Fantasy Baseball Today - Orioles Recalling Heston Kjerstad! Interesting Pitchers & More Struggling Hitters (4/23 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

Chris Paddack had an awesome start but the White Sox are terrible (2:47). ... Carlos Rodon pitched well but it came against the A's (8:05). ... Travis d'Arnaud continues to pop home runs (12:58). ... The Orioles are recalling one of their top prospects Heston Kjerstad (16:54). ... News (19:57): Bryce Harper and Manny Machado were placed on the paternity list. ... Jared Jones continues to be must-see television (27:11). ... Do any of these pitchers matter (32:45)? ... Aaron Judge, Zack Gelof and Bryson Stott are off to slow starts (40:55). ... Daulton Varsho continues to hit well (56:27). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates, streamers and Team Name Tuesday (1:00:08). 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, @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/ 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. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. What's up and welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, April 23rd. I am Frank Stamphill joined by Scott White and Chris Towers today on the show. We had some interesting pitcher performances, hitters who are off to slow starts. the Orioles are promoting Heston Kirstead and much more.

But let's jump in. Oh my goodness gracious. Oh my goodness gracious. Scott, you're up with the player of the night. All right. Well, there were two performances by pitchers who used to be good, have not looked good this year, but looked amazing today against really bad lineups.

And one of those pitchers I will be taking is Chris. Patrick, who against the White Sox, now with Aloi Jimenez again, but still no Luis Robert, and still very bad, seven shot out innings, 10 strikeouts, no walks. Amazing start for Chris Paddock. He entered this game with an 836 ERA, 207 whip 5.8K per 9. and you look at the breakdown of the pitches he through, the velocities, et cetera, it looks like he was doing the same stuff he'd always been doing. Why it worked so much better, I suspect the opponent had the most to do with that.

And I'm generally not a, the opponent matters more than the pitcher sort of person. I know a lot of people approach weekly starts and sits that way. The opponent is the only thing that matters. I think the opponent is secondary to the actual pitcher you're starting. So I wouldn't have imagined starting Chris Paddock. I had them, I think, at the no thanks section of the two-start pitchers list. But I don't know.

That's like been a longstanding principle of mine. And I just wonder if these white socks and athletics lineups are that much worse than we've come across before. Probably not. It's usually a good idea to bet against the extreme outlier. But man, you look through the names. Outside of Eloy,

is there a single player on the White Sox that would start on half of the other teams in baseball right now? I don't think Andrew Vaughn would, given... I don't think so either, given that as a first basement. And that's the only puttion. I mean, Robbie Grossman was a spring invite in a minor league edition, I think.

Gavin Sheets is a platoon bat. Like, this offense is dreadful. It is. But usually when, like, it's not the first time we've seen a lineup full of AAA players. And usually what happens is eventually a couple of those AAA guys emerges more than that. It hasn't happened yet, obviously. It's still April. So I don't know.

don't know that I want to abandon my whole approach to how I selects pitchers to start and sit. Obviously, I factor in the opponent, but again, it's secondary to how good the pitcher I think himself is. I don't think Chris Paddock is very good,

but he sure looks like it against this White Sox lineup today. Yeah, I would agree with that. He still gave up some hard contact in this start. What I noticed with the pitch makes, he threw a few more fastballs and changeups, but entering the start, his fastball had a 444 expected Woba.

His changeup had a 494 expected Wobah. Those are really, really bad marks for individual pitches. Maybe he can kind of work his way into streamer territory because even though he's got a 5507 ERA, it's a 394 X-FIP. So, you know, if he gets to that point where he's pitching, you know, to like a high threes or a low fours kind of expectation, then again, he could kind of work his way into streaming territory. but for now 36% rostered, this doesn't matter, right?

Scott, like we're not looking to add Paddock after the start. It's going to take a whole lot more than this. Look, he used to be good, and he's newly returned from Tommy John's surgery. So it's not the craziest idea to think Paddock could become a viable fantasy option again. Certainly he was being drafted like it, but I'm not looking at this start against the White Sox and believing at this moment. Yes, this is the return to form for Chris Paddock. The one thing I would say is just he's, he's RP eligible. And we've lost Cody Bradford.

We've lost Frankie Montas. We've gained Raphael Soriano, baby. I mean, yeah. No, not Raphael Soriano. Jose Soriano. So it's possible that there are some head to head points leagues where he's not rostered where I think you can make the case for it. But outside of that, yeah, I don't.

I actually did start Paddock in two leagues, one, because I lost. Montas in a head-to-head points league. The other was an AL-only league. My other option, I think was Corvin or something. You're a genius. Yeah, I'm the smartest boy in America. No, but yeah, it was, I think the biggest thing is it's nice to see signs of life from a guy who once was a must-start pitcher.

And, you know, if he can go out and give us more signs of life the next time he pitches, that'd be great. But no, I don't think it's moving. the needle either way. Last point on Paddock, his first three starts were against the Brewers, the Dodgers, the Orioles. Pretty tough matchups. Say what you will about the Brewers, but they actually have been great against right-handed pitching this season. So we'll see where Paddock goes from here, but no immediate action necessary in fantasy. Chris, over to you. Player of the day. The other guy that Scott was referring to, I think, in his intro to the Chris Paddock

discussion was Carlos Rodon, who took advantage of a very bad Oakland athletics lineup. And I think now is the time to try to trade Carlos Rodon. Now, I wrote an article saying that two weeks ago as well. So I suppose you could say that it has been and remains the time to trade Carlos Rodon because I just, I don't buy what he's doing right now. He's got the ERA back under three. I think it's 270 for the season, the expected ERA much higher than that, about a run and a half higher. and I just don't really see anything that he's doing particularly well right now. He walked two, struck out four over seven innings, no runs allowed, one hit.

His velocity was down about 1.5 miles per hour in this one, but I will say that seemed intentional. That seemed by design because it was down a lot more early in the start. And then he ran into a little bit of trouble, reached back for 96, 97 with runner. on base a few times. Six and seventh innings, the fastball actually looked better than it has, I think,

maybe all season the way he was locating it, the way he was spinning it. But his best two starts, Rodon's best two starts this year, have been his lowest velocity starts. They've also been his starts against the Marlins and the athletics. And I think the biggest thing here

is just that he still doesn't have his slider. And I just don't believe that Carlos Rodan can be a good pitcher at 94 miles per. hour, especially without his slider. He threw it 13 times today. He got one whiff on seven swings. That's a dreadful, dreadful result. And, you know, okay, the quality of contact was really poor against it, 84 miles per hour, but against the A's. So you would expect the quality of contact to be pretty poor, even if the pitcher's not pitching great. So I just, I wanted to believe in Rodon coming into the season. I wanted to believe in a bounce back. But I just, I just, you know,

just I don't know what the explanation specifically for the slider not being there. And that's the thing that, okay, if he was, if he was averaging 94 miles per hour, but his slider still looked like a big wipeout offering, then I could be a little more on board. But right now, I just don't see any reason to be. I mean, you've offered the best explanation I've heard here, just introducing the cutter to his arsenal kind of ruined Rodon's feel for the slider, right? Like it blended the two pitches too much, I guess. Is that the idea?

That's the theory I've been operating under it. Yeah. For what it's worth, kind of the same thing happened to Luis Severino a couple years ago, where he started tinkering with a cutter. And now it's a chicken and egg thing with both of those guys. Like, did they lose the slider and have to find other pitches? Because Rodon also threw his change up and his curveball, 13% of the time combined, which those have been very rarely used pitches for him.

and he's expanding the arsenal here, I think out of necessity because he doesn't have the slider, but it's just, could he just ditch the cutter and get the slider back? That's what I don't know. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm out on Carlos Rodon too. I think if you can get something for him, that's better than dropable, hopefully quite a bit better than dropable. But the point is, I wouldn't have hesitated to drop Carlos Rodon in like a 12-team league, prior to this start.

And so if this start redeems his value, his trade value in any way, I agree you should take advantage. The next question is just trying to figure out what can you get for Carlos Rodon, if anything, right? I mean, I think the very clear, obvious by low pitcher right now is Blake Snell, if you think he's going to get back on track.

But is absolutely, is anybody going to give you Blake Snell for Rodon? My guess is probably not right. I mean, Rodon was being drafted lower than Blake's now certainly, but by quite a bit. He's got a 270 ERA right now. Like I, I don't. Chris Bassett. I would do that.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Seems possible. What about two hitters? Nick Castellanos and Jordan Walker. I have more faith in Nick Castiano's moving forward than I do Carlos Rodon. I will say that.

I would hope to get more than Castiano's given Rodon's good E. RA and Castianos awful numbers, but I feel better about Castellanos moving forward. Joe Musgrove. Yes. Sure. For sure. Yep. I think all the names that we've mentioned, the hitters, the pitchers, I would try and

make that happen for Carl Swardan if I could. Player of the night for me, I'm trying to work in more hitters here. Not that there was like some massive hitter standout performance today, but Travis Darno stayed hot. Two for five with his fifth home run. All five of his home runs have come in his past four games. He's batting two. 73, 14 RBI, a 980 OPS.

He is just crushing the ball early on, 15% barrel rate entering Monday's action. He's still only 55% rostered. It's kind of a short-term situation because Sean Murphy will be back at some point. But I've been getting questions about struggling catchers and one-catcher leagues. Would you guys consider dropping like a Gabriel Moreno or a bow nailer in a one-catcher league to pick up Travis Tarno? Sure, in a one-catcher league, that seems fine. I'm actually putting together for Tuesday a do not drop list. And none of those players are on it.

Darno himself is not on it, but neither is Bo Naler or Gabriel Moreno. So among slow starting hitters, I don't think those two are like so established that you couldn't move on from them if you saw a hotter hand play or somebody else who was interesting you at the position. I will say that my,

biggest takeaway probably of Travis Darno's power surge is it's really bad news for people who invested in Sean Murphy because the hope all along was that Murphy would claim a larger share of the workload there for the Braves and I think this might this might completely ruin it. Yep. I think that's that is fair as well. Let's quickly promote a few things. Download and follow FBT and FBT and 5 on Spotify. And for the people watching us live, like this video, subscribe to the YouTube channel if you haven't already. YouTube.com slash fantasy baseball today.

Let's take our first break. When we return, we'll talk about Heston Kirstadt. He's getting the call from the Orioles, and we'll do that right after this. Welcome back in. The Orioles are recalling one of their top prospects, Heston Kirstad, who is arguably, maybe not arguably the best hitter in the minors right now.

They did have some procedural things. things take place here on Monday. Austin Hayes was placed in the aisle with calf tightness. Ryan Mountcastle was out of the lineup Monday due to knee soreness. And Kirstad in the minors this season, a 349 batting average, 10 homers, 30 RBI in 21 games. This is just bonkers numbers that just that whole team is putting up. The Norfolk, what it?

Norfolk tides, right? Tide. Yeah. The tide, just the tide. That AAA team has just been ridiculous. He's hitting the ball hard. Played discipline looks pretty good. Heston Kirstadt is 25 years old.

He can play first and corner outfield. He's 39% rostered. So, Scott, a good amount of people are already stashing Heston Kirstad. The question becomes, is he going to play? Is he going to play enough to matter for fantasy? Yeah. I mean, look, it could happen. Life could find a way.

He could hit two home runs the first time he's put in the lineup and never sit again. But as things stand right now, I'm skeptical that's going to happen. He's on the roster because they had an opening to fill with Austin Hayes going on the aisle with a calf injury. It doesn't sound like a long-term injury for Hayes. Nothing I've seen would suggest that

anyway. And obviously he makes for a better fit he's got to get a spot back whenever he's healthy. So at one point, Colton Kouser was the player who we were like, oh, how's he going to find his way into the Orioles

lineup? But He had already over and taken Hayes. So that option is off the table. The Hayes spot has already been filled by Colton Kouser. So now what's it going to take to open up a spot for Kyrostad? Ryan O'Hern could fall off. Anthony Santander, you know, he's been kind of a stable presence in the Orioles lineup. But I could see them.

I could see him slumping his way out of the lineup. But I don't think that's happening eminently, even if it does. and then for Kyrstad himself, he's D.H only, at least in CBS leagues at the moment. So I think in most circumstances, it's a wait and see situation rather than a must-add situation with Heston Kirstadt. Five outfielder leagues, obviously not a bad idea to add him. But I wouldn't consider it a must even there. I think the wild card in all of this is Ryan Mouncastle, because again, he was out Monday with this knee injury. If this becomes something bigger, then I could say,

see, all right, Kirstad, just by necessity, they need a first baseman or a D.H. He can earn more playing time that way. But again, based on everything we've heard, it doesn't sound like Mountcastles going on the IL or anything. So wait and see approach. If you have a roster spot, obviously, again, he's, Kirstad's been maybe the best hitter in the minors this season. It wouldn't hurt to just pick him up and see where it goes from here. But not a must add yet. Let's see where it goes. News and notes, Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, were both placed on the paternity list. They'll miss between one and three games moving forward this week. Ozzy Albies has begun swinging a bat and could return when first eligible on Friday.

Pete Fairbanks was placed in the aisle with a nerve-related issue and everything I read was pretty vague on Fairbanks here. Chris, Jason Adam is the next man up, right? He's 22% rostered. I think he clearly has to be because there were two, I believe two different stints on on the IL for Pete Fairbanks last season and Jason Adam got 10 out of 12 saves for the raise. I didn't go through all the save opportunities, but he got 10 out of the 12 saves. So that was one change that they made last season

that when it was Fairbanks, it was Fairbanks. And when it wasn't Fairbanks, it was Adam. And obviously we can't say that it'll definitely continue to be that way this season. But yeah, I think if you need saves, Jason Adam is absolutely as high a priority ad as Kirby Yates right now, if both are available. Okay, so I was going to ask, would you take Jason Adam over any of Yoel Paiomps or the Cubs options? Hector Nerris, Mark Leiter.

I would add him over the Cubs guys, yeah, because I think it's more clear that it's going to be him for some amount of time than it is with, I think it's Hector Nerris, but I would guess Al-Zalai has a chance to work his way. back in, I feel pretty confident that's going to be Adam more often than not moving forward. Would you take him over pioms? Yeah. Um, no. I think I prefer pyops, yeah. But we

do prefer Kirby Yates to all of them, right? Yes. Yes. Yes. But I, but if I guess what I said like as much of a priority as Yates is maybe it was. Was when he had a more. Okay. When LeClerc got removed.

Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, and Kirby Yates is the most added relief pitcher on CBS, and he is up to 70% rostered. So he still could be out there in some leagues, and I remain, regardless of format. Head to head points, roto, head to head categories, doesn't matter. I think Kirby Yates needs to be closer to 100% rostered at this point. Paul Seawald will start a rehab assignment at AAA on Tuesday.

He started the season on the IL with a grade 2 left oblique strain. Merrill Kelly was diagnosed with a terrorist major strain of his right shoulder and is on track to receive another MRI. It looks like he is headed for the aisle as well. Yariol Rodriguez remains on a restricted workload of the season and will likely shift to a multi-inning relief role once Alec Manoa is deemed ready to rejoin the rotation. When will that be?

I'm not sure. It sounds like Manoa will make another rehab start later this week. But I understand Rodriguez hasn't thrown many innings. This kind of surprised me. Like, why not talk about doing this later? later on. He very clearly is a better option than Alec Manoa right now. IMO. Alec Manoa, his last rehab start Friday was good in that he didn't walk anybody, which has been a big problem for him this whole time. And it was at AAA. Let's see.

Seven swinging strikes on 92 pitches, that obviously isn't very good. I just wonder if it was, if the, if the Blue Jays were reassured enough by that rehab start that they're like, okay, we definitely want to give Manoa another look. But overall, yeah, I mean, I'm disappointed because I picked up Yario Rodriguez in several leagues, excited about the strikeout potential there. And if Minot is as bad as we think he is, he might, Rodriguez might be back in the rotation soon enough. Frankie Montas was placed on the I.O. with a bruised forearm. Nick Martinez will start Thursday against the Phillies. Shane Boz will soon throw two in an extended spring training game.

Braxton Garrett threw a bullpen session Sunday. He was briefly shut down due to a bout with dead arm, but it sounds like he could be working his way back soon. Jake Berger will be evaluated soon to determine whether he can begin hitting. He's on the aisle with a left intercostal strain. Wade Miley was placed on the aisle with left elbow inflammation. Louis Varland was optioned to AAA on Monday. It sounds like Simeon Woods Richardson could take his spot in the rotation.

He made one start earlier this season. He allowed just one run over six innings, but despite being rated as a pretty good prospect, his minor league numbers are pretty bad. Yeah, it's been a few years since he's been really considered much of a prospect. So I don't know, we'll see, but I'm not particularly excited about him. And Scott, this news item is for you, my friend. Jonathan Aranda is expected to begin a rehab assignment at AAA soon.

He had the pins removed from his surgically repaired finger a week ago. And all of a sudden, I mean, that Ray's lineup might be turning it around because it looks like Josh Lowe is almost ready to return. He's doing rehab. Aronda's on his way back. So hopefully. Not good news for Junior Cominero, but... True.

If you missed out on Michael Bush, Jonathan Aronda is his American League counterpart. And he is rostered almost nowhere. I remember... Put him in an aisle spot. You were making that comp. dating back to last year too, so we'll see. Yeah, a couple, a couple 20, six-year-olds kicking around at AAA with amazing exit

velos and pit plate discipline and just lacking an opportunity. But Aranda, Aranda was, had a superb spring and it seemed like the rays were really excited about him before he fractured that finger. So I imagine they're going to be excited to get him back in the lineup. That doesn't mean they won't do the raise thing where he's in and out of the lineup and sitting against some left-handers. But if he performs well enough, that could change quickly. Yeah, only 12% rostered for Jonathan Arronda. So for those in deeper leagues, he's a name.

Go check and see if he is available. Let's get back into Monday's action. Jared Jones continues to be must-see TV. Did you guys see that swing that he induced on Bryce Terang? that was ridiculous. Just awesome stuff. Jared Jones has been amazing. Six innings, one run,

seven strikeouts with 25 swinging strikes on 91 pitches, 13 of those on the fastball, 11 on the slider, one on the change-up. He did give up some hard contact. I think that's going to be part of Jared Jones' game, but he just gets so many whiffs. It might not matter all that much. How did this guy,

Jared Jones, have a 4-70, two ERA in the minors last year. So his stuff. I didn't even have him in my top 100 prospects. His stuff appears to have taken like a big step forward. Like I think he had good stuff before this, but he, yeah, I, because he was someone that I, I think was like a fringe top 100 prospect for the most part. And I saw Jared Seidler from baseball prospectus, who's one of their prospect guys talking about it.

And like he was, they didn't have Jared Jones. I think they didn't have him in their top 100, entering the season. And he was like, he'd probably have to be top 15, top 20 right now. But how much higher would he have to be? And part of it is that he's made this big leap in terms of his stuff. And the slider is, is looking amazing. And the big question with Jared Jones is it's been a month. how much of this command can stay.

If most of it does, yeah. I mean, we've talked about it a ton, but he looks like Spencer Strider right now. Yeah. Well, I mean,

Spencer Strider, somewhat famously, I left him out of my top 100 prior to his rookie season. But I, I always felt like I knew better. Like I should have, I should have not done that.

I had Spencer Strider, I picked up in all my dynasty leagues, and I just got, I bought into the narrative that the relief, reliever risk was too strong. So I left him out of my top 100. But Jared Jones, you know, he was in consideration. It's not like I didn't know who he was, but it, in the end, it was pretty easy. Like I was considering Bubba Chandler among pirates pitching prospects over Jared Jones.

And now he looks like a total ace. And Bryce Terang, Bryce to rang falling down. down on that swing. What gets me about it is you look at the bat, the path his bat was taking. And it was nowhere near where the ball, like, it's,

it's easy to fixate on him falling as he swung. But just like he was so totally fooled by that pitch, more than maybe a procedure major league or pulled by it. And that's Bryce Terang, who has pretty good contact skills. Yeah. So it's, yeah, that was the good one. It's, he's throwing even harder in this outing.

Velocity was up almost a mile per hour for Jared Jones. Given everything we've seen so far with injuries this season, I'm a little, you don't need to do that. You know, you probably be really good at 96. But, yeah, I think as long as Jared Jones is healthy, based on what we've seen so far, I don't see any reason to think there are going to be more than 15 better pitchers on a per start per inning basis.

And it's just a question of whether he can stay healthy and how many innings he's going to throw. But I, yeah, it's unbelievable how good he is right now. Some awesome stats here that I saw on Twitter earlier regarding Jared Jones per Sarah Lange's, Jared Jones's 98 swings and misses this season are the most by a pitcher in his first five career starts in the pitch tracking era. So that's dating back to 2008. And per the MLB account on Twitter,

Jared Jones is the fourth pitcher since 1893 to strike out at least seven batters in each of his first five career games. The final question on Jared Jones, how high does he move up in the rankings this week? Let's see, I got him up to 26 last time. I'll probably go ahead and move him ahead of Jesus Lazzardo and Blake Snell now.

So top 25? Yeah, top 25, probably not top 20. And yeah, the biggest concern like Chris was saying is just he's a rookie and he had that, he had that one start where he threw 50 something pitches, right? So the pirates are being cognizant of his workload already here in April. But if that wasn't a question, then he would be top 20, I would say. Yep. Would you give up Jared Jones to get Max?

Freed right now. No, I don't think so. I'm pretty worried about Freed. Would you give up Jared Jones to get Dylan Seas right now? Yeah, I'd do that. I think so, but I don't think you could realistically pull that off.

I could be wrong. Jared Jones or Chris Sale? Chris Sale. That one's really close, because Sale has so much injury risk himself. That's a wash. I don't think I... Like if I had either one of those pitchers,

I don't think I would swap them for the other one, if that makes sense. Yeah, and I don't know how to respond. I don't know what to do with Max Fried. Because I do, I just kind of have this vague feeling he's not healthy. There's no way for us to know that. Right. And so I don't know how much I want to act on it.

I certainly don't know how much I want that to impact my ranking of him because for most any other established star who's struggling right now. Now I'm saying, just relax. It's probably going to be fine. And I guess it's more likely to be fine than not for freed, too. But I've just got this nagging feeling that it won't be. And I'm not really sure how to apply that.

Francisco Lindor didn't have a forearm strain last year. You know? That's one thing. Yeah. That's the biggest thing for me. It's just like I think I was probably too laissez-faire about that. Mm-hmm. All right, again, that is Jared Jones that we're talking about.

We'll have the rankings updates coming up later in the week. Do any of these pitchers matter for fantasy? They all had some pretty interesting performances here on Monday. Keaton Wynn has turned in back-to-back quality starts. This one was against the Mets, six innings, one run aloud, six strikeouts. He is an interesting pitcher in that he throws hard, but his splitter is also his most used pitch. And entering this start, he had a 113 stuff plus,

so that's a pretty damn good mark. gets a lot of ground balls too. He's 37% rostered. Does Keaton win matter for fantasy? I think Keaton win is probably mostly just a streamer type against good matchups. We saw a very good start against the Marlins last week. The Mets are honestly a pretty good matchup right now as well.

I don't think there's a ton of upside, certainly not on the strikeout front. But he's showing the ability to suppress hard contact decently well, so he'll be useful against the right matchups, but I can't say I'm too excited. What about J.P. Sears? He was great in a revenge game at the Yankees, six shutout innings with seven strikeouts. He had 14 swinging strikes on 91 pitches and through, I believe it's now

four or five starts. He's got a 338 ERA, a 105 whip. He's 25% roster. Does J.P. Sears matter for fantasy? Probably not. But I could see him being a streamer, as an extreme fly ball pitcher who can occasionally put up a good strikeout numbers. He has a 540 X-FIP.

I think part of that is just the fly-ball rate is so high, but it's, we're not normally touting pitchers with a 540 X-FIP. The one thing I did notice with him was he had a 13% whiff rate with his sweeper coming into this start.

And he got six whiffs with it today. So, you know, this is kind of a new, approach for him. He's going sweeper first. I think he added that pitch last season. So it might be something where he's still figuring out the best way to use it, especially when using it as more of a primary pitch. So maybe we're seeing some signs of growth.

You know, the strikeouts have been up over the past three starts that have been much better. So I mostly agree that he's just a streamer against the right matchups, probably in the right park. So this was a bad park four fly ball pitcher and it worked out. So, you know, I mostly agree with that, I think. The final line for Joe Ross was just okay, five and a third innings, two runs, four strikeouts to one walk, but he had 17 swinging strikes on 79 pitches.

That is a 21.5% swinging strike rate. Does this matter? Does this performance matter at all from Joe Ross? I think it matters even less than the first two guys we talked about. All right. So let's slide over to Bryce Elder, who turned in a quality start in his season debut against the Marlins. It was six and two-thirds shutout.

eight hits allowed, four strikeouts with 11 swinging strikes. He did give up 10 hard hits in this game. Pretty similar pitch mix to what I compared to last year. He's 30% rostered. Scott, does this matter? Bryce Elder? I mean, it matters because it's going to give him another turn, at least. I would like to see him do something like this against the lineup better than the Marlins.

He only threw 64% of his pitches for strikes in this one. he threw 62% of them for strikes in the minors, and I don't think his arsenal's nearly good enough to get away with that. And, yeah, I'm not particularly eager to pick up Bryce Elder right now, though he will have the Braves offense backing him. He can take on a pretty big workload. I'm not ruling out him mattering, but I don't think he matters yet. Yeah, I kind of view him, and the next guy we're going to talk about very similar,

and it's Albert Suarez, where it's just... maybe for Suarez it's probably even I think matters more because of the park that he plays in, which is a better park than the Braves playing. But yeah, the appeal is mostly any halfway decent pitcher can be pretty good when they've got the Braves and Orioles backing them up. Dean Kramer won 13 games for the Orioles last season. You know, like that that's mostly, I think, the appeal of Elder and Suarez. I would add Suarez ahead of Elder.

and I think I would have as far as ahead of Wynn, Sears, Ross, all the other guys we've talked about as well. But I don't think he's a very good pitcher in his own right. It's mostly the circumstances, but the circumstances are really, really good. It's an interesting story for Suarez, too, because he's 34 years old.

He last pitched in Major League Baseball for the Giants back in 2017. He spent the past two years in the KBO where he was mostly a ground ball specialist. and early on here, I mean, it's not like he had a crazy amount of strikeouts in his first start, but he did have 16 swinging strikes on 89 pitches in this outing, and he's 7% rostered. So widely available, I think I agree that even if we include Chris Paddock in this group, I think Albert Suarez is probably the most interesting one that we've mentioned. Yeah, I mean, for the most part, these are all guys where something besides their talent level

needs to make them valuable if they are going to be valuable. In Paddock's case, RP eligibility and had to have points league is the primary thing. In Suarez and Elders case, to a lesser extent, it's the teams they pitch for. All right, this last one is Ryan Weathers, who didn't necessarily have a great or even interesting start, but I thought it was worth highlighting because he was coming off a 10 strikeout start his last time out. And he completely kind of changed his pitch mix in this start as well. He made the change up his most used pitch. He threw more sinkers as well.

And the last time out in that 10 strikeout start, the sweeper was his most used pitch, and he only used it 13% in this start. So Ryan Weathers has a 316 ERA, but it's also a 140 whip, and it's, you know, a 449 X-FIP. He's up to 43% rostered. I don't know. Scott does Ryan Weathers matter. He's had one star worth caring about, you know? Right.

I don't think it, I don't think we need to go much deeper than that. There was some optimism surrounding him coming out of spring training. And coming off that 10 strikeout effort, it was reason to take a second look. But then when he bounces back with this one strikeout effort, I just don't think there's too much to dig into here for Ryan Weathers. All right. Let's take our final break when we return. We'll talk about some hitters who are off to slow starts and a few names who have slowed down after Hot. starts. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in. I know typically for

early round hitters, we wait until May, the end of May, Memorial Day around that time to maybe start making some declarations. But Aaron Judge is off to a pretty rough start. O-for-4 with two strikeouts on Monday. He's batting 174 with a 645 OPS. He's got a 30% strikeout rate early on. Some just kind of weird stuff going on with the batted ball data. Lots of infield

fly balls so far. The expected stats look really, really bad. I can't tell if this is just me being a kind of overly concerned slash pessimistic Yankee fan, but I have a bit of like a Max Fried feeling with Aaron Judge where he was not healthy in spring

training and I just wonder is he healthy right now? And I don't know. But he wasn't hurt in spring training, right? Well, he missed like a week with like a... Oh, the side soreness, yeah. I think it was like a rib or like yeah i maybe that's limiting him i don't the thing i try to look for when i'm looking at

established players like this and my general baseline assumption is just i'm not going to be worried about it but the first thing i want to look at is is their current level of struggle an outlier like is this something that we have not seen from them before in judge's case, no. This is a fairly standard Aaron Judge slump, something that he's done right around once per season, at least every year in the major. And actually he had two.

So what I'm referring to is he has a 294 Wobah through his first 22 games this season. Last season he had a 22 game stretch where he had a 316 Wobie. He had another one with a 324. In 2022, MVP's in 63 home runs, American League home run record. 62, whatever. 297, Wobah, over a 22 game stretch beginning in about mid-June. He does this about once or twice every year.

No, I'm not concerned. All right, well, let's move on to the next hitter. Zach Gelloff went one for four with his third home run, but it has been a struggle for him. He's batting 205. The power and speed has been okay. three homers, four steals, but it's a 623 OPS, 31% strikeout rate. And some of the underlying plate discipline things that we were worried about coming into

the season are there to start as well. The zone contact is not good. The swinging strike rate is quite bad as well. Scott, I know you're writing the article. Should you hold on to this player or not? What do you think about Zach Goeloff? He's 86% rostered. All those strikeouts, they matter a lot in a points league.

Yeah, he's not. on my do not drop list for points leagues. He is for roto leagues. And just because he's not for points leagues doesn't mean you should absolutely drop Zach Gelloff. Obviously he's not nearly as proven as Aaron Judge.

So it's kind of unfair to have Gelloff follow judge there because there are reasons why Gelloff may not work out. And you've already talked about him. The plate discipline issues, too many

strikeouts. Lozo contact rate, even the power he generates, it wasn't so much to his pull side and does he have the exit velocities to pull that off? Those were all questions we were asking as he was crushing it down the stretch last season. And so maybe it's come home to roost. But I think it's too early to say for sure. And that's going to be something I'll say for all these hitters, you know, I'll go ahead and do this now if you don't mind. So in that same article, my do not drop list article, I talked about what some hitters were batting at the end of

April last year. So we're not even to the end of April. We got another week to go this year. But at the end of April last year, Bobby Witt was batting 222 with the 659 OPS, Moogie Betts 235. He was batting Juan Soto 202, Francisco Lindor, 218. I did a similar exercise for a piece going up tomorrow. Oh, great. Do you remember who it's a different type of piece. Don't worry. But do you remember who the best hitter in baseball was last season per Wobah? Last season or last April?

Last April. I think I do know from doing this research that it was Matt Chapman. Matt Chapman had a 481 Wobah. He led baseball with a 33% barrel rate. He had the highest average exit velocity in baseball. he had the highest hard hit rate in baseball. Also, Josh Naylor, Spencer Torkelson, and Tristan Kostas were all like bottom 10. Yeah.

Yeah, I was getting to them too. Torkelson hit 206. Kossus hit 133. Bregman hit 219. Oh, and the most famous case of all. I didn't even include him here. I think Marcelo Zuna batted under 100. Under 100.

He was dropped in my NL-only Labor League last year. year in early May. Yeah. And I could, those are just some examples. Obviously, it's not the full list. Again, with an extra week of sample added on to what we already have here, which is to say that nothing that's happened, nothing that's happened so far means anything yet. I, I, I'm going to have a piece tomorrow.

Just, what does April max? matter. And to a certain extent, yes, it does. Obviously, those points that you get in your standings, those all count. But I asked on Twitter whether people thought that April statistics or June statistics to pick one random month from the middle of the season. We're more predictive. And like 88% of people picked June. And you guys are all lying. Because if you really don't think April is predictive, then why are you all freaking out so much? I know why you're freaking out. But still, would either month be more predictive? June is actually slightly more predictive, but it's a neither is all that predictive.

Yeah. One might say that full season statistics are more predictive. One might say that. All right. Well, should I just skip the rest of the segment then? Because I feel like, you know, because like Zach Gelloff is, I think, an interesting. a case worth worth the highlighting because like

in a points league yeah I think you can absolutely drop him I think he was a fringe top 12 guy coming into the season

and that's important context because saying you can drop him in a points league okay shallow league not his ideal format

more robust waiver wire so the quality of player you'd be picking up by dropping him is higher and so that's why you can justify it in that format versus Roto. But it doesn't mean, like, the reason he's, the reason I can't sanction dropping Gelloff in Roto is because he could still be good.

And obviously, if he's still good, he'll be good in points leagues too. So it's, there are a lot of other factors coming into play than just a strict evaluation of Gelloff. What about Bryson's stop then in a points league as well? Because he went 0 for two with a walk here on Monday. He's batting 2.17 with a 566 OPS. His quality of contact, not that it's ever been amazing, but it's especially bad so far. 83.8 average exit velocity.

Oddly enough, he's actually hitting well against lefties, but doing very poorly against righties. Thoughts on Bryson Stott? He can't have many of bats against lefties, right? Because he's sat most of the time, and that's my biggest concern for Stott. He is on my do not drop list for Roto, but he is not on my do not drop list for points.

Agreed with that, yeah. I think he's fringy in points for sure. We are very clearly not dropping O'Neill Cruz, but he is striking out 38.5% of the time. He's betting 233 with a 637 OPS. He was actually recently dropped down in the Pirates lineup where he batted eighth on both Saturday and Sunday. He hit seventh here on Monday.

Still hitting the ball hard. Oddly enough, lots of ground balls, lots of pop-ups, it might just be a, this guy didn't play all of last season and he's, he's rusty kind of thing. Well, it might be, but for over a year now, we've clung to this hope that maybe he's figured out how not to strike out so much because he struck out less than 30% of the time two Septembers ago. And then last spring, his strikeout rate was like 25% and it was like 22% in the nine games

he played before getting hurt. And it was kind of low this past spring too. So maybe he's figured it out. And so then we get three and a half weeks of him striking out nearly 40% of the time. And it's that's a bigger more mean. It's a small sample, but it's a bigger more meaningful sample than any of those others we were clinging to. And so that's kind of diminished that hope for me. And I actually did move O'Neill Cruz behind C.J. Abrams and Bo Bichette and my last rest of season rankings update.

again, we're not dropping him. And he could still be a very valuable fantasy asset, even with a high strikeout rate. But I don't think he's going to be a super stud. You mentioned Bobauchette there, and the top three in the Blue Jays lineup are all off to slow starts, George Springer, Vladimir Guerrero,

and Boba Chet. Chris, is there anything here that's worrisome? Or would you be looking at Bailo on all three of those names? What do you think? So I think the Guerrero one is, interesting because last season he dramatically underperformed his expected Wobah, his expected Wobo was 378, his actual

Wobo was 340, and that was really the first time that that had happened for him. Vladimir Guerrero, for what I think are fairly obvious reasons, he has a fairly all-fields approach, so there's not really like any specific way you would expect him to under or overperform his expected metrics. he had been within five points, five thousandths of a point in his expected Wobah versus Wobah every year prior last year. And now suddenly he's 41 points behind after being 38 behind last year. So I'm not sure if there's anything in his profile that has changed to make him more likely to underperform.

But the fact that it happened last year and it's happening this year does make me wonder. I still think better days are ahead for Vladimir Guerrera Jr. The quality of contact for the most part remains outstanding. Launch angle is down slightly from 2023, but it's still the third highest of his career. So he's not necessarily hitting an alarming amount of ground balls, or at least he's not trading fly balls in a way that I think is too concerning. So I feel mostly pretty confident about him.

I don't have too many concerns about Boba Schett either. Springer is just he's old enough that the end might be here of him as a difference maker. And so, yeah, I'm more concerned about him than the other two for sure. Two Cardinals hitters who desperately need to get going, Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan, both hit home runs here on Monday. People are already dropping Gorman. And look, at a points league, I can't blame you. He's striking out a lot.

He is down to 68% rostered. Scott, anything to add on Goldie and Gorman? Well, I have Gorman on my Do Not Drop List for Roto, but not for points. So that probably jibes with what people are doing. Goldschmidt, I have on my Do Not Drop List for both because he's Paul Goldschmidt and has been a stud for longer than most people listening have been playing fantasy baseball. But I did have him as a bust coming into the year, and he is at that age where he could begin to slow down and those signs I saw in the second half of, you know, the eggs of velocity

being down, the strikeouts being up, they're all there. And yet it could just be a slow start. So you have to give them more time, I think, even though there are warning signs. Bonus, two hitters who have slowed down after a hot start. Anthony Volpe, in 11 games since being moved to the leadoff spot, is betting 205 with one double, zero homers.

Plate discipline is still good. He's hitting lots of ground balls during that time. And Michael Garcia, who actually hit a home run here on Monday, his previous 14. games before this one. He was batting 125 with zero homers. Plate discipline is still fine. Hitting the ball hard, but it's a 156 Babbap, so potentially unlucky there.

Chris, did we maybe jump the gun at all with Volpe or Michael Garcia? I mean, Volpe, one thing you can do on baseball savant is they have a little like rolling 50, 100, or 250s X Woba. And so I put his at 50 plate appearances because he was at, I think he's at 96 now for the season.

So basically split the season right in half. And through his first 50 plate appearances, he was right at like a 395 expected Wobah as high as it's ever been for him. Last 50 plate appearances, 297 expected Woba, just about as low as it's ever been. So yeah, I think there could be a bit of a fool Jew. I don't know if we have that drop. If you were, if you're aware of that drop,

but that's an old Adam Azer. one. He still plays it on the football. I think there's definitely so, yeah, I think so. I think there's definitely some some concern that that would be the case.

And I wasn't quite wholly buying into Anthony Volpey taking this huge step forward anyway. So I'm inclined to think that there was a little bit of fools gold going on early on. I'm still strong on Volpe.

I've moved him up to 11th in my shortstop rankings last week and I'm not inclined to change it. He steals. many bases. His plate discipline is so good. He has a, is he still batting lead off for the Yankees?

Yeah. Did he drop out? Yeah. Nice. You know, obviously he couldn't sustain what he was doing before. I think,

I think it's general, and I'm not saying you're doing this, Chris, but I think it's generally bad process to raise and lower a guy in your rest of season rankings based on the direction

he's streaking at that moment. I never raised him higher than 15th at shortstop. Okay, yeah. So, yeah. That's why I said I didn't. I would still take Volpe over Hassan Kim and Nico Horner and Zander Bocarts and those guys I moved him ahead of.

Yeah, I'd take all those guys ahead of him still. But he, like, Nico Horner might be the cop now. Like where you're hoping he hits 280 and scores a bunch of runs. Except Volpe's actually stealing a lot of days. And Nico Warner stealing none. Let's run through some waiver wire hitters. Dalton Varsho stayed hot, one for three with his sixth home run. And yeah,

He's got 15 runs scored, 13 RBI, two steals, an 881 OPS. He is up to 71% roster. Does that sound right for Dalton Varsha, who's pretty hot right now? It might be high. Yeah. It might be fine to ride him out there as a hot hand play in a head-to-head points league, but I think it's very unlikely that he's going to matter for head-to-head points moving forward. So there are not 71% of CBS Fantasy leagues that are categories.

so he's probably in the long run too highly rostered, but I think it's fine for now. He just is someone that will be pretty easy to drop and head to head point when he cools down. Edward Julian had himself a big game, three for four with his fifth home run, added two runs and two RBI. He remains an enigma for me.

I cannot figure this guy out at all. The expected stats are really bad. That comes with an amazing barrel rate entering Monday was 14.6%. he's 59% rostered. I think that's probably right. Maybe it's a little bit high. I don't know what to do with Edward, Julian.

Yeah, I mean, I think you pretty much summed it up. He's probably better than his data because he's just so unconventional. But he's still not that impactful. His strikeout rate diminishes some of that on-base ability for points leagues. He's probably not going to hit for a high enough batting average with enough stolen bases to be a big deal in roto leagues. He's probably just kind of a okay

to subpar middle and field option. Did you guys see the home run he hit today? I'm going to guess it was to the opposite field. He actually hit it to the pull side. All right. Because this thing was like five inches in and five inches up. It was one of the

weirdest home runs I've seen, which is fitting for one of the weirdest players in baseball, Edward Julian. It was it was wild. It was like around his elbows. I don't know how he got this thing out. Three names that could matter in five outfielder leagues. Max Kepler is back from the IL. He went two for four with a double and three RBI.

Jock Peterson is off to a solid start with the debacks. He went two for three. He's betting three 26. Only has two home runs so far, but hitting the ball hard. And Mark Kana off to a solid start with the Tigers. Three for four with his fourth home run, only batting two 47.

but that comes with a $396 on base percentage. Do any of those names matter in five outfielder leagues? Kana, Jock Peterson, Max Kepler. Sure, they matter in five outfielder leagues. I don't think any of them is a difference maker in five outfielder leagues. And, you know, if you didn't have an obvious need in your starting lineup, I'd just as soon pick up Heston Kierstad. try for the upside there.

But, yeah, a lot of outfielders need to be started in five outfielder leagues. And I would be surprised if someone in your league couldn't use one of these guys, Kepler, Jock Peterson, and Kana. I like Kepler and Kna more than Peterson just for what it's worth. I love a K sound, you know? Yeah, Jock is not going to play against lefties either. He is a strict platoon bat, but, you know, against righte's so far, he has been really good the season again. That's Doc Peterson.

Let's get into the leftovers. Two mid-career lefties who look like breakouts slash rebreatouts. Ranger Suarez continues his great start. He was at the Reds. Seven shutout endings with five strikeouts. 14 swinging strikes on 88 pitches. He is back to getting tons of ground balls

this season. The control has been great. 1.4 walks per nine for his career. That's been 3.1 walks per nine. So I wonder about whether or not he can keep that up. And the other name is Yusei Kikuchi, who just continues to get it done.

It's now three straight quality starts, six innings, two runs, four strikeouts for him, 12 swinging strikes on 81 pitches. Worth mentioning he gave up a lot of hard contact in this start, but he was doing a much better job of that in his first three or four outings.

Anything to add on Ranger Suarez, and you say Kikuchi? Well, the last time we saw Ranger Suarez's control anywhere near this good. And to be honest, it wasn't exactly near this good. It's just the best we had seen of him control-wise prior to this year

was 2021 when he had a 136 ERA. A lot of that coming in relief, granted, but that was the year where over the final two months he entered the rotation out of 151 ERA. So he was doing very similar things to what he's doing now. It's always been a great ground ball pitcher.

I think I think there's got to be some regression coming with that, obviously with the ERA, but with the control as well. But I'm not so inclined to say it's totally phony and Ranger Suarez is somebody you're going to be dropping at some point. There's an element of cell high there for sure,

but you'd have to get a pretty good player in return. And I just have a hard time seeing anybody really buying Ranger Suarez for like, like, Would you give up Ranger Suarez for Carlos Rodon? No. No. Like, I think I'd rather have Rodon, but I'm not sure I'd actively be seeking that trade out. No, I'd trade Rodon for Suarez.

Like I said earlier, I trade Rodan for anyone who wouldn't be an obvious drop for me. And Swarres certainly wouldn't. Some other pitching leftovers, Dylan Seas was masterful in Corsfield. Seven innings, one hit, one run, zero walks to eight strikeouts. Terrick Scoobled, dominant at the raise, six shutout innings with nine strikeouts to zero walks. Brandon Fott was solid at the Cardinals, five and a third innings, two runs, four strikeouts.

And Reed Detmer's, he's looked a little more human in the past two starts. I realize I might be holding him to a much higher standard now than we did entering the season just because he got off to a great start. But it was seven innings, four runs, three walks to four strikeouts for Reed Detmer's. Chris, anything to add. on him fought scuba and cease there have been some signs that dylan cease was adding a cutter and it wasn't clear if like the uh the pitch tracking was wonky or if it was just an especially

hard slider but it does seem as if he was throwing a cutter today baseball savant has him throwing seven of them at 91.3 miles per hour his hardest slider was 89.4. So it seems like a distinct pitch. That is a potentially interesting addition for him as long as, you know, it doesn't mess up the slider. It didn't today. 10 whiffs on 34 pitches, very, very good results from it.

So that's something to keep an eye on with Dylan Seas. I know I'll just shout out Nick Pollock for the second podcast in a row. I know that's something he's been like screaming for Dylan Seas to add to his arsenal for a long time. now. So interesting to see that. And it's definitely something to keep an eye on. But yeah, don't see the right-handed Blake Snell. We're getting the good stretch right now. Yes, that we certainly are. Some hitting leftovers. Michael Harris was off and running here, two for four with two steals. And he's off to an okay start. 307 batting average, three homers, four steals, and eight 10 OPS. Pete Alonso, two for four with his seventh homer,

Starling Marte, off to a great start. He went to, for four with his sixth stolen base. He's betting 286. Also has four home runs. Michael Conforto in a revenge game against the Mets, two for four. With his fifth home run, he's got 16 RBI early on. And Colton Kouser, one for four with his sixth homer. This one came off of Reed Detmer's. It's a small sample size, but Kouser is now four for 14 with two home runs against left-handed pitching the season. Anything to add on those names? I don't think Michael Fordo is any different from the guy we've seen the past couple years. And I was saying that at the start where he hit those three quick homers early in the year.

And he had kind of cooled off since then. I don't know if this is another opportunity to sell on Michael Conforto. Because I imagine he still ranks pretty high among outfielders' year-to-date stats. But I don't see him sustaining this pace. I think he's the same guy. Bullpen updates for the Oakland A's Mason Miller. is so fun to watch. It's just every time I bring out.

I'm cackling like a madman every time I watch him. I'm having so much fun. Every time he pitches, it's just how can you not be blown away? How could the hitters not be blown away? That all that he threw to Aaron Judge was like the ugliest swing of Aaron Judge's career. It was so good.

Mason Miller got the ninth with a two-run lead. He struck out the side facing the top of the Yankees lineup, Volpe, Soto, and Judge. Seven whiffs on like, I think six whiffs on seven swings. against his fastball. It's just absurd. Nasty stuff. For the pirates,

David Bednar got the ninth with a two-run lead. He gave up a hit, but picked up his third save that's back-to-back scoreless outings for him. Baby steps. Hopefully we're getting Bednar back on track. For the Braves,

Reisel Iglesias struck out one for his seventh save. For the Blue Jays, Jordan Romano got the ninth with a three-run lead. He allowed a solo homer but converted his third save. For the Padres, Robert Suarez allowed two hits,

but picked up his eighth save and his, tied for the league lead. And then for the Orioles, Craig Kimberle entered the ninth with a two-run lead. He gave up a hit and a walk, but he locked down his sixth save of the season. To stream or not to stream on Tuesday.

And... It's like, I'm kind of interested in Andrew Ep, nope, versus Philadelphia. Well, Paul Blackburn's been good, no, he's at Yankees. Well, Trevor Rogers has been kind of into, no, out of Atlanta. Like, don't like these options, guys. Not a fan.

I've got the one. You ready? Uh-oh. Dane Dunning against the Mariners. I think so. I think it's Dunning and or Fetty at the Twil. Eric Fetty at the Twins could go okay, though I'm certainly not in on Fetty anymore as a general principle. Like Scott talked about earlier in the pod, you should care more about the quality of the pitcher than the quality of the opponent.

But if you don't, there's Eric Fetty against the twins. That's exactly right. How about on Wednesday, I could see Sean Mania at the Giants being okay? Turnbull at the Reds. It's a tough spot, but like that's not a great lineup right now. They haven't been playing. Like, Elie Dale Cruz is carrying that team in it to a large extent. So I could see that one being okay.

Clark Schmidt against the athletics. John Gray against the Mariners could work. Honestly, man. I mean, what's going on with the Astros? I don't think James and Tyloon versus the Astros is a good start, but they've been dreadful. I think John Gray against the Mariners is the best one. Though we didn't talk about it,

he made a relief appearance over the weekend, which was kind of weird. And I wondered if that would push back the start, but apparently not. He's been great his last couple starts. He was great in that relief appearance. The sliders looked really good lately, and the Mariners are a good matchup.

So I think that's a solid play. All right, let's wrap up for the first. first time this year. Team name Tuesday. If you have some fun team names you want to send in, you can do that at Fantasy Baseball at cbsi.com. That's the letter I. That's the email address you could send it to. This one's from Jake. Budo, Budo, Budo, Budo, Rooker Everywhere.

From Simon Chorrios with a gallon of milk. Ah, that's actually a decent use of two names in one team name. I usually don't like that, but it works. Bet's not Bogart's My Burger King Sure, I assume that's a reference to something I might not be saying it right It's

This is where you cram in too many names And nobody knows what the heck you're talking about From Colin, smelly de la shoes This one's from Craig Rodon Astier Yeah Yeah Sure

From Dave Seat like you, Flyn means it. Yeah. Yeah. From that, too many names.

Reagan's against the machine. So I think it works better as Reagan's the machine. That doesn't really work that well, though. What if you do Ray against the machine? Yeah, I think. They like that. Ray against the machine,

I think is probably the better way to do it. Just add a T to his name. Yeah. And this one's from Aaron Kouser's Castle. See, you got to spoonerize this one. Cousers Basel, if you're going to do this, is the better way to go, I think.

Did you guys see that sign in the Orioles game over the weekend? The cow? It was a cow with Bowser's face on it. It's so good. Is it, is it, is it, is it Bowers Castle or does it Bowers Keep? I thought it was Bowser's Keep. What's the difference between a Keep and a castle? I would not question any kind of old video game reference when it comes to you, Scott.

So, I think in Mario RPG, is Bowser's Keep. Also known as Castle Cupa is the capital of Cooper's kingdom, Bowser's Capital, and is a recurring location in the Mario franchise first appears in Super Mario Bros.

So... All right. I see the point. That's based on Mario.com. So who knows how reliable that sources. Keep is the strongest

or central tower. of a castle. So did he only lose the keep of the castle to Smithy in Super Mario RPG? It is called Bowser's Keep in Super Mario RPG. We got to the bottom of it. There you go. That's my Mario

reference. That game. 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 will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.