Fantasy Baseball Today - Oneil Cruz's Debut, Josh Lowe vs. Jarren Duran & Statcast Standouts (6/21 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 21, 2022

Oneil Cruz's debut was an impressive one on Monday (1:41). ... Andrew Vaughn is hitting well while Jose Berrios got ripped again (10:10). ... Add Josh Lowe or Jarren Duran (19:55)? ... Gerrit Cole, Shane McClanahan and Corbin Burnes were all on the mound (25:40). ... News and notes (28:20): Manny Machado did not go on the IL yet while Max Scherzer will start rehab Tuesday. ... Let's take a look at some Statcast standouts on the season and from June (36:25). ... Two Royals had a sock and a shoe (50:40)! ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (54:48). Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection 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 in to Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, June 21st. Frank Stamphill joined by Scott White and The Returning, Chris Towers. Today on the show, O'Neill Cruz had an awesome debut.

Aces were on the mound, a pair of socks and shoes for the Royals, Stackcast standouts, and I have a few emails. I'm not sure how this happened. We're talking beforehand. Only nine games on the schedule, yet I have one of my longest rundowns of this season. What is wrong with you? I don't know what's wrong with me. You're glutton for punishment, Frank.

It's all O'Neill Cruz base, though. Yeah, basically. What's going on, Chris? We haven't seen you in a while. It's good. I'm good. Yeah, I missed Thursday. I missed the last two shows for concerts.

Sorry. I went and saw Paul McCartney last Thursday. That was pretty cool. That's kind of a big deal. Yeah. I mean, Frank, you may have heard some of his songs even. Yeah. A guy named Bruce Springsteen came out with him. You also may have heard of him. I'm not sure. Yeah, I don't. He's all right. And then I saw Motion City soundtrack on Sunday, which isn't as cool, but still a lot of fun. You know, a lot of nostalgia for me. So it's been good, but glad to be back. Glad to be back indeed. Let's jump in. Oh, my goodness gracious! Oh, my goodness gracious, players from Monday. We will start with Scott.

All right. Well, I'm going to take the free space today, and I'm going to go with... Hold on, hold on. It's not a free space, Scott. It's an olive garden breadstick. Okay. The olive garden breadstick. If that's the analogy, we've been on...

I'm glad we're sticking with this analogy. Yes, I'm sure it will make sense to people listening a month from now. But anyway, O'Neill Cruz, wow. You know, it's rare that you get the demonstration of talent that we got from him.

Like we talked about the talent, you know, how hard he hits the ball, just the tools, how impressive they are, pretty much across the board. But it's rare that you get such a clear demonstration of it the first game. And I'll note this wasn't his first major league game. You played a couple at the end of last season when nobody cared anymore. So, you know, it kind of flew under the radar.

But everybody cares now. And what we saw from O'Neill Cruz in this first game definitely should catch your attention. So the first thing was a ground ball to short that he actually didn't field that well. You know, he didn't, it wasn't the cleanest pickup of the grand-ended position himself very well, kind of a backhand on a routine grounder. And then he kind of double clutched it, making it a closer play at first than it needed to be. But the throw, my gosh, the throw was the hardest throw from an infielder all season.

It's crazy. And it was 97 miles per hour? Yep. I'm sure outfielders have had harder throws than that. Of course, pitchers have had harder throws than that. But hardest throw from an infielder this season. And the Pirates Broadcasting booth went nuts. over this routine grounder.

They really need something to get excited about, apparently. And look, it was an impressive throw. So that was cool. Then he comes up to the plate. He hits a ball 112.9 miles per hour to center fielder, gets by the centerfielder all the way to the wall for a basis clearing double. 112.9 miles per hour, as I said,

what's interesting about that, if you don't have a good concept for these things. Only 47 players in all the majors this year have hit a ball as hard as 112.9 miles per hour. And you know, he had, I think, two different batted balls last season that were harder than that. In the two games that he played. Right. He set the Pirates record during the Stack Has Dera for hardest hit ball. That that ball that he hit today, Scott, was already the hardest hit ball by any Pirates player this season.

Well, no, so I don't know if Scott's getting to this one, but the note I saw, just in the first, I think it was three innings today. He had the hardest thrown ball by a pirate's position player, the hardest hit ball by a pirate's batter, and the fastest sprint speed by a pirate's player this season. In the first three innings. He's a freak. He's a freak. Yeah. I looked it up because I've made reference to it a few times on the podcast, but I didn't have the exact number handy, how baseball America. had the average exit velocity for every hitter in their top 100 prospects coming into this year.

Their average exit velocity from last year. O'Neill Cruz was 94 miles per hour, average exit velocity in the miners last year. No other top 100 prospect was better than 91. So, look, these are not guarantees of success. All of this stuff, like, we could be describing Franchi Cordero. well not exactly but like the similar like this is like the thing franci cordero has been like known for for years and he's not actually good impressive tools and it didn't amount to

anything and you know o'neal cruise i mean he was incredibly productive in the miners last season this year you know kind of a mixed bag which is why his part of the reason why his call-up was delayed but it does point to a very very high ceiling so at six feet six feet seven. Cruz is going to have a hard time with his mechanics. I'm sure finding consistency with those. And of course, strikeouts, we've seen them be a problem at times, though actually not so much once it got hot at AAA. I think his final 26 games, only 17 and a half percent strikeout rate.

But, you know, it stands to reason against major league pitchers. So it might have some trouble making contact. And he might have so much trouble that is prohibitive, and he's not able to take advantage of these tools. But like, the tools are just off the charts and it's you should be very excited if you have picked them up particularly if you stashed them all this time is roster rate never drop below 55% but even now he's available in some leagues and you should definitely pick him up if he is available in yours just to see where this goes.

O'Neill Cruz up to 78% rostered of course was added in a bunch of leagues last night I know Sunday night is a big waiver night so rightfully so he's added in a bunch of leagues and make sure to check out if he's available. You know, Chris, I'm just trying to figure out where am I going to rank him. I know Tuesdays and Wednesdays are really our big rankings update days throughout the week. And I just kind of dropped him in to my 24th ranked shortstop, just behind Javier Baez and Eugenio Suarez. And I feel like he probably can move up a little bit more.

But what do you think about that spot in terms of ranking him at shortstop? I never had him lower than 29 for the rest of the season rankings. I'm gonna go ahead and move him up to 19. Now, shortstop is a very top heavy position. I'm still doing overall rankings for the trade values chart. And so I can actually tell you that would make him my 126th ranked player overall, which is very aggressive. But I just think that the upside and particularly like it's upside that

is apparent in Roto, obviously, because he has 33 steals and 159 career games between AA and AAA. He's got this massive raw power, you know, that like invites comparisons that are not unfair to Aaron Judge and John Carlos Stan and those kind of guys. His minor league track record and trajectory is actually very similar to Aaron Judge in addition to the fact that they're both six foot seven. But yeah, I just, I think if there's a type of player to overreact about, I think it's O'Neill Cruz. You know, that kind of talent. So I got a question on Twitter, and actually somebody respond to that question and said they had the same dilemma.

O'Neill Cruz versus Willie Adama's. Now, it sounds like from your ranking, I haven't updated yet. I will tonight. But it sounds like from your ranking, Chris, you would rank Willie Adama as ahead of Cruz. if that was your only choice though like if you it's a shallow league uh willie adamas is the low guy would you would you sacrifice him

in pursuit of this upside for crews that's tough um because like willia damas is having a fine season it's been kind of fits and spurts but the underlying numbers suggest he's actually been significantly better than what he's produced so far so I do still think there's quite a bit of upside for him as well.

So I think I would have a hard time pulling the trigger on that one. But like I can see the concept behind it is like if Willi Adamas really is your worst player. And it's that kind of league where like, okay, let's say you drop Willie Adamas, someone picks him up. I think that would be obviously, you know, likely. Is Brennan Rogers still out there? in this league, you know, it's very possible that he is, even though he's been so hot lately. So, you know, I think in that instance, like, there's enough risk reward that I think it could be worthwhile. I just don't know if I would do that.

All right. Let's move into. Oh my goodness gracious. Wow, that was one player. All right. Chris, oh my goodness gracious for you. Andrew Vaughn, who continues to hit the ball really well, four for four with a run, a home run to RBI. actually hasn't been hitting for a ton of power lately. I think Frank you said this was his first home run in the month of June, but he's up to a 330 average for the season. He's not going to hit 3.30 the rest of the season. Underlying numbers don't back up his production,

but really solid quality of contact, strikeout rate down to 16%. Like Andrew Vaughn is looking like the guy we hoped he would be when he got called up last season. You remember, I think Spencer Torkelson was, you know, a more well-regarded prospect, but Vaughn was in a similar boat as a hitter, at least, in terms of the expectations that he came up to the majors with. And last season left a lot to be desired, but, you know, right now he's in the 78th percentile on average eggs of velocity, 85th percentile on hard hit rate, above average in XBA and X slug. The, you know, the launch angle not as high as you'd want.

you know, there are like the expected Wobah more like average than the very good numbers he's got right now. But I just think the combination of quality of contact and contact rate that Andrew Vaughn is showing right now is really, really promising. And I saw them talking about this on the broadcast. He's done really, really great in games where he's just the DH for the White Sox. So there could be some correlation there. Obviously, he's not a natural outfielder. And if you look at his stack cast page, is probably the worst in baseball in terms of outfield jumps, but in nine games entering Monday,

he was batting 405 with an OPS over a thousand as the DH for the White Sox this season. So I think that that's a role that can suit him well until, you know, Jose Ibrahim you transitions to DH within the next couple of years, maybe, and then Vaugh can play his natural position at first base. I will point out, you know, just if you have Andrew Vaughn Dynasty or any type of keeper league. I know it's a lot of just empty batting average right now, but the fact that he makes as much contact as he does and his max EV is a pretty solid 111 miles per hour, I would think that power is going to come over the next couple

of years. Maybe it's not elite power, but mid-20s, home runs, I think that's something that will get to for Andrew Vaughn. I feel pretty confident in him long term, so he's been great. And he's 78% rostered. could be out there in some shallower leagues as well, much like O'Neill Cruz. Oh my goodness gracious for me, Jose Burrios, another not great start here up against the White Sox on Monday where he allowed six runs over four innings pitched, three home runs

allowed, 11 hard hits allowed compared to just two swinging strikes. And in this recent stretch of success for Jose Brrios, he was leaning into the curb ball. And very clearly, if you've watched Jose Brrios, you know the curb ball is far and away. his best pitch. He did not do that here on Monday. Maybe he just didn't have a feel for the pitch, whatever it might be, but he was hit extremely hard, much like he has been for most of the season. So the ERA climbs back up, 5.11 overall. His XERA, expected ERA, according to Staccas, so quality of contact matters a good amount for this. 5.54. That is in the 11th percentile for pitchers this season. There's no other way to describe it outside of awful. I, I,

His quality of contact against has been truly awful this year. Jose Burrios, his fastball getting crushed. 353 batting average against 637 slug. This has been part of the issue with me, like, trying to move Jose Burrios up. He has a couple of good starts, but I'm still really just worried about these underlying numbers. Scott, what do you think about this recent letdown for Jose Burrios? Yeah, I think you're more down on him than I am because his past three starts were awesome. five of the past six were awesome

none of the ER estimators are good none of the ER estimators are ever good with him like the peripherals never looked that good with Bereos they're a little worse this year but he was so bad in April and early May basically before this this stretch of seven starts that

you know I think a lot of it's still hangover effect from that just stats haven't had time to correct completely I don't know. I feel okay about him. I have him as a top 30 pitcher and I'm not inclined to move him down. I mean, he's always prone to these blowups.

He's vulnerable to hard contact and home runs and all of that. So I feel okay about Bereo still. The biggest problem is just both the fastballs are just getting crushed. The sinker or the four scene, like it's not really clear that he could just like, well, if he just switches to a sinker, it'll be like they're both getting hit hard. They're both getting crushed.

I tend to think his track record is so I think he's weirdly consistent year over year while not being consistent overall and like he's gonna probably well at this point he's probably not gonna end up with a mid three's ERA but I think he's probably going to be a mid to high three's pitcher ERA pitcher moving forward who gets you a lot of volume and that's useful

but it's also like is it a top 30 pitcher, I could see myself moving him down fairly easily. Like him versus Nestor Cortez. And maybe I'm just, maybe Nestor Cortez is already a top 30 pitcher for you guys. He's not for me. He is for me. I have him ahead of Barrios, yeah.

Yeah, like I'm thinking I probably just need to move Burrios down. Burrios versus Luis Castillo is kind of a Spider-Man meme. Yeah. You know, not similar pitchers in the way they go about it, but the results often end up pretty similar. So that's an interesting one. I don't know. It's a like I think I'd rather just have Tony Gonsolin than Jose Barrios to just going through my my rankings right now. Just, you know, Berrios obviously brings a little more safety, but it's safety in terms of volume, not necessarily in terms of quality. Tony Gonsolin's a, you know, two five ERA guy for his career right now.

Yeah. I don't think that's a crazy take. I have Gonsolin ranked just ahead of Jose Barrios right now and someone will talk about a little bit later on. I would take Logan Webb over Jose Brrios. I think he's really come back. I've had Logan Webb ahead of him all along, even when I was skeptical of him coming into the season. I guess the only thing that's actionable with Burrios, obviously, I'm not dropping him anywhere. I think, you know, some people might just look at his overall numbers and say, okay, by low based on his track record, which, look, if you trust that track record, then you should do it. But I'm saying, I'm saying not to do that. That is my advice. And, um, If I turn out to be wrong about this, then I will own up to it and I will let you know,

but I am not buying low on Jose Brrios. I struggle with like buying low on Jose Burrios because I tend to want to buy low on a player who like can really blow up. And I just like I said, I think Jose Brrios is a mid to high 3 ZRA guy and that's valuable. But it's not, you know, it obviously depends on how low I'm buying. But yeah, I'm, I don't know, I wouldn't be enthusiastically buying low. I guess is the way I would put it. On the other side of Jose Brioz in that game was Lance Lynn,

who allowed five runs, three earned over five innings pitch. He did have five strikeouts, 14 swinging strikes. So, you know, kind of a mixed bag here. And he actually only allowed two earn runs through five endings. He came out for the sixth, and that's where things really started to implode for him. Apparently, he threw 10 sliders in this start, a pitch he hasn't really used since 2015. Maybe they were cutters that were not classified as cutters, it could be that he's throwing a pitch in the slider that he hasn't used in a long time.

Overall, Scott, I think that this was more encouraging than not, even though the line doesn't look great for Lanselin. Yeah, I was really encouraged before the end of it. And you remember, his last started, it was completely the opposite. He allowed like seven hits in the first two innings and then settled down from there. Fastball velocity, liken that first start, down 1.4 miles per hour from last year, so we didn't see any improvement with how hard he threw the fastball. He did have 14 swinging strikes on 19 pitches against good Blue Jays lineup.

So that's, you know, that's encouraging. Yeah, I think the jury's still out on whether Lynn is exactly who we've seen the past two or three years or if, you know, there has been some decline here during his time away. I would not lower him in my rankings based on this start, but I'm not moving him up either. He's behind Jose Berrios, for what it's worth. Fair enough. I don't know.

Let me see about that one. It's close. Yeah, I do have Lynn ahead of Jose Brrios as well, but kind of similar pitchers in my mind, but I will take Lance Lynn there. I actually don't. I actually do have Lynn ahead of Berrios. Maybe I should change.

change that. Maybe I am going to move Lynn down. Man, I was just updating those earlier today. Carry on. Carry on. All right. Let's get into a few other prospect call-ups on Monday. We talked about from the weekend, there was a bunch, Riley Green and O'Neill Cruz, obviously. Josh Lowe was recalled by the Tampa Bay raise. He's 20% rostered. And you remember he got a chance earlier in the season and was striking out a ton, really, you know, was not playing great for Tampa. But then he got sent down. And since the start of May at AAA. He was hitting 299, six homers, six steals. Again, this is Josh Lowe. And he had a flyball 415 feet straightaway center field off of Garrett Cole, which wound up being an out on the warning

track. But I thought it was pretty impressive. Chris, are you looking to add Josh Lowe maybe in some of those five outfielder leagues? Absolutely. I think even potentially in a three outfielder, head-to-head points. Like, you know, Manuel Margoe leaving the game today potentially makes it easier for Lowe to stay in the everyday lineup and stay on the big league club. It does sound like Margo suffered a pretty serious injury. He's going to go on the IL. Look, Lowe has hit 293, 381, 536 in his career at AAA, over 147 games with 28 homers, 32 steals. He's continued to hit at that level since getting sent down and it's a skill set that ideally provides power speed and play discipline all the things that we're looking for no matter what format you're playing in obviously you know

you're less certain about his chances of hitting after he struggled so much early on but he was the guy that people were dropping five hundred dollars on in NFC leagues in the first fab run so yeah I think he's absolutely worth rostering at least in all five outfielder leagues and you know potentially any three outfielder league deeper than 12 teams because I would guess at this point you know Lowe's got the chance to stay up for good now again the name there is I Josh Lowe go ahead Scott I don't like that he was striking out 31% of the time at AAA that's a really high rate especially at AAA that's a lot I've never been

the biggest low guy even doing straight up prospect rankings. So I'd pick him up in any five outfielder league, sure. But I did show restraint. Like I don't think he's in the same category as the guys we saw called up over the weekend. Jiroloff and Riley Green and all of them in terms of how motivated you should be to pick him up. Scott, would you say that you are not high on low? That's what I'd say. if you make me.

All right. Who would you rather have, Josh Lowe or Jaron, who's 19% rostered? So they're right around the same roster rate right now. And Duran went two for three with a walk on Monday.

He added two steals and has let off all five games that he has started since being recalled by the Red Sox. The problem and the consistent problem is that Enrique Hernandez

could be back soon for the Red Sox. So what do you think there? Why does Enrique Hernandez need to play? I don't even think I agree with you.

I don't even think The Red Sox believe you should because every time they put Duran in the lineup, they bat him lead off. I think he's, is he related to Alex Cora? They seem like buddies. That's why. Just like, that team has a lot of bad outfielders. Pretty much all of their outfielders are pretty bad. Jackie Bradley.

At this point. Doesn't need to play. Great defensive player. Francho Cordero, not a major league regular. You know, like, it shouldn't be hard to get Jaron Duran in the lineup. I agree. They've made it hard for themselves. I don't know.

Like, why would that change moving forward? I hope it does. I'm hopeful this was the game that said Duran needs to be in the line. I mean, two hits, two stolen bases, a walk. I mean, he's done fine prior to this. But, I mean, this was a real, you know, a real eye opener in the box score anyway. And I, like, I have more, like,

Lowe, because he has upside. Josh Lowe, I think is... I'm sorry, because he has power. Josh Lowe has more upside between the two of them. But I think Duran's going to be more useful if he sticks around. I think he'll help in batting average and especially runs and stolen bases. All right, Chris, for you, Josh Lowe versus Jared Duran.

Who do you take? That's a really close call. I might go with Duran. and I'm going to make sure I add him to the waiver wire column for Tuesday morning. Fair enough. And look, I know you've been high on him consistently. So yeah, hopefully Jaron Duran could see that consistent playing time. In deeper league, some prospects that were called up.

Nelson Velazquez recalled by the Cubs, he was betting 241 with 15 homers, 12 steals, and 8.59 OPS across two different levels in the minors this season. However, striking out 35% of the time. he did not start for the Cubs on Monday and a gentleman named Bly Madris Madras. I said it earlier and now I don't even remember how I'm supposed to say it was making his debut for the Pirates.

He's not really a prospect, but he was having a solid season at AAA. He went three for four with a double, two RBI and a steel. Just a name to remember there. If you're trying to figure out how to spell it, it's B-L-I-G-H. That's his first name, Bly.

And he looked great in this game. Let's, yeah, before we get to the break, let's just quickly run through some of the aces that were on the mound on Monday. The three strikeout leaders, actually, in Major League Baseball, were all on the mound. Shane McClanahan makes it eight straight quality starts in a row. He was up against the Yankees. Six endings of one-run ball, eight strikeouts, had 16 swinging strikes on 92 pitches. Corbyn Burns posted his fifth double-digit strikeout game of the season.

He goes seven shutout with 10 strikeouts against the Cardinals. And then Garrett Cole took a no-hitter into the eighth inning at Tampa Bay. goes seven and a third, gives up one run, 12 strikeouts for him. It was his fourth double-digit strikeout outing of the season. The ERA down to 3.14 for him. Scott, anything that you'd like to add

on McClan, Burns, and Garrett Cole, arguably the top three pitchers in fantasy baseball right now. Arguably. I have McClanahan a little lower in my rankings because I do think he's going to have to slow down the innings pace a bit as the season goes on. That's the main reason. Zach Wheeler and Justin Verlander ahead of him.

And in points, leagues I have Sandy Alcantara ahead of him, that same innings accumulator that he is. But McLeanhan's really good. And yeah, I don't think I have much to add. These guys are all great. Chris, anything for you? They are awesome. Not really.

Nothing. Nothing to add. They're great. All right. Well, I do have one thing to add. Here comes the money. Here we go. Money talks.

Here comes the money. I haven't heard that in a while. That's right. Anytime we get a quality star from a man, Shane, you will hear Shane O. Mac here on the podcast. Let's take a break. And when we return, we'll get to news and notes here on fantasy baseball today. The news and notes, Manny Machado was on the bench Monday with that left ankle sprain.

And the team is optimistic he'll be able to avoid the IL, which if he does. I've heard that one before. This guy must have, I don't know, ankles of. steal or something because that looked absolutely terrible. And as someone who has sprained my ankle multiple times playing basketball in my life, I had to cringe. I couldn't even watch it. It looks so disgusting.

So I hope he doesn't go on the I.O., but I don't know how he is going to avoid it. We'll see. Manny Machetechata. Max Scher will make his rehab start on Tuesday at AA, and if all goes well, could return to the Mets this weekend, which sounds pretty aggressive. Wow. I hope. Wow, good for him.

I hope he's all right, man. Joe Musgrove has been able to throw while on the COVID-I.L. But is expected to miss at least one turn in the rotation. Instead, Mike Clevenger will start Wednesday against the D-backs. Brandon Woodruff said he expects to make his second rehab start at High A on Thursday. He threw 51 pitches in his first rehab outing, originally on the aisle with an ankle injury, then started dealing with some numbness in his fingers. So hopefully all is well with Brendan

Woodruff. And we got got. Aaron Ashby was placed on the aisle with that left forearm inflammation retroactive to June 17th. This comes one day after he was cleared to make his next start. We're getting ready to fire him up, two-star pitcher. Uh-huh.

But I don't know what's going on with this injury and decision that has run rampant in the league this year. I feel like... I think like in this case they had to get a pitcher off the roster.

So it could have been because the the roster limit for pitchers went into effect yesterday, I think, or today. I think today. Yeah. Today. And so I think that's a big part of why we've seen so many big name hitters get called up. And, you know, it could just be that this allowed them to not make a tougher decision. Yeah.

So hopefully that's what it is. I heard on the broadcast that he threw a bullpen yesterday and that his forum didn't really respond well and had issue throwing his slider, which is one of his best pitches. So honestly, it makes me a little bit worried about Aaron Ashby. Yeah, I mean, it was, it was weird that he left to start with a forearm injury. And it was just like, oh, he'll be fine for his next start. Like that doesn't ever happen. Yeah, not great.

Apparently, Aaron Ashby isn't particularly worried about the injury, but I don't believe you. Jack Flaherty is expected to target around 75. pitches in his second start of the season on Tuesday against the Brewers. Chris Bryant scheduled to begin a rehab assignment Tuesday at AAA could return this weekend. Kutel Marte has now missed four straight with that hamstring injury. He's expected to be back at some point during the series with the Padres. Tyler O'Neill was placed on the aisle due to left hamstring tightness and as a result, Juan Yuppez should see increased playing time. I think he actually picked up multiple hits here on Monday. is Juan Ypres.

I did just drop Ypres for Duran. It was a pretty tough call, but I went with Duran in a Roto League. Juan Yipez has slowed down quite a bit. I know the batting average still looks okay, but the power particularly has really taken a step back. So if you need speed in a Categories league, I don't have an issue making that swap. Fran Mill Reyes is expected to return Tuesday and is 67% rostered. Could be out there in some shallower leagues.

Scott, do you think? Fran Milraeus is a must-ad where available? No, he strikes out too much for points leagues, I think, especially if it's a three outfielder points league. But I don't even know that I... Like, I do think he's probably a 30-homer pace the rest of the way, as bad as he was when he was healthy this year. I still buy the track record.

Is he a must-in-three-outfielder category leagues? Um, if you, if you want more power, like, you should probably pick them up. If you're pretty satisfied with your outfield, I could understand not picking them up. Yeah. It's just tough because there's so many outfielders emerging right now, Riley Green and Michael Harris and Alex Kirilloff. But I agree. I think anywhere where you need power just would not surprise me. A friend, Fram Relraeus goes on one of these binges that we've seen in the past.

Promising that he's only struck out. I mean, it's only five games, but he only struck out three times on his rehab assignment. So that's a good sign. A roll of Chapman is scheduled to throw a live batting practice session on Tuesday at the Yankees Spring Training Complex in Tampa. He's on the IEL with left Achilles tendonitis.

We got an update last week that said even when he returns Clay Holmes will be their highest leverage reliever but still pick up some saves along the way so I don't know. Could get kind of messy there at the back end for the Yankees. Yohan Moncato was placed on the aisle yet again

this time with a strained right hand. hamstring that should ensure playing time for Jake Berger, who's done some interesting things this season. Anthony Desclyfani is likely to make his return Tuesday and start against the Braves. He was not great early on this season, but was very solid last year. Chris, would you be looking to add Anthony Descalfani, who is 60% rostered? Yeah, I think he's worth a look. I mean, 60% rostered is probably, it's not his ceiling, but it suggests that he's rostered most of the places he needs to be. Because there's not like super high upside here with the strikeout rate being what it is.

But yeah, I think he is, he's definitely useful. He's definitely worth rostering in most leagues. Would you rather take a shot on him or Aaron Savali, who is getting ready to return as well? Discofani. All right. Jeff McNeil is considered day to day after leaving Monday's game with hamstring tightness. Ken Giles was finally reinstated by the Seattle Mariners, and I'm sure he won't step right in as the closer, but could work his way into the role.

Scott, would you be looking to add Ken Giles in any category leagues? He's only 13% rostered. It's not a high priority for me. He looked horrible on his rehab assignment. His rehab assignment was a disaster. Yeah. And obviously it's been a long time since we've seen Ken Giles pitch a major league game. So I don't really know what to expect from him much less

You know will he ever will he ever have a shot at the closer roll that's that's kind of a secondary question at this point Seven and third innings 15 hits 11 earned runs four home runs eight walks eight strikeouts so Yikes I like I do think If he looks like himself he'll be the closer before long But I just I don't know how likely it is that he'll look like himself. Yeah, he's coming back from Tommy John surgery on top of that. He dealt with a finger injury for most of the season. So it's been a long road back for Ken Giles. Pirate starting pitcher Zach Thompson was placed on the IL with right forearm nerve inflammation. Marcus Stroman, who is on the IL with shoulder inflammation, is expected

to throw a bullpen within the next few days. And Luis Petino is scheduled to make his next rehab start Tuesday at AAA. And Chris, would you rather stash Patino or Nicola Dolo right now, who's also ramping up? uh, Lodolo, I think. He's, he's probably, um, both a little closer and a little more of a sure thing. Patino, I really like the potential, but he just hasn't got the swings and misses at the major league level so far. He's been very fastball heavy. Um, but I, I like the idea of stashing him for sure. All right. Let's move into some stat cast standouts. And I'm going to do a few different things here. Look at some players who stand out for the overall.

all season and then look at players who have stood out so far in the month of June. And a few barrel rate standouts for the season. Barrel rate is, it's a power metric that we use that is ideal for, it's the ideal contact. It's, you know, 95 plus miles per hour off the bat. It's between 15 and 25 degree launch angle. So it's literally optimal contact for power. And a few names that stood out here that are all ranked inside the top 30.

A. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. O. Horeno, Suarez has bounced back so far this season. He is 16th in this metric. Marcel Ozuna is 18th. And frankly, has underperformed a lot of his expected numbers. And then Mike Yistremski is, like, very quietly having a solid season. He's hitting well against lefties once again. He's putting the ball in the air and hitting a good amount of barrels so far this season. So, Scott, what do you think about these three overall?

I mean, Yistremski probably more of a points league standout than anything. Suarez has bounced back. Ozuna, I still think, is a solid by low if you can. Yeah, I agree with that. I'm not really sure what to make of Suarez, because he is showing up pretty high in the third base rankings because that position's so bad. The raw stat line isn't that impressive to me,

and after the way the last two years went, I don't see much reason to give him benefit of the doubt. So I kind of am viewing him in the same light is like Patrick Wisdom, where I don't actually think he's that good, but he might be the best you can do at third base. Azuna, I think, is going to be great in the long run. I was getting kind of excited about Yistrimski again, but ever since the Giants started incorporating Luis Gonzalez in their lineup,

Yistrinsky's playing time, you know, he's sitting like two, three times a week, so it makes it hard to use them in any format. Yeah, that is fair. I hadn't realized. In Suarez's defense, you know, the fact that he is shortstop and third base eligible, he's, I think, a useful player to have a round. Like, I think he's probably just a corner slash middle infielder,

but the fact that he's eligible at both is pretty useful for a roto league. So I do think he's, you know, not a star, certainly not the guy he used to be. And even with the 14.6% barrel rate, like his expected stats are pretty much in line with what he's doing because he's striking out 32% of the time. I agree. I think corner and middle is a perfect spot for Suarez. I picked him up for, I think, like a dollar in one of my salary cap, 15 team leagues. And I've just kind of said it and forget it.

I just throw them in there and, you know, whatever, low batting average, but probably one in the season with around 30 home runs, he's, he's been okay. 30 home runs, 85 RBI, 85 runs, something like that. Like, that's, it's not going to make you win your league, but it's a useful guy. to have around with some, you know, flexibility. I completely butcher the definition of a barrel, by the way, according to Statcast. So the problem with the barrel is like there's not one definition. It's like a sliding scale depending on how hard you hit it.

So if you hit it 95 miles an hour, it's got a fairly narrow range of launch angles. If you hit it 115 miles an hour, it can be a much wider range of launch angles. So it mostly just means like an ideally hit ball. Like it's a ball that has like a 1,500. OPS over the course of the Stadcast error or something like that. Yeah, these have led to a minimum 500 batting average and 1,500 slugging percentage since Stackcast was implemented back in 2015. And honestly, the particulars don't really matter much.

Like, you've heard the saying a million times if you watch baseball, barreling up a ball, it's pretty self-explanatory. Expected numbers who are much better for the season. And I still don't know exactly how much to weigh expected numbers, because obviously we're going through a weird environment change in baseball. But three names that stood out to me, Corey Seeger, now with the Texas Rangers. The power is actually up for Seeger this year, but the batting average has not been there for him. Will Smith with the Dodgers and Juan Soto, who we are getting lots of emails about right now.

People are upset. Juan Soto is batting 218. Like, I'm not going to fault people for being upset. This is your first round pick. He's hitting 21st on June 21st. That's a letdown. No matter how you want to spin it, that that is a letdown. And some of the underlying numbers...

I will spin it that he's still the seventh best outfielder in points leagues in spite of batting 218 or whatever. Sure, but he is also the 77th overall player in Roto. This someone that you drafts... If you're in points league, you're probably still pretty happy. There are some things under the hood, too, that are not great at 12% line drive rate. That's quite bad. It's not what you want to see, and he's not hitting the ball nearly.

as hard. I would bank on Soto being Wantsota rest of season, but I just thought it. I would point it out. This is the thing when someone writes in with like, you guys have to talk about Wonsoto. And it's like, okay, I'm not worried about him. Like I, I don't know. Like it's, it's a, it's the thing where like that's not what you want to hear, although it should be what you want to hear. You should feel good about the fact that we have no concerns about Soto like I don't know maybe he won't be the best hitter in baseball but like if Juan Soto hits 280 the rest of the way with a 35 homer pace and the the typical things that he does like you're gonna be really happy about that and I don't know like I I always struggle with with the player like this when people like insist that

we be like worried about it I get being upset about the way he's played so far makes sense. He has not lived up to expectations. And that is frustrating. But like, I'm not going to lie to you and tell you I think Juan Soda is going to hit 218 the rest of the season. I think he's going to hit 280 at minimum the rest of the season. I don't really see any reason like, yeah, his line drive rate's lower than it usually is. All right. Like, he's probably going to, like line drive rate takes multiple seasons to stabilize. So it's, it's not the kind of thing I'm going to be worried about moving forward. He's still hitting the ball very, very hard.

He's still borderline elite in pretty much every expected stat. So I hope this makes you feel better about Wonsoto. It should. But, like, I don't know. It feels like sometimes people want to panic. And, like, don't. It's Wonsoto. I don't know.

I don't know. Because I'm, I agree with you. I don't have... I don't have Soto anywhere, so maybe that's part of it. I haven't really felt the struggles as much, but for what it's worth, all five of the projection systems on Fangraphs rest of season have Soto for between a 284 and 289 batting average.

So they agree that he will be much better moving forward. The other two names I mentioned on there, I still consider them. Will Smith, probably not a buy low because he's actually still been very good for a catcher. But yeah, I would be looking to buy either Corey Seeger or Will Smith, if you can. A few June...

Go ahead, Scott. I have had the thought with Corey Seeger. Like, at some point, do we just have to be like, okay, he's a guy who underperforms his expected stats? Now, normally, it's not the batting average that he's underperforming. Like, that's been... It's just maybe the power's not all the way there. But ultimately, he tends to be a monster in September, I guess, is what I'm building up to saying for Corey Seeger. He had 385 and 9 home runs last September.

He has 32 home runs in his career in September. Next highest month is 21. So, like, is probably, like, beyond just what the expected stats say he should be doing is probably a bad idea to sell him short, just given his, track record month by month breakdown. And the idea that he underperforms his expected stats, like, I don't know if his track record really backs it up. Like 2020, he did a little bit,

but like he had a 434 expected Woba and a 394 Woba. Like, I don't know if that necessarily suggests, like, that there's something to worry about. He actually outperformed his expected stats in 2019. Last year, it was right on par. So I think it's more of an experience of rostering Corey Seeger thing for exactly what I was saying. Like last year, I think most people

remember Corey Seger was a big disappointment because he did half his half a season's worth of damage in September basically. And that may be what we're going through again with him. Yeah, but like still has elite line drive rate, elite quality of

contact. There doesn't seem to be anything as far as like the shift that's really messing with him. So I think Corey Seeger's fine. And if anyone's wondering about the fly ball being, fly ball rate being up obviously will lead to a lower Babbup than we're used to seeing. But his Babbup is 226.

It's 325 for his career. It should not be 100 points below his career mark just because he's increased his fly ball rate. It's not some kind of exponential fly ball rate either. So, yeah, I would expect better days coming for Corey Seeger overall. A few June standouts, I wanted to mention Barrel. percentage standouts. Adam Duval, who is 22% in the month, and Jack Swinsky, who of course is hitting a bunch of home runs for the pirates. It's been awesome to see. Someone either emailed in or tweeted at me, and they pointed this out. I think it's a really good observation.

Adam Duval recently moved to left field when Michael Harris was called up. And in 15 games in left field, he's sitting 255, six homers, a 982 OPS. Adam Duval, I think he's won a gold glove. I think he's won a gold glove. I don't... Yeah, he won a gold glove last year. I don't think he's a natural center fielder. I just looked at his numbers from last year, too. Offensively, he wasn't as great in center field

either last season, so it could be nothing, but... Yeah, they've talked about it a lot on the Braves broadcast, which I tend to tune in to more than any other team for obvious reasons. Just that... I know Brian Jordan specifically has been going on about how he's probably less tired playing left field than center field, And I guess there's logic to that. I don't feel like we hear that analysis ever applied to any other player ever.

So I just kind of naturally resistant to it. But there does seem like it does sound logical that if you're spending less energy on defense, you have more on offense. He's also just incredibly streaky. True. And so it could just be, you know, the human brain's desire for pattern recognition. Yep. whatever Chris just said. 44% of rostered is Adam Duvall,

so if you do need some power, much like Fran Mill Reyes. I think they're kind of similar, although I do trust Fran Mill Reyes more. June hard hit rate standouts, Ryan Mountcastle, 63% of his batted balls are hard hits. That is just bananas.

Chris Taylor, 56%, who we haven't talked about all season. And then Glaber Torres, 55%, who he's having a good June, and I still think that we're close to some kind of breakout. I mean, he's had a bounce back season. There's no doubt about it.

But I really like what I've seen from Glaber Torres. Scott, Chris and I talked about Ryan Mountcastle at length last week, but you were not on that podcast. Obviously, we were all against drafting Ryan Mountcastle this year, but... Yeah, I remember talking about Mountcastle last week. What are you talking about?

Maybe you were here for it. Maybe. Yeah. I wrote him at length about him in the trade values column as well. What I said was... that his stack cast data is all way up from last year. And if it was this way last year,

I would have been more behind the idea of drafting him. But at the same time... He might have been a 40-Homer guy. And at the same time, look at the actual production. Like, it does seem like the new dimensions at Camden Yards may be neutral. Like, he's not regressed as much as I thought he has, because the skills seem to have improved.

And yet, you know, he's still kind of, still kind of just a mid-tier hitter because that's fine. I moved him up. He was the biggest riser for me in the trade values column, and I moved him up to like the 120 overall range. And that's a gigantic jump, but I think it's probably where he's going to end up moving forward just because that park is a really hard place to hit now.

And it does seem to have, neutralize, like Scott said, a lot of the gains that he's made in terms of his underlying skill set. And it's also like a lot of the gains he's apparently made in his underlying skill set are very recent changes. You know, his production has been very heavily weighted towards June. I would, right. I mean, part of, part of my analysis for Mount Castle would also be that I think he's, I think it's more likely the, um, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the skill metrics regress than that the production catches up to the skill metrics, you know. Yeah.

And this is kind of where I think the expected numbers on Stackass might be a little misleading because they probably aren't factoring in the new ballpark yet for Camden. So I would say that, you know, maybe don't pay too much attention to that. Obviously, it is encouraging that Ryan Moucassel is hitting the ball as hard as he is. All right, let's get back into the rest of Monday's action. We had a pair of socks and shoes. it's a home run in the steal in the same game. For the Kansas City Royals,

Andrew Benintendi hit his third home run and his first stolen base of the season. Sully, because I finally took him out of all of my five outfielder, 15 team league lineups, and of course he has his best game of the season. Let me tell you something.

If Andrew Benintendi isn't stealing bases, there's no point. It's been just empty batting average so far for him. He's hitting 299. even with this 762 OPS. I blanked on the name. Nick, he's late period,

Nick Markekechis now. Oh, geez. I mean, you might be right, but that is not very exciting. With the trajectory that Andrew Benintendi's career

was on a year and a half ago, I think Nick Markechakas outcome would be a pretty positive one. I mean, his whole career lines up with Nick Markechakas. I feel like I've been making that comparison to Benintendi all along.

Yeah. Marcacus was a lot better early on in his career, I want to say. Benintendi was. Well, Benintendi was better, too. Benintendi's still 70% rostered. I assume we would drop him for any of those. Riley Green, Kirillov, Geron, Duran.

Anyone with upside. Fair enough. The other one was Hunter Dozier. Another one. I mean, not the most exciting, but hey, it's a home run and a steal in the same game. Seventh Homer, second steel. He's betting 259.

He's got a 7-55. OPS, just kind of blah, not very excited about Hunter Dozier. Are either of you excited about Hunter Dozier? No, I'm disappointed that he's rostered in one of my Roto leagues where I lost Yohan Moncada. So I guess that tells you more about that league than anything about Hunter Dozier. Hunter Dozier's been more useful this year than I thought he was going to be, but that's not saying much. Oh, right.

This player did not steal base, but he did hit a homebrose. run. Salvador Perez went two for four with his 11th home run and in the month of June he's hitting 257 5 homers, 18 RBI it's more like Salvador Perez it's still clearly not the standout and

I think it just kind of lines up with his batted ball data this year he's still hitting the ball hard he's just not that clear outlier like he was last year where he was just absolutely crushing the ball so I think that kind of explains what we've seen from Salvador Perez

some waiver wire hitters from Monday and we won't talk about Michael Harris too much because we talk about him all the time but he went three for three with a triple he's batting 3.46, he's up to 70% rostered just gonna keep telling you to grab Michael Harris. Spencer Torkelson, three multi-hit games in a row I don't think we need to go out and add him yet

if he was dropped but a name to watch let's see where it goes. Spencer Torkelson, 59% rostered in deeper leagues. Is there anything here? Trent Grisham hit his sixth home run. He's been okay in the month of June. 243 batting average, three homers, two steals,

41% rostered. Anything in deeper leagues? Trent Grisham. Would rather have Duran. Would rather have low. Fair enough. In even deeper leagues than that, Luis Gonzalez,

Scott, you mentioned his name earlier. He's been pretty good for the Giants. Two more hits, and over his last seven games, he's batting 3-10, one homer, two steals. He does play every day. Maybe it's a defense thing for him.

but he's also very bad against lefties. Anything on Luis Gonzalez? Not much, no. I don't, like, he's been stealing bases in a nice clip. He doesn't have a great track record of that in the minors. So I don't know. I haven't taken him serious look at him yet, but we'll see how long he,

his current pace continues, how long he stays in the lineup every day. You know how the giants are. These guys are all interchangeable for them. That's right. All right. Again, the name there, Luis Gonzalez. Do we make anything of all of these swinging strikes from Monday?

Oh, Trevor Rogers. Another mediocre start. Four runs allowed over five innings pitched. However, he had 24 swinging strikes. Maybe it's because it was a Monday matinee game, and I don't know what it was, but that is a crazy amount of swinging strikes. Even on the other side,

David Peterson had 19 swinging strikes. He went five in a third shot out. with seven strikeouts. Chris, are you making anything of this for either Rogers or Peterson? Peterson, no. I think this is more about the Marlins just being really, really bad against lefties. Rogers, though, the Mets are not a team that strikes out very much. He had 24 swing strikes in this one, nine or eight of them on the change up.

Look, with how good he was in the first half, half of last season, you know, one of the eight or so best pitchers in baseball, any sign of him figuring it out is going to peak my interest. And he's 68% rostered right now, I believe. I'm willing to pick him up in league where he was dropped based on this start. Because if Trevor Rogers was figuring it out, this is what it would start to look like. And, you know, this was a start where gosh, I want to say he had, I think he walked to the bases loaded or walked, had a walk with the bases loaded and then retired like 10 straight and looked better than he has all season, frankly.

So yeah, I think this is a very promising start despite the results. The swinging strike rate alone makes it, you know, arguably his best start of the season. Yeah, some questionable defense behind him as well. There was two errors in that game. I think someone scored on a wild pitch or a pass ball, something like that. So it was kind of a weird one, but definitely pay attention to those swinging strikes with Trevor Rogers. Some pitching leftovers from Monday. Logan Webb back-to-back seven-ending quality starts.

This one at the Braves, seven innings, one run, seven strikeouts. Max Fried continues his frankly underrated season. I feel like we never talk about him, but he's just awesome. Seven innings, one run, eight strikeouts there. Miles Michaelis turns in his ninth quality start of the season, and then U. Darvish has now gone six plus innings in 11 of 13 starts this year. In this one, seven innings of one-run ball, five strikeouts against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Scott, anything you'd like to add on Webb, Freed, Michaelis, Darvish?

Yes, I will add that I have moved Max Fried into my top 12 at starting pitcher. I had like I had of Kevin Gosman, which I've been reluctant to do because he doesn't really compare to most of those guys in terms of strikeout potential. But, you know, his K rate is actually similar like Justin Verlander, and he's just been so reliable over the past three years. Like, I just, it's just hard to knock Freed for anything. Yeah, I was just looking up the ADP because the Webb Freed combo I found interesting. and Webb was going ahead of Max Fried this season. And Webb's been good. Especially lately.

He's gotten the numbers. Yeah, but it-ERA's down to 326. In retrospect, it's definitely a Logan Webb could be anything. He could be Max-Fried kind of situation. Like, Max-Fried is, I think, just underrated. He's 13th for me. So I'm right there with you, Scott. All right.

Usually I'm the one saying I'm there with you, Scott, but it's good to hear it from somebody else. One waiver wire pitcher, not much going on here. J.T. Brewbaker, a strong start against the Cubs. Six shutout with five strikeouts. Not a must add by any means. He's been okay. 12% rostered. Yeah, just forget I said anything.

It's J.T. Brewbaker. Hitting leftovers from Monday, Anthony Rizzo went two for four with his 19th home run, this one off of Shane McClanahan. Javier Baez has a modest five-game hitting streak with one homer, two steals during the span. And if you are desperate for a middle, infielder if you lost Jeremy Pena or

didn't we have another big injury Ozzy Albies yeah I think now is still the time to buy because once Javier Baez has that explosion game you're not going to be able to buy them on the cheap so go out and get him if you need a middle infielder it's coming I think it's coming

I think so too Taylor Ward went two for three with his 11th home run have not heard his name in a while 10 June games entering Monday he was hitting 195 with a 409 OPS kind of been off and with the injuries lately, so not holding it against Taylor Ward, but also would like to see him bounce back sooner rather than later. Jake Cronoworth went one for three with his seventh home run,

and he continues a massive June where he's hitting 377, four homers, 22 RBI in 20 June games. That is awesome for Cronoward and an 1135 OPS. The call to the bullpen. Some bullpen updates here for the Red Sox Tanner Hauke allowed a hit, but picked up his fifth save working on back-to-back days for, I believe Chris, you said it was the first time. Yeah. Yep. He only got one out on Sunday, but it was 10 pitches, so it wasn't nothing. Yeah. He now, Hauck now has the last five saves for the Boston Red Sox and seems pretty entrenched as their closer. He's 70% rostered if you need saves there. For the Yankees, Clay Holmes entered in the eighth inning with a two-run lead and a runner on first. He proceeded to give up a double,

an RBI ground out, and then a game-tying single. Uh, he took his first blown save of the season. The Yankees took the lead in the ninth, and Wandi Paralta picked up his second save of the season. For the White Sox, this was kind of interesting. Kendall Graveman pitched in the eighth inning with a three-run lead. He faced the heart of the Blue Jays lineup, three, four, and five. And then Joe Kelly pitched in the ninth.

He gave up a two-run homer to Kavin Bigio, but did convert his first save of the season. Scott, do you think this is more of what to expect? Kendall Graveman, just the highest leverage arm in that bullpen? Yeah, I don't think the White Sox actually said Graveman was going to replace Hendricks. That was just kind of the presumption because he was consistently the eighth inning guy. But now that they don't have a tried and true closer for the knife, they might mix a match a little more. I mean, I still think Graveman's the guy to have from the White Sox bullpen.

But they may do the leverage thing a little more. For the Giants, Camillo DeValle entered in the ninth inning with the game tied. he gave up a walk, single, single, takes his third loss of the season. For the Brewers, Josh Hader picked up his 20th save, and he was out a little bit. I think it was on paternity, but he's back, and he's getting saves, once again. To stream or not to stream, let's start with Tuesday, Ryan Feltoner at the Marlins, Rwanzi Contreras versus the Cubs, Eric Fetty at the Orioles, Rich Hill versus the Tigers, Bede Dettmers versus the Royals, and Marco Gonzalez at the Oakland A's.

probably either Contreras yeah probably Rollins and Kitraris is number one choice Marco Gonzalez number two yep

I think that's fair Wednesday we have Ross tripling at the White Sox John Gray versus the Phillies Keegan Thompson at the Pirates Tyler Wells

versus the Nationals and Michael Walker versus the Tigers so Gray is starting against the Phillies and not against the nationals like we hoped I still think he's

the top choice here. Yeah. Thompson is okay, although I guess the Pirates lineup is getting better. I still think it's okay to stream. I mean, 12 runs today, baby.

Let's go. Michael Walker against the Tigers is okay as well. But yeah, John Gray is probably the best one. Don't overlook Bly Madras. We're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching. Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back

to get tomorrow. Bye-bye.