Fantasy Baseball Today - Opening Weekend Recap! Springs Breakout, Waiver Wire Adds & More (4/3 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 3, 2023

Graham Ashcraft looked great on Sunday (1:16). ... Add Yoan Moncada over Spencer Steer and Elehuris Montero (5:10)? ... Jeffrey Springs looks like THE breakout pitcher (10:26). ... Let's get into some Robbie Ray replacements (14:05). ... Which waiver wire hitters emerged during the first weekend (19:48)? ... Add Brandon Crawford, Jorge Mateo or Brice Turang (27:00)? ... Which deep-league hitters are worth adding (29:05)? ... News (38:07): Lars Nootbaar is dealing with a jammed thumb. ... Let's talk about the rest of the pitchers (44:38). What do we do with Jack Flaherty, Chris Sale and Chris Bassitt? ... We wrap up with bullpen updates and pitchers to stream (59:05). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Fantasy Baseball Today is a finalist in the Baseball Category for the Sports Podcast Awards! Quickly create an account and vote here: https://www.sportspodcastgroup.com/sports_category/best-baseball-podcast/ Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Opening weekend of baseball is in the books. Let's break it all down. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, April 3rd.

Frank Stanfield joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we'll have our one. weekend recap, all of the waiver wire hopefuls, news, boltpins, everything in between. Before we get started, make sure to like this video. Leave a comment and subscribe if you haven't already. If you're listening on the audio side, we'd really appreciate a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. Let's start with the birthday boy. Scotty.

It's not my birthday anymore. It's not your birthday anymore. It will always be your birthday forever. That would be, I think that would get. It's exhausting for everybody. Who's your birthday weekend? Hope you had a good time. Anywho, Scott, who's a player you'd like to highlight from the weekend?

Well, I will highlight the one pitcher who I liked coming in, who was actually good. And that's Graham Ashcraft, who here on Sunday, he turned in about as good a performance as you could hope for against the Pirates, seven innings, one run, six strikeouts, hits one walk. He was high on my top sleeper pitchers list for this week, and I didn't start him in every league where I have him, because I haven't in a lot of leagues, but I started him a couple and enjoyed those results from Graham Ashcraft. He didn't excel in quite the way I hoped he would, I will say, especially considering it was the Pirates. Ten swinging strikes on 95 pitches. Okay, that's not a particularly impressive number. You could tell his slider was different. It was

up 1.9 miles per hour from last year. He also threw it 41% of the time as opposed to 27% of the time last year. And he talked about it after the game how it just keeps getting better and better and he thinks it's going to be a big difference maker for him. I think he actually got more whiffs on the cutter, that really hard cutter he throws than the slider. So I don't know. I mean, maybe he just happened to be the best version of the 2022 Ashcraft happened to show up against a bad lineup, and this is the result. Maybe it's not necessarily going to launch them into a breakout season. Obviously, if you've already invested in the idea of a breakout season,

this is no reason to give up on Ashcraft. But I don't know that it necessarily clinched it for me. I don't know that it's, okay, I nailed that one. Obviously, glad to have them where I do have them. Would pick them up where I don't have them. But I think the jury's still out on Grant Ashcraft after this first. start. One other thing that stood out to me in the start for Ashcraft was the spin rates being up on

all of his pitches. The cutter was up 162 RPM compared to last year, the slider 103 and the sinker 182. So I thought that was encouraging for Ashcraft as well. He is 65% rostered. He's at the Phillies this week. Let's compare him to some other shallow league starting pitchers that could be out there in 10 team or maybe even 12 team head to head points leagues. Tyler Anderson looked great in his debut this weekend.

at the ace. He went six shutout with four strikeouts. He's going up against the Blue Jays this week. Zach Eflin, solid in his raised debut, five innings of one-run ball with five strikeouts. That was against the Tigers. He's 77% rostered. Justin Steele also looked very good. Six shutout with eight strikeouts, 14 swinging strikes. He is 54% rostered up against the Rangers. Scott How would you rank those four? Graham Ashcraft, Tyler Anderson, Zach Eflin, and Justin Steele. almost in the order you said them I'd still go Ashcraft 1 Anderson 2

I'll go Justin Steele ahead of Eflin but I mean they both those last two showed encouraging things this weekend Justin Steele he threw his slider

half the time in this first start it was more like a third of the time last year and that's his best pitch he turned in great results against the Brewers I'm looking to pick him up wherever he's available Zach Eflin he used his

curveball a lot more, which was kind of his breakthrough pitch a year ago, and I assume the reason the Reyes liked him so much offering him that big contract, and he got 13 whiffs on 74 pitches against the Tigers. That's a really nice rate. So, Stealing,

Fland, 3rd, and 4th behind Ashcraft and Tyler Anderson. But you know, I think in 12 team leagues, they probably should all be rostered. All right, Chris, let's slide over to you, a player that you like to highlight from opening weekend.

Yoamankata, who I have very mixed feelings about through the first. I think they played four games. And hey, he's got two home runs. So that's pretty good. He only had 12 last season in 104 games. So you take that. The problem is, of course, he was batting lefty, I think, for both of them. And they were both Crawford box specials, which is kind of hard to do when you're a

lefty. You typically think of like a righty pull hitter that way. but they weren't particularly impressive home runs. I think there was about 720 feet total of home runs for Yuan Moncada across those two home runs. Not as impressive as it sounds. He struck out in 43% of his played appearances so far. I believe that's 9 out of 19, if my math is correct. No, 7 out of 19, okay.

That's not great also. But he's hitting the ball really hard so far. 97 mile per hour average exit velocity on eight batted balls. He's hitting it really hard. He's hitting it in the air as well. So, you know, those things are, I think, promising. As you can tell, I'm not sure how to actually feel about it. I think my main takeaway from Yama Makata is just for a guy who, when he's been at his best,

has relied on elite tools more than like a complete profile. It's good to see him flashing elite tools again, something he has not really done really since the COVID season when he had COVID and was just never the same. Hopefully he's feeling healthy and back up to full strength. I hope that would be the case last year, but it wasn't. So, yeah, I mean, you're giving kind of. Yeah, like it's ups and downs for Yomankata,

but at least some reasons for optimism. I would say it's nothing we've seen in four games, which nothing you can see in four games, can ever make you feel for sure one way or another about a player. But it's at least some reason for optimism, guarded optimism. Yeah, I mean, you gave kind of a wishy-washy take on Yaw Makata, and I gave kind of a wishy-washy take on Graham Ashcraft. And part of that's just because it's been a weekend. Everything is wishy-washy right now or everything should be. I mean, our Twitter mentions are not wishy-washy right now. But, you know.

The take on every player right now is, oh, that was interesting. Let's see if it continues. And so that's where I am with Moncada. I mean, in those deeper leagues with like corner infield spots where Moncada's already gone, it's like, oh, I wish I already had more shares of Mercada based on how hard he's hitting the ball right now. But in those shallower leagues where there's no corner infield spot and Molotta's likely to be out there, it's like, I don't know that I want to invest a roster spot in

Moncada. Yeah, I think that's fair. Yeah, we've been chasing, well, not really chasing, but hoping that Munkato would get back to that player that we saw back in 2019. When he broke out, he hit 315 with 25 home runs, 10 steals, and a 915 OPS. Far away, his best season, I guess, almost the full season,

132 games that he played that year. But yeah, it just really hasn't been the same since. The COVID diagnosis, which you mentioned, Chris. So we've been waiting for Munkata to get back to that. It is a good ballpark to hit in, especially, I mean, once the weather heats up in Chicago, maybe not so much early on in the season, but where the White Sox play is a great park for home run.

So hopefully this is something that can carry over into that. A few third basemen we talked about on Friday, Eleheras Montero and Spencer Steer, who have flashed a little bit here early on in the season. Would you guys rather speculate on those two or Yohan Moncada ahead of them? Man, it's, I'm inclined to stick with who I already have, probably. went in doubt.

And so I'm probably putting Moncada third of that group, but it wouldn't, it wouldn't upset me in any way if Chris put Moncada at the top of that group because it's just, there's so much that still needs to be seen. I think I'd go Moncada second. I would have Stier ahead of him, and then Montero third.

I think I have more playing time concerns about Montero than either or the other two. Stier has started every game. Yeah. Your writing so far. Yeah. Steers hit the ball really well, so far. So that's a good sign. It's, again, very, very small sample sizes. But at this point in the

season, it's like spring training. You're mostly just looking for reasons to be optimistic. You shouldn't be changing your opinion, but like you want to hear, you want to see guys do things well. You'd rather that than the alternative. That being said, people, players not doing things well generally isn't going to be a reason for me to cut them at this point in the season. I agree with you guys in terms of like it's going to be hard to make decisions. I mean that's why we're here to help people make decisions but looking for the positives in some of these players like a montata like a graham ashcraft or even steer montaro because if you do hit on one of them you have them for the entire season so that's why we kind of want to be aggressive early on here and and hopefully hit on some of these

these early season standouts speaking of which player of the weekend for me is my boy man Jeffrey spring six no-hit innings with 12 strikeouts to 1. one walk in his season debut. Of course, in the most Tampa Bay Rays fashion, they pull him after 81 pitches. So I don't know how far we are in terms of the leash or how far they're going to let him go deep into his starts.

I think that still remains to be seen. But in terms of stuff, I mean, he carried over everything that we saw last year and in spring training where Jeffrey Springs looked like, I don't know, the breakout starting pitcher this year. He had 13 swinging strikes on 81 pitches, Nine of those came on his change-up, which is, you know, his best pitch,

his best secondary whiff pitch. He used a sweeper 12% of the time, which is not something that he used last year, or maybe he did, and there's just new classifications on baseball savant. But either way, guys, I mean, I think if you have springs, obviously you're really, really encouraged. But this is one of those things where I don't want to overreact,

but it just like after seeing it, it kind of feels like, man, he might be the guy this year, like the breakout pitcher. Yeah, I mean, I don't want to take anything away from it because it was such a dominant start, but we still, even with him being so efficient through six innings, we still have yet to see him go more than six innings in the start. Right. Because it's the first start of the season, it's like, okay, maybe it's just because it was the first start of the season.

If he was doing this on May 1st, or May 2nd, whatever, and they still took him out six innings then. And we, you know, after consecutive starts of him going, going no more than six innings, I'd be like, okay, the race are just going to have a hard cap here, basically. Not going to let Jeffrey Springs face the lineup a third time. But we don't know. That's the one detraction. That is the one and only detraction right now. Otherwise, Jeffrey Springs looks amazing, and I'd be thrilled to have him.

And I think you should be thrilled to have him. Like, even his price got kind of inflated towards the end. I think the last weekend when those NFC main event drafts were happening, he would, was like 120th in ADP, which that was higher than I think any of us had him ranked. I don't know about you guys. But even there, like if you took him in the 10th round in the 12 team league or the, I don't know, eighth round in a 15 team league, whatever it would be, like, you should probably feel pretty good about that based on what we saw.

Based on what we saw from him last year. Like, I don't think he has 180 inning upside. I would be very, very surprised if Jeffrey Springs got to 180 innings. But he can still be very, very, very useful and very, very valuable at 100. 160 innings. So it's the kind of thing where I want to celebrate him for what he is, not what we wish he could be. You know? You know, you just said 160 innings. And it reminded me of Shane McClanahan last year who got to 166 and a third. He was dealing with a shoulder injury towards the end of the season. So he missed some time. And that's why he was a little bit limited in terms of his innings pitched. But I can see a workload similar to that. And the way that Springs gets there is not going to be similar to. to McClainahan at all. He's not a flamethrower. Again, it's really this change of heavy approach,

but I could see really good ratios and strikeouts over 160 or 170 innings for Jeffrey Springs this season. We're going to get into all the other big highlights from this weekend as well. I mean, Trace Thompson had a three-homer game, and Nolan Gorman will get into all those. But I just kind of want to go in order in terms of just the waiver wire names. I think people are maybe putting in claims or trying to set their lineups for this upcoming week. So let's get into, mentioned starting pitchers part one. I've got another group here. This is like 12 team roto leagues and deeper.

You know, you're getting a little bit further down the list. McKenzie Gore had a solid outing against the Braes. Five and a third. One run. Six strikeouts. Four walks. Don't love that. He's 44% rostered at Corse Field this week. So I don't think you're starting Gore, but maybe you just want to pick him up for his upside. Aaron Savali threw seven shutout with three

strikeouts. He is 38% rostered. Mike Clevenger, a great start at the Houston Astros on Sunday. He went five shutout with eight strikeouts in that one. His fastball velocity was up 1.1 miles per hour compared to last year. He's 32% rostered. Great start at the Pirates this week. Seth Lugo, awesome in his first start with the Padres. Seven innings of one run ball with seven strikeouts. He's 23% rostered. And Tyler McGill, solid start filling in for Justin Verlander at the Marlins, five innings, two runs, seven strikeouts, 17% rostered. Chris, I've got five names here. Who are your two favorites?

Savali, Clevenger, Lugo, and Tyler McGill. It would be Gore and Clevenger. I wrote about them as Robbie Ray replacements. I'm doing a kind of weekend weekend recap piece for CBSSports.com. It'll be up trying to get it up every Sunday before your waivers run. So hopefully about 8, 39 o'clock. And Gore and Clevenger were the two that I highlighted as potential Robby Ray replacements.

Obviously, we didn't talk about that. but Robbie Ray is on the IL with a flexor strain. Really great for all my Robbie Ray teams. I thought Clevenger looked pretty good. He went fastball slider heavy, but he was someone who previously before his injuries, he was someone who's very good at limiting hard contact. So he showed some of that today.

And then Gore, decent results against a very, very tough matchup. I still don't know if he's going to be the guy we hoped he could be. He relies way too heavily on his fastball, and I don't think he has the command of his other pitches to throw them more. But he's a guy that I'm always going to be excited to see positive results from. So Gore and Clevenger would be my favorites from those two. Although, Seth Lugo is really interesting. You know, he made that move to the bullpen a few years back.

He's been really good out of the bullpen. Comes back to the rotation all of a sudden. He's still throwing like 96 miles per hour. or more, he's getting decent numbers of wifts on his curveball, the spin rate. The curveball is just ridiculous for him. It's like 3,500, aren't you?

Yeah. It's about Morton with the 3,000. Yeah, 60 inches of vertical drop on his curveball. That's like the true 12 to 6 curveball. So he's pretty interesting, I think, Seth Lugo.

Gore and Clevenger are my favorite from this group, too. I don't think any is like you must pick them up right now. Yeah. But if you have a spot to play with, you know, a few of my leagues, I put in claims for each of them. In Clevenger's case, what's weird is he kind of was just a two-pitch pitcher in this one. And at his best, he was more than that.

So I don't know if that's really a formula for success for him. But it's hard to argue with the results, especially since they came against the Astros. And he's going to have a much better matchup. So you pointed out, Frank, against the pirates this week. He did, in addition to the three walks, I think he hit two batters. So, you know, I think that was an issue for him in the spring as well.

I want to say he had like four hit batters and relatively limited innings there. So still definitely working through some stuff. Yeah, as Chris mentioned, Robbie Ray, pitched quite bad on Friday and then was placing the IL with a grade one flexor strain. So we knew there was going to be pitcher injuries, but already a lot going on. Justin Verlander on opening day, Max Fried on opening day. And then Robbie Ray, the very next day. so we do need some waiver wire pitchers to help us out. What about if you play in deep leagues?

I have two names here, Johnny Brito, who had a strong debut for the Yankees on Sunday, five shutout with six strikeouts. And that one, he's 22% rostered. The problem is that he was sent down after the game. The Yankees have an off day this week and could go with a four-man rotation. Within that report, it said, you know,

Brito could be back by mid-April, so I don't know how long we'd have to wait for him, but he did pitch pretty well in this one. 16 swinging strikes. on 76 pitches. I thought that was interesting. And Kyle Freeland, good friend, Kyle Freeland, six shutout at the Padres.

Of course, he was on the road, not in Corse Field on this one. And six shutout, only one strikeout, 11% rostered, faces the Nationals at home in Corres Field this week. It's got any interest in deeper leagues, Johnny Brito, Kyle Freeland. I mean, Kyle Freeland, you know what you're getting.

If you want a 450 ERA from any innings either. I mean, there are some leagues that are deep enough where that, you know, I'm thinking like an NL-only head-to-head points league, maybe. And then Brito, I would be more interested in Brito, but how many starts is he honestly going to make? Because they're skipping them this time around, and it won't be long before Carlos Rodon's making his return, right?

He has a really good change-up, if nothing else, Johnny Brito. The knock is that he doesn't have much of a breaking ball, but he's got like a few different versions of a fast ball that can maybe be enough to pay. with that change up to get decent results. I just don't know that there's enough. I don't know that the juice is worth the squeeze

because of the playing time issue. All right, fair enough. Those are the main pitchers that we're looking at following opening weekend. Let's take our first break when we get back. We'll talk about waiver wire hitters here on Fantasy Baseball today. Welcome back to Fantasy Baseball today. Let's get into some of our Waverwire hitters

from the weekend who emerged here. Outfielders part one. These are some shallow league plays. Charlie Blackman had six hits this weekend, including a home run, and those games were all on the road. Actually, I might have wrote that in before he played on Sunday,

so let me check and see if he did anything Sunday. And he had another hit, so that would be seven hits, including a home run in his first four games. All of those were on the road. That's Charlie Blackman. Oscar Coloss went two for five with a double and a steal on Sunday.

63% rostered. Austin Hayes went five for five with a soccer. and a shoe. That's a home run and a stolen base on Saturday. Of course, he dropped a routine fly ball and Felix Batista wound up giving a walkoff homer, the very next pitch, and the very next batter. So that was unfortunate. But Austin Hayes is 52% rostered. Scott, how would you rank those three in a shallow league? Charlie Blackman, Oscar Coloss, Austin Hayes.

Coloss, Blackman, Hayes. And at a shallow league, probably the only one I'm all that interested in is Coloss for the upside. He seems under Ross. at 63%. But yes, agreed. I know he did set opening day against the lefty, and hopefully that doesn't become a trend. All right, what if you just need power? A massive weekend for Adam Duval,

who had a double dong on Saturday, including that walk-off home run off Felix Batista, and then a three-hit game on Sunday. 37% rostered is Adam Duval. Jorge Soler had a solid first weekend. He had four hits, including a home run. He's 39% rostered. Patrick Wisdom went two for four with a double dong on Sunday.

Nolan Gorman. All right. Let's see if you can build off this, a double dong on Sunday as well. So playing so far against right-handed pitching, Nolan Gorman, 35% rostered. The Cardinals have six games this week. Two lefties on the schedule.

So I just, I don't know if he's going to play every day. Chris, if you need power, how do you rank this group? Adam Duval, Jorge Solair, Patrick Wisdom, Nolan, Gorman. I think I would go Duval, Solair, more sure thing than Gorman, but I don't know if that's saying very much because what he is a

sure thing of is not particularly impressive. Gorman at least has some projectable upside based on youth and pedigree. So I would go with Gorman ahead of wisdom. And then Duval and Salar is just kind of a coin flip. I think they're both going to be based on their careers, very streaky. I don't see any reason to think they won't continue to be. Although, you know, Duval does at least have the added benefit of playing half his games at. at a park that should serve his pull-heavy fly ball swing pretty well. Well, this weekend he was there and look at the early returns. And just remind everybody in 2021, Adam Duvall hit 38 home runs.

I'm pretty excited about this. Obviously, he's going to hurt you in batting average in the long run. But the fact that, you know, theoretically the coldest stretch of the season, Adam Duval and his new home had this kind of opening weekend, I think, tells us he's looking at a good Adam Duval season as opposed to a bad Adam Duval season. And that still may not be worth it in three outfielder leagues, but in five outfielder leagues, I think it absolutely is. And just like the subject of, like, it didn't seem like I brought up, you know, the coldest stretch of the season in terms temperature. I'm talking about. Didn't it seem like an issue at all this weekend.

It didn't seem like balls were dying out of the warning track the way we saw last April. And I don't think it is as cold as it was early last season. I don't think. Just going off memory. But a lot of games are being played in sub-50 degree temperatures.

And it just seemed like a non-issue. I didn't hear it come up. Yeah, and I'm interested to look at the league-wide data once we have more data, right? I mean, I think it's too early to take anything away. and even a week from now, it will be too early, but let's see what the league-wide batting average looks like

and home-run to-fly ball ratio. I mean, I guess we really won't know what baseball they're using until a month or two into the season, and we can judge home-run to fly ball ratio compared to years past. Specifically, Fenway Park was one of the coldest places games of being played this weekend,

and it didn't affect Duval at all. For both times. I mean, the Orioles were smashing the ball, too, everywhere. Which, you know, could potentially, us something about the environment we're playing in. Yeah. Could potentially tell us something about the pitching for the race and or Red Sox and Orioles. So also true.

Let's keep that in mind. League wide, uh, the batting average over the first three days of the season was three 48 last year over the first three days, almost the exact same number of games. 22. 222. 248 versus 22.

Oh, sorry. I said 342 248 versus 22. Yeah. League wide slugging. up about 38 points, which is, I think, a little ahead of the batting average. So, yeah, you're seeing a little spike in ice. So, I mean, again, this is not even including Sunday. This is just the first three days of the season.

We don't actually know what to take away from any of this, but it's something we'll definitely be keeping an eye on. Chris, you said 348, and I'm like, did everyone turn into Luis Arise? Sorry, sorry, 327 OVP. Maybe that's what I meant. There you go. Scott, I wanted to get a few more thoughts here on Nolan Gorman, because I'm getting a lot of questions already. Obviously, he's someone that had a lot of prospect pedigree, hit for a lot of power in the minors. But then last year when we saw him lots of strikeouts, struggles against

lefties, didn't play every day. He's only 35% rostered, so he's widely available. I'm getting questions on Twitter like, should I drop Brennan Lau for Nolan Gorman, which I don't think we should, but what do you think? No, I mean, no. I think playing time is still going to be an issue for Gorman. I'm encouraged that they're playing him as much as they are. He seems to be their preferred DH against right-handed pitchers, but, you know, they still have four outfielders for three spots with Jordan Walker making the team. And really, it's more like five outfielders for three spots because I don't know if you saw the game Alec Berluson had on Sunday. We'll get to that. Was it two home runs in a double or a home run in two doubles? I believe it was a home run in two

doubles on Sunday for Alec Berluson. Alex Berluson, who was a pretty good prospect in his own right. A top 100 guy hit about 330 in the minors last year. And so we haven't even even been including him in the Cardinals' Outfield mix. He started for Lars Nupar, who has a jammed thumb on Sunday and put together that performance. And then obviously, Gorman's not getting more time at second base, where Brentad Donovan's doing his thing, third base, Alex Aranott. Nolan Aronado is there.

So I just, I don't see the room without injury, which, you know, injuries are likely to happen at some point, I guess. But barring that, I don't see a lot of room for Gorman to gain in the power. second order for the Cardinals. All right, let's talk about some other middle infielder. You know steals are way up if Brandon Crawford is stealing bases. He had a sock and a shoe on Saturday. Of course, the only game I went to this weekend for the Yankees is the one that they lost.

And Brandon Crawford killed them in that game. They turned him loose 3-0. He had a 3-run home run. It was crazy. Anywho, he went 3-4-5 in that game. He's 40% rostered. Six games on the schedule, only one lefty. Jorge Mateo went 0-4 with a walk on Saturday, I believe it was.

more steals. He already has four steals on the season. So I think we kind of know the deal with Mateo. The batting average isn't going to be good, but he is going to run. The Orioles. I mean, it might also, again, might tell us something about the Red Sox and their organizational philosophy.

Maybe they're just not bothering to throw over. I don't know. But they had 95 steals last season. They had 10 in their first two games this year. That is wild. Yeah. Yeah. It really is.

I don't know, man. Mateo, he led the AL and steals last season with like a 270 OBP. I might be exaggerating that, but I'm not sure if I am. Yeah, 267 OBP. Like, he's going to kill you everywhere. He also might steal 50 bases this year. Yep, that is Jorge Mateo. Bryce Terang had a good game.

He went two for three with two walks, a double an RBI, and two runs scored. Looks like he's not going to play against lefties, at least to start the season. did not start on Saturday, but had that good game on Sunday. Scott, let's say you need a middle infielder in like a 12-team roto or something deeper than that. How are you ranking Crawford, Jorge Mateo, and Bryce Terang? I'd rather have Terang. I'd rather have the mystery box given the obvious shortcomings of Brandon Crawford and Jorge Mateo. And, you know, if Tarang performs well enough, that platoon he's in will probably end.

And he'll just be a full-time guy. I presume he's the Brewer's long-term. They view him as their long-term second baseman, if not sliding over to shortstop at some point, because I think defensively he's pretty sharp. All right, let's talk about some deep league outfielders. There are lots of interesting names here. Trace Thompson for three home runs.

A triple dong on Saturday, eight RBI. All of them, all the home runs, over 400 feet. One of them was 440, so a moonshot for Trace Thompson, 25% rostered. And last year, he actually hit the ball really hard. It was a smaller sample, but 92.3 mile per hour average exit velocity, 16.4% barrel rate. And I think he just kind of gets cast as like a lefty specialist.

He's actually better against right-handed pitching in his career than against lefties. So I thought that was kind of interesting. Jose Siri has a hit in each game thus far. He has a home run and a steal. He's 11% rostered. Adam Frazier went three for four with his first home run. two runs, two RBI on Sunday. He is only 10% rostered.

Enrique Hernandez back-to-back games with a home run for the Red Sox. Tommy Fam, he had a big game Sunday. I just don't know how often he's going to play. He went three for four with a sock and a shoe. He's only 6% rostered. We mentioned what Alec Berluson did, three for four with a home run and two doubles.

Joey Weimer got called up by the Milwaukee Brewers. He's a top 100 prospect. He's got power. He's got speed. Luis Reis is on the aisle for, sounds like it could be up to six weeks. Yeah, like two months, yeah. Yeah, so Joey Weamer seems like he's going to get some run.

And then Joey Gallo, Chris, finally. He did something. He three for four with a double dung on Sunday. One of those came off of a lefty. Kind of interesting. He has four strikeouts in 11 played appearances so far this season. Okay, lots of names here on this list. Chris will start with you.

Give me three names that stand out most. Deep League outfielders. I think Joey Weamer is far and away the most interesting. interesting of them, partially just because there's a mystery box element to him, but he's also a talented prospect who I believe it's 20 homers, 30 steals each the last two seasons in the minors. He's like 24. So, you know, he's still young enough-ish. You know, obviously we think with South Freelick, it's kind of, it's not quite sink or swim,

but he's probably got a hit. And he very well may stick and be a really good fantasy option. So I think Joey Weamer, the clear favorite here. And then I think it's a pretty uninspiring list. I did see something about Tommy Fam getting new contacts and saying it's the best he's been able to see the ball in a while. I don't know if you guys remember. This is like five or six years ago back with the Cardinals, but he had a lot of vision issues that, you know, hampered him and kind of came and went and made it really hard for him to play consistently.

So maybe there's something there. I don't really think so. Alec Berlison, I think there's playing time issues. So I'm going to go with Joey Gallo. He's changed his, yeah, changed his setup. He's a little more spread out when he's setting up at home plate. I don't know, it's a shot in the dark, but we've seen him hit 40 plus home runs before.

I have zero interest in Trey Thompson. I think 25% is too many leagues for him to be rostered in. This is a guy with like a 760 career OPEO. at AAA. He's 32 years old. I don't know. Maybe he'll surprise me, but I think it's just like he's a guy who can hit the ball hard and ran into three. I mean,

unless the Dodgers show that they're willing to play him on a near everyday basis, it's basically a moot point anyway, how good he is as far as I'm concerned. I mean, I know none of us like David Peralta, but unless the Dodgers decided, they don't like David Peralta, that's the moot point too. It seems like Trace Thompson and James Outman

are mainly the ones who are going to be competing for playing time, and we'd all rather Outman play. Yes. He's lefty of two. It is worth pointing out. Just worth noting here that Moogie Betts did play second base on Sunday, which allowed Trace Thompson to be in the lineup for the second day in a row. But then who was out of the lineup because of that?

Miguel Vargas. Was it Miguel Vargas out of that? It was Miguel Vargas. Okay. Yeah, Muncie was out of the lineup too. He's dealing with some lower body, I don't know, it was kind of vague what the injury is, but yeah, he was out of the lineup as well. Scott, were there three names here that set up for you, Trace Thompson, Jose Siri, Adam Fraser, Enrique Hernandez, Tommy Fam, Alec Berlison, Joey Weimer, and Joey Gallo. I agree with Chris that Weamer's far and away the one to have.

And I have him in almost all of my five outfielder leagues. in my main event league, I put in an $84 bid for him initially, lowered it to 57, and I think he went for 77. So it was, you know, should have. I don't know. Maybe he'll be terrible.

It's the sort of thing with Joey Weamer where if he keeps the strikeouts under control, he could be huge because he does everything else well. He's very athletic, a lot of power potential, a lot of speed potential, even walks, at least in the minor, walked a good amount. But he has kind of a goofy swing

that had scouts riding him off initially in his career, his professional career. Draws a lot of Jason Worth comps. Yeah. No, no, Hunter Pence. Hunter Pence, I think. Hunter Pence used to have that same thing where his swing's not going to work.

And it obviously did. And I mean, I think Bo Bichette had that going against him at one point. Scouts didn't like his swing. So, you know, that doesn't necessarily mean anything, but it's one of those with Weamer where things could go either really good or really bad. And I'm not sure there's a lot of in between. And if they go really bad, then it's Sal Freelick time because things are almost certainly going to go well with him. Fair enough.

Anyone else on this list that slightly intrigues you, Scott? I mean, look, if Joey Gallo figures it out again. We've certainly seen him put up All-Star caliber seasons before. I think at the very least, he should be rostered in OBP leagues, which that might just be what the 19% is. It's just like only 15 team and OVP leagues.

But if you play where OBP is a category instead of average, I think Joe Aguil should be rostered. I'll throw a little bit of optimism towards Jose Siri. He is someone that has a little bit of pop and speed. He's a good defender, so he's going to play for Tampa Bay. Good minor league numbers. Triple A, I think, like 140 games. He's at like 31 homer or 25 homers, 31 steals or something.

So what about catchers? Kind of. Mitch Garver had a double dong on Saturday with 6 RBI. He's 23% rostered. The problem is that he's util only for now on CBS. He needs four more starts to earn catcher eligibility. But I think he should, you know, he's kind of like the backup catcher for now and starting at DH and all that stuff. So I think within the next couple of weeks, he'll have catcher eligibility. That is Mitch Garver. Logan O'Hoppy, I'm so mad. at myself because early in the off season, I was so excited for O Hoppe, and then I backed off with the reports that he was not going to make the team. Max Dassey gets hurt, and what do you know, Logan O'Hopi's playing, and he looks really good so far, and I wound up drafting no Logan O'Hopi

because I was worried that he wasn't going to play, so this kind of sucks. He went two for four with his first career home run on Sunday. He's 36% rostered. Mike Zanino, an old favorite. He went three for three with a three-run homer on Sunday as well. 13% rostered. I think he's more of a two-catcher league target. Scott, who would you rather have between Mitch Garver and Logan O'Hoppy? Oh, Hoppy, if for no other reason,

because I can already slot him a catcher. It's hard to, it's hard to slot a guy. Like, basically, it's hard to roster an extra catcher, which is what you'd be doing with Garver, since you can't actually get him in your lineup. And I like Garver.

I've always liked Garver. I've been burned a few times, liking Garver. You like Garver as a number two catcher. Yeah, he's a number two catcher. When he gains catcher eligibility, he's a number two catcher who could perform like a number one catcher.

There's big power potential there that we've seen more than once, it's just he's always hurt. Hopefully this part-time DH status will keep him healthy. But I put Garver about in the same category as Blake Sable in terms of I really like the upside. But it's difficult to, trust him is more than a number two at this point. And I'm doing what you mentioned earlier, Scott, where I have three catchers rostered on my main event team. It's a two-catcher

league where I've got J.T. Real Muto and then I took Shay Langaleers knowing it'd have to wait a little bit for him to earn catcher eligibility. And so I have to start Luis Camp Usano for now. So it's not the most ideal thing to do, but hopefully Langalears will be worth it once he gains that catcher eligibility. Let's take our second break here. And when we return. Actually, no, let's go into news and notes. I'll hit some news and notes, then we'll get to another break a little bit later on.

I started freaking out on Saturday when I saw that Lars Neupar was not in the Cardinals lineup. Please don't do this this early in the season. Turns out he's playing with a jam thumb. He slid into third base on opening day, so he was out of the lineup again on Sunday. We'll have to see what happens leading into this upcoming week with Lars Neupar. Kyle Wright will make a rehab start at AAA on Wednesday. If all goes well, he could be activated.

when first eligible sometime around, I don't know, like, second week of April, something like that from Kyle Wright. Max Muncie left Saturday's game with a lower body injury and was not in Sunday's lineup. He's not expected to land on the IL. And as Chris mentioned earlier, Mookie Betts actually started at second base with Miguel Vargas on the bench on Sunday. Tony Gonsolin is scheduled to face hitters in a live batting practice on Wednesday. If all goes well, he could be back by late April, early May. That is Tony Gonsolent.

Philly's manager, Rob Thompson, said Bryce Harper could resume hitting on the field as early as Thursday. Harper had Tommy John's surgery in November, and the hope has been he could return sometime in June or July closer to the second half of the season. Harrison Bader has been swinging in a pool. Is that a thing that people do? I tried to like think of what that would look like. And I just like, I don't even know how you would generate enough force for that to be useful at all. Like I've heard of like running in a pool I've heard of like those treadmills But like unless he's got like a weight or something It just it feels like you wouldn't be able to move your arms fast enough

I guess maybe he's much stronger than me I would think the professional athlete is stronger than me I love how you said maybe he's stronger than you I guess Look I am no physics major But if you're doing it in a pool with a bad I guess it could help your oblique I don't know Djerksin pro far made his Rockies debut and was

hitting leadoff on Sunday. I believe he went over three in that game. Aaron Buhn said Anthony Volpe could hit lead off at times during the season. DJ LaMahue was out of the lineup Sunday, so Glaber Torres was the leadoff man. They're just planting that seed for later on

if Volpe sticks around probably will be hitting lead off at some point. Carlos Rodon could pitch with hitters in the box for his next session. He remains likely to miss at least the first month of the season with that forearm injury. Luis Severino through Friday and Saturday without issues.

He's on the IL with a low-grade latch train. Apparently, Sean Mania could be used as a piggyback reliever behind Anthony Descalfani on Monday. Gabe Cappler hasn't specified whether the team will use a six-man rotation or not. So they just have too many mouths to feed, and so that's an option, Sean Mania as a reliever for the team.

Anthony Rendon received treatment on his left knee after Saturday's game. Here we go again. I wonder if he'll, face some kind of suspension because there was a video of him grabbing an Oakland A's fan that I don't know call them some kind of profane name or whatever I would I would say there's a very good chance that he he also like tried to slap the guy right so probably very good thing for Anthony Rendon that he missed but yeah I would guess there's a at least a three game suspension coming

for that I don't think Anthony Rendon listens to this podcast so I think I'm probably safe to say this but he kind of seems like a grouch Like, I've heard things about him, you know, just snapping back at reporters when they ask him about injuries. Like, dude, you've been injured every year. That's their job. They're supposed to ask for that. So. Fan was also in the wrong.

Let's, let's not do that. Let's not say these things to baseball players. I agree with any professional athletes. You guys are growing too comfortable with your, with, with this. We see this in every sport. The fans are, are wild. And, and y'all need to calm down. Do we know the fan did anything wrong?

Yeah, we know what Rendon says the fan. There was another angle. There's another angle where you can see the fan like yelling down at the Angels players as they're talking. And there's a security guard next to him kind of like grabs him and like right when Rendon looks up, security guard turns to him and then Rendon calls him. So I'm going to say he said something for sure.

Okay. I'm pretty sure Anthony Rendon is still a grouch. But your point is also that. Yes. It was pretty, uh, Well, never mind. It was, I would say Rendon was more on the wrong than the fan, but yes, I mean, you shouldn't. You shouldn't yet call players rude names.

Madison Bungarner was sent back to Arizona to be examined by team doctors after experiencing arm fatigue in Saturday's start. If he has to go on the aisle, the team could put Drey Jameson in the rotation or they could call up top prospect Brandon Fatt. So something to pay attention to there. I saw Drey Jameson was added in pretty much all of my deep. leagues here on Sunday night so he looked okay and in his long relief appearance I think he got the win yes he did five strikeouts and four innings yep I think he had three walks too so yeah definitely something he has to work on Trevor's story is set to begin a throwing program in two weeks he underwent

internal brace surgery to repair his UCL and is expected to miss the first half of the season J. Kronenworth and the Padres agreed to a seven-year $80 million extension on Friday and one prospect note Brett Bady's very very first game in the minors this year. He hit two home runs with a stolen base. Eduardo Escobar looked awful this weekend. I watched a lot of Mets and Marlins games because frankly, I have a lot of those players on my main event team. And Escobar looked really, really bad. So he is officially on notice. If he struck as for like another, if it's another week or two, I think we could see Brett Bady up in no time. Players who went

to the IL this weekend, we mentioned Robbie Ray, Max Fried will need to go on the IL. The Braves haven't actually done that move yet. So don't yell at us or CBS because it's up to the Braves to put him on the aisle, not us. Luis Areas with a hamstring strain, which could keep him out for up to eight weeks. Corey Dickerson with a left calf strain. My man Stone Garrett was recalled by the Nationals.

And Joey Bart is dealing with a mid-back strain. Blake Sable started a catcher on Sunday. Either Saturday or Sunday, one of those days. And the Giants also signed Gary Sanchez to a minor league contract. No guarantees that he'll get to play. But just worth mentioning, obviously. Let's take our second break, and we'll be back right after this. Let's hit some other highlights from this weekend.

And some breakout hopefuls at starting pitcher, Jesus Lazzardo had a very nice start on Friday against the Mets. Five and two-thirds shutout. Two hits, four walks. The control got away from him later on in that start. Five strikeouts with 15 swinging strikes. Velocity was up across the board in that one. Dustin May looked great against the Diamondbacks.

He went seven shutout with four strikeouts, only eight swinging strikes. The four seam and the sinker combined for 64% usage. So I would like to see him use his secondaries, the curb ball and the cutter a little bit more to get some whiffs. On the surface, Nick Ludolo, he was just solid against the pirates. Five innings, two runs, nine strikeouts, 22 swinging strikes on 109 pitches.

And he basically ditched his sinker compared to last year. And he was opting for more four-seem fastballs and curveballs. which he already got a lot of whiffs last season. I think maybe there's upside for even more than we thought for Nick Ladolo if he's going with this approach. Scott, any thoughts here on Lazardo, Dustin May and Nicolodolo? Not really. I mean, May never went seven innings when we saw him last year,

so it was nice to see him do that right out of the gate. Didn't show a lot of bat missing ability, and that's always been a questionable part of his profile. He's shown signs of being a strikeout pitcher in the past, but if you just look at his career numbers, more of a ground ball specialist, despite how hard he throws. So I think, you know, obviously he's a big health risk, Dustin May. And the extent of his breakout is going to depend on how much,

how capable of a bat misser he is. And early returns there suggest, I don't know. All right, starting pitcher studs being studs. Brandon Woodruff went six innings of one-run ball with eight strikeouts at the Cubs this weekend. Spencer Strider picking up where he left off. He was at the Nationals. He went six shutout with nine strikeouts. Clayton Kirshall looked like vintage Clayton Kirshaw, six innings, one run, nine strikeouts to zero walks.

Chris, any thoughts on Woodruff, Strider, and Kirschaw? Those guys are really, really good. I don't really have the, I think Strider. threw his change up a bit more than we're used to seeing. If I'm remembering the box score correctly from this one, he only threw it six times. He just got three whiffs with it. You might be thinking about Woodruff, who's right above him on the rundown. No, no, no, it was Strider. I think I saw that he got three whiffs with it.

And I was like, oh, he must have thrown a decent amount. You know, he just threw six times. He just got three whiffs with it because he's awesome. He's really, really good. He's, yeah. Woodruff, I wanted to mention he used the change up more in this first star, 24% compared to 16% usage last year. That was a really, really good pitch for him. 193 batting average against with a 54% whiff rate. So like that increased changeup usage for Brandon Woodruff, not quite studs, but they were

very good this weekend. Logan Gilbert, six innings, one run, seven strikeouts. Kodai Senga, very shaky in his first inning, but then settled down nicely. Five and a third, one run, eight strikeouts to three walks. he had 10 swinging strikes 9 of those coming on that ghost forkball I know Yuli Guriel is not the same hitter he used to be

but Senga's first strikeout came on that forkball and Yuli Guriel like sent his bat into left field it was it was crazy it was as advertised it was a very good pitch we'll also point out I don't know if Logan Gilbert's calling it a ghost fork it was just a splitter

but he debuted that pitch I think for the first time in front of the pitch cameras and four whiffs. He only threw it eight times. Four whiffs is a really good number for eight. You know, we all liked Logan Gilbert, but didn't necessarily love like the breakout calls

because it wasn't clear what where the breakout was going to come from. He's always been a very fastball heavy pitcher. It doesn't necessarily have an out pitch. But if the splitter can be an out pitch, it makes him a lot more interesting. So that's definitely something to keep an eye on over the next few starts.

Obviously, he also had four with his curveball on 12 pitches. So pretty interesting stuff from Logan Gilbert. Similar to that, you know, four whiffs on eight tries with this pitch. Spencer Strider threw a slower change up than last year. And through six of them got three whiffs on it. I don't know. Maybe Spencer Strider might have something else cooking too. Scott wasn't listening.

Yep. Oh, you said that too? I wondered why you guys were smiling. No reason. Let's talk about Joe Ryan. He had a strong start at the Royals. He went six innings, one run, six strikeouts in that game. Nine swinging strikes on 80 pitches.

Scott, Joe Ryan is someone I know that you were interested in, and he threw his new splitter 25%. And the new sweeper, 20%. So we know that he has a very deceptive fastball, much like a Christian Javier, doesn't throw it as hard. But if he has a new splitter and sweeper, are even decent secondary offerings,

then yeah, maybe Joe Ryan breaks out this year. Yeah, it's possible. I mean, he threw his fastball less than this one and obviously had a good outcome. Part of me wonders, though, if we really want him throwing his fastball less because it's such a good pitch, and he's gotten so far just on the strength of that pitch alone,

that is everything else just detracting from it? Like, can he ever come up with something? something so good that it's better. It's better to do that than just throws fastball more. I don't know, but initial returns here are good. And I think Joe Ryan can certainly fall back on that fastball if things aren't going well. So overall, I feel pretty good about having him where I do. All right.

What do we make of these pitchers? Chris, I'll give you the two good ones. And Scott, you'll get the three bad ones. I'm sorry. Jack Flerty threw five no-hit innings against the Blue Jays. It's a very good lineup. he's going up against the problem is that he also had a career high seven walks in that game. So very, who was it, Edwin Jackson back in the day with all those walks in the no-hitter.

And he didn't even throw a no-hitter. It was just five no-hit innings. But, yeah, so Jack Flaherty was, I guess, solid. His velocity was way down across the board. Yeah, that's one of the good ones. I mean, geez. I don't know. I guess it's kind of mixed.

We'll put him in the mixed category. Noah Sindergarde was actually great in his Dodgers debut against the Diamondbacks. He went six innings, one run, six strikeouts to zero. walks 13 swinging trikes on 78 pitches, and his slider velocity was up 5 miles per hour compared to last year. The sinker and the fastball, they were not up. He was still sitting 92, 93 like he was last year. But the slider velo being up is kind of interesting for Noah Cindergarde.

So, Chris, your thoughts on Thor and Jack Flaherty. I think you can cut Jack Flaherty. I think I saw just about all I needed to see. And I know that's, oh, he had five notes. hit innings. How can you say that? Seven walks. Did he hit two batters? Am I, my remembering that correctly? Uh, I'll put up for you. One hitter. So like a no hitter or no, five no hit innings with a 1.4 whip. I thought his stuff looked bad. He generated a lot of weak contact, which I guess is a good thing. But I just, I was not as impressed with Jack

Flaherty when he was starring 95, 96. So I, I, I think it's going to implode really quickly. Look, if you don't want to drop him, I think it's fine. But I did in one league. I don't think the seven walks is any reason to drop him. Because that just seems like a fluke thing. Like, it's not like this is a guy known for having major control issues. His control was bad in spring as well.

It was seven walks and 19 innings, which is obviously significantly better. But he also had four hit by pitches and I think a couple of wild pitches as well in the spring. I'll give him at least one more. Okay. So, Cinderguard, I'm more impressed by than Flaherty, but not particularly impressed

with this outing. I don't want to write him off. I don't want to say it's not impressive, but I wasn't moved by it. I need to see more. Now, like three or four more starts where he's generating a bunch of weak contact and, you know,

getting a bunch of whiffs with the change-up and this, you know, this new slider, which might be more like a cutter at this point. He averaged 90 miles an hour with it. Significant reductions in horizontal and vertical break, which is what you would expect from a harder pitch. You know, we'll see.

He's definitely, I'm higher on him than Jack Flaherty, I would say. All right. Well, let's get into the bad ones. Chris Sale was destroyed by the Orioles. He gave up seven earned runs, including three home runs over just three innings pitched in his season debut. Chris Bassett also destroyed by the Cardinals.

three in a third innings, 10 hits, nine earned runs. He allowed 11 hard hit balls in that one. His sinker was down nearly two miles per hour compared to last year. Josiah Gray, there was some reasons for optimism going into the season, but started off his first two batters, but that reason. Yeah, he led the majors in home runs allowed last year among pitchers. And then, yeah, he gives up home runs to the first two batters he faces. And then Jared Schuster was great.

And then he was terrible at the Nationals. You know, not really a tough lineup, but four and two-thirds, four runs loud, five walks in that game too. Not really a tough lineup. Kind of overselling the quality of the Washington Nationals lineup there, Frank. So, Scott, talk to me about Chris Sale and Chris Bassett. Like, how worried are you about these guys? And are you okay dropping Josiah Gray and Jared Cheser?

To the second question, yes. Josiah Gray, remember, it wasn't just that he elected. no home runs this spring. It was, he allowed no home runs this spring. And maybe this new cutter is the reason why. Well, the cutter was responsible for two of the three home runs.

He gave up in his season debut. And I think there, I think hitters hit 500 off it. Gave up, I think batted balls of 111 and 109 miles an hour with the, with the old cutter. And like he hardly,

I think his fastball, which was the problem in the past. I think it was his fourth most thrown pitch. So he did what we wanted to see him do, more sliders, more curveballs, mixing in that cutter, and it was still, you know, I'm not saying there will never come a point this year where maybe we're interested in no Josiah Gray again, but there are better uses of a roster spot right now.

Schuster, same thing. Of course, he was nervous, and all four runs came in the first inning. So credit to him for turning things around, but still just one strikeout in four and two-thirds innings against that lineup. So not a lot of reason for encouragement, there. Salem Bassett, I heard all your complaints about sale this weekend.

I'm highly invested in him as well. We should all be rooting for him to turn things around. And I think he will. As I, the way Alex Cora talked about the start afterward, he was just kind of all over the place. You know, it's not like he walked a bunch of guys, but just didn't seem to have great command of him. his stuff.

But the stuff itself was good. He got a whiff on like half the swings that the Orioles had against him. And Velocity was fine, spin fine. It was just the other swings. Yeah, it was the other swings. Look, I had multiple lineups with Chris Salinger's. I agree this week. So, uh, oh, yeah.

Yeah, my ERA is close to nine in the Memorial Magazine league right now. I had one league with both Bassett and Miles Michaelis. Oh. That same league, actually. So thank you, Chris, for actually having a worse pitching. Anytime, buddy. Bassett is, I'm a little torn on Bassett because the velocity is down for him, one and a half to two miles per hour on everything.

It was down even more in the spring. So it's been creeping up. he thinks, he says they're going to go over everything, they're going to look at release heights, they're going to look at if he was tipping his pitches. His pitch mix was basically the same. It doesn't sound like the Blue Jays themselves are that focused on the velocity.

They think it's something else that was going on with Chris Bassett. And Bassett doesn't seem like the, I mean, look, velocity helps everybody. But he doesn't seem like the kind of pitcher who needs premium velocity to have success. He's more of a control, wide variety of pitches kind of guy. So I would be pretty patient with him. I mean, just by track record, I'd be pretty patient with him.

All right. A few hitting leftovers worth mentioning. Kyle Tucker had a sock and a shoe on Friday. He had two more hits on Saturday, a big weekend for him. Brendan Donovan went one for four with another home run on Sunday. He's up to 90% rostered. So the people are listening, Scott. They are rostering Brendan Donovan.

Matt Olson had a double-dong. on Saturday. John Carlisle Stanton back-to-back days with a home run. Three batted balls over 111 miles per hour on Saturday. And then he hit a home run Sunday that was 485 feet. He's awesome. It's crazy stuff. Jonathan India had a sock and a shoe on Saturday. I also love this new Viking hat celebration and they throw like a Viking cape on you when you hit a home run for the Cincinnati Reds. So the angels have their home run. sombrero, which I like. That one got a lot of use today, so that was fun.

Nice. I love it. Great opening weekend for Wander Franco, who we were worried about with the quad injury. He had seven hits, a home run, and a steel. And Luis Arise, just picking up where he left off, nine hits through his first four games with the Miami Marlins. A few bullpen updates worth mentioning on Friday for the Marlins. Dylan Floro pitched in the eighth inning with a one-run lead. A.J. Puck got the ninth. They were winning by two runs at that point. He gave up a solo home run, converted the save, so the first one goes to AJ Puck. For the Astros on Friday, no Ryan Presley, but Raphael Montero picked up his first save on

Saturday. Again, no Ryan Presley. Hector Nerris recorded the final four outs. He gave up a run, but picked up the save. Dusty Baker said Ryan Presley was unavailable due to illness. But just remember, on opening day, I mentioned Presley was like shaking his arm a lot and the ESPN broadcast was talking about it. I don't know.

Seems a little fishy. For the Rockies on Friday, Brad Hand pitched in the eighth inning with a four-run lead. He gave up a run. It was Pierce Johnson who gave up a hit and Chuck Out 2 for the Rockies' first save of the season. He is only 12% rostered, widely available. For the Diamondbacks on Friday, Scott McGuff entered in the eighth inning with two outs and a one-run lead. He walked one but got out of it. He started the ninth inning.

He walked to Mickey Betts and then was relieved by Andrew Chaffin, who then converted the save. And then on Sunday, it was basically the opposite. Chafin came in in the 8th and then Scott McGuff recorded the final two outs to pick up the save. So it looks like those two are the leading candidates. Maybe it'll be, you know, dependent on who's up in the ninth inning. But it seems like McGuff and Andrew Chaffin for now for the debacks. For the Cardinals, Ryan Helsley entered in the eighth inning with a two-run lead on Saturday. He recorded the final five outs for his first save.

Worth noting there, Giovanni Gallegos has not been available, I think, at all so far with a back injury. Not sure if he would have figured in, but. Just worth noting. For sure. For the Phillies on Saturday, both Sir Anthony Dominguez and Craig Kimbril pitched in Mopup Duty, and both were awful.

So I don't really know who's going to get the first safe chance there. They only show up when it matters. For the Giants on Saturday, I was at the game, of course. And so I had Camila DeValle as a bus, and I'm like, here we go. His first opportunity, he might blow it.

He wound up getting out of it, but it was very shaky. He had a three-run lead. He gave up two hits, two walks, and a run scored. Got a double play to end that game there. Mentioned earlier, Felix Bautista gave up a two-run,

walk-off home run. Just kind of fluky situation where Austin Hays dropped a routine fly ball the batter before, so quite unfortunate for Felix Bautista. For the Royals on Saturday, they were down 2-0. A roll of Chapman pitched in a ninth inning. He struck out the side, and his fastball velo was up two miles per hour.

He looked really good. So something we'll have to watch with the Royals. For the Twins on Saturday, they had a two-run lead. Griffin Jacks was used in the seventh inning. Caleb Thielbar in the eighth, Jorge Lopez pitched a clean ninth inning for his first save. Apparently, Yohan Duran was unavailable because he, quote, slept funny the night before.

Okay? For the Mets on Saturday, Adam Adavino pitched in the eighth with a three-run lead, and then David Robertson pitched in the ninth with a four-run lead. Alexis Diaz picked up his first save. Kyle Fingham picked up his first. For the White Sox on Sunday, Kendall Graveman pitched. the eighth with a three-run lead, struck out two. Ronaldo Lopez entered in the ninth with a five-run lead,

and he then gave up two runs. So hasn't been the best start for Ronaldo Lopez. Although Graveman had a rough outing on Friday, I believe it was. Yeah, either Friday or Saturday, yeah, one of those. I will say Lopez's stuff looks great. And he's averaging like 100 miles an hour with his fastball right now. It's just, up a ton of hard contact in both outings.

So, you know, still still some Rinaldo Lopez in there. Padres, Josh Hader picked up his first save on Sunday. Emmanuel Class A was unavailable on Sunday. So Trevor Stephan picked up to save in extra innings for the Guardians. And then on Sunday night baseball, one run lead. We think, all right, here we go. Jose LeClerc, getting a save, right? Wrong.

Will Smith came in to close out the game, picked up his first save. And I just kind of floated this out there during spring that he has a history with Bruce Bochy. And here we go. First save opportunity. And LeClerc hadn't pitched since opening day on Thursday. So I would have thought he's available. And I thought it was pretty weird that this happened. But it still happened.

I was wondering what part of the lineup was up in the ninth. It was Edmundo Sosa, Bryson Stott. And then Derek Hall, pinch hit for Christian Pache, right? I don't know why they brought it. the lefty to face the lefty. Maybe they didn't have much out. It's because it was Christian Pache. What's up?

Probably, yeah. So. So, yeah, it's not like he was facing Schwerber or anything. I don't know. That's interesting. It is very interesting. So the six names that really stood out to me as being available if you need saves, AJ Puck, Pierce Johnson, Scott McGuff,

Rinaldo Lopez, Will Smith, and Danny Jimenez. Give me your top three favorites there. Puck, Pierce Johnson, McGuff, Renaldo Lopez, Will Smith, Danny Jimenez. McGuff, Puck, Pierce Johnson. Sure. All right. Well, let's wrap up with to stream or not to stream for Monday.

Taiwan Walker at the Yankees. Nope. Nope. Nope. Anthony Descoffani at the Nationals. Probably not. You look pretty good this spring. It's a bad lineup, but I'd lean no.

Michael Kopeck versus the Giants. I just I don't have much faith in Kopeck anymore I don't mind like picking them up in like the same way we I drafted Jack Flaherty in a few leagues and you know see if he figures something out but I'm not optimistic no True Smiley at the Reds Nah

Tyler Malley at the Marlins Yeah The thing is he got pounded this spring So I mean I know we've seen certain players Okay the switch is on now and everything we saw in the spring, it clearly doesn't matter anymore because they've been completely the opposite of that.

But I'm going to remain skeptical with Malley for now. Johnny Quato versus the twins. Nah. Cutter Crawford versus the pirates. Yeah. Kyle Bradish at the Rangers. I think that's the one I'm most likely to do, even though the Rangers have a pretty good lineup.

I think Braddish. is, I think Braddish is the best pitcher we've mentioned so far. Yeah, the Rangers, they're pretty hot here, opening weekend against the Phillies. So I'd probably take a wait and see with Kyle Bradish there. Matthew Boyd at the Astros. No. Not against that lineup, but if he gets a bunch of strikeouts against them, stock is going to jump up.

Zach Plesek at the A's. No. Ryan Nelson at the Padres. Nope. Nah. He's somewhat interesting, but not against that. that lineup. Michael Grove versus the Rockies in L.A.

No. All right. On Tuesday, Domingo Hermon versus the Phillies. Nah. No. No, his stuff was way worse last season. I don't think so. Hayden Wisniewski at the Reds.

Yes. I think that's the one I feel best about so far between Monday and Tuesday. Yes. Let's feed the cats. Kentim Maida at the Barlins. I want to, watch it, but probably not going to start him. No. Too many walks this spring.

Okay. Nick Povetta versus the Pirates? Nope. No, but maybe. Ronzi Contreras at the Red Sox. No. No, but I want to watch them. You say Kikuchi at the Royals. I'm really trying to get a bunch

of extra strikeouts. He's second behind Wesnowski among this group. I agree. Dylan Dodd at the Cardinals. I mean, not after the way Schuster's debut win. And it's the Cardinals. Steven Mats versus the Braves.

No. Andrew Heaney versus the Orioles. Is it probably not? No, it's at L.A. You mean Texas, Chris? Sorry. I might. Okay. Jose Suarez at the Mariners.

No. No. All right. We're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave. a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. We'll be back again tomorrow.

Bye-bye.