Fantasy Baseball Today - Ranking Kodai Senga, Matthew Liberatore's Debut & Dustin May's Injury (5/18 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 18, 2023

Kodai Senga was masterful on Wednesday (1:48)! How do we rank the rookie pitchers (5:42)? ... Will Mark Vientos play enough with the Mets (10:23)? ... Matthew Liberatore looked great in his debut (15:30). ... Drop Graham Ashcraft (22:20)? ... Dustin May is dealing with an elbow injury (25:45). Will Gavin Stone join the Dodgers rotation? ... Taj Bradley will rejoin the Rays on Thursday (28:57). ... Rank Brayan Bello, Edward Cabrera, and Kyle Bradish (32:41). ... Please add Christopher Morel if he's available (40:20). ... News (43:48): Manny Machado is dealing with a fracture in his hand. ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (49:50). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ 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. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. What a crazy day. Let's get into it.

Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday. May 18th, I am Frank Sample, joined by the Chris's Towers and the Well. today on the show, another pitching injury. Dustin May gonna be out for some time here. Matthew Liberator looks great in his debut and a crazy win for the Mets before we get started. Please like this video and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already.

And if you're listening on the audio side, download, follow, and leave a five star rating on Apple or Spotify. Let's get started. The Impossible has happened. The impossible nearly did happen in that game for the Mets, guys. I'm gonna kick us off and just talk about like every Mets player.

So let's let's just start there. Wild win for the Mets. They're down two zip in the seventh inning at the time. Mark Vientos hits a two run homer in his season debut to tie the game. Mark Vientos had four hard hit balls by the way. More on him in just a bit. They're down five to two in the ninth. Up against Tampa Bay, by the way.

You know, best team in baseball. Francisco Alvarez hits a three run homer off of Jason Adam, tie game. And then down seven to five in the 10th. 10th, the polar bear. Pete Alonzo hits a walk-off three-run homer off of Pete Fairbanks, but the real story of that game was Kodai Senga, and that's actually where I want to start here, because Senga was ridiculous. Against Tampa, once again, six innings, one run, 12 strikeouts to three walks, three more walks, you don't love that part, but career high 12 strikeouts, 18 swinging

strikes, that was a season high as well, eight of those coming on the forkball, which was a tremendous pitch in this outing, 35% CSW, only four hard hit balls. Kodai Singa gets the ERA down to 3.77. The whip is still very high because the walks have been an issue all season long, but well over a strikeout per inning, 11.5K per 9. Towers will start with you. Just trying to figure out where to rank Kodai Senga right now because I was touching up the rankings on Wednesday and, you know,

I moved him down a little bit. He's like barely inside my top 60 starting pitchers. I think when he faces teams for the first time that have not seen that forkball, he can go out and have a crazy start like this and get all these whiffs on that forkball. But I think as more teams start to see it and they'll lay off a little bit,

that's when the walks start piling up and that's where things can kind of get out of control. But man, flashing the upside here, what are your latest thoughts on Kodi Isanga? Yeah, I mean, you see that in this start where 48% of his pitches were in the strike zone, 25% of its forkballs were in the, strikes in. That's a pitch that he's just, he's not going to throw it for strikes. He's throwing it for

chases. And, you know, if he's not getting chases, I think that could be a problem for him. The one thing that's interesting, you know, you watch him. The sweeper started out actually as his third most used pitch after the forkball and the fastball. And he threw it seven times today. He's been, you know, right around 10 to 15 percent usage with that. That's one of the changes I've noticed over the last couple starts, the cutter was actually tied with the forkball. It's all to say that I think he's still trying to figure things out, right? He's still experimenting and the transition from Japan to the majors is a significant one. You're talking about not just a higher level of competition, playing in different parks,

playing obviously in a different country, language barrier, all these things that you have to get used to, but also a different ball. You know, the Japanese ball, a little smaller. The seams from what I understand are a little lower on the pitch. And I believe that was why Kodai Senga didn't pitch in the world baseball classic. If I'm remembering correctly, he wanted to pitch in spring training get used to using the regular MLB ball. And so it's, you know, it's been an adjustment for him. Whether this is a sign of the flip, the light, the switch flipping on or not for him, I think remains to be seen.

But yeah, like you said, I do think there's there's potentially something to the idea. that the first time he faces a team, you know, it might be better than than the next time he faces them just because one forkball, not really a pitch that anybody else really throws. It's not that dissimilar from a splitter, but still, that's also not a particularly widely used pitch. So there could be something there. I think he's a very talented pitcher. And if he figures it out, I think the results are going to be very good. But, you know, the three walks today makes me think that this was just probably a good start, but not necessarily at the start of him figuring it out. Again, I want to emphasize doing this against Tampa Bay, who is very impressive.

By far, look, they're the best offense in baseball. But if you look at Wobah against right-handed pitching, 3.63, the next closest team in baseball is the Red Sox at 3.47. So the rays are far away. The best team against right-handed pitching so far this year. There's obviously a lot of talent there, Chris, which you mentioned. It's an upper 90s fastball. I think if he plants that at the top of the zone and then tries to get those whiffs on the forkball out of it, that could be a recipe for success, but again, still kind of learning on the job here. Well, so I have a poll up inside of the live stream right now.

Which rookie pitcher do you want most this season? And I've got Tanner, Bibi, Bryce Miller, Kodai Senga, who technically does fit that bill, and Yuri Perez. Kodi Senga, by far the lowest percentage at 10%. Really? I didn't think he was winning. it. I think Bryce Miller is probably the winner of that right now. But I thought Senga might be

two or three. Yeah. So he's all the way down to 10%. And as soon as you said, Bryce Miller would be leading, he took the lead at 31%. So maybe it was your vote that got it. But does it make sense for Kodai Senga to be ranked fourth of that group? What were the other two names? It was Tanner Biddy and who? Bryce Miller, Uri-Pres. On Uri-Pro. Well, I mean, that's a pretty good group. It is. My problem, I've watched a lot of Codesanga and like that fastball is black and white. You know, it absolutely has swing and miss, especially when he can get it near the zone.

The problem is he can absolutely just launch it. And when you're trying to throw a high fastball, it has no actual like ride to their to their eyes. So they know it's coming out of the zone. Fork is getting out. And this is something I said a while back with the, I've likened it to Casey Meyes. You remember Casey Meis and that splitter. And it was like, well, you know, if it's a. us keep dipping out of the zone. They're going to stop swinging at it at the major league level and

you have to have other stuff. Senga has other stuff. He doesn't have command. He gets wild and there's a lot of movement with the pitches and I don't think he's figured out how to quite hone that in. So, you know, maybe it's cheap here, but I think all these guys might be in a similar group. I'm a little bit worried about Senga on the back half of the year. But if there is one guy that you could probably make an argument that can make the most adjustments, it's actually Senga of this whole group. You know, Bryce Miller is still working through the secondaries and where the

strikeout numbers are going to be. Uri Perez probably has the highest upside. Tanner Bybee, I think might be maybe the florist of all these guys. I don't think he's going to be sexy, but he might be able to avoid some of the big blowups. I think my personal ranking on this, and this is my surprise because how much Bryce Miller I've been,

I think I would go Yuri Perez won with what I saw. And then I would go, oh, man, I kind of want to go Senga. I'm going to go Bryce Miller, Senga, and then I would put Tanner Bybee, because I just want to play a little bit more upside with Senga and the rest of the crew, even though I love Bybee. But I think this is like all the same relative to your group.

The one thing I would add, just having heard the results of that poll, and I kind of mentioned it yesterday, I feel like Bryce Miller is a Sal High candidate right now. It might be. He's good, clearly, but like the minor league numbers don't suggest superstardom necessarily. And then, like, it's a good fastball. He does a lot of the things that you want with the fastball. He's got that vertical approach angle thing going on.

It's a high spin pitch. Comes at an angle that makes it tough for pitchers, for batters to pick up. And so I think that's going to play well, but also like 11% whiff rate on the slider so far, 29% with the curveball. That's fine. No whiffs, 110 changeups. It's still early, very small sample sizes. But, like, I just, I don't think it's real.

And if people are going to, you know, put him up ahead of someone like Yuri Perez who has really good minor league numbers, has the pedigree, has, you know, scouts liked him a lot more than Bryce Miller. I think Miller is someone I'd be looking to trade right now. I think that Yuri probably not being at the top is simply about everyone's concern that he's going to be able to stick around for the season. So I think that I think from a pure stuff perspective, probably most of the chat's going to agree like Yuri Perez is that guy. Maybe there's some team context in there, though I'm not sure, you know, Mariners is. have struggled in plenty of spots. I would kind of agree. I think Bryce Miller is still learning on the job,

which might have some more bumps and bruises. You know, he's still learning. He hasn't really thrown the gyro, so he's still figuring out what his sliders are going to be. But that fastball of this group might be the most effective, even though like Yuri Perez's look so pretty. I think Bryce Miller's might be the most effective fastball, but I like the secondary of Yuri Perez with his mix.

Kodaisanga, if he could command his pitches, would blow all these guys out of the water, but we don't see that. And he doesn't, He hasn't found the right mixture of throwing strikes with multiple offerings and then dumping a ghost fork on these guys. That hasn't happened and we don't know if that'll happen this year. But that's a great, that's a great poll. I wouldn't be surprised at the end if Uri Prez ends up taking it. But, you know, I don't know, Kodi Senga at the very, very bottom and

only 10, did you say only 10%? It's now down to 9%. Wow. Nobody wants Kodai Senga. Look, the walks have been an issue this year. Let's get to the rest of these Mets players, whilst I want to ask you about Mark Vientos, who was called up here on Wednesday. He started at third base. He was batting eighth in the Mets lineup. They were going up against a lefty in Josh Fleming. Both Brett Beatty and Jeff McNeil were out of the lineup. And Vientos and the minors this year, as good of numbers as you will find. Batting 333, 13 homers, 11 doubles, 37 RBI, and 11.04 OPS.

And I love the fact that on Fangraphs, they now have exit velocities for minor league players. Like, blew my mind, complete game changer. he was averaging 94.5 miles per hour on his average exit. Where are you finding that? Are you about to blow my mind? So if you go to a minor league player's fan graphs page. Yeah, I'm looking at Vantos right now. Yeah, wherever you find Stackass on the page, you should be able to see it now,

which is brand new as far as I know. So complete game changer there. But Welsh, like, what are you expecting from Mark Viantos? Is he going to play enough? Like, that's something that we've seen with Mets players that get called up initially, like Brett Beatty and Al. Alvarez, they didn't play right away, but he comes in and hits this clutch home run. And maybe that helps us playing time moving forward.

Because it's the Mets, I am worried that they're going to platoon in general, because it seems like they're dawdling around. Like Vogelbach, you know, kind of hit it here. You already saw Escobar move over to second, which I think that's their first run at being like, all right, cool, we're going to have Beatty and Viantos play there. But without their like full commitment to these guys, I think you guys are going to be annoyed. Bet Beatty's been kind of annoyed. Bet Beatty's been kind of annoying.

And I think there's like an element of get going and playing every day that these specific young guys need to do. And Beatty and Vientos are very similar in crazy hard hit numbers. I mean, as you mentioned before, four of those hits were hit 96 miles an hour or harder. And I believe two of them were over 100. Viantos hit well over 300, 400 OBP. And one of the biggest keys here is he dropped his strikeout percentage significantly in AAA. He was, you know, locking into better. quality pitches because this is a guy that can hit 35 plus homers.

He has just never been consistent with batting average and it really seemed to click this year. So is he going to play every day? I don't trust it because it's the Mets. But I think there's an easy path. It's you let those two guys, Bady and Vientos, go between third and D.H. And you keep doing that. And guess what?

Both can be a spell for Pete Alonzo. So let Alonzo, Viantos and Bady all play the first third D.H. And don't worry about anybody else. Bogobok, bye-bye. Eduardo Escobar, make him a platoon player that can play around with Jeff McNeil at second. That's how you play it, but I don't trust that the Mets will play it. And, you know, you say that,

we're talking about Omar Navayez, you know, potentially. He's supposed to start his rehab assignment next week, right? And Francisco is going to be a disaster. So Francisco Alvarez, maybe he's a 50-50 at catcher guy, but he hasn't played at DH yet. That was one thing that we mentioned in yesterday's podcast, where maybe he plays him. This is starting to feel a little raise slash Dodgersy to me, except like a much.

One of them's not playing left field yet. And a much sweatier version of it, right? Like this is a $250 million team. That might be conservative. It might be underselling how much they're actually spending on this roster right now. I think you are. And they're in fourth place. They are currently in third.

I've got it open. This is a team that like, I guess finals or. World Series or bust is always tough to actually do in Major League Baseball, but like this is about as close to a World Series or bust team as you can get, given what Stephen Cohen has invested in the team. And it might just be like we've seen with the Dodgers with Gavin Lux. And like we've seen with the race with every top prospect who's not an immediate superstar. It might be a situation where they're just like,

we're going to do what it takes to win games now in May. and if it's not necessarily the absolute best thing for Brett Beatty's fantasy values, certainly, but also just his long-term development, maybe they prioritize the short term in a way that doesn't maximize everyone's value. They may see it as a super prospect, by the way. It's just this is our third basement.

It's Beatty Vientos. And it's like, we'll platoon these guys, lefty-righty matchups, and that's how we're going to do it. Like you said, who cares about the development and playing every single day? This is our super-prisoners.

prospect on that third base side and we'll figure out all the other guys wherever we need to. I agree with what you guys said completely, but clearly what they've done to this point has not worked. They are two games under 500. They are six and a half games behind the Atlanta Braves. So Welsh, I think you laid it out perfectly. Play Brett Beatty at third base, play Mark Vientos at DH and have those guys kind of spelled Pete Alonzo. And I think it works out perfectly. We've seen enough from Dan Vogelbach in his major league career. I think we kind of know who he is. So I think for now, Viantos is like a deeper league ad, but if he starts to get consistent playing time over the next week or so,

then he could work his way into, you know, must add territory. Well, let's go over to you. Oh, my goodness, gracious, from Wednesday. Matthew Libertor made that debut and looked all the part of everything that people were screaming about. I mean, we had a lot of people screaming, hey, where's Matthew Libertor? He's not one of the big sexy pitching prospects, but everyone wanted to see him. And guess what? He came up and he did his thing. Fastball was up over a mile and a half. So we got to We've had some of the AAA data, but getting in here in the majors, we can see the VILA was actually up and it was a mile and a half up. Everything was getting thrown harder, his sinker, his slider, the effectiveness of it.

He actually kind of laid off the slider and change up in this game. He went really heavy fastball and curveball. Curveball had a 31% whiff rate. The fastball had a 35% whiff rate. Overall, it ended up being a 28% CSW. But that curveball I love. I was checking this out too. And we'll see how.

accurate this is because actually I looked at Kodai Senga's Stackass page and I was like, this can't be right then. But where I'm going with it is in this game, if you watched it, Matthew Libertor's curveball just dies and sinks and it looks like it should go 12 miles above and it just breaks back down. It's just a nasty curveball. It had a max vertical break of 67 and he averaged 64 inches by the way. 64 inches was the average vertical break on his curveball. And I went and looked over at Statcast on the most movement.

And the biggest movement of a curveball this year, apparently is registered to Chris Bassett at 70.6 vertical inches. By the way, why did I get confused earlier? Stackcast says that Kodaisanga had 96 inches of vertical break on his curveball. I don't know if that's correct. That's insane. But the actual leaderboard data shows, yeah, I'm not sure that's correct.

I don't think the math answer. Yeah, you're going to have to maybe fix that. But on that guess is Like my softball pitches. Yeah, exactly. 70.6 is the biggest vertical movement on a curveball this year. So that 67 would put him in the top 10. Well, of all the pitchers in that top 10 between starters, he would have the fastest average fastball of any player.

And you Darvish is in there because he was averaging over 95. So you're talking some of the biggest vertical movement on a curveball that had people buckling and over 30% whiff rate and a guy who was touching 97. averaging over 95. The list of the players of the actual starters that were in that group, Chris Bassett, Wayne Wright, you get a lot of the old guys, Rich Hill is in there, but no one has a fastball like what we were seeing out of Matthew Libertor. The spin numbers were crazy.

He had over 3,000 on the curveball in general. The fastball lacked a little bit, but he was commanding. He was confident. That's the big thing I got out of it. The fastball popped bigger than it's ever done before. I think the curveball is a true, true swing and miss pitch. And he really didn't show off the rest of the rest of it. of his offerings because they were working so well.

So I actually walked away really impressed with Matthew Libertor. I don't want to get all nutty about it because it's like every guy that comes up, we see, we're like, oh my God, China, I'm trying to be in the curtain, all that. But, you know, Libertor of all these players has the most experience. And unfortunately, had pitched, you know, across three years in AAA, he's been there, he's done it. He knows this team. The team knows him.

He worked on the things they wanted him to. that one of the big things was being able to pitch up effectively high in the zone. He did it. And if you watch the broadcast, they said they wanted to see his Velo maintain in the game. And that is what he has done all season. So all the work he's done leads me to think, even though there wasn't a rotation spot there, this is the type of outing that you got to push Stephen Matt's off because I think he checked every single box looked great.

And that curveball is going to be something, I don't know if it's going to be Lodolo like from last year, but it feels Lodolo like. and how effective it was. So I was very encouraged. And he talked about how he added 20 pounds this offseason, mostly muscle, presumably, and that's helped him with the velocity jump. The quote was,

you can't shoot a cannon out of a canoe, which was a, I like the visual there. I got messaged about that. That's called a Welshism, where you take two different analogies and you kind of mush them together. So I'm definitely going to hear a lot of that the next 24 hours.

I'll say, The fact that he only threw the two pitches primarily was 87% of his pitches were forcing him in curveball. And just the fact that his AAA numbers are sort of pedestrian. I'm going to say the jury's still out. But like, if you've got a roster spot to play with, absolutely at him. You know, I think that's that's clear. I just, you know, I wouldn't put him on the same level as that group of four rookies we were talking about earlier. And I'm not jumping him either.

I think that's the key point. I think everything that happened here, was great and you should feel encouraged. But it comes with the caveat. Like I said, the guy's been pitching in AAA since 2021. That's not great. But he's made all of the changes. They have been a disaster in how they've managed their pitchers.

So we should be cautiously optimistic, though we don't need to be like, hey, you know, should I drop Tanner Bybee for him? No, I'm going to go with the rest of the crew. The answer is the other guys. But Matthew Libertor should absolutely be picked up and is going to cause probably a little wrinkle in fab this weekend because I don't think he's scheduled to pitch until I think it would be Monday. So that was your start to make the decision unless the Cardinals tell us otherwise.

And this is a beat the waiver wire situation too, where if you have waivers that run before Sunday or just an open waiver system, it looks like he's going to be a two-star pitcher at the Reds and at Cleveland next week if Matthew Libertor does indeed stick around. I agree Welsh. I think that they have to keep him around the way that the rest of that Cardinals pitching staff has been such a huge letdown so far this season. And I agree with you guys that the first four rookies that we spoke about earlier, those guys are clearly ahead of Libertor. But then where does he fit among this next group of Logan Allen, Taj Bradley, who is returning to the race rotation, and we'll start on Thursday.

And Grayson Rodriguez and Brandon fought. So four more names there. Grace Rodriguez fought Taj Bradley and Logan Allen. Welsh, where would you kind of place Libertor in that group? My initial feeling is at the bottom, but, you know, like, I'm not going to make a big, I'm not going to be the big defender anymore, Brandon fought. Like, I was very encouraged with his last start. So, like, I could make that move.

Maybe there's even better team. The Cardinals are getting things together. So, like, I could justify better team context with Libertor. Not, I'm not doing him over Taj. My safe answer is going to be, he is the bottom of that list, but maybe one or two I could make the argument for. Yeah. I think I would put Tage at the top of that list, then Logan Allen, and then I think I would go Liberator and then fought. Actually, Grayson Rodriguez on the bottom. I think if we see one more bad start, it would not surprise me if he's sent back down to AAA. Towers, we are 20 minutes in, but why don't you give us to your, oh my goodness, gracious player or players?

Yeah, sorry. I'm, you know, Graham Ashcraft was my, was my player. And also Taiwan Walker, 55% Ross. he didn't get out of the first inning in this one. His ZRA is up to 6.5. I think he'll be better than that. But if you have Time on Walker on your roster, unless it's an NL only league, I don't see any reason to hang on to him right now. Even you 15 team leagues.

The upside's not nearly high enough. Graham Ashcraft is a really tough one because obviously there was a lot of hype around him coming into the season. A lot of it coming from this podcast. We all liked what we saw from him as far as introducing potentially a sweeper. or changing the dimensions of his slider. He kind of still looks like the same guy he was last year, though.

And that's a guy who throws really hard, who garners a lot of pitching ninja jiffs, but who just isn't very good. I mean, today, it's hard to hold it against him, right? Five innings, seven earn runs. It was in course field. That happens to good pitchers. You can't really,

a longstanding position I've held is you can't really judge a start at course field good or bad. You just kind of throw it out and say this is just, it's such a different environment. But Ashcraft, he does some things well still.

He really does suppress hard contact very well. He is hard to barrel up. The problem is 18% strikeout rate, 11% walk rate. The strike rate is slightly up from last year, but also the walk rate's up. Yeah.

I don't think his 484 ERA is a mistake. And I don't want to give up on a guy who throws a 98 mile an hour cutter. But at some point, you got to do something with that cutter. And we've seen 153 innings of Graham Ashcraft at the major league level where he's got a 4-8-7 ERA and what about 6K per 9. You got to think about cutting him. Like if Matthew Libertor is out there and I'm not even that high on Matthew Libertor. I think you consider it. I think you probably just go ahead and pull the trigger on it.

I would make that swear. If Todd Bradley's out there, absolutely drop Graham Ashcraft for him. Yeah, Taj is 74% rostered, so it could be floating around there in some shallower 10 or 12 team leagues. I would make that swap. I would drop Ashcraft for Liberator as well. He's down to 76% roster. He's got a 13.39 ERA over his last three starts. The weird part is he still ranked sixth in Enosarice's Stuff Plus metrics.

So clearly there's something there. It's just a matter of turning it into whiffs. We have not seen that happen yet for Graham Ashcraft. So I'd be all right dropping him for those names. Either of the Twins pitchers who we talk about a lot, Bailey Ober, Louis Varland, I would be okay dropping Ashcraft for either of those as well. Let's take our first break when we return. We'll talk about Dustin May's injury.

Tage Bradley, you already kind of talked about that. But yeah, we'll get to both of those things right after this. This weekend, CBS heads to a major tournament when the world's best golfers, descend on the legendary Oak Hill Country Club with the winner taking home the coveted Wanamaker Trophy at the PGA Championship. Live coverage on Saturday and Sunday begins at 1 Eastern the PGA Championship this weekend on CBS.

Let's talk about Dustin May guys and it's the latest arm injury for a pitcher. We saw Jurasmussen happen last week. Now Dustin May left his start Wednesday after just 16 pitches with right elbow pain. did have Tommy John surgery back in 2021, missed most of last year rehabbing from that injury, and so far was off to a great start this season. Turns out that his UCL is still intact, but Dustin May will receive a PRP injection in an effort to avoid surgery.

And if all goes according to plan, they're saying he could be back in four to six weeks. Not sure that I buy that completely. I think if we do see Dustin May, it's probably in the second half of the season. Welsh, the question now becomes, everyone's asking me, Do we get one of Gavin Stone or Bobby Miller to replace Dustin May here in the Dodgers rotation? I was ready to be like, do we hold on to Dustin May? I'd be like, no. You can answer that too.

Yeah, probably not. I mean, like, you definitely had a good like surface level season, but the strikeout numbers were just becoming alarming. And he was getting away with a lot of stuff. But, I mean, I'm not holding on. If I had a short amount of IL, I'm probably not holding on to a lot of the fringe guys. Like Mason Miller, but by Dustin May, if it was short I, L, I'd probably be willing to move off of that.

I also don't think this is going to end very well. But that's a great question on the guy that's going to come up. Gavin Stone's first foray was not great, but he just relatively, I think his last start turned in his best start of the season, 10 strikeouts. I tend to feel that they would give him another shot before Bobby Miller because Bobby Miller started the season off a little bit late. He has put up some incredibly great stuff plus numbers,

but I don't think statistically that's all been there. So I'm going to lean to Gavin Stone getting another shot because I don't think this is necessarily like, we got to see what the next guy does, even though the Dodgers do have next guys. Bobby Miller is one. I've been screaming about Emmett Sheehan. He had a killer start. I believe it was tonight or the night before. Another 10 strikeouts.

He went five, but he's only in AA. So I don't think they're quite in the stage of let's see all the, you know, the bullets that we've got. I think they've got that. And I think Gavin Stone will be the guy that gets. the first crack. But if he falls apart, then I do think that Bobby Miller would be the next man up.

Bobby Miller, by the way, did make a start on Wednesday night. Had his best start of the season. In the minor, six innings, one run, six strikeouts to one walk. And even with that, a 565 ERA in four starts so far. So the stuff plus numbers

look really good for Bobby Miller, but the overall numbers, the surface level numbers, have not been great. I tend to agree. I think if we do see one of these guys come up to replace us to May, it will be Gavin Stone.

And for now, I think I would rank him behind all of the rookies we've talked about so far. I just think, you know, we need to see something from him again before we get overly excited. And not an arm injury, but worth mentioning, Nicola Dolos disaster season continues as an MRI revealed a stress reaction in his tibia. He's in a walking boot and will be reevaluated in two weeks. And that all but assures Brandon Williamson will probably stick around for a few more starts at least. and he looked really good in his first start there in Corres Field. Tage Bradley mentioned it a little bit earlier, but he will rejoin the Rays rotation on Thursday to start against the Mets,

and he was excellent in three starts with the race earlier this season, but has been dreadful since returning to the minors here. Towers, what are your thoughts on this? The way that they've handled Tage Bradley and the numbers being so bad down in the minors, let's say you play in a daily league. Are you just throwing them out there again as first start back here with the Mets? going up against the Mets, brother? I think I'd prefer not to start him,

given how bad the starts in AAA were. But this is one of those things that, like, the human elephant you can't really account for, right? Like, this guy comes up and lights up the majors. 18 or, what was it? Hold on. Let me make sure 13 strikeouts and 16 innings. No, sorry.

23 strikeouts and 15 in a third innings, 352 ERA over his three starts, got three wins, and then getting sent back down. You know, like that's, the raise are a smarter organization. They do all these things to eke out marginal advantages. But like that that's tough for a 22 year old to deal with.

And you just hope it didn't wreck his confidence, right? Like you just, it's hard to say one way or the other. But the thing that was so weird about him coming up and being so overwhelmingly dominant was he hadn't been nearly that good in his time at AAA. He hadn't been bad by. any means. But like last season when he got the call up to AAA, he was very young, but only 8.1K per 9, 1.5 home runs per 9. Like he had some struggles. And when he got called up, I wasn't 100% sure he was going to be an immediate difference maker. So like, was this just a really good three starts?

Did sending him down screw something up? I think there are a lot of questions to be answered. But if he's available in any of your league, 74% rostered, he's an. absolute must start or must add at the very least. Also want to throw just one thing out. So I talked last, we talked about Bradley about how it looked like they were changing things in the minors about pitch mix and stuff like that. And I think that had a lot to do with it.

His last start, because I had given you the other two starts, his last start was on the 11th. It took me, that entire time you were talking, by the way, took me the whole time to get to its baseball. It's the most ridiculous thing on the planet.

But I got there to his minor league start. He was an even 37 to 37, to 37% cutter fastball, which was a little bit closer to what he was doing in the minor. So maybe they acquiesced a little bit because it looked like he was like down, you know, at least 10% in both of his previous starts on the cutter. The change up was at 21%,

but you want to talk about effectiveness, the curveball's gone. I guarantee you the race wanted that curve ball done. Enosaris confirmed that the lowest of the stuff plus of his pitches was his curveball. We saw it in the majors. yet when he got sent down, that pitch has been not more than,

I don't think he's thrown more than three in a single game so far in the entire minors. Yeah, he threw three in this one. So it is cutter fastball change up. So the pitch mix has changed. It's been continuous. So he's going in. I think that has maybe a little bit to do with this,

but the raise obviously feel confident. No more curveball. This is one of those things that's always so tough when we're talking about guys getting called up. And we've talked a lot about how hard it's been to translate minor league numbers to the majors so far this season and really the last couple of seasons. And part of it's just like, we don't know when someone is genuinely struggling

versus when the organization is just telling them we don't care about results. We care about the process and what you're working on. And that could be what we're seeing with Todd Bradley, but it's from the outside, at least it's impossible to know. Yeah. All right. Let's move over to some other waiver wire pitchers. And young pitchers in their own right, who I do believe have some upside.

Brian Beow, a little bit wild in this one against the Mariners, but did put together a solid start. Five innings, one run, five walks, seven strikeouts, 19 swinging strikes on 107 pitches. That's two starts in a row where Brian Beow has had at least 15 swinging strikes, and over his last four starts, he's got a 2.57 ERA, only 33% rostered. Kyle Bradish has put together two strong starts in a row up against the Angels, six and two thirds, one run, five strikeouts in that one, and has really, leaned on his slider over the past three starts. He's thrown it at least 30% of the time in each of those. Edward Cabrera had his first start of the season with zero walks. Five innings, two runs, six strikeouts to zero walks. 18 swinging strikes. We know that Edward Cabrera has ridiculous stuff. It's can he throw for strikes? And in this start, he was able to do that.

So 63% roster for Cabrera. The problem next week, it looks like two-start week at the Rockies and at the Angels. So even with how good this start looks. I don't think that I can get involved there. Towers, how are you ranking this group? Bayo, Braddish, and Cabrera. Bayo, Bradish, and Cabrera. I'll stick with Cabrera at the top and then I'll go Bayo over Bradish. But it could be a situation where it depends on what the matchups look like, right?

Because I think Bradish is someone when he's pitching at home. Baltimore is a very good place to pitch. I'd probably prioritize starting him over Bayo, but I would rather have Bayo on my roster if I didn't need to start. one. Next week, Home versus Texas at the Yankees for Braddish. If you're looking to add one of them, I think you could probably safely go with Bayo, just because I don't think you're going to feel too comfortable starting Bradish,

given those matchups. Cabrera, I mean, it's the wildest thing. It's so weird, and I say it every time we talk about him, it's so weird that he can't throw his fastball for strikes. That would be the one pitch you should be able to throw for strikes. But that's the biggest problem for Edward Cabrera. And tonight, he just didn't throw his fastball. That's not literally true.

He threw 26% of the time his four seam and sinker. But that's, I mean, can you guys remember a start? For a pitcher who doesn't throw like a cutter as their primary fastball like Corbyn Burns or Graham Ashcraft, I can't remember seeing 26% fastball usage. No. That's wild. And maybe that's the answer, right? Maybe that's just he can throw his change up.

He can throw his curveball for strikes when he wants to. And maybe it's just as easy as don't throw the fastballs often. But it's also a Nationals lineup that's pretty easy to overpower. So I don't want to overreact too much. But like this is the thing with Cabreras. We've said every time we talk about him, I don't want to start him, but I can't drop him. Because if the light clicks on, the stuff is so old.

overpowering that he could be really, really good. It's just, is this the start of that? It's too early to say, but I'm optimistic. I wonder if this is the start of that. By the way, you know, you're mentioning he doesn't throw it 38% zone percentage for a four-seem fastball. That's what that was in the little he threw, which is horrid, but 75% zone percentage on the sinker, which he only threw eight, but, you know, maybe they're tinkering around

and, you know, get rid of, it's a pitchm exchange. Maybe you stop throwing the four seam as much, lean a little bit more, the sinker. I'd be curious to see if the sinker comes up a little bit more in the next start and go to the secondaries. Because if he's this guy, it's Cabrera versus all these guys without a question. The problem is it's like, it's Jekyll and Hyde. And if this is going to stick, if this is going to stick, I'm here for it for Cabrera. I don't believe it will, but I'm kind of here for it. And I think you, the mix you said of guys is kind of the order of them, by the way. Look at, I mean, you look at the numbers for the changeup and curveball.

He uses a change up and curveball more than any other pitch for the, season. 40% whiff rate, 279 expected Wobah allowed for the changeup. 38% whiff rate, 305 expected Wobo allowed with the curb ball. I mean, those are elite numbers for both of those pitches. And it might be just like, man, throw those pitches 70% of the time and see what happens. I wonder. We're using fastball to set it up. Just set that stuff up with a sinker, with like a sinker. I wonder if he almost throws too hard, right? And just can't command his fastball because he throws it so hard. And obviously takes a little bit off for the changeup and he's able to

presumably command that pitch a little bit better and you read off the numbers, the curb ball's awesome too. He has all the talent in the world, Edward Cabrera, it's just a matter of consistency, so I agree, like I think I want to hold them on the bench, but like all these other pitching prospects are emerging and

stuff, I get why it's tough if you can't hold on to a guy if you can't start him. So it's a little bit tougher for him. In deeper leagues, Rich Hill was great at the Tiger six shutout with seven strikeouts. Not sure if you guys saw the race to the first base, between Rich Hill and Miguel Cabrera. It's like two 40-year-old just like pouring out their heart.

I feel like they should have that song in movies, like that slow song. D-Din-Din-Din-Din-Din. And they're both just like running to first base and slow music. I actually would have like a da-da-da-da-da-da. I can think of the song, but it's like that magical like run-to-the-finish line one. It's just like, I don't know. There's a lot of good things with it. It was a pretty magical moment of old geese's, by the way.

baseball. It looked like when I hit a chopper to third base and softball and I try to beat it out. That's what it looked like. Well, I say all this because Rich Hill has actually pitched pretty well this year. 3.80 ERA, nearly a strikeout per inning. And Luis Medina has actually turned in back-to-back quality starts for the Oakland A's, six endings, three runs, six strikeouts up against the Diamondbacks. Welsh deeper leagues here.

Anything on Rich Hill, he's up against Texas next week. And Medina looks like he would have two starts against the Astros. and Mariners. I don't want any part of any of those starts, but I do think Rich Hill is a spot starter. I'm very dicey on Luis Medina. I liked him a couple years ago. His problem has consistently been able to throw for strikes,

which he's doing a little bit better. He had a 56% zone percentage on the fastball, throws it around 60% of the time, not getting great whiffs or anything on it. So the other secondary's got to play. I don't think the slider is that great. So I think they're both, I think he is specifically very mediocre pitchers,

that I would be very, very tenuous about who I start him with. Rich Hill, I do think, has a little bit better, like, spot start, but it's not against Texas. And I saw something that the, we haven't mentioned, I don't think, but the pirates as an organization, or as a team, I guess, at the major league level, are throwing, I think it's throwing breaking balls more often than any pitch in the stack cast era than any other team in the stack cast era. So it's a significant organization, which is, you know, you think back three or four years ago, this was a team that, you know, was having Mitch Keller throw like 80% fastball.

So it's been a significant shift. And, you know, we've had a lot of surprising pitching performances from the, from the pirates that might explain at least some of it. If you think about their personnel, too, it's Rwanzi Contreras throws like 50% sliders. And Johan Oviato throws the slider as his most used pitch. So it makes some sense.

Not that those guys have gotten the best results, but it is an interesting organizational organizational shift a few waiver wire hitters I wanted to mention for the last time I am begging you if he's available in your league. I don't care what size league you need to add Christopher Morel three for five with his fifth home run he now has five homers in eight games played he's betting 371 with a 1246 OPS he's up to 74% rostered if you lost jazz chisholm this is literally the perfect for a place for Jazz Chisholm. So go out and check

and even in a points league, I don't care. Christopher Merell should not be available in your league. A few outfielders that sprung up here on Wednesday. Ramon Luriano went one for four with a three-run homer in six games

since returning from that neck injury. He's got six hits, two homers, five runs, and four RBI. Jorge Solair, looks like he's kind of getting into one of those modes right now. One for three with a walk and his 11th home run.

In the month of May, he's batting 273 with six homers and a 9602 OPS. Jose Siri back-to-back games with a homer three in his past five games towers we spoke about Siri recently if he was dropped in deeper leagues for example he was dropped in my NFBC main event league that's a 15 team five outfielder league like Jose Siri should not be available in a league like that I agree with that and Jorge Saler I recently moved them inside my top 50 outfielders so yeah I mean anywhere with five outfielders or you know even in a 12

team points league like I could see picking up Saler and using him as like a utility bat or something. Frank, what would you prioritize? Solair or Morrell? I would go with Morrell. Yeah, I think the overall skill set is more interesting there with the power and the speed. But look, it couldn't just come down to what you need, right? Like if it's just power that you're looking for, Soler is going to give it to you. But in a vacuum, I would go with Morrell. I'm not going to be on the show tomorrow, but I'm going to help Scott get ahead start on his research for the week nine hitting planner. Jorge Salar will be one of the 10 sleeper hitters.

Absolutely. For next week, the Marlins play four games at course field. He's red hot. Yeah. He might be the number one sleeper hitter and he should be roster. I mean, at least next week,

I think Jorge Saler should be started absolutely everywhere. And honestly, 60% rostered probably too low. I've got him in some of the top 48 outfielder. So I'm with you on that one, Frank. And just it looks like he's having one of those seasons. I don't think he's going to hit 48 home runs again

like he did in 2019. Was it longer ago than that? I think it was a while ago. But yeah. But, you know, he seems like he's on a pretty, you know, like a 30 plus 35 homer-ish type of pace this year. Yeah, I'm looking at the Marlins lineup to see how many sleeper hitters are going to be in Scott's article.

I mean, there's not many, but maybe, maybe Garrett Cooper. back. I was thinking maybe Gary Cooper, Brian De La Cruz, something like that. I'm about to say Dale Cruz would be one

I would throw in there maybe. Yeah. Hazel L. Sanchez and Jess Chesham going on the IL. Doesn't help that lineup. Yeah. I picked up Peyton Burdick

in my NL-only Labor League. So yeah, let's go Marlins. Let's take our final break when we return. I've got some news, some leftovers. We'll do all that right after this.

Big thanks to everybody watching us live right now. We are past 1 a.m. Eastern Time. 586 people watching us live. So please hit that thumbs up. Like this video if you haven't already. And thanks for hanging out.

We really appreciate it. Some news and notes from Wednesday. Further imaging revealed a fracture in Manny Machado's left hand. Bob Melvin expressed optimism that Machado might be able to avoid a stint on the IL, but no decision has been made yet. I'm going to go out there and... Honestly, not what I want to hear. I'm going to go out there and say, I think this is probably going to wind up in an IL

stint. And maybe it's the best thing for Machado right now. because many people have pointed out, the stat cast page is abysmal. It's ice blue all over the place. There's clearly something wrong with Machado right now. He's kind of going through it. So maybe some time on the IL, clear his mind,

get healthy, come back, and hopefully get things going. But yeah, my guess is he will wind up on the IL. Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s MRI on his right knee came back negative. He wasn't in the lineup Wednesday, but appears to have avoided anything serious. Jose Altuve could return to the Astros lineup this Friday against the A's. Luis Severino will make his season debut this Sunday in Cincinnati.

Eloy Jimenez hopes to return by the end of next week. He's been out since May 6th because of an appendectomy. I would send some by-low offers right now before Elo is back, if you can afford to wait that week or so. Yandi Diaz has missed two straight with left groin tightness, but hopes to return on Thursday. Trista McKenzie will begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Saturday. He's slated to throw either three innings or 50 pitches, whichever happens first.

Domingo Hermann has been suspended 10 games or violating the league's foreign substance policy. True story is my mom's birthday on Wednesday so I went over to my parents' house we're having cake and I'm explaining to them the situation with Domingo Hermon. My mom straight up just says, he should be fired.

And I'm like, I'm okay. I'm like, mom, do you know how this works? Like, we're Yankees fans. You're not supposed to say that. She's like, nope, he's a cheater. He should be fired. I'm like, does she do it all Vince McMahon? Like, you're fired.

Honestly, it wasn't far off. That was about as close as you can get. But yeah, that's Mama Stanfield's thoughts on Domingo Hermann. Jokalos Stanton is close to beginning a rehab assignment. He's about a month into a projected four to six week timeline with a left hamstring strain. Tyler Glass now is likely to make another rehab start before rejoining the race rotation. Carlos Rodan advances throwing to 90 feet Wednesday without issue. He had the cortisone shot last week.

We're playing it safe, seeing where it goes. Liam Hendricks. That's a Ron Burgundy, like, I don't believe you. I don't believe you. I don't believe anything coming out of Carlos Rodon camp. I have him on my most important team, Welsh, so I'm just crossing my fingers and praying and hoping Rodon. Hold on to your butts. Yep.

Liam Hendricks won't be activated this week. He's temporarily paused his rehab assignment and we'll head to Chicago for a meeting with White Sox Management. Obviously, we hope everything is all right. But if he has to miss more time, it appears that Kendall Graveman has taken over that closer's role for the White Sox White Sox, Graveman pitched in the ninth inning with a 7-2 lead on Wednesday night. Of course, one day after telling people to go trade for Jorge Polanco, he's been diagnosed with a mild left hamstring strain. Wade Miley was placed in the aisle with a strain left lat.

Christian Yelich has missed two straight with back tightness, which is very worrisome, given his history of back injuries. Jorge Mateo added the lineup due to leg soreness, but is expected back on Thursday. Joey Gallo was removed on Wednesday after fouling a ball off his leg. X-rays came back negative. Adam Duval, who's on the IL with a fracture in his left wrist, is aiming to return. When first eligible on June 9th, he's 64% rostered. So if you do have an IL spot available, he was crushing it earlier in the season.

And frankly, the Red Sox are one of the best lineups in baseball. So I would try and get Adam Duval on my roster if he's available. Dylan Carlson was placed in the IL with a left ankle sprain retroactive to May 15th. Alec Thomas was optioned to AAA. Luis Frios was recalled. Welsh, how do you think things kind of play out here with the Diamondbacks outfield? Are they just full bore with, you know, Corbyn Carroll, Lordus Gouriel, and Dominic Fletcher for the meantime? I think that they might explore.

They might play the game. Luis Frioss is garbage. He gave up immediately three runs as soon as he came in, ruined Ryan Nelson's game. I, this is one of those like deep guys I've been throwing out there. They did it with Dom Fletcher. Look for Dominic Canzone. I'm not saying they're going to do this, but Dominic Canzone has been one of my guys, he's been, they love Dominic's apparently, and I'll pull up, but Dominic Canzon has had a really

good minor league season, a little bit older, hits the ball really hard. It's another freaking lefty, but he's hitting 308 with 10 homers, a 12% K rate, a 12% walk rate he's got in AAA right now. And this is a big bat. This is unlike the other guys. So the other guys are kind of like little smaller stature, a lot of contact. Dominic Fletcher's playing over his head. I wonder, I mean, I think what they got works right now, and they might not mess with stuff. But I wouldn't be surprised if Frios is kicked out, and they want to give Dominic Canzon a shot, you know, and they can move Lordus Correel a little bit.

But I do think, unlike the flavor we were talking about with testing and testing out guys like the Dodgers with their rotation, I think the Diamondbacks might play around and test with the rest of the outfield, and the next one would be Dominic Canzone. Otherwise, yes, this is it. This is the main one. But Canzone, I think, might be the next guy they test. By the way, I think Al Thomas is pretty young.

He might just be a platoon bat. He had a 471 OPS against Lefties last season in the majors. This is not a joke. He has a 107 OPS against them this season. 14 strikeouts and 38 plate appearances. He's one for 36 against lefties with a single single. Yeah. Yanni Torinos was option to AAA.

Zach Birdie was recalled by the. the raise. Joey Manessus was placed on the paternity list and the Padres change up the top of their lineup. They let off Xander Bogarts, Jake Cronoworth, Fernando Tatis, and Juan Soto, Juan Soso, now batting cleanup for the Padres. A few leftovers, studs and near studs in action here on Wednesday. Chris Bassett stays hot against the Yankees, seven shutout with seven strikeouts. Remember opening day, the world was crumbling around Chris Bassett. 27 straight scoreless innings. That is the third longest streak in Blue Jays history

and an eight starts since that opening day, Stinker, 172 ERA, 48 strikeouts, over 52 and 2 thirds innings for Chris Bassett. Garret Cole turns in another quality start at the Blue Jays, six shutout with six strikeouts in that one. Corbyn Burns turns in a mid-quality start at the Cardinals, six innings, three runs, seven strikeouts for him. And Nathan Avaldi, another quality start as well.

Tough task going up against the Atlanta Braves, seven innings, three runs, five strikeouts with 12 swinging strikes. I recently moved Nathan Avaldi inside of my top 40 starting pitchers, which I realized might be aggressive, but he's healthy. He's changed up the pitch mix. Pitching for a really good team. I'm pretty pumped about Nathan Avaldi right now. Towers, anything to add on Avaldi, Corbyn Burns, Garrett Cole, and Chris Bassett. Yeah, Avaldi's 42 for me. So I'm not far off. It's tough to get him much higher than that, though, because the guys I have right ahead of him are all. really good and frankly might be underrated by my rankings as well Lance Lynn Mitch Keller

Hazes Lazzardo Hunter Brown any of those guys could move up pretty significantly as well so it's tough to get Avaldi too much higher but like you said change up the pitch mix we saw it in this start Splitter was his most used pitch that's been a trend over the last couple

of starts it's been really effective for him so that's something to keep an eye on and Chris Bassett just you know, his velocity was like four miles per hour down early on. And in spring training, it was a big concern. And then the first couple of starts, the walk rate is still high over the course of the whole season,

but has been lower over the last couple of starts, starting to look a little more like Chris Bassett. Obviously, the 27 inning scoreless streak is going to help that. But yeah, I'm feeling pretty good about Chris Bassett being the guy we've gotten used to over the past couple of seasons. Corbyn Burns, I've taken him out of the number one spot and Garrett Cole has taken over, Spencer Strider's number two.

Most recent update had Justin Verlander just ahead of Corbyn Burns. I think, I don't know how I feel about that one. And then Shane McClanhan's right there. I think he could easily jump Corbyn Burns as well. But I definitely don't want to say, like, you should sell Corbyn Burns while he, his name value still has value because I'm also very, very much of the belief that he could figure things out

and look like the number one starting pitcher very quickly. You know, we've, we've seen that over the past, I mean, really three seasons at this point. Yeah. Corbyn Burns, he's been good, but he hasn't been Corbyn Burns good.

You know, the swinging strike rate is down this year. The walks are up. He's just been good. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's exactly right.

And I still have them at SP4, but yeah, there's an argument that all of like Zach Gallen and Kevin Osman and even Zach Wheeler's kind of turned it around. Like all those names should be ahead of Corbyn Burns. And if you said they were higher in your rankings, then I can't blame you. A few other pitching performances, Drew Smiley was awesome at the Astros, six innings, one run, eight strikeouts. He has a 286 ERA and a .93 whip. And I say this all the time about Cubs pitchers. I just feel like they're going to be that team this year that outperforms peripherals and underlying metrics because they have a really, really great defense behind them. And right now, I think that's something that is helping Drew Smiley.

Eduardo Rodriguez was human. He, uh, you know, had one of his worst starts of the season. And with that, it's not like he got blown up or anything. Five innings, four runs, five strikeouts up against the pirates. Did not have the cutter in this one. Zero whiffs, a 12% CSW. And seems very clearly that was the issue. there for Eduardo Rodriguez. A few hitting leftovers. Chris Bryant went two for four with a walk and two RBI. We have not talked about Chris Bryant all season, but he's been pretty mediocre. 297 batting average, only five homers.

The counting stats are not there. That Rockies lineup is pretty bad. Only 16 runs and 16 RBI. 129 ISO is a career low, not hitting for much power. Welsh, any thoughts on Chris Bryant? Yeah, I'm pretty shocked about it. That was one of the guys I had as like a preseason return because he was making good contact.

The power numbers just weren't there. I don't know if it's a new approach to make sure that, you know, he is making consistent contact and it's kind of taken away the power. But yeah, he's not the same guy. And he's, I mean, I think he's a good filler outfielder, if that makes sense. Like, he's not an impact outfielder. I'd also don't want to call him like the bottom of the bench. He's just a solid filler guy that you're hoping is going to jump into a streak with

cores. you know, it's going to have one of those 12 homer months that are coming up. But I'm not insanely optimistic that you're going to get much more than this Chris Bryant that you're seeing right now. Yeah, I think there's probably more power coming. And I think like a high batting average is a reasonable expectation given the course field and the fact that, you know, he's become not like the big power guy. He's more of like a consistent line drive pole side hitter. But there will be more power than there has been. I feel pretty confident in that this is the counting stats are a little weird just because yes,

it's a bad lineup, but it's also half the games and cores. You would think more than 32 RBI plus runs in 40 something games or 40-ish games. So I think he'll be better than this moving forward. True story. I was planning to do a segment today about how James Outman has completely slowed down. He's fallen off a cliff. And then he had this monster game, two for four with a grand sock in a shoe. his ninth home run, his fifth steal of the season,

his previous 19 games before this, 180 batting average with a 41% strikeout rate. So the question is, oh, well, do we try to sell James Outman after this? I think we just have to recalibrate our expectations, or maybe I do. I don't want to speak for everybody, but I see this awesome starts of the season. I'm like, wow, James Outman is a stud. And then it's like, all right, let's remember this is a rookie, right?

There's going to be ups and downs. He's going to go through stretches where he looks really good, he's going to look bad and he's got to make adjustments and he's got to get back on track but hopefully this monster game is something that could get him back on track moving forward Corbyn Carroll went one for four with his sixth home run and in his previous 12 games since returning from that knee injury

Carroll was batting 205 with a 680 OPS and a 59% ground ball rate Welsh it might just be the same exact thing that I said about James Outman right like Corbyn Carroll is still a rookie he got off to this fantastic start I don't know if there is like any blame on the knee injury but what have you seen from Corby and Carol? I know you watch them very closely.

Yeah, I mean, one thing that's really frustrating and I don't know, I thought it was just him, but I think it's the whole team. They're not running anymore. The Diamondbacks have stopped running. In the beginning of the season, in April, the Diamondbacks were top. I think there were the seventh most stolen base attempts

by a team in baseball. In May, they're down to 16. Corby and Carroll walked three times the other day, did not attempt a stolen base. Had a single the game before. The announcers were like, Oh, Corbyn Carroll, he's going to get running. He didn't attempt at one time.

I don't know. I assume there's part of the knee injury. The team isn't at all trying to steal the entire approach, which I think is asinine and it's really stupid and they need to fix it because it keeps people on their toes. I actually thought Corbyn has been struggling with fastballs. But to my shock, he's hitting 315 against fastballs this year. He's got an XBA of 269, which is obviously hurting a little bit. Breaking off-speed pitches have kind of given him fits.

He wants to sit high in the zone and stuff at the bottom is eating him up. So I think, like you said, without him, I think you just got to let him adjust. His hard hit numbers are still up there. He has a 113 max EV, almost 114 on him this year. The barrel rate is fine. Everything else is fine. I think he's just still learning the game completely. And I really, really hope for fantasy sake that this knee injury gets fixed and or Tori Lavello

switches it back up and starts stealing again because for them to be in the bottom half with, Remember Sandra Bogart's just like talking? They're like talking about the Diamondbacks and how they didn't know how to deal with this team and how fast they were. And now McCarthy's gone. Alec Thomas is gone. Rojas doesn't steal.

Corbyn Carroll doesn't steal. Fastest man on earth, not stealing bases. I don't like it. MJ Melendez went two for four with two doubles. And in May he's betting 309 with two home runs and five doubles so far. The strikeout rate is down and he is crushing the ball.

And I read an article about how MJ Melendez tweaked his batting stance earlier this month. and seems like the results have been, you know, paying off there for Melendez. Gunner Henderson went two for four with a triple. Don't look now. He's got a modest five-game hitting streak, so, you know, baby steps, baby steps. Justin Turner, back-to-back multi-hit games with a home run in each. He's having a big May as well.

Sayas Suzuki is heating up when three for four with two walks, three for three, rather, with two walks and a double dung. And just so fun to watch, two of the best outfielders in the game right now, both showing up in the same. Game. Adolice Garcia going up against Ronald Acuna. Adolice goes two for four with a double dong, both coming off Spencer Strider. And then on the other side, Ronald Acuna, one for four, with a sock and a shoe, rinse and repeat, home runs in four straight games. You know, the disappointment obviously is the home run didn't travel 450 feet. So, you know, how dare you, Ronald was it was only like 426 or something. That's it. You want to know an interesting little stat on Adolus just real quick. I know we got to go. We were just talking about him. We had Paul Spore on

ITL that's coming up on Thursday. And we're looking at Adelaus Garcia. Last year, Adelaus Garcia on breaking pitches, 1.99 batting average. Yeah, and 199 batting average. This year, and the mix, by the way, was around 30% of pitches. This year, pitchers have pitched him 8% more, knowing that he struggled against breaking pitches, presumably sliders. You don't see that type of pitch mix change. That's a wild pitch mix change. As far as the three categories of baseball Savant, well, it's like a almost 270 batting average he's adjusted to. It's a wild change. I thought that, you know, I don't like him sometimes as a hitter, but for pitchers to recognize where to attack and attacking so much more and him still heating the call and doing better, doing

better. And his XBA is actually higher. I believe it's a 271 XBA against those breaking pitches. I thought that was really wild and definitely tells a story about his improved plate discipline. An absolute baller, man. Adolius Garcia. Every year, it seems like people are doubting him. I'm telling you exactly what will happen. Next year, everyone is in. Everyone's in on Adolias Garcia. That's going to be the year that it says the bottom falls out.

Watch. He's gotten a little bit better at everything every year, though. I mean, obviously it's a small sample size and he's running hot. And remember, he had the, I think, three homer game in late April that really, you know, bumped his numbers up and he's held pretty steady since then. But, you know, it's one of those things where, like, that stat about the breaking pitches was one thing I was going to point out. But just like, he's cut the strikeout rate again. He's cut the whiff rate again.

He's walking a little bit more. He's hitting. It's like just kind of small marginal changes. And I think he'll slow down from here. But, yeah, definitely seems like a situation where the fantasy community collectively outsmarted ourselves. 46 RBI so far for Adelaise Garcia. Yeah, leads the majors, right? Yeah.

He entered Wednesday the fifth best player in Roto slash category leagues and might even go up after another big game. Some bullpen updates for the Rockies. Pierce Johnson got the final two outs for his eighth save for the Diamondbacks. Andrew Chafin presumably unavailable. Miguel Castro converted his third save. That's Castro's second save in the past week. Welsh, you're out there in Arizona. Does it kind of feel like they're trying to get Miguel Castro more involved in the ninth as like a partial closer on that team?

Yeah, he's a partial closer. That is the guy they've made the commitment to, and he's done a decent job. Chafin is going to be the more of the fireman. Like, if they needed a big out in the eighth inning, they'll go to Chafin and they'll let, they trust Castro. This is going to be something where Castro is going to have like 12 saves at the end of the year, 12, 13 saves and Chafin maybe 20. Gotcha. For the Phillies, Gregory Soto got the eighth inning with the game tied at the time. Tied no more.

Gave up three runs on five hits, took his third loss of the season. On the other side, Camillo DeVal has three saves in as many days. He had a bit of a rough start to the season, but he has been incredibly dominant as of late. For the Orioles, Felix Bautisa, struck out two for his 11th save. Yaneer Canoe, another scoreless outing for his eighth hold. The ERA remains zero.

No runs allowed on the season for Canoe. For the Marlins, Tanner Scott pitched in the eighth inning. Dylan Floreau pitched a scoreless ninth for his third save. The Yankees, you know, still kind of all over the place. Clay Holmes entered in the seventh in a tie. game with runners on first and second, facing Bobauchette, Dalton Varshow, Matt Chapman. That is clearly the highest leverage situation in the game, and Clay Holmes made it through, unscathed. Jimmy Cordero pitched in the eighth, Michael King pitched in the ninth, game still tied.

Wondie Peralta got the 10th, he gave up a three-run walk-off homer to Danny Jansen. For the raise, Jason Adam got the 9th, mentioned this earlier against the Mets. He gave up a three-run homer. Pete Fairbanks. In the 10th, he had a two-run lead. he gave up a three-run homer. That was Fairbanks' first game back from the IL. Velocity looked perfectly fine. The slider was actually up one mile per hour.

For the Cardinals, Ryan Helsley recorded the final four outs for his fifth save. For the Braves, Riesel-Oglacius bounced back for his second save, and the fastball velocity was back up, basically the same as last year. And the Cubs have a real problem in their bullpen right now. Adbert Al-Zalai pitched in the seventh with a 6-0 lead. Mark Leiter Jr. got the 8th. He gave up two runs. That made it 6-2.

Kegan Thompson started the ninth with a four-run lead. He got charged with three runs, did not record it out. Brandon Hughes came, entered into a mess of a situation, and he got charged with the loss, but the Cubs are searching for it right now in the back half of their bullpen. I thought it was Alzali or lighter, but clearly they needed those guys earlier in the game.

Let's wrap up with to stream or not to stream, and we'll start with Thursday. There's a few names here that are more rostered than I usually like to consider. I usually go 70% or less, but Tyler Wells against the Angels, he's 77%. Todd Bradley at the Mets.

It's, you know, kind of dicey his first start back. I think Logan T. Allen at the White Sox is fine. There's nobody else on this list I want to trust. Yep. I'm with Alan and Wells. Those are the two that stand out to me to start.

Yeah, Alan and Bradley, I don't even view as streamers. I think they should just be rostered. pretty much across the board. But I get it if you don't want to start Bradley and his first start back, given the AAA numbers like we talked about earlier.

On Friday, scrolling up and down here, oof, not the greatest. There's interesting names, but it's like James Paxson, his second start back at the Padres. It's like, you know, kind of a tough lineup. I guess there's no Machado in there.

I think it's all right. I think I would use Paxon. Detmer's hasn't been great this year. He's dropped under 70% roster. The twins are not great against left-handed pitching. I think that one's fine too. Paxton and Debtmers. And if I need another one,

I like Copac against the Royals a little bit, Novieto against the Diamondbacks. Both of those kind of jump out to me. I'm sticking with Detmer's. I'm not giving up on him. I don't think he, I think he's someone who should be added. I know it's been a rough start,

but, you know, strikeout rate's still good. Walk rate is fine. He's getting hit hard, but still getting a lot of whiffs. I think he's going to be fine. All right for the Chris's Towers and the Welsh. I am Frank.

Thanks as always for tuning in to Fantasy Baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.