Fantasy Baseball Today - Pivetta's Complete Game, Scherzer's Injury & Rankings Movers (5/19 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 19, 2022

Nick Pivetta threw a complete game against the Astros (1:15)! What happened to Pablo Lopez? ... Max Scherzer left his start with an injury (11:06). ... Should you add these potential two-start pitchers (13:00)? ... Zack Wheeler and Jean Segura are rising up the rankings (16:40)! ... Tyler O'Neill and Marcus Semien are moving down the rankings (24:05). ... Let's answer some trade questions (28:46)! ... News and notes (35:50): Bryce Harper will not throw for six weeks. ... Add MJ Melendez and Mike Yastrzemski (41:05)! ... What's going on with Cody Bellinger and Bryan Reynolds (50:30)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (56:22). Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. I joke about being a jinx. You know, have a little fun.

But I think the New York Mets are actually cursed. They just cannot catch a break. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, May 19th. Frank Stamphill joined by Chris Towers, and we're matching, Chris. We didn't even plan this. Red shirts. Yeah, I didn't want to say anything as we were getting ready because I wanted it to see if you noticed as well. So, yeah, we're matching.

Not really matching otherwise, though. I've got glasses on, you've got hair. So I think people will be able to tell the difference. Yeah, I think so. Today on the show, we've got rankings, risers, and fallers, a big injury to those New York Mets. What's up with Brian Reynolds and much more. Let's jump right in.

Oh my goodness gracious. I think we've got to start with good old Nick Povetta. You know, Chris, I led the podcast. I might be a jinx yesterday. Yeah, this was a reverse jinks. This was a classic. Yeah, it was classic. All-timer.

I didn't include him into stream or not to stream because his teammate, Nathan Avaldi, got destroyed. Avaldi gave up five home runs to the Astros yesterday. He gave up eight runs. What does Nick Povetta do? One day later, he throws a complete game against one of the best offenses in baseball. He allows just two hits, one run, eight strikeouts to zero walks, 19 swinging strikes for Povetta on 112 pitches, nine of those on the fastball,

six on the curve, three on the slider. He had everything working in this one. The fastball velocity was up a little bit, 35% CSW overall. That is called strikes plus whiffs. And he's been good now for three straights. starts. Quality start in each. He's allowed just two earn runs total during that time. Only one walk. I think that's been the biggest difference that I can notice, Chris. 20 strikeouts to one walk for Nick Povetta. He is 38% rostered. Are you interested in adding him after these last three starts?

They've been great. So what's that, what's that number? Which one? 38%? 38% rostered? Yes. I guess you can add him. I don't know. We've been through this with Nick Povetta and I'm not sure there's some magical change that or magical is unfair. There could be some kind of non-magical explanation. There could be, you know, any sufficiently advanced form of technology

is indistinguishable from science. That's, for magic, that's a, that's some kind of thing from a book. So maybe there's some kind of technological explanation for what's going on, but I don't really see much reason to believe that Nick Povetta has turned the corner and become a different pitcher than Nick Povetta's always been. He's always been there's never been a lack of potential for these kind of performances from Nick Povetta. He's

always been capable of this and occasionally he'll go through stretches where he looks really good, but in the end he ends up being, you know, the same guy that he usually is, which is a an above average ERA and I don't mean in the good way. I mean in a ERA that's higher than average you know, whips that hurt you, strike out numbers that aren't so incredible that you can live with it. So, no, I just, I feel like he's very similar like an Armand Marquez,

you know, in that he'll go through stretches where he'll look really good. Maybe he's useful in those stretches, but I'm not necessarily sure. Nick Povetta having three good starts in a row means that he's likely to have a fourth good start. That is fair. And I mean this

in the most respectful way, Chris, when you started your analysis there, there are times where I don't know what you're saying. And I mean that in like the best way possible. You're just, I don't know. You're just like in another stratosphere of intelligence, I guess, compared to me. But Nick Povett, no, I think you're right. And I think we see these stretches at times, again, when the control is on.

Because when things are kind of unraveling for Povetta, he's getting hit hard. He's, you know, near four walks per nine. You know, those are when things kind of snowball out of control for him. I noticed looking at his page now that his fastball velocity is down quite a bit this year compared to last year. Let's compare him to a few other most added starting pitchers right now. The top three, well, I guess we can exclude Zach Logue because he was optioned back to AAA. Let's go with Martine Perez, Yusay Kukuchi, and Reed Detmer's. How does Povetta compare to those three, Chris? I think that's a good range to include him in. I would probably go Kikuchi first.

Dettmers and Paveeta is a bit of a coin flip And Perez, I don't really have much interest in He's a pretty distant fourth there Okay, I will put Povetta second on that list And then... That's fine I don't know, I kind of like what Perez is doing right now He's getting so many ground balls

Yeah, I mean, I think the coin flip for me It's probably Perez and Detmer's I just, I don't have a lot of faith in Detmer's Yesterday after, you know, his first start After following up the no hitter They pulled him early That was probably planned because he threw so many pitches and then no hitter. That's not unexpected, yeah.

Yeah, but Reed Detmer's wasn't great in that start either. So yeah, Kukuchi for me and then Povetta right behind him. Keep that in mind with Hunter Green coming off that 118 pitch performance. He will, I'm not sure how much you want to start him anyway, but he will likely have his pitches limited. And I believe his next start comes against the Blue Jays. So you probably don't want to start him anyway. although the Blue Jays lineup has not lived up to expectations. It's not been great so far.

Yeah, it's been weird. All right, Chris, oh my goodness gracious for you from Wednesday's action. Yeah, let's talk about Pablo Lopez. We got an email immediately after he was pulled from this game. It was something like, should we sell high on Pablo Lopez now, or is the bottom about to fall out? Something like that. I can't find it right now.

But no, you should not sell high on. I mean, maybe you should sell high on Pablo Lopez. I don't know. I think that's a reasonable thing to think about any pitcher with a 157 ERA over 40-something innings. But no, I do not think this is the start of Pablo Lopez falling apart. The only concern there would be injury. You know, that's been the thing that's derailed him over the last few years.

And I don't see any reason to think that this start where he struggled against the nationals, giving up three. runs in three innings and 82 pitches. I don't see any reason to think this was a injury issue. I think he just didn't pitch well, which happens, even for really good pitchers. He was never going to run a sub one ERA for the rest of the season. He's not going to have a sub two ERA for the rest of the season. But, you know, sub three, that seems pretty reasonable. And, you know, the, the changes, you know, I'm not even sure if you can say he's made changes so far. It's, he's just kind of pitching a lot better than we're used to.

His velocity is actually down a little bit. But one thing that I did notice is that his spin rate on his fastball is up while his spin rate on his changeup is down. And so those are potentially moving in opposite directions might be what you want from those two pitches. So I don't really think there's any reason to be worried about Pablo Lopez after this start. So I just wanted to get that out of the way early on.

Yeah, I don't see anything, Chris. that really stands out in how Pablo Lopez has taken this next step outside of just the change-up, being a better pitch. This is the best. It's always been a good pitch, but this is the best to change-up has ever looked for Pablo Lopez. And you see that in the swinging strike rate for that pitch, and it's contributed to his overall swinging strike rate. Again, this is Pablo Lopez. And you can make a case that that's a reason to sell high, that he's just pitching over his head right now. like he's just hot. What if that change up has just progressed, you know?

What if it's become a better pitch? That would be the other argument. And, you know, his expected ERA is about a run in a quarter lower than it was. Last season, it's the lowest of his career. Like, generally speaking, when guys are having the best stretch of their career, you should bet against them sustaining that. And so I don't think there's anything wrong with the idea of trading Pablo Lopez, you know, at peak value, especially.

because, you know, he has the injury concerns hanging over him, you know, the shoulder issues that have kept him out for, you know, significant chunks two of the last three seasons. That would be the biggest concern. But yeah, I think like, it's not outrageous to suggest Lopez is a sell high candidate. I just don't think it's a get out while you can. Yeah, that's, and we stress that so much, Chris, because people hear so high and they only hear the first word. They hear sell. Oh, I got to get rid of this player. They're telling me to sell high. No, it's, if you can get adequate value for Pablo Lopez as Chris starts to fight his microphone here, if you're watching us live, then you should look to do it. Would you trade Lopez for either of the Rangers middle infielders,

Semyon or Seeger? Um, I would. I would rather do it for Seeger, who I feel a little more confident in. But yeah, I think given the state of most team, most offenses right now, I've got one league where I, um, I'm competitive despite having like 19 standings points for my offense as a whole, which is really, really bad. I have a few leagues like that too, Chris. It is rough. Yeah. It turns out everybody's struggling with offense, but it doesn't seem like in that league.

Seems like it's just me. Um, so yeah, like I, I, I think selling a pitcher like Pablo Lopez, you know, even, you know, go a little higher and maybe like, like. a Dylan cease. Like these guys are probably playing over their heads. And so moving them for a more projectable player, there's nothing wrong with that. It's just you shouldn't take that to mean

that I think Pablo Lopez is doomed. Or I think Dylan Cease is doomed or whichever, you know, pitcher you want to choose from. Yeah. I have a sneaky one too. Chris Bryant. I would try to, if you need a third base, look, it feels like a lot of people need a third baseman right now.

Obviously, Brian has, outfield eligibility too. I would try and swing that one right now. Brian's getting ready to return this weekend and I like that idea. Pablo Lopez for Chris Bryant if you could pull that off. Usually we wait on the news and notes but we had a big one on Wednesday night and it comes in the form of Max Scherzer who left his start due to left side discomfort. That's all we have for now. He's going to go for test on Thursday and it was pretty scary too. I was watching the start. He threw a pitch in the sixth inning. I think it was a slider. He instantly signaled over to the dugout. And, And he started waving, like, I'm done, come get me.

Yeah, like one of these. Yeah. So it didn't look too good. And Chris, we talk about a lot. Every pitcher is at risk for injury, but especially a 37-year-old. You know, Scherzer's dealt with back injuries and neck injuries. And, you know, it's being labeled as a hamstring injury a couple years. Yeah.

As left side discomfort. And if it turns out to be an oblique injury, I mean, those are pretty tricky and they could take some time. So we're speculating right now, Chris, but. It doesn't sound good. Yeah, he downplayed it after the game. You know, I think he said like it didn't feel like he tore anything or anything like that. But, you know, obviously, like you said, the oblique would be the big concern because, you know, baseball is all about these, these movements. This, you know, twisting your trunk back and forth.

And that's where the oblique tends to get tricky. And what we see a lot with oblique injuries, you know, with both hitters and pitchers. is guys will try to rush back and end up suffering setbacks that cost them significant time. So hopefully it's not that. Hopefully it's not, you know, a lat injury, which is something that we saw Noah Cindergarde. I think that was 2019. He had a season ending lat injury. So, you know, it's always, you know, the upper body injuries are always tricky even when it's not elbow or shoulder.

So it's just something we'll have to keep an eye on over the next few days. All right. Well, you might have to replace Max Schur. There's obviously no way to do that exactly, but maybe you can try to do it with volume, and you could beat the waiver wire with these potential two-star pitchers. I know on tomorrow's podcast, Scott will have all the two starters ready to go, and Scott is much more accurate with the scheduling than CBS's, unfortunately. But these are the names that pop up right now, and they all pitched on Wednesday night.

Kyle Freeland has delivered a quality start in three of his last four starts. Had eight strikeouts in this start. He had 16 swinging strikes, but I'm more interested in the matchups. He's at Pittsburgh and at Washington next week, so no course field. Two pretty good matchups. 13% rostered is Kyle Freeland. Jordan Lyles has a quality start in three of his last four starts. He had eight strikeouts over seven innings against the Yankees on Wednesday.

He's 7% rostered. Matchups, not nearly as good, at the Yankees at the Red Sox next week. Marco Gonzalez has now allowed three earned runs or fewer in four straight starts. He did the same against the Blue Jays. He gave up just one run over six innings. Next week, he's got the Astros and the Oakland A's. And then Dane Dunning, a nice bounce back performance. He has quality starts in three of his last four.

He gives up two runs over six with six strikeouts against the Angels. And he's 27% rostered at the Angels at the Oakland A's next week. Chris, do you have any interest in Freeland, Liles, Marco Gonzalez, Dane Dunning? I don't love any of these guys, but that's generally the case when you're talking about widely available players. I've had this guy in my Twitter mentions for like the last two weeks talking about Rowdy Tellez

and how we called him a must start or a must ad player and he hasn't been all that good since we said then. It's like, yeah, I mean if you say that most waiver wire ads are going to be bad, you're going to be right more often than not. That's just the way it works. That being said,

Kyle Freeland is probably the most interesting of this group. The matchups at Pittsburgh at Washington. You have to like those. getting away from course field. Beyond that, Marco Gonzalez is so tough because he goes through these stretches where he pitches really well

or does a good job of not allowing runs. I don't know if those two things are always the same thing. But it kind of feels like a random number generator. You know, it doesn't feel like there's like a lot of rhyme or reason to what's happening. You know, it's usually he has really good control when things are going well. He hasn't had great control.

so far this season. So I think that's reason to be skeptical. But like you could get, I don't know, the problem is you get two starts out of Marco Gonzalez. You might get, you know, a three-ERA over 14 innings with seven strikeouts. And it's kind of Dr. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with the matchups too.

He's got the Astros and the Oakland A's. So obviously we love the starting against O'NNING. With the Angels and A's, you know. Yeah. Dane Dunning, by the way. I did want to mention I'm kind of interested in Dane Duff. He doesn't throw hard, but he has two secondary pitches in the slider and the change-up that have been pretty good for him so far this season. And he was good against the Angels in this start. And again, next week, he's got

the Angels and the Oakland A's. So I probably, probably would take Freeland first and then Dunning and then Marco Gonzalez. I have no idea, Chris, how Marco Gonzalez does it, because he is walking so many batters right now, any pitches to contact, and those two things combined with a start against Houston, I probably don't want to get involved there. So it's Freeland, Dunning, and that's probably it. Let's talk about some rankings, risers, and fallers. We had some big updates over the past couple of days. If you want to find our rankings, by the way, I know some people ask us, and if you're looking for them, you can find them at cbsports.com slash fantasy slash baseball slash rankings.

They're also on the CBS fantasy app if you have that. The risers for Chris, Uwee Gueriel, Jazz Chisholm, who had another awesome game on Wednesday, a triple, a homer, I think it was a walk, two runs scored, two RBI, batting over 300. He just continues to amaze. That's Jazz Chisholm.

Brian Hayes, Taylor Ward, Robbie Ray, and Zach Wheeler, who also had another fantastic start on Wednesday. He went seven shutout. with nine strikeouts to zero walks against the Padres. Chris, what do you have on this group? Gurriel, Jazz, Hayes, Ward, Ray, and Zach Wheeler. Yeah, I've got Wheeler back in my top 10 at starting pitcher,

and I don't know how high I can move him, just because I do still have a little bit of concern, but ahead of Shohay Otani, that probably should happen, right? I just realized you have Otani in your top 10 pitchers. Yeah, he's been amazing so far this season And a lot of the guys in the 10 range Had been really bad

So, like I could probably move Wheeler ahead of Otani But Chris, hold on a second If you're going to put Otani in the top 10 You've got to put Shane McClain ahead in your top 10 I'll just go outside Why not? I think Showingotani's best. Showing Otis much more proven

Look at their stats so far the season side by side Yeah, like show Hey Tani is much more proven though. He is. He's had three out of four seasons where he's been a high level pitcher now. That's true, but I think you, I think you would agree that he also comes with more injury risk, just being a pitcher and a hitter. Sure, sure, that's fair.

All right, I could move McClanahan up. Yeah. We'll get to McClain in a bit. But yes, talk to me about Zach Wheeler and everybody else. Yeah, like Wheeler, Gosman, Verlander, Beuler, I'm not quite ready to move. you know, especially the Gosman Verlander Wheeler

group, I'm not quite ready to move them ahead of Walker Bueller, although Walker Bueller continues to just be kind of weird and not all that effective, although his ERA is still below three, so it's not like he's been not effective, ineffective, I guess. But yeah, like I think

that's that kind of tier of of Verlander, Bueller, Gosman, Otani Wheeler, and if you want to throw McClanahan in there, or you know, Dylan C's like there are guys you make a case for. But I think that group between you know, what they've done this season, what they've done in the past has, has separated themselves a bit from Alcantara, Aureas, Nola, Gialito, that kind of, that group that's been a little

weird so far. So I think there's kind of a clear second or third tier at starting pitcher that's emerged and Wheeler is back in that tier. I don't think he belongs in the first tier or two. Um, but, you know, he's not, he's not far off. It's good to see how he's settled in. Yeah, I think if we see a few more starts like the one he had on Wednesday, Chris, we can get Zach Wheeler up into that Brandon Woodruff, Carlos Rodon range. Yeah. Which is where he was being drafted before we knew he was hurt. So I would still take Rodon ahead of him. I just think Rodon's a better pitcher. But yeah, like Woodruff, I think that's the right range. And I think Woodruff is close to that aforementioned tier.

way. All right for me, risers in the rankings. Gene Seguera, I moved up to my 17th ranked second baseman. Overall, it's just kind of been a weird position. We've talked a lot about second base. And he's just behind Max Muncie and DJ LaMayhew and Jake Cronoward for me, J. Chorez. But Seguera is, you know, one of the only second baseman that's performing right now. He's having a ridiculous maze. So he's up there. And if he continues to perform, I could see moving him even higher. Mike Ushremski is someone I moved up quite a bit. We'll talk about him in a little bit. Shane McClanahan, I got up to my SP17.

So he's now inside of the top 20, and I moved him ahead of Shane Bieber. So just ahead of Bieber, Robbie Ray, Dylan Sees, Alec, Manoa, just behind Musgrove, Freed, and Freddie Peralta. Those guys are a little bit more proven than McClanahan, so I don't see making that move yet,

but yeah, I thought it was worthy of moving. Shane McClain-Han up ahead of at least Beaver, just because I really just don't have that much confidence in Bieber right now. I should be more aggressive in moving Bieber down. I haven't done it. He's only moved down like five or six spots in the pitching rankings for me because I was pretty down on him coming in anyway. But I probably should be more aggressive than I have been.

Yeah, I have Bieber down at 18. I guess I'm just kind of hedging my bet because I think if he could find a way to get the velocity back up I still think that there's a really good pitcher in there for Beber and he hasn't been completely awful he's just he's not the pitcher that we've seen the past couple of years so he's dropped a little bit for me

Terrick Scouble I moved inside of my top 50 he's up to SP 46 and David Bednar I moved him up to RP 16 which is the 13th closer in the rankings I do have a few sparse ahead of him and Severino and Copac and Ranger Suarez. Bednar has been ridiculous. He picked up another save on Wednesday, a two-ending save, his eighth of the season. His ERA is down to 0.90.

And with that, I think you can argue that Bednar should be even higher than he is right now. But I've got him just behind Ryan Presley and Corey Kinebel. Probably could just move him ahead of Kenebel. You know, Kinebel's fine, but I don't know. just feel a little bit safer with the job security for Corey Kenebill, I guess. But, man, David Benner has been ridiculous. Bednar is still ostensibly in a time share, although Straton, he's had what, like one save in the last month, something like that? I think Bednar has their past seven saves. Yeah, so I don't know how much of a time share that is. And that's not terribly surprising

given that we, you know, coming into the season, we all thought Bednar was the far superior pitcher, or at least had more upside. And so I think he had, he always had a chance to run away with it. So yeah, that's, that's a good call. He's 18 for me. I'm moving him up.

So he's right around Camillo Duval, David Robertson. So yeah, I think that's a, that's a good range for him. But yeah, he's clearly pitching at a very high level right now. And, you know,

has, you know, I think last year showed, flashes of being a high-end closer. And now we're looking at two years in a row where he's had the high-end strikeout rate and has the run prevention,

which he struggled with a little bit early in his career when he was pitching in fits and starts. So it's good to see. Yeah, I'm very, very pleased with what we've seen from David Petnar. All right. Let's move over to some fallers in the rankings for Chris. He's got Gavin Lux, Tyler O'Neill, Nathan Avaldi, after getting bomb.

on Tuesday. And Eduardo Rodriguez, who actually left his start with an injury on Wednesday. He left with left side discomfort, similar to Max Scherzer. And it sounds like he is bound for the IL. Chris, this one's kind of tough. Tyler O'Neill, because I know you and I were worried about him coming into the season. I think we both had him in our bus column. I don't know how far to drop him in the rankings because he obviously flashed huge upside last. year, but now he's he's kind of fulfilling what we thought would happen. And he's, he's been one of the bigger busts so far this year. So how do you kind of handle that, that yingang, I guess, of Tyler O'Neill? Yeah, I mean, the thing with, you know, we're what, a month and almost a half

into the season now. And you're still at the point where you want to avoid confirmation bias with a situation like Tyler O'Neill, because sometimes a bad start is just a bad start. And, you know, sometimes it's a guy that you didn't think was going to be good, having a bad start, and you can talk yourself into, see, I was right. And I want to guard against that, because I do recognize Tyler O'Neill still has significant potential, obviously. You know, it's a skill set with elite raw power, elite athleticism. The problem is, one, he's striking out as much as he did last season. which is not surprising. He's going to strike out a lot, but he's just not hitting the ball with the same kind of authority that he did last year. It's not even the average X velocity,

which is way down to 88.4 miles per hour, which is below average. His max exit velo hasn't been, it's only, this microphone is, I'm going to have to find a different solution for this microphone where it's at. His max exit of velo is 110 miles per hour,

is 113 last year. And obviously that's the kind of thing where one really good swing could change that. But so far, he hasn't been that same guy. And it's always tough with a player like him because I don't think Tyler O'Neill got less strong or weaker would be the way normal people would say that. I don't think like the problem for Tyler O'Neill

is that his muscles deflated like that SpongeBob SquarePants episode. But what we saw from Tyler O'Neill in his stints in the majors before last season was, yeah, he's always been capable of hitting the ball hard, but he never did it consistently enough. You know, hard hit rate was between 37 and 39% as opposed to 52% last year, 88 miles per hour average exit velocity in 2020, 93 last year, 88 this year. So it's like, it's a question of can he put the elite skills into play consistently? And that was the question before last season, and it looks like, it's still a question. So I don't want to bury him by any means because Tyler O'Neill still has

significant upside. And at outfield, upside is hard to find. So he's still inside of my top 30. But, you know, he was top 24, probably top 20-ish coming into the season. So it's definitely been a fall for him. Fallers for me in the rankings, Marcus Semyon, I dropped him down to 11th at second base. He's still hard to argue. Top five for both Scott and Chris. I know Scott mentioned yesterday that he's going to give Semyon until the end of the month. And then if nothing, then he'll start to drop him down the rankings there. Also, Matt Chapman. I moved him behind Cabrion Hayes and Josh Donaldson and Justin Turner. So he's right around 15th at third base for me now. Lourdes Gareel has been quite bad. It's a big whiff for me so far. It had him in the breakout column and just has not

looked great so far. He actually left with an injury on Wednesday as well. Luis Castillo, I dropped outside of my top 40 starting pitcher ranks. The velocity is way down. That was the case last year for the start of the season. Maybe he gets back on track. That's another kind of confirmation bias because I didn't like Castillo. I had him in the bus column even before he got hurt. And so far, he's just kind of lived up to the disappointment, I guess, I was expecting. And then Merrill Kelly. He's kind of come back down to Earth. So I dropped him, I think, outside of my top 60 starting pitchers. I don't think you have to drop him in general. I would actually say hold on to him for now. But yes, I have dropped him down in the rankings. We have a few trade questions,

and I like to do these on Wednesday, Thursday, because Chris's trade chart is coming out on Thursday afternoon, so be on the lookout for that. This one's from David. He's in a categories league. The categories are runs, total bases, home runs, stolen bases, OBP, and RBI. All right, this is a blockbuster. I was offered Ronald de Koon. for my Shohei Otani, would you take it? It's so hard when it's like, like, yes, you should. I think Okunia is the better player for fantasy. The groin thing is a little concerning.

The fact that he's likely going to, you know, skip like the second half of double-headers and some days off and get some days off moving forward. It's concerning. But if nothing else, like even if you think it's a push and I don't, Akunia's outfield eligible and Otani's D-8. So unless you're talking about a daily lineups league where you get both the hitting and pitching stats,

in which case, just keep Otani. But if you're just talking about Otani, the hitter, yes, Okunia is better than him. All right. This next was from Justin. He gives up Anthony Rizzo and Trey Turner. And he gets Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Francisco Lindor. Plus a first round pick next year. So after 12 teams keep five each. It's basically a sixth round.

pick. Yeah, a sixth round pick. So Vlad, Lindor, and a sixth round pick for Rizzo and Turner. Would you take the Vlad's side? I think you probably would. I think the upgrade from Lindor to Rizzo is big enough, but I don't know, because I think you can make a case that Turner should still be the number one player in Roto, even though he hasn't been great.

Vlad hasn't been great himself. and Lindor has cooled off quite a bit after a very hot start. Rizzo has also cooled off a bit. But yeah, I think the Vlad plus Lindor side, you're getting better all around production. And just I think it comes down to I have more faith in Lindor than I do in Rizzo being a muster. This is a problem.

I'm going to start like a counter here on the podcast. times will Chris be attacked by his microphone in one podcast? I've got the arm. The arm is across. I have the same thing. I have the same thing here, Chris. Yeah, but it's yours is like coming from above. Mine is below. And so I've got my like right arm with my mouse. Like I've got like three inches of movement where I can. And I think what just happened was I tried to like scratch my face and forgot that the microphone arm was in the way. And look, it's a new environment, you know?

That's just, we're going to have to get used to some bumps in the road over the next few weeks. You know, I'm going to have to move this microphone arm. It's, it's, I'm going to hurt myself. I'm just going to, like, I'm going to hit the microphone right into my, like, mouth and, like, chip a tooth or something. That's what's going to happen. Well, look, obviously we don't want that to happen, but

it would be. comedic gold. It would make for some quality content here on the podcast. I would take the trade. I would rank the players in order Trey Turner, Vlad, Lindor, and Rizzo. So I think you're giving up the best player. You're getting the two next best players, and

you're also getting a technically sixth round pick for next year. I would take that trade. This last one's from John is getting Cedric Mullins for Sandy Alcansara a fair trade. If not who's the clear winner. I think it's a fair trade. I think that's a fair trade, yeah.

I think they were both you know late second early third rounders coming into the season I think both have been just a little bit underwhelming so far but not bad by any stretch of the imagination and Mullins especially has you know started to find himself after a very cold start so I think it's a fine trade and you know

comes down to team need yeah I would say if you are giving up Sandy Alcantara and you have pitching depth then it makes a ton of sense. In the month of May, so far, Cedric Mullins is batting 301 with three home runs and four steals.

He has five homers total and seven steals on the season. So he's been very good. Overall batting average is 253. This is one that I will admit so far I've been very wrong about Cedric Mullins. He's been great. If you want to get your team name Tuesday

on the podcast, then drop us a five-star rating on Apple. Leave one in the review. Or you can email us at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. And I'm sorry if we don't read all of them. We get a lot. We get a lot of team name Tuesday submissions. Some of them are also not PG, so I'll throw that out there.

If you send us something raunchy, this is a CBS podcast. So we're not able to read it, although I do get a little chocolate of us. Yeah, we'll get a laugh out of it privately, but probably can't actually put it out there. Yeah. So if you want your team name Tuesday, drop us a rating and review. And we'll try and get you here on the podcast. podcast. Keep a PG-13.

Yeah, at least PG-13. I know some people listen to the podcast with their kids, so, you know, don't want to... Yeah, we've had some awkward moments. Don't want to poison the youth there. With that, yeah. Our newsletter, by the way, sign up there. FBT newsletter. It is at CBSports.com slash newsletters slash fantasy baseball today.

You just click on the logo there, and then you throw your email in, and boom, you'll get it every day. our buddy Dan Schneier does a great job with it. So make sure you sign up. And the FFT newsletter as well, Fantasy football for those. Chris does a great job with that. And you could sign up at the same place.

You just knock Fantasy Baseball today off that URL, obviously. Let's take a quick break. And when we return, we'll get to News and Notes here on Fantasy Baseball today. The news and notes, Bryce Harper will not throw for the next six weeks and isn't expected to play in the outfield until after the All-Star break. Chris, I'm not overly concerned because he's still hitting and he's been awesome.

But it's, you know, it's there. It's in the back of my mind. Yeah, after the All-Star break is a vague time period that could mean July 27th or it could mean April 1st, 2023.

As long as he's hitting, that's all I need. Yeah, I guess it increased, like there's heightened risk with Harper just that it, the injury gets worse and he can't play through it. But, right now it doesn't look like a huge you know a significant red flag all right starling

marty could be activated from the bereavement list Thursday against the cardinals Tommy Edmund was not in the lineup Wednesday due to calf sorenness Brendan Donovan started and led off for them instead and Brendan Donovan's actually been pretty good so he's just a name to watch Tommy Edmundt also entered that game later on they needed a defensive replacement because Edmundo Sosa got hurt willie adams was finally placed on the I.L. With that high left ankle sprain retroactive to May 16th,

Lance Lynn was transferred to the 60-day IL and is eligible to debut on June 6th. He's scheduled to face hitters this Friday. Ray's pitching prospect, Shane Boz, will start his rehab assignment with AAA on Thursday. He underwent arthroscopic elbow surgery back in March. He's 74%

rostered. Could be out there in some shallower 10-team leagues, maybe some 12-team points leagues. Shane Boz is someone you need to get on your team because this guy was awesome last year maybe they're a little bit cautious with the endings early on but once he gets going there is a lot of upside with Shane Bozs

you're stashing Lazzardo and McGill and he's right there in that same range I think for sure Carlis Correa was reinstated on Wednesday and went two for four with two runs and a walk unfortunately after we waxed poetic about Royce Lewis on yesterday's way they're going to send Royce Lewis down. Never. They would never do it.

And then they did it. They optioned him back to AAA right after we finished last night's podcast. Chris, would you hold on to Royce Lewis? I would try to. Yeah, I mean, he looked good enough. Good enough is underselling it. He looked very, very good in the brief time that we saw him. He's got, you know, five category potential, as we've seen in the minors with his stolen basis. So hopefully it's not a long-term thing. You have to wonder how long they can live with the way Jose Miranda's performing and what they're getting from, you know, Nick Gordon and the other outfield options. So, yeah, I think hang on to him at least for now. Jose Miranda, by the way,

has been out of the lineup for three of their last five games. So he is starting to lose playing time for not performing, unfortunately. Eduardo Rodriguez exited Wednesday start and is like, headed to the IEL. The Tigers are really struggling with injuries in their rotation right now. So that's part of the reason why they've been so bad. And it also doesn't help that. Torkelson and Javier Baez have also been bad for that team. Marcus Stroman will return from the COVID IL Thursday and start against the D-backs. Kyle Lewis is expected to be activated by Monday. He's batting 333 with three home runs in eight games at AAA. He's 51% rostered. Chris, would you look to add Kyle Lewis? Yeah, there aren't a lot of outfielders who have, you know, power speed potential.

So yeah, I think, I think he's definitely worth adding. You know, obviously he needs to hit better than he did last season. 726 OPS, only five homers, two steals in 36 games. But, you know, we saw the 11 homers, five steals in 2020. So I do think there's reason to add him. Definitely in categories leagues. Points leagues. Yeah, Points Leagues, he's pretty fringy, but any category league, I think.

Yep. Lordeus Griel left Wednesday's game due to left hamstring tightness. Chris Paddock will undergo his second Tommy John surgery and miss the rest of the season. That's frustrating. Yeah. David Robertson was reinstated from the COVID aisle after missing a week and a half. Jordan Romano is recovering from a gastrointestinal infection, but isn't expected to go on the IL. Andrew Heaney threw a 15-piginal.

bullpen session on Tuesday. He is on the IL with left shoulder inflammation. Cole Irvin will be activated from the IL as a result, Zach Logue was optioned back to the miners, which means if you picked him up for two starts this week, he will not be making that second start. I am sorry. Jake Oteroesey's MRI revealed some strains in his right foot slash ankle, but it is not a torn Achilles, which look thankfully for the guy. I mean, that's just one of the worst injuries you can have, so happy it wasn't that. And last minute. It looked bad, yeah.

Yeah. He was just, he like face planted. He couldn't move. It looked really bad. Dalton Jeffries is experiencing biceps tightness and is undergoing an MRI after Wednesday's start. Let's take a look at some waiver wire hitters. And we'll start with a catcher. M.J. Melendez, back-to-back games with a home run.

He's 37% rostered. Chris, we just spoke about him on yesterday's podcast. He has six road games next week, including 30% percent. three at Arizona, which, you know, they have some questionable pitchers. Would you rather have, I saw this email, would you rather have M.J. Melendez or Gary Sanchez, who has been hitting well, he's got eight hits and three home runs over his last six games. Yeah, I mean, kind of six and one half dozen the other, right? We're kind of hoping M.J. Melendez can be a Gary Sanchez-esque hitter. I mean, obviously, I think we hope for better than that.

But like, the good version of Gary Sanchez and, you know, maybe the likely outcome for Melendez is, he struggles enough with contact that he's kind of like the real version of Gary Sanchez that we've seen for most of the last few years. And, you know, it's worth noting he was struggling before getting called up. He was only hitting 167 with a 5801

OPS. He does have home runs and back-to-back games. I think I'd be okay in a one-catcher league dropping Sanchez for Melendez. In a two-catcher league, I think Sanchez is, it would be hard to make that move. Yeah.

I agree. I would rather have MJ Melendez over Gary Sanchez I moved Melendez way up the rankings I've got him at 14

so he's just ahead of Alejandro Kirk Ossonola Elias Diaz so I'll take him over those Yeah I mean he Look he We talk about it all the time

He's a catcher with a pulse And among likely widely Like players who are available and more than half of CBS fantasy leagues, like, I think I'd take him over all of them

except, like, if you had to make a decision between keeping Adley Rushman on your roster or adding MJ Melendez, I would probably just stick with Rushman. Yeah. But I would also say you would probably just drop whoever your other catcher is then,

if you've been stashing Rushman. Melendez, by the way, is average exit velocity entering Wednesday was 94.6. miles per hour. That is fantastic. That's how you hit 41 homers in 124 games like he did last season. Yeah, hopefully he can keep that rolling. Let's say you need an outfielder right now. Mike Yistremski, I mentioned him earlier. He went two for four with a double. He picked up another

start against a lefty, and he's actually batting 278 against lefties this season. In the month of May, Yistramski is batting 313. He's got two homers and OPS over 900. And Scott mentioned this yesterday, but the stack has page is awesome right now for Yostremski's 97th percentile in average exit velocity. I moved them up to outfielder 61 in my rankings. He is 69% rostered. Chris, how does Ystromski compare to Austin Hayes, who low-key is betting 296. He's been really good this year. And Ian Hap, who hit his third home run on Wednesday, he's betting 282. Yaz, Hayes, Hap. Who you got? Um, I would probably rank them Hap, Yaz, Hayes.

Hayes just, it does kind of seem like it's just empty batting average, you know, especially given the changes in Camden and how it's played. As a result of that, so I would be passing. I think it's just a hot streak, but, you know, Hap and

Yaz, I think they can both be, you know, viable five outfielder options. Mm-hmm. And even in points leagues, Yershrimski's always had great plate discipline and for Hap this year he's striking out way less he's walking a bunch and it seems like he's making a concerted effort to make contact it's unfortunately a lot of that contact has been on the

ground so it hasn't led to power but we saw a little glimpse of that on on Wednesday night hitting his third home run I think I would take Yistremski over Hap but it is close between those two how about if you need a middle infielder Chris we've got Adam Frazier who went three for five on Wednesday with two runs scored. He's having a solid May. He's betting 323, four doubles. He's got more walks and strikeouts in the month. He's 46% rostered. And then we also have Luis Arise, who had a big game, three for four, two doubles, four runs scored, a stolen base. He's got nine hits over his last seven games, 40% rostered. And Tyro Estrada, who went three for three, picked up his sixth steel of the season. And he's played quite a bit so far this year for the Giants. Frazier,

arise Tyro Estrada who you got there Fraser would be my number one choice among this group I think the batting average has been pretty bad for him so far I mean 262 I guess is not that bad but you know he had 3.05 last season so I think the expectations are a little higher than that but he is still leading off almost every day for the Mariners and you know if the bat does continue to heat up I think you're gonna see really solid county

stats from him. So yeah, he's on like, he's only on like an 85 run pace right now, but, you know, it wouldn't surprise me if he ended the season with 90 plus runs and, you know, it was a solid batting average source too. So I would have him then Arias, um, Ashara, I just, I don't know, this has been a recurring thing for the Giants over the last like three seasons where it's just like, I don't take these guys seriously and then they just keep hitting. And so, you know, maybe it's a problem. Yeah, it's guys like Tyro Estrada and Wilmer Flores. They just hit and hit and hit and it's like It doesn't matter who's in there. Yeah, it's it's so weird, but hey, they get it done kudos to the giants. Where should these hitters be rostered if anywhere? Cole Calhoun went two for three and hit his sixth home run of the season on Wednesday over his last 12 games. He's batting 385 with five home runs. He's 13% rostered. Chris, where should Cole Calhoun be added?

five outfielder leagues that are deeper than 12 teams. I don't think 12 team leagues. He's really much of a consideration. Yeah, I actually added him this past weekend in my two 15 team five-by-five roto leagues just because it's so hard to find outfielders and Coquahoon's hitting well right now. He's got solid matchups next week too, at the Angels and at the Oakland A's. Yandy Diaz went three for four. He's now batting 287.

His OBP is 412, and he's a left. off six straight games that he has played in. He's 26% rostered. Chris Yandy Diaz, are you looking to add him anywhere? Five outfielder OBP leagues is probably it. Because, like, in theory, a guy who walks as much as Yandi Diaz does would be good in a points league, but because he doesn't play every day, because he doesn't hit for power, because he's not, like, he's got 25 combined runs in RBI and 31 games.

And like that's an especially low mark. He had 126 and 134 games last year. But like he's not going to produce much. He doesn't hit for power. And so this is just a hard player to get excited for in fantasy. Even in OBP league, like he's a one category contributor. Yeah. As weird as that sounds.

That's fair. I mean, based on how much he leads off, you would think he scores more runs than he does. Yeah. Tampa Bay's lineup hasn't been great so far. What about his teammate, Esauk Parades? He went two for four with a double dung

off of his former team on Wednesday. The problem, like, the minor league production is just so mediocre. Chris, are you looking to add him anywhere? Yeah, that was the issue. Like when they traded for him, it just, I don't know. Like, I think there are,

I think the bad at ball data for him has been decent in the minors, from what I've read. And he was hitting okay in the minors, but even then it was like four homers and 25 games, 838 OPS. I, no, I don't really think there's, you know, AL only, maybe even 15 team leagues. I can't imagine having much interest in him.

All right. Here are some hitters who are currently hot and may I keep bringing up some names throughout the course of the podcast this week because we need to know who's hitting and who isn't. Jose Altuve. He's hot. He went one for four, hit his eighth home run, and in May he's batting 316, seven of those eight home runs. He's got an OPS over 1,100 in the month. Reese Hoskins went one for three hit his seventh home run of the season. In May, he's batting 276. He's got five homers in 892 OPS. I mentioned earlier what Gary Sanchez has done recently, and it's hard to find production at the catcher position, so we will definitely welcome that.

Justin Turner is coming around over his last nine games. He's batting third. 303 with three home runs and five doubles. And then Jared Walsh went two for three with a double dung on Wednesday. He's now up to eight home runs. And in the month of May, he's hitting 254 with six homers and an 882 OPS. What is up with these two outfielder's Chris? Cody Bellinger, let's check in. We haven't checked in in in a while on him.

He went two for three with his fourth steel, but he is batting just 205. He's got a 693 OPS. his strikeout rate is 32%. But there are some signs, some positive signs, I guess you could say, in his stat cast numbers, his average eggs of velocity, his barrel rate, his hard hit rate,

those are all the highest since his MVP season. What are you seeing from Cody Belanger right now? I think mostly it's just too many strikeouts. You know, the one thing that I did want to see was, you know, I know last season he really struggled with fastballs. That hasn't been the case. Um, his average axis of velocity on fastballs, 93.5 miles per hour. His expected Wobus 3.79. Last year, it was 271. So that's a good sign. Um, that, that's a sign that Cody Bellinger has kind of fixed the flaw that really got exploited last season last season.

Last season. The problem is he's been worse against both breaking balls and off speed pitches than he was last season. And I don't know. I just, I think the biggest issue right now is he's not making enough contact. You know, when he's making contact, he's getting the best results he has since that MVP season. So that's good, you know, for a guy who looked broken, I mean, who wasn't hitting the ball well last year at all. His expected Wobon contact last year was 344. This year it's 433. So like that's legitimately a positive sign. But, you know, he, he's striking out a lot, especially, you know, in the month of May, he's got 20 strikeouts and 65 plate appearances. that comes out to probably, I guess it's probably a pretty similar strikeout rate actually to his overall. That's probably about 32%. So yeah, I don't know.

It's, I think it just comes down to he's striking out too much. And I don't know if there's reason to be optimistic about that improving, except that that hasn't been as much of an issue the last few years. So I don't know, maybe he's, maybe he's having to cheat in a way that he hadn't in the past. and that's why he's hitting fastballs better but striking out overall more. I don't know. It's a concern, though. I will give you one positive sign, Chris.

The fact that his swinging strike rate is just 11%. It's much better this year than it was last year. 11% is actually close to league average, yet league average strikeout rate is like 20, 22%. Excuse me. And his strikeout rate is 32% right now. So I would imagine there should be some,

like that should line up a little bit more. But maybe it's just that, like you said, maybe he's just kind of guessing on his pitches more. He's maybe being like too selective and then just striking out once he gets two strikes. Like that's when he's swinging and missing. It's weird. Yeah.

No, that is, I actually do think that's a positive sign. Like if you're looking for reasons to be optimistic about him, I think that's a good one. And yeah, his whiff rate on, you know, fan grader or baseball savant categorizes fastballs breaking balls off speed pitches as separate categories and then throws them out there and um his whiff rate on each type of pitch is better than it was last season so uh that that's a promising sign as well

all right what about brian reynolds who was awesome last year when he hit 302 he had 24 home runs counting stats were great he even stole five bases so far this year he's batting um 2-14 overall with a 662 OPS. Chris, the first thing that stand out, the strikeout rate is up, the ground ball rate is up, he's hitting less line drives, and his hard, overall, his average exit velocity

and hard contact are both down considerably. When you see something like that this far into the season, do you think it's just a prolonged slump and you just kind of trust the track record of Brian Reynolds, even though I guess it's not that fast. What do you do when you see the hard contact down

as much as it is for him? Yeah, I mean, the tough thing is we did see a very similar outcome from him in the 2020 season, which was 55 games. He hit 189. His strikeout rate was even higher than it is so far. His quality of contact metrics were very similar. So on the one hand, you can look at it and say,

well, we've seen him struggle like this before, that this wouldn't necessarily be a total outlier. On the other hand, 2020 was followed up by a truly great 2021 season. So I think that's, you know, it kind of cuts both ways there. And I do think with Reynolds, it's likely just a slump.

I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on that. But, you know, every indicator is pointing in the wrong direction, which is always a concern. But he's 27 years old, so it seems unlikely that he's just lost it. So I think it's more he's just lost right now. And he's got to find himself. And I have faith that he will. I think he's a pretty good bylaw candidate.

He was subject to trade rumors before the season two. And we don't talk about that very much, but there is a psychological aspect of the game. Absolutely matters, yeah. Yeah. And I think that was part of the reason why Trevor Story played as poorly as he did last year. Maybe it's affected him so far this year. They've had some drama with the Red Sox.

So I'll just bring that up as a possibility for Brian Reynolds. But Chris, you are more likely to buy than sell right now. Yes. Yeah, I think he's a buy. I think selling right now would be a mistake. All right. Let's wrap up with a few leftovers here. Blake Snell made his season debut,

and he allowed three runs, three walks, three hits, over three and two-thirds. Endings pitched at the Philadelphia Phillies. Chris, what did you see in the start for Blake Snow? I thought this was a somewhat promising outing from Blake Snell for his first one. I think when it comes to the results and a guy coming back from the IL, I think you kind of always want to give that benefit of the doubt and say, well, you get one gimmie, you know, maybe two.

You know, it depends how much you like the player. I'm more willing to give Luis Castillo a third mulligan than you are, perhaps, based on what you said earlier. But, you know, the thing that was interesting here was he was mostly fastball slider, which was the change that he made towards the end of last season as well when he started pitching a lot better. The slider has been, you know, obviously a very good swing and miss pitch for him. He had nine of them on 25 sliders today. So, you know, if he's going to go fastball slider heavy like that,

it doesn't guarantee that he's going to be good. But given what we saw at the end of last season, I think it's a pretty promising sign that the slider was as effective as it was today. I will fully admit, Chris, that you are a much more rational fantasy baseball player than I am. I am closer to the person who tweets at you and wants to trade away all their players

than where you are at. Because I see something like this, and I'm just like, confirmation bias. I'm like, yeah, Blake Snell stinks. I want nothing to do with that guy. And you're right. I mean, we should give him a few more starts to see. Well, and the velocity was up.

So I think that's a good sign, you know, coming back from the injury. So I'm, I'm cautiously optimistic coming out of this one. All right. Some Aces who showed up on Wednesday. Zach Wheelerer mentioned he went seven shutout with nine strikeouts. He has seven plus strikeouts in each of his last four starts. Garik Cole, after his slow start to the season, has five quality. starts in a row during that span. He's got a 1.68 ERA 39 strikeouts over 32 and a third

in a third innings pitched and Shohei Otani has now allowed to earn runs or fewer in six of seven starts. Chris anything you'd like to add on Wheeler Cole Otani. Glad I never moved Garrett Cole Cole down from the number one spot and and you know Otani's velocity has been kind of up and down recently so it was good to see it back up in this one and he looks awesome. All right. I don't know.

It's interesting. His splitter had been his best pitch for a long time. He's not really throwing it as much this season and it doesn't really seem to matter. Yeah, that is so weird.

I've noticed watching him, his slider is it's more of like a sweeping slider and I know that's kind of a thing that's going on in the game right now where more teams are starting to use this sweeping slider but it is a crazy, like it goes from one batters box to the other.

It is just a massive slider. And that velocity, you mentioned up almost two miles per hour or more on each of his fastball, his slider, and his cutter. So he was even more devastating on Wednesday. Not quite aces, but solid outings from these three. Drew Rasmussen, five straight starts allowing one earn run or fewer. Logan Webb survives Cores Field.

He goes seven innings, gives up three runs, six strikeouts. And I was actually encouraged that he leaned into his slider in this one, and he got good results on it. Again, that's Logan Webb. and then Sunny Gray turns in his first quality start of the season at Oakland. Rasmussen Webb Gray. What do you think, Chris? I think Rasmussen's pretty good. I don't think he's like an ace, but in head-to-head points league, I think he's pretty close to a must start because he's got that

spark eligibility and we've seen these high strikeout games from him. He's not going to go super deep into games consistently, but there aren't a lot of guys doing that anyway and there aren't a lot of good relievers anyway. So I feel like in a spark situation, he's very valuable. And you know, Logan Webb, it's course field. So it's sort of like I think you're happy that he got out of it with a good outing. I don't think like Logan Webb throwing his slider as his primary pitch is going to be what he does moving forward. Because course field is such a weird context. But yeah, like he's been a little bit disappointing this season, but he's still been quite. good Logan Webb. So he's someone who has probably moved up in my rankings over the course of the

season, but more because the guys have moved down. But I haven't moved him down at least. The call to the bullpen. Kenley Jansen blew his first save of the season by giving up a run. Daniel Bard picked up his 10th save. Daniel Hudson got his second save for the Dodgers after Craig Kimbril worked on back-to-back days. Corey Kinebel, a clean ninth inning for his eighth save. for the Yankees. Clay Holmes pitched the final two innings for his third save. A Rollis Chapman had pitched in back-to-back games as well. For the Mariners, in a four-to-one game, they had Andres Munoz pitch in the seventh inning. Paul Seawald in the eighth, and then Diego Castillo pitched in the ninth, but it was a five-to-one lead at that point, so no save for Diego Castillo.

I mentioned this already, but David Bednar picked up his eighth save for the Rangers. Matt Bush came in for the save. Joe Barlow pitched on Sunday and Monday, and Bush gave up a game-tying home run with a two-run lead, so that was unfortunate. They still won the game. Actually, the Rangers swept the Angels. I thought that was pretty interesting.

For the Nationals, Tanner Rainey comes in for the save. He gave up one run on two walks and a hit. Victor Arano picked up the save in extras. And then for the Royals, Josh Stallmont pitched in the seventh inning, up four to two at the time, And then Scott Barlow later pitched in the ninth, up 6 to 2.

Kind of just think Scott Barlow is the closer right now for the Kansas City Royals. To stream or not to stream, let's start with Thursday. Bruce Zimmerman versus the Yankees, Dakota Hudson at the Mets, Vince Velasquez at the Royals, Carlos Hernandez versus the White Sox, and Rich Hill versus the Mariners. I would prefer not to start any of them. Dakota Hudson at the Mets is probably the only one I would consider. On Friday, we have Zach Tom.

Thompson versus the Cardinals, Tyler Wells versus the Rays. Jalen Beaks makes his return at the Orioles. Could be an opener situation there, though. Martine Perez at the Astros, Christian Javier versus the Rangers, Daniel Lynch versus the twins, Paul Blackburn at the Angels, Chase Silseth versus the A's, and Jake Junis versus the Padres. This is a much more interesting group, and I would say, Perez, Javier, Blackburn, Silseth, and Junis are all more interesting than anyone on Friday.

So if you're going to be streaming, Friday is the day to do it. And yeah, I think Blackburn at the Angels. I don't love the matchup, but I think that's the most interesting one. But Chase Silseth also very interesting with a great matchup against the A's. Yeah, I think Christian Javier is probably my favorite against the Rangers. That's fair also, yeah. But I do like Silseth. Jake Junis is pitching really well, but Padre's lineup has been pretty good.

So I would put Javier, Sil Seth, and then probably Junis as my third favorite there. We're going to wrap for Chris. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.