Gray looks awesome. far. I don't know if you guys have any thoughts on his start this weekend.

He's definitely hard to buy into because even when things aren't going super great for Sunny Gray, he'll have stretches like this. So I think a healthy degree of skepticism is is warranted, but he's worth adding where he's available. I'm sure it's not. Not that many. Yeah, I would assume he's like 70 or 80%. But yeah, I feel good about what we've seen from him so far for sure. So he hasn't really emphasized a slider much in the past, and what I thought was interesting about this, sorry. And forgive me, did you already say this, Frank?

I said that he is, his curveball is his most used pitch so far. Yeah. Okay. So he used his curveball and slider a combined 57% of the time as compared to 35% last year. And like many pitchers, his fastball is the pitch that tends to get hit the hardest for him. And Slider specifically wasn't want to use much in the past, like I said.

So if he goes with this like, if he continues with this like heavy breaking ball approach, then maybe we will see a different version of Sunny Gray. But, you know, it's almost a punchline to say that because Sunny Gray, we've seen so many different versions of Sunny Gray already and trying to get a read on him is. like he's been the most difficult pitcher to get a read on in my time covering fantasy baseball. So it's, you know, if you got a really good offer for him this week, it'd probably be worth considering just given the unpredictability of it all. But there is that chance that maybe something new is going on.

I was going to say, if you could sell high on Sunny Gray right now and turn him into Lance Lynn or Chris Sale or. Yep, yep, yeah. Blake's Dell. Would you do that? I might hesitate with snow. Okay. I'd do it with a headache too.

I definitely am intrigued though. I mean, I watched the highlights of that start and, man, those breaking pitches looked amazing. So maybe this is just, you know, the best that Sunny Gray has felt in a long time. And as a result, might be re-breaking out here in fantasy baseball. Let's talk about some other waiver wire pitchers. You already mentioned Chris Bubidge, Scott. Let's actually put your theory to the test. See if you would take him over all of these names.

That's what I said. Oh, well, we're going to find out. Justin Steel had another strong start this time up against the Rangers, six innings, one run, three strikeouts. In that one, he's up to 74% rostered. So really only available in shallower leagues, 10 or 12-teen points leagues. He's at the Dodgers this week. Sean Mania, very interesting. Had a great start against the Royal, six innings, one run, eight strikeouts with 14 swinging

strikes on 76 pitches. And he has changed his pitch mix, severely lowering his sinker usage, throwing more changeups and sliders. His sinker velocity is also up over three miles per hour compared to last year. And the slider. And slinker sinker and slider both up three miles per hour. Yeah, 62% roster to Sean Monai. He is at the Tigers this week. So that is a great matchup. Mackenzie Gore looked great once again. And this time at Corus Field, six innings, two runs, six strikeouts in that one. And Michael Waka. I mean, where did this come from at the Atlanta Braves? I'm so annoyed because in my most important league, I benched him for

Kyle Finning in, I feel like such a fool. Oh my God. I mean, it was, you really can't blame yourself for that decision. I know. I got crushed in his first start. He was going against Atlanta. So annoying. But anyhow, he looked great.

Six shot out with 10 strikeouts that tied a career high for Michael Walker. He had 16 swinging strikes, even with his fastball velocity actually being down in this star, 1.5 miles per hour compared to last year. Scott, how do you rank that group? Michael Waka, Mackenzie Gore, Amanaya, Justin Steele, and would you actually take Boobich over all of them? So it's interesting. There are a couple names you didn't say here.

Oh, don't worry. I've got names, Scott. I've got names. Okay. So this is different tiers, I guess, of pickups, because all of these guys are rostered more than Boobitch right now, I would assume. Yep. Yeah.

Yeah, I take Boobich over all of them. The only one I'm not really interested in is Waka. especially since the velocity is down. I mean, it just seems like an isolated incident, which Waka's had in the past. He's had his share of sporadic good starts in the past. And what is interesting for him is, in addition to his fastball being down 1.3, his change-up was down 3.1. And so I don't know if he's creating more separation.

Like if that's an intentional thing, he's created more separation on those pitches. Because the change-up itself got eight whiffs. So maybe there's something going on there. But as of now, not that interested in Waka. Manaya, like, obviously the jump in velocity is very exciting. But we knew about it going back to spring training. And he mostly got knocked around then. He got knocked around in his first appearance of the season,

which was in long relief, actually. It looks like he and Ross Stripling have switched roles already. Manaya joining the rotation, Stripling going to the bullpen. But the Giants have been pretty hush-hush about that. Because I think the first time he pitched, didn't he piggyback Desclafani? And that was what they were talking about using them moving forward. And then Desciflani was awesome in his first start.

And I think that kind of changed the plan. And Stripling followed Manaya immediately after this, but after Manaya through six innings. So Manai's next start, presuming the Giants don't shake things up again would be against the Tigers. And so, you know, he's a pretty high priority pickup too. I think, so Waka's definitely last of this group, but I'm having a hard time ranking the others. Steele walked four while striking out only three in this start. So we could quibble over how good if it started actually was. One run in six innings, of course, is nice, but control issues are not.

I'm going to go, I'm going to go that, like the order they're listed here, Steele Mania Gore is how much I want them in fantasy. But I would take Boobitch over all three. Okay. Let's move into Waverwire pitchers part two. Next group includes Michael Kopeck, who bounced back with a very good start at the Pirates, six innings, one run, five strikeouts to three walks.

His fastball is actually up one mile per hour, as was his slider. Anthony Dezcoffani had another great start, six in a third, one run, seven strikeouts to zero walks. He is 44% rostered, also at the Tigers this week. Seth Lugo, another strong start, this time against the Braves, six innings, one run, five strikeouts, four walks, That's a little high.

They let him throw 109 pitches. I thought that was pretty surprising for Seth Lugo. They're just letting him go. Spark eligible for those who are looking for a reliever. One that you could play there. That is Seth Lugo. And then Johnny Brito was great for the, not great. He was fine for the Yankees at the Orioles, five innings, one run, two strikeouts there.

45% roster for him. Chris, how do you rank this group? Kopec, Deis, Dez Cofani, Lugo, and Johnny Brito. I think I could be talked into Kopec at the top, just because I think there's some unrealized potential there, but I don't know. I find him pretty underwhelming at this point in his career.

He's basically a two-pitch pitcher. Slider has not been as effective as it was out of relief, but if you want to give him an edge over Descliffeani, I think that's fine. And then I would go Lugo and Brito in that order. And I think there's a bigger gap between Brito and the other three than there is between those three and any of them individually. So Desclaphani's another one I'm really excited about.

Not as much as Boobitch, but even in shallower head-to-head points leagues, I was putting in a claim for Desclafani. I just think he's back to 2021 for him. That 2022 was a lost year. His ankle was never right, ended up getting shut down, having surgery. And in 2021, Anthony Desclafani, remind everybody of the numbers. He went 13 and 7 with a 317 ERA 109 whip, 8,000. 0.2K per 9 for these same giants.

Look great in spring trainings. Look great now through two starts. I'm pretty much back in on him. By the way, somebody asked in the comments here, Kentomai to over all these guys, right? And yes, Kenta Maeda over all these guys. He's in line for two starts. I think there's a good chance.

He's back to 2020 form. And if he happens to be available in your league still, he would be top priority. Even over Boobich, yes. And if Sunny Gray happens to be out there, same for him over Boobich. Sunny Gray is 83% rostered. So it would have to be, again, really shallow 10 team or maybe 12 team head to head points leagues. What about those in deeper leagues?

Brad Keller was okay at the San Francisco Giants. I feel like he's doing some new things as well. I mean, it just kind of feels like the Royals have revamped their pitching staff and maybe some of their development there. But he went five and two thirds, one run, three strikeouts. he's throwing a new curveball 25% of the time, as well as a new sweeper that he's using at 10% of the time. Brad Keller also has SPARP eligibility. Marco Gonzalez, Cutter Crawford, Johan Oviedo.

Oviedo was actually very good. And Zach Plesack. So those in deeper leagues. Got any two or three names here that stand out to you in some of those deeper formats? Actually, Johann Oviedo, I picked up prior to this week in Tao Wars. His first start was terrible. and I felt like an idiot, but then he had this great start against the white socks,

and I felt like a genius. Yeah, so the slider is up over three miles per hour, and I noticed that was the case in spring training. I kind of made a note of that when I saw he had two starts and I had a pitching spot to play with in Towers. I was like, ah, what the heck? It was getting a lot of swinging strikes in spring training. I got a lot of swinging strikes in this one,

18 swinging strikes on 89 pitches, 7 on that slider. but the curve and fastball each got five as well. So I don't have a lot more to say on Johanna Oviedo than that. Obviously, he pitches for the pirates, and that's not optimal. But if you play in a deeper league, he's really pitcher eligible. I would say of this group, he's the most interesting. Cutter Crawford, I might have more interest in, except I would guess he's about to be kicked out with Garrette.

at Whitlock coming back, right? Yeah, I think Whitlock is supposed to return on Tuesday this week. So I guess I'm going to pull up the Red Sox rotation real quick to see if we're missing out on anyone else. Chris Sale, Corey Kluber,

Tanner Halk, I guess there's a chance Hout could get kicked out if, I mean, he hasn't looked great. Yeah, it could be him instead. Yeah, I mean, but Crawford's, you know, just, he tends to get pretty good swinging strike numbers. That's really the only reason I have interest in him. The actual results haven't been very consistent or good. But, you know, I keep, I watch them closely every time he pitches.

If you need a streamer in a deep league, Marco Gonzalez faces the Rockies this week, and that's their first game outside of Corse Field. So it could be that hangover effect. So if you're just, again, it's a very deep league stream, but Marco Gonzalez up against the Rockies, this week. It's worth pointing out for the Red Sox that they do also have Brian Bejo,

right, who I might be making his last rehab start or they might have him make another one. And then James Paxton. Yeah, James Paxton also is making rehab appearances now. So they might have some options that that could make for some awkward decisions coming up. All right. Let's take our first break here. and when we get back, we'll talk about O'Neill Cruz's unfortunate injury here on Fantasy Baseball Today.

Welcome back into Fantasy Baseball Today and Ever Dream about buying a Fantasy Baseball Today podcast shirt and then jumping over to get a Yellowstone Whiskey Glass or Top Gun Maverick Hat. Well, now you can with a brand new Paramount Shop, which offers a mountain of merch from the Paramount shows and movies that you love. Shop official apparel, drinkwear, and the accessories inspired by over 150 fan favorite titles, Paul Patrol, Yellowstone, Top Gun, Star Trek, South Park, Spongebob SquarePants, and your favorite CBS sports podcasts like Pick Six, Fantasy Football Today, and of course, fantasy baseball today. Scan the QR code in the top right corner if you're watching on YouTube or head over to paramount shop.com.

Paramount Shop, where products are paramount. Bad job by me. We're about 25 minutes in here, only talking about O'Neil Cruz at this point, but it was the biggest news and again, unfortunate news from the weekend. an awkward slide at the plate. Didn't love how the White Sox catcher, Sebi Savala, was kind of seemed like he was blocking the plate. I don't know.

O'Neo Cruz kind of slid late too. So I think they're both a little bit at fault. Also, why was Zavala like yelling at O'Neill Cruz afterwards? It just kind of seemed unnecessary. Anywho, fractured angle for O'Neill was heard. I would assume that was the case. I don't think he was like, because the bench is cleared and the pirates took exception to it.

And like, I don't think he was like, ha ha, you're injured. I think he just got caught up in the moment. Let's not, you know, I think it was okay. Uh-oh, we lost Frank. Frank was offended at my defense of Slevy Savala. No, it was a terrible, terrible injury, and you hate to see it.

And I'm sure Frank will be back and we'll continue taking over. But fracturing. You wrote a whole article about what you should do if you lost O'Neill Cruz, right? Yeah. And first, it's cry. Yes. because it's very, very sad.

And, you know, the thing to keep in mind is, like, O'Neill Cruz was actually showing some stuff in the early going. His strikeout rate was down to 21.6%. He was getting on base a ton. He wasn't hitting for the kind of power that we wanted to see. But, like, I think the tradeoffs there we would take, given his natural power. So it's frustrating, even though he hadn't been, you know, necessarily a star yet.

Fractured ankle, you're probably looking at a multi-month injury. Depends on the severity. depends on obviously it can be a very tricky injury because you're looking at not just the fracture, but potentially ligament damage. There's a lot of stuff going on there. I know Josh Naylor back in June of 2021 missed the rest of the season with his injury. So, you know, a worst case scenario, I think could be well into the summer, if not a season ender. Hopefully that's not the case. I think it's possible. I mean, I'm usually pretty, I'm usually more optimistic than most when it comes to broken bones, but when you're talking about such a complicated joint, you know, and the fact that

they don't know if there's ligament damage yet, it's just, it's a really big blow for, like, you know, I did a survey back in March, and one of the questions was, you know, who's the player you have to have this year? So, like, basically, who's the most exciting player to you? And it was a tie between Corby and Carol and O'Neill Cruz. So to lose, to an injury this significant so soon. It's very upsetting. And on the subject of replacing him, like the thing is,

O'Neill Cruz, he was drafted at a point closer to his upside than his downside. So, like, you drafted O'Neill Cruz expecting him to do things for you at shortstop that most other short stops were capable of doing. So, like, you're not. probably not going to replace what you were hoping to get from them. The stats you were hoping to get, exactly,

particularly with regard to power at that specific position. So that compounds the problem. Jorge Mateo is one of the most added players at shortstop. And if you need speed, I think he's probably going to run a ton. We've talked about it. I think it's unlikely that the improvements we've seen as a hitter are going to stick in any real way.

But like, you might steal 45 bases this. season. So that would be huge, but he might also hit $2.20. So as far as replacement options go, Niko Horner, 73% rostered in CBS Fantasy leagues. I think if he's available in any categories, leagues, I'd probably go at him, but you're not going to get a replacement for

Nonao Cruz's power potential there. That's the thing. Mainly you're trying to replace power, I would suspect. And it's just not, it's not a position. Like, it's a star-studded position, but most of the stars are not big, power sources. Yeah. And ones, you know, if you're going to make a play for one who is, you're going to

pay out the nose. I mean, it's worth pointing out. Other short stops we were excited about are off to really slow starts. Corey Seeger, I don't think he's hit a home run yet, right? And he might be other than Fernando Tatis, the best power threat at the position. Yeah, no home runs yet. So, you know, you could try a buy low trade there. If that seems unrealistic, you could try a Bilo trade for Carlos Correa or even further down, I mean, like, I haven't lost faith really in Anthony Volpe or Ezekiel Tovar yet, and both have basically done nothing. So like, if it's a shallow enough league, the person who drafted them might be close to dropping them, in which case you can offer next to nothing for them and potentially work out a deal

there. It might be worth pursuing just in the name of upside. If you don't necessarily care about the shape of that upside, the shape of the production, you're getting from your shortstop, you just want production. Say it's a points league, for instance. In that case, I would say Volpe especially is a good target. Yeah, and Tovar is available in 38% of CBS Fantasy leagues. He's hitting ninth. So that hasn't been great.

But it's one of those things where he also hasn't hit. I think if Zigo Tovar starts hitting like we think he will. And remember, he had a 900 OPS and 13 homers and 17 steals in 66 games. as a 20-year-old at AA last season. So there's clear potential there. You know, I think among widely available players, he has probably as much upside as anyone. Bryce Terang is only 53% rostered in CBS Fantasy leagues.

That's probably the way you would end up having to go in most leagues, or I guess in 47% of leagues where you lost O'Neill Cruz. But, you know, he had 13 homers, 35 steals at AAA last season. And I think he could be a starting caliber fan. fantasy option. Started six of nine games for the Brewers, but he's appeared in all nine. So they clearly value what he brings to the table. And then I got one upside guy who you'll have to wait for.

But Royce Lewis is likely going to start a minor league rehab assignment soon within the next couple of weeks. Likely, he's been playing simulated games at their spring training site. He was actually playing some simulated games in spring as well. Remember, he had 313 with a 9. 39 OPS in the majors last year. It was only like 33 games or something. But, you know, Royce Lewis, he's on the 60 D.L.

So he's going to be out until, you know, towards the end of May. But if O'Neill Cruz's timeline is longer than that, or like we said, the worst case scenario, you know, Royce Lewis is someone that if you can stash, I definitely would. All right. How do I sound? Am I good? Can you guys hear me? All good.

Were you offended? Did Chris offend you with his take on the slide and the response? by the catcher. I can't believe. I can't believe you would say that, Chris. Yeah. I'm so sorry. That's all good.

Yeah, it's apologies on my end because, yeah, just everything started going haywire. But I feel like you guys hit on it. Again, the three most added short stops right now, Bryce Terang, Jorge Mateo, Orlando Arcia, those are all rostered in less than 70% of CBS leagues. If you really need to scrape the bottom of the barrel because you're in a deeper league, trade's not realistic. a couple more names I'm going to throw out you.

Edmundo Sosa, who looks like he's going to be playing a lot more for the Phillies with Terracall suffering a torn ligament and his thumb. That poor guy. Got the opportunity of a lifetime and it's already over, it seems like.

And then the other one, Orlando Arcia. How about that? Orlando Arcea, making himself relevant. I struggle with that one because the stackass numbers are actually pretty impressive and I just don't buy it. And I realize that might not be fair. He's only 28 and he hasn't,

like we haven't really seen him play regularly in his prime. He was a big prospect. I called up at 21, didn't hit that well, and then he was out of a job by the time he hit his prime. So I don't know. Maybe there's something there with Orlando RCA. I get it. It's a low probability play,

but you just lost a shortstop in early April. So most of your plays are probably going to be low probability. we didn't get an official timeline right on O'Neill Cruz nothing yet no no I research fractured ankle it usually heals in six to eight weeks but then he's going to have to go on a rehab assignment and that assumes no ligament damage or anything like that so yeah and pure speculation on my part but yeah I was thinking like second half of the season like that's probably when we're going to see O'Neill Cruz again this year

let's get into some other news and notes from the weekend Carlos Rodon will throw a live batting practice on Monday that will be the first time he's faced hitters since being diagnosed with that forearm strain, and there was a report that he'd be a month away from returning once he throws live BP. So I guess we're hoping for May 10th-ish for Carl Sordawn's return. Justin Verlander said Friday that he's up to his throwing intensity and expects to join the Mets well before the end of April. Okay, it's good news, but just don't rush it back.

We wouldn't make sure that you're 100% by the time you get back, JV. Joe Musgrove will most likely need one more rehab start before we'll rejoin. joining the Padres rotation, Max Fried hasn't it resumed malwork and is likely about two weeks away from returning. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Friday that Evan Phillips will be given more ninth inning opportunities often than the other team's other relievers.

So just kind of looks like Evan Phillips is the guy for now, and that's great for his fantasy value. Adam Duval underwent x-rays on his injured left wrist after exiting Sunday's game, and he actually had another big game this weekend. He went three for five. hit his fourth home run, two RBI, three run scored, up to 90% rostered. But let's hope the news is good for Adam Duvall.

Worth noting, I believe that's the wrist he had surgery on last year, the year before. So that's not great. No, no, it is not. One of the early season breakouts, too. We definitely need Adam Duval healthy healthy. Tyler Glass now through before Sunday's game and expects to throw a bullpen next week. Lars Neupar is traveling with the Cardinals and could be activated from the IL as early as Monday.

Latest I saw is that it won't be activated Monday. Okay. So I'm planning on sitting new bar this week. Fair enough. Sayez Suzuki began a rehab assignment at AAA Saturday. He could be back at some point this week. Kyle Wright said he feels great and hopes to rejoin the Braves rotation April 11th. I believe that's Tuesday, yes, against the Reds.

Apparently his velocity was way down in his rehab start last week. Would you start him his first week back? I'd play it safe and sit him. Right. I think so too. Francisco Alvarez made his debut Sunday against the lefty Brax and Garrett after sitting on Friday and Saturday. We don't think this is just like a short side platoon thing, right?

Because that would be terrible. Well, Trevor Rogers started Saturday and he didn't start. And the early indications are that Tomas Nito is expected to play more, but that feels untenable. Yeah. That just seems like a, Francis, go, Alvarez has to have a couple of good games and then we'll get him in there. And like, you know, that's like if they're not letting him bat that often, like, why would you do that to him developmentally?

Like, unless they're just biting their time until they bring in some scrap heap catcher, which is possible. But I like, I like Alvarez for this week because the Mets are facing four lefties. So even if they're not all, even if he doesn't start all four of those games at catcher, I imagine he'll play a lot of D.A. this week. All right. Mitch Hanigar was recently shut down for about a week due to back tightness. He was originally placed on the IL with an oblique strain. Seth Brown was out of the lineup after feeling discomfort in his rib cage area.

And then actually he was a later placed on the IL Sunday. That is Seth Brown. Joey Gallo has missed two straight with right side soreness. Zach Davies left Saturday start with a strain left oblique. And apparently, Dre Jameson will step into the D-Backs rotation. he had a strong relief appearance on Friday. He went two and a third hitless innings with four strikeouts to one walk. And I noticed he threw a slider 51% in his first appearance.

And then it's just been 23% since then. So not really sure, but I think more sliders are good for Dre Jamison. So that was the other one who I was putting in a claim for Jameson in basically every league. So the three were Bubich, Descliffeani and Jameson. And of course, if Kentimae, he was out there, and Gray was out there, then, you know, they take priority. But these are guys who are available in virtually all leagues that I was looking to pick up. It seemed like in looking at the fab runs and, you know, some of the industry leagues I'm in that have already gone through.

There seemed to be more enthusiasm for Jameson than either of those other two. And I think I'd rank Jameson the lowest of the three just because he has so much more to prove. I mean, even during this time, he was in the bullpen. He was walking a lot of guys. I don't know. He's not a slam dunk. It's more of a risk-reward play with Jameson, I feel like. But certainly in 12-team leagues, you can justify a risk-reward play.

He was a first-round pick. Disastrous in the minors. Like 529 ERA or something. Really, really bad last year especially. Yeah, I mean, two really hitter-friendly venues. Same thing with Ryan Nelson. That's part of the reason why we're like Brandon fought so much. because he actually pitched well at AAA.

But two years ago, Jameson was good in the minors, and the stuff looks good. The Yankees are hopeful Harrison Bader will play rehab games in the next seven to ten days, and he's 58% rostered if you're looking for speed. So Harrison Bader is out there. Garrett Whitlock is making his debut on Tuesday. He's 58% rostered and SPARP eligible for those who play in points leagues. Jared Schuster was sent back to AAA after another subpar outing.

Scott, we could probably drop Jared Schuster, right? Yes. Yeah. All right. Philly's top pitching prospect, Andrew Painter was placed on the 60-day IL in AA because of that UCL spring. Other names that went to the IL this weekend,

Michael Harris with a lower back strain, hopes to be back when first eligible. That's not until next Monday, though, so. Yes. Don't, yeah, make sure you don't start in this week. Andrus Munoz is dealing with a shoulder, so it looks like Paul Seawald will be the, hopefully, the lone mariner's closer. Oh, there's going to be some, oh, now I'm forgetting his name.

What's his name? Matt Brash, Diego Castillo. Diego Castillo. I was thinking Luis Castillo. No, no. There's got to be some Diego Castillo saves for sure while Munoz is out. Wouldn't surprise me. Travis Darno went to the seven-day IL with a concussion.

Derek Hall, as we mentioned, will undergris. go surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb. Cody Clemens will be the Phillies regular first baseman against right-handed pitching in the meantime. Seth Brown, we mentioned that earlier. Kyle Lewis with an undisclosed illness. Pavin Smith was recalled and was actually betting third in the D-backs lineup. So if you play in deep leagues or NL only, maybe check to see if Peven, Smith is available. Jonathan Loisigua with elbow inflammation. Austin Meadows is stepping away from baseball for now as he deals with anxiety. Akeel Badoo was recalled and put up back-to-back multi-hit games widely available.

So 4% rostered again, that's more of a deep league play for Badoo. Max Coupler with right knee tendonitis. Matt Walner was recalled, Jose Siri with a right hamstring strain. Vidal Bruhan was recalled. It seems like Josh Lowe's playing time is going to be pretty safe in the meantime. And Josh Donaldson with a right hamstring train could be back in the minimum 10 days. Dreams come true, my friends. Willie Calhoun had his contract selected by the year.

Yankees. Yeah, I will say there's a player I'm more interested in than Willie Calhoun. Oh, yeah. Matt Walner has some interesting minor league numbers. 277 average 27 homers and 128 games between AA and AAA last season with a bunch of walks, 412 on base percentage. So just someone to keep an eye on in deeper leagues. I have no idea how much he's going to play.

But that stood out to me when I looked into him. How many of the same player can the 20? actually put out there. Yeah, that's fair. Between Joey Gallo, Matt Walner, and, yeah, look, to Larnick's credit, he actually has cut down on the strikeouts this year, and he looks pretty good.

If they're all three true outcomes, guys, they're going to get one of each outcome every time through the lineup. That's nine outcomes. There you go. Actually, the name I thought that you were going to bring up, Chris, was Franchi Cordero, who has been playing for the Yankees. And look, the Yankees have seven games this week, all righties.

He's going to play. Yeah, I mean, look, he's, he's always had interesting tools. He's just never had anything but interesting tools, if that makes sense. Hey, he's hit two home runs so far. So again, I have a little deep league play, five outfielder leagues. You're looking for someone this year. Franchi Cordero is a name for you.

Let's take our final break. And then we'll get into everything else here on fantasy baseball today. Pitchers that look like they are breaking out. I brought up Sunny Gray at the top of the show. And mentioned a few other names here. Nicola Dolo, incredible this weekend. Seven shutout with 12. strikeouts. That's a career high for him.

15 swinging strikes on 106 pitches. Jeffrey Springs, awesome once again going up against the Oakland A's. Seven shutout with seven strikeouts for him. 15 swinging strikes on 89 pitches. And you know what? I can never say again about Jeffrey Springs. I can never say he hasn't

gone seven innings yet because now he has. Yeah. I like that. They push these guys a little bit more this weekend because Rasmussen also got up to 83 pitches. Yeah. I mean, like they pushed him. He threw 89 pitches. I'll be the lone turd in the in the fantasy punch bowl here because it seems like

everybody in the fantasy industry has just, we're all in on Jeffrey Springs. He's an ace now. He's like one of the best pitchers in baseball. And like I don't know, maybe. I'm still going to say that like the raise pitcher who has thrown 13 innings in his first two starts because he's been outrageously efficient. Like maybe he'll just continue to pitch this well and it won't matter. But I do think innings are going to.

to be an issue for him. I think he's going to throw fewer innings than most pitchers of his quality level, even if you think he's very, very good. So I'm going to say Jeffrey Springs is a sell high candidate. Given the amount of hype there was around him at the end of spring, given how much hype there is around him right now, I would, I would at least be open to the idea of trading Jeffrey Springs. I think in certain leagues, you might be able to turn Springs into Zach Gallen, the way that he started the year or Alec Manoa maybe? Is that something you would do, Chris? Yeah. Yeah, I would absolutely do that.

I don't know that I'd do Gallin. I do Manoa. I do like, you know, if you get like a Julio or Rias level pitcher for Jeffrey Springs, I could go for that. Yeah, those guys are all really good pitchers. And we think Jeffrey Springs is a really good pitcher, but we also have a lot more questions about how much he's going to throw than those guys. At least I do. Maybe I'm alone in that.

No, I mean, look, look, how many times did he go six innings last year? That was kind of... I think it was a handful? That was the main reason I was avoiding him when obviously, the ratios look great. And so people were talking him up as a breakout,

but I just didn't have confidence that the race would let him work deep enough into games. And already he's gone six innings. He's gone seven innings. He talked this spring about how his main goal this year was to do that, was to go deeper into games. And so, like, my resolve there is weakening, and I regret that I don't have more of springs. I did get him in one league late after reading that quote from him. But, yeah, I mean, I'm finding that's happening with a lot of pitchers, just like Rasmussen

himself. It was another example today. Just, oh, Freddie Peralta. I talked about how he went six-innings. only four times all of last year. Well, so far, he's two for two as far as that goes. And maybe any of these guys will suffer an injury. Well, it's not the injuries for me. It's just, well, I know, but I'm saying. Springs through 81 pitches in his first start. He threw at least 81 and 15 of his 25 last year. So it, it's not like he couldn't have thrown six innings last year if he was going well. He just, is pitching really well right now. But I still think like a guy who's, I think at least, much more

likely to throw fewer than 90 pitches than more than 90 pitches most times out. I just think there's going to be issues with innings in the long run. Yeah, I moved up Springs last week, too. I did a rankings update on Thursday. I got Springs up to SP 26. So he's just behind. Yeah, that's just way too high for me. I'm, I, I'll, I'll be the guy, I guess.

I'll be the guy standing a thwart Jeffrey Springs and shouting, let's calm down. Stop. Bo, boo, boo this man. Anywho, you guys already mentioned Rasmussen and Freddie Peralt, so let's get into the dropometer. If we want to add all these pitchers, we need someone to drop, right? And I think I have quite a few candidates from this weekend. So we'll fire it up one to ten,

one being you want to hold this player in every league, 10 being you could drop this player in any league. We'll start off with Clark Schmidt, who has a 9.45 ERA and a 2.10 whip through his first two starts. Nine. Yeah, nine's fine. That's fine. Okay.

Oh, this one's tough, Chris. Edward Cabrera, we know he has the skill. In terms of, like, pure stuff, guy is awesome. But 13 walks in his first two starts. What do you think? My preference would be to not drop because I do still think there's upside there, but I can't tell you not to. So I would say six.

Okay. Same thing with Jack Flaherty. He's only allowed to earn runs, but also with 13 walks so far. Scott, what do you think about him? So I'm going to give him and Edward Cabrera seven. I'm to the point where if it has to be done, it has to be done.

But I'd like to see more because I do think there's still a chance either one of them turns things around and pitches great. It's just like you can't trust them in your lineup right now. So it makes for a tough predicament. I was actually prepared to drop Flaherty in one of those NFBC leagues

where you don't have IL spots, so bench base is very tight. and I just didn't win any bids for any other pitcher. So I'm stuck with Flaherty still in my lineup, sadly. That's not a great position to be in. What about Ross Stripling? He pitched in Relief Saturday. Scott, you kind of mentioned we don't really know what's going on with this situation.

So I don't know how you. Yeah, 10. 10? And it'd probably be a 10 even if he was still in the rotation. Mike Clevenger kind of faked us out here, huh? Five and a third, four runs allowed, two walks, one strikeout at the Pirates, just four swinging trikes after, I think he had, what, 15 or 16

in his first start against the Astros? Chris, what do you think about Clevenger? I'd say seven or an eight. Okay. Eric Lauer allowed six earned runs this weekend over four innings pitched up against the Cardinals. Scott, one to ten on Lauer. I would have no hesitation about dropping him,

so I guess that's a 10. This seems so crazy to me, but, I mean, what has happened to Jose Barrios, man? This guy is just lost right now. Four innings, six runs. for those earned. Did have five strikeouts to one walk, but Chris,

I don't know. There's something fundamentally wrong right now with Jose Brrios. And it's the kind of thing that where there's no like obvious, oh, his velocity's down or his spin rate is way down. Like there's no one obvious explanation for it, which makes me tend to lean towards,

well, okay, he can figure it out, except that we just did this for an entire year with him. And he was pretty putrid the whole season. And so, yeah, I think it's a seven. If I went seven on Flaherty, I'm going to go five on Burrios. I would rather have Burrios than Flaherty, yes. So if you're looking for reasons for encouragement, Berrios had 13 whiffs on 71 pitches,

and his average exit velocity in this latest start was 88.4, which isn't amazing. But like, if that's what it is for the whole season, he'll be okay. Yeah. Scott, I'm going to give you just these three names here, Taiwan Walker, Carlos Carrasco, Dylan Dodd, where do they lie? Well, Dylan Dodd's probably a 10. I think Bryce Elders locked up the fifth spot when everybody's healthy.

I wonder if the Braves regret putting Dodd and Schuster on the 40, man. Walker and Carasco, they're more like... I think Carasco's a 10. I think he's completely cooked. He's looked awful. I'd hesitate in like the 15-team leagues where it's hard to get like a reliance. liable takes every turn guy off the waiver wire. So I might go nine on Walker and Carrasco,

maybe eight on Walker, nine on Carasco. All right, let's move into some waiver wire hitters from the weekend. James Outman hit two more home runs, and he started against a lefty and Madison Bumgarner on Friday. So it's giving me some confidence that hopefully he just becomes an everyday player for the Dodgers.

He's looked that good so far. It was a nice weekend for Oscar Coloss as well. He had four hits, including a home run and a steal. 63% rostered, six games this week. All righties. Chris, who would you rather have James Outman or Oscar Coloss? I would rather have Coloss. I think there's more upside there, but I think Outman looks really good. Yeah. It's close for those two with me. I think Outman will probably give you more speed, maybe.

I think the biggest thing is probably just that I have more faith in Coloss playing against lefties if he proves it than Outman. The Dodgers have just Like there was a point where Gavin Lux was arguably the top hitting prospect of baseball And they weren't playing him every day Outman's not that kind of player so Yeah that's right He might be better

Three names that you could probably target in slightly deeper leagues Maybe it's Roto style lineups. Garrett Cooper had a strong weekend five hits and two home runs He said in your face Scott Yeah 17% roster for Garrett Cooper Brian Dela Cruz had a big game on Sunday

He went two for two with a home run two walks and four RBI. And an emotional return to Pittsburgh for Andrew McCutcheon. That was awesome. I don't know if you guys had the opportunity to see that, but letting him get that ovation in Pittsburgh and returning. It was really cool moment for him. A big game on Saturday for him,

three for four with a sock and a shoe. That's a home run and a steal for McCutcheon. Scott, how would you rank those? Let's just say you need a utility bat or whatever it might be. Cooper, Brian Dela Cruz, and Andrew McCutcheon. I will go. Dela Cruz McCutcheon and Cooper

I think Dela Cruz has been playing the least of the three but like he's he's the one of the three who I feel like has a next gear he could find and emerges just more than a streamer type off the waiver wire Cooper and McCutcheon they feel more just like high floor type players where they're not going to hurt you when you're in your lineup

so probably better for those deeper formats but yeah I would agree I think Dela Cruz might have more upside than those names. Some deep leaguers out there. Franchi Cordero, I mentioned him. He went two for four with his second home run on Sunday. Stone Garrett, Monster game this weekend on Saturday. Four for five with a home run, two doubles and five RBI.

That game did come in Corris Field. Alex Call hit a three-run homer on Friday. He's led off three straight for the Washington Nationals. Kevin Kiermire, three for five with a double, a triple, five RBI on Sunday. Nelson Cruz had a big game on Sunday night baseball. He went three for four with a home run, a double and six RBI. And Geraldo Perdomo back-to-back multi-hit games. He's off to a nice start for the Diamondbacks.

Chris, anyone stand out here. We're talking 15 teams, any probably deeper than that too. Stone Garrett, Alex Call, Keirmeier, Nelson Cruz, and Perdomo. Well, the chat, I noticed is very excited about Geraldo Perdomo. I don't think there's very much to be excited about, but there's been a lot of Geraldo Perdomo talk in the chat today. I don't find any of these guys particularly interesting even in my deeper leagues,

but like Alex calls minor league numbers are kind of interesting. You know, 142 games at AAA overall, 23 homers, 12 steals. Good contact numbers. The problem is he's been very old for his levels. So I don't know how much there is there, but, you know, maybe. He seems like a really disciplined hitter. And he got hot down the stretch after coming over from. Cleveland last year.

And he is somebody, Alex Cole, who I liked as a very, very deep sleeper coming in, like so deep I couldn't even get to him in 15 team leagues. But now that he's playing often and batting leadoff and walking a lot, I don't know. He's clearly my favorite of this group. All right, let's talk about a few questionable pitchers, starter sit these guys. Lucas G. Alito was crushed by the Pirates. It's four innings, 12 hits, seven runs. He's at the Twins.

That's a sit for you, Chris. He needs to, he's at the point where he needs to prove it and he hasn't done it. Chris Bassett actually was okay against the Angels, but he did walk five in that game. He's up against the Tigers this week. I kind of feel like we have to start that, right, Scott? Yeah, I think so. His velocity wasn't really back, but he gave up much softer contact. So it was more Chris Bassett-like in that way.

I don't know what was up with the walks. I do want to mention with Gialito. Like, a lot of the underlying stuff has looked really. good. In this last start at Pittsburgh, even though the result was terrible, his velocities were actually back up to 2021 levels, because remember his velocity was down last year. And 86 mile per hour average of velocity in that start despite giving up 12 hits. I'd be more likely to start Gialito than Chris would, I think, with that favorable matchup. Not that it's a must by any means, but I wouldn't be as afraid of it. And the other two names I wanted to mention, Jose Orkitti actually had a

solid start opposite sunny gray and hunter brown look great at the minnesota twins or key at the pirates and hunter brown versus the rangers you're right with those chris yeah yeah i think both of them are are fine starters both this weekend generally moving forward i think brown i think he's going to have ups and downs for sure i think the control is going to be a recurring issue for him but when he's when he's controlling his pitch as well i I think he's going to be really good. It's just, it's going to be, I think, a frustrating ride. There were awesome hitting standouts this weekend as well.

But I think just quickly talk about Brian Reynolds. He is off to this insane start. He went three for five with a home run, six RBI on Friday. And he is now up to five homers, two steals 14 RBI overall. And we're getting questions whether or not to sell high on Brian Reynolds right now. What do you guys think? I don't know. I mean, we've seen him do like, you know, obviously this pace is on.

sustainable. He's the best hitter in baseball. We haven't seen him do that. But we've seen him be a stud, like a no-questions-asked stud among outfielders twice already. Like, just every odd year, Brian Reynolds is amazing. So I don't know that I'd be that eager to sell high. It ultimately comes down to who you can give for him. Yes. Like, you can open my outfield rankings and more or less see who I trade Brian Reynolds. for. Might need to update them a little bit.

But, you know, if you could get like Kyle Schwerber for him, obviously I'm going to do that. But just like, I don't believe in Brian Reynolds, so I might as well shop him while his values high, like just in a general sense. I don't feel that way. I think he's, there's a good chance he has a really good season. I think an out-of-position trade you could try for right now. Just classic buy-low, so high is give up Brian Reynolds to get Corey Seeger, something I would try to do that.

Yep. Sure. Especially if you just lost O'Neo Cruz, my goodness. I mean, why would you have two pirates on the same team? But I guess weirder things have happened. Let's get into some bullpen updates here. We'll wrap up with this and some streamers. For the Cubs this weekend, Michael Fulmer through two shutout innings with four strikeouts,

picked up his first save, and he's 49% rostered. So if you need saves or just a reliever, I think you could go out and add Michael Fulmer for the Phillies. On Friday, Craig Kimball gave up a hit and walked, but picked up his first save. And then on Sunday, Kimball pitched in the eighth with a two-run lead. He gave up a run. Then Sir Anthony Dominguez came in for the ninth,

one-run game. He gave up three earned runs, took the blown save and the loss. And I did see some speculation, some bids out there in deeper leagues on Jose Alvarado. Would you guys be looking to speculate there if you need saves in a deep league? I added him in one.

Yeah, it wasn't a Fab League, so it didn't cost me anything. But I took a flyer just to see. We finally got some saves for the Royals on Friday. Our oldest Chapman got the eighth inning to face 9-1 and 2 in the Giants lineup. That came with a 3-1 lead. Then Scott Barlow pitched in the ninth for his first save.

And then on Saturday, Barlow was unavailable because he pitched the previous two days in a row. And Chapman struck out two for his first save. I think it's Scott Barlow for now. Maybe it's like a 60-40 or 70-30. Well, I mean, he worked two days in a row. We saw that for a lot of closers over the. weekend. They'd worked, they'd worked, like Alexis Diaz today. He hadn't worked the previous two days. He just threw a bunch of pitches on Saturday in a really ugly outing. So somebody else, some no name

got a save for the Reds. But my point is, like it's, it's a normal thing, especially this early in the season, to see, to not have a closer work three days in a row. And so I want to read too much into that Chapman save. Of course, it is possible, especially as good as he looks right now, that he could make it more of a time share, but I don't think that's where we're at right now. For the Nationals on Friday, Kyle Finnegan pitched in the ninth inning with a five-run lead,

and then on Saturday he pitched in the eighth, also with a five-run lead. Anthony Bandit came in for the ninth, and gave up three runs, and then Carl Edwards closed out the game, and he got the save. So I think it's still Finnegan, but he was really bad in one outing last week.

So something to pay attention to. For the Diamondbacks on Friday, Andrew Chafin got the first. final two outs in a six to three win. And then on Saturday, Scott McGuff recorded four outs across the seventh and the eighth in the eighth innings. And he gave up a solo home run. I was pretty confident in Scott McGuff coming into the year.

Now I feel like we're back to square one. I have no idea with the downing backs. Yeah, my dark cross there is Miguel Castro. If I just have a spot to play with in a deep league that, you know, where saves are always in high demand off the waiver wire. I'm trying to stash away Miguel Castro because I think he might get a chance soon. All right.

On Saturday for the twins, Jorge Lopez struck out the side in the seventh with a one-run lead. Joanne Duran would later record the final out for his second save of the year. For the Mariners, Paul Seawald allowed two base runners but picked up his second save. For the Angels

on Saturday, Jose Quijada pitched in the eighth with a two-run lead at the time. Carlos Estabez pitched in a ninth. Problem, it was a four-run lead. So no save for Estevez. And then I believe it was on Sunday, Estevez did not look very good. He came on in extra innings. He gave up

two runs and he took the loss in that game. So I think it's Estevez, but let's, I don't know, let's watch this Kehada guy. It seems like they kind of like him. For the Tigers on Sunday, Alex Lang pitched in the 7th, down 2 to 1 at the time. He gave up a run. And then for the Rockies, Pierce

Johnson walked one, but converted his third save and he's looked pretty good so far. So 34% rostered if you need saves, Pierce Johnson widely available. The regulars, for the bullpens this weekend. Felix Bautista picked up his third save. Josh Hader picked up his second.

Jorda Romano picked up his fourth on Friday, and then he gave up three runs on Sunday, took the blown save, wound up with the win. For the Yankees, Clay Holmes picked up two saves this weekend. For the Giants, Camillo DeValle entered the game tied in the ninth. He gave up a run, took the loss on Saturday. And then Sunday, DeVal was unavailable. Tyler Rogers converted the save.

That's Tyler, not Taylor, though. I really don't have a lot of confidence in Doval, but if something happens, it's going to be one of the, one of the Rogers. There was one. Work two days in a row, so he wasn't available today.

That was Camilla Duval. Yeah. For the Mets on Saturday, David Robertson struck out one for his second save. Josh Hader got a, his third save on Saturday as well. For the Red Sox on Sunday, Kenley Jansson picked up his second save.

And then for the Pirates, David Bednar struck out two for his fourth save. Let's do to stream. or not to stream. We'll start with Monday. Domingo Hermann at the Guardians. No, thanks. Kentimita versus the White Sox.

Sure. Kyle Gibson versus the A's. Yeah, I'm okay with that. Rwanzi Ketreus versus the Astros. Nope. Matt Strom versus the Marlins. Nah. Bryce Elder versus the Reds.

No, probably not. Drew Smiley versus the Mariners. No to that one I'm still thinking about Elder versus the Reds because I have them pretty high on the sleeper pitchers list for this week he's making two starts if we're looking at weekly rather than daily

I kind of like it I think I could get down with Bryce Elder Zach Rankie at the Rangers I don't think so I'm starting him in a few leagues he's another two-star guy yeah two starts yeah I picked him up in TGFBI it's 15

team league. So it's just kind of desperate for pitching there. Andrew Heaney versus the Royals. This is the ultimate test of how much you like playing the matchups. Because this is a great matchup. Couldn't get asked for a much better matchup the way the start of this year has gone. But boy, Heaney just got crushed. Yeah, his slider didn't look right in that first start.

The movement profile was weird. I think the velocity was down a couple miles per hour. so he's definitely still working on some stuff. I think it's a no for me. Yeah. Jose Suarez versus the matches? I'm just not going to commit. No.

Wade Miley at the D-backs. I wouldn't. On Tuesday, Hunter Gaddis versus the Yankees. No. Kyle Muller at the Orioles. No. Mitch Keller versus the Astros. I kind of like them for two starts.

Neither of the matchups individually is great, though. So probably pass in a stream day at a time scenario. David Peterson versus the Padres. No. Chris Flexen at the Cubs. No. Hayden West Neske versus the Mariners. I might do that.

Maybe. Josiah Gray at the Angels. He was actually good at Coorsfield, but I always struggle, even when pitchers are good at Coors Field, I struggle with it because Coorsfield is so weird. that like I don't know if you can actually learn anything from it. I would say no given the matchup, but I did add him in one league. I agree.

Alex Wood revenge game versus the Dodgers. Nope. Nah. All right. We're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. 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 tomorrow. Bye-bye.