Fantasy Baseball Today - Paul Sewald, Bryan Woo to the IL! Bullpen Breakdown & IL Stash Rankings (3/26 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 26, 2024

Paul Sewald has an oblique strain and will start the season on the IL (2:35). Is Kevin Ginkel the next man up? ... Bryan Woo is headed to the IL with right elbow inflammation (9:13). Who are some replacements? ... Garrett Mitchell has a fracture in his hand and will miss 4-8 weeks (16:20). ... News (22:00): Kevin Gausman made a successful return. ... Seiya Suzuki, Trevor Story and Jordan Hicks are all having big springs (26:21). ... Let's try and predict the closer and holds leader of each American League bullpen (35:57). ... Now we slide over to the National League bullpens (45:23)! ... We wrap up with IL stash rankings (1:00:18). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  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. Ah, 2020, the year of the closer, the good old days. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, March 26th. I am Frank Stample, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers.

Today on the show, everybody is hurt again. We're about due for another bullpen breakdown. We haven't predicted each bullpen since our relief pitcher preview back in late February. So a lot has changed since then. Many have asked for IL stash rankings. We'll get those to you a little bit later on. Well, has a lot changed. Three guys got four guys got hurt.

A lot went wrong. Yeah. Yeah. But that's changed. I would say a lot has happened since February. The White Sox situation changed. Probably since February. I'm not sure much else has changed, but we'll get into it.

It'll be fun. All right. Well, let's talk about this latest round of injuries, and it does involve one of the top closers in the game. Paul Seawald has been diagnosed with a grade 2 left oblique strain, and will start the season on the IL. Manager Tori Lavullo did not provide a timeline, but I read on MLB trade rumors that Royce Lewis missed six weeks last year

with the same injury. Obviously, hitters and pitchers are different. Chris will start with you. How far did you lower Paul Seewald in the rankings? Is he behind some of the other injured closers? Yohan, Duran, and Jordan Romano. I did move him behind Yohan Duran.

Not Romano. Obviously, he's going to open the IL or the season on the IL, but it sounds like he's much closer than either Duran or Paul Seawald. And I did some research. According to baseball prospectus's injury dashboard, I think it's the recovery dashboard tool, great tool. Pitchers last year who had oblique injuries on average missed 47 games. 47 days before they return to action, I think the median was like 53 days. And now that's accounting for all oblique injuries.

Yeah. Because I don't think all of them get a grade. So it's kind of, but grade two. is right in the middle, right? So it's not great. It's, yeah, I think six weeks is probably the, the minimum that you expect with the grade two. And Duran, Duran was a moderate oblique strain. I'm reading that as a grade two.

They didn't give the number for it, but I'm assuming that's what it was given that verbiage. So Duran's happened about a week ago. So I would assume C-Wald comes back about a week later is how I'm treating it. And he's not as good as Duran. So yeah. He was the higher rank to begin with. Yes.

So I think that's right, pulling him down about to Duran's range a little further. And that is like, I think it was RP like 18-ish, 20-ish for me and like 170 in the rankings. It's a bummer because, you know, we've talked a lot about my Tout Wars team. People were very high on it. And it was the first time I can remember I was arguing with people that. my team wasn't actually that good. And it's only gotten worse since then between the Nova LV Marte suspension, the Garrett-Col injury.

And now one of the objections I had to my Tout Wars team was I drafted only one closer. That closer was Paul Seawald. So I've never felt worse. I've never gone into a season in a league feeling more hopeless than I do in Tout Wars right now, thanks to the Seawald injury. However, I do think, unlike in Yohan Duran's case, there is a clear replacement in case. Kevin Ginkle, who was arguably even better than Seawald last year.

It's been kind of hit or miss over the course of his career. But I think he's clearly the next, at worst, the next best reliever in the Diamondbacks bullpen. And some on the Diamondbacks beat have been hinting it'll be him. So I think if you are in a league where saves are scarce, you don't have to, you don't have to hedge your bet when you're placing your fab bids, which is always nice. Yeah, and I had somebody asked me, like, would you drop Brandon Lowe for him? For Kevin Ginklin, I mean, I don't know how badly I need five to seven saves, which is probably what you're going to get over the course of a month from a closer on a good team. It could be five to ten if you want that.

It could be. But that's a really high number. And that's assuming there's no setback for Seawald. Yeah, sure. But I was just to say I wouldn't drop a player like Brandon Lauer. but I really like Brandon Lowe. So I would hope you have a worse player. Yeah, no, for sure.

And it kind of depends how desperately you need saves because you might be in a situation like I am where Seawald was your only sure bet for that. I mean, look, I spent $155 on Michael Copac yesterday in TGFBI. So who am I to poo-poo the potential for five to seven saves? Well, given that number, Chris, I guess let's quickly just address Fab. If people have waivers coming up before opening day on Wednesday or FAB this upcoming weekend,

how much would you guys throw on Kevin Ginkl? I mean, Sky, you don't want to give everything away. But I mean, you are a Paul Seawald manager. So, I mean, how aggressive are you going to be? I would like someone to tell me how much I need to do it on Kevin Ginkle because I have no idea what I want to do yet. There's also. Vlad Sedler. He's the he's the, the fab guy.

he is roto gun if somebody's cracked this code I'd be happy to hear about it because you know I just I don't know I'm I wanted to be more cautious with my fab dollars but I don't know that I can afford to in this situation where I desperately need saves

so it'll be over 50 it'll be over out of a thousand dollar budget so it'll be over 5% of my budget I would say I'm not sure how much more yet I doubt it would be as much as 10% of my budget. So that's what I was thinking.

At least five, and if you really need him, I think you push it to 10. Yeah, maybe I'm just being a little reactive. I think he's going to go for more than 10%. But I don't know. Maybe that's just me thinking about like deeper leagues too.

But anybody could bid anything. That's what makes it difficult to figure out. All it takes is one person to blow out their budget for him. And then you've bid too low. Yeah. Which, you know, maybe you can't, win everybody. So maybe you should just let somebody blow out their budget like that. I don't know.

Okay. Anything else on this situation? I think we all agree. Kevin Ginkle over any of the twins, Brewers, or Blue Jays replacements, right? I really wish the brewers would give us some kind of hint, because that's the situation. That's a three month runway for what we think are three really good pitchers. And so if one of them, if they told us Pye-Amp, Uribe, or McGill was going to be the closer, I'd absolutely rank that guy ahead. But with Ginkl having this certainty, I do think I'd go with him over them. Certainty is a little strong,

but it does, like who else would it be in the Diamondbacks? Yeah, we did this last year, and a lot of those guys are still there, and none of them were particularly enticing. Kevin Gingle had a very good season overall. So, yeah, it kind of came on later. Yeah.

Let's move on to another injury. Brian, Wu will be placed on the IL due to right elbow inflammation. He felt discomfort while warming up for his last side session and he ultimately couldn't get loose. Woo underwent an MRI which came back clean. So that's the good news for Brian Wu. Obviously the bad will start on the IL. Emerson Hancock will take Wu's place in the rotation. He's 24 years old, former sixth overall pick back in 2020. Has not put up dominant numbers in the minors really since 2021. Hancock made three starts with the Mariners last year,

but he's more of a pitch-to-contact kind of guy. Maybe in really deep leagues, AL-only, if you lost out on Brian Wu, but anything shallower than that, I don't think that Emerson Hancock really factors in here. Who are you guys looking to replace Brian Wu with? Because that's been the question that I've been receiving. Five names that are between 50 and 70% rostered on CBS. D.L. Hall, AJ Puck, both are only RP eligible to start the year on CBS.

Then there's Gavin Stone, Jack Flaher. Cutter Crawford. I thought all five of those are kind of interesting. How would you write those as Brian Wu replacements? Well, yeah, I mean, the good thing is that the waiver wire is replete with starting pitcher replacements. That is what it has the most of right now. Because they haven't started pitching and we haven't seen them be bad yet.

Right. No, for sure. But like, you know, a lot of guys have gained, have become attractive over the course of spring training and especially late in spring training. and I would put Stone and Flaherty in that category. Puck was kind of gaining value all along. So that would be at my top three,

I think Puck Stone. I should probably give first names. AJ Puck, Gavin Stone, Jack Flaherty. And what were the other two you mentioned? Are we,

what kind of like bar are we setting here? Because like Christopher Sanchez is 69% rostered. Yes. You say Cacuchy's 67. Christopher Sanchez has had a pretty bad spring. Yeah.

And I do wonder what the, addition of a cutter and the added velocity, whether that's going to cost him that increased control last year. But I'd still look to add him. You say Kikuchi, 67%, Jack Flaherty, 50%. So, you know, if we're keeping it above that range, those options are all pretty good. I wrote about all this.

And Puck would be very close for me at the top of that list. And I don't know. I might lead Puck over Sanchez at this point. I'd also get Jared Jones made the rotation he's 27% rostered Casey Mize 41 I think Reese Olson is around 50% I assume Frank was going to give us different denominations for roster rate I'm sorry I'm sorry that's exactly right we're getting there four names under 50% rostered Jared Jones 27% he's confirmed for the Pirates rotation Casey Mize 43% Tyler Wells 33 and Michael Soroka 24% Chris how would you rank that group Jones Mize Wells, Siroca. Jones, Mize, Wells, Seroca. I would go Mize Jones, Wells, Seroca. I know Seroca had a good spring.

Great story. I still don't trust it, really. So there are actually some lower end guys, even that I prioritize above him. Can I say more names? Am I allowed? Yes, yes. Max Myers, 22%.

Ryan Weather's 12%. Luis Heel is 12%. I would prioritize all of those guys over Michael Sorok. Also Trevor Rogers, 22%, I think, belongs in that group. Yeah, for sure. Well, there was one other name I wanted to mention. Zach Lattel, 34%.

Kind of digging Zach Lattel's vibes these days. Okay. Scott, anything you'd like to add to that group? Tyler Wells is my favorite of this group rostered under 50%. I think he is much closer to Bailey Ober than people are giving him. I think those are very similar profiles fly ball pitcher with great control and you know Wells the fly ball tendencies play extra well at Camden Yards you know he's the

Orioles ace in the first half last year and he didn't get much of a chance in the second half but he's looked good this spring and he has the job now so I'm I am big into Tyler Wells oh cutter Crawford is the one who we didn't rank from that previous group man I forgot to rank him so we go back and rank him Cutter Crawford in it? Sure. Is this getting too confusing for the listener jumping between groups like this?

Probably. All right. Well, I would still prefer Christopher Sanchez and AJ Puck over Cutter Crawford, but I think I'd prefer Crawford to Gavin Stone and Jack Flaherty. I don't know, it's getting pretty close with that.

Like, I want them all. That previous group, they all should be rostered, and I'm trying to figure out a way to get them all on my roster if I see any of them out there. All right, let's quickly promote a few things. the FBT newsletter.

Make sure to sign up, CBSports.com slash newsletters. If you're watching on YouTube, you can scan the QR code. You could find the link in the podcast and the YouTube descriptions. It's free, so why not? And we've mentioned this a few times,

but we're making the jump over to television. Don't worry, our regular YouTube and audio programming won't be going anywhere. This Wednesday, March 27th, at 2 p.m. Eastern. You'll be able to watch fantasy baseball today on the CBS Sports Network. the same show as you know it just on TV.

Help support the show by tuning in live. You can also watch live on the CBS Sports app through your cable provider. Let's take our first break. When we return, a few other injuries to address right after this. Welcome back in. Let's hit the rest of the injuries from Monday. Garrett Mitchell has a fracture in his left hand

and will also start the season on the IL. He's expected to miss anywhere from four to eight weeks, and it sounds like Sal Freel could move back to the outfield full-time, which means somebody like Joey Ortiz could start at third base. Manager Pat Murphy also mentioned Eric Haas, the former catcher slash outfielder of the Tigers. He's on the Brewers roster. He could, I guess, play somewhere in a corner outfield spot if they need him. And Joey Weamer, another name that could step in for the Brewers.

Any other takeaways here on the Garrett Mitchell injury? Yeah, I mean, I think the most disappointing thing would be if Sal Freelick doesn't pick up third base eligibility early. on, though I will note that I actually saw the interview with Pat Murphy, and the reporters really led that interview in terms of, what about this guy? And Pat Murphy was like, yeah, maybe. That's basically how the conversation went. So it didn't seem like Pat Murphy knew much at the time about what the Brewers planned to do in response to this Garrett Mitchell injury, so I wouldn't go throwing out the baby with the

bathwater here. I would like to see Joey Ortiz get more playing time but I think that was in the cards anyway because I'm just I just don't think Bryce Terang is very good so yeah hopefully more at Bats for Joey Ortiz

South Relic I was already counting on a playing every day I wouldn't mind seeing more of Joey Weamer I think there's more upside there than for Bryce Terang but we'll see disappointing for anyone who is counting on Garrett Mitchell as a late round steel source It looks like both Jordan Romano and Eric Swanson will begin the season on the 15 day IL.

And it appears Yemi Garcia is the next man up for saves in Toronto. He's 8% rostered. Does Garcia rank behind all of the D-backs, Brewers, and twins? Yeah, I think so. It sounds like it's by far the shortest timetable of any of these guys. Although you never know. I mean, it's an elbow. And we're talking like, we've had Garrick Cole and Yuri Perez and Brian Wu and Jordan Romano.

And it's all like, well, there's no structural damage. And it's just inflammation. It's like, yeah, it's still an elbow injury. Things still go wrong. So it's possible that Jordan Romano as he's working his way back, suffers some kind of setback. And this ends up being a long term thing. He did have a forearm slash elbow injury two years ago. Anybody else have any memory of that?

There was something with Jordan Romano. There was something. But I mean, just to, like, yes, there could always be a setback, but it seemed like it was a close call whether Jordan Romano went on the IL at all with this. So I wouldn't put a high priority on picking up Yemi Garcia. Right forearm injury for Romano back in 2021. So three years ago now, it's...

Nailed it. Yeah. He also went on the IL with Ulner, Neraitis, and his right elbows. So there have been some things there with Jordan Romano. DJ Lamehue will start the season on the aisle due to inflammation and a bone bruise in his right foot. It appears Oswaldo Cabrera will fill in at third base in the meantime. Brian Reynolds is dealing with mid-back discomfort but is expected to be in the lineup on opening day.

Dylan Carlson left Monday's game due to a left shoulder injury. He collided with Jordan Walker in the outfield and landed hard on his left arm. If Carlson has to miss time, it sounds like. Mike Siani would start in center field. Maybe the Cardinals call Victor Scott back up. I don't know. I kind of feel like they want him to get some seasoning at AAA, so they're not going to force it.

Yeah, but if it's serious, I mean, they're down to their fourth string out or center fielder at this point. If Dylan Carlson has to miss time, and it might just be like if Victor Scott gets off to a hot start, yeah, he could just get called up. He's, so I updated my 12 prospects to stash at the start of the year, and I think I'd put Victor Scott 9th on that list. So it's, it's, you know, he's, he's high on the list, is my point.

He's not somebody we're going to forget about in fantasy. I do think Lars Neupar is probably going to be back. You guys are smiling. Is my internet going out again? No, I noticed I was out of focus on my camera, and so I had to do the, put your hand up to it. There's no graceful way to do that for this. Okay.

I was reading Chris's palm mid-bite. I can't, I can't like turn. Well, because like I can't turn my camera off and do it. I can't see if it's working. To like middle school mentality. They're all laughing. They're laughing. It must be at me, right?

No. Lars Newbar should be back soon enough. So I think that's part of the Cardinals thinking where they don't want to. He swung a bat for the first time today. Populid on Victor Scott. Yesmani Gondal is set to begin the season on the aisle due to plants our fasciitis and Henry Davis is expected to start a catcher with Jason Delay as the backup. And the White Sox placed Max Stasi on the aisle with left hip inflammation.

Martine Maldonado is expected to start with Corey Lee as his backup and that should not matter to anybody in fantasy baseball. Yeah. Some other non-injury related news items. Well, I guess it's kind of injury-related. The AL-only catchers, you know. I guess that's the only. Chris is thinking about his AL, AL Labor.

He's like, oh, maybe I got to pick up Martin Maldonado. Who knows? Kevin Gosman looked great in the spring debut on Monday. Three innings, one run, seven strikeouts. He had eight swinging strikes on 52 pitches. Velocity looked fine. And assuming his shoulder bounces back fine after the start over the next couple of days, Gosman will likely be installed when the team needs a fifth starter,

and that is on April 1st in Houston. So for anyone who got it, Kevin Gossman as at a discount over the past couple of weeks, this might work out splendidly for you. Yeah. Yeah, he looked really good. Shohei Otani addressed the media and here were some of the quotes. Quote, I'm very saddened and shocked that someone who I trusted has done this.

I never bet on baseball or any other sports. I have never asked someone to do that on my behalf. I never went through a bookmaker. Up until a couple of days ago, I didn't know this was happening. Ipe has been stealing money from my account. and has told lies. So that is the latest in the Shohi Otani saga situation, whatever you want to call it.

We'll see where it goes from here. It sounds like he's fully willing to comply with anyone who wants to investigate. So I don't know. Innocent until proven guilty, I suppose. Matt McLean has apparently was apparently... I do want to stress because I'm not sure we've made this point with Otani. There has never been...

suspicion or insinuation that any betting done by anybody was on baseball. Mm-hmm. So. And that's the key. Yes. There are many keys and that we could get more into it, but betting is illegal in California, so there could be. Yes. But like, from our perspective, there has been no allegation against Shohei Otani.

and there has been no allegation that any betting was happening on baseball games. And those would seem to be the two most relevant factors with regards to his ability to continue playing. So I said it last night. I can't tell you whether you should draft him. That comes down to how risk averse you are. I didn't move him down. All right.

Matt McLean was apparently evaluated on Monday, but there have still been no updates on his left shoulder. I mean, unless you guys have seen something as of, you know, we're recording this 1145 on Monday night, there still is no update on Matt McLean. We know he's going to start on the IL. That's all we know. Blake Snell could throw up to five innings in his next appearance,

which is scheduled for Friday. The Giants should have a better idea of when he'll make his regular season debut after that outing. Paul Skeins will begin the season with AAA. We knew he'd be in the minors, but we weren't sure where he would be assigned. So now we know it's AAA. Justin Verlander will throw a two-inning 30 to 35 pitch live batting practice session on Tuesday,

and if he gets through that without any issues, he will likely then be clear to begin a rehab assignment, and it sounds like mid to late April is realistic, barring any setbacks for Justin Verlander. Ian Hap was back in the lineup on Monday. He's been banged up with a left hamstring strain. You guys mentioned this with Lars Neupar, but he took some soft-toss swings Sunday and Monday. manager Oliver Marmull said

Newbar looked really good and his body is responding well. Newtbar will start the season on the IL with two non-displaced fractures in his left ribcage. Reds manager David Bell said that T.J. Friedel could be cleared for game action in about six weeks, which brings us to mid-May.

We assume Jake Frailey and Will Benson will both get lots of playing time early on in the season. If there were any doubts, Brandon Woodruff confirmed that he won't pitch at all in 2024 following shoulder surgery back in November. He expects to return to full strength in 2025. And Matt Waldron was named as the Padre's fifth starter.

I think we all kind of assumed it was going to be Johnny Brito, but that will not be the case. Matt Waldron is a knuckleball pitcher. Yeah, this is more fun. It's pretty fun. We have a knuckleballer in a rotation. That's right. I have no idea if he'll be any good,

but he throws a knuckleball. And he is virtually unrastered in every single league because in my NL Labor League, he was not added off waivers yesterday. My guess is he will next week. But yeah, he's a free agent in an NL-only league. So that tells you what you need to know right there. Some quick spring training standouts from Monday.

Say is Suzuki. We haven't talked about how good he's looked at spring, but my goodness, he went two-for-two with a double dong. He is batting 459 with six homers, two steals, and a 1593 OPS. It's pretty good. I feel like you haven't wanted to say anything. I know.

As long as Scott doesn't draft him, as long as Scott doesn't draft him, I think we'll be all right. I have, even though he was one of my breakout picks this year, I have, I do not have any of Sayas Suzuki, probably because you were taking him before I could. I did finally get him in my home league. All right. Good for you. Had to go to 15, a little more than I probably would have preferred. But you know what? You can't take it with you.

you go. That's exactly right. Trevor Story, another one, two for four with his third home run. He's batting 375 also has three steals. And I did an auction over the weekend. Trevor's story, I wanted him as my middle infielder, and he got all the way up to $10 in a 15 team auction. I was like, wow, I think people notice what's going on in the spring and potentially some helium now on Trevor's story. You know, we've talked a lot about Bailey Ober being a hype guy this spring. The velocity has been up. He's throwing new pitches. I still like him. The strikeout. are there. He gave up four more earned runs on Monday

and he has a 565 ERA this spring. We just haven't mentioned that. So I feel like for transparency sake we should mention his ERA is high. Yeah. Well, a couple things here. One is his velocity was way up

I think the first time stat cast was monitoring him. Not up as much the next couple times. and I know one Twinsbeat writer pointed out his velocity was up last spring too and then it kind of leveled off and so he may be following the same pattern

two he was still really good with his velocity what it was last year Bailey Oprah was so I'm not sure fluctuations in velocity are worth even discussing as long as it doesn't drop below where he was last year right three is spring training

and spring training doesn't really matter like that that's kind of why like, okay, say a Suzuki's having a good spring. I thought he was good anyway. I don't know that it means anything to me. Trevor's story, I see a little more value in that because he was clearly, his timing was all messed up when he came back from his elbow injury.

And so the fact that he seems to have it down again, I think is encouraging. But does he need to be elevated to $10 in a 15-team Roto League? I don't know about that. I feel like we're kind of risking breaking our own rule here. Like the general, the general guideline of spring training performance doesn't matter

still applies. It's not universally true. Like there are specific cases where it does matter to some degree. But I'm not sure, say, a Suzuki and Bailey Ober really fit that description. Well, does it matter for any of these three names

because they had some strong outings on Monday. Sean Maniah, five innings to run seven strikeouts, 15 swinging strikes on 82 pitches. Garrett Will, six innings, one unearned run with six strikeouts. And Jordan Hicks, I don't know if anything else has happened in that start, but last I saw it was five no-hit innings with 10 strikeouts, 20 swinging strikes on 72 pitches.

Do any of those things matter? Mania, Whitlock, Jordan Hicks. So Hicks did finish five hitless innings, 10 strikeouts, one walk, 20 swinging strikes on 72 pitches, all those things that you said. The interesting thing there is his Veloc. is way down. 94.7, 95.4 miles per hour. You got to throw pretty hard for 95.4.4 to be way down.

But that is 4.7 miles per hour down from where he was last season. And now he is being stretched out as a starter. And so some of that is to be expected. When he was a starter in 2021, Jordan Hicks still average 98 with his fastball and was pretty bad. I think it was 20 walks and 28 innings. This spring control has not been. And as big of an issue, now this most recent start is doing a lot of work in that regard,

because I think it was seven walks in 12 innings before this. Now it's eight in 18 innings. That sounds a lot better. But it's certainly interesting. I mean, all those whiffs with the sweeper, we know he has stuff to spare. It's... Yeah, if taking something a little while... You've got to be interested.

Velocity-wise for Jordan Hicks helps him to command better. it would be basically the same trick Christopher Sanchez pulled last year Christopher Sanchez was a no name in the Phillies organization and he started throwing softer and he broke out and you don't usually see it go that way but it may be that Jordan Hicks has been much hyped ever since he broke into the league because of how hard he throws but the results have never been that impressive

mostly in relief granted but even then he was just kind of a fine reliever He wasn't like a world beating unstoppable force in the ninth inning. So maybe taking something a little off to improve his command. The fact he's still getting as many whiffs as he is, 20 swinging strikes on 72 pitches. I mean, that's an incredible rate. I don't care what your velocity is if you're doing that.

And that's including seven on his sinker. Nine on the sweeper, seven with his sinker. That's a huge number for a fastball. let alone a sinker. So I'll also point out Garrett Whitlock is doing some interesting things. I don't necessarily know how much they matter, but he used a cutter as his primary pitch today. Only through it 34% of the time.

So he mixed it up a lot. But that's a brand new pitch for him as far as I can tell. And, you know, you got four whiffs with it on 23 pitches. The change has always been the best pitch there. But the sweeper was added last year and showed some promise. So I think Garrett Whitlock remains an interesting late round sleeper and someone who, if he doesn't go get added in your league or doesn't get drafted, certainly you want to watch the first start and see what it looks like.

So yet more pitchers that you can look into. I want to put Jordan Hicks on the level of like a.J. puck as far as spark sleepers go, but I would put him maybe a little ahead of like Rinalda Lopez on that. I would absolutely rather have him than Rinaldo Lopez. Lopez, it's mostly just the team context. I think Lopez is going to be relevant as long as he's a starter, but I don't think he's going to emerge as,

I don't think he's going to be like a breakout. Like maybe Jordan Hicks could be. He might be, Ranada Lopez might be like the 53rd best pitcher in fantasy like all year long. Yeah. All three of those names I mentioned are Sparps. So I guess just quickly rank him, Mania, Whitlock, and Jordan Hicks.

I think I'd go Whitlock, Hicks, Mania. I'll go Hicks, Whitlock, Manaya, but I will say for Manaya, 15 swinging strikes on 82 pitches, very impressive rate also. He is going with a sweeper this year that was responsible for six of those whiffs, and it was basically just fastball sweeper in this start,

and sweeper was not something he threw much at all last year. So there's an arsenal change here for Mania that could lead to different outcomes than we've seen from him in the past. not that eager to pick them up, but worth monitoring. All right, let's take our final break. And when we return, predicting each team's bullpen. We'll do that right after this.

Welcome back in. Let's try and predict each team's bullpen. And when I say that, I mean, we'll try and predict the first save on each team, who we think is going to start as the closer. And it will also give out some hold options throughout the league, just because I know a lot of people play in saves plus hold leagues nowadays. Let's start in the American League. With the Orioles, I think this is pretty straightforward, right?

Craig Kimbril, the first save opportunity. And Yaneer Canoe actually could be a pretty good option for holds as well. They'll have a few holds guys there, but he would be next in line for saves, for sure, would Canoe. All right, for the Red Sox, Kenley Janssen and Chris Martin for holds. The problem, I don't know. Is Martin healthy? I don't know how many games the Red Sox are going to win. I know he was dealing with something.

I'll look it up real quick. Yeah, both Martin and Kenley Jansen have been injured this spring, but it looks like both are expected to be hopefully ready for opening day. Jansen pitched in games. I don't think Chris Martin did. Chris Martin, shaky in first spring appearance. Okay, he did. So I think he returned over the weekend.

He's been dealing with a groin injury. There's nobody else you really want from the Red Sox bullpen is the bottom line. Maybe Josh Winkowski will get some holds. I actually kind of went through this whole process. It's an article still on CBS Sports breaking down the bullpen for all 30 teams. And I give like the top four options for saves for all you holds leagues out there. And I think the only thing that's really changed since I wrote that is the Paul Seawald entry. So it's still, it's still, you know, pretty much up to date.

And listen to the podcast, of course. But if you need a visual aid as well, that's available for you. The White Sox, it sure sounds like Chris thinks Michael Kopeck is going to be the closer there. or dropping the bag on Kopeck this weekend. There's also John Brebria, Jordan Leisure has looked good this spring. My prediction would be Michael Kopec as well, at least for the first save. Yeah, so it's, I did see a quote from Pedro Grifold, their manager, about this today. It was not a very helpful quote.

It was basically saying he wouldn't want to have a set closer, but maybe somebody could step up and take the job. I have noticed people who like White Sox fans and you could argue even some White Sox media seem to be really behind Jordan Leisure as the closer. And that may just because they've gotten, they've soured on Michael Coppec given his failures as a starter. So they're not willing to give him the time of day like they are leisure.

I think if everything plays out like the White Sox hope it'll be Michael Coppec, but maybe not for the first save, if that's what we're doing here. Yeah, he did hit triple digits in a bullpen appearance last week. I think he hit like 101. And remember, 2021, 103 strikeouts, that's a massive number in 69 in a third inning. So I do think Michael Kopeg is someone who could really play up in the bullpen.

He has to rediscover his slider that'd been an issue for him over the past couple of seasons. But I think he has clearly the most upside. And I'm assuming they moved him there with. intention, even if it's not, you are the closer right now. Jordan Leisure, by the way, he was traded to the White Sox last season from the Dodgers. And at AA, he made 29 appearances. He had a 14.4K per 9 with a 15.6% swinging strike rate. So there's definitely some strikeout upside with Jordan Leisure.

Obviously, the White Sox are not going to be very good. Yeah, it's probably one of those two. Copick or leisure, but I lean with Copac. Yeah, I'm like 65% Copac, 35% leisure, no interest in anyone else. All right, for the Guardians, it's a manual Class A. And my guess is Scott Barlow for holds, but I'm not sure the ratios will be that good with him. Yeah, I haven't given up on James Karen, Jack. So, yeah, it's not the greatest bullpen for holds, at least not predictable holds sources.

For the Tigers, my assumption is that Alex Lang will be, we'll get the first save opportunity, probably the first couple. I really do not have much faith in him. I have not drafted Alex Lang anywhere. And in much deeper leagues, I actually have been drafting Shelby Miller because when they signed him this offseason, their GM specifically came out and mentioned that Shelby Miller can be a factor in the back end of the bullpen. And so I think that's a possibility. It was really good last year. Jason Foley is more of a groundball specialist, but he's an option. Tyler Holton, left-hander who had great numbers.

I think they wanted to be Lang, but I agree Shelby Miller would probably be the first place they'd go if it doesn't work out with Alex Lang. For the Astros, this is probably the best bullpen in baseball, maybe in the American League. I know the Braves have a great bullpen as well. But Josh Hader very clearly the closer, and I mean, two of the best holds options in the game, Ryan Presley and Brian Abrayu. Yep, no, no controversies here.

All right, for the Royals. My guess is Will Smith, though, James MacArthur. Last I saw, I think he was having a really good spring, and, you know, he was picking up some saves later in the season last year as well. I think it'll be Will Smith if, wait, it'll be Will Smith until somebody surpasses him, which may not happen, because there just may be nobody good in the Royals bullpen. But I think Will Smith will hold down the fort in the meantime. Absolutely. All right, for the Angels, it's Carlos Estevez for now. I think it's maybe a similar situation of Will Smith.

Just hold on to it for the time being. They've, you know, even after signing Robert Stevenson, they've kind of backed Carlos Estevez. And Stevenson's going to start the year on the IL. I am not looking at anyone for holds in the Angels bullpen. It would have been Jose Soriano, but then they stretched him out as a starter. So, like, he pitched so well as a starter this spring that he got demoted to the miners after being one of their holds leaders last year.

Matt Moore could still get some holds for the Angels. All right. For the twins, this is one of those situations that's kind of up in the air right now. Yuan Duran is going to start the season on the IEL. My guess is Griffin Jacks gets the first opportunity. And the twins are a good team. So in saves plus hold leagues, Brock Stewart could have a lot of value with strikeouts and holds. So I'm not convinced it's not going to be Brock Stewart either.

There is a chance. Yeah. I'm kind of 50-50 on whether it's Jacks or Brock Stewart getting the first saves. Or maybe they'll just split save chances until Yoan Duran returns because Rockobaldellis before Duran had kind of been all about that committee thing. And even Duran when he emerged until last year that they really, you know, leaned on him as a one. guy. For the Yankees, it's going to be Clay Holmes and kind of tough for holds here. I mean, the lead up to Clay Holmes does not look pretty right now.

I mean, there's Ian Hamilton, Jonathan Loisiga. That's who I put second and third in my article. Ian Hamilton, Ian Hamilton and Jonathan Loisiga. The only problem with Loisiga is they'll use him for multiple inings, which kind of limits the holds potential. for the Oakland A's we think it's going to be Mason Miller and if it's not nobody else matters

yeah I think that makes sense for the Mariners Andrus Munoz and they've actually been hit with some injuries in their bullpen as well it looks like Ryan Stanick is the setup man for now not great yeah I think it's probably Ryan Stanick yeah Gabe Spire as the left deal

probably get some holds but yeah I mean Matt Brash eventually will be the backup closer, but he is on the IEL to begin the year. All right. And then for Tampa Bay, it's Pete Fairbanks, and Jason Adam is one of the better holds sources in the league. I think that one's pretty straightforward, right?

Absolutely. All right. For the Rangers, Jose LeClerc. It sounds like he's the closer to start the season. David Robertson, before being traded to the Marlins last year, actually had some really great numbers. The Rangers are going to win games. So I think he could provide lots of holds as well.

I mean, that's the thing you have to keep in mind For the really good teams, like the Rangers and the Orioles and the Rays, they're going to have several guys with 20 plus holds probably. So, I mean, we could go even deeper in those bullpins like Kirby Yates. Is he going to get a bunch of holds for the... Josh Bores. Josh Bores, yeah, for the Rays. Phil Maton.

I've never said his name before. Used to be with the Astros. And you know how the rays are good at bringing out the 8. like making ace relievers out of pretty much anybody they acquire. So I assume they're going to do the same with Phil Meaton, is how you pronounce that. So yeah, he would be a good source of holds too. We mentioned with the Blue Jays that Jordan Romano and Eric Swanson are likely to start the year on the IL. It looks like Yemi Garcia.

Chad Green was also mentioned and he was great for the Yankees a couple of years ago. But I believe he's working his way back from Tommy John. And so we haven't, we just haven't seen him in a while. Like we talked about earlier, I'm not really beating down the door for Yemi Garcia. I'm not really super enthused about their bullpen asshole until Swanson and Ramon are back. All right. Let's move over to the National League. And we spoke about the Diamondbacks.

We think it's going to be Kevin Ginkle until Paul Seawald returns from injury. D-backs are a good team. I think there could be some holds available, Ryan Thompson. Next up for Arizona. The Diamondbacks were the only team. for which I listed only two relievers in the article. It was Seawald and it was Ginkl, which is why I think Ginkl's going to replace Seawald.

We spent too much time on McGuff last year to care about him again. Gosh. It was like three times a week. We were having the Diamondbacks discussion last year until I traded for Seawald. I mean, it might be McGuff and Miguel Castro setting up for Ginkl by default, but it's not worth getting excited about. No. For the Braves, Reisel E.

Glessius for saves, and they have tons of names for holds. A.J. Mentor, Pierce Johnson, Joe Jimenez. The list goes on and on. Really good bullpen. Tyler Matzek is back in the mix, and he looked great this spring. But I think if you're going to limit it to two after Ricea Liglasis, it would be A.J. Mentor, and it would be Pierce Johnson. Her remember was the Rockies closer to begin last year, and it didn't work out well.

after joining the Braves, his numbers were ridiculous. And I have them as a closer for my score sheet team, which is Sim League, so you can put anybody as a closer. That's how much I like Pierce Johnson. All right, for the Reds, Alexis Diaz will get the first save opportunity this season. Behind him, there's Lucas Sims and Emilio Pagan. I think those guys are, I think they have some talent, but the fact that they pitch in Cincinnati is just so tough.

The Emilio Paghan in Cincinnati just feels like a match made in hell. And did he pitch this spring? Because he was dealing with an injury, and I don't remember seeing him in any game logs. Did he? He made six appearances. Okay. Gave up two home runs.

Yeah, that's about right. Emilio Paghan is want to do. Yep. All right. Well, that's the biggest thing. I want Alexis Diaz. Like, I had him as a bus. The problem is I don't really trust anybody

beyond him in the bullpen. Yeah. Pagan does have some experience in the role. I mean, Lucas Sims. He got a couple of saves a couple years ago, but yeah, there's not much behind Alexis Diaz. For the Rockies, this is, I mean, Oakland of the National League.

It's Tyler Kinley versus Justin Larson Lart. They don't even have a Mason Miller. So it's probably even a worse situation. I would guess just based on their spring performances, Kenley will get the first save over Justin Lawrence. And it seemed like Lawrence was drafted more than Kenley in the leagues that went deep enough into the draft pool where you could consider either Rockies reliever.

So I did pick up Kenley in some of my roto leagues, Tyler Kinley, in that assumption. For the Dodgers, it's Evan Phillips. He got to save in game one of the season in that Korea series. And behind him, until Bruce Star Gratterol returns, it's Joe Kelly and Daniel Hudson,

I believe. Probably Hudson is on the IL, though, isn't he? I believe he picked up a win in one of the... No. Yeah, I think he picked up a win in game one. Hmm. So I heard this... Who am I thinking of?

I saw this yesterday. If you play on the NFBC, the first two game series, the Dodgers and Padres in Korea, last week. It was kind of like a first look where you could leave those players in your lineup for this upcoming week or if they perform badly, you could still take them out. And some people were adding Daniel Hudson this weekend to get him in the lineup. Just to steal a free win, which is actually pretty smart. Yeah. I think you're probably thinking of Blake Trinan. Blake Trinen was the

one who got hit by a comebacker. Okay. Yeah. Sorry. That's who I was thinking of. Wrong, wrong. Once closer. That's right. For your Marlins. Chris, Tanner Scott got off to a real rocky start this spring, but has settled down recently. My guess is he probably will get the first save opportunity. We'll for sure get the first save opportunity. Whether he converts it is another matter. It's not a question of who the closer for the Marlins is. It's who the closer for the Marlins will be.

I think it'll be Scott. I think, you know, even if he isn't as good with the control as he was last year, I still think he's their most talented. reliever and Skip Schumacher has a lot of faith in him at this point. But if it doesn't work out, Andrew Nardi is another left-hander with good numbers. Sixto Sanchez. Yeah, it looked really good. It looked really good in the spring.

Nine shutout innings this spring with eight strikeouts for Sixtho Sanchez. The thing with Nardi and his Sixtho's velocity got better as the spring went on to, he started out averaging like 95, but he was up to like 98, uh, with. his fastball over his last few start our outings. The thing with Nardi is they do have multiple lefties in the bullpen. Obviously, Tanner Scott being one of them. So that could be a situation where if Scott loses the job, they might still be willing to go with Nardi.

A lot of teams are kind of iffy on going with the lefty as their closer because they lose the Lugie or matchup advantage. But that's one where I think Nardy is worth mentioning, just because they would have another fallback lefty. But I would guess Anthony Bender if Tanner Scott doesn't get, does lose the job. The Brewers will be without Devin Williams for at least the first three months of the season. Take your shot. Call your shot. Plant your flag.

Who's the guy? I'm close to 50-50 between Yowel Pyeumps and Abner Uribe. It might be 55-45-45 slight lean toward Pyeumps. but I think Arebe is the more electric choice. So it just comes down to what Pat Murphy feels most confident. And the fact that the Brewers have a new manager,

it's not Craig Counsel, so we can't even really look to last year's roles to guide us here. Abner Uribe looked really good and the chances he got, but he's inexperienced and can have control issues. And so maybe Pat Murphy just wants to play it safer with YOL Pai-Ops.

but I could see it being a rebate. And that's another one I'm going to be putting a bid on in the Tout Wars League where I lost Paul Seawalt. And it's worth noting there are very smart fantasy analysts out there who think it'll be Trevor McGill. I would say it's probably 50% piaops, maybe 45 your rebate, maybe five McGill. But the thing that's annoying is I think all three of them would be great at.

And so it really might come down to who gets, the first opportunity and then who gets the second one, right? Because if it's, Pioops the first two, then it's probably just going to be Puyams moving forward. And he is a guy that a lot of people look at like the FIP and it's not very good for his career. It's like 392, but his ERA is 304.

XERA likes Yo'all Paiomps a lot more because he does a really good job of limiting hard contact. And so that's one that I, there, I've seen a lot of like, YOL Piams just isn't good chatter. And I think that's ridiculous. I think he's very good. Worth mentioning with both Paiamps and Aribe that they have not had great springs. Trevor McGill has actually been the best of the three this spring.

But Aribe picked up a save on Sunday, March 17th. For whatever that's worth, if anything. I don't know. I think I would lean with, I think Aribe right now, but who knows? For the Mets, Edwin Diaz is the very, you know, one of the top tier closers in the game. Adam Ottavino will set him up. Yeah, pretty straightforward situation. I don't know that Adam Ottavino's ratios or anything to get excited about,

but they should get you some holds. For the Phillies, it seems kind of open. I mean, Jose Alvarado is certainly talented enough to be a great closer in the league, but if I'm reading this correctly, do they have another lefty in their bullpen? Gregory Soto. Gregory Soto, right. He stinks, but he is a lefty.

Everybody who's managed him seems to think he's good, even though the numbers would suggest otherwise. And I've heard his name floated as a closer candidate, too. If they go with Gregory Soto over Jose Alvarado, I will be enraged. Yes, we all will. Well, especially since Orion Kirkering is beginning the year on the IL and is out of this discussion for now,

if it's not Jose Alvarado, it's probably going to be Jeff Hoffman. but I feel more confident now that it's just going to be Alvarado. And for what it's worth Kirkring, he was sick this spring, and that's why he's on the aisle. It's not. He'll be back, yeah. Yeah, he should be back relatively soon. But hoping. Alvarado will, you know, be going strong by that point.

We won't have to weigh alternatives for the Phillies. But yeah, this is the one I'm most worried about just becoming a true committee because they have so many closing options. We haven't even mentioned Sir Anthony Dominguez who has closing experience. Hoffman was really good. I was talking about Pierce Johnson, how good he was for the Braves last year. Hoffman, I think he had

like a break, he went with a heavy breaking ball approach and 241 ERA.92 whip 11.9 K-ber-9. So he is somebody that you could see being a closer if the Phillies wanted to go off script as has often happened to Jose Alvarado in his career when it seemed like he was lined up to be the closer finally.

By the way, Frank, before we move on, you forgot a team on your list. Uh-oh, what did I forget? The Cubs. The Cubs. Oh, boy. Just wanted to make sure we mentioned that. That's the only one we forgot. Yes. I wanted to make sure. I was kind of rushing to put this together.

But that's my fault. The Cubs, let's just talk about them. Adbert Alisle is certainly talented enough, I think, to be a great closer. He showed that last year. The team signed Hector Neres. this offseason who has lots of closing experience. Hector Neris has had a really bad spring. My guess is that Adbert Al-Zlai will get the first save opportunity, but Craig Counsel has kind of been like non-committal about it.

It's been weird. I don't know why he's being like that. Why are you being like this? Al-Zalai was a breakout closer last year. Hector Neris, you know, he's had some closing experience. He had a good year. I don't know that the bad spring should really influence Craig Counsel's decision, but...

Why not just go with Al-Zalai? If it doesn't work out, you can switch. Counsel was sort of weird with Josh Hader early in his career in that he used him as like a multi-inning reliever and often as a fireman more than the traditional closer. But the last like four seasons, that really wasn't the case. It was just his best reliever was his closer. So I assume it'll be Al-Zalai. For the, I didn't want to mention for the Phillies, it could be kind of messy in saves league. In saves plus holds, I think they could all have value.

Alvarado, Jeff Hoffman, Dominguez, even Kirkering once he returned. So yes, absolutely. Did want to mention that. For the pirates, very clearly, as long as he's healthy, David Bednar, Arollis Chapman, likely to provide some holds and lots of strikeouts. Very straightforward. For the Padres, obviously Robert Suarez already picked up a save in game two of the season. I've wrote in Yuki Matsui for holds.

He pitched in the seventh inning and then in the sixth inning. So I don't know that he's just going to be the eighth inning guy, but... That was a weird game in terms of that whole series. Like, especially from Mike Schilt, it seems like he managed it more like a spring game. Michael King coming in for multiple endings out of the bullpen. I think Matsui's the top source for holds. Enel de Los Santos, if you want a righte, would probably be the guy. but bottom line is I feel really confident

in Robert Suarez as the closer now when I know I was leaning more toward Yuki Matsui at the start of spring Matsui's injury didn't help with that but I had one in one of my Roto leagues I had them both and I went ahead and dropped Yuki Matsui maybe even to get Tyler Kinley for bad closer but at least a closer. For the Giants Camila Duval very clearly

the saves option there and then for holds Pick your Rogers. Tyler, Taylor, it's up to you. Taylor Rogers gets more strikeouts for what it's worth. Tyler Rogers throws more innings. That's right.

Yeah, I think they're both fine. Okay. For the Cardinals, I think it's going to be Ryan Helsley as long as he's healthy. He dealt with a forearm injury last year. Behind him, there's Giovanni Gallegos. They did trade for Andrew Kittredge's offseason, who does have some closing experience as well.

I did see Ryan Helsley's velocity was down a little bit this spring, but I don't know if that's been like every outing. It's fluctuated. I think early on he was down three, four miles per hour. I saw some concern about it. Next outing, he was back up to 98. And then I saw some others where he was around 96, 97. So it's definitely worth watching. I mean, someone who throws that hard injury history with the forearm, it's pretty scary. For the nationals, I think it'll be Kyle Finnegan to start the season. I think Hunter Harvey is probably more. talented but he's had trouble staying healthy so if i drafted kyle finnigan i would absolutely want to

make sure that hunter harvey isn't available for for me to pick up i thought you were going to say you'd drop him for kevin ginkle or you all buy him so because i that's well i'm not that too but but what i what i am saying is especially since robert stevenson of the angels is not healthy at the moment. I do think Kyle Finnegan is the closer I feel most confident saying will lose his job and probably early on because Hunter Harvey, he had overtaken him last June and then he got hurt again. So that kind of reset the situation and put Finnegan back in the role. But Harvey's better. And I think Harvey, the nationals are already shown. They're willing to use Harvey as the closer. All right. Let's quickly wrap up with some IL stash rankings. I know many people

I've been asking what order do we have these players in? And Chris has an article. And is this going to be part of the newsletter, Chris? No, it's just going to be on the site tomorrow. Okay, so make sure to check it out. CBSSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball, IL-stash rankings. And quickly just run through the starting pitchers up first here.

The order, if I was reading this article correctly, Chris, Justin Verlander, Walker, Bueller, Sunny Gray, Garrett Cole, Kodiysanga, Yuri Perez. And then to me, it kind of feels like there's a lot of, A tear break. Yeah, there's absolutely a tier. Right after that group. But that's the ranking, right, of that first group?

Yeah, I could see the case for Sunny Gray being at the top of the list. But yeah, I think those five guys, I've ranked very, very similarly since they all got hurt. And I think they all have similar risk reward profiles, maybe a little less reward for Gray, but a lot less risk than the other four. All right. The next group of IL-Stash pitchers, Nick Ladolo, Braxton Garrett, Shane Boz, Gavin Williams, Brian Wu,

who unfortunately is now part of this list, and Rwraud Rodriguez, who will start the year on the aisle due to a lat injury, then Kyle Brannish and Max Scherzer. I don't know if there was a tear break after that, but it kind of felt that way for me. Yeah, I believe so. Let me make sure, yeah.

So Sheehan, Emma Sheehan, John Means are in the same tier as those guys. She had another one who dealing with that vague inflammation in his forearm. This may be like whether you're approaching this from a deep league or shallow league perspective, but I personally would want to rank Kyle Bradditt, would want to stash Kyle Bradish and Max Scherzer over Braxton, Gare, Brian Wu, and Eduardo Rodriguez. Even though the timeline's longer, I just, I like that their potential for impact so

much more. So I'm approaching it more from like a shallow perspective, like 12 teams or less perspective. But obviously in deeper leagues where you just, you don't have as many alternatives at your disposal, then you may just want a pretty good pitcher sooner than a great one later. And that was also like trying to balance in my head people who might not have IL spots. And so, yeah, you know, it becomes a lot harder to justify a cow bradish or, Max Scherzer, if you don't have an aisle spot. Sure. Yeah, for sure.

It's already really hard to rank any players, but starting pitchers and fantasy, when you throw injuries into it that just adds a different level of context. Guys who are already hurt. Yeah, so you're trying to weigh better pitchers who are going to be out longer versus pitchers who are not as proven, who are going to be out less time. So it is a really, I think, tough exercise and endless to put together here. The final group of starting pitchers, you mentioned, Emmett she has. John Means.

Then there's Edward Cabrera, Alex Cobb, Wade Miley, Robbie, Ray, Jeffrey Springs, Taj Bradley, Clayton Kirshaw, and Jameson, Tion. We're kind of... Yeah, a lot of those guys are iffy. Those are like unlimited I-L-Stash kind of guys. Cobb, I could be talked into moving up. He's had like a 3-6-8-E-R-A three years in a row, and he might be ready. April.

Yeah, he might be ready before. a bunch of the guys in front of him. He might be like mid-April. So that's one that I could be talked into moving up. Yeah, I think if you wanted to move him ahead of Emmett Sheehan or John Means, I'd probably be right with that personally. Some position players that we are stashing on the aisle to start the year, there's Josh Lowe in Tampa Bay, Matt McLean,

Tommy Edmund, Lars Neupar, then you get into Nate Lowe, T.J. Friedel, Vaughn, Jason D.Mingez, and DJ LaMahey. Hugh. Those are like, LeMayhew and Dominguez are clearly unlimited IL stash guys. If you have limited spots, they're fairly easy to get rid of.

I think I dropped LaMayhew in one league already. The rest of them I'm trying to hang on to if I can. Grissom has already started swinging. I think he's done batting practice. So might not be that long for him. And if the Red Sox aren't going to be playing Raphael at second base, it sounds like they're just leaving it wide. for Gresham to walk back into the job.

You know, we've talked a lot about, and there's been a lot of talk about injuries lately. Oh, we're losing all these players to injury all of a sudden. This is a pretty short list of position players. I guess it's really been pitchers and especially closers. It's been pitchers, for sure. Very heavy on pitchers. I mean, the only, like, must-start position players who are injured right now,

knock on wood, are Josh Lowe and Matt McLean. And, you know, Tommy Edmund, Lars, Nupar, T.J. Friedel, they all have value. But, like, must start across all formats. Yeah. I mean, those were the only guys with healthy ADPs inside the top 150, probably. So, yeah. And then with the relievers, we've talked a lot

about these names, but the order that Chris ranked them in, Jordan Romano, Yon, Duran, Paul Seawald, Robert Stevenson, and then Devin Williams, who is the most talented, but is likely to miss the most time this year, the first three months of. of the season. All right, we're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank.

Thanks as always for tuning in some 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.