Fantasy Baseball Today - Ranking Luis Gil, Cardinals Bats Are Hot & Four Confusing Players! (6/5 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 5, 2024

How do we value Luis Gil rest of season (2:20)? ... Max Fried is on fire over his last eight starts (10:55). ... Cardinals bats are crushing right now, including Nolan Gorman, Alex Burleson and Masyn Winn (13:15). ... News (23:27): Cristian Javier needs Tommy John surgery. ... Let's take a look at four confusing players, starting with Elly De La Cruz (32:58). ... Cristopher Sanchez has looked much better over his last six starts (46:05). ... We got some rough pitcher outings from Jesus Luzardo, Shota Imanaga and others (47:30). ... What did we think of Adam Mazur in his debut (55:17)? ... Should Brandon Lowe be added if he were dropped (57:52)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (1:00:33). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. What's up and welcome into Tough Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, June 5th. I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Chris Towers. Today on the show, we have four confusing players this season, including L.E. de la Cruz, pitchers who are on fire.

others who are not Cardinals' bats have taken off recently. Adam Majer's debut. It turns out it's Major, not Azer, or Mazer. But we will talk about that and much more. Let's jump in. Can you believe it? Wow. Chris, you are here.

Who is your player of the night? Let's go with Luis Heel, who might just be the toughest player to rank in fantasy right now, because he is absolutely dominant. I'm trying to remember what the stat was. It's something like the first pitcher since Jacob de Grom to have a seven-start stretch with at least 41 strikeouts and an ERA below 0.7.

Like there's all kinds of historic stats going on about what Luis Heel is doing right now. I wrote about him earlier this week as a cell high candidate. He went out and showed. yet again, I still don't know where to rank, right? Like, if we're, there are multiple ways you can approach rankings. You could do what we do here at CBS Sports Fantasy Baseball today, where we try to rank for the rest of the season.

Or you can do just here's how I rank the pitchers right now. That's what like Nick Pollock, a pitcher list does. I think he releases a weekly ranking. these are my pitcher rankings for right now. If you were doing that, is Luis Heel a top 10 pitcher right now? Probably? I mean, if he's going to have, I think his walk rate since the start of May is like 10% or 9%. And if he's going to do that, yeah, he might just be a top 10 starting pitcher.

But there are a lot of reasons to be skeptical about how sustainable this is. not just from a talent perspective, although obviously if the walk rate regresses, that's a huge concern. And walks were a really, really big problem for Luis Heel, literally up until like May 3rd or whatever the start was

where things turned around for him this year. But then there's also the much more difficult question to answer, and I think that one's already a difficult question to answer, which is how long is this guy going to stay in the Yankees' rotation? I mean, that's one. that we can't answer. You and I were talking before the show, apparently on the Yankees broadcast,

they were talking about the team doesn't have any restriction for him. Well, okay, but he has thrown 29 and two-thirds innings in the two seasons prior to this one, and he is already up to 69 and a third. The Yankees, as you well know, want to make the playoffs and want to make a, deep playoff run and they would surely like to have Luis Heel available for that. And so how do they balance that?

Is it going to be nights like tonight where he got through six innings with 88 pitches and they just pull him? It'll probably be some of that. Is it going to be when Garrett Cole's back, they pull him out of the rotation for a couple of weeks, send him down to the minors or put him in the bullpen? Do they move him to the bullpen full time at some point? I think all of those are potential options and it makes figuring out. how to value Luis Heel the rest of the way,

incredibly, incredibly difficult. And I think given the combination of the dominance that he has shown over the last month, the team he pitches for, because that matters, the Yankees are going to get a lot more attention. I do think Luis Heel is a fairly obvious cell high candidate. He has a 178 Babbitt this season as well. So it's not like even the level of production is sustainable.

going to be some regression there as well. It's not to say I don't like Louise Heel because I think he's extremely, extremely good. It's just, can I rank him as a top 40 starting pitcher the rest of the way? I don't think I can. That's what I was just thinking. I was looking at my rankings and trying to figure out where is Louise Heel going to move up after this start? And I think he's got to be inside the top 40.

I mean, some names that I have right around there include Kikuchi, who's taken a bit of a step back recently. Tanner Bybee's been better, but it's been an up and down season. Bryce Miller, who I've been talking about as a cell high for a while. Hunter Green's, I think, last starter, too. You know, he's taken a bit of a step back. Like, Verlander, we just spoke about yesterday, Scott and I did, that he's more of like a Jose Burrios, Chris Bassett type at this point in his career.

I think Louise Heel at least needs to be ahead of all of those names. And even if he only gives you another, he's up, he's right around 70 innings, right? if he gets up to 120, 1.30, so like another 50 or 60 innings, those can be 50, 60 innings of a top 20 starting pitching. Yeah, the

problem is you start to do the math. That's like eight starts. Yeah. Nah. It's... If he averages six innings per start, that's 46, 48 innings, right? Yeah. So, yeah, it's probably between like...

That's really tough. Yeah, 8 and 10 starts. And I don't know that. I'm just like, throwing that number out there. But, you know, the team has Garikohl coming back at some point. Clark Schmidt, hopefully, right after the All-Star break. We were speculating before the show. Like, I said maybe we don't see many starts from Luis Heel after the All-Star break,

and they move him to the bullpen. You know, as good as Clay Holmes has been, I think that they can use another electric kind of on, whether that's via trade or, you know, kind of put him in the bullpen as like a two-winning setup guy, whatever it might be. And that's been a hallmark of like the last. decade of Yankees teams, especially when they've been legitimate contenders, is they've been three or four arms deep in really, really good shutdown relievers. And so, look, Luis Hill would still have value.

Yeah. In that, but it's obviously a significant step back from where he is. So it's all to say that, like, when I look at my rankings, I've got him just behind McKenzie Gore. Well, his last start was pretty bad. Yeah. I've got him right ahead of Bailey over. his last couple starts have been pretty bad and the overall numbers are pretty bad.

Do you think there will be a significant gap between Garret Crochet and Luis Heel's innings? Because if not, they should probably just be ranked in the same spot. That's where it gets really tough, right? Because let me look at, one thing I have not looked at is Louise Heel's service time. So this is something that Scott has brought up. And there was an article today actually about Garrette crochet and the potential of him being traded. And the thing you have to keep in mind with Garer Crochet is he only has. has two years of club control left.

So it's not like the White Sox have to think three or four years down the road. They kind of just need to get the value that they can from him. Luis Heel has less than two years of service time coming into this season. So he might be a super two guy. He might have four. He probably has three, at least three years of club control left after this one. So there is a little bit more of a long-term consideration. there. And so the White Sox, as far as I know, I haven't seen any specific discussion about

Garret Crochet being limited or shut down. I haven't really. But it's eerily similar to heal. He hasn't, he hasn't thrown a lot of endings the past couple of years. So. Absolutely. And we've just speculated on that too. I know Scott is a little bit more, you know, he thinks Crochet can go up to 150. I'm, I don't know if he's going to get that many. I'm in the camp of probably 12, I think is realistic for Garrick Crochet this season. To put a bowl on this Luis Heel conversation, I know we've talked about him a lot recently. He's just a really confounding player for fantasy.

I don't think you need to just sell. If you're going to sell Louise Heel, you have to get proper value in return. What is that? A hitter who's underperforming, who was drafted in the top five or six rounds, at least? I don't know that I would go any lower than that because then I feel,

even if I'm only getting 50 to 60 more innings, those might be 50 to 60 incredible in a caliber innings so I need to get good value for Luis Heel. Don't just sell him and I think you said something similar about Crochet where if you're not going to get fair value just stick it out and you know

reap all of the benefits that come with having a pitcher that good. So I think that's kind of where we're at right now on Louise Heel he's going to move inside of my top 40 starting pitchers but someone who is incredibly hard to rank rest of season for fantasy. Let's stick with just the two best pitchers lately and two guys that are just on amazing runs.

And Max Fried set a new career high with 13 strikeouts at the Red Sox, seven innings, three runs, two of those earned. He had the 13 strikeouts to just one walk, 21 whiffs on 103 pitches, seven on the curve, four on the fastball, three on the cutter, three on the change up, everything working for Max Fried. And over his last eight starts, it's a 157 ERA. a 0.75 whip, just under a strikeout per inning. This start helped a lot, obviously, with that.

He has allowed 30 hits in his last eight starts, spanning 57 in a third innings. That is insane. It's a lot of ground balls, it's a lot of soft contact, and, I mean, Max Fried, he just looks like a top 15 starting pitcher. In the back of your mind, you kind of worry about, all right, he dealt with that forearm injury last year. He's also in a contract year.

And it kind of looks like he's just shove it all in. And he looks like one of the best pitchers in baseball. I don't know that there's anything actionable here, Chris, with Max Fried, except that he looks healthy right now and he looks like one of the best pitchers. Yeah, I'm back to basically having zero concerns about him. The forearm issue, as you said last season, is one lingering doubt that I have. But I have lingering doubts for basically every pitcher's ability to stay healthy. Garrett Holt basically had never had an injury since his Tommy John surgery, what, six years ago, and then he got hurt this spring.

Any pitcher can get hurt. Max Fried might be more likely than some, but I don't know if he's especially likely relative to the pool as a whole. And I don't know if there are more than 15 pitchers who are better than him. There are 15 pitchers who get more strikeouts than him, but this is a guy who has been top 10% in Major League Base. spawn average exit velocity allowed five straight years. Like there, there is nothing fluky about this. He is arguably the,

the preeminent quality of contact master among starting pitchers at this point in his career. So I just, I just think you ride it. I don't think there's like a cell high window here. I think you just, this is what you drafted Max Fried to be. This is who Max Fried is.

All right. Let's, we'll stick with the players who are hot right now. Just talk about all the Cardinals' bats. I know we've talked about Nolan Gorman, like, a ton recently. I mean, he did it again. He just keeps hitting home runs, two for five with his 14th home run. He has four home runs in his past three games, six home runs in his past seven.

And over his last 20 games, Nolan Gorman is batting 3.43 with 10 homers, 20 runs, 19 RBI. He's up to 79% rostered. Scott and I spoke about him extensively yesterday. Alec Berluson, also pretty hot right now. last 18 games batting 303, five homers, 12 runs scored, two steals, 37% rostered.

I think that number needs to be higher. Anything that covers five outfielder leagues or even just category formats or any daily lineup leagues, I noticed he's actually really bad against left-handed pitching. The thing with Alec Berlison, I was thinking about this

as I was working on the waiver wire portion of tomorrow's newsletter. And I wanted to write about him because he's been so good And it's just like, but what does he do for fantasy? Right? Like his career high in Homer's is not, is eight now.

I believe he's tied it, right? Yeah. Um, his career made like the goriel, like good Lordus Correel and like, yeah, good Masataka Yoshita. Like that's the comp.

Yeah. He just, he doesn't really get on base. So I think runs are going to be, like I just, I wonder, obviously there are so few good outfielders that like go ahead and add him. Yeah, you probably have someone who's doing worse right now and you can just run them out there. It's just,

I don't know if this is a long-term fix for anyone in fantasy. I think even in a five outfielder league, he's probably going to remain pretty fringy. The most added outfielers right now, Matt Veerling is up at the top. Who would you rather have, Veerling or Alec Berluson? I think Veerling has more interesting stuff going on under the hood. overall, so I think I'd go with him. Miguel Andohar's number two, would you rather Anduhar or Burleson? I don't know if it makes sense to say

Miguel Anduhar has more upside than anyone, but I think he does. I think I would go with Burlinson there, but it is close. Yeah, like, that's fine, but like we're talking about a guy who your average fantasy player hadn't thought about in seven years before last week.

So I think that kind of proves the point on Alec Berlinson. Jake Myers is a little bit further down the list, but similar roster rates for him and Alec Berluson. Interesting things under the hood for Jake Myers. He hits the ball hard. He's playing more recently for the Astros. Who would you rather have Berluson or Jake Myers? I think I'm okay going with Burleson there. All right. Let's talk about Mason Win. The other Cardinals bat. He is red hot right now. No pun intended. Three for three with a sock in a shoe. His third home run, his eight stolen base. Last 20 games for Mason win. 370 batting average.

three homers, 10 runs, 14 RBI, and three steals. Interesting skill set makes a lot of contact. The zone contact is elite, elite for Mason win. But he doesn't hit the ball particularly hard. He doesn't pull the ball. Lots of line drives and lots of infield fly balls. It's just a very interesting skill set. He's also super fast.

53% rostered. How much higher do you think that number needs to be? It's a hard question to answer because one, short stuff's just really deep. And there probably aren't that many people that need a short stuff. And that's probably what the biggest thing that's holding Mason wins value back. And the other thing, he's on like a 60 run 60 RBI pace despite an OPS above 800 now for the season because he's batting eighth or ninth for the Cardinals nearly every day. I would certainly bet Mason win higher in the lineup when he's hitting 309 and getting on base and running and doing a lot of things well and making a ton of contact.

I don't know what it's going to take to move him up in the lineup. But I would, like, given how many injuries they've had, I'm shocked it hasn't happened yet. And maybe they just don't want to mess with a good thing or I don't know. But like the comp I keep coming back to with Mason win is Tim Anders, where it was, Tim Anderson kept running these really high babbips. And it kept being like, well, he can't keep doing it. But the thing is, when you're talking about a guy with great back control,

who makes a lot of contact, is really fast and hits the ball to all fields with a ton of line drives, that is exactly how you run really high babbps every year. And it's possible that Mason Wynn could be that kind of contributor. And then you look at three home runs, I think, in his last, 15 games, I believe is what it is for Mason Wynn. Eight stolen bases. Like, if he could be a 15 to 20 homer guy and a 20 to 25 stolen base guy, like, you add all of that up.

And if he hits 300, that that's Tim Anderson. Yeah. And so it's just, can they just move him up to the lead off spot? Just see what could happen. It's not like the Cardinals have such a great lineup that they can't afford it. Right. So I'm kind of puzzled by the way they've used him so far, I'll admit. So he has let off...

He's let off four games in a row now, actually. I hadn't realized that. Yeah, he... Actually, he was betting eighth today, unless I don't have that right. Okay. But he bet... He hit lead off three of the past four before that, and it would be four, five, five of the past seven. Yep.

And I don't know if there's like a rhyme or reason to it. I thought it might have been against lefties, but he lefties. on Tuesday, on Monday, and that was against Verlander. Yeah, I don't quite understand the... Yeah, they're kind of like mixing and matching with it, but... Yeah. I mean, he is getting opportunities, so that's good. I think the Cardinals agree with you, Chris.

They're going to start to bat Mason win higher in the lineup. I mean, everything that he's doing right now. I think Tim Anderson is a really good comp. I think Starly Marte is one that comes to mind, where he hit for good batting average. You know, in his prime, it was like 280. 15-ish homers, 30-plus steals. I'm a little bit more skeptical on the power for Mason-win.

I think it might be more like 10 homers, but he's fast enough to get to 30 steals if they just let him run. So, yeah, I think it's a really intriguing skill set. 53% rostered. The name that comes up that's like right around there is Nick Gonzalez. And I think they're both really interesting right now.

Who would you rather have? Mason Wynne's just been doing it longer in the majors. It's like a month and a half. have versus three weeks or whatever, but I think I'd give Mason Wynn the edge just for that. Yeah, I think so too. I mean, the cop out answer is like Gonzalez for power and Mason win for speed, but I think in a vacuum, I would rather have Mason win. A couple others we talked about recently, Davis Schneider, Joey Ortiz. I still think I would take both of those over Mason Wynn, but it's getting closer. Uh, Joey Ortiz and who? Davis Schneider.

I just I don't buy Davis Schneider as much and I would imagine at some point he's probably going to move down in the lineup. I think if George Springer gets going, he's going to move back into the leadoff spot and that's going to hurt Davis Schneider. So I think I'd go with win over Schneider. Probably Ortiz first though. Yeah. Schneider probably in a points league. He does get on base a lot. But yeah, in the categories, if you need to beat, I think that makes some sense.

quick reminder to sign up for the FBT newsletter if you haven't already. If you're watching on YouTube, you can scan that QR code that Chris is pointing to. That will take you right to the website where you click on the FBT logo. You punch in your email address. It's easy as that. And you get a newsletter delivered to your inbox every weekday for free. Let's take our first break. And when we return, we'll hit the news and notes right after this.

Welcome back in. Let's talk news and notes. And the big news item from Tuesday on Fortune News, Christian Javier is scheduled to undergo Tommy John's surgery on Thursday. He likely won't be ready to return until the second half of 2025. It's a rough blow for Javier, who has not looked right for quite some time. I mean, really never looked like himself any of last year, and then the velocity was down his past couple of starts.

If you were stashing him in an IL spot, this happened in my home league, you can swap him out for another player who's currently on the IL. You could do that on CBS. And I think I put claims in for Encarnacion Stran, Clayton Kershaw, and Masataka Yoshita. Those were just some names that came to mind. Yeah. No, I think that makes sense. Encarnacion Strand, when I wrote the Waverware piece earlier this week on Sunday,

he was kind of there weren't really any good first baseman to consider adding. But go check, Tristan Kasa's last I checked was about 80% rostered. Who was there? There was another first baseman there. Josh Young. He's a third baseman. Sorry, corner infield option, but he's also, I think, about 85%. So just make sure those guys aren't available in your league.

All right. Major League Baseball announced Tuesday that they have cleared. Shohei Otani closed its investigation and consider him, quote, a victim of fraud at the hands of former interpreter Ipe Mizuhara. So if you had any concerns left about Shohe Otani, you shouldn't because he has been cleared. Kyle Tucker was out of the lineup after fouling a ball off his right shin on Monday night. X-rays did come back negative. He is day-to-day.

Aaron Boone said that Garrett Cole will require, quote, at least a few rehab starts before rejoining the Yankees rotation. And Cole made his first rehab start Tuesday at AA. I watched all of it. It was pretty damn good. Three and a third shutout. Two hits, zero walks, five strikeouts. He hit 97 miles per hour a few times with his fastball.

I know after the start, he said, I'm ready to go. I want to be up in the big leagues. But the Yankees have to play this safe. I would guess he makes at least two more rehab starts. So that would put him around like June, I don't know, 20th to 25th, something around there. Yeah, my guess has been they're going to treat it like spring training. And they're going to go basically the full 30 days.

My prediction is July 4th. You know, nice holiday. They're at home. Day game, big hoopla. They'll, you know, maybe have a plane fly overhead or something. That's my prediction. All right, Ranger Suarez played catch without any issues on Tuesday and looks to be on track to start this weekend against the Mets in London.

Luis Robert was activated and in the lineup batting third for the White Sox. He finished two for four with his third home run. Welcome back to all these guys, by the way. I mean, big. Yeah, that's kind of the theme of today. Yeah, big first games back. Royce Lewis made his return for the twins. He was batting fifth.

He finished one for one, two walks. His second home run, he has played two games a season. He has homered in both of them. please, please, for the love of baseball and everything involved in it, stay healthy, Royce Lewis, please. Is it an overreaction to already move Luis Robert into the top 10 at outfield? No, I moved him up to 11th or 12th last week, even before he returned, just because I knew he would be back soon.

Yeah, it's like Michael Harris, Randy Rosarena, haven't really done much this season. I had a both. Yeah. I think so. I'm going to have yellow. ahead of him. I agree with that move. I have Yelich at 9. I have Adoles Garcia at 10. That's the other one, yeah. At 11, yeah. Yep, I think that's the order I'm going to go with as well.

And I've started to slowly move some of those other names down. I have Harris at 17, a Rose Arena at 18. Not burying them, but they have struggled for quite some time now. Yeah, I just, I don't, I don't really want to move anyone ahead of them is the problem. Yeah. Jack Flarrity left to start early due to back tightness. He had thrown five shutout innings with just 60 total pitches. I know The velocity was down a little bit in this one. AJ Hinch said the team still does not know the severity of the injury, and it sucks because Jack Flaherty has been based on how you got him. You probably picked him up as a waiver-wire pitcher,

and he's been one of the more valuable pitchers this season. So hopefully it's nothing too bad. Andres Munoz was removed from his outing with what I thought was an ankle injury, but then Chris, you saw that he's getting an MRI on his back. Yeah, apparently his back's been bothering him. His lower back has been bothering him for a couple of weeks. and they want to get it checked out after he left that game. So that was the word after the game at least.

Alex Bregman got hit by a pitch on his left hand, but stayed in the game. X-rays came back negative. CJ Abrams returned to the Nationals lineup after missing three straight with a jammed left shoulder. Zach Eflin will return from the IL to start Wednesday against the Marlins. Edwin Diaz through a bullpen session Tuesday, manager Carlos Mendoza said there is a good chance Diaz will begin a rehab assignment on Thursday. I think the expectation is he's going to be back when he's first eligible on the 11th. That would, yeah, that would be next Tuesday. Yeah.

And they have said the same thing about Francisco Alvarez. Yes. Yes. That is, uh, that's their first game back from London. From London. Yep. That would be very welcome, obviously, for the men who have been reeling for quite some time right now. Evan Carter will be out for at least a month with a stress reaction in his back.

Max Scherzer threw a 40 pitch. batting practice session Tuesday, the first time he's faced hitters since being pulled off his rehab assignment. Afterwards, Scher said he's hoping his next step will be to make a rehab start, but we'll wait to learn more. Tyler O'Neill began a rehab assignment at AAA on Tuesday. The Red Sox remain optimistic. He'll be activated when first eligible on Wednesday. Williera Abreu was placed in the aisle with a right ankle sprain retroactive to June 3rd. Rob Reff Snyder started in left field with Bobby Dalbeck in right.

against the lefty Max Fried. Did you see how Bray you got hurt? I... He missed a step in the dugout and fell. Oh, gosh. That sucks. Yeah, he's having a great season, too, so hopefully he's not out too long.

Trevor Williams was placing the aisle out of nowhere with a right flexor strain, and the team are called DJ Hers from AAA, and he is their 12th-ranked prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, 23 years old, left-handed pitcher with a really good change-up, very bad command in the minors,

and he wasn't particularly good in his debut, NL-only league, stuff like that. He might be a name. Brewer's manager, Pat Murphy, said Robert Gasser might miss some time, but the first MRI on his elbow looked, quote, pretty normal, and it sounds like Aaron Ashby

will be called up to start on Wednesday in Robert Gasser's place. Tommy Pham was placed in the aisle with a left ankle sprain retroactive to June 3rd. He actually suffered the injury on that play at the plate where him and William Contreras got into a shouting match. And I don't think we ever talked about the quotes after that game,

but Tommy fan is just... Just calm down, dude. You play baseball. I don't know. No, he doesn't. Like, I'm ready to fight. You're a millionaire baseball player. It's fine.

Like, apparently he does like MMA in the offseason and stuff. Yeah, that's a cool way to stay in shape. But like, come on, dude. Yeah, take a deep breath. I don't know what's up with him. Tyro Estrada returned to the lineup after missing three straight with a jam thumb. Masataki Yoshita is expected to start a minor league rehab assignment this weekend. Shelby Miller was activated from the IL,

and I think he's a name to watch in the Tigers bullpen. Jason Foley, while he picked up a save on Tuesday, has been pretty shaky recently. The Brave signed Brian Anderson to a major league contract, and he could provide some depth in the wake of that Ronald Acuna injury. The Reds promoted one of their outfield prospects, Blake Dunn. He was in the lineup betting eighth against the lefty tie block. Black, block.

I think it's block, right. Ty Block. That sounds right. Yeah, that sounds right. Yeah, Blake Dunn, older prospect, 25 years old. Just, again, a name in really, really deep leads. We've seen like three different outfielders over the last year emerge from basically nowhere to be fantasy relevant with the Reds.

They let their guys run. It's a good park. It's a name to keep an eye on in the same way that like Will Benson and T.J. Friedel became guys. Yeah. Blake Dunn, by the way, had 54 steals in the minors last year. So if they do let him run, who knows? Maybe there could be some value there. The athletics, Dennis Lynn and Ken Rosenthal report that the Padres have shown interest in Garrick Crochet.

Both Joe Musgrove and U. Darvish are on the IL. And the Padres in White Sox very familiar with each other. They made the trade for Dylan Cs earlier right before the season started. So we'll see what happens. Lastly, Major League Baseball has banned Padres infielder to Capita Marcano from the game for life as he placed bets on baseball games involving his own team back in 2023. Four other players received a one-year suspension for gambling on baseball, A's reliever Michael Kelly, Padres pitcher Jay Groom, Philly's infielder Jose Rodriguez,

and D-BAC's pitcher Andrew Sal Frank. All right, that was a lot. Let's talk about other things. One quick thought on these confusing players. Ellie Dela Cruz hit a mammoth home run here on Tuesday, one for four with his 10th home run. On May 17th, when you were gallivanting the streets of Europe, Chris. Scott and I did a podcast where I admitted how wrong I was about Ellie Dela Cruz.

In 16 games since then, before Tuesday's game. He was betting 125 with a 39%. strikeout rate. Quality of contact way down. 56% ground ball rate during that stretch. He's down to a 233 batting average, a 755 OPS. What is your one quick thought on L.E. De LaCruz? Well, so I wrote about 1800 words on L.E. DeL.A. Cruz earlier today, actually. So go to cbscores.com and check that out. The interesting thing is I wrote 1,800 words. I dove deep on what changed. It's really since the start of May.

His OPS is down to like 5.50. No, 620 since the start of May, striking out 36% of the time. But one home run. And when I looked into it, I looked into the way pitchers are approaching him. And he has not shown any ability to hit anything but fastballs this season. So I thought,

well, maybe pitchers, just stopped throwing up fastballs. Well, his fastball rates drop from like 51% to 49% or 48%. So that's not a significant change. And pitchers aren't throwing more stuff outside of the strike zone. His, his in zone pitch rate has actually gone up in the month of May. He's just not making any contact with pitches in the strike zone. And so I think he's just going through.

it right now. I think he's just slumping, which is both concerning that it's not like pitchers have figured something out and also promising that he can probably figure it out. But my quick thought, that's what the exercise was. This is probably just who he is right now. It's not to say it's who he will be forever, but all those victory laps in April where it was like, you were an idiot if you faded L.A. Dela Cruz and anybody who's saying you were an idiot if you drafted Dela, like it's not either of that. It's just that this is an incredibly toolsy, incredibly inconsistent player. And I think these stretches are just going to be the norm. And you look at the overall marks and it's like a 230-ish average and 25-ish home run pace and 85

steals. And I think that's probably what he is. He's a borderline first round pick with massive holes and massive upside. That's that's where I'm at. Remember those emails we used to get from a listener, Chris? He used to call Juan Soto, Juan Succo. We are now getting them for Ellie De La Cruz. With the nickname. Wiffy De La Cruz, I think.

Whiffy de la Luz. So like, and this is the thing, right? It's like we have to react to April. And then we have to react to May. And it's like, maybe we just take Ellie de la Cruz for what he is, which is, which is the premier source of speed in the majors. I don't think, like, I've seen some people ask, like,

oh, might he get sent down? No way. Like, Noel V. Marte is not going to come back, unless he got a lot better at defense. He's not going to come back and play defense. Elie de la Cruz has gotten much better defensively, and he was already pretty good last year. So, like, just ride the wave.

I think it's like, like we talk about with Blake Snell and a lot of guys like that. It's just you're going to drive yourself crazy. We are. Trying to figure out like, oh, he's good now. And he's been like just, this is who he is. I will say, and this is an excuse because obviously we're blessed to be able to do this, Chris. But on this very podcast, we are kind of prisoners of the moment, right?

Where we have an hour every single day to react to a day's worth of baseball, where in the grand scheme of it, one day's worth of baseball doesn't really mean that much. It's just, you know, that's why I try to string together like how many days has a player been doing this or, you know, pitchers on a stretch or a pitcher changes

a pitch mix or, you know, things that I think are actionable for the day. I think you're right. I mean, I think this is probably just part of the experience and that experience is going to be a sub-250 batting average. Yes. 20 to 25 home runs, probably 70 plus

steals and, Pretty good counting stats. And that's a really good player. That's an incredible player. And if he hadn't hit 280 with like a thousand OPS in April and he hadn't been tied for fourth in home runs, which he was. And I don't think there would be no like it would just be, oh, no. And I guess I can't say there would be no concerns because this is exactly what he did last year. Right.

It's like the first 30 games last year, he was incredible. After that, pretty bad. What if this lasts like three months? That is the concern. I don't expect that to be the case. But if in June he hits eight home runs and hits 270, I don't think your reaction should be, ha!

Elie de la Cruz has figured it out. It's probably just that he's just going to be streaky. And I think you just got to, you got to ride that. The one thing I will say is he's not good against lefties. I think he's hit one home run or sorry. Yeah, he's not good against lefties. he's not good as a right-handed hitter.

And this is something we saw early on in Yohan-Mankata's career, where he put up good numbers against righties. From the left side of the plate, he'd hit for power, he'd get on base. Elito Cruz has shown a similar thing where he just cannot hit for power. We have the bat speed data. His bat speed is like 8 to 10 miles per hour slower from the right side of the plate. And so I do think there has to be a conversation at some point about whether he can be a switch hitter or whether he's just going to continue to struggle against lefties.

Whoa. I'm sorry, guys. It's fine. The cats disagree clearly. There is a literal cat fight going on in Chris's house right now. But I don't know what you do about that anyway. All right. Well, it's clear that we are really bad at one quick thought. So let's make this.

We'll be quicker. A lot quicker thoughts on these players. George Kirby, a mixed start at the Oakland A's, five inings, two runs, nine strikeouts. He had 16 whiffs on 94 pitches, nine on the fastball, five on the slider, two on the splitter. And a mixed start for obvious reasons. He only went five innings. He gave up seven hard hits in this one. The strikeouts are good.

The whiffs are good. Two starts in a row now where the slider was George Kirby's most used pitch. And he threw it 29% in this start. The velocity was up on that slider, 1.5 miles per hour. And it looked really good. It also was against the Oakland A's. What do you make of this start, the recent pitch mix, and just where we're at? I mean, it's a 393 ERA on June 5th, which is not what we were expecting.

Yeah, my quick thought is I expect something like a 3-4-ish ERA moving forward, maybe a little lower in this offensive environment. It's a very good pitcher. It's going to come with a very good whip, and he's going to be super valuable. I think people got over there skis on him being an ace. I don't think he's quite that. All right, let's talk about Ozzy Albies who launched his first home run since May 10th. He went two for four.

It was his fourth home run overall, three RBI in this game. And just notice some weird things in the batted ball data for Ozzy Albies. The barrel rate is down a little bit this year, not that he's ever been a big barrel rate hitter or anything like that. The pull rate is down a little bit.

Infield fly balls are uncharacteristically high. The expected stats are not good. It seems like maybe because of the injury he suffered. He might just be off a little bit here. But in an environment where home runs a fly ball ratio is down, I feel like Ozzy Albies is one name that could maybe suffer more than others. Your quick thought on, Ozzy Albies. Yeah, I mean, you look at it and he had been more like a 25 homer guy

for a little while. And then 2021, he breaks out as a 30 homer guy. Yeah, it's possible. Like, you look at the, the, the hit chart. And he does have a lot of like

360 foot doubles that you could reasonably assume in previous years would have been home runs. And that's a little concerning. But it's not just that the ball is not traveling far as far. Right? Like, it'd be one thing if the. quality of contact was the same, but the ball wasn't traveling as far. I think he's probably

just not locked in and there's going to be a stretch where Ozzy Albi's locks in and looks a lot better. So I'm not too concerned here. But he absolutely does seem like the kind of player who could very well be more impacted than most by a change in the fly ball environment. Yiner Diaz had a recent stretch where he sat three or four games and then he were return to the lineup on Monday. He's now homered in back-to-back games. And on Monday, that was his first home run since April 11th. In 39 games in between,

Yainer Diaz was betting 2.18 with a 289 slug, 52% ground ball rate, only four walks to 23 strikeouts. He's batting 249 overall, a 660 OPS. The problem is he's just hitting the ball on the ground way too much right now. He's still 89% rostered. but where are you at on yiner-Diaz? Would you drop him in a one-catcher league for, like, Francisco Alvarez if he was out there? I think that would be okay.

I'm not saying it's a must, but I think dropping Yiner-D-S for Francisco Alvarez would be defensible for next week when Alvarez is coming back from the aisle. Yeah, that's fine. He's, I don't know, like, it's hard to find a specific explanation for why he's struggling, except that last year he really crushed off speed pitches. And this year he's not. That looks like the biggest change, honestly, between last year and this year.

So I don't know how much to take of that because he also almost never sees off speed pitches. He's a free swinger. We've seen like Salvador Perez's value fluctuate as he goes through stretches where he's hitting for crazy power and then stretches where it's not traveling quite as far. And that might just be what it is because of the similar approaches. But it could also be this is the peril of buying into relatively small sample sizes with quality of contact metrics.

Because Yanir Diaz had incredible quality of contact metrics and looked like an elite hitter over a relatively small sample size. And maybe it just wasn't real. Or maybe he was just kind of hot last year and he's been kind of cold. far. Let's take our final break and when we return, we'll get into the rest of Tuesday's action. We'll do that right after this. All right, let's jump around to a whole bunch of different topics. Pitchers that are on quite the run right now, we spoke about Max Fried and Luis Heel. One other name I wanted to mention, Christopher Sanchez. Another quality start, six innings, one run, three strikeouts, only had three whiffs on 83 pitches in this start, but the velocity remains

up, the control remains pretty good. And last six starts, it's a 195 ERA, a 19-whip, less than a strike-up for inning. He's kind of doing a Max-Fried impression, Chris, where he's getting a ton of ground balls. It's less than a strikeout per inning, but I kind of trust it. How do you feel about Christopher Sanchez? Yeah, the thing is, he doesn't have quite the quality of contact suppression that Max Fried has shown over his career. Last year, it was 374, expected Wobon contact. This year, it's 365 for Christopher Sanchez. So this might be splitting hairs, but it feels like maybe more the less elite version

of Framber Valdez than Max Free, just because Max Fried's been so consistently sub three ERA guy for such a long time, whereas Valdez has had. peaks like that, but hasn't really consistently sustained that. That's more what I think of Sanchez, but I'm certainly not fading him right now. Some rough pitcher outings on Tuesday, Hazus Lazzardo got clobbered by Tampa Bay, four and a third, nine hits, nine runs, had nine whiffs on 83 pitches, 11 hard hits allowed 93.6 average exit velocity. The fastball had nothing. Zero whiffs, one called strike, 4% CSW on that pitch. It was quite bad. You know, his four starts before this coming off the

IL, he looked like he was back on track. Chris, your thoughts on Jesus Lizardo. I kind of think this is the perfect time to buy him because this was a terrible start and I guess he's going to get traded to a contender at some point this season. Yeah, I would assume so. The one thing it does make me think specifically with regards to the fastball, which has just been not good for him this season. His whiff rate entering this start on his four seamer was down to 12.6%. It was 19.4 last year. Expected Wobah 386.

It was 3.50 last year. And his velocity has been down. Now, I think it was down even before that flexor strain. But this was something that I remember, you know, Sarah's mentioning in his preseason pitching rankings where Hadeslizzo's fastball rated out decently well, mostly because it was one of the hardest fastballs by a left-handed starter in baseball. And the difference between the very, very good version of Hazel Zazzardo we saw last year and the sort of middling to bad versions we saw before 2022 was like a mile per hour

in fastball velocity. Well, he's lost that mile per hour now. And it's been a pretty bad pitch for him. So I don't know. It's a little concerning. I think the changeup and slider are still good enough that Hazel Zazardo should be a sub four ERA with decent strikeouts. But I don't necessarily think I'm expecting a, you know, SP2 kind of production from him the rest of the way like we were hoping for before the season. Would you buy low or just pass on Lazardo? Yeah, I think it's fine to buy low, but I do think it has to be genuinely low. Okay. Four other pitchers who had Some rough outings here took a little bit of a step back. Shota Imanaga.

He struggled before the rain delay in this one and then did not come back after the rain delay, obviously. Four and a third, seven hits allowed, five runs. Only one of those was earned. Did have six strikeouts, 14 whiffs in this one. I saw Christopher Morel had a terrible defensive play behind him that, you know, extended the inning, and that's kind of been the case with Christopher Morel. But Imanaga still gave up a two-run homer to Lennon Sosa, you know, six hard hits in this. this game. One thing we didn't talk about in his last start is that he had 11 days off between

starts from May 18th to May 29th. Both of his starts since then have been underwhelming. So I wonder if maybe he's just kind of thrown off right now. That's Imanaga. Seth Lugo looked a little bit more human at the Guardians. Their lineup has been great all season. Six innings, five runs, five strikeouts, two homers allowed in that one. Cutter Crawford has struggled lately. His last five starts, a 643 ER. A 136 whip and Bailey Ober was pretty blah at the Yankees, which is one of the toughest matchups in baseball. So I mean, you know, give him a bit of a pass, but it was five innings, three runs, four

walks at two strikeouts. Watching this start, the umpire had a really, really tight strike zone and, you know, there were lots of calls where Bailey Ober was not happy about the way that they were being called, but his last four starts, a 758 ERA, a 168 whip. any actual concern with any of these names, Chris, Bailey Obert, Cutter Crawford, Seth Lugo, and Shota Imanaga. So that's an interesting way to phrase the question, Frank.

Any concerns? Well, that depends. Did you think Shoda Imanaga was a top 10 starting pitcher? I never ranked him that way. If you did, then yeah, you should be really concerned because he's not that. But you should never have ranked him like that if you did. I don't think I ever moved demonaga inside of my top 20.

I think I was a little more cautious than you guys, just because I wanted to see like it's not an elite strikeout rate, and the quality of contact wasn't so good that I thought he could survive a little worse luck with home runs or just the weather warming up and the offensive environment changing a little bit. So that's what I wanted to see. And I do think the Cubs probably need to have a long Christopher Morell conversation because he is legitimately one of the worst defensive players in baseball.

And I think it's hurting their entire team defense. Their entire team defense has taken a gigantic step back. And that's going to hurt a lot of guys. I mean, I go, I think he's really good. I just with him being less than an elite strikeout guy, with him being a guy who's probably going to continue to get more days off than most pitchers, either skipping starts or just trying to find an extra day here and there. I don't know if he's pitched on four days rest yet.

So, like, I think it's probably more like an elite whip. I think he's Joe Ryan. And if you thought he was more than that, then I think you should be concerned, but I think that's what he is. Lugo Crawford, I think we're just saying a little regression. I know people wanted to move Seth Lugo a lot more in the rankings than we actually did. I think he's like 60 or in the 60 to 70 range for me.

I think he's going to be really useful. I just don't think he's an ace. I think he's someone that's fine to have a round. Bailey Ober, he just does not have any kind of margin for error. Whether it's a few extra home runs, like we've seen in the couple of starts against the Royals or like you mentioned, And this start, the strike zone not being particularly helpful. I just don't know what he has when, like, when circumstances aren't great. When circumstances are good, I think he can be really good.

It's just, is he more of like an SP4? That's probably what Bailey Ober is. Imanaga, this is interesting. On four days rest, he's made two starts this season. He has not allowed to run. 14 shutout innings with 14 strike. On five days rest, five starts for Imanaga, it's a 0.98 ERA, a 1.19 whip, 30 strikeouts over 27 and 2 thirds. And on three starts, this was entering this one, three starts on six plus days rest of 496 ERA.

And the reason I bring that up is because in Japan they typically use, I don't know if it's that they use six-man rotations or they just only play like five or six games. week rather than up to seven. But either way, most Japanese pitchers don't have experience starting every fifth day. They typically start every sixth day in the Nippon baseball league. So that's the reason we bring that up as a concern for him. But isn't it interesting that you would think he would do better with more rest, but it's been the opposite? Yeah, it's only, you know, the sample sizes there are pretty small. But yeah, it's something to keep an eye on. But I bring it up mostly just as a, it's something Scott mentioned. with Yoshinobu Yamoto last week, I think, where I think they'll both be really good,

but they'll probably be a little less valuable for fantasy than you would think, just because the volume's going to be a little less than some other guys. All right, let's get into some of the waiver wire options and the pitchers. Frankie Montas was amazing in Corr's field. He threw seven shutout innings, one hit, two walks, nine strikeouts, 20 whiffs on 96 pitches. He threw a lot more sliders in this start, and it was a great pitch for him.

Accounted for eight of those 20 whiffs, as I mentioned, but it's also Coorsfield, so what do we do with this? That's like, course field is just kind of, I don't know if you can analyze anything at Coorsfield good or bad is the problem. And we haven't really seen anything like this

from Frankie Moultoss all season either. Adam, you know, it turns out, the name is Adam Major. So, I don't know. Maybe we could still kind of... He's still out of Mazur to me. He's still Atemezer to me. He's still At a Quality Start in his debut at the Angels, six innings, two hits, one run, four walks to two strikeouts.

Obviously the walks a problem here, only through 60% of his pitches for strikes, but he induced seven groundouts, and three of those were double plays. He also did not have more than two walks in any of his 10 minor league starts the season, and then he had four in his debut in this start. So I think there was just some obvious nerves. he still pitched pretty well. Patrick Sandoval also pitched well on the other side. Six innings, one run, seven strikeouts. He had 17 whiffs on 100 pitches. Velocity was up across the board for Patrick Sandoval.

In this one, he's sprinkled in these really good starts with just like really awful ones too, so I don't really know how to trust Patrick Sandoval right now. You probably just can't. And David Peterson turned in a quality start at the National, six and two thirds, two runs allowed, two walks, two strikeouts. are you actually looking at any of these names chris david peterson sandoval adam majeer and frankie montas i kind of want to say that i'm more interested in aaron ashby

coming back from the miners than any of these guys that that i'm not 100% sure how much i believe that because frankie montas is r p eligible and i add that that that's obviously something to consider um although i think he was a two-star pitcher this week so if you were going to add him for the for the head-to-head points leagues that was probably the time to do it and I don't think anyone did because he was in course because he was at course field yeah I just didn't see very much to be super interested in with measure but if I had to add one of these guys it's him just because everybody else is so proven to be mediocre I would say waiver wire

hitters Ian Hap has really picked it up lately three for four with two doubles two runs, two RBI. Last nine games, he's betting 313 with four homers, 12 RBI, tons of fly balls, hitting the ball hard. He's up to 77% rostered. He could still be out there in some shallower points leagues. And frankly, I think that's Ian Hap's best format. He gets on base.

When he's at his best, he doesn't really strike out all that much. And he's just solid across the board. So if he's still out there in shaller leagues, I think it makes sense to go back and pick up Ian Hap if he was. dropped. A couple other names. Brandon Lau had his first big game since coming back from the IL, and it was against a lefty in Jesus Lozardo. He went two for four with his second home run, added five RBI. And welcome to the big leagues, Connor Norby, one for four with his first career home run. Didn't really blast it, but it went out. You know, 98.2 exit velocity's

370 feet. Are you, you're looking at any of these names? I mean, Ian Hap, it kind of is what he is, but Brandon Lowe, 53%, it probably would have to just be in points leagues. I don't know if it's worth it. What do you think? Yeah, that's the tough thing. I do think, like, my expectations for Brandon Lowe and Nolan Gorman aren't that different the rest of the way.

But obviously, Gorman is red hot right now, and Brandon Lowe's not. So if you were going to add one of them, obviously Gorman is the one. But I think we probably need to see a couple more games from Brandon Lauer, where he's stringing together, before we buy in.

But I do still believe he's one of the three, three best power sources of second base. That's probably the case, right? At least on a per game basis. He was on a 30 plus homer pace last year. He had 39 homers in 2021. I still think he can be a 30 plus homer guy, at least on a per on a pace basis the rest of the way.

As for Norby, the most promising thing here is he started the first two Jameson's being called up and he hit a home run today. And he's going to have to hit to force a conversation about staying up when Jorge Mateo is healthy. So this is the start of him doing that perhaps, but not a high priority. This was I write a waiver wire piece pretty much every day for the newsletter. And this might have been the worst day of the season for it. Let's say Norby is just kind of solid by the weekend.

What size leagues are you going to look to add him in? Is it just like 15-team? I think it's just 15, yeah. All right. Let's get into the rest of the leftovers, and we had ourselves a pitcher's duel out in Pittsburgh. It's time to doodle. Chris, did we ever have this conversation?

Were you a Yu-Gi-o guy growing up? Never watched it, never played any of the games. I was strictly a Pokemon partisan. Dan. Oh, all right. It's nothing against it. I just, I never got into it.

I, it's not, I'm not saying it was bad. I just, I have no thoughts on it. Yeah, I don't know if it aged well. I would say go back and watch it,

but probably not. All right, let's talk about Tyler Glassnow at Jared Jones. Both pitch very well. Glass now, six innings, one run,

nine strikeouts, 13 whiffs on 97 pitches. Notice that he threw his fastball less and he actually threw more curveballs and sinkers than he normally does. and both of those pitches were very good. Glass Now has nine plus strikeouts in six of 13 starts this season. And Jared Jones on the other side, six shutout, three hits, three walks, six strikeouts,

had 12 whiffs on 100 pitches, nasty strikeout of Shohei Otani on a 101 mile per hour fastball. It's safe to say he was a little bit fired up, Jared Jones, the velocity up across the board in this one. Chris, anything to add on Jared Jones? and Glassnow. Glass now has 42 strikeouts over 30 innings and has passed five starts. I think he has like a three ERA in that stretch and zero wins. Baseball is such a funny sport sometimes.

I saw somebody on Twitter. I did not confirm this, so I might be spreading misinformation, but what the heck? It's 2024. Let's do it. I saw somebody say that the Dodgers have not scored a run while he has. been in the game in his past five starts. That sounds right. I watch a lot of his starts. And that is the Dodgers.

It's so weird. There's nothing to be concerned about. You can make a case that he's the best pitcher in baseball right now. Jared Jones, the command has been a little off the past couple of starts. The velocity has fluctuated, perhaps more than you typically see for a high-end pitcher. So there are things to be worried about. and I think it's a genuine question whether you'd rather have Paul Skeens

or Jared Jones the rest of the way. But I will say for the first time since like the Francisco Liriano AJ Burnett era, the pirates have multiple pitchers who you actively want on your fantasy team.

So that's a good thing. I think they're both top 24 starting pitchers the rest of the way. You know, it's so interesting with Jared Jones. I was thinking earlier, I'm a little bit concerned the way he's looked this past,

couple of starts and then you have to remind yourself he's a rookie right it's just like he was so dominant early on you just kind of expected that to keep going no matter what and you know we have to remind ourselves he's a rookie and was not paul skeins as a as a prospect no this was a guy who was like a low not low 100 prospect in the rankings coming into the season because the command was iffy And so there's a little concern that that's starting to turn, but I still remain incredibly impressed with him. All right, let's, a few other pitching leftovers. Corbyn Burns turned in another great start at the Blue Jays,

seven innings, one run, five strikeouts, allowed just two hard hits in that one. He's allowed three earned runs or less in all 13 of his starts. So good job, Corbin Burns. Ryan Pepio turned in a quality start at the Marlins. It was six innings, three runs, eight strikeouts to zero walk, 17 whiffs on 89 pitches, 13 of those on the fastball. Chris, I keep waiting for Ryan Pepio's fastball to take a bit of a step back

because his secondary pitches haven't really showed up this year, but it just keeps dominating. Yeah, I mean, I've done a little bit of research into this, and he has like by far the highest whiff rate of any starting pitcher over the last five years, I think. Like last year, I think the highest whiff rate for any starting pitcher was Luis Castillo with the four-seem fastball at 33%. Pepio entering this start was 38%. And it was, what, 34 today? So it's going to still remain well north of, and that's the thing is as long as his fastball is getting whiffs like most pitchers, sliders do. Time to eat. There is nothing to be concerned about. Can you bet on Ryan Pepio continuing to

have the best fastball in baseball. I think you should probably bet against that. So I view him as a sell high candidate, even though the 396 ERA doesn't necessarily scream sell high. Some hitting leftovers. Bobby Witt had a monster game, three for five with a double dong, four RBI. And he's obviously just been amazing.

It's unbelievable. Ryan Mountcastle had himself a huge game as well. Two for five with a double dong, five RBI, one of the homers, 108, exit velocity, 443 feet. Pete Alonzo, 2 for 5 with his 14th home run. Last 26 games, he's betting 279 with six homers, 15 runs, 15 RBI, hitting the ball much harder. Strikeout rate under 20% during that stretch.

Glaver Torres has turned things around recently, one for three with his fifth home run. Chris, if you haven't seen it, it was a Yankee Stadium special. If you've ever seen one. You love to see it. It was, yeah, it was. It was pretty bad.

But last 21 games for Glaber, 280, batting average, four homers, 11 runs, 10 RBI, and Giancarlo Staten. How about, how about Stanton, Chris? He's been really good.

One for four with his 15th home run. It was a second deck shot 420 feet. I mean, it was awesome. It was, I think, one of the worst. The most poorly executed pitches of the season.

Like, it was like a hanging slider. From the left hand side too. So it just went like right. into the middle. That's exactly what you don't want to do against John Carlos Stanton, but look, he took advantage of it. And that's not something that he has consistently done over the past couple of years. I love seeing it. I he remains a real outlier in terms of his ability to hit the ball hard at the highest level.

He's that one of the bat speed outliers. He's like two miles per hour clear of everyone. It's amazing. Yeah. How much of a physical outlier John Carlos Stanton still is while also being maybe the slowest baseball player I've ever seen in my life when he's running. Yeah. He looks a little better this year. I mean, he clearly did something in the offseason, but I mean, last year was bad. It was. Yeah.

But he's got something left. It's not anything except for home runs, but in this environment, he might hit 35 home runs and home runs. And that's going to make him a must-star outfielder. I mean, I think RBI too, he's, you know, batting. fifth or sixth most days in the Yankee lineup. There's obviously going to be opportunity. Yeah, it's probably like 90 RBI even if he does get to 35 homers. But yeah, no, I agree with that. Some bullpen updates for the Guardians. Emmanuel Class A struck out two for his 19th save for the pirates. David Bednar pitch a clean ninth for his 12th save. He now

has seven straight scoreless appearances. Yeah, I think he's back. I think we're good there. For Tampa Bay, Pete Fairbanks entered with the bases loaded no outs in the ninth, a four-run lead. He got three straight outs for his seventh save. For the Mets, Reed Garrett entered in the ninth with a four-run lead. He gave up one run on two walks and a hit. Last seven outings for Reed Garrett, a 13.5 ERA, 2.5 whip. Edwin Diaz cannot return soon enough. For the Tigers, it was lefty Tyler Holton,

who started the ninth with a three-run lead. He got two outs, but allowed one run on two hits. He was relieved by Jason Foley, who got the final out for his 12th save. For the Cubs, Hector Nairis got the ninth, walked one but picked up his eighth save. For the Astros, Josh Hader was unavailable. Ryan Presley struck out one for his first save.

For the Angels, Carlos Estevez pitched a clean ninth for his tenth save. For the Mariners, Andres Munoz, we mentioned earlier. He entered in the ninth with a two-run lead. He gave up a run. There was a collision at the plate, left the outing, and it was Taylor Saucato who picked up the save. And then for the debacks, Paul Seawald, he's looked really good since returning. he struck out two for his sixth save of the season.

Just stream or not stream on Wednesday. And I think Braxton Garrett against Tampa, although, I mean, they just crushed a lefty on Tuesday. Maybe they don't want to do it, but not great options. Yeah, I don't love it, yeah. Jameson-Tayone against the White Sox, I think is fine. And I would probably say Jose Soriano against the Padres, I think. Yeah, I don't like that one.

Yeah. On Thursday, it's a very short slate. There's not many names to choose from. I think J.P. Sears against the Mariners is okay. Cal Quantrell has pitched well. That's the one the Cardinals have been... But their lineup has been hot, though. That's the point.

Yeah, they've been better. That's probably... Does Mitchell Parker qualify for this? He does, but he's going up against Atlanta. Yeah, you don't love the match. but Braves aren't quite as much of a stay away. I probably still wouldn't risk it. I don't think I'd risk it with any of these guys. Stay away. Wednesday and Thursday, not so great.

We're going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in some fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.