Fantasy Baseball Today - Polarizing Pitchers, Breakout Offenses & More! (4/30 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 30, 2025

Sandy Alcantara is struggling to throw strikes (3:34). ... Bowden Francis served up five home runs to the Red Sox (9:25). ... Who hit those homers for the Red Sox (12:26)? ... Yankees, Rangers and Dodgers each put up 15 runs on Tuesday (16:30). ... News (23:35): Cole Ragans will not make his start on Wednesday. ... Where are we on Jacob deGrom, Bryce Miller and other polarizing pitchers (34:35)? ... This or That, add this player or that one (50:10)? ... Too high, too low or just right (54:58)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:01:17). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠⁠ Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: ⁠⁠⁠http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi⁠⁠⁠ Follow FBT on TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1⁠⁠⁠ Follow our FBT team on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@FBTPod⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠@CPTowers⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠@CBSScottWhite⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠@Roto_Frank⁠⁠⁠ Join our Facebook group at ⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday⁠⁠⁠ Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/⁠⁠⁠ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit ⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/⁠⁠⁠ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit ⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/⁠⁠⁠ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Hello, and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, April 30th. I am Frank Samfell, joined by Chris Towers.

Today on the show, we had some big offensive breakout. It's just around baseball. Four different teams with double-digit run scored here on Tuesday. We got some interesting pitcher questions. Too high, too low or just right. This or that. We're going to bounce around a little bit. Chris, we have made it through the first month of the season.

How you feeling? Yeah, we have, I guess. I mean, it's not May yet, but yeah. Yeah, we're basically there. Yeah, yeah, it's the first month is always hard. as an analyst. You know what it is? You know what I always forget every year?

This is the third year. I think I've been doing the fantasy baseball today newsletter, maybe the second. It's like really easy to get excited about like waiver wire ads, like the first couple of weeks. And then by this point in the year, it's like, ugh.

Because, you know, like we got a little more information. A lot of the early season breakouts haven't. So like when someone has a good game in, you know, the first week of April, you can be like, hey, maybe there's something here.

When they have a good game now, it's like, well, yeah, they've had like 20 bad games before this, so it's probably not real. You know, like, that's, that's tough, but it's baseball. It's fun. I love watching baseball every night. Love talking about baseball every night. And here we are talking about baseball. Let's jump in.

Holy cow. How about that? All right, Chris, for some reason, we both start with, we both decided to start with terrible pitching performances, and you are up first. Sandy Alcuncara. Yeah, because I figure I should address it at the top because I believe I called him a by-low candidate yesterday on the show. And now his ERA is at like 831, I believe, for the season, which is really bad.

If you're not familiar with how ERA scales, like sub-4 is pretty good, anything above four, you start to get pretty bad. Eight is really bad. Just I know we got some new listeners. So, you know, I want to make sure that we're all on the same page here. And it continues to be the problem that has been there for Sandy Alcantara in his first five starts, which is just the stuff looks really good. The stuff looks more or less like you want it to.

He averaged 96.1 miles per hour at the four seamer. That's a little bit down, but not so down that you start panicking. He was getting whiffs on the change up. It's just the command's really bad right now. bouncing stuff at multiple times throughout the game. I think there probably were like five or six different pitches that bounced in front of home plate feel for the change up even though the results were okay. He didn't have it.

The slider bounced a couple. I think there were a couple of wild pitches. He walked five. And it's just the case that while he looks more or less like himself in a lot of ways, the execution's not there. And it doesn't matter how good your stuff is. if you can't throw strikes consistently and you can't hit your spots. There was some weird miscommunication.

I think they were having a pitchcom issue early on in the game as well. There was a point where he threw a fastball, and I'm pretty sure Augustine Ramirez was expecting a change-up, and he just completely whiffed on it. So, you know, maybe things snowballed from there, although he gave up a home run to the very first batter. So I'm not sure how much we can blame that on that. But all of that being said,

stand by Sandy Alcantra as a by-low candidate. And I think at this point, it's probably a real by low because I think whoever has him on their team is probably pretty frustrated by the whole experience. And you're going to need to wait. Like, it's the kind of thing where Sandy Al-Contra is talented enough that it could just be from one start to the next. The light goes on and he pitches more or less like we expected him to. He's not there right now. So even if you do trade for him, I think you got to sit Sandy Alcantra. I will say I wouldn't drop him. I just think he's too talented.

The upside is too high. There are too many other boring pitchers out there that I would drop ahead of Sandy Alcantra, even though, look, if you can't use a player, there's not much difference between that and dropping them, right? But if you drop him and his next start is amazing, you might lose out on the opportunity to pick him back up on your team. Yeah, like you look around the league today.

and like you're going to talk about Boudan Francis, but like Eduardo Rodriguez is fairly highly rostered. Whoops, sorry. I know I was towning him as a streamer. Andrew Heaney had a bad start and we didn't really buy into anything that he was doing before. I think it'd be much easier to drop either of those guys than Sandy Alcantra. Yeah, Eduardo Rodriguez, man, I think it was eight earn runs, 69% rostered. He can go badden Francis.

We're going to talk about him in a second. Sandy Alconstra, you said you're benching him, Chris, and whole, like, I would agree, wholeheartedly, except he faces the white stocks the next start. So are you still benching Sandy next time out? I kind of feel like you still should, but man, that is, you don't want to miss out on a white sock start, you know? Like, the thing is, what's the best start of the season so far for Sandy Alcandra? I think it was four strikeouts and six innings in his last start. That's the only quality start he had. that's the only one he's gone a six full

inning. So like, he's in the conversation to start against the white sucks. I did have Sandy as part of our pitcher question segment for later on. And this is highly speculative. There's nothing to support this, but the control has been so

bad, Chris. Four plus walks in three of six outings. It's 5.9 walks per nine. He almost has as many walks as strikeouts this season. Is there a chance that he's just not healthy? because I feel like this is something you might see if a pitcher was not healthy. Just their inability to throw strikes. There's a chance, sure.

But I, there's been no indication besides the poor command. And given how much having a healthy Sandy Alcantra matters for the Marlins because they're almost certainly going to be trying to trade him this summer. If there was even a whiff of something to be concerned about, I think they would sit him. Yeah. So I'm not concerned about that. And look, there's no guarantee he figures it out, right?

It's also worth that. I think it's the Dodgers. Yeah. So like he could pitch exactly the same against the White Sox and end up with a quality start just because the Dodgers have like eight guys in their lineup better than anyone the White Sox have. Is that overstating it? Probably not.

Yeah. So I don't know. Andy Paa has versus. Luis Robert as a hitter right now. That's probably disturbingly close. So yeah, I would probably lean sitting him. He hasn't earned the right to stay in your starting lineup. But given the matchup against the White Sox, I could see it.

But now I maybe something comes out. But I haven't seen any reason to think that there's a health reason why he's struggling. Oh my goodness gracious. Player of the night for the wrong reasons. Bowden Francis. Regression alert. Up against the Red Sox, he got destroyed, gave up seven runs over three innings. Five homers allowed in this one. Twelve hard hits allowed, 97.8 average exit velocity against Bowden Francis in this one.

And entering this start, each of his three main pitches had expected Wobas over 350. The biggest thing for Bouten Francis last year was that yes, he was a flyball pitcher, but he was limiting Barrow. So a lot of those fly balls were just turning into outs. That's how he was carrying no hitters into like seventh, eighth, ninth innings, almost with regularity last season towards the end there with Boutan-Francis. But he's giving up a lot of barrels this season. It's turning into a lot of home runs, clearly in this one. It's up to a 528 ERA, a 134 whip for Bouten-Francis.

Is this just a clear drop, Chris? Because I could still see him having value as a spark in a points league. but he also is capable of crushing you in a given week. So where are you at? Is it just a full fade, full drop on Bouten Francis? I'd hang on to him in a points league. Although, you know, because this is the two-start week,

unless he gets pushed back for his second start, you know, now you probably have to go three to four days, three or four more weeks before he gets another two-start week. And that's really the only time I would feel super confident starting him even in a points league. So I guess you can make that case. The one thing, The thing with Boundin Francis was I was open to last season being real to some extent, right?

Like there was some real skill here between like average strikeout rate. Okay, that's not great. But very good control and very good quality of contact suppression. I was open to that being the case. And that's Kyle Hendricks, you know, Kyle Hendricks made a career out of being exactly that. Average strikeout rates, great control, great quality of contact. The problem is that takes a long quality of contact especially takes a long time to know if it's a real skill or not. And the fact that he's come out this season and even before today, he had one of the highest expected Wobos on contact of any pitcher of any starter in baseball.

That's a pretty good sign that last year was a fluke. And that's not to say there won't be stretches where Bauden Francis is useful, but it's to say that I don't. I don't think we give him the benefit of the doubt anymore, as like we were coming into the season. So I think in any non-points league, any league where his spark eligibility doesn't matter, I think Bowden Francis is a fairly obvious drop right now. Agreed.

1,000 percent. Roto, head to head categories. You can go ahead and drop Bowden Francis for a streaming pitcher, whoever the hot hitter is right now. A lot of people need roster spots right now. Baton Francis Categories League. he's one that can go.

Who did all that damage for the Red Sox? They hit five home runs. As we mentioned, Jaron DeRan hit his second. Alex Breggman hit his sixth. Christian Campbell hit his fourth. Continues great start to his career. Rafael Devers hit his fifth. And Williare Brayu, three for four with his sixth home run here.

293 batting average also has four steals, 963 OPS. And Chris, unless the Red Sox have only faced four left-handed starting pitchers this season, Willier-A-Bray-U is playing nearly every day. He has sat out only four games all season here. Quality of contact looks good. Expected stats look good. Plate discipline looks good.

The more this happens, the more I am willing to buy in on this Willier-A-breakout. Willier-A-Brey-U, that was interesting. I wanted to put-Willier a breakout. Willier a breakout. Yeah, let's go with that. It looks like they have faced six,

left-handed starting pitchers this season, and I will, hold on, see how many times he started against him. I think two, based on what you said, he has started one game against the left-handed starting pitcher. So I think the schedule has been pretty favorable for the Red Sox. I think something like 30% of major league starters are left-handed. But as he continues to do this type of damage,

that has to earn him more. or playing time, right? It's possible. I mean, we've said the same thing about a lot of guys that it doesn't end up being true about, you know, Pavin Smith. I feel like we've said that about. And Luis Garcia was kind of the obvious example last season

where we kept saying that about it. It never came true and it hasn't really come true this season, although he's been bad. So I guess that is why. But it's, that's always a tough bet to make. Like, this is, I mean, It's why I hate talking about relievers, right? It's hard enough to predict performance without also having to try to predict what a third party is going to decide to do in the future, you know, that that is different than what they've done in the past.

I think it's reasonable to think that if Willier-Abray who keeps being a 960 OPS bat, that he will eventually get a chance to play against lefties. Maybe they'll get some lefties on the schedule and we'll find out for. fairly soon. I'm skeptical that that will be the case, though. All right. Let's hit a quick break when we return. We'll go over some of their big offensive breakouts. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. The Red Sox were not the only team that went off on Tuesday. The Yankees, the Bronx Bombers. They showed up early on Tuesday. They started the game with back to back to back home runs. And four total in the first inning. They wound up with 15 runs on 19 hits, six home runs

total. They rudely welcomed Kyle Gibson to the Orioles, his first start of the season. Aaron Judge hit his ninth home run. Ben Rice double-donged, now up to eight homers. Cody Bellinger hit his third. I know Trent Grisham added his ninth home run of the season. Austin Wells hit one as well there. You know, wanted to just quickly comment on Ben Rice because starting to, you know, get some whispers of like, hey, what's going on with Ben Rice? Like, he's sitting out a little bit here or there. And I saw some like, can I drop? this, should I consider dropping this guy questions? Like, I don't think you should do that.

Ben Rice still has eight homers and a 998 OPS, a 387 on base percentage. There will be questions at some point this season, Chris. John Carlos Stanton, I think, we'll be back at some point. You know, he's started to hit a little bit. You know, maybe it's like a late May, early June thing for Stanton, and yes, life finds a way. But hopefully they do figure it out with Ben Rice.

but yeah, just kind of called me off guard that people were, you know, starting to doubt him a little bit and then boom, wake up call, Ben Rice. Are you really surprised, though? I guess I shouldn't be. Not, look, I love everyone who listens to our podcast. There are some impatient people out there.

And so much of this podcast is us just kind of repeatedly saying, be a little more patient. The season ebbs and flows for everyone. Every single player will have stretches where they struggle, stretches where they were awesome. From the best hitters in baseball to the very worst, there will be stretches where they are good and bad.

And in Ben Rice's case, he has started three of the first six games against lefties, so it's not a strict platoon. His underlying numbers remain very, very impressive. They continue to suggest not only that he has earned what he has done so far, but arguably that he's been better than his underlying or his surface level numbers. His expected Wobah is 425. Now, he did underperform as expected Woba last season.

Maybe that's just there's something about Ben Rice that will make him underperform moving forward. But every skill indicator suggests that Ben Rice is a very good hitter right now. I have not even thought about dropping him where I have him. All right. And then the Rangers also put up 15 runs on 18 hits, unlike the Yankees zero home runs in this one. But each of Josh Smith, Jonah Heim, Marcus Semyon, Adolas Garcia,

Jake Berger, and Lioti Tavares had multiple hits in that game. Definitely love to see it from Semen and Berger. We need a lot more of that. I mean, especially Semyon. It's just been such a slow start. his OPS is still under 500, even after, I think, a two or three hit game here. He's had a couple of multi-hit games since moving down in the lineup, I believe. I'm not sure.

I remember the first game he got moved down. I think he had a three-hit game and then kind of did nothing after that and then had this solid game here. Yeah, it's eight hits and eight games since getting moved down. One homer. No extra base hits besides the homer. So, yeah, still not great, still not what we need to see from him. Okay, yeah. We need to see more for Marcus Simeon, sure, certainly.

And then the Dodgers also put up 15 runs on 18 hits. That game just went final. We got position players on both sides of that game. It feels like we've been getting so many position players pitching early on in the season here. But Otani sock into shoe, his seventh home run, his eighth steal of the season. It's like just ho-hum.

Obviously, Otani hasn't, like, he's not doing what he did last season, but it's still, you know, seven home runs, eight steals, 288 batting average early on. It feels like we haven't heard anything about Otani this year. He hasn't been great, and he's on, what, a 35 home or 40 steel pace?

Yeah. Something like that. Like, that's, like, it's a 942 OPS, and I've seen people complaining about show Hey, Otani. far, which tells you how absurd the, the, the expectations are for him. But he's zero concerns there. Yeah.

I will say just like at some point, presumably he's going to start ramping up as a pitcher. I haven't really heard any. He had a couple of bullpen sessions a couple of weeks ago. I haven't really heard anything since then. I assume he'll get a few more days off when that starts happening. he'll get a few, he'll steal fewer bases as well. But, who cares, you know? It's still show it, Tony, right?

Yeah. It's like what we said, like, okay, even if he's not quite as good, even if he's not a 40 steel guy, it's probably still 20 steals. And he's probably still 45 homer guy. So, yeah, no concerns there. Teasker and Andes, uh, 30 RBI and 28 games. Crazy.

I feel like he had a similar, start last season, if I remember, only 16 RBI in the month of April. So might actually have a better season than he had last year just because of how hot he's been to start the season. Along with a 297 batting average, nine homers, 926 OPS, 4 Teosker Hernandez, Tommy Edmund stole a base, take that Scott, one for two, with double three RBI for him, had a walk in that game. Andy Paez, we will get to him a little bit.

little bit later on when we do this or that. Reminder that there is no FBT Express today on Wednesday when you're listening to this, the new schedule that we will publish, new schedule when we're publishing FBT Express Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. This full-length podcast, Fantasy Baseball today will remain unchanged. Still five times per week like normal I saw. Somebody in the comments yesterday, Chris said, oh, 30,000 subscribers. Now you guys are starting to slack off. I'm like, come on, man. Are you serious? We're just changing things up a little bit. Trying to figure out what works best. You know, there's a lot going on

early on in the season. And a reminder to subscribe to the FBT newsletter. If you haven't already, if you're watching on YouTube, scan that QR code that will take you right to the website where you can sign up for free. That will be in your email inbox every weekday of the baseball season. Let's get into the news and notes and Cole Regens will not start on Wednesday because of that groin injury. Instead, the Royals are promoting pitching prospect Noah Cameron to make his Major League debut.

He's 25 years old, left-handed pitcher, change up first, strong command, five starts at AAA this season, 322 ERA 103 whip, 10.9 K-per-9 and a near 16% swinging strike rate. I do remember we had Nick Pollock from Pitcher List on this podcast back in spring training, and he was pretty excited about what Noah Cameron was doing this spring. This isn't a must add. This is like not even a deeper league, maybe AL only, but a name to watch, Chris, Noah Cameron, 5% rostered.

Absolutely. A name that I'm, I'm interested in watching make his major league debut. I'm interested. I might go back and listen to, do you remember if it was the first or second time? It was the one during spring training?

Yeah, so the second time he was on. Because when I was reading the scanning reports and looking at some of the data for Cameron, it seemed like the fastball is pretty weak. And I know Nick's a big, like good fastball guy. I think the velocity was up this spring

and that's something he was excited about. In his AAA starts, it's been, he sits right around 93. From the left side, the change up is supposed to be really good. Big like 126 curveball, that's supposed to be pretty good as well. He throws a cutter a little bit.

Very good AAA numbers. It's like a 250 ERA in 14 starts with a 30% strikeout rate. He was good at AA last season as well. There was a bit of a, velocity jump last season. Not someone I'm expecting to stick around even necessarily

because we don't know if it's a multi-start absence, but very interested to watch Noah Cameron make his debut for sure. And speaking of pitching prospects, the Reds are promoting Chase Petty for Wednesday's double-header against the Cardinals. He is 22 years old, a first round pick back in 2021. Big

fastball, big slider, questionable control here, but five starts at AAA this season, 352, ERR. A, 130 whip, 10.6K per 9, solid ground ball rate, 13.4% swinging strike rate. And just another name, Deep League, someone to watch. Don't add him yet. But Chris, this is someone who has electric stuff, Chase Petty. Yeah, this is one I did not, I did not see that he was getting the call.

So that is exciting. He, yeah, he's a top 100-ish prospect overall. He's put up some pretty good strikeout numbers. It's just, you know, if he command especially. So we'll see. We'll see what it looks like. I'm excited to see him get a chance as well. Christopher Sanchez has been cleared to start Wednesday against the Nationals.

He left his previous start with left forearm soreness. So velocity and control will be things to pay attention to from Christopher Sanchez. Ronald de Cunia remains without a timetable. He was cleared to ramp up activities a couple weeks ago. But there has been no talk. of a rehab assignment yet. Shota Imanaga left his start early on Tuesday due to like cramps.

At least he was able to get through five innings before leaving and wound up with the win in that one. He left to start earlier with cramping too, right? One of his first couple of starts, I can't. Am I remembering correctly? Am I making that up completely out of whole cloth? I'm not sure. I'm known to lie.

Don't lie, Chris. That's not nice. But either way, who cares? It doesn't matter. It's not a, it's not a, it's not a significant injury. Or at least, as long as there's nothing beyond, you know, cramping, then it's just like, yeah, just, you know, drink some water.

Suck on a mustard packet. It doesn't, oh gosh. Are you a mustard guy? That's what they do. Are you a mustard guy, Chris? Mustard has its place. Well, outside of, you know, rubbing it on your chicken or turkey before you cook it or, I saw the look on your face.

But haven't you been known to, uh, Do like a mustard. Oh, a mayo rub. I did a mayo rub when I made my, my Thanksgiving turkey last year. I will say, I have done, uh,

the mustard rub for like barbecue, uh, to help the spices stick to it. That's fine. I can see that. And, uh, you know,

those like a crystal or white castle burgers. Oh yeah. They have, they're, they're like sauteed in mustard. I believe that's, that's part of their, their process.

So yeah, muster's got, plenty of place in the food world. Yeah, this won't surprise anybody. I'm out. Out on mustard, out on mayo. Nope, not for me. Yeah, I'm one of those kids that puts ketchup on their their hot dog. I know I just like lost a lot. Kellea ketchup and hot dogs is fine. I just lost 100 followers on Twitter or something like that. Jazz Chisholm left early with right side discomfort and this is something to pay attention to. Extensive injury history obviously. Sounds like he's going to go for testing on Thursday.

So definitely something to watch there with Jazz Chisholm. A.J. Smith Chauver left his start Tuesday after being hit on the right arm by a line drive. And before he left, he was pitching well in course field. Five and a third inning, two runs, five strikeouts, nine whiffs on 59 pitches. That Splitter continues to look

really interesting for A.J. Smith Chauver. 25% rostered. Let's make sure he's healthy, Chris. but Smith Chauver is someone I could see maybe having fantasy value in deeper leagues. He's still so, I mean, he's still 22, I think. Yeah, he got called up so young. He debuted at 20.

A lot of development left. And so it wouldn't surprise me if he starts to figure it out here, but not a huge priority ad, but there aren't a tell, like, who was the best waiver wire pitcher on Tuesday? I don't think there was really anybody. that I was super motivated to write about. No, the two that I wrote about were Lance McCullors

and Noah Cameron. And I'll add Chase Paddy for tomorrow's article. But none of the guys who pitched on Tuesday really impressed me. So yeah, I think AJ Mischarver certainly talented. Jordon Alvarez was back in the lineup after leaving early on Monday with that awkward slide. Royce Lewis is likely to be activated

when the twins begin their next homestand on May 6th. Awesome Austin Hayes has a tender hamstring and will undergo further testing. He dealt with a calf injury earlier on in the season and just terrible timing because he's locked into your lineup

and, you know, he was off to this tremendous start. So hopefully it's not too serious. Dylan Moore was placed in the aisle with right hip inflammation. Shane McClanahan has begun throwing like activities but is not playing regular catch just yet.

I have like, I have questions. Yeah. Like tossing? I don't know. Or like air, like because, well, I know they do like simulating the motion, right? Yeah, they do the towel thing. I don't know if you've ever seen that where they like pretend to throw a towel.

Some guys do that to warm up. So maybe, I don't know. That's that's a funny, funny phrasing. Yeah. Josh Lowe could begin a rehab assignment as soon as Saturday. He's been out with the oblique injury. Ranger Suarez could rejoin the Phillies rotation this weekend against the debacks. Speaking of the Phillies, prospect Andrew Painter will.

start at AAA on Thursday. His first three starts came in single A. I really appreciate that the Phillies are only having Andrew Painters start where we have Stack S data. That's actually really considerate of them because we'll get to see what he looks like throughout. From what I've seen, it's been awesome so far. The expectation is still June-ish July, right? I would think June at the earliest that he's pitching games in the majors. No matter, like, I don't think like they could have like six starting pitcher entries.

and I don't think we'd see Andrew Painter before then. Yeah. Shane Bieber is set to throw in simulated games in the Arizona Complex League. It sounds like he's expecting to return closer to the All-Star break. So reading more about that, you know, the Marlins being a little bit more aggressive

on Yuri Perez. He's younger, obviously. Shane Bieber said he's deliberately waiting. He doesn't want to return too soon. He doesn't want to, you know, kind of... This is a second, right? I'm not entirely sure. Okay.

But yeah, he's kind of playing in a little bit safer here with Shane Bieber. And the Blue Jays activated Dalton Varsho, who made one of the craziest catches of the season, Chris. Did you see that? Not even of the season. That was all time. Tripped on the warning track, fell down, caught the ball behind his back. That was, that was bonkers. I love when you make a bad play and turn it into a great play.

Yeah. That's always fun. Dalton Varsho, 23% rostered. Any interest in five outfielder leagues? Five Alphiarder League, sure. Like, we know he's not a particularly good hitter. It's, you know, 15-ish homers and 15-ish steals. I don't think there's a big ceiling there.

But yeah, sure. I think if you need a little bit of speed, especially, then Dalton Varsho has some appeal. All right, let's take our final break. When we return, I've got questions, and hopefully. Chris has answers. We'll discuss right after this quick commercial break.

Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. I've got pitcher questions, and I hope that Chris has answers. Jacob de Grom had one of his better starts of the season, up against the athletic six shutout innings, seven strikeouts, 16 whiffs on 65 pitches, and you might be wondering, 65 pitches? What's going on here? Well, the score was 12 Zip after the sixth inning,

so they chose to play it safe here. And Chris, I guess this isn't really a question rather than a statement. Maybe you agree. But it kind of feels like Jacob de Grom is relearning how to pitch at this velocity. And the last three starts, only three earn runs allowed, 20 strikeouts to one walk. I think he's starting to figure it out. Yeah, I think if there's a problem with Jacob de Grom, it's probably one of perception. Right?

Like because his name is Jacob de Grom and he was basically he pitched like an elite closer, but as a starter for five seasons, I think people were just like, okay, he's just going to do that. He's healthy. And I was never quite as sure that that was going to be the case. And I'm still not. Like I think this is the closest he's looked to the classic Jacob de Grom that we've ever seen, especially the foreseamer. You know, the four seamer. You know, The velocity was up a little bit, 97.4 miles per hour, still well down from his peak, but it was up about a half mile per hour, a little more than that from where he'd been this season. And he got eight whiffs with it. It's the first time that he's really had the elite whiffs with the four seamer. And that's been the biggest difference for Jacob de Grom. It's just the four seamer hasn't been a dominant pitch for him. You know, 18% whiff rate entering today.

that's the lowest. It hadn't been below 25% since 2017, I think. No, 2016, when it was 24.9%. And the velocity is the lowest it's been since 2019 as well. I think Jacob Graham's really good. I think on a perning basis, I probably expect him to be a top 15 starting pitch with the rest of the way. Is that going to be worth...

what you drafted him for. Well, if he stays healthy, probably. I don't know how to factor in the injury risk here. Do I think throwing less hard? Like, my thought has always been, not just for Jacob de Grom, but for every pitcher. It's not the max velocity you throw at. It's not how hard you throw because every pitcher is different.

Everybody's built to withstand different things. And I think it's more about how often you are, pitching near your max. And I just have no idea. Like is Jacob de Grom still capable of hitting 101 and sitting 99 and he's intentionally throwing 97? Then I think he's probably more likely to stay healthy. I just don't know if that's the case.

Like that's what he said, but I don't know. Because I don't think he would come out and say, I can't throw hard anymore. So I say it all to say that I think, Jacob de Grom's going to be good moving forward. I think he's going to be very, very good. I think he's going to be an ace. I'm still not expecting Jacob de Grom to be who he was from 2019 to 2023 when he was on the map, right? Like the 12K per nine, the sub two ERA. I don't think he's that guy anymore. I still think he's really good though. All right, let's talk about Carlos Rodan, who makes it three

strong starts in a row, this one at the Orioles. Believe he took a perfect game into the sixth inning of this one. six innings, two hits, two runs, seven strikeouts, 10 whiffs on 91 pitches. And over his last three starts, it's 19 innings, only six hits allowed, two runs, seven walks is high, 24 strikeouts for Carlos Rodon. And the biggest thing that stands out this season, Chris, the ground ball rate, 47% ground ball rate for Rodon, who in his career has been a fly ball pitcher. So the question here, is this the best version of Carl Sordaun we've seen for the year? Yankees, one that is putting the ball on the ground more.

The best version that we've seen for the Yankees, yes. This is another one where I don't think that Giants era upside is here at all, because the fastball just isn't the same kind of dominant pitch. But like the fact that he's getting more ground balls, well, that makes sense because he's going from a 90 to 92% for seamer and slider usage at. his peak to throwing changeups 15% of the time and sinkers about 10% of the time before this start. And, you know, curve balls about 8% of the time. And so those are three pitches in particular that you would expect to generate more ground balls.

So, you know, I think the command is going to come and go. It does from pitch to pitch with Carlos Redon, frankly. But I do think the loss of his dynamic fastball has forced him to become a more complete. pitcher. And I do think this is going to be his best season with the Yankees if he stays healthy. Let's talk about Taj Bradley, who turned in a quality start against the Royal seven innings, two runs, three walks to two strikeouts, did allow some hard contact in this one. Just seems like a really confusing pitcher so far this season. It's three strikeouts or fewer in three straight. The control has not been very good for Taj Bradley.

You know, he's doing, I can't even say, I was going to say okay job doing keeping runs off the board, but it is a 458 ERA for Tage Bradley. So what have you made of him so far this season, Chris? Is this definitely someone that needs to be held on to? Yeah, I'm not dropping him, but the lack of strikeouts especially has been concerning. And, you know, you try to look for like one specific culprit. And it's just kind of all of his pitches have not been getting the whiffs that we're used to. But I don't see anything that really stands out that should make that to the case. He is throwing his foreseamer around as hard as he did last year, but everything else is up pretty consistently.

His curveballs up about two miles per hour, almost three, cutter and splitter around one to one and a half miles per hour. So there could be something to just not getting as much velocity separation and hitters being able to time him a little better. that that could be an explanation for why Tage Bradley has just been a little underwhelming. Nick Pollock has this term, he calls pitchers like this cherry bonds, and I think that's what Tosh Bradley is, where there's going to be some really exciting moments and there's going to be some real blowups

and it's going to be hard to ride the ride. We need more strikeouts to make that ride worth it, though. So that's the thing I want to see him improve on moving forward. I'm not dropping him, but certainly not a must-start pitcher right now. All right. Let's talk about Freddie Peralta, who had a quality start at the White Sox, six innings, three runs, three hits, excuse me, two runs allowed, five strikeouts. And his velocity was way down in this one. All four pitches down between 1.6 and 2.1 miles per hour.

And I didn't see anything or any reason or read any quotes or hear, just anything about the velocity. being down here, I did just kind of pose the question on Twitter and asked if anybody saw anything. And I had a couple of people speculating that like maybe things were just off in that stadium because like the velocity was down for all the pitchers in that game. So it is a possibility here. But any concern on the velocity for Freddie Peralta? Maybe. Like if he's hurt, then yes. If not, then I would think it's probably.

He still pissed pretty well. But it is a wetsawks too. Yeah, like he still pitch pretty well. The thing with Freddie Peralta this season, and I don't think we. We've talked enough about him because he's just been good. It's a different version of Freddie Peralta than the one we've historically gotten used to, which has always been very fastball heavy, still fastball heavy. But then the slider has always been the clear number two pitch for him,

throwing it between 19 and 27% of the time over the previous three seasons. This season has slider usage entering today. It was 8%. And he only threw it six times on 93 pitches today. So that is interesting. He's also throwing his slider harder than ever. So it's a different type of pitch. And his curveball is now the pitch that he's throwing 13% of the time.

And the changeup's been the number two. Well, all three of those pitches have been awesome. They've been getting tons of whiffs before today. Curveball was okay today, but everything else, only two and one. But yeah, it's a different version of Freddie Peralta. I hope that there's nothing wrong with him because I think he's a must-start pitcher the way he's pitching right now. So as long as it's just a one-off, I'm not worried about it. All right. Control problems continue for Bryce Miller, five shutout innings, five walks, six strikeouts.

He now has four plus walks in back-to-back starts, three plus walks in four of six outings this season. he only had three or more walks in five of 31 starts last year, and control was a calling card for Bryce Miller. The question here, Chris, was what is up with the walks? But I will answer my own question because I saw this tweet from Daniel Kramer, who covers the Mariners from MLB.com after the game. A frustrated Bryce Miller said that his back, quote, locked up on him pregame to the point where he opted not to sit down

in between innings and make it worse. He also dealt with arm soreness earlier this month. which sounds kind of scary. Arm sort is. Extremely scary. And yeah, his back locking up on him and,

you know, like losing control is, you know, could sometimes kind of preface in a pitcher injury coming. I hope that isn't the case, but seeing a quote like this is,

it's kind of scary. It's certainly not what you want to see from a guy who's been just a little bit off in the early going. The walk rate, double what it was last season. You look at today, he was struggling to throw the sinker in the strike zone.

He was kind of struggling to throw the splitter in the strike zone, although that, you know, you're kind of used to that. I don't know if he didn't have the feel for the knuckle curve, which he's thrown about 13% of the time this season. He only threw two of them today. Just feels like he's going through it and may not be 100% healthy. You know, that that note about the back and the arm soreness certainly might. makes me think that he just hasn't been healthy. And I don't know. Like, is he likely to turn that

around and get healthy? Well, pitching through it probably isn't going to help. So that's concerning. But I almost wonder if he himself or the Mariners are maybe pushing him a little bit just because they have so many injuries already. That's the concern. Yeah. With Logan Gilbert and George Kirby already on the IL, there, they're two horses like that. That's. Yeah. I think if Circus circumstances were different. You know, if Emerson Hancock wasn't already in the rotation, they might just sit Bryce Miller down. And the concern is obviously, one, that he gets hurt worse and can't pitch, but two, just that he never gets right as a result of it and just kind of muddles through the season. It's not like he's so proven that we can say for sure that Bryce Miller's an ace.

So, you know, I'll be updating my rankings later this week. And I think Bryce Miller is someone that I've kind of dropped a little bit. I think it's probably been more guys rising above him. And then my most recent update, I do think I dropped him a little bit. He's down to 30. That feels too high. You know, like, I would rather have Jack Flaherty than him. I might rather have Brian Wu than Bryce Miller at this point.

I think Brian Wu was actually the better pitch. If Bryce Miller's not 100% healthy, I don't really know how I can ding Brian Wu for potentially getting hurt in the future, perhaps. So yeah, I do think Bryce Miller probably going to drop more to the 40, right? Like, would you rather have Hazel's Lazzardo or Bryce Miller? Lozardo has a bunch of injury risk himself.

Yeah. Love what I've seen this season. Hmm. That is a really good question. Knowing what we know right now, I think I'd probably say, Lizardo. Would you rather have Nick Povetta or Bryce Miller? I don't think I would. Nick Povetta is doing like some, he looks a little bit different this year as a pitcher and I obviously pitching in San Diego.

I think he can have a better season than he did have in Boston. I'm, I don't completely buy it. So I think I wouldn't take that. But I if I have Bryce Miller right now and anyone who hasn't like read or heard this news, I might try and flip him for like a top 30 starting pitcher and Sure. Someone that you don't have injury concerns about right now. Yeah, because my thing is I get the concerns we have about Hazel Sussardo and Brian Wu. Like, I get that. If they're currently healthy and Bryce Miller isn't,

does it really make sense to ding those guys for injuries relative to a guy who is already dealing with something? I don't know. It's a fair question, but I tend to lean, just give me the guys who are currently healthy and stop trying to predict the future. Well, speaking of Nick Povetta, five in a third inning, three runs, nine strikeouts, 10 whiffs on 89 pitches. And he's allowed three earned runs or fewer in all six of his starts.

He has six plus strikeouts and four straight. Chris, is Nick Povetta a breakout, or is this a sale high? Maybe both. You know, I can straddle that fence. I don't think he's a sub 2 ERA guy. He has a 178 ERA. I still might put my expectation for him the rest of the season at a 378 ERA, given how much he historically has struggled with hard contact.

Now, that hasn't been an issue for him. He actually, like his strikeout rate's a little lower than it was last season. The walk rate's basically identical. And the biggest change is that he's just giving up so much less, not even hard contact because his hard hit rate is actually the same. It's just he's giving up less productive contact. His expected Wobon contact 384 last year, 347 this year. He's gone from below average to slightly better than average.

Given his history, given how long that stat takes to stabilize, I tend to assume that Nick Povetta will regress in that regard and probably be more of a mid-to-high-3 ZRA guy. That would still be the best season to Nick Povetta. career. So again, I think both. All right. Makes sense. This or that transitioning here, who would you take among these waiver wire options? Would you rather have Chris Nate Lowe or Kyle Manzardo? Nate Lowe hit a clutch home run in the ninth inning here. His sixth home run of the season. He's got 23 RBI, 775 OPS, 56% rostered. And Kyle Manzardo also hit a clutch home run. He walked it off against the twins two for three with his eighth home run.

He has an 881 OPS, 63% rostered, and now has first base eligibility. So it's nice. This or that, Nate Lowe or Kyle Manzardo? I think I will give Manzardo the edge. I think Nate Lowe has just been kind of underrated since the off season. No playing time concerns in that Washington lineup. He's hitting in a good spot. I'm pleased with what he's done.

I think the RBI especially should be pretty good at the top of that lineup. But I think Manzardo has a little more upside. Yeah. Jorge Polanco or Glaber Torres. This is just the travesty. I should have talked about Jorge Polanco sooner because he just continues to mash. Glaber Torres, a name we haven't really talked about very much, three for five with a sock and a shoe, his third home run, his fourth steel.

He's also hitting 292 with a 794 OPS, 73% roster. So these are very shallow league names here. Polanco, two for three with a double dong, five RBI, hitting 389, nine homers, 1242 OPS. I think I know the answer, Chris, but Polanco or Claibor Torres? Well, yeah, like I see in the notes, and it says 25 homer 33 steel pace for Glaber Torres. Is that right?

Did I make that up? Well, I mean, it might be right. I don't know. He's play, well, because he missed time. He has three homers and four steals in 18 games. So if you put that to 162 game pace, that's probably right. it's also like before today it was probably i don't know 15 homers and 22 steals or whatever so it's like having the sample size is small enough that trying to pace it out is going to

lead to some wonky stuff see i'll i'll go with horhe polanco i just i don't know glaber hasn't really been doing like like i said that the home run and steel really make things look a lot better because of the small sample size. I don't really see like I think the batting average should be pretty useful moving forward, but I still think he's going to struggle to hit for consistent power in that ballpark. So I'm, uh, I would take Polanco. Yeah.

The plate discipline for Glaber seven walks to seven strikeouts on the season. It's a sub 10% K rate and sub 10% walk rate so far. And all the plate discipline stuff looks much better than it has. lowest chase rate of his career, high as his own contact rate. Like, he looks good. The expected stats look pretty good too. Yeah, it's just,

it's a very small sample size, so I'm going to treat it with pretty skeptic, with a lot of skepticism. Yeah, and Polanco has just looked so great overall. So I agree with Polanco over Glaber Torres. And, man, just trying to figure out how high can I get Polanco

in the second base rankings? Because he is someone that needs to climb quite a bit. I think probably in like the top 15. I see Scott updated and he has Polanco at 14th in second base rank. Yeah, I haven't done it. Yeah, in points especially because points is the worst format for like Andres Jimenez and Bryson Stott and even Brandon Lowe and Luis Garcia and Jackson Hall. Yeah, I could see moving him to the top 15. I haven't done it yet, but that that's definitely a name to consider when I do it.

probably on Thursday is when I'll do my update. This or that Andy Paez or Jordan Beck. Andy Paix has a sock and a shoe, his sixth home run, his third steal. The home run did come off of a position player here. Jordan Beck has looked pretty great recently. He's had some big power speed games so far. I believe I asked you this exact question on the FBT Express, Chris, but I'll ask you again because Andy Paix has another big game.

I think I said Jordan Beck. And I think I'll say Jordan Beck again. that's kind of a little bit of a mystery box thing his minor league numbers are pretty good and he gets course field so I would give them that just because like pa has is fine I don't think there's huge ceiling with with Andy pa has I don't think he's like a great hitter at his best but Jordan Beck probably won't be either but course field could inflate it enough to to make him seem like a very good hitter or at least a very good fantasy option I guess is the way to put it all right roster rate too high too low or just just right for these names. Carson Kelly did it again, three for five with his seventh home run of the season. He has a 524 on base percentage. Like what is going on with Carson Kelly?

63% rostered, Chris. I don't know. Too high, too low or just right. It's hard for it to be much higher unless he's going to play more. You know, he started what, four of the last eight games.

They like Amaya. They're basically splitting time evenly. Yeah. And like the thing, with Kelly is he tweaked his batting stance a little bit I think he brought his feet closer together or pushed

his feet further apart and is taking a low a smaller leg kick when he swings his bat speed is up about a mile and a half per hour from last year which is not insignificant does that mean

we should buy a 478 expected Wobah which would make him the best hitter in baseball? No. Of course not. But I don't know. Like, I think he probably should be rostered in every two catcher league and probably not in one catcher leagues. You know? So yeah, I mean, at 63% it might, it might be too high for Carson Kelly. I wouldn't say it's too high. Like, right, right it, as long as it's it just, I don't expect this to last. But it's like, he has a a 9% strikeout rate

and a 26% walk rate for his career it's a 20% strike out rate and a 10% walk rate I have no idea what to make of this he's playing out of his mind for 66 plate appearances I assume it's just a fluke but I don't know maybe

I mean once upon a time he was a prospect of note and you know a decade ago yeah it was a long time ago indeed. So yeah, I think 63% is probably fine. I would not take him over, you know, Augustine Ramirez or Hunter Goodman or Sean Murphy, any of those things you talk about. But you know, once we get outside the top 15 at catcher, sure, you can just ride the hot hand with Carson Kelly.

Luis Anhele Cunia has low-key been pretty good, two for four with his seventh seal. He's batting 300, no home runs on the season. Not really sure where he can play outside of just against left-handed pitching, but 29% rostered, Chris, what do you think? Too high, too low, or just right? Probably just right. I don't think he's as good of a hitter as he's shown so far.

I certainly don't think he's a 300 hitter. And yeah, I don't believe he's an everyday player. So yeah, that's, I think that's probably just right. Andrew Heaney, you guys were all over this one. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe have a little bit more faith here, but not good against the Cubs. Four and two-thirds, four runs allowed,

three walks to zero strikeouts, two homers allowed for Andrew Heaney, 76% rostered. This is too high, right? Way too high. Yeah, people chase two-star weeks, man, and yeah, that's fine for a two-star week. Right. But it's too high in general.

Drop him for Tony Gonson. Let's see what he does in his debut on Wednesday. race Olson, a mixed bag at the Astros, five and two-thirds, innings, three runs, three walks, seven strikeouts, 18 whiffs on 90 pitches. That is pretty impressive there.

Up to 86% rostered. He had the two-star week lined up this week. He was a sleeper that we liked this season. What do you think about that roster rate, Chris? Too high, too low, just right. Feels a little high. I think the two-star week definitely helped that. Yeah, I think, like,

fluctuating between 75 and 9%. 90% is where Reese Olson's going to be because I don't think he's a must roster player. I don't think he's talented. And there's a chance. You know, he's got that slider and change up. They're awesome pitches. And the curveball was really good today. He got four whiffs with it.

That was surprising. And he's fading the fastball like we wanted him to. Yeah, absolutely. And I think mixing in the sinker more and fading the four seamer especially is the right call because neither's good. But at least the sinker tends to get hit on the ground more often. so it's going to turn into singles rather than doubles and home runs, like the four seamer. I think Reese Olson's pretty good.

I don't think he's a must roster player, though. All right, and then two other names, deep league names. Ryan Gusto, he was okay against the Tigers. Four and a third, two runs, six strikeouts, did have 12 whiffs. Completely changed his pitch mix in this one. He's 29% rostered, and Michael Lorenzen had a great start at the raise.

Six innings, one run, four strikeouts. All right. Maybe I stretch it. It was a good start against the raise. Only six whiffs here. But Velocity was up in this one, and one-earned run and back-to-back starts here for Lorenzen, who is 35% rostered.

So what do you think about those two, Chris? Gusto and Lorenzen. Just deep league names for now? Yeah, I wouldn't say either's too low. I don't know if they're too high. I don't really believe in Gusto, but at least he's young. Well, youngish.

He's like 26. and the fastball has been a good swing and miss pitch. So, you know, I do think there's some room there for him to grow. And hey, two starts next week versus Cincinnati at Milwaukee. I'm fine with that pushing to 50%. It's just I don't want to say it's too low in general because I don't think Ryan Gus is someone who should be a priority target, who should be rostered everywhere. And then Michael Lorenzen, I mean, we know what this guy's deal is.

He goes through these stretches where he gets good results. The first half two years ago, he had a stretch last year as well where he was pretty good. It almost always falls apart. It's almost always never, it's almost never like so good that you have to have him around. Like even now, 340A, that's pretty good. 137 whip. That's pretty harmful. Not a lot of strikeouts.

That, yeah, I don't think Michael Lawrence and someone who needs to be at it. Let's wrap up with some leftovers here. Tanner Bybee had his best start of the season. Seven innings, one run, five strikeouts to zero walks. Getting that control is obviously great for him in this one. Probably the best the cutter has looked this season. Garry Crochet, seven innings, two runs, six strikeouts at the Blue Jays. Zach Wheeler, a quality start up against the Nationals,

six and two-thirds, two runs with seven strikeouts. And Mackenzie Gore, a quality start, six innings, three runs, six strikeouts at the Phillies. And it is now two walks or fewer in six of seven starts for McKenzie Gore. So that is pretty awesome to see. Anything else to add on

Gore, Wheeler, Crochet, and Tanner Bybee? Yeah, Crochet and Wheeler both look like relative by-low candidates if anyone's worried about them at all. I think that looks worse. You know, calling them by lows is harder to justify after they've had good starts, but it's been a little rocky

at times for both. of them crochet has even talked about he just hasn't felt like he's had his best stuff this season and yet it's a 351 ERA and 13k per 9 which tells you what kind of pitcher he is um i think they'll both be great moving forward obviously i like wheeler more he's more proven similar upside maybe crochet has a little more strikeout potential the only thing with crochet is just he's looked a little wonky so far yeah and i there there is something in the back of my head that's like, well, if he's looked a little walking now, what's it going to look like when he's pitching in competitive games in June for the first time in his career?

You know? I was thinking more like July or August. Right. No, but I picked June to make the point that like, that was basically when his season ended last year. Yeah. Was June. And so, you know, is he struggling a little bit because he's trying to hold back for the

rest of the season? I don't know. But I just, I'm not 100% convinced. Garer Crochet is going to be awesome all year just because it's uncharted territory from him. But I'm not concerned about how he's pitched so far. And then McKenzie Gore, I mean, it's kind of like the conversations we have around injuries a lot where it's like he's currently not walking anyone. And if he continues to not walk anyone, McKenzie Gore will be awesome because the stuff is filthy. I just have like his next start he could walk four and go on a stretch where he has a 12% walk rate for the next month and has a 6 ERA.

That is well within the realm of possibility for McKenzie Gore because that's what his career has been is kind of turning on a dime. He had an awesome start last year too and that was pretty miserable for a few months. So it's one that like the more good starts he has, the more I want to buy in and the more I have to remind myself, we know. He's done this before, and we can't guarantee that it won't happen again. Some hitting leftovers, Junior Caminero. Junior Caminero. Three for four with his sixth home run of the season. Boba Chet, he listened last night.

The by-low window is closing. Two-for-four with a double and his third steal of the season. Sayas Suzuki, just doing a thing. Great start. Three-for-four with his seventh home run. Pete Alonzo, great start for him. Two-for-three with his seventh home run. Carrie Carpenter, a name we haven't really talked about,

two for five with his seventh home run, some signs of life from Yiner Diaz, two for four with three RBI. Last seven games, he's hitting 286 with one homers. So maybe a start of things to come. And Logan O Hoppe, a name we also haven't really talked about, but he's been good. One for three, eighth home run, eight 45 OPS.

He's been good, Chris. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, like, it's like a 40% shot. strikeout rate for Logan Ahopi, I believe. That's not good. It was the last time I checked. Maybe it's gone down, but it's been way too many strikeouts and he's hit for some good, it's up to 40% still.

38%. Yeah, okay. So it's gone down a couple points since I last checked. My gosh. Four walks to 34 strikeouts. Yeah. And the homers were pretty concentrated early. And then he slowed down, if I'm remembering correctly as well.

But look, it's a catcher, right? So it's a catcher with upside. I think on Sunday's show we said, you know, we might drop Logan O'Hoppy for Augustine Ramirez. That's more about liking Ramirez than, at least for me than disliking Logan O'Hoppy because I think O'Hoppy's still like a top 12-ish catcher for me. It's just the strike rate is really alarming right now.

Kind of just feels like he is completely selling out for power this season. Yeah. Fly ball rate is up hitting the crap out of the ball. 23% barrel rate entering Tuesday. I mean, that is a massive number for Logan O'Hoppy, but it is coming at the expense of strikeouts. And if that remains, the batting average will drop at some point. This is the profile of like a 220 hitter rather than a 260 hitter right now.

And then I did want to mention with Kerry Carpenter. He has started three of nine games against lefties so far. Progress. So not a total platoon. He has two home runs against lefties. as well. So that's a good sign. It's not proof that he's great against lefties.

It's 23 played appearances with a 30% strike guy rate. So still a very small sample size. But that was more than I thought he had played against lefties so far. So that's a good sign. The call to the bullpen for the Royals. Carlos Estevez gave up a hit, but struck out one for his eighth save. For the Phillies, Jose Alvarado entered in the eighth inning with a one-run lead.

facing the heart of the nationals lineup. First three hitters all reached. Then Alvarado struck out the next three. That is just like the Jose Alvarado experience. And then Orion Kirkering got the ninth inning. With a three-run lead, he gave up four runs. Only one of those earned, and he took his third blown save. But the Phillies wound up with the win because Kyle Finnegan on the other side had a one-run lead.

He gave up two earned runs on a walk and a hit, took his second blown save, and first loss of the season. For the Tigers. So you thought Will Vest was the closer, huh? AJ Hinch laughs at you. Vest entered with two outs in the sixth inning of this game. Two runners on, one run lead. Definitely a huge spot in the game. Yeah, that's a high leverage spot.

Maybe the biggest spot of the game, so it's just, okay, like, he's not a closer. He is maybe the highest leverage reliever. Gave up a two-run single, and then he started the seventh inning. He gave up two more runs. The final line, one inning, five hits, three runs, one walk, for Will Vess. So that is called regression

for a good old Will Vest. For the Guardians, Cade Smith got the eighth inning with the game tied, facing eight, nine, and one in the Twins lineup. He gave up a hit and a walk. Emmanuel Clausee pitched

the ninth inning with the game tied. He gave up a hit and nothing else. He wound up with the win. And I wonder, Chris, just like that, Emmanuel Claese pitches the ninth inning facing the heart of the twins lineup. I don't know. He might just be back in the closer roll.

I don't know. It's a possibility. Might be. It's also funny. Let me, I want to double check because I don't want to spread fake news. But, okay, Emmanuel Class A is one win off the major league lead right now. I had that. I had that in the notes like, despite all the struggles, you have, you have gotten four wins from Manuel Close. I mean, that's, look, that's, you got to find a silver lining. And yeah, it's entirely possible that, uh, class. A, uh, class A. and like Devin Williams pitched the ninth yesterday, right? I think he pitched either the eighth or ninth when they were losing in the game. Yeah.

I think it was the eighth inning. They were down one run. Okay. It's entirely possible. It just takes one or two outings for those guys to get their job back. Yeah. You know, because especially today when teams are like, they're going to be looking at all kinds of underlying data to try to figure out if these guys are back.

And it might only take one good performance for them to get the faith back in these guys. So, yeah, I'll, look, we're talking about pitchers who have been two of the best relievers in baseball for like half a decade. A month does not change how I view them. And I imagine their teams mostly view it the same way. Yeah. So it's entirely possible a manual class that is just the closer moving forward. The only pause that I have with Devin Williams, and that could happen, is just that we saw Luke Weaver perform at a, as an elite closer end of last season. might be the best reliever in baseball.

Right. I guess we've done since the start of last season. I guess I don't know. Maybe I put more stock in this, but just the fact that we've seen Luke Weaver like close out games, we haven't necessarily seen that from Cade Smith before. For the Mariners, Andres, Andres, Andres,

I struck out one for his 11th save. And for the Padres, Robert Swares, pitched a clean ninth inning for his 11th save. They are now tied for the league lead and saves the season. Andres Munoz, I mean, the guy just looks like a top five closer this season in I mean, all it is, all it's ever been for Andres Munoz is just the usage. Yeah.

That was the only thing holding him back from being an elite closer for fantasy. He's been that level of pitcher. And if they're just going to use him like a classic closer and he gets 35 saves, yeah, he's a top five guy. To stream or not to stream on Wednesday, we have Tony Gonsolins season debut against the Marlins, Tyler Anderson at the Mariners, Landon Rup at the Padres, Matthew Boyd at the Pirates, Lucas Julito, his season. debut at the Blue Jays, Tobias Myers at the White Sox, Shane Smith versus the Brewers, and Luis Severino at the Rangers. Well, before the Rangers scored 15, I might have said Luis Severino, but I do wonder if that's just the light switch flicking on for them, because I do

still think that's going to be a very, very good lineup moving forward. Matthew Boyd at Pittsburgh, Lander Rup at San Diego, although tough matchup, they don't strike out much. Yeah, and he's been walking a lot too. And then Myers at the White Sox, I think, are probably the three best. Definitely want to watch Tony Gonsland and Lucas Gilito, but I'd prefer not to stream them in their first starts. Yeah, I like Boyd. I like Myers. I can see using Tyler Anderson and Chain Smith, obviously bad team, so like you're probably not going to get a win, but they have been fine so far the season. And then on Thursday, we have Colin Ray at the Pirates, Matthew Liberator at the Reds, Chad Patrick at the White Sox, and yeah, that's about it.

Do you like those three? No. No, I don't like, like, I don't think Chad Patrick, like, Colin Ray, Matthew Libertor, they're okay talents. I don't think Chad Patrick is much of anything, but it's a good matchup, so if I have to pick three, those would be the three that I would pick, I guess. All right, we're going to wrap there for Chris.

I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into Fantasy Baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, and we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Paramount Podcasts.