Fantasy Baseball Today - Rankings Movers, Deep Dives & Beat the Waiver Wire (5/26 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 26, 2022

Is Robbie Back back to his 2021 form (0:55)? Is Cristian Javier a must-add? ... Beat the waiver wire (11:45)! How do we rank Javier, Aaron Ashby and Jakob Junis? .. Let's take a look under the hood on these players (16:37): Byron Buxton, Charlie Morton, Teoscar Hernandez and Ranger Suarez. ... News and notes (34:46): Ronald Acuña is banged up again. ... Which players and rising or falling in the rankings (41:35)? ... Kole Calhoun or Joc Pederson (52:45)? Is William Contreras a must-add? ... We wrap with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (59:07)! Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. What's up and welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, May 26th. Frank Sample joined by Chris Towers. Today on the show, we've got rankings, risers, and fallers.

We'll do some deep dives on a few players, beat the waiver wire, and much more. But let's jump right in. Oh, my goodness gracious. All right, Chris. Kick us off. Oh, my goodness gracious from Wednesday's action. Oh, my goodness gracious. Robbie Ray, 24 swinging strikes, 10 strikeouts.

Three runs and six innings is not great, but 10 strikeouts, one walk, 24 swinging strikes. You're happy with that every time out. and the three runs, well, you'll live with that. And Robbie Ray, I don't know if I'm 100% to the point where I'm willing to just rank him where I had him coming into the season. In fact, I do not rank him where I had coming into the season because he was like a top 12 starting pitcher

and he's still in that 15 range right now. But I feel pretty good about him. You know, I think what we're seeing is a version of Robbie Ray that has to kind of gimmick his way through lineups in a way that he didn't last season. Today he threw 55% sliders,

44% fastballs, one change up. So he's truly a two pitch pitcher right now and he's throwing his slider. Basically, since things turned around, he's throwing his slider as his primary pitch over the last four or five starts. And he's getting a ton of whiffs with it.

And it's a strategy that we've seen work with people, like Patrick Corbyn. Lance McCuller is not a slider fastball combo guy, but another guy who's had success with just two pitches. The problem is it makes the margin for error a lot slimmer. And that's true for Robbie Ray, especially because he's always given up a lot of hard contact. That has continued.

And so he's basically making a bet that he can get enough swings and misses to avoid walks and avoid enough home runs to that it doesn't sink. him. And that's why I'm not willing to put him in the top 12 starting pitchers despite, you know, having tons of strikeouts. And did you say he's among the league leaders in swinging strike rate? Was that one of the things that we did on the feud earlier this week? Yeah, I think he was one of either six or seven qualified starting pitchers who had a swinging strike rate over 15%. And so you're going to get a lot of strikeouts. I think you're probably going to get pretty good whip from him at this point.

I think the bigger concern is the ERA. I think everything else should be pretty good for Robbie Ray, but there are going to be blow-up starts because of home runs especially. So that's the thing to keep in mind. That's the thing that's going to hold me back from viewing him as a truly high-end starting pitcher. But I think he's stabilized in a way that I don't yet feel for someone like Shane Bieber. So Robbie Ray gave up two more home runs on Wednesday. That brings his season home run per nine to 1.48.

Last year, that number was 1.54. So it's actually even down a little bit. The biggest difference I see, Chris, is that the walks have crept back up a little bit here for Robbie Ray. We know before last year, before he was with the Blue Jays, his walks were terrible with the Arizona Diamondbacks. And they're not terrible this season. They're just up a little bit compared to last year.

So last season he had 2.4 walks per 9 so far this year, 3.1. I think that has gotten better. Yes. The past few starts. He's down to nine walks and 30 and a third innings in the month of May. That was 12 and 30 and a third in the month of April. But the bigger thing is nine strikeouts, 42 walks in the month of May. Now that still led to a 534 ERA.

So, you know, it hasn't all been good. He's given up six home runs in May. in five starts. So I'm not saying he's entirely past it, but, you know, the strikeout rate, the improved control, I think Robbie Ray is going to be fine. Yes. Just not an ace. I think the underlying numbers kind of bear that out too. He's got a 4.75 ERA. Robbie Ray's ex-fip is 3.59.

So I don't think anyone was expecting Sy Young, Robbie Ray. Again, I don't think he's going to get back to that level. But I do think better days are coming for him. The velocity has been up. He's averaged 94 plus on the fastball in three straight starts. And that's where he was last year. 17 plus swinging strikes in four straight. So he's getting a lot of whiffs.

Just got to keep those walks down. I think better days are coming for Robbie Ray. I'm pretty excited about what we've seen. I've got them back inside my top 15 starting pitchers. In fact, each of us has Robbie Ray inside of our top 15 starting pitchers. Let's talk about Christian Javier. my oh my goodness gracious player from Wednesday. Back-to-back outings with nine strikeouts,

this one up against the Cleveland Guardians. Javier goes five and two-third shutout, allows three hits, one walk, nine strikeouts, 20 swinging strikes on 96 pitches, 12 of those on the fastball, eight on the slider. He lowers his ERA to 2.48 for the season. And I noticed this,

just kind of sorting by league leaders earlier in the day, 23.4% K-minus walk rate for Christian Javier. Entering Wednesday, that was 15th among pitchers with at least 30 innings pitched this season. So that's an awesome number. Great place that you want to be at for Javier. Chris, we're going to talk about rankings movers later on. I moved Javier way up once I saw that.

I'm just kind of sold on what he's done, what he's doing. He's inside my top 60 starting pitchers right now. 69% rostered, wherever he's a available, I would say go, go out and add Christian Javier. What do you think? Yeah, top 60s tough. That's a tough group to break into, but I did just drop him right between Josiah Gray and McKenzie Gore to other talented young pitchers. So that's like 63. And I think that's a good spot. That gets him into the starting territory, but it doesn't, you know, it doesn't put me on the record as saying he's a must

star guy or anything like that because I don't think he will be. But You know, the key for him so far, he's been able to match the strikeout rate that he had last season up to 31.5%. But he's cut a third off his walk rate. Last season, he had a 12.5% walk rate this year down to 8.1%. Now, it's 37 innings or so. But, you know, that seems to be a key for him. If he can do that, then, you know, I think he can be pretty good because he's a guy who's gotten hit pretty hard in his career. And that's still been the case this year.

Gives up a lot of fly balls, a lot of batted balls in the air. So I think he needs to keep the walk rate at least manageable. But the one thing that stands out for him, if you're looking, you know, under the hood is the fastball whiff rate has been really, really good, almost 30% for the season. And tonight he had 12 whiffs on 57 pitches, 36 swing, so a 33% whiff rate. with that pitch. And, you know, when you can get whiffs with your fastball in a way like that, that's always going to be a really nice kind of floor razor, I guess, is the way to put it. That's like Brandon Woodruff, you know, he doesn't really have like the knockout secondaries,

but his fastball is one of the better swing and miss pitches. And so, you know, he gets away with pitching up in the zone, you know, Javier throws a lot up in the zone. He has a lot of spin on his fastball. It's not necessarily the hardest pitch. it moves. And that is, you know,

we talk about Hunter Green and his hard fastball that's very straight. Christian Javier's got a fastball that has a lot of rise. And so that's how he gets those whiffs. It also makes him prone to giving up the long ball.

And so those are going to be the balancing axe for him. But yeah, I think, one, it looks like he's got a spot in the rotation, you know, for good now,

or at least for good now. would be the way to put it? I don't know. What the emphasis should be there. But yeah, he's going to be in the rotation moving forward, 18 strikeouts, two walks over the past two games. There's a lot to like there. All right. Yeah, we got a question from Eric Fox on Twitter, and he asked, can you guys explain on the pod why Javier's low to mid-90s fastball

gets so many Ks while other high 90s guys like Lazzardo, for example, get relatively few Ks on the fastball. And I think for the most part you answered that, Chris, high spin rate. Spin and deception. I think is what it comes down to is. Yeah. You know, Luzardo doesn't have high spin rates on his fastball. I think he, you know, probably something about the arm slot that he throws from.

But there are always guys like Freddie Peralta and Joe Ryan, whose fastballs don't necessarily have great velocity, but they play up. And Javier's in that group, and it's because he gets a lot of, he gets less drop. It ultimately comes down to he gets less drop than batters expect, because he has so much backspin on the ball and so that creates the perception of rise which makes it harder to catch up with.

And the last point on Christian Javier, he really is just a two-pitch pitcher with that fastball and the slider. But I think it's easier to succeed when you can get whiffs on your fastball, Chris, as you mentioned, right? So a Woodruff or even guys we've seen in the past, I always referenced Tyler Glass now

because he was really kind of that two-pitched guy but when your fastball and slider are really that good, then it can just, it can work. So I'm very interested in adding Javier. The two names that popped up last night, Chris, in terms of starting pitcher ads, were Aaron Ashby and Rwanzi Contreras. How would you rank those two with Javier?

So Javier, Contreras, Ashby. I think you can make a case for Javier being ahead of both of them. Javier is RP eligible, right? Yes. Yeah. As is Aaron Ashby. Yeah. And Ronesy is not,

even though he's mostly appeared as a relief pitcher so far. That's correct. Only SP. Yeah. So that probably makes it a little harder to get Ronesy into every lineup.

But I feel like he might have more upside. I don't know. I think I would go Javier, Ronesy, and then Ashby. I think that's the way I would go. Okay. I would go Javier first. I think I would go Ashby over Contreras. I think that's fair. I think those guys are really close. It is really close between those two. I really like the ground ball rate for Ashby. It's just these walks kind of get him in trouble at times. Let's talk about Ashby and a few other waiver wire pitchers who are two star pitchers or appear to be two star pitchers right now. So you can beat others to the waiver wire for your two star pitchers. Aaron Ashby, a solid outing at the Padres.

five and two-thirds innings, one earned run allowed, five strikeouts. Again, three walks in this start. The velocity was actually up for Aaron Ashby in this one. He's got a four-pitch mix. The problem, again, the walks. He's averaging 5.3 per 9 for Ashby on the season,

but he's got a 2.9 ERA, 66% ground ball rate, and next week he is up against the Padres and at the Cubs. The other names here, Dylan Bundy, sorry, just got to include him. He had a solid start. two-thirds, one run, six strikeouts. He is at the Tigers again next week

and at the Blue Jays, who aren't really hitting the ball right now. And Jacob Junis is the other one. He posted his first quality start of the season up against the Mets on Wednesday, six innings, two runs, four strikeouts. He's 12% rostered at the Phillies and at the Marlins next week.

Chris, how do you rank these two starters? Ashby, Bundy, Junis. In a points league, Ashby having SPARP eligibility would make him number one. I think he's number one anyway. But I'm interested in Junis. Dylan Bundy, I just nothing.

I don't. I'm sorry. Junis, by the way, also has Spark eligibility, Chris. Okay, I didn't realize that. That's, um, yeah, I'm really intrigued by Jacob Junis, throwing his slider, you know,

effectively as his number one pitch. It's been by far his best pitch throughout his career. I would have Ashby ranked higher, but Junis is, becoming more and more interesting every time out. Yep, he is just throwing his secondary pitches so much. His slider and change-up accounted for

80% of his pitches in his Wednesday start. The ERA is down to 2.76 for Jacob Junice. He's getting a lot of ground balls. I do like him quite a bit myself. I would put Ashby, Ronzie Contreras, Christian Javier all ahead of Junice, but then he's the next one up there for me.

Would you be okay dropping Kyle Hendricks, Chris, for any, all of these names that we've been talking about? He's now giving up four plus runs in four of his 10 starts. The ERA climbs to 5.20 for Kyle Hendricks. He's still 77% rostered. The problem is he has two starts next week as well, up against the Brewers and the Cardinals.

I mean, do you really want to use him in a two-star week? And if you're not using someone in a two-star week, then they're dropable. I think that's fair. I would drop him for Contreras. I would drop him for Ashby. I would drop him for Javier. For Javier.

I would probably take the shot on Junis over him, too, honestly. I think that's reasonable, yeah. Some deeper leagues. Two-star pitchers for next week who pitched quite well on Wednesday. Ryan Feltoner with the Colorado Rockies. He's 0% rostered. Two home starts next week against the Marlins and the Braves. And he's actually been pretty good in the minors.

3.68 ERA over a strikeout per inning. Again, the name there is Ryan Feltoner. Eric Fetty, he's at the Mets. At the Reds, he threw six shutout with six strikeouts against the Dodgers. Pretty eye-opening performance. Glenn Otto, he got blown up by the Red Sox earlier in the season. He has allowed two earn runs or fewer in each of his other five starts. 2.87 ERA in those starts outside of the Red Sox start.

He's going up against the Tampa Bay Rays and the Mariners next week. So, Chris, in deeper leagues, any interest here, Ryan Fultner, Eric Fetty, Glenn Otto. Yeah, I mean, Feltoner seems to be throwing hard. I can't say I've seen him pitch much or, you know, have much opinion on him coming in, but seems to be throwing harder than he was as a prospect and when he made his debut last season, hit, you know, average 95 with the fastball today. I'm not sure, like, the slider was fine for whiffs on 27 pitches, but that seems like the pitch that I would need to see something from.

and, you know, though he was pretty good in this outing, it's the Pirates, so pretty good only gets you so far. So I would, I'm not super enthused about him, especially with two home starts next week, so I think you can ignore Feltoner

outside of Deeper NL only leagues. And I, I don't know, I haven't had the Glenn Otto thing. Maybe I just haven't been on any of the podcast where you guys have extolled the virtues of Glenn Otto, but I don't see much there. So I'm okay ignoring him and Fetty kind of same. All right.

Glenn Otto, former Yankee farmhand Glenn Otto, by the way. Well, that explains it. 1,800. 1,800 Glenn Otto. Let's take a peek under the hood at these four players here. See what is going on. Chris, we had to talk about Byron Buxton the day that you are on the podcast. He has come crashing down to Earth.

I didn't realize how bad it's really been. I know he's been in and out of the lineup. They're trying to keep him healthy. He's got some stuff going on right now. But the batting average is now down to 202 for Buxton. I just don't think he's healthy, Chris. I mean, 19 games before injury, he was batting 278, nine homers, one steal, an OPS over 1,000.

10 games after getting hurt, entering Wednesday, a 0.81 batting average, two homers, a 448 OPS. Is there anything in the numbers, Chris, or do you just think it's injury related? I think it might be injury related. You know, I don't know. It's funny. He was striking out way too much to sustain his early start. And then he's cut his strikeout rate significantly, like in half over the last 10 games.

And he's been awful. It's worth noting his Babbitt for the season is 174. But yeah, like the fact that this coincides with an injury means that you can't just ignore it, especially with a player with Byron Buxden passed and, you know, the fact that trying to play through an injury could potentially have the dual effect of making him a worse player when he's healthy and obviously increasing his injury risk moving forward. So that's, you can't ignore that concern. But I also don't think that there's much room to sell Byron Buxden because everybody in your league knows about the injuries in his past. and everybody knows about the injury right now. So are you really going to get anything like full value for him?

I think you just kind of have to hang on and hope that he's fine. You mentioned the Babbabab how low it is for Bucston. His fly ball rate is up crazy this year. So that is definitely something that would coincide with a lower Babbat. And especially, you know, if he's playing through something right now, hitting the ball in the air, probably not with as much authority as he was before,

that's going to lead to just a lot of. running as fast. Yeah, those would be reasons that a Babbitt could collapse. It's worth pointing out as well. His expected batting average is 265. So, you know, the quality of contact doesn't seem like such an issue,

at least when you look at it from that perspective. So yeah, I don't know. It's hard to say right now. It's just frustrating, Chris. And look, I can't blame anyone who has Bucks in or has had him for multiple years in a row. It just seems like, unfortunately, I don't want to be.

want to just label him this way, but it just seems like it happens all the time. And he's super talented. There's no doubt about it, but it's like one thing after another. And I get it. I get why anyone who has Buxson would, you know, kind of just be frustrated and fed up with it. But there is nothing you could do. Like maybe if you can get 80 cents on the dollar, you can try, but I don't think it's going to happen. You could try to trade him, but what are you going to realistically get that would make it worth it? That's the question. Unless you just, like I, I, I, I, I, I, don't think that Byron Buxton's just not going to be good this year

the rest of the season. But it's a possibility. You know, that's obviously within the realm of possibility. So it's an outcome you have to take into account. Would you flip him for Christian Yelich right now if you could, one for one? I'd rather have Buxton.

Yeah, I still have Buxon ranked higher, but I think it's a close call. I think that is the 80 cents on the dollar if that's what you're looking for. Sure, yeah. A Christian Yelich type player. I imagine that's what my trade chart would show as well. Or even a Catele-Marté, right? I mean, you're still kind of buying low on Marte, and that's probably 80 cents on the dollar right there.

Marte would be more interesting to me. All right. And no surprise there, Chris, because obviously you loved Cotel Marte coming into the season as well. Let's talk about Uncle Charlie. Once again, after three collectively solid starts, Charlie Morton throws another clunker. And I apologize, Chris, this is getting really weird here because... It's your fault. You watched them. I didn't. I didn't mean... too though. I didn't mean to. I didn't mean to do it. So here's my setup. Main computer right here, if you're watching me on YouTube, I'm making the run down here. I got my quad box on the other laptop where I'm watching four games at once. There were just

four games on at that time. So I just threw it on and I didn't even realize I'm like, oh crap, Charlie Morton is pitching in the start. Let me just shut it off. But I didn't realize for about five to ten minutes. So that might have been enough to curse Charlie Morton once again. It's your fault. I think we can all agree. I think so. We need you to let people know. Actually, here's what we'll do. We'll sign you up for a VPN. We'll get you an Atlanta area IP address.

That way you can't watch Braves games. You'll be blacked out. Which, I mean, that's a conversation for another day, but baseball, you want to grow the sport? That's probably not the way to do it. Anyway, Charlie Morton in this one, he gives up four runs over four and a third on nine hits, one walk, did not have his fastball or sinker, Chris. That's what stood out to me here. 11% CSW that's called strikes plus whiffs on the fastball,

20% on the sinker. League average, 28, 29%. So he's well below that in this start. And he just kind of got babbiped in this one, 500 babbip against in this start. The lack of ground balls this season is kind of concerning for me. It's just 35%. Charlie Morton has been 47% or higher in each of his past

for full seasons. So the ground balls being down, the swinging strike rate was 9% entering the start, the ERA is over five. Another one, Chris, where I get it, I get if people are frustrated with him. I am frustrated. He is the single player

that I have the most exposure to this season. And it's frustrating. But he's got two stars next week. He's at the Diamondbacks and at Coors Field. What do you do? The Coors Field part makes it tough. I think in a point,

you just start him. In a roto league, I could see being afraid because he's by no means a sure thing to dominate Arizona based on how he's pitching right now. And if he's not a sure thing to dominate Arizona, then there's always the risk of course field. And he did get a little bit of bad luck today. He had three singles allowed that had an expected batting average below 250. So, you know, that's, there's. some bad luck there, but that's also like it doesn't seem like it was an excessively bad luck.

It seemed like he just didn't pitch well today. And it just seems like there's an awful lot of that going on. The problem and the thing that makes him tough to analyze and really tough to make any kind of decision on is at what point does the pitching poorly stop? If that's the issue, you know, it doesn't seem like it's a physical issue. It doesn't seem like he's like his velocity's there. His spin rates are there. throwing the pitches, you know, the pitches roughly look the way they're supposed to.

He's just not throwing them well in the right sequence or in the right spots. And maybe he just doesn't do that all year. Maybe there's just something broken about him. But my assumption is that he will figure it out and it seemed like he had. So I'm not going to really move Charlie Morton down here. And speaking of moving him down, I have him, I think, SP20, three in the rankings. And that area, Chris,

for me, is so tough to rank right now. Once we get past, so my 20 to 22 is Dylan Cs, Pablo Lopez, Frankie Montas. I feel very good about that group. Then my 23, really 23 through 36,

I'm not going to read all of them off, but it's Charlie Morton, U. Darvish, Logan Webb, Framber Valdez, and then you have the breakouts in Lauer and Kyle Wright. You know, do I want to move these breakouts who have only really done it for the first two months of

this season ahead of proven commodities like like a Charlie Moore in or a U. Darvish, even though their numbers are kind of weird right now and they haven't really pitched at their best? So that's kind of what I'm wrestling with in the rankings and admittedly that area is just weird for me. So it's

like high-end SP3s. Kind of hard to figure out right now. Yeah, no, I agree. I think that's an especially tough part of the ranking and then I think I could probably go a little deeper just because you got because then you've also got a account for guys who are dealing with injuries right now like Clayton Kirshall and you know guys who are coming back from injuries like Chris Sale yeah so I have Scherzer at SP 24 and then in a row I have

DeGrom 37 Lynn 38 Kirschaw 39 yeah I've got Scherzer and deGrom much lower but that could be, you know, me overreacting. But yeah, like, because Tyler McGill, Jesus Lissardo, Mike Clevenger, it's, it's, yeah, there are, luckily there are no shortage of good pitchers right now. Most teams should have enough, although there's going to be a worst team

in every league in pitching, so, you know, it's all relative as well. But yeah, I don't know, it's definitely a tough range. And I would say my gut feeling is to just stick with the way things are. You know, give guys extra credit

for the benefit of the doubt of having a longer track record and those things. But, you know, that track record, that benefit of doubt runs out at some point. Yeah. And I think this is really that time, right? Scott always says Memorial Day, that's kind of how long he gives a player.

So we'll have some conversations over the next week and see what we do with these. Chris, originally I put Nick Castiano on this rundown, and I wrote Cassiano just kind of stinks right now. But I took him off for another player. People have been asking about, and I haven't realized how bad he really is, Teoscar Hernandez is batting 152 with a 465 OPS. The Blue Jays did not play on Wednesday. Maybe it's for the best, because this guy is absolutely lost right now.

I guess let's try and figure this out on the fly because I haven't really looked into his numbers until now. The thing that stands out most, strikeouts are up a little bit, 60% ground ball rate. Where did that come from? I mean, that's 39% for Teasca Hernandez's career.

So strikeouts being up a little bit, hitting that many ground balls, infield fly ball rate is up. I mean, all of these things kind of converging together, Chris, are just going to lead to a crater of batting average and that's kind of where we're at. Yeah, I mean, if you want a really simple explanation for why a guy's struggling and you can find something like career high ground ball rate, career high pop-up rate, career low-line drive rate.

Yeah. That's going to explain it. You know, he's just not hitting the ball well. There's actually like... His average exit velocity is still pretty high. Yeah, he's going to be hard. Yeah. He's just, he's miss hitting it too much.

And I think that's probably a reason to buy. Because, you know, he did miss some time with an injury and you. You could say maybe it's some kind of physical issue stemming from that, but the fact that he's still rating out well in terms of sprint speed and he's still hitting the ball hard and his max ex-velo is still solid and his average ex-velo and hard hit rate are mostly where you would want them to be. I think that's one where you could probably mark it up to just he's not, whatever the term you want to use, locked in or he doesn't have his timing yet

or something like that. But I would think that he's going to figure that out. And I'm willing to give to Oscar Hernandez the benefit of the doubt there. Just because quality of contact has never been the issue for him. You know, he's got a 361 expected Wobon contact. Even in small sample sizes before his breakout, he'd never been below 428 with the exception of 2016, his rookie season. So I'm willing to give to Oscar Hernandez the benefit of the doubt.

I have, you know, moved him down a little bit at outfield, but he's still top 15 for me. So I'm not freaking out. There are some warning signs here, though, that I'm finding. He's hitting 205 against fastballs this season. For his career, he usually crushes fastballs. You could look at that glass half full and say he's going to get better. But he's also chasing pitches more, too. So his O-Swing percentage is 41% this year, and that's 32% for Teosker.

Hernandez's career. So, you know, might be frustrated and trying to make things happen and chase pitches and swinging and missing a little bit more. We're kind of, you know, we're painting the optimistic view onto Oscar Hernandez, but you can easily look at these things in a negative light as well. So my overall take is by low, keyword low, onto Oscar Hernandez, if you can. But if people are still valuing him like a third or fourth round pick, I probably would not pay that price for him. To be clear, if I have him, I wouldn't give up less than a third or fourth round value. I would still value him that way. Yeah, I think that makes sense.

Let's talk about the pitcher on the other side of Charlie Morton in that start. Ranger Suarez just kind of continues this subpar season. He gives up five runs on six hits, four walks in this one, over four and a third innings pitched. And the ERA is now up to 4.74. When looking into his starts individually, Chris, I've noticed it's very rare. that he has the sinker and change up working together. It's usually one of those pitches is on and the other one is not. So for example, tonight, 31% CSW on the sinker, 15% on the changeup. And there's been other starts where it's kind of reversed for him. But when everything's working, I think we saw down the stretch last year, Ranger Suarez can get hot. But right now, that isn't the case. And unlike a Charlie Morton, he doesn't really have that track record. So what are we doing with Ranger Suarez? Probably not just outright dropping him, but I think it's fair to be pretty discouraged.

And I think I'd rather have Christian Javier for the rest of the season. That's so close too. I have... Actually, no, I've moved Javier ahead of Suarez, yeah. So let's do it. I think I just move Javier ahead of him. And yeah, I just think like, I don't know, Ranger Suarez seemed like kind of of a gimmick, but the underlying numbers surrounding the gimmick were relatively strong last year.

But a lot of it relied on really, really exceptional quality of contact suppression. And that is the kind of thing that it takes a really long time to know if that's actually a skill a pitcher has. I mean, you're not just talking about a full season. You're probably talking about two full seasons before you can really know how much of a pitcher's quality of contact allowed is the result of. a skill. And right now his quality of contact allowed is really bad after being really good last year. And so, you know, you give him a little bit of the benefit of doubt that he can improve it,

but it's also worth being skeptical and worth maybe saying that it was just a fluke to start last season. So yeah, if I had to drop someone to add Christian Javier and Ranger Suarez was my worst pitcher, I'd do it. Would you do it for Ashby and Control? I kind of feel like Ashby... That would be tougher?

I think Ashby is a very similar pitcher to him but comes with more prospect pedigree and he just plays for a better team. So I think I would do that. Yeah, I think that's reasonable. I can't say I definitely would but in a shallow enough league especially, I think that's fine.

Okay. Ranger Suarez has two starts next week as well. He's at home against the Giants and the Angels. Both teams ranked top 12 in weighted on base average against left-hand pitching. So outside of a points league, I think I would be looking to sit, Ranger Suarez next week. Let's take a break, but first, just a reminder to sign up for our FBT newsletter. It's free. Why wouldn't you sign up for it? It's done by our good buddy Dan Schneier, and he does a great job with it. Just head over to cbsports.com slash newsletters.

Click on that FBT logo, punch in your email, and voila. That is it. Also, if you play fantasy football, support Chris, and sign up for the FFT newsletter as well. That's done at the same link. CBSports.com slash newsletters. Let's take a break and we'll return right after this. The news and notes. Ronald Lucuna was

scratched Wednesday due to right quad tightness. And Chris, I just wonder a little bit if maybe he's compensating for the knee. And that's why we see these little things popping up, the groin, the quad. It's a conspiracy theory. People yell at

yesterday for my conspiracy theory that juice balls were back, but whatever, it's another conspiracy theory. What do you think? Um, I don't know about the juice ball conspiracy. Conspiracy theories generally require a level of competence that I just don't believe MLB is capable of achieving. I think, you know, there's the old, uh, truism like never, never ascribe to malice what can be explained within competence. And I feel like that. that's a better explanation for Major League Baseball, like just anything, really. But yeah, I don't think it's unreasonable to think that Ronald O'Kun, you might be having to compensate in some ways for, you know,

potentially not being 100% or I don't even know if not being 100% is the right way to put it, but just, you know, coming back from the injury and the, the extra rehab work he had to put in with the knee, maybe that's led to, I don't know, like, I'm not a doctor, but it seems plausible. to me, a dumb person. But I don't know. That's the kind of also thing where I don't think

you should be trading Ronald Ocuna because it's also possible that he just gets past this little bit of hiccups and is fine. And, you know, certainly seems to be feeling fine enough when he's playing

to be, you know, six in the majors and steals or whatever it is. So I can't say I'm too worried about this. Yeah, I mean, there's not really anything to do about it. I still think he's a top three outfielder regardless of format. Chris, you started that whole analysis

talking about incompetence and in my mind, I was just like, well, this is it. Chris finally is going to come out here and rip me for being incompetent. I was like, that's exactly the route you're going down. It is it's Hanlon's razor by the way, likely named after

Robert J. Hanlon quote, never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. I hear the word malice. I instantly just think of malice in the palace. Yeah, it was a good, it was a good, clever naming association for that. Sure. Chris Bryant was once again placed on the IL with a lower back strain retroactive to Monday.

Unfortunate. I have a bad feeling about it. I'm rooting for the best. I hope you can come back soon, Chris Bryant. John Carlos Stanton was placed on the IL with ankle inflammation. Chris, any interest in Miguel Anduhar in deeper leagues? He went two for three with an RBI on Wednesday. You know, I was actually thinking about him the other day randomly when I was like, I think it was just when I was driving from New York to Pittsburgh. And I just randomly thought about Miguel Andouhar.

And what a weird career, right? And just how weird it is that someone, like I didn't believe his rookie of the year campaign was, you know, legitimate. But I didn't think he was going to wash out entirely. So I think there's still probably some talent there. But I can't say that I'm looking to add him even in my... in my 15 team leagues yet. I don't know. Five outfielder leagues that deep.

I'm a little interested. It depends how long stand is going to be out. It would be one thing if he was dominating at AAA. Yeah. But he was making contact, but wasn't really doing much. So that's, yeah,

that's why I can't really get excited about it yet. But we'll keep an eye on it. That's fair. Let's take a look at Joey Gallo. He was activated. from the COVID-IL batting 6th on Wednesday. Taylor Ward has now missed four straight games. He's yet to be cleared to throw or play the field

dealing with that shoulder injury. Lance Lynn said he'll begin a rehab assignment this weekend and will make three starts before joining the White Sox. That sounds like a mid to late June return for me. So that's nice. Welcome site for Lance Lynn. Jack Flerty will face live hitters on Thursday. He remains without a timetable for now,

dealing with that I think it was a elbow right Chris no his was the shoulder thing in the offseason and then I think it was a lat or something like that yeah probably should have looked it up bad job

but yeah I will say Flaherty Lynn I'm gonna go ahead and say June 10th or 11th that's the date I'm planning

as for Flaherty I would guess his timetable sounds like it's somewhat similar to Max Scherz and Jacob de Grom like probably All-Star break at the earliest. Yeah, that makes sense. But it could be a little earlier just because like, let's say he gets through this

and then two weeks is cleared to go on a rehab assignment and, you know, he could be like five weeks away, I guess. Everything I'm reading is, it was just a shoulder for Jack Flaherty, which, you know, It's pretty serious. Wilson Contreras has missed four straight games, while Jazz Chisholm has missed two in a row. Both are dealing with hamstring injuries.

Joe Ryan was placed on the COVID-I-L. Devon Smelzer will start in his place on Thursday. Anthony Bender was placed on the aisle with a back injury retroactive to May 23rd. Chris, I know you said recently that there is no closure for the Marlins, but if you had to add somebody, Anthony Baz, Cole Solcer, Dylan Floreau, do you have a lien? my assumption in the long run is that it'll be Dylan Floro if he can get right, but I would bet, I would bet on Anthony Bass getting the next one.

They acquired him initially to be a closer before last season, or at least that was the thought. Was it before last season or was it the season before? Whenever they acquired him, it was with the expectation that he would be their closer. Obviously, that didn't work out. But I think he's been good this season, so I think he's most likely to get the next one.

Jeff McNeil was removed due to a left knee contusion. Andrew Heaney plans to throw three simulated innings during a bullpen session on Thursday. He is on the aisle with left shoulder discomfort. Ramon Luriano will undergo a CT scan on his sore right hand Thursday. Aaron Savali was placed on the aisle with left glute soreness. Connor Pilkington will start Thursday against the Tigers. Jan Goams was placed in the aisle with a left oblique strain

and Jonathan Loisigizzo was placed on the aisle with right shorthy. shoulder discomfort. Let's talk rankings movers and we'll start with the risers for Chris, which include Adley Ruchman, Joey Votto, Julio Rodriguez, Kibryan Hayes, Mookie Betz, and Alec Thomas. Let's start with the hitters and we'll talk pitchers. Ruchman, Votto, J. Rod, Hayes, Betz, Thomas. What do you got, Chris? Yeah, we talked about Ruchman already this week. I moved him up to seventh at Catcher. Not sure how much more I could move him up. quickly, but it probably wouldn't take too much. Votto, we're seeing some signs since his return.

I have to believe he'll be fine, so he's back to being a top 10 first baseman for me. Also, kind of, you can see how little faith I have and some of the other guys in that range, personally. Let's see. Julio Rodriguez is a top 21 outfielder in points leagues for me. and top 19 in Roto. And honestly, it wouldn't take much to move him ahead of Christian Yelich and into the mid-teens range with Whitmerfield and Cotel Marte. He is running a ton.

He's starting to show some power. He's getting on base. There's just, Julio Rodriguez looks like a star. Yeah, he really does. I know Scott's working on his redrafting the first two rounds for fantasy baseball and I asked him yesterday, did you consider

Julio Rodriguez at all? Scott looked at me like I was crazy. I don't think it's like, look, he's not a top 24 player yet, I understand that. No. But based on his pacing out and what he's done in May, if the guy hits, let's say, 15 to 20 home runs a season and seals 30 bases

and hits 280. That's Starling Marte. Like that's, you know, And that, I mean, the home runs, like, 2040 is well within the realm of possibility. I mean, there's no question he's got the skills for it. And so it's mostly just a question of, is he ready to put those, to continue to put those skills into action consistently? And, you know, he had another steel today.

He's on damn near a 50 steel pace at this point. So, yeah, he could just be. you know the version of Adelberto Mondesie that we wanted to see he could be the guy who wins you steals this year so yeah I I just I think the sky's the limit

Cabrion Hayes you know we often react to guys playing well in moving them up Cabrion Hayes is me being proactive about a guy who I've talked about a lot lately I think is about to break out and you know he's been good enough but I think he's going to be very good moving forward I'm very excited about what we're seeing with can Brian Hayes and third base is weak enough that

he's number 11 for me wow Chris I mean you've been in Pittsburgh for what a week and I know Brian Hayes already it's the the yin's get in your blood real quick and it's something in the water and the crick, you know. The pitchers that are on the rise for you, you wrote Shane O'Dowders. Yep. That's Shane McClendhan. For those out there who don't know. That's his name, right? Yes, yes. He has been money.

Nothing short of that. And you moved him up to SP19. I also moved them up, Chris. I would hope higher. SP12, Shane O'Mack. I mean, look, I, like, if you're asking me who I think's going to have a better start the next time out, Shane McClanahan or pick any of the pitchers ahead of him up to number 10. I would expect Shane McClainan's next start to be better than Julio Reyes's or Aaron Nola or Lucas Gialito.

So I'm not moving him up that high, but I mean, 18, 19 is pretty dang high. Yes, it is. Terx Goebel, I noticed you also moved up to 39th in your pitcher. rankings. So top 40 now I've got him at 43. I just slowly creeping him up a little bit more, a little bit more. He ranks very highly on a lot of the things you want to see, K-minus walk rate, the underlying metric Sierra, X-FIP. Scooblo looks great in all those right now. So I agree with that move. And it's the the hard thing is he is still giving up a lot of loud contact. The expected well-bond contact is down to 351, which is very, very good after it was really,

really bad 455 last year. So that's a little confusing because he's gone from the two extremes in terms of his bad at ball contact or quality of contact. And so I think you probably just look at him and say, okay, he's probably run of the mill

in that regard. But if he's going to be a well above average strikeout pitcher with no walks, then pretty run of the mill in terms of quality of contact it's going to be a pretty good pitcher. All right. Some risers for me in the rankings. is Danesby Swanson is having an awesome man.

Sure, yeah. He went four for five with his sixth home run on Wednesday. He's betting 316 with five homers, four steals, a 912 OPS this month. And he was up to second in the lineup today. I don't know how long that's been going on, but that's always been one of the concerns of Swanson. It's like, you don't know exactly where he's going to hit in the lineup or how valuable that's going to be. You know, if he can find a way to be up there when Acuna is healthy, that makes him a lot more interesting.

too. Randy Rosarena is someone who I've moved back up. He's having a very big May as well. Brandon Nimmo has just been undervalued all season, especially in points leagues. He's been great. Shane McClanahan, I spoke about him. Sunny Gray has been really good since returning from the IL. I moved them inside of my top 50 starting pitchers. Might be aggressive, but we've seen big upside from Sunny Gray in the past. Tony Gonslin and Miles Michaels both climb inside my top 60 starting pitchers. They've looked great so far this season as well. Followers for Chris in the ranks, Walker Bueller, Teoscar Hernandez, Logan Webb, Trevor Rogers. Three pitchers that stand out there, Chris, big names.

Bueller, Webb, Rogers. And it's not that I don't like any of them or that I think they're going to be bad moving forward. It's always worth keeping that context in mind. But Bueller especially, it's just been kind of weird. Like, he's still got a 290 ERA. He's still outperforming his peripherals because that's what he does. but man, it's really hard to be a high-end pitcher with a 19% strikeout rate. And I think the swinging strike rate suggests that he'll be better than that moving forward.

But I don't know, it's just, it's been a weird enough start that I'm at least comfortable getting Zach Wheeler and Kevin Gosman ahead of him. Those were the two, Joseph Erlander, Zach Wheeler and Kevin Gosman all jumped him. So that's, you know, a little bit of a drop for Walker Bueller. Just a little bit of a loss of confidence. All right. Some followers for me. Fran Mill Reyes. Probably got to talk about him eventually too

because he is just striking out at an absurd rate. I moved them outside of my top 50 outfielder. Some names I moved ahead of him. Ian Hap, Max Kepler, Josh Naylor, Alec Thomas, all names that could be available in your league. So if you're playing a points league specifically, I would be okay making that swap with Friend Mill Reyes. Stephen Kwan, I have dropped quite a bit as well.

It's just a free fall. batting eighth in the lineup on Wednesday and just not much going right for Stephen Kwan right now. Chris Bassett has gotten rocked his past couple of starts. Didn't drop him tremendously, but moved him outside of my top 30. Ranger Suarez we talked about. Alex Wood, someone that I was excited about coming into the season, really all Giants pitchers. He's now outside the top 70. He's not looking great. Turns out we just were overlooking Jacob Junis. That was the one that we needed there. I would drop Alex Wood for Christian Javier, Aaron Ashby, if those guys are available. One other one I wanted to mention, Scott moved Julio Arras down quite a bit to SP22 in his rankings, Chris,

and I just wanted to get your thoughts on that. It was an okay start for Arias on Wednesday. A quality start, six-ennings, one run, three strikeouts to three walks. I know that whiffs and swinging strikes are not a big part of his game. But he has had double-digit swinging strikes in just one of nine starts this season. That seems quite bad. I'll point out the fastball velocity was up in this start, so that's some good news for him. But I don't know how long Areas will maintain a 2.49 ERA.

The underlying numbers are much, much higher. Except for expected ERA. That is true. Which continues to love him. He's been a wizard in terms of inducing soft contact throughout his career. He's been in the top 10% of the league every single season in the last four. So basically, his full time as a starter. In terms of hard hit rate allowed, he's consistently one of the best

and expected Wobon contact. So like Walker Bueller, there's still, like he's probably still going to be pretty good at run prevention. It's just you're not going to get the strikeouts if he can't figure this out. And, you know, I guess the fastball being down plays a part, but I don't know if it explains everything. You know, both him and Bueller. It's weird losing the amount of strikeouts that they've got they have. Both of them are like Kyle Hendricks right now with the strikeouts and walks, the good version of Kyle Hendricks. Julio Reyes, Chris, has 34 strikeouts.

That is less than half, Shane McClan and Dillencies. Yeah, he might. just be Kyle Hendricks but I also feel like Aureas has earned the benefit of the doubt to a certain extent I think the strikeout rate will be healthier moving forward

and I just think that that quality of contact suppression makes it so there's only so far he can ever fall I could see dropping him more I haven't really made a move with him one way or the other. He still sits at 11th. And that's

kind of a weird range because it's got him and Aaron Nola and Lucas Gialito, all of whom have just been kind of like not bad but not great. So I don't know. I could see myself moving him, but I'm not there yet. All right. That is

Julio Arias. Let's take a look at some waiver wire hitters and we'll start with some outfielders here, Chris. Jock Peterson hit another home run. His 11th, four homers over his last two games. He's 52% rostered, seven games next week with six righties on the schedule. Cole

Calhoun, another one who is red hot right now. Three for four on Wednesday with a sock and a shoe. You don't expect much running from Cole Calhoun, but gets it done here. Now up to seven home runs and one steal in the month of May. He's hitting 328 and all seven

of his home runs have come this month. Chris, do you have any interest in either outfielder, Jock Peterson or Cole Calhoun? You know, I play this video game civilization, uh, with my friends. It's, it's like, um, it's like risk that kind of game, but it's a computer game. And, um, my friend was asking me, should I pick up Cole Cahoon? We were playing on Saturday or Sunday, Sunday, I think. And I was like, Cole Cahoon's not going to keep homering every day.

Uh, and it turns out he might just keep homering every day. I don't know. I would bet that he's not going to keep homering every day, however. And since that's pretty much all he does, I don't have a ton of interest. I also can never get the K and the C in the right order. I always do Cole, like Garrett Cole first. And so, yeah, just that's there. A point out with Cole Calhoun in an era right now.

I mean, so far this year where power and hard hit rates are down across the board, he's got a 91.2 mile per hour, average exit velocity. That's a career high. 14% barrel rate, that's a career high. 48.8% hard hit rate, according to Stackass, that's a career high. So we're looking for power. I don't think he's going to homer every day, but those are pretty encouraging signs. So I think in five outfielder leagues, if you need some pop, I like it, man.

I like Cole Calhoun more than Jock Peterson. I just don't trust that Jock is going to play as enough. Yeah, I think that's fine. I think they're probably mostly the same guy. I probably actually do trust Peterson more. So it's more a question of, is he going to play every single day? I would rather have Peterson than Calhoun personally.

All right. You weren't here yesterday, Chris, but it turns out Scott loves William Contreras, who went one for two on Wednesday. his seventh home run, he added two walks. He has started four of the last five games for the Braves, 31% rostered, seven games next week. And if you needed more reason to add him,

four of those are in Cores Field. So in every two-catcher league, for sure, William Contreras needs to be rostered. And then in one-catcher leagues, if you're struggling and you want to stream a guy with four games and Cores, yeah, why not? Right, like, this is the thing. It's like, you don't want,

want to overreact and move William Contreras up too much because it's also like, yeah, he's not going to homer every day too. But he's playing pretty much every day for the Braves now. They're getting him in the lineup one way or the other. And like, I don't know, are you really going to regret sitting K. Burt Rurieze for William Contraer. Like, that's not a knock on Cabot Ruis. Kuibert Ruiz is having a pretty good May, Chris. That's not a knock on him. But William Contreras is having a much better May. And he gets four games of course field. And so Like, yeah, I think, like, Sean Murphy and Max Stacey and Gary, like, I think it'd be fine to start him over those guys next week.

Travis Darno has slowed down. I might even do that on the same team. They are finding ways to get Contreras in the lineup. He's de-hing. They're playing him in the outfield. That team needs a spark on offense right now. And Danesby-Swanson and William Contreras are the only ones providing it. I don't think it's real.

Like, I want to be clear that I'm not like, saying William Contreras is this difference maker all of a sudden. You know, he's got pretty middling minor league numbers. He wasn't exactly tearing the cover off the ball in AAA this season anyway. But the joke has always been if you've got a pulse and you're eligible a catcher, like you're probably going to rank close to the top 24 and he's got more than a pulse. So I think, yeah, William Contreras, just there's no reason not to add him. You probably got a bad catcher.

Kind of caught me off guard. yesterday when I saw Scott moved him up to 15th in his catcher rankings. I look right now, that has now moved to 11th. But like, because like, I've got Sean Murphy 13th. Yeah, no, I get it. And he had like four good games at the start of the season and hasn't done anything since. I would still take MJ Melendez for the record. Prospect pedigree.

I have MJ Melendez ranked ahead of him as well. Yeah. Yeah. All right, a few other names here, Chris. If you need a corner infielder, Evan Longoria, had a double dung on Wednesday, and Brian Anderson has looked pretty good. He went two for two with two walks, two runs scored, and he has seven games next week with three in Corsefield as well. Who do you like more as a corner? Longoria or Brian Anderson?

I think Longoria is a better hitter, but Anderson's probably the better pickup right now. Neither is likely to be a long-term option. Although I did think it was weird that the Marlins just kind of like entered this season with Brian Anderson as a complete afterthought. when he'd been like arguably their best player for the last four years so I'm not surprised he's having a bounce back season. In deeper leagues, pay attention to

Edwin Rielts. He has started four straight for the Dodgers. He's got some pop obviously a fantastic lineup. Harold Castro went three for four with a double dong. Crushed one of them. Hit it like 440 feet or something. Harold Ramirez, back-to-back days with a home run favorite

of Chris Towers. Harold Ramirez. Batting 287, he's got a 10 percent strikeout rate and has started 10 of the last 11 games. So in the deepest of leagues. Jack Swinsky, kind of, you know, tongue in cheek, passed a comment about him the other day. He had a sock in a shoe on Wednesday, so I'm happy for him. He hit his fifth home run and his first steal of the season. Rockies catcher, Brian Servin, went two for four with an RBI. Just again, another name to pay attention to in deeper leagues. Let's wrap up with some leftovers here, Chris, and we'll start with the pitchers. You, Darvey.

Did you hear that? You! Ah, soldier boy. I've got something in the works here. I'm going to come up with some kind of segment with involving this. I don't know yet what I'm going to do, but... Makes me so happy. It's in the works.

I don't know what it was on Sunday. Maybe it was just the end of a long day, but that just broke me. That is great. You Darvish, by the way. Let's throw a bunch of these pictures your way, Chris. posted his seventh quality start in nine tries this season. Luis Castillo with an encouraging outing, five innings, two runs, six strikeouts. The velocity was up for him. Lucas Julito allowed just one hit against the Red Sox, six innings, one run, seven strikeouts to four walks.

And Paul Blackburn kind of doesn't belong in this group, but he's been really good this year. 5.1 shutout innings, only two strikeouts, five walks, weird start, but 1.70 ERA for Paul Blackburn this season. Anything you'd like to add there, Chris? Golito, Blackburn, Castillo, you. Darvish. Yeah, Darvish went cutter-heavy in this one, 46% usage,

got five whiffs with it. That's been a key for him over the past couple of seasons, and it hadn't been super effective this season, so it's a good sign that it was a little more effective for him in this one, and

that'll be a key moving forward. Blackburn I can't quite make sense of, but I think he's fine. I think he's pretty good. I think he's probably like, I could see him being Ranger Suarez-esque moving forward. You know, after we talked about how little we like Ranger Suarez, that may not be particularly interesting. But, you know, he's going to get a lot of ground balls. He's going to generate weak contact.

So I don't know. I feel like Paul Blackburn's probably a reasonable-ish streamer. All right, let's take a look at some hitting leftovers. Joey Vado showing some signs of life. He went two for three with a triple and his second home run of the season. Kind of wish that he could just face Kyle Hendricks every day. That would be great.

Bryce Harper went four for five. It is now batting 318 with an OPS over 1,000, and that's with a partially torn UCL. The guy is just a freak. Juan Soto went 0 for 3. He's now batting 236. Probably have to have that conversation soon. C.J. C. C. C.C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C.

went two for five with his 12th home run. Francisco Lindor went two for four with his ninth homer. He's coming back to life over his last seven games, 345 batting average, two homers, one steel, 11 RBI for Francisco Lindor. Adley Ruchman had his first of many multi-hit games to come in his career. And Marcus Semyon, we put the reverse jinks on him yesterday

on the podcast. Solid game. We'll take it two for three with a triple and his fourth stolen base of the season. So I just have to go back. real quick. Okay. What conversation do we have to

have about Wonsota? Well, there's this one guy that emails us every time. Yeah, no, I get that,

but like, what conversation do we actually have to have about it? Like, what do you think is higher right now? Juan Soto's OPS

on May 26th, 2022, or Juan Soto's OPS on May 26, 2021? Mm-hmm. I'm going to say it was higher

last year. based on the way you're asking this question. It is currently higher. Now his batting average is lower. 236 batting average. That's not what you want to see from Juan Soto. But there is nothing to be concerned about with Juan Soto. All right.

I mean, that's all the conversation we needed, Chris. That's it. There's nothing to be concerned about. His line drive rate is down a little bit. His infield fly ball rate is... I mean, these are things that I think will... Those things will fluctuate from time to time. but yeah, like he's, it's one Soto.

He's, like, they're already starting to work on his bust for Cooperstown. Like, he's 24 years old. He's fine. Well, Chris, last question on Soto. How good is he going to look in pinch stripes? Um,

I don't think the, the Marlins, they only wear those like once or twice a year. Oh, I like that. It's a nice little comeback. throwback. Hopefully no one's listening at the 103 mark because they're going to hate me

for that one. The call to the bullpen for the Minnesota twins Emilio Pagan entered. Well actually no. Well, here. Who looks better? Juan Soto and Penstripes

or Aaron Judge and blue and orange. Oh, stop it, Chris. Steve Cohen already said that he is not going to sign Aaron Judge so we have to take his word for it, right? Right. Right.

What? What? Call to the bullpen. For the twins, Emilio Paggan. John entered in the eighth inning of a one-run game. He gave up a game-tying homer. For the Nationals, Tanner Rainey, gave up a hit and walk

in a one-run game but converted his fourth save of the season. Oakland A's, Danny Jimenez, clean ninth inning for his 10th save. For the Brewers, Devin Williams, picked up his fourth save, second in two days, filling in for Josh Hader. Now these two are fun. The Reds, in a four-to-two game, we got Tony Santian in the sixth, Alexis Diaz in the seventh Art Warren in the 8th

and then that left Hunter Strickland in the 9th gave up a run converted his first save he's not very good for Tampa Bay he went he who am I talking about in a 5 to 3 game we got Jason

Adam in the 6th Matt Whistler in the 7th JP Fire Eisen in the 8th and Colin Poche in the 9th he gave up a run converted the save where is Brooks Raley I don't know

should have been available Last time he pitched was on Sunday. Endless parade of anonymous super effective relievers is what makes the rays just so frustrating. Seriously. Whereas the reds have an endless array of anonymous mediocre relievers. Oh, I think we can confidently go lower than mediocre, Chris. I was trying to be nice.

All right. For the Yankees, Clay Holmes gave up two hits in the ninth, but picked up his fifth save for the Astros. Ryan Presley got his seventh save. And for the White Sox, Liam Hendricks, walked two, but recorded the final four outs for his 14th save of the season. To stream or not to stream, let's start

with Thursday. Justin Steele at the Reds, Daniel Lynch at the Twins, Michael Walker at the White Sox, Ryan Yarbrough versus the Yankees, Hermann Marquez at the Nationals, and Mitch White at the Diamondbacks. He pitches for the Dodgers in case you didn't know. I think Marquez would be

my favorite streamer of this group. I like Justin Steele. Yeah, the strike That's the last couple of starts have been very impressive and it's a good matchup. So sure, he's fine as a number two. The Reds have the second lowest Wobah against left-handed pitching this season. Let's do it. Justin Steele.

Friday, we've got Jeffrey Springs versus the Yankees, Austin Gomber at the Nationals, Alex Fayetteau versus Cleveland, Zach Eflin at the Mets, Brad Keller at the Twins, Bailey Ober versus the Royals, Jose Cantana at the Padres, and Cole Irvin versus the Rangers. Um, yeah, I think

Ober, Afflin, and I wouldn't have said Springs, but with the Yankees injuries, I agree with this. I could see that being a very good matchup, so yeah, over,

Afflin, and Springs with Eflin third. I also don't mind Alex Fayetteau versus Cleveland and Austin Gomber at the Nationals. Don't mind those. Friday, good day for streaming. We're going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank.

Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.