Fantasy Baseball Today - Opening Day Rosters/Rotations; Week 1 Sleepers! (3/31 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 31, 2021

Spring Training is over, which means baseball season is upon us! Let's get things started with our favorite sleeper pitcher and sleeper hitter for Week 1 of the season (2:40). ... Who made Opening Day rosters and rotations in the American League (9:52)? What do you need to know about Casey Mize and Dylan Cease? ... How about in the National League (25:08)? Who is Taylor Widener? Scott Kingery and Odubel Herrera were optioned by the Phillies. ... We have news and notes (28:22). It seems like Shohei Ohtani is okay after suffering from a blister on Monday, George Springer is unlikely to be ready for Opening Day, and there is optimism surrounding Framber Valdez. ... Who are the rest of Scott's sleeper pitchers for Week 1 (33:34)? ... Who are the rest of Scott's sleeper hitters for Week 1 (43:28)? ... We wrap up with your emails. Email us at [e-mail]. 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank, @AdamAizer Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. I drive, center field, and swing. This is magnificent. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, Chris, and Adam.

And just like that, spring training, 2021 is in the books. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today. Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott. White and Chris Towers. The season is just about here. Jens. Are you ready? I mean, I guess it doesn't matter if we are. It's not like they're not going to stop this season because I say, wait, I need a couple more days. But no, I have no drafts left. My last draft was yesterday. The slowest head-to-head points draft of all time. It took approximately 14 hours. I blame Adam. And that's it. That's it. all of our, all of my drafts are done.

I think it came out to, uh, like 17 drafts and playing out 11 of them. So looking, looking forward to it. We're great hype men, aren't we? Like, we get in here trying to fire everybody up for baseball season. And we're like, it's fine.

I mean, let's get, let's get fired up, baby. Fired up like a manual class A, right, Chris? Woo! Are we right? Am I right? Uh, yeah. I don't know who the closer in Cleveland's going to be, but I know who's going to throw the ball hardest. Oh, man. We are, we are just off to a riveting start. There are multiple cats in Chris's background right now.

No, actually. One is, one is wrecking the joint. Something just fell behind me. Yeah, we all heard it. The other cat, the other cat is out of the room. So that was a ghost. That was, and, and. It's Anthony ghosts.

You were having weird things going on with your light the other day. Where it was just turning on. I live in a, 100 year old building, you guys. There could be several. I would be shocking if there weren't several ghosts in here. Seriously. We are not just going to talk about ghosts for the entire podcast, but today we are going

to look at some of the opening day rosters and rotations. Some things have been finalized, and of course we're still waiting on others. And of course, Scott was up very late slash early, depending on where you live last night slash morning, giving, writing his week one sleepers for the four day week and for the 11 day week. both for pitchers and four hitters, and we will hit some of your emails later on in the podcast as well. Scotty, hit us.

Who is your favorite sleeper pitcher for this weekend in particular? Well, it probably depends how deep your league, whether he, how deep your league is, whether he qualifies as a sleeper. But you can give me one, you can give me one shallower one and one deeper one. Okay.

Well, Zach Davies is rostered more and 70% of leagues. So, you know, you may not be thinking about starting him. And depending on how the rest of your rotation looks, maybe you still shouldn't. But he is going against the pirates who are very bad, in my estimation, the worst team in baseball. And, you know, Zach Davies is pretty reliable, stable innings eater guy.

So whenever he has great matchups like that, he's going to be somebody who's not a bad play, not a bad play. The Royals have three. I'll just give you one right now. The Royals have three fringy, sometimes worth starting type of pitchers who are going against the Rangers this week.

And so all three are in my top ten sleeper pitchers for this week. The best of them being Brady Singer, I think, who had a really strong spring, showed a little more strikeout potential than maybe some of us thought he had. and it was pretty good down the stretch last year too, tunneling that slider off the fastball.

So Brady Singer, rostered in less than 50% of leagues, is my number two choice there. And I am pretty excited about Brady Singer. I've been talking about him up recently, and he did use that fastball slider combination quite a bit down the stretch last year, but they have been talking up his change-up so far in spring training,

and he was really good in the spring. and I think he wound up being my most drafted pitcher. Like every draft I did the past two weeks, I wound up with Brady Singer. So I hope he's awesome, at least over the first weekend against the Texas Rangers. Zach Davies, you mentioned as well, 72% rostered on CBS going up against the pirates.

And I would say the pirates are probably the team you want to stream your pitchers against most this upcoming season. And while Zach Davies doesn't get many strikeouts and he doesn't throw very hard, honestly, the Cubs rotation is going to average 8. 87, 88 miles per hour on their fastball this year, which is hilarious. But yeah, I do like him quite a bit in that matchup against the Pirates.

Somebody was trying to say something. Who was it? I was going to say, Cobrian Hayes can only do so much when we were talking about the Pirates lineup. I mean, Jacob Stallings is going to hit third for them, right? Or fourth? Please don't say that. I don't know. I can't imagine that'll be every day.

Oh, my gosh. I will just, the final spring line for Cabrano. Ryan Hayes hit another home run on, it was Tuesday. 22 for 51 in the spring, 6 doubles, 2 triples, 2 homers, 2 steals. That is a 431 batting average and a 1208 OPS. Good thing. None of the spring training stats actually matter for fantasy baseball purposes. Chris, you cannot suggest Cabrion Hayes,

but who is a sleeper hitter that you like for this upcoming weekend? Would you like to guess when the last time the Los Angeles Dodgers, who famously have had very good pitching for quite a while, had an ERA below four at Corse Field, a venue that they go to at least nine times a season, every season except for 2020 when they only went five. So is this just their collective team ERA? Their ERA at Coorsfield.

I will say... The way that you are phrasing the question, I will say it may have been a wide, So let's go with, I don't know, 2013. Would you like to... I was going to say 2014. It's such a bad year for offense. I have gone back to 2004,

and they have not had a team ERA below four at least in this long at Courtsfield. Usually it's over five, often over six. Coorsfield is a terrible place to pitch. So I don't care that the Los Angeles Dodgers have good pitchers. I'm going to say C.J. Crone is the best sleeper hitter. And frankly, given the way some of the drafts the last few days that I've seen in NFC are going,

I don't know if Cron will qualify as a sleeper hitter for long because he went 99th in one draft today that I saw. Oh my gosh. 59% rostered in CBS leagues. I'm actually writing about him. Counts for this one. Tonight in the best players, the best players you can still grab off waivers. C.J. Crone is among them.

It is entirely possible that the Dodgers have never had an ERA under four at Corsfield because I'm 20 years back now. And yeah. So, R. T.J. Crone at Cors. But just to point it out, the only place he's playing. The pitchers that the Rockies will be facing at Coorsfield are going to be Kershaw, Kershaw, Bauer, Bueller, Rius. But they're also one of the few teams, the Rockies.

are and the Dodgers for that matter playing four games in uh you know presuming your week one is is just the weekend and doesn't doesn't fold the weekend into the first full week for an 11 day scoring period we're just talking about the four day scoring period yeah then yeah i would uh even though those are tough matchups i like i didn't put c j crone as my number one hitter for this week but i think he was like third for me yeah a lot to like there's been hitting some balls exceptionally hard this spring and it's not even at Corse Field yet. Yep. CJ Crone it was just a couple of years ago 2019 he had a 15% barrel rate which ranked inside the top 30 hitters in all

of baseball that season so when he makes contact he makes exceptional contact and he's been doing that in spring so far again CJ Crone 17 for 48 the spring with five home runs and eight RBIs there with the Colorado Rockies, before we get to some of those opening day rotations and rosters that you need to know about, just wanted to tell you about the all-new Stitcher podcast app. It's been rebuilt from the ground up to make it easier to listen to podcasts on the go

or on their revamped web player. Stitcher is the home to all of your favorite podcasts from classics like my favorite murder, This American Life, and how did this get made? Plus all the CBS shows, such as Ion College Basketball, pick six, and of course, your favorite, fantasy baseball today. With Stitcher, you have more control

like setting your download preferences per show and the ability to listen at virtually any speed. You can listen to your podcast anytime, anywhere, so give the all-new Stitcher a try, download it in the app store or at stitcherapp.com slash download. All right, so I don't know how

useful this is going to be. I was talking to you guys before this. I think a lot of this information will be helpful more so for deeper leagues, but I think it's good to know the roster pool inside and out regardless. So some of the things that I noticed from Tuesday regarding announcements, as expected, Andrew Vaughn with the White Sox will be on the opening day roster. And they mostly said that he's going to play some DH, some first base, he's going to share that with Jose Abraeu.

But of course, there is a possibility that he can be thrown out in left field as well. Zach Collins and Yermin Mercedes all made the opening day roster as well. Collins and Mercedes could form a natural platoon at DH again when they're using Andrew Vaughn in left field. Scott, any interest outside of Vaughn, obviously, which we love in Collins or Mercedes in Deeper Leaks. I wanted to say there's no interest in Collins. He was a pretty, he was drafted pretty high if I remember as a catcher.

And I don't think he's catcher eligible in fantasy, but he could certainly pick that up at some point this year. He struck out way too much in the miners, but it was a case of him being overly passive, and he's worked to correct that and has not struck out much this spring, and the power's been there all along. So, you know, we thought they had nobody else

that they could slot at DH. Zach Collins might end up being respectable, though. For the Tigers, Miguel Cabrero will actually play first base on opening day, which means to likely gain first base eligibility early in the season. As of now, he is utility only on CBS Sports. And I didn't realize this,

but Miguel Cabrero's 150 game pace from last season, 26 home runs and 92 RBI. Chris, we have not mentioned Miguel Cabrera's name at all because there are so many awesome Util-only players. Is there a chance that we should be talking about Miguel Cabrara? He still actually hits the ball reasonably well. He's had an ex-Wobo over three-season. 67 and three of the last four years.

49% hard hit rate last season, 93.2 miles per hour average exit velocity, good barrel. He still profiles is a pretty good hitter, except he's one of the slowest hitters in baseball. And so what happens when you get that old is, yeah, you can hit the ball hard. He's in the first percentile in sprint speed. When you get that old, defenses can play near the end. outfield in the infield grass and still throw you out. And so he gets a lot of singles robbed. I think he can be a 25 homer guy who drives in 85 runs.

I just think it's more likely than not going to come with a pretty bad batting average. Yeah, don't go rush you to your waiver wire to add McGill Cabrera or anything, but hard hit rate and average exit velocity, both over 90, in the 91st percentile or better last season. And while he hit 250, he had a 417 slug. According to Stack has 285 expected batting average for Miguel Cabrera and a 514 expected slug. In the rotation for the Tigers, I know we, for a while, we're wondering, all right, well, which prospects are going to make it?

And I know Spencer Turnbull is dealing with a COVID situation, but the rotation for the Tigers will be Matthew Boyd, Julio Tehran, Terrick Scouble, Jose Urania, and Casey My. Speaking of rotations, let's take a look at the Toronto Bluejay. Robbie Ray will not start the first time through, but they have Junjun Ryu, Steven Mats, Ross Stripling, Tanner Roark, and I believe it's Tj Zuck, who is going to be their fifth starter, at least until Robbie Ray is back. I do want to go back to the Tigers, just to note Casey Mize, you know,

we didn't talk about him a ton the last couple weeks. He got off to a really bad start to the spring. It was nine walks to seven strikeouts in his first three starts. Uh, in three starts since then. He has 20 strikeouts to two walks in 12 and a third innings. So, you know, it's possible. He's got great stuff. The velocity's been up like two miles per hour last season.

He was the first pick in the MLB draft, I believe, pretty sure, first or second. Yep. First pick. One of the top prospects in baseball. Many prospect lists still consider him the best of the Tigers big three with Tric Skulbul and Matt Manning. I've drafted him quite a bit. And if he's available on waivers,

I think he's someone you should go make sure you add. He's in this column I'm writing too. Yeah, I agree. The top early waiver bar guys, because he's been throwing consistently 95 to 97 miles per hour in spring. And he's got kind of a Max Scherzer profile in terms of like physicality, size, approach on the mound. And it's a very much a power pitcher profile.

AJ Hinch, I was reading about it. He's really been trying to hammer it into these young pitchers. Pitching is a race to get to strike two, I think is how he puts it. And for Mize specifically, he has such great stuff. He just needs to be in the zone with it. And it seems like that started to click for him late in spring training. And you see, it's been a night and day difference in the results. Still only spring training, of course.

That caveat applies for everything. But we know he has huge upside. and I think it's worth taking a flyer on them if you can justify another another roster spot if you're moving somebody to the IL here and you want to go for upside I think Casey Meis fits the bill yeah 12 swinging strikes on 62 pitches today that's pretty good yeah I like that a lot and I misspoke a couple of weeks ago when I was I was actually downplaying Casey Meis when he got off to that slow start in the spring but I said that he

I don't like pitchers who rely on their spliter too much someone like Kevin Gosman right who throws it like 30 40% of the time last year Casey Mize only threw it 18% of the time so yeah I stand corrected he does have a more diverse pitching arsenal than I actually thought and couple that with the improved velocity in the spring

I'm pretty intrigued as well Casey Mize only rostered in 44% of CBS leagues right now while we're on the subject about pitchers we've changed our mind on just in spring training You know, Casey Mize went here earlier today. We're talking on Tuesday night, obviously. But another one is Dylan Sees, who I was down playing.

Others were hyping him, and, you know, that's great. His former top prospect throws very hard. But the start he had today against the Rockies, struck out 11 with no walks in 5. innings and I think he had I think he had like over 20 swinging strikes or something like that and you know that's that's what I was down playing him earlier

where are the striggis where are the swinging strikes they've never been there when are they going to be there well he's been making a lot of change really the whole the whole white socks pitching staff I've referenced it when we've talked about Carlos Rodon before you know they brought in a new pitching coach this offseason after all those years with Don Cooper and you know his his cutter magic wasn't working anymore and just teaching everybody the cutter, that wasn't a winning approach for them anymore.

They brought in Ethan Katz, who was Lucas Gialito's former high school coach and is credited with turning Lucas Gialito's career around, getting him on the right track. And, you know, he seems to have his own little trick. It involves a core velocity belt, training with that piece of equipment. And what it's supposed to do is really,

um, I was watching, watching YouTube videos on this earlier tonight. Basically, it's supposed to get the, optimize the lower body, get better results with the lower body specifically. And the effect that's having on Rodon and on C's,

is that it's getting the higher spin rate on the fastball that makes the fastball a better swing and miss pitch. Seas had all this velocity on his fastball. He wasn't getting swings and misses on it. He was apparently getting too much cut movement on it, which was making the speed. spin less efficient and making the pitch less bat missing as a result. So it seems like, you know, it seems like it could pay big dividends for both of those guys, but I think

CES actually has the higher ceiling. I think he showed it in this start today and suddenly I'm very excited about it. Although Rodon apparently is throwing a curveball now, which is. Yeah, Rodon's exciting too. Would give him a four pitch arsenal. Sure. Yep. When he used to be like kind of a two and a third pitch guy. No, I'm happy. you brought up Dylan C. Scott, because I've really downplayed him as well, and the underlying numbers last year were not good because he walked way too many batters for the amount of strikeouts he got, which was not a good amount, and he did not get a lot of swinging strikes either. I also saw that, I believe it was the same trainer that he was working with that worked with

Gileo to help him get on track, and Dylan Cs has also shortened his arm path, which is what really helped Lucas Gialito get his career on track. So, yeah, I mean, whenever you, you, you hear about mechanical adjustments like that or pitchers doing things differently. And you see a start like this in spring, not that you want to overreact, but if there's a reason for it happening, I think that you can lean into it a little bit more. And Dylan sees 11 strikeouts to zero walks in this specific start, but in the spring, 22 strikeouts to just seven walks. So that's a much better ratio than we're used to. Yeah, I mean, he did have some high walk outings earlier in the spring. I wasn't that impressed until this start, but the way he phrased it, the transformation has been

really remarkable, just referring to the way he's progressed over the course of spring training. And if this was him, you know, dotting the eye here at the end, he's rostered Dylan Ceases and only 55% of CBS Sports Leagues. So there's a good chance you could go out and grab him. In fact, I think if I was choosing between him and Casey Meis, it's a tough choice. It really is. I think at lean cease actually. Yeah, Maiz has more prospect pedigree, but based on team context alone, you might want to go with the White Sox.

They have obviously a great pitch framer in Yasmani Grandal. They're going to have good run support. They have a great bullpen. So that obviously helps when deciding which of those two starting pitchers you are looking to add. I brought up the Blue Jays rotation. We haven't really talked much about Stephen Matt, who also has had a great spring. 15 and a third,

three earned runs, 15 strikeouts to just two walks. Chris, I know that you've been the Stephen Matt's apologist for years. Yeah, I don't know. Have you heard or seen anything that kind of defends this turnaround in the spring for him? I haven't really seen that he's doing much. I don't know. Scott, have you seen anything?

I haven't really seen. He's always had these stretches. He throws hard for a lefty. He elevates his fastball. He gets a lot of whips with it. But he also gets hit really hard. So I don't know. I'm sorry.

Who are we talking about? Stephen Matt. Oh, okay. No, I haven't. I mean, last year was kind of the aberration for him, right? Like, he's been a competent pitcher for most of his career, just not really like starter worthy, not more of a streamer option in fantasy, I guess.

Last year he was just a disaster. And I think there were a lot of factors contributing to that, and he's probably going to get back to being that four-ish ERA guy with just under a strikeout per inning. And we're going to talk about him a lot when we're talking about sleeper pitchers for the upcoming week, probably just because he's permanently going to be in that fringy range.

I will point out that Stephen Mats's fastball velocity was higher last year than ever before. His 10.4% swinging strike rate was also a career high. So... He did mention, I'm reading a story now. He did talk about the higher velocity being, you know,

part of why things got a little out of whack. He was just like going too hard, I guess, and he was getting erratic with his command. So I haven't, this is one of the problems of spring training, is not every game is under, uh,

in front of the Hawkeye camera. So I, I haven't seen necessarily where his velocity's been. But I don't know. He's always interesting to me. I just, I don't know. I,

I haven't dug in too deep on it just because I've been burned so many times that I don't want to believe again. For the Twins, they have three catchers who made their opening day roster, although Williams Astuio is probably more of a utility player at this point. Scott, you are the Mitch Garver guy, so are you worried at all about his playing time here with potentially three different catchers on the roster? I mean, I don't know that worried is the right word for it, because the level of investment in Garver was so low, and the turnover rate of catcher is so high.

I don't, to me, it seemed like a stress-free pick. We'll just see how it goes. And if it doesn't go anywhere fast enough, I'll move on. But yeah, it's a possibility that Garver doesn't get in the lineup, either just enough period or consistently enough to really get in a groove at the plate. In terms of left field for the twins, we know that Alex Kirillov will start the season in the, at the alternate training site, Jake Cave and Kyle Garlick are set to platoon

in left field with Cave seeing the majority of the playing time against right-handed pitching. That seems like a pretty good indication that I'm totally blanking on the name. Kirloff? Alex Kirloff, yes. We'll be up before long, I would think. Man, no love for Jake Cave.

How dare you, Chris? For the Mariners. I love garlic. Oh, I mean, I just had, like, every, every recipe that says two cloves of garlic, I'm throwing in four. I just had garlic fries for dinner and they were fantastic with a salmon burger. First time I've ever had a salmon burger. It was pretty good. I enjoyed it.

For the Mariners, Justin Dunn beat out Nick Margivicious for the six spot in their rotation. Chris, Justin Dunn was one of your deep sleepers. And that's right. I did say six-man rotation for the Seattle Mariners. That has been confirmed. And it seems like it'll be something they use. They stuck with it all year last year. Nick Margivius was their number six starter last season.

And I think it's a good sign for Dunn that he struggled with his control in spring. And Margavishis was fine. And Dunn still got the spot. His velocity was up. He was touching 96 and averaging 95 in the few starts that he was in front of the Hawkeye cameras. Last year he averaged 91. It was still nine walks and 11 innings. That's been the issue for him.

But the fact that the stuff is so much better. This is a guy who was at one point at top 100 prospect. I'm excited about him in that, like, I have him in a few 15 team leagues, and I will be watching his first few starts very closely. For the Arizona Diamondbacks, we know Zach Allen will start the season on the IL. Taylor Whedoner will be in the rotation,

and he had 19 strikeouts in 14 and 2 thirds. Andings pitched this spring in his minor league career, 473 strikeouts in 395 in innings pitch. Scott, is this like a really deep throw him on the scout team, kind of see what he does, Taylor Widener? Yeah, I think so. I mean, he's not, he's not a especially highly regarded prospect, 26 years old already, but you look at those strikeout numbers

and in the minors, 176 and 137 and a third innings for AA in 2018. I'm not going to say it's an eye opener, but it's an eye widener. I personally, having struggled with my weight, I'm not too interested in the widener. All righty, the Atlanta Braves cut Jake Lamb a few days ago, so if you had any concern about Austin Riley's playing time, you should not. The New York Mets rotation with Carlos Carrasco on the shelf.

Oh, gosh. They will have David Peterson and Joey Lucchese round out the rotation, joining Jacob de Crom, Marcus Trowman, and Taiwan Walker. Chris, any interest in David Peterson or Joey Lucasey, favorite of Nando Defino? Not really outside of a 15 team league, and even then, I think there have probably been five pitchers we've mentioned so far who are available in a lot of leagues who I'm more interested in than either of them. Sure. Scott, you went to grab the, what is that, a prospect handbook?

I wanted to look up Tyler Widener real quick. I meant to do it earlier. All right, well, let me know if you find anything in there. The Phillies, both Scott Kingery and O'Dooble Herrera did not make the team, which means center field duties will be split between Adam Haisley and Roman Quinn. Roman Quinn in particular for deeper leagues. If you need speed, he might be someone that you are streaming at some point. For the nationals, we already mentioned the other day. Carter Kibum was optioned, and that means Starlin Castro will play third base

with Josh Harrison at second base. Joe Ross is the team's fifth starting pitcher in the rotation. For the Cubs. Amazing that Joe Ross is still around. Wait, I think younger brother of Tyson Ross, right? Is that what that is? Yeah, man. I was so interested in him in him like four or five years ago.

Yeah, I don't know. That famous Ross family slider will always be interesting to me. But I don't know. Probably not much more than that. For the Cubs, Nico Horner was optioned a few days ago, which is unfortunate because he was just having a monster spring. I read a tweet from Jeff Passon, who pointed out that there is some kind of service time manipulation that could be going on with Nico Horner. David Bodie expected to be the team starting second baseman for now. And last but not least, your Pittsburgh Pirates are expected to have Anthony Alford and Dustin Fowler sharing center field duties.

not much to see there. Some news and notes. Already hit on Dylan Sees earlier, so don't need to reiterate that. Show Hey, Otani. We were just talking about him, waxing poetic about him on yesterday's podcast.

Once again, surprise, surprise. But he was removed from his pitching start on Monday night with a blister, but he was back in the lineup batting second on Tuesday for the Los Angeles Angels. So I don't know if this is going to affect his availability for his first time

through the rotation as a pitcher, but it seems like at least as a hitter, Otani will be good to go early on in the season. They say they don't think it will affect his first turn, just for what it's worth. I'm a little more concerned about it than it sounds like they are, especially since he was struggling with his control and that start where he came out of it with a blister.

But yeah, I don't plan on using him as a pitcher anyway until I see him string together two or three good starts. So let's just stick with Otony. is a hitter for now. George Springer, who is dealing with an oblique injury is unlikely to be ready for opening day. That means Randall Gritchuk will get some playing time in center field early on for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Eloy Jimenez underwent surgery on his ruptured left pectoral tendon on Tuesday. His timeline remains five to six months. For Amber Valdez, all right, Scottie. Get hyped. I thought I saw it moved up to four to five months, Aloy Jimenez. So I saw that report, and then a little bit later on,

I saw something from. Rick Hahn that said that he reiterated that it's still five to six months. So let's just, we can widen the gap to, uh, let's go four to six months, I guess. Four to six months. On a while. On the optimistic end for, uh, for Eloy Jimenez. For Amber Valdez, get hyped, Scotty. The outlook remains positive, although they didn't really say much. The only thing they said, Astros pigeon coach Brent Strom, his quote was, the news is very, very exciting and very good, but did not say what that means. There is still no timeline for Framber Valdez,

but Scott, he's only rostered in 53% of CBS leagues. You should have him and put him on your IL. I have him in this article. The best players you can grab off waivers. Framber Valdez is among them. Luis Severino is among them, too, for what it's worth. And I think that's a mistake, him being under rostered. I wish they were offering more specifics,

to a timeline. You know, the best news came, I think it was a couple weeks ago, right, when it was revealed he wouldn't need

surgery after all. And I think Dusty Baker was calling it miraculous. So like, they're, I, the language that they're using

indicates real enthusiasm. Like, they dodged a major bullet here. So I think it's going to be sooner than later. Yeah, at some point in May, I would guess.

Again, that is Frembervile. Valdez with the Houston Astros. Tanner Hauk, who is a starting pitcher for the Red Sox, is in line to start the second game of the season as Eduardo Rodriguez is dealing with arm fatigue. Hauk struggled with control last season, and he had more walks than strikeouts in the spring.

11 walks to 10 strikeouts. Miles Straw was cleared from COVID protocols and will be ready for opening day with the Houston Astros. Ray's first basement, G. Man Choy had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee and will be sidelined until May. So you can expect probably three different players to play first base for the Tampa Bay Rays but more often than not I would think Yoshi Sutsugo

will be the starting first baseman at least against right-handed pitching. I was just thinking that man. It's like, how do you not read his name and think Sousu-Sudio? Reminder, join our Facebook group. Just search Fantasy Baseball today on Facebook or click on the link in

the description in the podcast description to chat with other FBT fans. If you are watching on the video side, don't go anywhere. If you are listening to the podcast, we're going to take a quick break. But when we return, we will get to some of our favorite sleeper pitchers and hitters for week one in fantasy baseball. So the lineups that you really are going to focus on streaming your pitchers against,

we already mentioned the Pittsburgh Pirates. We really like Zach Davies this weekend. Jake Arietta, another name that we're going to talk about. They're both going up against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Texas Rangers, I would throw in that mix, the Seattle Mariners, the Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Indians, the Arizona Diamondbacks, and your Miami Marlins.

Those are all the offenses that you would like to stream your pitchers against this upcoming season. All right, Scott. So we wrote this article, and we will start with the short four-day week, which is if anyone's playing in a Roto League, you still have to set your lineup for the Thursday through Sunday. Sunday slate. And I guess there are some head-to-ed leagues that are going to play with the

shorter week rather than the longer week. But hit me. Hit me with your favorite sleepers for this weekend. Well, that is the default setting. So I imagine most will play with the shorter week rather than the long week. But I know Chris definitely would prefer to make that the long week. I don't care that much either way. You know, in a head-to-head league, going 11 games without switching out your lineup is kind of

dangerous. True. Fair enough. Some people might prefer the longer week. It's okay. Yeah, so my number one sleepers, so the Red Sox are playing the Orioles

this first weekend, and the Orioles pitching is awful. Probably the second worst after the Pirates, right? And the Red Sox have a couple of big home run hitters that are highly available.

Bobby Dalbeck's seven home runs this spring. Scott's Scott, Scott. Ryan, he did, right? Pitchers. We're doing pitchers, Scott. Oh, geez. Unless you want to throw Bobby Dahl back in your pitcher spot,

which you might be able to somewhere. You know, listening is such a fundamental. You can play pretty much every other position. It's true. Yeah, maybe. All right. Sorry about that. So I talked about Zach Davies.

I talked about Brady Singer. Logan Webb gets the Mariners this week. In Seattle, I mean, pitchers park, but, you know, either way, be pitching at a pitcher's park. And, you know, I've talked a lot about Logan Webb the past few days, the change-up. Rave reviews this spring, really strong performance from him.

So Logan Webb is a sleeper pitcher. I mentioned two other Royals pitchers we're going to be on this list. Brad Keller is one. Brad Keller, I think, is going to be on this list pretty often during the season because he's not a big strikeout pitcher, but he is a innings accumulator. He generally limits damage because he's such a good ground ball pitcher. so it's he's going to be a nice streaming option when he has matchups like he has this week against the Rangers.

Mike Miner is the other one. He's a little lower down on this sleeper pitchers list for me. But facing the Rangers, his velocity was up this spring after dropping last season. In fact, I think the velocity of the spring was even better than it was two years ago when he had a career, well, I don't know that it was a career season, but it was a really good season for the Rangers.

Now he's going against them. And I'd consider him a sleeper pitcher for this week. Terek Scoobal gets the Indians right away, who have a chance of being a playoff team still, I think. But lineup is definitely not their strength with Francisco Lindor gone. I do have John Means on this list, too. It's, you know, he's a little further down. I'm not eager to start him. You know, I like him, obviously.

the matchup at Boston a little risky. I think the important thing to keep in mind when you get as far down the list as John Means here is that trying to come up with 10 pitchers that are worth using off that are available on the waiver wire

is a stretch. I mean, it's not, the thing to remember, anytime you read any of these articles, the 10 sleeper hit pitchers or the 10 sleeper hitters for this upcoming week. is it's kind of a brick glass in case of emergency column.

I don't want to downplay it because I want people reading it and they are well read. So that's great. That's a good thing. But most people should not take it to heart. Most people, their lineup should be pretty automatic because they have must-start players at every position. I'm thinking especially in Shalbler leagues, like 12 teams or fewer.

You shouldn't, if you've, got five really strong starting pitchers. You don't need to crack the lid on this top 10 sleeper pitchers for week one. It's more about people who were hit hard with injury or maybe didn't invest enough at that position in the first place. And we're relying on streaming as a regular strategy for them. That's when you're going to turn to this list. So I just want to put that out there. I don't want anybody sitting, you know, I don't want anybody sitting like Uh, what's a good example? Brandon Woodruff.

Brandon Woodruff going against the twins. Oh, the twins are a tough matchup. I'm not going to use Brandon Woodruff. I'm going to start Brad Keller instead. No, don't do that. Even lower. Like Chris Paddock had a bad start to close out his sprint. You shouldn't be sitting Chris Paddock against the diamond backs for John Means.

You should be sitting like Armand Marquez at home against the Dodgers. Yes. I think that's more the range, I guess. Speaking of John Means, Scott, There hasn't been a lot of business going on so far in spring. 66% rostered on CBS. His first start is at Boston, and you have him on this list as one of your sleepers.

And I will just point out the Red Sox last year, we're 13th in weighted-on-base average against left-handed pitching. And they added Kiki Hernandez, who typically performs very well against left-handed pitching. And I think we're just expecting the Red Sox lineup in general to be better. I mean, Bobby Dalback and Hunter Renfro, you have on your sleeper hitter.

list. So I'm a little bit more worried about John Means. I don't know that I would actually... Well, that's what I was saying. Like, I drafted a lot of John Means. I don't expect I'm going to start him much this week. He wound up on my top 10 sleeper pitchers list because I had to come up with 10 sleeper pitchers, you know? And I think he could potentially come away with like a nine strikeout game here. So whatever, he's one of my sleeper pitchers. But that doesn't mean I'm eager to start John Means. The velocity was back-ish after a very rough start. He wasn't quite averaging 94, but it was better than earlier on in the spring.

Again, the names, Zach Davies and Arietta going up against the Pirates, Brady Singer, Brad Keller, and Mike Minor going up against the Rangers, Logan Webb, Terrick Scoobel going up against Cleveland, Matthew Boyd, going up against the Cleveland Indians as well. Eliezer Hernandez going up against the race. Chris, I'm going to throw a few names your way. Ones that I found, I thought we're pretty interesting. How about Ryan Yarbrough or Rich Hill at the Miami Marlins? So it's a bigger park too.

Good matchup, good park. I need to see Rich Hill, you know, in normal action first. But Ryan Yarbrough is always good for streaming, I think. So I'd be fine with him. I think I would probably against Miami. I think I might prefer him

to everyone. one on this list. Oh, Brad Keller, I think. All right. So Ryan Yarbrose, some excitement there

from Chris. How about Julio Taran, who's kind of dealt with some injuries in spring, but the velocity was up. He's going up against Cleveland. Their lineup is just so bad. Yeah,

uh, Julio Taran, I'm slightly interested in watching Julio Taran's first couple of starts. His velocity is higher than it has been since 2017. Cleveland's not a great. great matchup or Cleveland is not a bad matchup, but I don't think that you can start him. Maybe in a 15th. Like if you're in a, if you're in a TGFBI 15 team league like that, you know, maybe, but definitely not a 12 teamer.

For the 11 game week, Scott also has Zach Davies, Logan Webb, Brad Keller and Brady Singer as sleepers there. And you also threw in Carlos Rodon, who's going up against the Mariners and the Royals. He is rostered as 32% of CBS leagues. Scott, how about this one? I thought this was pretty interesting. Jay Hap is at the Tigers and at home against the Mariners. Any interest in that? No.

No. J. Hap had kind of a tumultuous spring, and I'm not confident he's in mid-season form yet. So I don't even really care what the matchups are for him. Okay. Though, you know, I kind of just came around to Dylan Cese today. and I wrote this last night.

So I'm wondering if maybe I should have Dylan Sees on there, especially for the long week. Like I have Carlos Rodon up there. The matchups being against... Seattle and Kansas City. Yeah, I'm trying to see if that's the same for Seas. Seattle and Can... No, I think Seas would actually be going against the Angels

and Kansas City. but that's still, you know, the matchups are a little better for Rodon, but I don't think CIS is necessarily a bad play in those two starts. Again, you probably have five better pitchers unless you just really messed up that position. But I think CES deserves a mention here. Let's transition into some hitters that we should be looking to stream. And Scott was so excited about his Red Sox that, you know, he couldn't wait. It's Bobby Dahlbeck and Hunter Renfro, two names that you should be looking at there.

And I think specifically the pitchers, pitching staffs that you want to target and stream hitters against this season will be the Red Sox, the Orioles, the Texas Rangers, the Colorado Rockies, of course, in Corse Field, you want to stream any hitters there whenever you can, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and going up against the Arizona Diamondbacks pitchers. So, all right, Scott, you got your Red Sox. We mentioned CJ Cron already. Who are some other sleeper hitters that you're looking at for the four-day week in particular this weekend. Yeah.

So I was talking about Bobby Dalbeck. The other one, he's a little further down the rankings here, but Hunter Renfro, they're both right-handed hitters who, obviously a small sample for Dolbeck, but especially good against left-handed pitchers and two of the three pitchers on the schedule for the Orioles are left-handers. You got John Means, of course, and Bruce Zimmerman, who actually got throttled in his last spring start. I think he gave up three home runs.

So, you know, it wouldn't be. surprising if either Dahlback or Renfro hit a couple homers this weekend. I think it's possible. I like Jock Peterson going against the Pirates. He had an eight homer spring training. Now there is one

lefty on the schedule in those three games for the pirates. Who knows how long he'll stay in the game. It does seem like Peterson's going to be more of an everyday player with the Cubs than he was with the Dodgers. So that's good. I actually have Garrett Hampson on here who came on strong, late in spring training.

And maybe he's just going to fake us out again. But he gets those four games in Coors Field, granted against the Dodgers pitching staff. But the fact is four games, the fact it's at Coors Field, you know, it's a good chance he starts three of those games. And can maybe score a bunch of runs. Tie France going against the Giants. You know, he's not in the Cactus League anymore.

He's in the big parks of the game. the AL West, but one of the most impressive performers in the Cactus League and a good minor league track record, eager to see what he's going to do. I do have a trio of Reds on here. They're going against the Cardinals, and those matchups are kind of iffy. They have Wainwright. They have Carlos Martinez. I'm not really sure what to think of either of them. And then Jack Flaherty, I think he's pretty much an ace. But, you know, obviously opening weekend, pitchers are running their best pitchers. Teams are running their best pitchers out there. and I think the Cardinals is,

the Cardinals top three is weaker than most. So I got Nick Senzel. I got Jonathan India, and I have Joey Votto pretty low on the list here. He's number nine. Not sure he's all the way back to full strength after his COVID-19 battle, but I do like him in general this year.

So I'm going to throw him on here as a week one sleeper hitter. Chris, there were a few other names that I noticed that I thought were pretty interesting and not just the Rockies that are playing in Coorsfield, but the Dodgers.

and Gavin Lux and A.J. Pollack both play four games in Corres Field. Jorickson ProFar plays four games over the weekend, expected to start in left field against the Diamondbacks, who don't really have a great rotation. And then Austin Hayes for the Baltimore Orioles, I assume we'll play every day going up against Nathan Avaldi, Tanner Hauk, and Martine Perez. So can you get behind those names? Lux, Pollack, ProFar, and Austin Hayes. Yeah, I mean, look, if you're someone who drafted Eli Jimenez,

you might need jerks and pro four, or maybe you have a lineup hole at one of the other spots he's in. I think he's, you know, decent. He had a nice bounce back 2020. Austin Hayes, I think he can be fine. I think the most interesting one here is clearly Gavin Lux, though. You know, the Rockies are likely to throw out three right-handed pitchers in the first four games. So I guess he at least starts those three games.

And, you know, Gavin Lux could get off to a very good start in course field. an extremely talented hitter. So, you know, he's someone who I want on my teams anyway, and I have him in a few spots. So yeah, Gavin Lux at Coors Field with three righties, absolutely worth starting. Gavin Lux in spring. He hit 314, 16 for 51, including four doubles,

only one home run. That lone home run came against a left-handed pitcher. He went opposite field. I was watching that the other day. Still too many strikeouts, those 16 strikeouts to two walks. for Gavin Lux. So maybe he was just being a little bit more aggressive here in spring training.

But yeah, three out of four of those games in Cors Field against right-handed pitching. Could be a nice little weekend here for Gavin Lux. And the 11-day week, a lot of overlap here. But C.J. Crohn, I believe it's seven of his either 10 or 11 games are at home in Cors. And I guess that overlaps to the other Rockies hitters that you're looking at. But Bobby Dalback, Hunter Renfro, Jock Peterson, and Nick Senzel as well. well, look at this. You still have time left.

We can answer some emails. When was the last time we actually did this? Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com continue to send your emails in. This one's from Ben and Bamma. Do you guys have any clue on when teams add players to the IL? And we were talking about this off the other day, Scott.

I am desperate to actually stash my injured players so I can grab some of the breakout slash sleepers before someone else does. And many people are waiting to do this. I don't know that there's a definitive answer. I think it's kind of just when the teams, the baseball teams, actually make these moves. You're waiting to do that? We're all waiting to do that. It's right. It's it's it's agonizing this time every year. And I, you know, I can't particularly if your league doesn't do like free ad drops all hours of the day, if it runs overnight. I'm not sure for every player who's going to begin the year on the aisle, you're going to get a chance to pick up a replace.

So I don't think you can count on it. You can just hope for it because a lot of times it is last minute that they're moving on the IL officially. Now, you can talk to your commissioner and maybe he will agree to force a player who's obviously going on the IL into your IL spot and you could do it that way. I do that in a couple of my longer standing leagues, but I'm the commissioner for a bunch of leagues. I don't do it for all of them because that would keep me pretty busy. I'm pretty sure it is opening day. I just looked at the MLB transactions log from 2019, and pretty much everybody was all.

There were like a ton of transactions on opening day. But some have already gone on before opening day. A lot of them probably will happen then, but we've already seen Trink Grisham go on the IL. Noah Cindergarde. Cindergarde already went out. Yeah, Cindergarden and Severino, I think, I've been on for a while.

Well, yeah, they were already on. Yeah. I would imagine. So yeah, I would think it'll happen officially for everybody by opening day for sure. Well, yeah, they're not going to play short-handed on opening day. It's just a matter of will it happen early enough for you to make a roster move. If you're a commissioner and someone needs it, you should let people do that. Be a good commissioner.

Don't be a jerk. This next one's from Tony G, 14-14-te-head categories, Dynasty League. six by six, the added categories are OBP for hitting and innings pitched for pitching. I was offered Austin Meadows and Zach Gallin for my Eloy Jimenez and Jesus Lazzardo.

So, wow, some injuries involved here, but what do you think, Chris? Meadows and Gallin for Eloy and Lazzardo in a category as Dynasty League. I mean, I think Meadows and Gallin is clearly better for this season. For the long term, I think

Gallin and Lazzardo are probably pretty close, but I may like Eloy a little more than Meadows, even in OBP. So I guess it depends on if you're going for it this season. If you are, I say make the move. Scott? Yeah, that's kind of what I'm thinking. I have a lot more confidence in who Aloi Jimenez is going to be than I do Austin Meadows. I mean, maybe by the end of this year, I'll see them as virtual equals in a dynasty league.

Maybe even Meadows a little ahead. So I'm kind of leaning toward the one that's going to help you more this year because the long-term ramifications are close enough. But it's pretty close to a toss-up. This next one's from Tyler. Grade the Trade, 12-Team Categories League with OPS and Strikeouts for Hitters. Quality starts for pitchers. We've already had our salary cap draft,

and I made a trade with the guy who just lost Eloy Jimenez. I gave Catell-Marté at $16. and Jorge Saler at $6, and I received Nick Castiano's at $17 and Chris Paddock at $16. What do you guys think? I think it's fine. Great. I think he gave up the best player in the deal.

And Marte? Yeah. I know he's closer for you guys, but I think Marte is like 20 or 30 spots ahead of Castianos in my overall ranks. I actually think I have Castellanos ahead of Marte, but I'm sure it's close. I would rather have Paddock than Solair, so that I think you're on the side of the deal that I would want to be on, but it's not like a fleecing or anything. Great it.

B minus. B and a B minus there. This one's from Nick. I am very high on the DHS. I try to get all the shares of Yurdon Alvarez or Nelson Cruz, but I'm also very high on Cho Hay Otani. This is good for anyone who's still drafting. Are you less inclined to draft one of those DHS if you target Otani? because your utility only,

because they're utility only or vice versa. So, would you, if you know you want Otani later on, would you purposely skip out on someone like Alvarez or Cruz to make sure you get Otani? No, I wouldn't because particularly somebody like

Otani who someone in your league is liable to reach for three rounds early. You can't be sure you're going to get them. And then it's like, oh, darn it, I could have had Alvarez in round seven or whatever, you know? And because Otani, I mean, he could still have value as,

he could still have a lot of value as a pitcher. So, you know, it's not like he's valueless, even if you don't have a place, even if you can't slot him into the hitter side of your lineup. There's a saying about birds, hands, and bushes that applies here.

You should never pass on a player who you think is a good value because you think you can get another player at a better value unless it is one of those players who you just like way more than everyone else and you know you can get him. But even then, you're probably taking a lesser player. You're passing on a better player to get a lesser player.

I can give an example of this. I thought down the home stretch here, as much as I began to like Thai France, I was going to, oh, I could just wait at second base draft Ty France as my starter. Fortunately, I never did that. Because somebody else always went for Ty France. even earlier than I was thinking about it.

You got a lot of helium. The one time that did end up working for me was that head-to-head points mock draft, we did a couple weeks back when I kept waiting and waiting on shortstop and ended up with Mondesie as my starter in a points league, and I got him at like 150th overall. I did pass on short stops,

but it's not like I passed on short stops that I thought were better than other players at other positions. I passed on other, I passed on the short stops who I didn't think were as good is the players I was drafting because I didn't think I needed to reach on them. This one's from Adam and a head-to-head points league. Would you rather have Carlos Santana or Andrew Vaughn? And this is super interesting because I just today moved Andrew Vaughn ahead of Carlos

Santana in a points league where that is Santana's preferred format, great plate discipline. I don't know if it's the right answer, but I'm pretty excited about Vaughn. We all are. would you actually do what's got vaughn over santana i thought about it i was adjusting vaughn i think earlier today

and i was it was right there you know where santana is in a points league obviously at a roto league it's it's no contest i'd take vaughn but santana apart from last year which was obviously a weird year a short year a year where santana's underlying stats looked fine but the forward facing ones didn't

apart from that year, Santana has never been less than a top 12 first baseman in points leagues. Never. And often like top six. So, no, I'd have to stick with Santana at a points league. So Chris and I both have Vaughn just ahead of Santana and a points league.

So if you want to trust us, feel free to do so. Scott, he knows what he's talking about. He's pretty good in points leagues as well. So we'll let you decide. This last one from Cody, got offered Jack Flaredy and Eric Hosmer

for my Kentamayayda and Trey Mancini. It's a 20-keeper Dynasty Points League. Grade the trade. Well, it doesn't say if he actually accepted it already or not. So would you take the trade? A-plus. Getting Flaherty and Hosmer for Maida and Mancini. Yeah, A-plus.

Scott? Yeah, I mean, that dynasty upgrade of Maida to Flaherty is... I think you're getting the better player in both regards. guards for now. I would disagree. I'd rather have Mancini than Hosmer, but you know, that that keeper upgrade, my Ed of Flaherty is just

it's significant. Yeah. That's it. We're almost there. We're almost ready for opening day. Oh, it feels good. Baseball season's finally here. Very exciting times. Very exciting times. Indeed, for Scott, Chris. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow.

Bye-bye.