Fantasy Baseball Today - Opening Weekend Recap; Replacing Justin Verlander (07/27 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 27, 2020

Well, he did it again. Frank tried to tell you about Trevor Bauer! How wild was Adam's weekend plus who's his biggest winner? ... Justin Verlander has been shut down with a forearm strain (2:26). Who are some waiver-wire replacements? Is it time to stash Forrest Whitley? ... Should we be buying-high on Ross Stripling (12:57)? ... In the latest news and notes, Mike Moustakas has been placed on the IL while Nick Senzel isn't feeling well (14:19). Four Miami Marlins have tested positive for COVID as well. ... What a surprise, Stephen Strasburg and Rich Hill were scratched from their starts this weekend (16:14). Corey Kluber, Eloy Jimenez and Ken Giles all left their respective games with injuries as well. ... Speaking of which, what's the closer situation look like now for the Blue Jays (19:05), as well as the Royals, Rays, Mariners, Orioles, and Giants? ... Who were the biggest winners from the weekend (26:34)? Are Joey Votto and Eric Hosmer legit? ... Adam then reflects on two of his favorite pitchers that let him down over the weekend (33:16). ... Who were the biggest losers in Fantasy Baseball this weekend (38:03)? How worried should we be about the velocity for Charlie Morton, Mitch Keller, and others? ... We go rapid-fire on the most noteworthy performances from the weekend (43:13). ... Email us at [e-mail]. Subscribe to our new YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday '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: @CBSFantasyBB, @AdamAizer, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank 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/ Download our printable Draft Kit from CBSSports.com/draftkit! 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.

As Trevor Bowers' number one fan, boy, it feels good to watch him rack up double-digit strikeout aims again. Welcome to fantasy baseball today on a Monday, July 27th, Frank Stanfield, alongside Scott White, Chris Towers, and Adam Azer. Guys, I tried to tell you about Trevor Bauer. You just wouldn't listen. I mean, Trevor Bauer, Giancarlo Stann, Eric Hosmer, you were right there on every single one of the, Miguel Rojas, and we just didn't listen. Oh, gosh, guys, it was a crazy weekend in baseball, and we have a lot to get to, uh, what's going on?

Adam, you said that you were going to hijack the show right from the get-go and tell us to The craziest thing that happened this weekend. No, well, the craziest thing that happened to me was I dropped an entire can of spaghetti sauce on the floor while I was thinking grocery Saturday. That was terrible. You have spaghetti sauce and cans? No, a jar. You know, glass jar. You dropped the glass jar?

Yeah, you know, the jar didn't crack, thankfully. All right, I'm going to be Twitter right now. You could just make your own sauce. I mean, you can't make it. It takes like 45 minutes. Lou, dude. Rios, tomato sauce. is like an entirely different meal.

It is the greatest thing I've ever found. Okay, anyway, I was going to tell you the biggest winner, Frank. You want the biggest winner from the weekend? Sure, why not? Let's start off with it. I'm not sure that this actually exists, but if you could find a fantasy team that faced Charlie Morton, Lucas Gielito, and Mad Boy this week,

that would be the biggest winner at Fantasy Baseball. I would have been really happy with that as my top three in a rotation. I would have been thrilled. There might be leagues where I have that. Well, there is a league where Frank has that, and I'm facing him in that league. So, you know, off to a good start. I am anyway. Yeah, and I tweeted about that on Friday. Actually, got quite a few likes and responses there.

It wasn't really the greatest Friday for me, I've got to say, having Matt Boyd, Lucas Geelito, and Charlie Morton in the lineup. So, yes, you're off to a fantastic start there, Adam. Before I get into everyone else's winners or losers, I think that we obviously have to touch on the biggest news of the day. And I think that is obviously Justin Verlander, who originally was going to be shut down for the season with an elbow injury. And then after the game, Astro's manager, Dusty Baker was like, no, just kidding. We're going to clarify this situation right now.

He has a right forearm strain and will be shut down, quote, for a couple of weeks. Scott, are you actually buying that? I think, yeah, I think I'm buying that. Now, it doesn't necessarily mean that it won't be a season-ending season. injury. I don't think they have MRI results back. And just the nature of any pitching injury that's going to shut down a pitcher for a couple weeks, that could turn into a season ender in a two-month season. So there were sources, sources familiar with the situation saying it was an elbow injury and he'd be shut down for the year. I don't know exactly how familiar they were with the situation. But you could

just imagine that game of telephone happening where, you know, the astros, higher up, for, you know, concerns about the MRI or concerns about just the timeline for a recovery. They're fearful he's going to be out for the year and that got turned into he is out for the year, you know, but we don't really know how long he's going to. Purple monkey dishwasher.

Like, Justin Verlander is famously a, like, all news is fake news. Don't believe anything you hear unless I say it, guy, like he hates the media. And, like, this thing where it's like, it's 100% incorrect that I, I have an elbow injury. Yeah, because I have a forearm strain, which is, and it's like, no, dude, that's the same

thing. Like, come on. Like, it's essentially the same thing. Like, the forearms connected to the elbow. Like, that's, don't drop him yet, but don't acquire him either because I, I think we, I don't be surprised if he's out for this season. That's my expectation. I'll be, I'll be the pessimist.

That's way too risky of a by-low situation right now. So I agree 100%. Look, for some people that own Justin Verlander, I think that. they are obviously panicking right now, rightfully so, and they're going to look to the waiver wire. I don't know if it's too early for trades. I don't think it's ever too early for trades, especially in the short and season. You've got to make things happen now. Playoffs start in five weeks, guys. Yeah. I mean, what are you waiting for? Some of the top waiver wire starting pitcher targets that I could think of, there were some news earlier today

that Spencer Howard will make his debut for the Philadelphia Phillies. On Friday, he's 29% owned. Sandy Alcantara, 61% owned for the Marlins. Nate Avaldi, 57, percent owned. Brady Singer, 20 percent owned, looked pretty good in his debut over the weekend. Stephen Mats, someone who I was very impressed with. Highest velocity that we've seen, I believe it was since 2016, you mentioned Chris, before we started here, 64% owned. Chris, I'll go to you on this one. Which one of these starting pitchers would you be most interested in off the waiver wire? So I actually wrote the reaction on CBSports.com slash fantasy about Justin Burlander's injury, and they're not necessarily in any order,

but this is roughly the order I would go with. Sandy Alcantara, that was just the best I've ever seen him looked by far, and he was pretty good to close out last season. But he was getting, yeah, the Marlins are in first place, baby. Let's go. You're not wrong. No, I've been a very loud, Sandy Alcantara. Jesus, I am really struggling with that name.

Sandy Alcantara, skeptic, but the, command was there. He was pitching up with the sinker, up with the fastball, got six swinging strikes with the change up. I think that's the best he's looked by far. His velocity was actually up, which is hard to do when he throws as hard as he does already. Brady Singer was really impressive. 14 swinging strikes on 80 pitches, only through the change up twice. And one of the things about Brady Singer was, you know, coming up through the minors and then in camp and then going back to spring training, there was talk about, you know, the changeup was improving. We didn't need in the first game against a very tough Cleveland Indians lineup at home.

The slider looked really good. Dylan Bundy looked great. Deemphasized the fastball. Got a bunch of swinging strikes with a slider. Look, Corbyn Burns wasn't great, but I still, the stuff was awesome. I still want to believe Russ Stripling was really good today. Stephen Matt's, like you said, excellent. Tyler Chatwood, another guy who only 9% rostered.

He's always had really good stuff. and got back to throwing the arsenal that he threw in 2018 with a lot more cutters and a lot more curveballs and only had two walks in six innings his debut against a tough brewer's lineup. And Spencer Turnbull, another guy who looked really good, another guy who threw his slider more, de-emphasized his fastball. So those are the guys that I wrote about in Justin Verlander's story to consider. Obviously, none of them are going to replace what you thought you were going to get from Justin Verlander, but there's plenty of potential on the waiver wire right now,

starting pitcher, and there's a lot of starting pitchers worth dropping right now. Scott, I have a bold prediction. I don't know if it's going to be the next time through the order because they're going to wait until after this service time, which I believe is this Thursday, which is July 30th or Wednesday. It's either Wednesday or Thursday that they can actually call prospects up

and have an extra year of service time. The next time that Forrest Whitley would be eligible to be called up and take Verlander's spot in the rotation. I think that he will be in the rotation. He is 23% own. Pure speculation, it's just a bold prediction of mine. I would be looking to add him as well if you can stash somebody.

They don't really have any other options. Scott don't like it. What do you mean? He's got a shoulder. He's got a shoulder injury. What about Christian Javier? What about Brian or Brayu? Those are the guys who were actually competing

for a rotation spot with like Bramber Valdez before, there's another guy whose name, I can't think of because he's not much of a prospect. But I feel like Brandon Beellick. Yeah, that guy. Yeah. Yep.

I feel like they would turn to any of them before Whitley, considering Whitley wasn't really in the mix in the first place. Wow. I didn't even realize that Brad Peacock went on the IL. Yeah, he's got my bad. His shoulder shortness. And that's a shame because I was, he's had some success as a starter. I just got to say Chris gave a lot of names there.

Ross Stripling has to be at the top of the list. And he's probably the most owned, but he's only 66% own. So that's the first place I'd go. As the guy who was skeptical of Corbyn Burns when we talked about him last week, I was very impressed because he had no fastball command in that start. And he still managed to do a respectable job against the Cubs, basically using his off-speed pitches. And he developed the third pitch.

So that gives me some hope. One of the things that's difficult first time you see a player for a season is the thing that separates the men from the boys, I guess, is can you get through the lineup the third time? And we still don't know that for a lot of guys. Burns, that's the biggest issue I have with him. I mentioned it, yes, it was a small sample, but third time through the order, opponents had 500,

over 500 against him. And as a two-pitch pitcher, that's a problem. But, you know, I think it was a change-up that he added, and he pitched pretty well with it. So I'm actually more optimistic now than I was, even though that the numbers weren't good.

If you didn't see the start, I would not drop Corbyn Burns. I would think about adding him. Garrett Richards, I'm not sure if you said him, Chris, that's another guy. There are a lot of pitchers out there.

Yeah, Chris is right. A lot of pitchers out there that are pretty exciting right now. They're not going to be Verlander, but stripling to me would have to be number one. 66% on it's just too low. That stripling start. And he improved his change up, by the way.

I just wanted to add that stripling improved his change up. Go ahead, Scott. Like, I thought he was must own even before that start must have. But, like, I was not expecting seven innings so easily from him. 92 pitches. Like that was the past two years. He had only gone seven innings twice. And here he does his first start of the season.

When you see some pitchers going less than five. Well, you know, he probably could have gone seven innings if he was pitching in AAA. We guess the Giants? Yeah. Yeah, the Giants are pretty bad. But I mean, how do you not know? Like, what is he done as a starting pitcher that says Ross Stripling should not be close to 100%? He was an all-star in 2018 as a starting pitcher.

and then they kind of moved him out of that role in the second half and kept him in the swing man role basically all of last year. So and now, you know, coming into the season, I thought he was ahead of Alex Wood. I mean, I thought he was behind Alex Wood in the pecking order. Obviously he was. They gave Wood a spot first. But his first turn, it might have been enough to move him ahead of Wood.

Wood wasn't so great his first time through. He wasn't so bad either. Like I'm not going to drop Alex Wood all of a sudden. he did get a lot of swings and misses for the 69 pitches, I think it was he threw. But the narrative, what we like so much about Alex Wood is the sleeper was he had upped his velocity to 92, 93, supposedly,

and it wasn't there. And at first start, it was like 90, which is, you know, traditionally more where Alex Wood resides. Frank, give me your three starting pitchers to add. I like a lot of names that Chris hits, on, in terms of being actually available, I think Sandy Alcantara, I'm right there with you, but he's 61% owned.

Nate Avaldi, I thought, looked very good in his first start. Didn't get a lot of swings and misses, not a lot of strikeouts. But I would say Sandy Alcantara, Nate Avaldi, and let's go with, if Stephen Matts is out there, I would like to add him to. I love the fact that his velocity was up over 94 miles per hour, and he did it against a really, really strong Atlanta Braves lineup.

So if any of those three are available, and then if you're in deeper leagues, I do like Spencer Howard and Brady Singer. But those are names I'm looking at. So you drop Corbin Burns and or Garrett Richard. Corbin Burns, Garrett Richards. How do they compare to the three you just mentioned? I would keep both of those guys.

I would keep Corbyn Burns and Garrett Richards. I thought Garrett Richards looked great over the weekend as well. The velocity was up for him. He was throwing 95, 89, 90 with the slider as well. It looked really, really strong, Garrett Richards. So I would hold on to both of those guys. comparatively to some of these names that we just mentioned. Adam, real quickly, before I want to hit some news and notes,

we don't talk about buying high on a player often, but you sound so incredibly high on Ross Tripling, and rightfully so. I think if you can acquire him now, and people don't realize how good he's going to be for the remainder of the season, that this is one of those situations where you might want to consider buying high,

which is something you just don't normally hear in fantasy. Yeah, look, he's another guy. He gives up a lot of, home runs like third time through the order. I think that's kind of the issue with him. But he, you know, two pitchers or three pitchers, I guess, that improved their change up, it seems, since last year. Corbyn Burns, Ross Stripling.

This is just from what I gathered from the broadcasts. And Kyle Hendricks threw a complete game shutout. And apparently, like, his changeup is much better than it's ever been, which is weird for a guy at his stage in his career. Maybe that's a buy high. Stripling, like, I don't want to overreact. he's 66% owned. I think he should be 90% owned.

I don't think he's going to be like an all-star again. And I don't think he's going to carry your team. But I do think he's must-own. So if that's kind of, you know, straddling your question there, I do. But not by high is, I guess, typically reserved for like someone who's like 90% owned or something, you know. But stripling, I just think you need to add him. And he should be one of your best back end of your fantasy rotation options. Some news and notes to hit.

Mike Musakis, after having a great game on Friday, was placed on the IL today. He woke up not feeling well. It's worth mentioning that his teammate, Matt Davidson, went on the COVID-IAL Saturday. Nick Stenzell also not feeling well. So you can read the tea leaves there. Another situation with the Miami Marlins

where they have four players who have tested positive for COVID. And I believe tomorrow, they're basically getting off their flight and going straight to the ballpark, which is the last thing that I heard, which... It's right there. The good news, it's like two and a half miles away. So this situation is ever evolving, obviously,

trying to play a fantasy baseball season and an actual baseball season throughout this pandemic. Hey, Frank, I'm going to be off the show soon. I'm only going to hang around for a little bit. So I just need to say, right now, if you're a commissioner of your league, you need to put in rules of what's going to happen if the season gets canceled.

You have to have specific rules in terms of payouts for when it gets canceled. For example, in one league that I'm the commissioner of, you know, we pay out this money to these people if the season ends here. But for me, I said if it ends before week six, everybody gets their money back or nobody's paid yet. So just don't leave any questions.

Don't leave any room for debate or for arguments. Right now, make sure you have a system in place. I'm sorry to say it, but two teams appear to be having an outbreak right now and they didn't even play against each other. have something in place right now. So there are no arguments, no fights, if the unfortunate outcome happens, which fingers crossed, it won't.

All right, I'm done hijacking the show, sorry. Yeah, we said last week that in one of my leagues, it's if we get past August 31st. So basically if we play into September, your league is valid at that point. But yes, you should have rules in place, especially if players go on the IL midweek and they're in your lineup.

You know, that's something that you have to discuss with people in your league as well. Steven Strasberg was scratched from his start on Saturday. Apparently he has had numbness in his hand for weeks. So it doesn't seem to be an update on him, but obviously a situation to pay attention to. Adam, you're shaking your head. Yeah, because Chris drafted him.

Like, we knew this was going to happen, Chris. Yeah, something else we knew that was going to happen. Rich Hill was scratched from his start on Saturday. Remember when we were all so excited about Rich Hill? Scott, do you have any, like, what's the latest on Rich Hill? Oh, it doesn't... My understanding is it's not injury-related. They just pushed him back, I guess, so he could get another throwing session.

You just don't believe anything today, Frank. No, I'm just, I am a natural cynic, especially when it comes to a player, like Rich Hill being pushed back, and they're saying it's not for injury reasons. He's on the schedule for... 2020. He's all day making notes, and then you can't find what you need when the... He's going to be a pitching coach next week next year. It's 2020.

You got to get... You got to digitize these notes. Control F, Scott. I have a lot. Look, Control F when you do them in notepad, if the cursor is past the point, your control Fing to it. You should be using paintbrush.

Not there. Use paintbrush, Scott. Come on, what is this? He's scheduled to go Wednesday, Richel. All right. Well, we'll see if it actually happens. I hope it does, because I do have a few shares myself. Corey Klobler,

Corey Klobber left his start today with shoulder tightness after, I believe it was just one inning pitched. Just It's Everyone's just dropping like fly Like Like there is 100 There might be a team

Where I have Richel Steven Strasberg And Corey Klover I mean you're kind of asking for it at that point Chris Seriously if we're being honest Uh It's on that team too

I'm sure Yes Eloy Jimenez Best player Fantasy Look great over the weekend He hit a back to back home run With Edwin and Karnassione

He ran into a wall today While trying to catch a ball That actually went over the fence He left with lightheadedness And it seems like he might have some concussion symptoms, so something to pay attention to for Elo Jimenez. And Ken Giles left Sunday as well

with an apparent elbow injury. His velocity was way down. Scott, we've already received multiple questions regarding this situation. Who is the guy in Toronto? Probably won't be one guy at first. If I had to put money on somebody, I'd put it on Anthony Bass.

Yeah. I need a lot of saves help. I have not put in a claim for Anthony Bass. So that shows you, my level of confidence there. All right. I think Raphael Dulles, Dulles, is also in the mix.

They basically swapped positions, him and Anthony Bass over the weekend. One of them pitched the seventh, and then the other one pitched the eighth, and then the next day they swapped positions. So Anthony Bass did have five saves for the Blue Jays last season. I think that he is the next man up

for the Blue Jays. Can I ask also, like, there are other closer situations here to monitor. Oh, sure. I don't know if you're going to talk about that, but I'd like to know which relievers you guys are picking up because, I mean, I'm very worried about Sean Doolittle who pitched in the eighth today in a tie game,

not against the heart of the order. His velocity was down. I don't, Riescelo Iglesias blew a save. No, that was a non-save situation. Oh, that's right. And he stinks in non-save situations, which is weird. It's like a Ken Giles situation from a couple years. Nick Anderson didn't get the same.

The raise opportunity are crazy. Oliver Drake. He got used in like the six, I think. Greg Holland got, struck out the side. There's two saves now, right? Greg Holland? I don't know.

Wade Davis and Joe Jimenez. Wade Davis has two saves for the Rockies. There you. The same guy in my head, yeah. So who are you guys, who are you guys trying to pick up? I was too late to the party. Everybody picked up, you know, everybody, basically.

Yeah, there was basically one guy, one and a half guys in all of baseball who I put in. I actually made a point to try for. really hard in fab. The biggest, and I think I won him in every Fab League I'm in, was Greg Holland. Like I said, I need a lot of saves help. He is the one surprising, the guy who got a save this weekend that surprised everybody, and I think it might actually mean it's his job.

Because, like you guys said, Ian Kennedy worked like the sixth and the seventh in that same game. And just the way Mathini was talking, like he didn't go so far as to say, Greg Hollins are closer now. But he didn't not say that either. Greg Holland struck out the side. He was throwing harder than he did last year in that appearance. And, you know, obviously has a history in that role. So I put in some big bids for Holland everywhere.

Like I said, all my 5 by 5 leagues, I went cheap on saves like I normally do. I need to get that category filled earlier in the year than I normally would. So Holland was the big guy I splurged for. The second guy for what it's worth that I put in, that I made an effort for was the Royals rookie, whose name is escaping me, singer. Yeah, that was the other guy, but that's not really part of the safe discussion.

So I'll let you guys have the floor. Greg Holland is 8% owned in CBS Sports Leagues right now, so he is widely available. Again, Kennedy pitched the 6th and the 7th inning on Saturday. Trevor Rosenthal is someone who I thought might have an opportunity in the back end of this bullpen because he has a history with Mike Mathini. He pitched in the eighth inning in this game and just pulling up some names of people who got saves this weekend.

For the Orioles today, a gentleman named Coles Sulcer. Don't know anything about it. Yeah, that was a weird one. He picked up the save on Sunday. Somebody for the Mariners named Taylor Williams. Taylor Williams picked up the save today. Matt McGill, someone who we thought might be in the mix for saves there. He pitched in the fifth inning.

and Taylor Williams' career in the minors, 305 ERA 116 whip, 295 strikeouts and 277, and a third inning's pitched, and he had 11 saves in the minors. So those are a couple other names to consider in deeper leagues. Chris, is there anyone that you wanted to add in terms of relievers if you're chasing saves?

All right now. Well, Oliver Drake, I mean, like, he got a save. That's going to be a messy situation. But I think Giovanni Gallegos, because Kim's first outing was pretty bad, even though he got a save. He gave up two runs. And I'm picking up Pedro Strope in Cincinnati in a deep league where I'm really just speculating here.

A couple more bad outings from McLeos. And I don't know, that's a guy they could turn it over to, but it could be someone else as well. Trevor Gott. How can I forgot about Trevor Gott? He allowed a run on Saturday, but he got to save for the Giants. Tony Watson and Tyler Rogers combined to pitch the top of the eighth inning in that game. So just another situation that it's all the terrible. terrible teams. And I guess that makes sense because they just don't have a lockdown reliever.

But you could see it now. The Orioles, the Giants, the Mariners are going to be quite frustrating. Worth mentioning, it sounds like Gabe Kapler's already kind of starting to rub some of the Giants pitchers wrong with his shenanigans. Oh my goodness. Who would have thought? I think it was from Drew Smiley talking about how he's kind of tried to play this. We don't know who's starting for us. It could be anybody. So weird. And I think Drew Smiley, after he appeared in that first game was like, yeah, it really messes you up. You need to have a routine. You need to know what role you're going to be in. So, you know, that obviously applies more to the starting pitchers, but I think it's a reminder that

it's probably not worth chasing saves in the San Francisco Giants bullpen. They stink. They don't really have any good relievers anyway. And so if someone gets two saves in a row, fine, go get them. But I'm not going to go after anyone in the Giants bullpen. I didn't go hard after Trevor got and I let Tyler Rogers go in the few leagues where I was speculating on him for saves. I didn't go hard after Drake. Jose Alvarado pitched the day before and Diego Castillo was away on paternity leave.

So Drake got the safe Saturday. Maybe he'll get a handful more, but I think those guys still will. I think Nick Anderson still will. I'm not ruling out one of them taking the reins eventually, but it's going to be messy. They're at least good, you know, unlike the Giants guys,

unlike the Mariners guys and the Orioles guys, unlike Greg Holland. And Alvarado did pitch like the, I mean, we'll see. He's been pretty bad for a while now, a lot of walks. And it is the Royals, but Kennedy did have 30 saves last year. I want to point out Alvarado did get like the closer's usage today. They were the home team. He pitched a tie game in the top, the bottom of the ninth.

I wouldn't drop him. He's looked really good so far. I mean, he's awesome. Yeah. That's the thing is Alvarado, Nick Anderson, like those guys are good anyway. And in a season like this where you're going to need guys who are good, you're going to need innings no matter what, and the number of viable starting pitching options has already dwindled,

you know, I think those guys might have more value than ever. Hey, Frank, I also, like, I believe that there's something going on in Washington that Doolittle, like, really just didn't look good yesterday. So I do think Daniel Hudson, who is using the ninth inning, do little in the eighth inning, I still think Will Harris is the best pitcher there, but Hudson is someone worth looking into. I know people are desperate for saves.

So these were just names of throwing out. And you mentioned, somebody mentioned a paternity leave, a player who was on paternity leave. Diego Castillo was on paternity leave this weekend. Somebody else was on paternity leave and came back after missing one game. So just keep that in mind. I'm not so sure why we just assume that Mike Trout

is going to miss a week when his daughter, but his wife basically. I think it's partially because he talked about not coming back. Yeah. but he's in. He might miss one day. But he said he's playing. Yeah, it's awesome.

Yeah, I just want to say. I'm trying to remember who that was. Yeah, me too. Speaking of which, Zach Wheeler, by the way, looked very good over the weekend. Someone else that had paternity leave concerns. I mean, it's not really hard

to look good against Marlins. I'm just kidding. They did well. First place, baby. They did well against Aranola. Hey, Jesus Aguilar is back. You heard it here first. It looks pretty good.

Jesus Aguilar looks good. Yeah, two home runs. All right, the biggest winners of the weekend. Adam, why don't you get started here? Hit us with your biggest winner with a lot of baseball action this weekend. Joey Vaugh... Going with some corner infielers.

Joey Votto, unfortunately, he was owned and rostered in more than 90% of leagues. I thought maybe that wouldn't be the case. Which is just crazy, by the way. When I saw his ownership, I was like... He was really high in the default rankings for CBSSports.com, especially in points leagues.

92%. And he could be really good. in points leagues. His plate discipline should still be good. But two home runs this weekend, hitting in the middle of a great lineup, even without Mastakis or hitting second. Homeward off a lefty on Friday.

I have Eric Hosmer. I'll let Chris talk about him, but I poo-pooed everything, and he's off to a really good start. Yoshitomo Tsusugo, I'm interested in. He did not start today. But if you're looking for anyone to become a regular for the raise, I thought maybe he'd sit against lefties.

He did not. He started on Friday against a lefty. He homered. I'm pretty sure he homered off. Junjun Ryu. So he wasn't really someone, I feel like we talked a lot about, but keep an eye on him, 28% rostered in 28% of leagues, Yoshitomo Tsutsu, and Tommy Fam's got four steals. So, winner. Yeah, I think that Padres in general are winners, because personally, I didn't know how Jace Tingler, their new manager was going to let them run on the base path if he was going to be

aggressive. But Mani Machado and Fernando Tatis, I believe, pulled off a double steal today. Jerks and Pro Far had a steal. I think that they're going to run. quite frequently out there in San Diego. So I would say the arrow is pointing up for all the base dealers out there on the West Coast. Chris, who's one of your biggest winners from the weekend? It's Eric Hosmer. I think this might be maybe the single most important thing

we saw this weekend, besides Justin Burlander, I guess. Eric Osmer, it's only six batted balls. Or no, eight batted balls, excuse me. None of them have been hit on the ground. Let's go, Chris. I can't say for sure. sure, but I would bet this is the first time in Eric Cosmer's career that he has gone 10 played appearances without hitting a ball on the ground. He is one of the most extreme ground ball hitters in

baseball. Four line drives, two fly balls, two walks, zero strikeouts, a home run, two doubles, eight RBI, I believe, in the first two games of the season. He did get a weird day off on Saturday, but yeah, no, at the very least, Eric Hosmer is hitting the ball in the air. This is not a speculative thing. I don't want to say he's never going to hit another ground ball, and that would probably be a bad thing, unless he keeps having a 75% hard hit, right, I guess. But yeah, no, Eric Cosmer, the changes have taken place.

Whether they're going to make him a superstar, you know, I think there's reason to be skeptical. I'm not going to say he is, but the only thing that was missing for him was the direction of contact. He needed to hit the ball in the air more. He's always hit the ball well. He's always had a good plate discipline. He's doing that now.

And I think it's entirely possible. He could be a must-start first basement all year as a result of it. Yeah, I love the call on Eric Cosmer. The Padre is just in general. Their lineup might surprise some people this season, except for when jerks and pro far is batting cleanup. What was that about? That was just very odd.

Yeah. They dropped them to seven today. It's worth noting, but the first two games, he was batting clean up for them. Scott, who is one of your, or multiple if you have them, winners, winner or winners from this weekend. So the three biggest winners in terms of guys who are widely available,

like I can pick them up in my leagues. I mentioned two of them, Greg Holland, forgetting his name, Brady Singer. Brady Singer of the Royals, the rookie pitcher, who had a good debut. And Tyler Chatwood, who Chris mentioned earlier, Tyler Chatwood, as a really, a reliever the last three months last year,

multi-inning reliever at times, had a 276 ERA 104 whip and 10.7K per 9 over the final three months last year, had walk issues in the past, only issued two walks against the brewer, striking out eight and six innings. So that one should be high on the ad list as well. Other winners who, you know, I didn't have a chance to add them, but maybe you do,

I think it's a big, huge deal that Tommy, Lestella was in the lineup for the first left-hander that the Angels face Sean Minaya on Saturday. Because if we had him down as an everyday player, he probably would have been must draft. I mean, after the year he just had the, granted, we were not totally sure that he's the power hitter. He looked like he was for the time he was healthy last year.

But there's enough data backing at it that you take a flyer. there's enough data backing it that you take a flyer if if you trust he's in the lineup and he has been every day so that's i think that's a big winner tommy lestella you know bradley zimmer got a couple starts in the cleveland outfields you look like you're searching a little bit so can you can you talk about kyle lewis since i forgot to hey yeah i mean kyle lewis he hit a couple home runs he struck out six times and eleven at bats so he's really picked up where he's left off last September and both the good and the bad.

I don't know. I'd take a flyer on him, a five outfielder league if he was available, but otherwise, probably not. Yeah, I had Kyle Lewis as my biggest winner for the weekend. I mean, not one of the biggest winners, but he homered off of Verlander, and then he homered off Lance McCuller,

so pretty damn impressive, homering off those two specific pitchers. Scott, would you drop Kyle Tucker for Kyle Lewis? I'm not opposed to dropping Kyle Tucker, but I want to drop him for Kyle Lewis. I'll tell you who I dropped for Kyle Lewis. Shogo Akiyama, big loser, sat against the lefty,

and he's batting sixth or seventh. So he's not leading off and he's not playing every day. Yeah, the righty who took his place that day he sat against the lefty is now on the IL. It's worth noting. Though they did call up Aristides Akino,

and he could be the guy who platoons with Akiyama now. But, yeah, I personally, I don't like Kyle. Lewis is the bottom line. I don't, I don't, you have to have a really special ability on contact to survive the kind of strikeout rate. He's showing yet again. And two more home runs doesn't really change the equation there for me. Adam, I know you have to split out. Is there anything else you want to add from the weekend before we hit the break? Yeah, it was a great weekend. I mean,

my two favorite starting pitcher targets were awful. James Paxton, his velocity's down. He says it's a mechanics thing. Basically, he's not extending. I don't know what that means, but he's seven foot 15. So I guess it's harder for him. But it's really frustrating. And I don't have a lot of faith in him right now. Before the season started, he talked about this mechanics thing. So I wasn't shocked that he had a bad start.

I think he threw about 42 pitches and had 14 foul balls. He just could not finish any hitter off. So Paxton short-term concern and considering the entire season is short-term. It's a little bit nerve-wracking there. I think he'll get it turned around. It's a mechanics issue for him. But how long do you have to wait? I don't know.

Robbie Ray, for all to talk about him changing, he basically gave the single most Robbie Ray outing ever this weekend. He was brilliant for three innings. He fell apart in the fourth. He threw a million pitches. He says that, you know, the new delivery I'm still working out, trying to figure out how to slow things down, to figure out my mental cues to go through kind of,

to kind of get myself back to where I'm in the position that I need to be in order to deliver a good pitch. So I guess call Robbie Ray a work in progress. The velocity was up and the stuff was filthy, but he was all over the place. So I was disappointed that Paxton and Ray, two of the pitchers I wanted the most, are off to really bad starts.

But they could turn it around. I'm not super confident in starting either of them in week two, to be quite honest, even though they're fairly high end. Yeah, that definite concerns. And there's a few other velocity concerns and specific pitchers that we want to get into, and we'll do that after the break. some of the losers from this weekend.

We'll do that here on Fantasy Baseball today. We're back here on Fantasy Baseball today. Before we get back into it, I just want to remind you to subscribe to our YouTube channel, Fantasy Baseball Today. Of course, YouTube.com slash Fantasy Baseball today. The link is in the description as well. We either just exceeded 1,000 or we're close to 1,000.

So again, thank you for everybody who has subscribed thus far. Let's break 1,000. Let's go for 2,000. Let's go for 5,000. Let's take over the world here. A million. Baseball today. 1 million subscribers.

Chris, throughout the break, you hit us with a very interesting stat on Eric Hosmer. Yeah, I had to fact check myself. Eric Hosmer has, in fact, gone two games in a row without hitting a ground ball. It happened on September 3rd and September 4th of 2013. So I apologize for giving you fake news that Eric Cosmer had never gone two games in a row

without hitting ground ball. It happened eight years ago. Yes, a long, long time ago for Eric Hosmer. But again, still someone that you should be excited about. He's 75% owned in CBS Sports Leagues right now. Some other Velo concerns that I just wanted to bring up, and some guys that I consider losers from this weekend, Scott. Charlie Morton, I mean, look, we proclaim this, the show of Charlie Morton,

and his Vilo was around 92 miles per hour, whereas last year he was up over 94 on average with his fastball. Madison Bumgarner was. I believe it was 87 miles per hour that Madison Bumgarner was at this weekend. Yep. And that's compared, like, the amount of the drop is significant. 87.9 miles per hour on the fastball.

He was 91.7 miles per hour on the fastball last year. Mitch Keller, someone that Chris and I, and I believe to some extent Scott as well was excited about coming into the season. He was throwing 95 last year. Today he was averaging 92 miles per hour on his fastball. Zach Granky, I've doubted him for long enough, and normally he does this Rout Spring Train.

Maybe this is just his extended spring training, but today he averaged 87 miles per hour on his fastball. And last year, he was around 90. Adam mentioned James Paxton as well. So Morton, Bumgarner, Granky, Keller, Paxton, some serious velocity concerns. Scott, which one worries you the most? It would probably be Keller because I'm not sure there's enough there if he doesn't have velocity. Five swinging strikes on his 87 pitches today. And look, he kept runs off the board,

one and run in five innings. So before it was, he kept allowing runs, but the stuff looked great. And now the stuff doesn't look great, but he kept runs off the board. Yeah, that's going to be a problem. And he didn't really offer an explanation other than to agree that, yes, it was down.

Okay. Obviously not dropping them yet, but, you know, another two starts like this, and particularly if the results take a turn for the worst, I think you seriously have to consider. it. Bumgarner, yeah, I mean, we've seen a big drop from him in the past and actually went up a little last year. You know, he was a big bust for me heading into this season. This is going to make it easier. Like him and Granky, though, they've been around so long and they've overcome so

much already that part of me doesn't want to bet against them. I mean, I'm more likely to do it from I'm going to than Grinke since I didn't really believe in him in the first place. But that's kind of where I am with them. I mean, Granky just a couple years ago, he used to average 92 on his fastball, and then the last couple of years it was 90,

and the production didn't change at all. I wonder with the raise, because Charlie Morton is on this list, and Blake Snell today went two innings. It was basically an opener. He threw 46 pitches after throwing 47 in his final spring two up, tune up starts. So are they even extending him? What's going on here?

Like the raise, I feel like maybe they didn't have the same philosophy going into the shutdown as the other organizations because their starting pitchers just don't seem on the same level as any other teams in terms of readiness in terms of readiness. And I don't know, I don't know that it's fair to single out Morton, but nonetheless, it's worrisome if you're invested in them. I mean, we'll see how Tyler Glass now does in his first start. see if he's, yeah, because he was away from the team, I think, for after everybody reported, he was away for a while. So, yeah, that's something to monitor.

I wish we had made a bigger deal of Snell. Looking back, I wish we had made as big a deal of Snell as we did about Bueller, Walker Bueller, because I think it's going to be just as much of a concern for him moving forward. If he's not even built up to 50 pitches yet, like, when are you going to get a five-enning start from him? Yeah. Chris, do you dare bench Charlie Morton this week? He's at Atlanta. And mind you, we are recording this Sunday night.

And the Atlanta Braves have 14 runs scored against the New York Mets right now. Yeah, I was looking at, I think it's Cory Oswald for the Mets who came in in relief. And he's given up, he gave up like nine hard hit balls to the Braves or something incredible in four innings. Look, the thing I always look at, like when we're talking about Charlie Moore or Patrick Corbin in his last tune-up start. And it was like, well, Patrick Corbin's. velocity was down. It's like, have we seen this pitcher pitch at this velocity level and succeed? In Patrick Corbyn's case, we have. We have seen Patrick Corbyn pitch effectively in the late high 80s, low 90s. He had that stretch in May and June of 2018, where he did them.

Charlie Morton, he averaged 92.4 miles per hour with his fastball in the opener. He hadn't been below 94.2, I believe, with his four seamer in any. start going back to at least 2018. So that is where, yeah, you start to get concerned because we just haven't even seen him pitch at this level. So we have no idea if he can be effective at it. On the other hand, a couple of caveats apply. One, there's a new stack cast system. It's the same stackast front facing thing, but they upgraded all the back stuff, the technology. And it is possible that there is some calibration issues going on and, you know, maybe there are certain

ballparks that aren't quite as accurate or still, it's possible that that's going on. But with Charlie Morton, like, it would require like a mile and a half hour, mile and a half per hour difference for us to not be concerned. So yeah, I'm, I don't, man, I would have trouble sitting him. On the other hand, the Braves, I think could be one of the best offenses in baseball. and I think it's possible. They could be the best offense in baseball. And so, yeah, it's risky. It is definitely risky right now.

I mean, it's almost like you want to take a wait and see a pro to Charlie Morton, but he could come out the next game and be the Charlie Morton that we've seen the past couple of seasons. And then you miss out on that start. I'm more concerned about Mitch Keller. Yeah, Charlie Morton.

Yeah, I think that is definitely fair to say. Let's go rapid fire and hit on some notes from over the weekend, try and get to as many teams as we possibly can before we answer your emails. The Cincinnati Reds, we mentioned. Joey Votto looked great. Luis Castillo and Trevor Bauer, both double-digit strikeout performances. And Sunny Gray was also great on opening day.

It's worth noting that Josh Van Meter played second base today in Mike Mustakis's absence. So if you're in a deeper league. And Mustakis is on the IL. I'm not sure if you mentioned that before. And Senzal is not available. I would imagine if Senzel was available, he would have played one of those two spots, considering he is a natural second base. For the Tigers, Joe Jimenez had two saves over the weekend. He was a little bit shaky on Sunday, but ultimately got it done. CJ Cron hit two home runs over the weekend. Matthew Boyd was not good on opening day. Five innings pitched, four earned runs.

Just two strikeouts with eight swinging strikes. Chris, you hate to see it. You don't love to see it, no. I'm not going to say that I'm ready to panic because, well, if you drafted Matt Boyd thinking that he couldn't have a start, like this, you didn't know what you were signing up for. Yeah, this one doesn't really worry me. He threw his slider about as often as last year and it had about the same whiff rate as last year. So it's, I'm just going to chalk this one up as a bad start. Yeah, this is like right in the middle of the list of concern.

Like it's not more or less concerning than the average pitcher, I would say. And it's worth noting that he went up against the fully loaded Reds offense when everybody was healthy. Hashtag full squad. Yeah. Yeah. Full squad was there. Hopefully they can get back again soon.

For the Marlins, Sandy Alcantaro, we mentioned, looked great on Friday. Honestly, I did not talk about this guy probably as much as we should have leading up to the season, but I think all the tools are there, Chris. I mean, 6'4, throws hard, upper 90s. He had the slider and the changeup working in that start.

I am quite interested in him if he is available. Do you have anything to add? He's kind of the Jorge Alfaro of pitchers. Okay. Except Jorge Alfara makes a ton of really good contact. Sandial O'Kantara is one of the best at limiting hard contact, so he's always going to run these super low bab-ups. And so the question is, can he be a slightly above-average strikeout pitcher

and a slightly below-average walks pitcher? If he can, he's probably like a legitimate mid-to-low-3 ZRA guy. It's just I need to see more. 14 swinging strikes on Friday against a pretty good Philly's lineup as well. Jesus Aguilar had two home runs over the weekend. If you are desperate for a corner infielder, he is only owned in 16% of CBS sports leagues. Caleb Smith was quite bad, six walks on Saturday. D.D. Gregorius hit two home runs over the weekend, both Friday and Saturday.

Aranola was not great. Zach Wheeler, someone that we mentioned earlier, was very good. Seven innings pitch, just one earned run against the Miami Marlins. For the Mets, Edwin Diaz got a save. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He got a save on Friday. He blew the save on Saturday. he allowed a home run to Marcel Ozuna with two outs left.

With two outs in that game. Yes, Scott? But the home run was not on the slider. It was on the fastball. He said the fastball was exactly where he wanted it to do. Yeah, like it was a good pitch. It was like four or five inches off the plate. Marcelo Zunas just swinging the bat incredibly well right now.

And Luis Rojas, the Mets manager, said he's not worried. So I'm not worried either. I think Edwin Diaz, particularly some of the volatility we saw from ninth inning guys this weekend. I feel pretty secure with him right now. Steven Matt's. Right now. Sorry. Stephen Matt's, someone that I mentioned, I thought looked great.

Six innings pitched, one earned run, seven strikeouts. The velocity was up for him of the Atlanta Braves. Max Freed, five innings pitch, two earned runs, two walks, and five strikeouts. He only threw two changeups, something that I was paying attention to heading into the season. So we'll see if he ups that. usage moving forward. The rays were a mess as usual in their bullpen. We spoke about Morton. We mentioned Blake Snell for the Toronto Blue Jays. Ken Giles got hurt. Shoemaker was solid. Ryu was not very good in his debut. He had three walks on Friday. He made 29 starts last

season. Only three starts. Did he have three or more walks in those 29 starts? So not really the Yanjin Ryu that we're used to seeing on Friday, Scott. Yeah, I don't really read much into that either. He just had a bad start, I think. I agree. The velocity was okay. I feel fine with Ryu still. Scott, I saw you tweet about this today, actually. Carlos Carrasco was ridiculous on Sunday.

Mind you, it was against the Kansas City Royals, but the velocity was on par with where it was back in 2018 when he still had like a sub 3.5 ERA. 10 strikeouts, 17 swinging strikes on 87 pitches. Very excited about Carasco. Yeah, and the opponent doesn't really matter to me in this instance. like what concerns I had about Carrasco coming into the season were pretty much all eliminated with this one star

because the velocity was there, it was there deep into the game, they let him pitch deep into the game, all of this happening from the very first start and he was great. So, you know, the only lingering concern I have with Carasco is does he decide to opt out because of him being more of a health risk than certain other players? but to a certain degree, that concern is in play for every single player in the majors. Do they opt out or not? So that doesn't even really register so much.

I think Carrasco, you just got somebody you can count on hearing him. I do want to point out one thing as we're talking about the, or as we were talking about the raise, I kind of went through and just looked at a bunch of different pitchers. It does kind of look like everybody's velocity was down. Like Chas Rowe was down about a mile and a half per hour. I just looked at, Nick Anderson was down about a mile an hour, half per hour. Ryan Yarbrough looks like he was down about him.

Like it was pretty consistent. And so I do wonder if there's something there where it's a calibration issue. Obviously, I can't say, I wouldn't say for certain, but that'll be something to keep an eye on. And I just realized, I don't even know if the Blue Jay's home games are going to have stack cast data. Right, because they're now the, Buffalo, Blue Jays.

Buffalo, and I have no idea if they have the Hawkeye. I would assume they do not have Hawkeye set up there, given that they don't even have the appropriate light settings to play night games on TV. For the Chicago Cubs over the weekend, Ian Hap had two home runs. He's only 41% owned. Scott, I'm okay dropping Kyle Tucker for Ian Hap. Do you agree?

It depends if I need a starter or not. that would be like i i feel like tucker's upside is considerably higher than haps and i think there's still a good chance he forces his way into an everyday role he came off the bench today but hit another double at some point even dusty baker has to be won over um so you know three outfielder league where it's just a guy i'm stashing away for upside i'd still rather go tucker than half but i'd rather start hap than tucker right now yeah I hear you. I just, I think the upside is pretty high for someone like Ian Hap as well. It's not as high as Kyle Tucker, I agree. But I just, look, if Kyle Tucker is not playing now with Yuron Alvarez not around, I just, I don't know if it's going to happen ultimately.

So I am okay making that move. Corey Kinebel pitched in the seventh inning on Friday, down two zip, and he pitched in the fourth inning Sunday. Chris, are you okay dropping Corey Kinebel? Yeah, yeah, I think so. Yeah, it was a speculative ad anyway, and he'll have to earn a roll. For the Red Sox, no Alex Verdugo on Friday against the left-handed pitcher, and then on Saturday he had three hits, two of which came off of a left-handed pitcher, and then he started on Sunday against a left-handed pitcher. So something you do like to see when it comes to Alex Verdugo. The Rockies, going from something you like to see to something you don't like to see, Scott.

The Rockies. Garrett Hampson only started once this weekend against a left-handed pitcher, and I don't know that that is going to change. Well, there's a good chance it changes at some point. Players will get hurt. Players will be bad. All of this stuff, like if Garrett Hampson hits and the other guys don't, if Kyle Tucker hits and the other guys don't,

you know, that's ultimately like managers can want to do what they want to do, but the players will dictate this stuff to at least a certain extent. Right, right. And I think they played it. I think they played it basically like a strict, like a platoon between Hilliard and Hampson and left field. That's how it worked out this weekend. So that appears to be the plan going in.

But of course things are going to change. Like, I understand you can't bank on them changing as much in a two-month season as you can in a six-month season. But, you know, things will change. Look at all that just changed today. What's really stupid is Brennan Rogers didn't even get a, did he even get a single play to parents this weekend? No, he didn't. Chris, the Rockies hate young players. It's amazing.

Speaking of young players, the antithesis is Nelson Cruz, who had four hits on Sunday, two home runs, seven RBI and 12 total bases. We tried to tell you on Nelson Cruz. I just wish I had more shares. Like, I have a lot of shares, but I just wish I had 100% exposure to Nelson Cruz. Chris, how did we go 53 minutes into the show? And we did not mention Lucas Gialito. That is a terrible job by me.

I buried the lead. He was god-awful on Friday, but he was going up against the twins. So it's like, how much do you take away from it? It's one start. It's against the Twins team that, in case you forgot, set the Major League record last year for home runs in a season. They probably won't break that record this year, although with Nelson Cruz, you never know.

You never know. Yeah, look, it's possible that this was a sign of bad things to come, but if the velocity was there and that was a big key for his breakout last year, I'm not particularly worried about it. The last thing that I wanted to mention, Denelson Lamet looked really, really strong on Saturday. His velocity was actually up.

For everyone that we're talking about being down, 97.7 miles per hour on his fastball, by far a career high. 41 of his 80 pitches were the slider. So maybe he's going the Patrick Corbyn route, and if he does that, only one walk in this game, five-innings pitch, eight strikeouts against a solid D-backs lineup.

I am pretty interested in Denelson-Lemette right now. It's only one start. Don't want to overreact, but was very pleasantly surprised by that. We'll answer some of your questions starting right now from our Apple podcast reviews. This comes from The Ketchup and Peeps guy. Is there anything I need to know about this? Yeah. Didn't like, did someone send it to us or was this like a meme? Does someone actually put ketchup on a peep?

Is that like? Peeps with ketchup? I feel like maybe somebody recommended it to us. Oh, gosh. Like since shivers up my spine. I agree. He went into his 12-team roto draft with the number two pick thinking it was a points league.

For my pick, I drafted Garrickole as fast as I could, then was heckled by the other owners for taking him too high in a roto league. Anyway, I ended up with Garikol and then Jose Ramirez for my first two picks compared to Christian Yelich and Stephen Strasbourg. Should I feel like a fool, or does this not seem as bad as I think it is? mind you, he sent this in on Thursday. Scott, Jose Ramirez, look pretty good today.

Yeah. No, it could go well for you. I don't, like, it certainly wasn't by the book pick, Garrett Cole number two in a Roto league, but there's like, I'd seen it happen before. And Jose Ramirez could be somebody who next year we're talking about drafting second overall. I mean, yeah, it could go totally fine for you.

If you could guarantee, Jose Ramirez would be there every single time at Pick 23. I might have considered taking Garrett Cole number two every time, but that's just because I think Jose Ramirez was one of the best valleys in fantasy. Absolutely. We'll get to your emails. Fantasy baseball at cbsi.com. This one comes from Jeremy, dear gay lord, C.C. Cliff and Corey.

I know who they are, but what's their in common? I know who the pitchers are. I don't know what they have in common. Look, you guys are more likely to know than I am. Are they Cleveland Indian Tsayung Award winners? That's true. Oh, yeah, Cici did win when he was there. That might be it.

Are you concerned with the poor performances of Aces Charlie Morton, Gialito, or Jose Berrios? We spoke about the other two, Morton, and Gialito quite a bit. Could the shortened spring training slash summer camp have a negative effect on their timing, rhythm, and overall performance for the next few starts? And save that one after this. We'll get to the two-parter here. Scott, we spoke about the other guys. Any concern over Jose Barrios?

His velocity was actually up tremendously this weekend. Yeah, yeah. It just got hit hard. Could the quick ramp up have an effect on pitchers? Yes. To what degree were we seeing that happen this weekend? It's really hard to say. With the velocities down and certainly in the case of Blake Snow

where he came in knowing he was going to be limited to a certain of pitches, then it's easy to put it on that, the hurried buildup. But I mean, first time through at the start of every season, a lot of good pitchers have bad starts. It's just, that's just how it plays out. And like, good pitchers have bad starts sometimes. And I think, I think in the case of Rios, I think in the case of Golito and Riu, I feel pretty confident saying that's all it was. Yeah, I agree. If someone in your league is freaking out about Jose Barrios right now, especially, we're talking about everyone's velocity being down.

His velocity was up. So that is actually something I am excited about. He was going up against the White Sox, whom I consider one of the best lineups in the American League. The second part of this question, Chris, do you still believe Shane Bieber will have an ERA over four? Frank, do you still believe Fran Mo Reyes will lead baseball in home runs? Yeah, sure.

Scott, do you still believe, believe that Corey Canable will have more saves than Josh Hater or that Austin Riley will lead the Braves and Home Runs. No, these were bold predictions. These were not, this is the thing that will definitely happen. And I stand by this 100%. No, it was a bold prediction. It is inherently an unlikely thing

that you believe could happen. So, yeah, I still believe Shane Bieber could have an ERA over for. Although now he's made, you know, 7% of his starts for the season. and so it is slightly less likely to happen than it would have been before his start. Yeah, 14 strikeouts, one walk on Friday. That's fine. That'll, you know, that'll help the cost a little bit.

The problem is nobody made contact with him, so of course he had a good start. Well, you know what? Anyone who pitches against the Kansas City Royals is going to have a pretty good chance of striking out a lot of their batters. This next one's from Jack. Hey, guys, I got offered Matt Boyd for Corbin Burns

and Mitch Keller in a 10-team head. to head categories league with quality starts. I'm not especially deep at starting pitcher, but I do have Josh James as a sleeper, even if I deal Burns and Keller. Do I make this move for Boyd? Boyd is not enough of a sure thing, I think.

I think they're all kind of the same guy to a certain extent. Matt Boyd's just a slightly more proven version of that, but that slightly more proven version still wasn't all that useful for most of last season in fantasy. So I would take two bites at the, well, I guess seeing Mitch Keller pitch maybe changes my...

Yeah, and who's the other one? Carbon Burns. Yeah, given having seen Mitch Keller's velocity be three miles per hour lower than it was last year, yes, I would do it. But, you know, maybe try to pull the deal off quickly before. Yeah.

I almost... I almost always take the one when it's a two for one. And, you know, there are enough questions about Burns remaining true. Yeah, I'd take the deal. Yeah, and he mentioned that quality starts as a category too. I just

expect Boyd to have a consistently higher pitch count and likely go deeper into games than both Mitch Keller and Corbyn Burns. I just want to point out, 71.4% hard hit rate for Shane Bieber. Unsustainable. He's a fraud.

Let's answer this final question from Carl. He likely needs it before he sets his lineup tomorrow. Rank in order, who you'd rather have in next week's lineup in a head-to-head points league. Austin Voth for two

against the Blue Jays and the Marlins. Adrian Houser for two against the Pirates and the Cardinals. Shoemaker against the Nationals. Pablo Lopez for two, against the Orioles and the Nationals. Luke Weaver for two against the Padres and Dodgers

or Sandy Alcantara for one against the Orioles. What do you think, Scott? Well, I do. do have top 10 sleeper pitchers for week two up on the site so you could check that out. I would say of those choices, Adrian Houser would be my preference. He's actually number one on that list and because he's making the two starts. You know, I like Shoemaker for the one. I would like Alcantara considering it's the Orioles for the one, but you'd rather have the two. And I

have faith in Houser's skill set. I agree. I like Adrian Houser. You're right with that, Chris? Yeah, I'd put Pablo Lopez number two because he did ask us to rank them. That is true. And it's head to head points league, I would go Lopez, Weaver, and probably Alcantara. After Hauser, you would put Hauser first. Yes, Hauser, Lopez, Weaver, Alcantra. Yeah, I like that order as well.

I don't have any issues with that. The final question is one that I will ask you guys myself. Will I ever learn to put suntan lotion on my face when I go outside? see this is this is one that I'm an incredibly forgetful person I literally forget to close the refrigerator probably I would say on average three times per day and so luckily I'm not a person who needs suntan lotion all that much because I don't get burned obviously you know I probably do need it to not get cancer but just in terms of the burning I do pretty well um so So, you know, the question was about you, but obviously everything, I'm the protagonist in life story.

So I forgot the question. Yes, you will learn to put Santaan lotion. Yes, I, look, I'm never going to learn. I complained a couple of weeks ago, maybe a month ago. I went to the beach. I didn't put my lotion on. And it looked like a tomato. And what do you know, it's opening weekend.

And if you're watching on our YouTube channel, you see that I once again look like a tomato. Looks like you went to a day game. I went out fishing early in the morning today. Could have been a day game. I am beat, guys. All right, we're going to wrap it up there. It was a fun weekend of baseball, and hopefully we'll have a lot to talk about again on tomorrow's show.

For Scott and Chris, I am Frank, thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today on our YouTube channel. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.