Fantasy Baseball Today - Opening Weekend Recap! Waiver Adds, Torpedo Bats & More! (3/31 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 31, 2025

The Yankees blasted a bunch of home runs this weekend using their new torpedo bats (3:00). ... Drop Nestor Cortes (10:23)? ... Jesus Luzardo looked great in his Phillies debut (15:20). ... Bailey Ober got destroyed on Sunday (17:30). ... News (21:00): Jose Ramirez left Saturday with a wrist injury. ... Victor Scott is off to a great start (29:09). ... Add Jeffrey Springs, Jack Leiter, Jose Soriano or Max Meyer (37:10)? ... Buy or Sell from Opening Weekend (49:00)? ... How did these pitchers do in their new team debuts (57:18)? ... These pitchers did something interesting (1:01:33). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:04:54). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv 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, @CPTowers @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/ 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 league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Opening weekend is in the books, and it was a wild one. Welcome into fantasy baseball today on Monday, March 31st.

I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, our first weekend recap of the year. We've got waiver ads, pitchers making changes, torpedo bats, and much more. Let's start there. Oh, my goodness gracious. I had to go back to Susan because, I mean, this Yankee thing this weekend was insane and seems to be the talk of the baseball world right now. The Bronx bombers are so back, obviously.

They beat the Brewers 20 to 9 on Saturday. I was in attendance to see all of it, probably the craziest game that I've ever been to. Back to back to back home runs off Nestor Cortez to start the game. They set a new franchise record with nine homers as a team. Poor Nestor Cortez, by the way, too. I just felt so bad for the guy. It was very warm, 80 degrees. The ball was flying out.

Aaron Judge, four for six with a triple dong on Saturday, eight RBI. Then each of Goldschmidt, Bellinger, Austin Wells, Anthony Volpe, Jazz Chishol, and Oswald Parraza. each hit a home run in that game. Nesser Cortez's final line, he allowed eight earned runs over two plus innings. And then on Sunday, they win 12 to 3. So a lot more home runs here.

Four more in this game. Judge hit his fourth. Janice Chisholm hit two more. Ben Rice hit one as well. But the big story coming out of this is these new torpedo bats that the Yankees are using. And for those watching on YouTube, I'll pull up a tweet here just so you can see a picture

comparing the normal bat that someone would use versus the torpedo bat, which is on the top here. And they kind of look like bowling pins, right? Like, it's just the barrel, it's, the barrel is like expanded basically here. And Prairie League's spokesperson, the shape of the bat, does not violate any rules. And, look, I don't know much about it.

It kind of feels like a huge advantage here. Every other team could do the same exact thing. I mean, obviously, the baseball world is freak, out about this. But any thoughts here on the Yankees? I don't know if there's actually any fantasy takeaways. Maybe they're just going to continue to mash home runs with these new bats. But yeah, any takeaways on the Yankees and I guess these torpedo bats? Yeah, sure. I'll start, I guess. It does seem like, you know, the fat part of the bat is often referenced. Do you want to hit the ball on the fat part of the bat? But the fat is part of

the bat traditionally is the very edge of the bat, which you actually don't want to hit the ball on. So what this seems to be doing is making the quote unquote fat part of the bat actually the fattest part of the bat. And it can be tailored to a player's specific, where a player specifically hits the ball of the bat. Like for instance, this came up as I understand it because the Yankees discovered Anthony Volpe instead of actually hitting the ball. in the sweet spot, he was hitting it more off the label.

So his bulge is closer to the label of the bat. And it's obviously gained a lot of attention. Buster Only I heard him saying on the ESPN broadcast of the Padres Braves game that the Braves placed in order for a bunch of these bats. And I guess maybe we'll start seeing some of them use it soon. It's not new. Which maybe you were about to comment on, Chris. Go ahead.

No, no, go ahead. I've got a different tack to take. Okay. It's not new, which is worth noting that the Yankees were using it in the postseason last year. Other players have been using it. Chris, I think you brought up before the show, Cotel Marte, as far back as 2019, which I'll note was Cotel Marte's breakout season, where he kind of emerged as a hitting stud. But even so, it's not like, I think the only.

reason it became such a big story right now is because the Yankees had a game like they had on Friday or Saturday, right, against Nestor Cortez. But all note is Nestor Cortez, who's a pitcher who doesn't have great stuff and relies on locating it precisely. And if any team, and his fastball was down like over a mile per hour, and if any team is going to have a good read on Esther Cortez, it would be the Yankees. So I think that had just as much to do with it. The next day, Aaron Savali, again, you're not talking about a high-end arm here. So I'm not saying there's no benefit to using this.

There probably is. But I think it's an advantage around the margins. And I don't think we should be racing to trade for or pick up anyone who, we hear about using one of these bats going forward? If there was one weird trick that could solve baseball, it would have been solved already. And yeah, Catel Marte,

according to one of the Blue Jays commentators, Caleb Joseph, who played with Catel Marte, yeah, Marte was using a variation of this bat in 2019. I found a photo where you can see it's, it looks a little thicker. in the barrel part than at the end.

So yeah, there seems to be something there. But also, like the guy who designed them is now working for the Marlins. He was with the Yankees in the past. Frank, did you read the,

the Trevor McGill quote? I did not. I have it, but you can read it as well if you have it. Yeah. I think it's terrible. We'll see what the data says.

I've never seen anything like it. It's like something used in slow pitch softball, blah, blah, blah, put the mass hall in spot. It might be Bush League. It might not be, but it's the Yankees. so they'll let it slide.

And like, brother, Reese Hoskins is quoted today saying that he already placed an order for this before the Yankees hit nine home runs on Saturday. Like every team, it seems we're learning now has been experimenting with these in spring training. Some guys say they don't like them. Aaron Judge notably not using them. Yeah. He's using his same old normal bats. So I, a 0.5% improvement in performance would be worth changing your bat for. And maybe it's bigger than that.

Maybe it's a five. I have trouble believing it's like just going to increase everyone's quality of contact by 20% on the Yankees. Like that seems ridiculous. It seems ridiculous to try to blame what happened on Saturday on what, three guys in the lineup using a specific type of bat. I think it was Jazz and Anthony Volpe were the only ones who hit home runs with the new bats on Saturday. And I think Ben Rice did on Sunday.

Those are the only ones that I've seen. So like it just doesn't, it seems like it's much of due about nothing. It seems like it's just. Bellinger, Bellinger is using it too. I think Austin Wells too. And he already has two. Yeah.

Oh, wow. Yeah. Well, well, Wells. Well, maybe Cody Bellinger is using it with only two strikes to go back to the last weird trick. Maybe. That everybody was.

But it just, yeah, I don't, I don't know, man. Maybe it's like the guys from MIT, right? So, like, he's smarter than me. And I'm not going to say there's nothing here. But like the idea that it's like some revolutionary thing because the Yankees hit nine home runs in one game, I don't find it particularly compelling. I think they ran, like Scott said, ran into some bad pitchers on a bad day. Nestor Cortez, by the way, still 82% rostered on CBS.

I don't want to overreact to one game. that was a really bad game where he gave negative 17 fantasy points. But is this, if you play in a 12-team league, is this just like an insta-drop on Nessor-Cortez or don't overreact and hold on to? He's pretty fringy in a 12-team league, I'd say. So if you wanted to, I'm not, there wasn't some, well, Chris just wrote waiver wire, but to my recollection, there wasn't some starting pitcher who I was like, oh, I got to add this guy based on his performance.

It's maybe Chris Bassett came the closest. And I think he and Cortez are about on equal footing. It depends what. Springs felt like a good one. Yeah, it depends what Ross is right. I was probably 65%. Would much rather have him than Nestor Cortez. Sure.

I would drop Nessor Cortez for Jack Lighter. I would drop him for Max Meyer. Like I like, I think Meyer was pretty good. Yeah. I think he's fringing enough that like, I don't know what like, it might just depend like what is Nestor Cortez's next. start compared to what is Zach Lattel's next start? Like, I think that'd be reasonable.

Yeah, look ahead exactly. Like, look at my sleeper pitchers for the upcoming week. Chris Paddock lined up for two starts, the first against the white socks. Yeah, I'd be fine with that. And trying to remember who the other big one is. But definitely Bassett, or I'm sorry, Paddock would be one who's highly available. And Jose Soriano, he pitched against the White Sox. He's got Cleveland and Tampa the next two.

I would be fine dropping Nester Cortez because there's no way I'm starting Nesta-Cortez in his next one. And there are a couple other pitchers. Drew Rasmussen's pretty widely available. He's got two starts coming up. Chris Boobitch actually is similar. Yeah.

So I'm totally fine dropping Nessor-Gortez. Yeah. Cate-Povitch. What about Cade-Povitch? He's only like 15% roster, two starts coming up Boston and Kansas City. So in tomorrow's newsletter, I didn't write about Nester Cortez,

but I did write about Walker Bueller, who is someone that I'm totally fine dropping after his first start. And I'm kind of anyone with any amount of upside. The Jack Leiter, Max Meyer, Jeffrey Springs, Kate Povich, sure. Because the thing is, like Nestor Cortez may go on to have a typical Nestor Cortez season, high 3 ZRA, good whip, decent strikeout rate. But if he's fringy to begin with in your format, nobody's picking him up after this start. it gives you an opportunity to kind of scout someone else, get a head start on it so that if he has a great start, you're not having to compete on the waiver wire form. All right. We do have to move on to some other players.

There's a lot to get to from the weekend. Let's take a quick break, but we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today, recapping the opening weekend of the baseball season. And Chris, we will go to your player of the night, someone who made his Phillies debut. Jesus Lazzardo looked awesome. Hazel Soszardo did look awesome. And the big thing and what we always talk about with him is the velocity. When he's above 96, he's usually pretty good.

And he was at 96.9 miles per hour with his four seamer in this one. So that was pretty awesome to see. He got 11 strikeouts. But it's not just the four seamer being up, although I think that is the baseline around which everything else is built. but Hazel Salgado did also introduce a new sweeper to his arsenal that was really effective. He threw 22 of them. It was his second most used pitch.

He got seven swings and misses. He got six called strikes for a massive 59% CSW rate. That's not sustainable. And I would guess at least in part that is a result of hitters not being familiar with the pitch. but I'll take anything that makes Jesus Lazzardo a little more effective because the margin for error between the good versions and the unusable versions of Hazel's Lazzardo tend to be pretty slim.

And maybe the new sweeper can help widen those margins. Jesus Lazzardo, awesome start here, obviously. He's 63% started on CBS. He faces the Dodgers this week. Yeah, no, I would prefer not. To start him in a roto. Yeah. Yeah.

The only league I have him in is one with the extra long week one that included both this national start and the Dodger start. And I sat him for it. It's not feeling great right now because I feel like, I don't know if you guys noticed this, but a lot of the high-end pitchers especially or really just throughout the pitcher ranks, the strikeout totals were underwhelming this first time through. And we'll get into some of the individual cases here as we go on. But it makes the Gore, McKinsey Gore and. and Jesus Lazzardo starts stand out even more

and getting double-digit strikeouts. All right, Scott, let's go over to your player of the weekend on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. Yeah, Bailey Ober, got to address him. His first start at St. Louis was a disaster. Gave up eight runs in two-and-two-thirds innings. Six of those eight runs came on the two home runs. He allowed both three-run shots.

So that didn't help. It was a bad start. A really bad way to kick off 2025 for Bailey Ober. But first of all, I'll remind you, his first start last year somehow was even worse. He gave up those eight earn runs in one inning fewer last year, three home runs instead of two home runs in that start. So there was a lot of hand-wringing happening at that point over Bailey Ober as well.

I was a little bit concerned initially upon looking at the stat line because Bailey O'Ber's fastball was down up 1.4 miles per hour. His slider was down 2.5. It was similar to the velocity loss. We were witnessing from him in spring training. And I didn't think it meant all hope was lost, but it had my concern raised a little bit. But then we come to find out,

he spent all of Friday, in the words of one beat writer, sleeping and puking. All of Friday, got an IV on Saturday, starting Sunday. What is going on with baseball players right now? Are baseball players okay? He probably should not have been pitching, is what I'm trying to say. His catcher said his stuff suffered because of that.

And, you know, I was just saying with Nestor Cortez's disaster start, yeah, you could drop him in a 12 team league because he was fringy anyway. Nobody would pick him up. Well, Bailey Ober wasn't fringy. He was a consensus top 30 starting pitcher. Obviously can't drop him. I probably would sit him for it. his next start just because

I believe it's a tough matchup. Yeah, he's facing Houston this week. Not as bad as I thought, but yeah, it's not a good matchup. I probably would avoid using him, make sure he's okay, but I expect he'll be okay and go on to do what Bailey Ober did after his first start last year. I agree. Being a little less optimistic about Ober than Scott in general,

there are classes of pitcher I'm fine dropping right now. Bailey Ober is not anywhere close to that. Like, I'm, like, you guys know I was not excited about Ranaldo Lopez this season. If I drafted him, I'm not dropping him after one start either. It's, it's guys who, like, needed to show us something.

And you're fringingy. Like anybody who's fringy. It's, yeah. If they were barely worth rostering in the first place, then they're the ones you, that are expendable when they do something that makes, them expendable. Bailey Ober, by the way,

you mentioned that he was sick, and I think that could be a totally fine excuse. His velocity was down during the spring, too. He was sleeping and puking all day, Frank. That's not just sick. Yeah, yeah. Sleeping or puking, presumably. Yeah, it would just be hard to do both.

Yeah, I hope it's nothing. I hope it's nothing. But again, the velocity was down during the spring, so just something to watch for Bailey Ober. he doesn't have much velocity to give. He just, he doesn't throw that hard as it is. So I would like to see Ober get back on track sooner rather than later. I do agree.

I think benching him this week against the Astros does make sense. Let's get into the news and notes from the weekend. And of course, we did have our fair share of injuries right away. Jose Ramirez was removed Saturday due to a sprained wrist that he suffered on a stolen base attempt. And he was out of the lineup Sunday. Imaging came back negative. He's officially day to day. Apparently he was available to pinch hit on Sunday.

but didn't, and he could start on Monday's game. How do you guys feel about Jose Amirez right now? Would you start or sit him if you have him this week? So I was looking at one of my leagues where I do have him, and I think that is a league where I have Camp Smith. So I might be willing to sit Jose Ramirez, but I'm probably not unless he's out of the lineup by the time the game start tomorrow.

I'll need start. This next one really says. sucks. Josh Lowe went on the IL Saturday with a grade two right oblique strain, the same oblique that he hurt last year, and he was visibly upset, frustrated after his first swing on Friday. He had to leave the game immediately. It was Cameron Meisner, who started in right field on Saturday and Sunday against a right-handed pitcher. He's 27 years old. Some interesting minor league numbers. He has power and speed, but also a ton of strikeouts. Any deep league interest and Cameron Meisner replacing Josh Lowe.

Not really for me, not unless he starts doing something. Yeah, like, Deep League is vague enough that I can't say no, but I wasn't like running rushing out to add him in a.L. labor even. Yeah, I think AL only makes sense for Misenor. If it's like 15 team mixed, I don't think we're there yet. But, you know, maybe he gets hot here and there's a runway. I assume Josh Lowe is going to be out for at least the first month. of the season or so. There is some time here for Meisner to get playing time. Replacements, by the way,

if you had Josh Lowe on your team from Scott's sleeper hitters this week, Lordus Gariel, 77% rostered, Willier-Abrayu, 63%. That's gone up quite a bit, by the way. Yeah, T.J. It's been the most added over the weekend. T.J. Friedel, 55%, and JJ Bladay, 53%. I will throw Victor Scott in that mix, who had a great first weekend here, too. So if you- throw a Lars Noobar on that mix. Yeah. If you were relying on low for speed, then Victor Scott makes a lot of sense as a replacement there. Other third base trouble, Josh Young went to the aisle with neck spasms,

and he dealt with some neck stiffness late in spring training and hoping to just be a minimum stay on the aisle. Ezekiel Duran started Sunday at third base. Josh Smith is also dealing with a quad contusion for the Rangers. If you do need a replacement this week, Jammer Candelario, the Reds have the best hitter matchups, or Brett Beatty is someone who Scott has a sleeper hitter if you do play in a deeper league

and you need a third base replacement. Unfortunately, we knew the risk with Max Scherzer. He went on the aisle due to right thumb inflammation and he left Saturdays start with right lat soreness but after the outing Scher said that it was caused by the thumb injury and... The lat is connected to the thumb. I mean, obviously there are correlated things here and...

No, I'm just being a jerk. He did say like during spring training, that the thumb has been a big cause of all the injuries he's been dealing with the past couple of years. And yeah, look, at this point, 40 years old, if there's no signs of this thumb getting better, I just think it's probably going to be more of the same. And Max Scherzer just being hurt this season. If you don't have an IL spot, I think you can probably drop Max Scherer. Yeah, I'm fine stashing him where I do have an IL spot.

But the recurring ongoing nature of this and the way it seems. to be affecting him across the board just feels like it's not going to be, it's probably not going to be worth waiting on if it costs you a roster spot. And if it costs you a chance to take advantage of Jack Leiter or Jeffrey Springs or Max Meyer or any of those interesting pitchers who popped up this weekend. Trey Turner was scratched in the lineup Saturday due to lower back spasms. And he is not expected to be back in the lineup until Wednesday, starter sit Trey Turner this week.

Yeah, I think I'd start him. I think they're sitting him on Monday because they have an off day Tuesday and they're trying to take advantage, give him four straight days off. But I think the plan is for him to return after that. Ryan Walker did not pitch in a save opportunity Sunday due to back tightness. Camillo Doval picked up the save in his place. Were you guys looking to add Doval in any deeper Roto leagues this weekend? Well, not once I heard this was why Doval got the save. it was kind of alarming at first,

though something seemed off because Ryan Walker didn't pitch earlier in the game. The report said they expect Walker to be ready to go tomorrow as in Monday. So I think it's not going to be an issue.

Gunner Henderson played seven innings at shortstop in a minor league rehab game on Friday. He's working his way back from that intercostal strain. Grayson Rodriguez through a bullpen session Friday. Apparently that was his second time throwing off a mound

since he received a cortisone shot for right elbow inflammation. Spencer Strider made his first rehab start on Saturday. He allowed one run over three innings with six strikeouts. He threw 41 of 60 pitches for strikes and reportedly topped out at 97.4 miles per hour. Mani Machado left Saturday with right calf tightness but was back in the lineup on Sunday.

J.T. Real Muto was removed from Saturday's game due to a left foot contusion. Sounds like he is aiming to play on Monday. Are you guys good starting J.T. Real Muto this week? Yep. Yep. Nick Gonzalez was placed in the aisle with a non-displaced fracture in his left ankle, and another one bites of dust for my NL Labor team. I can't do anything right on that team right now.

At least you got one home run out of it. Seriously. On which he appears to have fractured his ankle somehow. I don't even know how it happened. It just, I watched the home run a few times. I didn't see it. He didn't step on the bag or weird or anything. Yeah, it was just very weird.

Yeah. Yeah. Adam Frazier started at second base on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday against a right-handed pitcher in each of those games. Glaver Torres left early on Friday due to an apparent rib injury. He was not in the lineup Saturday and the Tigers did not play on Sunday. Are you guys start or sit Glaber Torres in some of those deeper roto leagues this week? If it's a deep enough league where you have Glaber Torres in your lineup, you probably don't have a good alternative. Yeah, that's a good one. Like if you have Brent. and Rogers sitting on your bench in an AL-only league where you have Glaber Torres, then I guess that's fine.

Anybody who's getting at bats like that swapping him out. But yeah, Glabertores is so far down the rankings at this point, that it's not something I put a lot of mental energy into. Sean Murphy will likely begin a rehab assignment at High A on Friday of this week. He's working his way back from a fractured rib. John Carlos Staten has been hitting indoors. He's had, quote, a good couple of weeks. as he works his way back from tennis elbow in both of his arms,

still just don't know how that happened. So weird. You know, it's funny with the torpedo bat thing, it was brought up that he blamed a change in his bat on the issue. And though he didn't blame the torpedo bat specifically, other players confirmed that he was using such a bat. So. Interesting.

Yeah, I mean, I don't think that means we're going to see a spate of, elbow injuries for hitters, but it is noteworthy. Lucas Gileto threw a bullpen on Friday and could begin a rehab assignment at AAA in the coming week. He's on the aisle with a left hamstring strain. Tomoyuki Sugano left Sunday's start due to cramps. And the deback signed, Brendan Fott, to a five-year $45 million extension that includes a club option for 2031 and a mutual option for 2032. Let's get into waiver-wire options from the weekend. Some hitters who are off to a nice start,

and we spoke about Victor Scott, who had a big weekend, two-for-four with two steals on Saturday, then a sock and a shoe on Sunday. He's 50% rostered. He's got six games this week. Do you guys think that Victor Scott is a must-add regardless of format, or is this still only category leagues? Only categories leagues.

I think he's probably likely to be pretty fringy and head-to-head points, but I do think he's a must roster in any categories league, yeah. Yeah, I did want to pull up I'll come back to it I was gonna look at Yahoo to see how rostered Victor Scott is over there actually have it pulled up here Victor Scott is 30% rostered on Yahoo those are lots of head-to-head daily lineup category league so I that's more than CBS or less less Victor Scott is 50% on CBS and yeah only only 30 feel like I feel like hitters can be more on Yahoo but starting pitchers never are mm-hmm

But, man, maybe that's too deep for Yahoo, Scott. Maybe, yeah, but a good option to add if you are looking for steals in particular. Kyle Manzardo had another strong game on Sunday, two for five with his second home run. This one also came off of a lefty. He is 51% rostered. Remind me of how you guys rank Manzardo Soderstrum and Torkelson, because we spoke about that on time. Can we put Ben Rice in there as well? Can we rank the four of them?

I would put Ben Rice last. I would definitely put rice last since he's not starting against lefties. I know, I know he's not starting against lefties, but I really like him. I really like Aranda, but can't put him on the level of these other three. I would go Torkelson, Manzardo Soderstrom. Okay. But I don't, I really don't have a strong preference.

And it's frustrating because like that might actually. actually like it might matter because they're probably not all going to be good or at least not all relevant for 12 teams get them all but one of them probably will be like they're all talented they're all recent top prospects and so it feels very similar very similar situations for when I doubt I go with plate discipline and that puts Soderstrom last I think that's reasonable he didn't appear in a game at catcher yet did he nope I don't believe that would be like if that's a real possibility that might be enough to push him up. But yeah, I'll lean to horse.

To your point. Yeah, that one feels much more of a long shot because I don't think there was really any talk of it this spring that I saw. But he did catch games in spring, Ben Rose. Yeah. Okay, I missed that. But they have a backup JC and SCARA.

That's okay. I mean, the athletics, you know, they also have a backup, right? It's not just so. Right. And Langleyers. So, right. Yeah. I, I would give Torkelson just a slight edge.

Just like, this is a dude who had a 31 homer, 192 combined runs in RBI season, not that long ago. So I'll give him the edge. But it's really, really close. Nathaniel Lowe is off to a nice start with the Nationals. Is this one I can't remember now? Is it low or low? I'm confusing myself. It's low.

It's low. This is Josh Lowe's brother. So confusing. Two for five with his first home run on Saturday, three for four with his second home run on Sunday. 39% rostered is low. Would you take him over any of the three that I just mentioned? No, I won it. And I'll note with him, surprisingly, a lot of strikeouts so far. Six and 16 plate appearances. Maybe it's too small of a sample to care. But I will point that out for low. It hasn't been all roses, despite the batting average and the homeowner. runs so far. I think the

biggest thing here is just if you have a chance to add Ka Manzardo and Nathaniel Lowe and you can only add one low is probably less likely to be picked up otherwise and so if you miss out on Manzardo that's probably your only chance to get Manzardo. Plus if you play in the sort of shallow league where they're both available you shoot for upside. Yeah I mean low is 20 homers 90 RBIs

Shelling. There's a good chance Nathaniel Lowe is a perfectly serviceable starter in a 12-team league, but he's probably not going to be more than that. Well, Monsardo could be. He's still kind of a mystery box. Two catchers who had big games this weekend, Caber Ruiz flashing some power to start. He had a home run to each of his first two games and has five hits through his first three games total. And Jonah Heim, two for three with a double dung on Friday. Had a downseason last year, but he was very good back in 2023. Do you have interest in either Ruiz or Haim in a one-catcher league if you're still waiting on like Sean Murphy or Tyler Stevenson or something?

I mean, not especially. If I'm picking up a catcher off the waiver wire, you know, anybody who I, anybody could do, but I don't, I wouldn't say either of these two have upside that particularly appeals to me. I would say Ruiz, if you have to have one of them

just because he's younger and could tap into the latent skills that have been there. And points leagues, he like never strikes out so he could be kind of a cheat code there if he's halfway decent at the plate, Kbert Ruiz,

but otherwise for Categories leagues, not much to really get into there. And last name on the list, a middle infield option in Roto or Categories League. Otto Lopez off to a nice start with the Marlins, the three and one.

Fighting Marlins, Chris. How about that? You love to see it. That's three walk-offs. It's been fun unless you're a Pirates fan. They're three games ahead of the Braves in the NL East. How about that? Time to shut it down.

Otto Lopez, by the way, one for three with a homer on Friday, three for five with a steel on Saturday. He's only 17% rostered. A name I think you can look at in 12-team Roto leagues or deeper with the middle infield spot there. Let's take our final break when we return. take a look at some waiver wire pitchers from the first weekend right after this quick commercial break.

Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today, taking a look at some waiver wire pitchers from the weekend. We did talk about some of these names already, but the first group includes Jeffrey Springs, who was awesome in his A's debut on Friday against the Mariners, Jack Leiter, who looked pretty good against the Red Sox, Jose Soriano, who was great at the White Sox, and Max Meyer, who looked pretty good against the pirates. How are you guys ranking those four? Waverwire pitchers, Meyer, Soriano, Lighter, and Jeffrey Springs. I think Springs is by a pretty considerable margin.

My favorite, the other three have issues that, to me, make them relative long shots. But Springs, of course, has had success in the past. 17 whiffs on 83 pitches is something to get excited about. his change up got nine of those whiffs and different movement profile from last year. So it seems like maybe he's shorn things up there. Short things up there? Short things up there. I put an end on it the first time.

That's a different word. The one thing I'll point out with Springs, his fastball still averaged less than 90 miles per hour, which was also true last year, and which is not a lot of miles per hour, let's be honest. So what happens when he faces a harder-hitting lineup than the Mariners? Could be an issue, we'll see. But I do think he's the most interesting of this group in number one for me.

If you're forcing me to rank the rest, I'll go Jose Soriano 2 because I'm most confident he'll be usable. Max Meyer 3 because the addition of the two new pitches, which he actually did use with fair prominence, seems to have rounded out his arsenal in a way that gives me hope for Max Meyer, though obviously the Marlins limit is upside. And then finally, Jack Leiter 4, which I don't mean to be a knock on Jack Leiter. I just think the control,

acknowledging he walked just one in this season debut, he's still through less than 60% of his pitches for strikes. I just think the control is going to remain a big issue for lighter. Yeah, I would just chase the upside here. side go Springs, Meyer, lighter, Soriano, but I think it's fine. Like, I don't think there's a ton separating them. I just think Soriano doesn't have the strikeout

upside the Meyer and lighter do. And it's not like the Angels are going to win many games. Yeah. Waiver Wire Pitchers part two from the weekend. Richard Fitz turned in a quality start at the Rangers, six innings three runs, four strikeouts there. A.J. Smith-Shawvert, inefficient in Sunday on his start on Sunday night baseball, but a completely different pitch.

pitcher. He threw, he led with a splitter, which he never threw prior to the season. He threw 35% of the time. It looked like a knuckleball. It was insane. I'm thinking that's what they've been calling the change up all throughout spring training. They've been saying this changeup is going to be key for him and really talking up the change up. And I noticed he didn't throw a change up according to stack cast. So I think, you know, sometimes spliters change ups. There's such a thing as a split change. I don't know if that's exactly the change. I don't know if that's exactly the changeup he's throwing, but sometimes you do see those conflated in the, in the pitch tracking. Tyler, that's, uh, oh, sorry. I was just going to read off the rest of

these names here. Tyler McGill pitched well against the Asheros, five innings, one run, six strikeouts. Justin Verlander was okay in his Giants debut at the Reds, five innings, two runs, five strikeouts there. Anyone stand out from this group, Verlander, Tyler McGill, Smith Schaver, and Richard Fitz. So Verlander, I think is going to be pretty useful. I don't think he's going to be much more than useful. He did have some new things going on. His fastball velocity was up a little bit, but most importantly, he added a sweeper and is throwing a different version of his curveball.

Now, if you are looking at the baseball savant page, it will just say he threw 21 curveballs. But if you look at, I'm using pitcher lists, they have like a plot of each pitch based on movement. and it's very clear that there's a sweeper that gets more lateral movement and then there's a curveball and they're very distinct pitches that are right at the same velocity. So they are different pitches. Justin Berlander talked about throwing a,

he said it was a curveball with more sweep in spring. So maybe it's just two different versions of a curveball, whatever it is. They are distinct pitches. And so I think it's interesting given the losses in strikeout rate he's suffered over the past couple of years. It's not like he got a ton of. of strikeouts or a ton of whiffs in this one. It wasn't bad, but 10 on 83 pitches does not scream, oh, there's a new Justin Verlander.

So if you wanted to prioritize the youth and relative upside of Richard Fitz or AJ Smith-Shawber ahead of Verlander, I think that's fine. I think the likeliest outcome is we get to June and Justin Verlander has like a 370 ERA and less than a strikeout per inning, but is still usable. and these other two guys are in the bullpen, in AAA, whatever it might be. So it kind of depends on what you're looking for. Yeah, I've noticed Richard Fitz, the velocity was there. His sweeper, slider, both up around two, over two miles per hours.

Fastball was up one mile per hour. The whiffs have kind of dried up for him. It's true toward the end of spring training, too. Eight on 71 pitches against the Rangers. That's not a bad rate, but it's not the sort of rate that screams, oh, there's a new Richard Fitz to, like Chris was saying about Justin Verlander. So I think he's borderline in a 12-team context where the roster fits, and I'd put him behind the four in the previous group that we talked about where I had Jack Lighter fourth. And I would also put Smith Schaver behind that group, but I am intrigued by Smith Schaver. I think there were enough negatives on this season debut

that he's not a particularly high priority on the waiver wire and so you can afford to leave him out there. I say that, but also his next start is against the Marlins, and he's among my sleeper pitchers. Pretty low on the top 10, but if you're that hard up for a streamer, then maybe you do need to go ahead and add Smith Schafer. All right, three other names from the weekend.

I would call all three pretty boring, I think, but maybe you guys disagree. Eric Fetty, Matthew Boyd, and Griffin Canning. They were all solid this weekend. Do you guys have any interest in Canning, Boyd, or Fetty? Canning through that slider, like... 54% of the time when previously he hadn't even gone 30% over a full season. So the Mets are having Griffin Canning do.

What I've always wanted him to do was just spam that best pitch like crazy. The results weren't amazing. he had a decent outing at the Astros. So I don't think it's a rush out and add him situation outside of deeper leagues. But I'm keeping an eye on Griffin Canning. He is the only one of these three. Fetty at 63%, Boyd at 30, Canning at 37%. Canning is the only one I look at and say, yeah, that could be a little higher.

I think the other two are fine. I don't think there's many leagues where those guys aren't. Like there are lower roster rate guys who I think should be added in leagues. I don't really think Matthew Boyd and Eric Fetty need to be more rostered than they are. Well, let's talk about some of those players who are rostered in even less league. So these are really deeper league targets that you can look at. They're rostered in 20% or less of CBS leagues. But J.P. Sears, Zach Lattel, Osvaldo, Bailey Falzer, all had good starts this weekend. Are you guys looking at any of those names in deeper formats?

So I think Zach Lattel is probably one of these guys who fairly rightly doesn't get drafted and isn't super high rostered when the season begins. But then his rate will go up as the season goes on because he's a high floor pitcher who's useful against the right matchups. And Colorado on the road is the right matchup. So I think Zach Lattel like seeing him at 19% rostered knowing he had the first start. against the Rockies. It probably should have been a little higher. I don't think he's like a must-add player anywhere or even likely to make an impact. But he's the kind of guy who probably should bounce between 30 and 60% rostered based on matchups.

Yeah. Okay. More deep league options. Kyle Freeland, completely different pitcher in his first start. And I get it's Kyle Freeland. It's the Rockies. He looked good in Tampa Bay for that start. Jonathan Cannon up against the Angels five shutout with five strikeouts there

Randy Vasquez blank the Braves this weekend six shutout innings with three strikeouts and Mitchell Parker had a strong start against the Phillies six and a third shutout with five strikeouts here Scott any of these names stand out in deeper leagues Parker Randy Vasquez Jonathan Cannon and Kyle Freeland no not for me I think we have a pretty good idea who all of them are actually Mitchell Parker did the opposite of what we would like him to do, which is throw his fastball less.

He threw it more and managed to succeed in spite of that. But I don't think there's enough upside there to get excited about. From the previous group, I like Osvaldo Bito more, who is a big fly ball pitcher. It has some interesting secondary options and finish strong last year. So that would be the deep league option I'm targeting

if I could just refer back to the previous group there. I would like to go ahead and mention I see we have another group here. I brought him up earlier in the show, Chris Bassett. He's 82% rostered on CBS, so I understand you leaving him out of this segment, but I think a lot of that has to do with CBS having so many points leagues. In those roto leagues, Bassett was going outside the top 400 in draft,

so I imagine he's pretty widely available on other sites. And he looked like old Chris Bassett in his first start through 65% of his pitches for strikes, which was the problem for him last year. And previous three years, he was basically a must-start option. So I would prioritize Chris Bassett as a Waver Wire pickup over every pitcher we've mentioned, except for Jeffrey Springs. I would put Bassett second overall.

Bassett only 36% rostered on Yahoo. So yes, widely available there as well. Three more Deep League options, Andrew Heaney, Jack Kohanowitz, and Davis Martin. Chris, do any of those names? stand out. Carnot's is kind of interesting because he did swap out the sinker for the four seamer and got a bunch of whiffs with it. That's weird.

He also got hit hard when he gave up contact and I don't know what kind of impact that's going to have on his ground ball rate if it remains the case. But look, if he could be 6K per 9 with his elite ground ball rate, Jack Kohanovic could probably be a pretty interesting, useful streamer for fantasy. I don't think he can be much more than that. And you might be saying, wow, 6K per 9, that's really low. Well, that would be like double what he was at last year in his limited opportunities. So that's my Jack Kohanwitz take.

I don't think the other two matter really at all. All right. Opening weekend overreaction. buy or sell. Jackson Holiday, two for three with a 425-foot home run off of Kevin Gosman on Friday. He added a steal on Sunday. O'Neill Cruz, your first sock in the shoe of the season.

He went two-for-four with a home run in a steal on Friday. The home run 115 miles per hour off the bat. He also walked four times on Saturday and stole two more bases. He's got four steals in his first four games here, three games he didn't play on Sunday. And Jordan Westberg, four-firm. five with a double dong on Saturday. He was out of the line of Sunday

for undisclosed reasons. So hopefully everything all good there with Jordan Westberg. But buy or sell. The breakout is happening for all three of these guys. Jackson Holiday, O'Neill Cruz, Jordan Westberg. Hmm.

I mean, I'm most inclined to buy it for the two Orioles because I was leaning that way already with them. And I guess that's, if you're going to overreact, that's the way to do it, right? I am noticing O'Neill Cruz has not struck out much at all so far. So that's encouraging, but a lot to be sorted out still. And he was the biggest investment of the three of them by pretty substantial margins.

So you're counting on a breakout most from him. I don't know. I don't have much more to add to it than that. I'm not willing to play your game of committing to this one way or the other side. I sell your opening weekend over reaction segment. Ah, come on, let's have some fun. Let's talk about Rafael Devers, who everyone is freaking out about 0 for 16 with 12 strikeouts. He set the MLB record for most strikeouts in the first four games of a season,

and he didn't play much in spring training. He was still rehabbing those shoulder injuries, full-time DH for the first time in his career. Buy or sell, you should be worried if you drafted Rafael Devers. But I think it's okay. Yeah. Worried is a fine word to use. I'm not saying you should be panicking. I absolutely do not think you should drop Raphael Devers.

And I think it would probably be a mistake to trade Rafael Devers because getting a Raphael Devers season from him as a fourth round pick is going to be way more valuable than whatever crap someone's offering you after he struck out 12 times in his first four games. Right. Like nobody's offering you Trey Turner for him. Nobody's like people are going to be offering you like mid round players to try to steal him from you.

A. U. Hanyos Juarez for Demers. Yeah, no way. And I like a Eugenio Suarez. And of course I wouldn't do that. That would be ridiculous. And so I, I think it's fine to be worried. His, um,

his swing speed is way down in the very, very, very tiny small sample size we have. and that's continuing the trend from last season. And there is a chance that his shoulders, shoulders maybe are just completely screwed up. It's also perfectly reasonable to think that he played in like three spring games, I think, and just isn't 100% ready for the start of the season. Yeah, I don't,

I think there's a lot more to be lost by overreacting than a new. or reacting, I would say. Yeah. And I think I was reading about some, they're seeing some things with him mechanically that aren't right. So between rust and just that, there's, I don't think it's, I don't think you should jump to the conclusion that he's not healthy

or that he's pouting because he has to de-h, which seems to be the what people are, the concerns people are raising most often. Literally every comment in the comments on the podcast right now are that. Yeah. Yeah. And so the pouting thing, like I don't think that would even make sense to me,

that you just can't make contact anymore because of that. Health is the bigger concern for me. But I just don't know. And I think it's going to take time before we can say with any clarity. And like Chris is saying, because this is like a national story, nobody's going to pay you a reasonable amount for Devers. So there's no upside to doing it. Would you guys be looking to buy low, buy really low on Devers?

If I have A. E. E. E. E. Heneo Suarez and someone wants to give me Rafael Devers for him, I'll do that, yes. All right. Well, let's talk about A. E. E.Henio Suarez, who's picking up right where he left off. first four games of the season. He has four homers and a stolen base, which we're not really expecting from Suarez. But by or sell, he will be a top 10 third baseman in fantasy this season. I feel like every one of those Suarez home runs has been like 430 feet too. He's just been crushing it. Look, I had him 12th before the season at third base. Scott, I imagine you had him

a little lower. I only had him four spots behind Issaq Paredes, who was my number three. Third Baseman, that's four spots in the overall rankings. So like, I could buy that fairly easily. Your number what? Third baseman was Paratus? It was number 12 for me. And Paratus was number 10. Okay.

So like it really would not take very much at all for A. E. E. E. E. E. E.S.C. Paras. And Jake Berger in my roto rankings as well. Like I, that is one that I think was close to 50-50, him being a top 10 before the season anyway. So I have no problem. buying it now that he has four home runs and eight RBI already. That'll just help him get there. Yeah. I mean,

it's, I feel like he's kind of just picking off where, picking up where he left off in the second half last year. And my whole supposition with Eohenio Suarez was, but look at the longer track record here. That seems out of place what he did in the second half. I don't know. The longer this goes on,

the harder that is to say. I'm pretty encouraged right now if I invested in Suarez. Am I going to put them in the top 10? It's not a stretch, but I'm going to say no for now. Mookie Betts had a huge game on Friday, three for five with two homers for RBI, including a walk-off three-run homer. By yourself, Mookie Betz is going to be just fine.

I'm mostly buying it because I was mostly buying it already. The two homers, I will note, were hit like 94 and 97 miles per hour. So he didn't exactly throttle them. That last one, I don't know how he got it out. It was such a low pitch. It was crazy. Yeah, he hasn't hit a ball over 100 miles an hour yet.

Yeah. But he was saying he didn't lose any strength. That wasn't part of the weight loss. He's already back up. I think he said 12, 15 pounds, something like that. He gave the exact number, but I don't remember exactly what it was. It was a lot for a short amount of time. And he's mokey bets, so I think he's going to be fine.

How do you gain that much weight that fast? In the West Coast, in an Outburger, probably. Good amount of that. I could do that. I could take that challenge on. Let's talk about Kyle Tucker, who seems to be getting comfortable with the Cubs. He had a steal on Friday. Then he hit home runs and back-to-back games here on Saturday and Sunday.

buy yourself, Kyle Tucker will have a career year in Chicago. Well, he was my National League MVP pick, so... Sounds pretty good. I've been buying that one. I mean, the way I ranked him was as if last year's numbers would be applied to a full season, so I guess I have to buy it too. All right. Well, let's get into some new pitching team debuts from this weekend.

We already spoke about Lazzardo. Max Fried, not great against the Yankees. There was also some bad defense. behind him. I think they had five errors as a team that game. It was just a crazy game all around. Walker Bueller, not great in his Red Sox debut, and Nick Povetta was great in his

Padre's debut. Seven shutout innings with four strikeouts. I was watching the game. The ESPN broadcast said Padre's pitching coach, Ruben Niebla, moved Povetta to a different side of the rubber, and maybe that has helped Nick Povetta here. But any thoughts on these new

team debuts, Povetta, Walker Bueller, and Max Fried. You know, I have always said that all Nick Povetta needed to do to become a useful fantasy option was to lose two miles per hour on his fastball and become a pitch to contact pitcher. We've been saying this for years. Nobody's been saying that. That's a little joke. Yeah, his velocity was down.

I don't think this was a particularly impressive start for Nick Povetta, but I don't think it was concerning either. I think it was fine. I'm unmoved. The results were obviously impressive, but the kind of underlying stats, there wasn't a lot to get excited about, as you would expect,

four strikeouts in seven innings. The Braves offense looked really bad that first series. I'm a little concerned as a Braves fan after what happened last year that they would already have back-to-back shutouts and be 0 and 4. One hit, one hit this game that Povetta started.

So how much of that was Povetta and how much was them in their current state? I don't know. I think that is going to have a fine year. Don't get me wrong, but I don't think this start is like proof of that. I will say like moving to a different side of the mound is one of those things that like we don't really know how that's going to impact it. It's entirely possible that, like, he starts giving up a lot less hard contact and becomes a different pitcher as a result of it, but misses few or bats. I said that facetiously, but maybe that's the impact of it, but one start is way too small of a sample size to say anything from that.

I will say, I'm dropping Walker Bueller in one of the league in the one league where I have him. I think I might have had him in two. One's a 12 team. One's a 15 team. I'll hang on to him in the 15 for now, but the 12 team league, I can't even remember who I put in a bid for him, but it's,

I'm fine dropping him. I just, I don't, we needed to see an affirmative reason from Nick, from Walker Bueller that what he showed in those two postseason starts was real and sustainable. And all, I don't think he even pitched in front of the stack cast cameras during the spring.

So this is our first time getting data on him. And it looked like the exact same. guys last year. He may have had one start because I remember us talking about it. But yeah, that the movement on his sweeper in the postseason was up considerably. Yeah. And we didn't see that in this start. So I don't know that I'd go as far to drop them in a league of any real depth, like say 350, 360 players rostered or more. I'd probably hold on to them a little longer. But I'm not encouraged. I'm discouraged, you might even say. Yeah. For me, it's just I needed to see. some reason to be optimistic.

And I think when you draft pitchers outside of the top 200, which that has to be where I drafted him, right? Or actually it was an auction league. So it was probably a dollar or two player. But when you should plan for those guys to mostly only get a couple starts because you need to be churning these roster spots to see who you've gotten. So like if I'm in a league where Walker Bueller is on my team and Max Meyer or Jack Leiter or Jose Soriano or any of those guys that we talk about,

talked about earlier. Like literally anyone that we are even remotely interested, so not like Eric Fetty, I'd be fine dropping Walker Bueller. Pitchers who did something new this weekend. Dylan Cs threw 10 changeups and five sinkers, both new pitches for Dylan Cs. Kevin Gosman's velocity was up 1.4 miles per hour on his fastball. Mitch Keller completely changed his pitch mix. He has been known to tinker in the past.

Gavin Williams, he was just okay in his first start here, but leaned more on the fastball. The velocity was up on that pitch. He also threw a new sweeper 12 times in this one. Hunter Brown, completely different pitch mix, and Bryce Miller, completely different pitch mix. So lots of moving parts here, but anything that you would like to touch on

with Bryce Miller, Hunter Brown, Gavin Williams, Mitch Keller, Kevin Gosman, and Dylan Seas. I'm pretty bummed about Kevin Gosman. The velocity was up and the fastball was effective. He got nine whiffs with it, but the splitter was not effective. And on the whole, I thought he was pretty mediocre. I know the results were fine, two run runs in six innings, but just the process was not very impressive.

And that was a problem in spring. The velocity was up, but the splitter just has not looked like the same pitch. And I just, maybe this is unfair. I have a hard time seeing a version of Kevin Gosman, who's good without a very good splitter. And I don't think his splitter is very good right now. Maybe he'll get there. The fact that the fastball's up and it's played up since the spring

could give him some upside. But I'm pretty unoptimistic, even though I'm certainly not dropping him. There are some weird things for Gavin Williams in this start. The most discouraging, I think, is that 16 inches of induced vertical break on the fastball. We were seeing higher early in spring when he was getting all the whiffs with it. And he wasn't getting as many whiffs late in spring training. either. He threw 62% fastballs got four whiffs on it.

So I don't know. A little disappointed in that, not drawing huge conclusions from it, but I'd hoped for more. The other, the weirdest thing, so that was the most discouraging thing for me. The weirdest thing was that he didn't throw his cutter a single

time. And it had, he threw 12% of the time last year. It was his best swing and miss pitch then. And they talked this spring. it'd be an important part of his arsenal again. So I don't know what happened there with Gavin Williams Cutter. That was a new pitch for him last year, right?

It was a new pitch for him last year. Like I said, it was his best swing and miss pitch. Yeah, my read on that was mostly that he had to start throwing the cutter because he couldn't throw the slider. Remember, he had that like mid-80s slider. I think that's what the sweeper was today is just the old slider coming back. Maybe they just called a sweeper now. I don't know.

but the velocity was similar. He started throwing that harder cutter last year. Yeah, just the way they were talking about it this spring was like he's mastered the cutter now. That's going to help him take a leap too. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, it was a limited arsenal.

And if he's going to be a three pitch pitcher, fastball, slider, curveball, the fastball's got to be great. And it wasn't in this one. I think that's the key thing. He's not someone I'm dropping, but it was. was a discouraging start from Gavin Williams. All right, let's wrap up with some leftovers here from the weekend. I have a whole bunch of pitchers, but I'm going to group them together and we'll just kind of run through this.

If there's anyone that stands out, feel free to make a note here. But part one, first group, Ryan Pepio, Jack Flarity, who actually survived the Dodgers, good for him. Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Joe Ryan here. Anything to add on Ryan, Yamamoto, Flerty, and Peuge. Pepio. Pepio looked awesome. His changeup was outstanding, which that was the go-to pitch for him as a prospect, and it wasn't that good last year. It got better as the season went on. But if he can still get whiffs with the foreseemer and the change-up can be like a truly special pitch for him like it was supposed to be, well, that's the reason I was excited about him before the ballpark change. And this was not at, you know, this was at George Steinbrenner. So I'm, I'm encouraged by what we saw from Ryan Pepeo. I still think that park's going to be a problem for him and Taj Bradley in the long run just because it wasn't in their first start.

Okay. It was against the Rockies on the road. And it's not like every start they have there is going to be bad. I'm just saying it's going to skew the ERA for both. But the one I wanted to comment on specifically was Joe Ryan had fine results. Fastball was down 1.2. Splitter was down 1.8, similar to what we were seeing in spring training from Ryan. But both of those pitches were still harder.

than any year but last year. So they were down, but last year was the outlier for Joe Ryan, as far as velocity goes. Maybe it won't be a big deal. Pitchers part two. Nick Ladolo, an odd quality start. Only one strikeout in that one. Spencer Arrogetti pitched very well against the Mets.

Spencer Schwellenbach looked great at the Padres. And Chote Imanaga had an awesome start against the debacks as well. Anything to add on that group? Lodolo, I'm inclined to think that the low curveball usage and the higher changeup usage is curveball was his fourth most used pitch in this one. A lot more sinkers too. Yeah, a lot more sinkers was the fact that the Giants, I think, had one lefty in the lineup. He threw his curveball a lot to Ritey's last season.

So the concern I have obviously is he lost that curveball last year. it torpedoed his season because of the finger injury. What if he doesn't have the feel for it? What if he doesn't feel comfortable throwing it? That would all be bad, but it's one start, and it's such an outlier in terms of pitch usage that I'm not going to take much from it. Everyone else was more or less what we expected, good to see Managa, getting good results early on in the season so far after we had some concerns about him.

Schwellenbach not quite the ace outcome we were hoping for but that's not a bad thing that's not a knock on him two base runners in six innings that's very good

yeah I thought it was good it was good okay I was encouraged that six innings is a little underwhelming that's all I'm saying I was encouraged that

Aragetti actually was a help to your whip this first start rather than a hindrance walked only two, gave up one hit and six innings. And I think he did change his pitch mix a little bit, more score cutters. Reduce the fastball use of 32% versus 41% last year, and that's a good

thing for Ericetti. Next group includes Brendan Fott, who had a quality start up against the Cubs. Roki Sasaki, who was bad again. One in two thirds innings, two runs, four walks to two strikeouts. He only threw 52% of his pitches for strikes. Chris Bassett, who you're

You already touched on Scott and then Robbie Ray who was cruising on Sunday and then ran into some trouble there in the sixth inning. But anything on Ray Bassett, Sasaki, and Brandon fought. Perfect. Can't start. Can't start start. He's at the Phillies this week. You cannot start it. Yeah, there's no way you can start it.

Yeah, I want to start. His fastball was 96 too, which is not where we want to see it in addition to having the control problems. We're not dropping him. No. He's got to need some work. Yeah. I'm not saying he can't figure it out this year, which is why we're not dropping him. But yeah, it's going to, we need to see him string together a few good outings, I think, before he's. And I will say, at least part of why you can't drop him is because you spent way too much on him.

Yeah. But maybe it's a situation where he has a good start. You consider shopping him at that point. But obviously not right now. I don't know. I mean, you could do it right now. there was a lot of hype, obviously. Robbie Ray is the one I wanted to comment on here. He was perfect through five and then had a pitch clock violation. I don't know why I said that word weird. Had a pitch clock violation in the sixth that he didn't think was a pitch clock violation.

It just seemed to rattle him. And then the Reds fans were all counting down the pitch clock for him. And that seemed to rattle him more. He got rattled. It seemed like gave up a couple home runs. in the sixth and it was disappointing because he looked like he was dominating until then. I still think there's a lot to be encouraged about in this start for Robbie Ray. The strikeout could have been higher.

And he didn't get a whiff on his changeup, which I was hoping to see, because remember, that's the new pitch he learned from Terrick Scuba, but the velocity was good. And I still think you should be pretty happy if you're a Robbie Ray investor. I agree with all of that. The changeup did look like a pitch he looked. learned from looking at pictures. Yeah.

In this one, he just did, he didn't have the command of it. He threw 10 of them. I think he garnered swings on two of them. The rest were out of the zone. One was in the strike zone. The other one was hit hard in play. He only threw one curveball, which was actually a very good pitch for him in limited usage last year.

So I hope it's not like no curveballs and bad changeups. But the version of Robbie Robby, Ray that was fastball slider was already pretty good. So I'm not discouraged by this start at all. And the pants were very tight for Robbie Ray. Maybe too tight. I got my tight pants. Final group of pitching leftovers here, Taj Bradley, Tanner, Bibi.

Bailey Ober, we spoke about. Jacob de Grom pitched well against the Red Sox. And Brian, who, pitched well against the A's. Anything to add on Wu, DeGrom, Bibby, and Tosh Bradley. Jacob de Grom's velocity down even more from last year, which is the one pitcher I'll say that excitedly about. He's moving them up with every tick he loses. It's only half a tick from last year,

but last year was already down a couple miles per hour from his peak. All right. Let's get into some bullpen things from the weekend. And for the Pirates on Friday, David Bednar got the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He gave up a two-run homer but picked up his first save. And then on Sunday, Bednar got the bottom of the ninth. With the game tied, he gave up an infield single to Derek Hill, who then stole second base, advanced a third on a throwing error,

and scored on a wild pitch. So David Bednar takes a loss, and it's been a not great experience so far. But like we keep saying, I just don't know where else the pirates can go. I mean, it's blown Holderman hasn't been any better. And Dennis Santana struggled, all right? Like, I just, I don't know how this team saw David Bednar last year and was like, now we're good. Just run it back. We don't need to bring in a single good reliever.

David Robertson still free agent. Yeah, Bednar looks as bad as he did last year. I'm not saying it's over. And the fact that they just don't have anyone else who looks viable makes it hard for them to go away from him. But he looks terrible. For the Rangers on Friday, back to Luke Jackson. the ninth inning. He pitched a clean inning for his first save and then

there was no Chris Martin on Friday. Then on Saturday Chris Martin got the save and then on Sunday Chris Martin pitching the eighth inning with a one run lead. He struck out two. Luke Jackson got the ninth. He gave up a hit and a walk but picked up his second save of the season and guys, I saw some huge fab bids for

Luke Jackson on Sunday night. People seem to be buying that he is the Rangers closer. It's, and I'm sure we'll get to the Red situation too. Just because a guy is the closer right now doesn't mean he's going to be the closer all season or even for very long. I think that's something people need to remember. Like you actually have to be good at the job, that job in particular, to hold on to it. And Luke Jack, nothing in Luke Jackson's track record suggests he's going to be able to hold on to this job for long, even though he's clearly the guy right now, clearly. I mean, the usage has been like that of a conventional closer. He was on available Saturday. So they went away from him then, but then right back to him Sunday. and so far, fine. You can hopefully get a handful of saves,

maybe even as many as a dozen saves before he loses it. But I do think he's going to lose it at some point because he has a long history of not being a very good reliever. So that's what I'll say about him. But the same also goes for Emilio Pagan. Yes. Who, I mean, just look at the track record. The guy is notoriously vulnerable to home runs.

the two years where he was good, one with the raise where his strikeout rate was enormous. And so that washed out the home run issue. And then one year with the twins where the home run rate was strangely low. But normally he's a mid to high fours. ERA guy is Emilio Pagan. So just because it does appear by his usage this weekend and by what Francona has said that he's the closer now,

doesn't mean he's going to be the closer for long. So when you're making those bids on these guys, You have to adjust for that. It's not like you got a saves guy for the rest of the year. There's a Benjamin Franklin quote after the constitutional constitutional convention. Some lady asks him what kind of government we got. And he says, a republic, ma'am, if you can keep it. That's how you should think about most closers.

It's like, Luke Jackson is the closer. And that matters right now. but if he's not a good pitcher, it doesn't matter. You know, like, you're just hoping for saves and non-disastrous ERAs from these guys. Luke Jackson in the beat FBT NFBC League that we did went for $243 out of a $1,000 budget. Too many. That's a 12-team Roto. And then in my TGFBI League, 15-team Roto, Luke Jackson went for 231.

So some big bids on him this weekend. For the Angels, Kenley Jansen picked up his first. two saves this weekend with his new team. For the Royals on Saturday, Lucas Ersig got the eighth inning with a one-run lead, facing 9-1-2 in the Guardians lineup. He picked up the hold. It was Carlos Estevez who pitched in the ninth inning. He walked one but picked up his first save of the season.

The Reds we spoke about, it was Emilio Pagan who got the save there. Saw some bids for him as well this weekend if you're looking for saves. For the Rockies on Saturday, Seth Halverson recorded. the final four outs with a one-run lead to pick up his first save. Only 9% rostered. I know that he's a Rockies pitcher, but he might be there closer too. And I have some hope he might actually be good. I'm not saying you dump a truckload of Fab on Seth Halverson either.

And it's not confirmed that he is the closer, but I do think this makes him the obvious frontrunner in Colorado. And yeah, I'd invest more in him if he's available than either Luke Jackson or certainly Emilio Begon. I agree. For the Padres this weekend, Robert Suarez looks good so far. Picked up his second save on Friday, and then on Saturday, Suarez, Jason Adam, and Jeremiah Estrada were all unavailable. It was Adrian Morejohn who picked up his first save of the season.

For the Cubs on Saturday, Ryan Presley got the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He gave up two runs on a walk and four hits, but did pick up his first save. Presley has looked pretty shaky so far through three appearances. I will note, though. his velocity was where it was two years ago rather than last year when it was down. So he has regained the velocity. And I find that encouraging, even though he's been shaky so far. By the way, on the subject of velocity, I don't think we mentioned it.

Rinaldo Lopez had a bad first start. I know you mentioned that, Chris. His velocity was up. His velocity was exactly where it was last year. He just couldn't throw his curve-bond slider for strikes at all. His zone rate with those two pitches was 18%. but the worry about his velocity being down this spring, I would say at least that worry is removed.

For the Dodgers on Saturday with a four-run lead, Kirby Yates pitching the eighth inning, struck out the side, and Blake Trinning got the ninth. He gave up a hit, but struck out too. Tanner Scott did not pitch in that game, and Scott, I know you and I were both putting some small bids on Blake Trinen,

just because I think he's kind of part of this closer mix for the Dodgers. Yeah, I mean, already given that date, if Roberts hasn't really stuck to his stated plan of just treating Tanner Scott like the closer. And Tanner Scott has been kind of shaky like I, like he has always been, you know, with all the walks and everything. It seems like Trinan is the next up in the pecking order. I'm not saying Trinan's just going to be the closer for the Dodgers. I think that's pretty unlikely. Kirby Yates has looked great so far.

And I imagine he'll get involved at some point. but I do think I think it's a three-headed monster right now the Dodgers Closer situation and Trinan might be the second head. It's extremely funny that Tanner Scott got the first save on the first game of the season

and it's been three different guys since then getting a different save every time. It's just, it's funny as someone who doesn't have Tanner Scott in any of my leagues especially. For the Blue Js, Jeff Hoffman struck out two for his first save with his new team for the raise on Sunday.

P. Fairbanks. Thanks picked up his first save of the season. And for the Marlins on Sunday, Calvin Foshae pitched the eighth inning with the game tied facing the heart of the Pirates lineup, 2, 3, and 4. He walked two, but got out of it. And then Anthony Bender got the ninth inning

with the game tied. He walked one, but wound up with the win. That's Foshae. I think Foshae, getting the 2-3-4. I think so, too. Tells us more. Yeah. In a tie game, yeah. That's the way that I lean for now, but we'll see. To stream or not

to stream on Monday. So we have actually lots of kind of interesting names here. Chris Paddock at the White Sox I think is doable. Chris Bubich at the Brewers, maybe. Kumar Rocker, I don't think I want to. It's at the Reds. It's a little bit tougher.

David Peterson against the Marlins, I think, it's totally fine to use. There's upside with Rocker. I think there's a little bit of upside with there's more here. There's a lot more here. Yeah. Cade Povich was the guy I was thinking. Yeah, Povich, I'm more interested to see what he does, but against the Red Sox, I think it's pretty tough. I think Ben Brown at the A's could maybe.

Yeah, I don't hate that. Well, you didn't mention Drew Rasmussen against the Pirates, and that's probably my favorite of all of them. Fantastic. Should be a two-star pitcher, right? Yeah, he's the top sleeper pitcher for this week. So Rasmussen 1, for me, Chris Paddock at the White Sox would be two, though if that doesn't go well, we might, we might not touch Chris Paddock again the rest of the year. but there were some encouraging signs late in spring training for him. And I might go Chris Bubich 3 at Milwaukee's not the easiest matchup,

but I just like Chris Bubich that much. Yeah, I don't mind that. I think I would put David Peterson third on this list just because he's at the Marlins. And he looked good in spring training. Fourth for me. Fourth for me. On Tuesday, not nearly as exciting here. Scrolling up and down to see like Shane Smith's first career start.

I don't know about that against the twins. Was Neski against the Giants? Not as interesting Tuesday. Get your streamers in Monday. Casey Mize at Seattle would be the one. Yeah, I think so too. Yeah. All right.

Well, first weekend is in the books. We are going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Paramount Podcasts.