Fantasy Baseball Today - Rankings Movers, Yusei Kikuchi Hype & Nolan Jones' Struggles! (4/11 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 11, 2024

Vinnie P Baby (3:39)! ... Give Yusei Kikuchi the respect he deserves (7:55). ... Cody Bradford has turned in back-to-back quality starts (11:25). ... News (17:54): Kodai Senga was transferred to the 60-day IL. ... Should Edouard Julien be rostered in more leagues (22:25)? Jo Adell, Gavin Sheets and Ivan Herrera are doing some interesting things (31:32)! ... How do we rank Kikuchi, Bradford, Seth Lugo and Lance Lynn (38:38)? ... Jared Jones and Reid Detmers are both climbing up our Fantasy Baseball rankings (41:50) while Jeimer Candelario is falling. ... Jackson Holliday made his debut (54:35). ... What's going on with Tanner Bibee and Nolan Jones (56:52)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:02:00). 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. Hey there, welcome into Tough Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, April 11th. I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. The gang's all here together again. Today on the show, rankings, risers, and fallers.

Cody Bradford continues to impress. Jackson Holiday made his debut. And let's have a conversation about Tanner Bybee and Nolan Jones. Knock on wood. Not trying to jinx anything. But we actually get to start a podcast with baseball and not injuries. That is a beautiful sight and sound. I love it.

I loved how, you know, when you and I did the last podcast, for what was it, Tuesday morning, Frank. We were like, okay, maybe, maybe we can go a day without pitching injuries. And there was, what, three? Three. Yeah, the very next day. I wasn't there to react to the three, but yeah, no.

No pitching injuries today. Hooray. Yep, yep. We'll see what tomorrow brings. All right, players of the night, Scott, you are up. All right. Who else would I pick other than Vinnie Pee, baby? Baby. There you go. By far

his best game of the season what had been one of the he had been one of the most disappointing hitters so far I think is fair to say entered Wednesday with only four hits well he added three here on Wednesday

including a homer including a double drove in five runs he I think it was like a 15 point game in head-to-head points leagues. Very big day for Vinny Pass Guantino. And I was happy to see it, of course. But, I don't know.

His hardest hit ball was like 102 miles per hour. Ah, come on, don't rain on the parade. The expected batting average on the double was 140. I don't know. I will say, my faith in Vinny Pass Guantino hasn't diminished based on what's, happened so far. Yes, I think there is, I think it's reasonable to be concerned that there's lingering effects from the shoulder surgery that it's sapping him of some power. I think that's a reasonable

concern, but that's also kind of why he was going as late as he was, right? It was baked into the price. And I don't think anything we've seen from him so far is conclusive one way or another. I don't think the slow start was conclusive that, oh yeah, his shoulders still mess up or this good game is conclusive that never mind he's fine. His hardest hit ball so far this year is harder than any he hit last year. And remember his first 38 games last year were very, very good.

So I think that's the most encouraging sign. The plate discipline has been excellent like it always is for Vinnie Pasquantino. And so those are the main reasons why I think you've got to keep the faith. Games like this happen for every player where they put up a good stat line

even though the underlying numbers aren't good. And I think we should still enjoy it when it happens, but I don't think this is, like, I don't think this game should necessarily be what relieves your concerns for Pasquantino. So I don't know if I have a crystal clear point in there. I think we should be patient with Vinny. Hopefully, this will help to promote patience. But we still got to figure out.

We still got to figure out exactly what we're working with here. He had a, he has a 61 weighted runs created plus after this game. That's a scale to 100 is average. He raised it 63 points with this performance. He had a negative two weighted runs created plus before the game is what I'm trying to say. I don't quite know how that scale works, but that is just a sign of how bad he's been so far this season and how much. this one game did for his line. I mostly agree with Scott.

I might be like slightly more concerned about Pasquantino just because he really hasn't been hitting the ball well so far this season. It's a lot of soft contact. It's not a lot of quality contact in the air, especially. But I'm sitting him, if anything, if I'm concerned. I'm not dropping him. I love how many times we bring up a player on the Woriometer and then the very next day they have a huge can.

And it's just, you talk about enough players that are struggling and obviously like, they're just bound to have a game the next day. But I always love when that happens. It's just, it's so funny the way that works. Yeah, I mean, they're usually due. And I understand people out there will say, do isn't a thing. But, you know, it depends what you mean by it. Like if, if a play, if you believe a player is underperforming, then eventually regression will come. And that's basically what I mean.

And what I've always meant when I said a player is due. Not that there's some kind of. cosmic quality to it or anything like that. Chris, you are back. So let's talk about your player of the night. My player of the night is a guy who, frankly, was disrespected on this show and in the fantasy community at large.

And that is you say Kikuchi, who had a terrific start today against the staff. I thought you were going to go with a different left-handed pitcher, but that's fine. No, because I thought you were building up to. I have, I mean, because really you guys didn't disrespect that guy. You disrespected me and that's different.

No, you say Kukuchi is, I just think really good. He's only like 70% rostered in CBS Fantasy Leagues, which means he's probably only like 40% rostered in Yahoo and ESPN because their roster rates are even lower. And I think that is ridiculous. I think Yusakuchi is someone who probably deserves to be rostered in pretty much all formats. He is, I just think,

really solid pitcher nine strikeouts and six innings today. Over the past, let me see, 365 days. Usake Kukuchi has made 33 starts. He has a 357 ERA with 193 strikeouts over his past 33 starts. And that's not with, that's with still a pretty awful April and I think most of May last year. He really figured things out after a couple of months and has been rolling since then. He's got a bunch of swing and miss pitches. He's one of those guys who I have faith in figuring it out when things are going poorly because he's tinkered his way to success already.

And yeah, I think you say Kukuchi's really, really good. Yeah, I was looking into the numbers today and obviously what he did last year and the way that he finished out the season. And I was surprised that he was only 71% roster just based on how well he pitched last. season. And then, you know, he's, he's had three pretty good starts here to start this year. As well, he had the nine strikeouts against the Mariners here on Wednesday, 13 swinging strikes on 89 pitches. And he's throwing his curveball more this year. And it looks like that's a pretty good decision. So at 71% rostered, I would argue that number needs to be higher.

So what stood out to me for Kukuchi in this start is of his 13 whiffs, six came on the slider, which is usually long been considered his best pitch, six on the slider. He entered with zero whiffs on the slider this year. So I don't know what was going on with that pitch, but if he's rediscovered it, then that's all the more reason for optimism with you say Kukuchi. Let's talk about who he was opposing in that matchup real quick, just while we're on that game. Logan Gilbert, great start against the Blue Js, seven and two thirds innings, one run, eight strikeouts, 15 swinging strikes on 89 pitches. And he led with his slider in this start.

It was his most used pitch at 39 percent. And it was great. Had nine of his 15 swinging strikes, a 56 percent whiff rate continues to work in this new cutter of the season as well. And through three starts, it's a 266 ERA and a 0.84 whip. Anything to add on what we've seen from Logan Gilbert so far this season? Not really. I mean, in this start, he threw his slug. lighter a ton, like 40% of the time. And usually it's, I think usually it's more like 25. That's just me saying things because I was looking to fill time. I don't know that it necessarily means anything.

Logan Gilbert's looked good. And thankfully, we have a pitcher who's living up to expectations so far. Well, that brings us to the, what I would consider, the Olive Garden breadstick of the night. Oh, we missed it. And yeah, you guys missed it for you. We left it for you. We were being polite. Well, I left it there for you guys.

When you hear your family. It was the other guy. It's the other guy. Cody Bradford makes it back-to-back quality starts. This one against the Oakland A's, obviously, a great matchup. And he dominated six and two-thirds innings, one unearned run, seven strikeouts to one walk. He had 17 swinging strikes on 94 pitches. This is coming off another great start that he just had against the Astros the last time he was out.

And yes, we did joke with Chris before the. the season because he kept drafting Cody Bradford as a very late round spark in head-ted points leagues. But so far he is off to a great start. He's a soft tossing lefty, only 90 miles per hour with the fastball, but he's got a really good change up. He has great control. It also looks like he's throwing a new curveball this season. It's like a slower mid-70s curveball. And it's not getting many whiffs, but the results on balls and play have been pretty good on that pitch. Cody Bradford is 69% rostered. If he remains in the rotation,

it looks like he might line up for two starts next week at the Tigers and at the Atlanta Braves. I would imagine he's going to stay in the rotation at this point over Andrew Heaney, I would guess, would get the bump over him. That was the next question. Yeah, no, I think.

Look, I remain a Cody Bradford skeptic. Same. Okay, good. He is an extreme fly ball pitcher. And like it's over 60% this year, the fly ball rate very, very high. And extreme fly ball pitchers are generally good at limiting hits, which can lead to some good starts, like we've seen so far. And he's got really good control. I think borderline elite control.

And so some other examples of extreme flyball pitchers who are good, Bailey Ober, Tyler Wells, I think is pretty good. Christian Javier, to a certain extent, is a fly ball pitcher. but those guys are pretty good at missing bats. And I don't think Cody Bradford is. I say that knowing he struck out seven and six and two-thirds innings. He got 17 whiffs today against the athletics. His first two starts certainly weren't like that. His last year wasn't like that.

Also last year he allowed some of the hardest contact of any pitcher. Small sample, he was a rookie. I understand all of that. But I don't think he, I think he's the sort of extreme flyball pitcher whose extreme flyball tendencies are going to be more of a hindrance than a help. in the long run.

So I'm okay with him as a streamer. The fact one of those two starts next week is against the Braves makes me a little squeamish. I might leave him for the points leagues, especially since he's RP eligible. But I don't think Cody Bradford is somebody you should be dropping anybody you care about for. The one thing I will note is in this start,

I think the one thing that was interesting is the slider. He threw it nine times. he'd only thrown it four times in the previous two starts coming in. He had also thrown three cutters, which he didn't throw today. I wonder if that's just those pitches are very similar in velocity. They might just be the same pitch. And it's just a classification thing. But he did get four whiffs on five swings with the slider today.

He hadn't had a whiff on any of the only through four before this coming in. So that's kind of interesting, but I don't. It's one start. It's against the A's. I don't know how much you actually take from that. So yeah, it is possible that he is doing like a Kyle Hendricks impersonation and can command and quality of contact his way to being a pretty useful fantasy option. But the thing about Kyle Hendrix is the first three starts of this season and most of the 2022 season notwithstanding. We have a long track record of Kyle Hendricks being really good at suppressing quality of contact in a way that makes him a true outlier.

And that is a stat that takes a really, really long time to stabilize. And so you need a lot more than three good starts to say, hey, Cody Bradford can do this moving forward. Maybe he can. Like, that's the blueprint. But I think skepticism is the right call. I think he's worse streaming against the Tigers. And I think if we don't mention Cody Bradford again after that start against Atlanta,

I would not be surprised. Wanted to give an honorable mention to the back. Ash bros, literally, on National Siblings Day, Josh and Bo Nailer homered in the same inning. And it was Josh Nailer's third home run of the season. He had four hard hits in that game. He is off to a really nice start. Bo Nailer, it was the second home run. He added three RBI.

Struggling a little bit here early on, a 194 batting average, 40% strikeout rate. You don't love to see that, but he is hitting the ball really hard. We'd like to see more consistent playing time. But hopefully this is a sign of things to come for Bo. nailer. Let's take our first break when we return. We'll get into some news and notes and we will do that right after this. Welcome back in. Let's talk some news and notes. Kodi Senga was transferred to the 60 day IL. It doesn't sound like he's had a setback or anything. Manager Carlos Mendoza said Senga has yet to advance to mound work. So perhaps they're just being cautious. The earliest will see Kodi Senga is now late May. J.T. Rulamuto was back in the lineup Wednesday after taking a a breaking ball that bounced off the plate

and hit him in the neck while he was playing catcher on Tuesday night. So it was nice to see that A, he was all right, B back in the lineup. Brandon Lau will undergo an MRI on his right oblique. Ray's manager, Kevin Cash, said it's quote, fair to say he will miss some time. And

somebody on Twitter pointed out that all three of the lows and Lows, Brandon, Nathaniel, and Josh, they are all on the IL with oblique injuries. my gosh so more like low bleak

am I right Scott thanks for the low down on that there is a tangential story here with with Brandon Lowe presumably being out for a while you know where I'm going right

I hope I do Junior Cominero is just today he took batting practice he took grounders he's probably going to be back in the AAA lineup soon. And the rays have lost a lot of infielders. Now, I don't think Common Arrow is going to go from taking grounders

and batting practice one day to batting cleanup at Tropicana Field the next. There will be some time in between where he's getting a bats at AAA, I would imagine. But if this is a multi-week absence for Lao, which it sounds like it could be, you kind of think, you have to think he's the next man up, right? I mean, Jonathan Aranda's still dealing with his broken finger. He's not ready to go yet.

The one hesitation is Curtis Mead wasn't getting regular bets for the raise. And when he's been in the lineup, it's mostly been at second base. So maybe they'll more likely use this Lao injury as an excuse to integrate Mead better. That would be my biggest hesitation. But bottom line is, if Common Arrow is out there in your league, like he's the top prospect of stash

now that Jackson Holiday is up and I think it's even more urgent to do that. Laura's new bar could be activated from the IL on Friday. He started the season on the aisle due to non-displaced fractures in his left rib cage. Anthony Volpe was moved up to the leadoff spot with Glaber Torres sliding down to 6th in the lineup.

And Volpe in that game went one for three with two, and a run scored. So if he continues to do anything close to what he's done so far and just takes over that leadoff spot, it can be primo for fantasy. I mean, in front of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge.

I mean, it kind of blew my mind how much DJ LeMayhew was being overlooked in drafts before, obviously, he suffered his injury, given that he was penciled into that leadoff spot. But I don't know that he's getting it back now. I mean, Volpe might just stay there. Or maybe Volpe is a big phony and not hitting the ball hard enough to continue.

But I lean toward the former. I think he's figured it out with the flatter swing and it's getting on base a ton. And it's, I could not justify moving Jackson Holiday ahead of him when I was updating my shortstop rankings yesterday. Same Z's. Brandon Marsh was moved up to sixth in the Phillies lineup with Bryson Stott sliding down to 8th. Danny Jansen began a rehab assignment at AAA. on Wednesday. Yohan Moncada was placed on the IL and will miss three to six months with a left adductor

strain. Oscar Coloss was recalled by the White Sox. Robert Stevenson will begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Sunday. Brewer's outfielder, Garrett Mitchell, should return around June 1st. He's on the IL with a fractured left index finger. Brewer's catcher prospect, Jefferson Caro, will undergo season-ending surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder. and Shohei Otani's former interpreter Ipe Mizohara

is reportedly in negotiations to plead guilty to multiple federal charges. We'll see where everything goes from here in that Otani situation. Waiverwire hitters, let's talk about some of these names who had some big games on Wednesday. Should Edward Julian's roster rate be higher? I'm not so sure.

Three for four with a double dong, one off Bobby Miller, one off, a lefty reliever and Alex Vescia. Both to the opposite field, which is what Edward Julian does. Yeah, I saw him in the Arizona Fall League home run derby two years ago, and he was legit trying to hit everything to the opposite field. It's like, why is what he does? It's a very strange player.

Very, very strange indeed. But it's a 188 batting average early on, 12 strikeouts, 34% strikeout rate. The ground ball rate is high. This obviously was a great game. and if he continues to get some opportunities against lefties and performs, then I think our faith can grow in him as a fantasy player.

But as of now, even with this big game, Chris, 61% rostered is probably just right, maybe even a little bit high for Julian. Yeah, I think that might be a little high because the, I think the twins have only faced two left-handed starters so far because he's played. That's right.

Yeah, he's appeared. in every game. He started all but two, and the two that he didn't were against lefties. So I think he is probably going to play less moving forward than he has been. And I'm just not sure how fantasy friendly his profile is because of that. Because obviously, I think in an ideal world, he could be a really good head-to-head point league player because of his plate discipline. But if he's not going to play every day, that is a bit. big hit. And I think he's probably going to be a pretty low batting average guy. He's not going to steal bases. He'll hit for good, but not great power. And so it's like when you add it all up,

61% actually kind of sounds a little high to me. Yeah, that's where I was going to. And you want to say he's a player that could be better in real life, but even defensively, he's not good either. He's just such a unique player in Edward Julian. He's still young enough where he could turn into something. So I don't want to count play that possibility. But we'll see where he goes from here. Two young corner infielders. Michael Bush and Jordan Westberg both had big games here on Wednesday. Bush went one for two with two walks and his second home run. He moved up to fifth in the Cubs lineup in this game.

And he's hitting the ball hard early on, 24% line drive rate. The walks have been there as well. Jordan Westberg went two for three with a double and his second home run. He added three RBI. Three hard hits in this game. The home run, 11.2 exit velocity, 432 feet. and entering this game, it was a 94 mile per hour

average exit velocity. So Scott, I know you like Michael Bush. I know there is some skepticism about Westberg and the park that he plays in, but it's been the ball hard early on. And I'm just really intrigued by both of these guys and I want to see what they can do.

Yeah, I mean, my concerns for Westberg remain. Any right-handed power hitter in the Orioles lineup is, I mean, if you can't hit the ball, much harder than Ryan Malkassel does, and yet even he's struggled to deliver

the sort of power numbers we're looking for since the Orioles made that change in left field at Camden Yards. Though he's off to a good start this year, Mountcastle is. But Bush, I am really excited about how things are going for Bush. I expected him to get off to a slow start. And he kind of did, I guess, but, you know, it's only April 11th and suddenly his numbers look pretty good. as somebody who's followed Michael Bush's minor league numbers very closely for three years,

one thing I noticed is that he'd be crushing one level and you'd be like, oh my goodness, this is Michael Bush's coming out party. And then they'd move him up and his numbers would get dragged down right away. But then eventually he'd figure out that level and he'd be putting up ridiculous numbers there. It just seems like it takes him a while to settle in at a new level at a higher level of competition. and I'm hopeful that's what we're seeing now. And of course, he's got some exposure in the majors last year, so maybe that was the rough patch I'm referring to.

But, yeah, he's walking a ton, and he's beginning to connect for home runs. So stock up for Michael Bush, I would say. I will point out with Westberg, his hard hit rate right now is 64%. His average velocity. It's not updated yet. yet it's got to be,

it might be over 95 miles per hour after today. He had three more hard hit balls today. But you know, like he's, he's not going to have better than, than Ryan Moutcastle had last year, as far as that goes. Probably not.

Like, that's the thing is what you're seeing in the early going of his career. It's a very small sample size, but 318 expected Wobah 3.03, actual Wobah. That's what happens to right-handed hitters at Camden Yards now. So I,

I think you're probably right in Bush being a little higher, but, you know, Westberg is talented enough to potentially overcome that. It's just there's probably a ceiling on how good he can be for fantasy. All right. Let's move on to two other players. Should these two be rostered in all rotosized leagues? We're talking leagues with middle corner infield and five outfielders as well. Jose Cabriero had a big game.

for three with his first home run, and he's off to a nice start. He has five stolen bases. He's batting 351. And Nelson Velasquez continues his nice start with the Royals, two for four, with two RBI. He's betting 343 with a 995 OPS. It does have a 34% strikeout rate early on. But Scott, do you think those two names should be rostered in all Roto-sized leagues, Caballero and Nelson Velasquez? Basically, yes. It was, would have to be a five outfielder Roto League specifically for Nelson Velasquez, as Roto leagues usually are. I think

I don't see a scenario where Velasquez becomes relevant in points leagues because of the strikeouts, and I think his upside is probably limited to like an outfield four, outfielder four for Roto, but I do think he's going to keep getting opportunities and the home run total should be

pretty good. I'm even more intrigued by Jose Cabiero, and you know, maybe this is confirmation bias because the rays went out and inquired him to be their starting shortstop and they're the raise. His home run today

I believe was the hardest hit ball of his career and I know they were encouraging him. There was a story this spring that they were encouraging him to swing for more impact to try and elevate the ball in the air

more. Basically hoping to do the Isak Peretti's thing with Cabiero. It doesn't seem like the exit velocities would support it, but the exit velocity on this home run was very good, best of his career. And he's running a ton, which we were hopeful he'd do, but we're actually seeing it play out. He already has five stolen bases. I don't know how many walks he has, but he was a good on base guy with...

Zero. Zero so far. He was a good on base guy with the Mariners, so I would expect that to improve. I am tempted to kind of start Nico Horner's off to and knowing that, you know, Niko Horner has his limits anyway, I'm struggling in steals

in one of my roto leagues where Cabierro is just sitting on my bench. I'm tempted next week to swap out Horner for Cabierro, not as a permanent measure, but just until we see some signs of life from Horner here. Because I'm not even sure, like I have some concerns about Horner being down in the lineup and not being in that table,

set a role anymore, and just not running anymore because of it. He doesn't have a stolen base yet. He's also hitting like 140. And I know Nico Horner's going to hit. So I'm trying to be patient there with this. It's kind of just a theory right now. If he's batting seventh, is he going to want to run that much?

But I do have some concerns with Horner as far as that goes. And Cabierro is delivering the steals. Would you rather have Caballero or Bryce Terang? Caballero. I was just updating the rankings here on Wednesday, and I was wrestling with that decision myself. Yeah, I have to rank one spot higher than Caballero, but I think it's pretty damn close between those two.

I would make an argument for either one in category league, just to make sure that they are rostered if you do need steals on your team. I am giving cop, like most of the difference there isn't data. it's just giving Caballero extra credit because it's the raise who wanted him. Let's talk about a few deep league ads. And first up, outfielders. I thought there was a lot of pretty interesting performances here for some deep league names. Joe Adele, two for four with a sock and a shoe, his first home run of the season,

his third stolen base. He only has three starts this season. Got this one against a righty. So I thought that was pretty encouraging, really small sample size, but the strikeout rate is down early on in the season. season. Gavin Sheets had a monster game three for five with a sock into shoe. His second home run, his first stolen base. He had three hard hits in this game and looks like he's in line for lots of playing time due to the injuries to Luis Robert and Eloy Jimenez. Jurekson Pro Far went three for three

with his second home run added three RBI. He's got 10 RBI total so far on the season. He's betting 333. Entered this game hitting the ball really hard. I don't know how sustainable that is. And Blake Perkins, who plays outfield for the Brewers, went one for two with a walk, a sock, and a shoe has started three of the past four games. Chris, any interest in deeper leagues here? Blake Perkins, jerks and pro far, Gavin Sheets, and Joe Adele. I want to be interested in Joe Adele because I still believe that he can be a useful player. And early on, there are some really positive signs.

He's still hitting the ball hard, but his zone contact rate in the early going is 80. his chase rate is down to the lowest it's ever been at the major league level. His whiff rate is half of what it was last year. He's also seen like 65 pitches. So I don't think we can actually draw any conclusions from anything that we're seeing so far with Joe Adele. So I don't think outside of mono leagues I would have any interest in any of these guys. Scott, any different opinion?

on those aims? No, not really. I mean, I'm jerks and pro far, he's hitting the ball much harder than usual on average, but just on average. And I think, you know, barrel rates the same max exit velocity. It's not like he said, a new high for that. I think he's going to turn back into jerks and pro far soon.

I'm a little curious about Gavin Sheets because good minor league numbers, good rookie production in 2021 in a part-time role, but and then just did nothing in 2022, 2023. The strikeout rate has always been good for Gavin Sheets. Just low quality of contact. Well, he hit three balls, 105 miles per hour today, I think it was. And, you know, obviously he's been doing well since the White Sox put him in the lineup.

I don't think there's anything to it, but I think he's enough of a mystery box, Gavin Sheets, that I'd at least be keeping an eye on him. Deep League non-outfielders. Blaze Alexander continue to mention, I mean, he just keeps hitting so far. Two for two with a walk and his second home run. He's 12% rostered. The debacks have seven games next week,

three lefties on the schedule. So if you're looking for a middle infielder, I think he'd be a fine addition. And Yvonne Herrera, who is a catcher on the Cardinals, went one for four with his third home run. He crushed this one, 112.4 exit velocity,

432 feet, and he's been getting some playing time with Wilson Contreras banged up. Contreras has returned the past two days, and they have him playing DH with Yvonne Herrera at catcher. Any interest in Herrera? I mean, we're talking like 15 team two catcher leagues, but I think even 12, I think even 12th. Like, it requires the Cardinals best lineup on most days to feature both Herrera and Contreras. That might be the case. though with what he show. I believe the home run Herrera hit was the hardest tip ball of his MLB career. He's got like an 830-ish OPS in his minor league career.

I think if you don't like what you're getting from your number two catcher, I think it's fine to roll the dice on Ivan Herrera and just see if the Cardinals keep rolling the two-catcher lineups out there. And he can stay hot because I think within the realm of two-catcher, type players, he's, oh my God. Alejandro Kirk is the name that I was trying to think of, who is off to a really bad start. His quality of contact is like the worst that it's ever been. 363 OPS, I believe his average X velocity is down to 86 miles per hour.

Like, I kind of think I'd be okay dropping Alejandro Kirk and just seeing if Ivan Herrera can do something in a two catcher league, just because you're not getting anything from Kirk, and he kind of needed to get off to a hot start to overcome the concerns we had coming out of last year. Let's hit our final break, and when we return, we'll run through some WaverWire pitchers, then we have some rankings, risers, and fallers.

We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in. Let's talk some WaverWire pitchers. We already mentioned Cody Bradford and Yusay Kikuchi up top. There were two other names that stood out to me. Seth Lugo is now three for three in quality starts. This one came against the Houston Astros. Six innings, two runs, two strikeouts, only five swinging strikes on 90 pitches.

Has really just pitched a contact so far this year. He's getting ground balls. It's worked. He's 66% rostered and looks like he might be in line for two starts next week. The other name is Lance Lynn, who was solid against the Phillies, five innings, one hit, two unearned runs, four walks, six strikeouts in that one. Velocity was down. It was also 57 degrees and raining in St. Louis.

Scott, how would you rank Cacucci, Bradford, Seth Lugo, and Lance Lynn? Cacucci, Lugo, Bradford, Lynn. Cacacacchoochee's a distant first. Yeah, I would agree with that. In deeper leagues, Ryan Weathers was okay at the Yankees, five shutout innings, three hits, three walks, only one strikeout in this one. He is 12% rostered and might be in line for two-star six-week as well, the Giants and at the Cubs.

Wade Miley was solid in his season debut at the Reds. Four innings, one hit, one run, two walks to zero strikeouts. He does not get any strikeouts. But over the past three years, Wade Miley has thrown 320 innings of a 326 ERA. So do with that, which you will. Chris, any interest in deeper leagues in Wade Miley or Ryan Weathers? I mean, Wade Miley tends to get the job done a lot more often than he, he doesn't. So I think like I get why he's not widely rostered. I get why he was not widely

drafted coming into the season. But once the season starts and attrition starts to take over, I mean, this guy's been really useful for fantasy way more often than not. He's had one season with an ERA over four since 2017, I believe. And that was 2020, the shortened season. So I think Wade Miley's are perfectly viable streamer much more so than Ryan Weathers. so I just, I don't think there's much of anything interesting going on there despite a little bit of hype coming into the season. And based on the way the Marlon starters have performed, my guess is Max Myers probably going to stick around.

And maybe once Braxton Garrett and Edward Cabrera are ready to rejoin the rotation, which could be, should be next week. Those guys will be back. And my guess is puck and weathers will probably be out. I would guess so as well. I don't know what the like option situation is with any of those. guys or their relievers. But at this point, I would think Puck and Weathers get the boot. Cabrera, was it today? I had a really, really good rehab start and what might have been his

final rehab start. I think it was like nine strikeouts to one walk. And it's his production before that in his rehab assignment had been really bad. And so it's hard to buy in too much. But I don't know, man, Edward Cabrera still has a lot of upside. Let's talk some rank. rankings risers and fallers. And for anybody who's wondering, where do I find those rankings? CBSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball slash rankings. You can also find them on the CBS Fantasy app. And Scott, why don't you start us off with some of the risers? Well, I'm going to make a change here because I see Chris also picked one I did and I'd rather throw more names at people. And I also want to point out that this year I'm introducing a new column for days when I do my full rankings audit.

Usually once a week, I go name by name, and it takes several hours. And now I've got a column called Rankings Movers where I explain a lot of the changes I made. Not all of them, of course, but a lot of them. And it's up on the site now. It's a little hidden. But the feedback I've gotten from sharing it on Twitter has been good. So I think it's going to be a good one. So some of the names that I talked about in there,

some of the risers I talked about there, Reid Detmer's was the biggest riser among starting pitchers. He jumped about 30 spots for me to 42nd. And I mean, what we've seen for him so far, we talked about the slider a lot, but really the fastball that it's gotten double-digit whiffs in each of his first two starts. He's showing ace characteristics there.

And so I've moved him ahead of some of the other, early hype pitchers like Gavin Stone, for instance. I think Detmer's deserves to be in that group. Tyler O'Neill's another riser. It is sixth home run. What was it, Monday? And, you know, we've seen him have a 34-homer 15 steel season in the past, I believe it was. And he's healthier than he's been in a long time.

And he's at Fenway Park for the first time. And he's got these giant muscles where the veins are popping out. And it's just like, I think he's walked more than he struck out too. So he's doing everything right. And outfield is obviously a thin position. So it's not that hard to get Tyler O'Neill into the top 30 like I've done. And then the third one I'm going to mention here is Spencer Steer. Who hasn't moved up that much?

Because there's only so much you can move up at the infield spots, particularly if you're already a mid-round player. But I moved him ahead of Vinnie P. actually in points leagues. He was already ahead of Vinny P., Vinny P., Vinnie Pasquantino and, in Roto Leagues. But I also moved Spencer Stier at third base. I moved him ahead of Nolan Aeronado. Because obviously the playing time concerns are out the window now.

That was my biggest hang up with Stier for most of draft prep season before the Reds got devastated by injury. He's, you know, he obviously hasn't turned into a pumpkin here. He's off to a great start, hitting for power. And I don't think, like at this stage of Nolan Aeronado's career in his mid-30s, you know, he's never had great exit velocities, relies on pulling the ball in the air a ton to deliver power. He had 26 home runs last year. They might be near equals in terms of my expected power production for them, Aeronado and Stier. But I think Stier has a better case for stolen bases, certainly, maybe a better case for batting average. Plus, he's triple eligible. So I'm taking a reasonable point.

Yeah, I agree with the O'Neill and Detmer's. I move Steer up a little bit as well. I didn't get them up ahead of Aeronado, but I think I got Detmer's up to around 47. He definitely inside my top 50 starting pitchers. And, you know, I wanted to update my rankings here on Wednesday without looking at either of your rankings because I didn't want to be influenced by them. And it was so funny.

We wound up in such similar spots on all these players. And it's just funny how that works out. I moved up Tyler O'Neill to Outfielder 32. And Scott, you moved them up to your 3. 30th ranked outfielder. So it's just 33 for me. I found it funny how we all kind of wound up at that same spot. It is funny how often that.

Like we moved them in the same vicinity, three or four spots without any consultation on it. It happens surprisingly often. I'm a little lower on Detmer's. I've got a couple of other early season breakouts ahead of him. But I agree with everything you said. He's looked really, really good. The fastball is playing up. He seems to have improved the shape of the fast.

ball and the slider looks a lot better as well. That was weirdly ineffective for him, but he's taken a couple miles per hour off of it and seems to have made it a more effective pitch. But there are three other early season breakout pitchers I have ahead of him. And who are they, Chris? Jared Jones.

I've moved him to SP 36. I'm really, really excited about him. And part of it is just that like, if nobody's going to stay healthy, why am I going to worry about the young guy who throws 99 miles an hour, right? And the thing about Jared Jones is he's kind of a two-pitch pitcher.

He's kind of not because he throws his fastball slider about 85% of the time, which means that he throws, is it a curveball and a cutter as well? I think he rounds out his arsenal with, but the fastball and slider are what you need to know about. The fastball, according to the stuff plus metrics on fan graphs, is the best fastball in baseball.

in the early going, I think his slider is like seventh by that metric. And the thing about the slider that I think is really interesting is it's kind of two pitches. He's got a harder version that he throws like 89 to 92 miles per hour

that acts more like a cutter. And then he's got a softer version that's in like the 85 to 88 mile per hour range. That's more of a traditional slider. It has a little more two-plane break. And so, he's a two-pitch pitcher, which you can get away with. Justin Steele's a two-pitch pitcher, Spencer Strider's a two-pitch pitcher.

Those pitches have to be really good, and I think Jared Jones are. Yeah. And you said it's the most effective fastball, according to Stuff Plus. Yeah. When I've watched him pitch, I've gotten. Dudes look so uncomfortable against him. It reminds me of Spencer Strider. Yeah.

I think that's the most obvious comp. Like, it's too high praise. Yeah. but that's what it looks like right now. I was like, is Scott going to do it? Is he going to say it? And he did it. Yeah, I mean,

Kevin Gosman threw his top two pitches 85% of the time as well last season. Like you can get away with that. You just have to have really, really good pitches. And then Jared Jones seems to. He's also thrown like 140 plus innings at the minor league level. So if he stays healthy, I don't think innings are going to be a concern. I kind of feel like SP36 might not be aggressive enough, but I'm just... I moved him to 40.

That was the other one I was going to talk about. So, yeah, I'm... I kind of feel like it's both too high and too low, the point you brought up, but, well, if everybody's vulnerable to... It's funny, we obsess over injury risk and durability so much in preseason, and then the season starts, and it's like, oh, and anybody could get hurt anyway. So let's just go with the guy who we think is going to be most dominant right now.

And I think from that context, maybe 40 where I have, or 36 where you have is too low for Jared Jones. But it's a little bit of, okay, but he is a rookie. How many innings is realistically going to throw? Bad team context. Whoa, whoa.

The Pirates are also a great start. Mediocre team context, probably. The other ones that I've got, I've got Bryce Miller at SP40. McKenzie Gore at SP 49. So I've got them just ahead of Reed Detmer's. And I think you could group those three guys in whatever order you want. But I'm really impressed with Bryce Miller's splitter in particular.

His slider and sweeper still look like non-factors for him. But the splitter looks really good. He's throwing a sinker, which I think can help him mitigate what he might lose against right-handed hitters without the slider and sweeper being good. And then McKenzie Gore, his fastball, velocity is up two miles per hour. The fastball shape looks really good. It's been a dominant pitch for him. And he's throwing his change up a ton more. He's throwing his slider more like a cutter. So there's a lot of things changing with McKenzie Gore. But I think all in all, the numbers haven't been great, but I think the process has been really, really impressive for a guy who was the top

pitching prospect in baseball at one point. It could be another, oh my, why is my brain doing this? the White Sox pitch Lucas Gialito He did another Gialito Who I know Trust me, I worry about my memory as I age Lucas Gilito could be another one where Top Prospect took some time to figure it out And needed to make some changes

But I think Mackenzie Gore could be figuring it out And that's very exciting I also moved Bryce to Rang up to my 17th Second Basement in Roto And Christopher Morel to Outfield 39, which might be too low and I imagine you guys probably had him that high already. And so I might just be catching up.

I want to praise you, Chris, because you wrote an article earlier this week about those three pitchers. You just talked about Jared Jones, Bryce Miller, and McKinsey Gore. And the analysis was so good. I mean, you gave the bullet points just now, but I encourage people to go read it because it won me over.

I mean, it was already pretty high on Jared Jones, but it won me over and was a big reason I moved Bryce Miller and McKinsey. I'm Kenzie Gore as far up my rankings as I did. Mackenzie Gore, second and stuff plus with the fastball. So that's that's another early riser there. I moved them up to SP64, but it might not be high enough based on what you're telling me here, Chris. That is McKenzie Gore that we're talking about.

I do think it's a little bit tougher to be more aggressive on followers this early in the season. But Scott, who were some names that dropped down your rank is a little bit? All right. I'll try to be a little quicker with this, if I can find where we are on the rundown. Okay, Fallers. I moved Jamer Candelario down a little bit because I think I had a very optimistic ranking in the first place,

and I'm not saying he can't be, he can't live up to the sleeper hype in Cincinnati and hit a career high in home runs, but I moved him specifically behind Isok Peretti's, who's already done it and is off to a much better start. And I just didn't see the just, justification for keeping Jamer Candelario ahead of him. I also moved Bryson Stott behind Andras Jimenez.

And I kind of wonder why I didn't have it that way in the first place, because I feel like Jimenez could end up with twice as many steals as Stott. He only has one so far. So it's not like that's the reason. It's not like, oh, he's stealing a bunch of bases. That was the impetus for it. More of the impetus for it was Bryce, Bryson Stott has already sat against two left-handed pitchers.

So between that and what I think is a steel's upside disparity. Yeah, I think Jimenez needs to be ahead of Bryson Stott. And finally, I moved Michael King down to 49th, which is still must roster territory. I'm not advising anyone to drop Michael King. He's coming off his best start so far. But even in that good start, not many strikeouts, not many swinging strikes. I was skeptical of the strikeouts anyway, because as good as he was with the move to the rotation last year, he still wasn't getting many swinging strikes.

also the velocity which held steady with his move to the rotation last year has been down this year and I just don't I think he'll be fine I think he'll be a pretty good fantasy pitcher but I don't I don't think the upside is as high as maybe the initial ranking would have suggested it was so I moved him behind I think I moved him behind like certainly Jared Jones and Reed Dettmers but also like Jack Flaherty and I think behind Gavin Stone too. Somewhere in that same range at least. And we spoke a lot about Carlos

Verbon the other day. He was one of Chris's followers at SP39. I'm just now realizing that we have or I mostly have done a pretty bad time timing wise today on the podcast. So there's still a lot to get to. Let's keep things moving. I didn't want to mention some eligibility

position eligibility things that I just noticed throughout the ranking process. Bogart's now has second base. Henry Davis, obviously Catcher. Jake Berger gained first base. Colt Keith gained second base. Michael Bush gained first, and Christopher Morel now has third base on CBS. Major League debuts on Wednesday. Jackson Holiday was betting ninth in his debut. He went 0 for four with his first RBI and had two strikeouts. Did you guys move Holiday up with his promotion? Yep, 15th, as I alluded to earlier, just behind Anthony Volpe. It may sound low.

But ahead of those two for me are Danes B. Swanson and Xander Bogartes, who of course have very high floors. Could argue Holiday has a higher ceiling than both, maybe, in Volpey, too. But, you know, there could be some growing pains there as young as he is. I've got Holiday 16th and Volpe 15th, and I'm wondering who I have... Willie Adamas? You don't. Do you have Willie Adama?

No. Carlos Greya? No? Just keep guessing names. Yeah. Xander Bogart, Stansby-Swanson, Hassan Kim. This is very confusing. I don't know what's happening right now.

I'll try to figure it out. Oh, I think it might be... Oh, have you added mookie? It's Adelma. Scott has an added mooky bets. You haven't added mooky bets. He's shortstop eligible, yeah. That's what it is, okay.

You also have Adomas ahead of them, according to... In Rhodo? No, and head-to-head. Yeah, and head-to-head. It makes even less sense. Right? Adomis is, yeah, I guess, maybe. I don't know.

All right. Adjustments we'll be making after this podcast. It was a rough go for Spencer Arrogetti in his major league debut at the Royals, three innings, seven hits, seven runs, three walks, three strikeouts. It was mostly four-seem fastball cutter and sweeper. He averaged around 95 miles per hour. Chris, any takeaways here on Spencer Arrogatee's major league debut? It was bad.

It was bad. I don't know. I didn't dig too much. into it just because the results were so bad that I don't think anybody's at risk of adding him. And, you know, we said yesterday basically, if he has a good start, go ahead and add him, but he didn't. So I don't think there's much reason to it. Like, the stuff seems fine. I haven't seen any like breakdowns of where it ranks. But yeah, because it was such an, an underwhelming start, I think you can probably just ignore him. Let's talk about the struggles of Tanner Bybee.

and Nolan Jones. Early on in the season, Tanner Bybee here struggled against the White Sox of all teams. Four in a third innings, five runs allowed, more walks than strikeouts, three walks to two strikeouts in that one. And a fastball remains down early on.

I just think control is lacking and the velocity being down. It's kind of what's led to this slow start here for Tanner Bybee. It's got any actual concern. It looks like Bybee will line up for two starts next week. week. Is he just a slam dunk, keep him in your lineup for now? I think so, unless your pitching staff is just stacked. It's frustrating more than anything because he had a combined eight walks against the athletics and the white socks.

Two lineups he should have dominated, but he just wasn't throwing strikes. He had zero walks against the twins, and it was a pretty good start. And we saw this from Bybee last year, curiously, because control was arguably his biggest selling point as prospect. And I don't know, Zach Gallen's career kind of started out the same way where he was walking more guys than you'd expect, given his minor league profile, and he eventually got it under control. And I'm hopeful Bybee does too sooner than later.

Nolan Jones went over five with three strikeouts here on Wednesday. I know people are clamoring for us to talk about Nolan Jones. He is batting a cool 157, zero homers, 481 OPS with a 40% strikeout rate. Chris, I did some more digger. on Nolan Jones. He's still eating the ball hard. And you look at the underlying plate discipline metrics. His own contact is actually way up from last year. He's treating strike rate is actually much better than it was last season.

I understand the frustrations if you used a top five or six round pick on Nolan Jones. But some of the stuff under the hood actually looks pretty encouraging for Nolan Jones. Yeah, he's being too passive right now. I think it's probably the problem. His zone swing rate is 51%. that's way too low. You're letting too many strikes go by. You're letting what I would assume are too many hitable balls go by.

And you shouldn't do that because he has faced 65% fastballs. This shouldn't be the issue for Nolan Jones. But look, like people are clamoring for us to talk about him. What would you like us to say? He was a top 100 pick. We're not going to tell you to drop him. We're not. Like I'm, if that's what you are tuning,

in to us to hear us say, we are not going to tell you to drop Nolan Jones. So if you want to drop Nolan Jones, make that decision on your own. I'm not going to bless it, unfortunately. So I think he is highly likely to figure it out, less likely than most other top 100 picks who have actual track records that go longer than the five months he was good last year for. But still, if I invested a top 100 pick in Nolan Jones, there's just no way I'm dropping him right now. So that's all. The Julio Jones anxiety was beginning in my timeline. Julio Jones?

Oh, gosh. She's got the falcons on the brain. I am 40. The Julio Rodriguez anxiety was beginning in my timeline again for the third straight year. And it's just like, I don't know why we, I don't know why we have to have the same conversations every year. You know, particularly for him, it's been. And like in the same pattern. And I challenged one of the guys who was questioning me on it.

I'm like, what, what, where do you think this is ultimately going to end up? Really? Like seriously. On being honest with yourself. And he said, oh, he's going to hit 210 with 15 home runs. I was like, I don't believe you actually believe that. I think you're just venting. And I think that's what it is.

I think it's just people. Right. That's, they want us to acknowledge that it's happening. Okay, Nolan Jones is struggling, and that sucks for your teams. It sucks for a bunch of my teams. He's one of my most drafted players. So like, it's not good that he's struggling. But and it's not even like Corbyn Carroll where at least there's that shoulder issue from last year on the power outage that happened as a result of that.

Like we talked about yesterday, where you can at least like there is something tangible you could conceivably be worried about there. There's nothing with Nolan Jones or Julio Rodriguez. So there, we talked about them. And I just want to remind everybody that you signed up to play fantasy baseball. This is a six-month season. So if Nolan Jones had a 10-game stretch in the middle of July where I promise you he did. Yes, where he hit this bad. And then, you know, he went on to have a great August and September.

It's not guaranteed to happen. We're acknowledging that these players are struggling. But we need to be patient. It's a really, really long season. So let's just remind ourselves of that. Some leftovers here from Wednesday. Aronola turned in a quality start at the Cardinals, six innings, two runs, three strikeouts in that one.

Velocity was way down, way down. It was also 57 degrees and raining in same time. Dylan Cs turned in back-to-back quality starts. This one against the Cubs, six innings two unearned runs with seven strikeouts, and the opposite of Aranola, his velocity was way up. He averaged 97.

miles per hour on the fastball. He maxed out at nearly 100 on that fastball. Cutter Crawford, solid against the Orioles, five shutout innings, two hits, four walks, six strikeouts, with 14 swinging strikes. In that one, he's looked pretty damn

good early on in the season. And Jordan Hicks has also looked great. Back-to-back quality starts for him. Six innings, one run, two strikeouts. He has a total of three walks through three starts. Will he maintain that? I do not know.

Scott, anything to add on Hicks, Cutter Crawford, Dillen Seas, Arennola. So the Nola velocity being down as much as it was is not unconcerning, but I will point out. It was 57 degrees, which is cold for baseball. It was also like drizzly, as I understand it. And Lance Lynn's velocity was down quite a bit too. I just don't think it was normal conditions, and I think both pitchers did a good job of navigating that whole situation. I'm just going by weather forecast I saw.

I didn't actually see the highlights to confirm it was drizzly, so if I'm wrong about that, sorry. No, it was. It looked terrible there. Okay, yeah. And Nola's velocity was down more like, it was down a little last time, too, but that was in 48-degree weather. So I think Nola's going to be fine.

I think his velocity is going to get. back to normal within a few starts and this will not be an issue for long. So that was my main takeaway from that group. I did want to say for one other pitcher, it was Jordan Hicks. You know, he's not, he's getting great results. He's not missing any bats. Everything is down five miles per hour. I have to think it's by design.

I have to think it's by design. He's so good at getting weak contact on the ground that that's just what he's going for. and he's avoiding walks and it's going pretty well. I'd like to see more strikeouts. That splitter is a pretty good swing in this pitch, that new splitter he has. But I'm kind of torn on how I feel about him right now.

Yeah, he is, where I have him ranked relative to relief pitchers, would be around SP 60 to 65, because he's not SP eligible this year so far. But two more starts, three more starts, something like that. Yeah, I think five total. Two more starts. Yeah. So yeah, that

I think he's useful. I don't think he's an ace all of a sudden, but I think he'll be good. And he's another one where at some point we'll have to have the conversation about how many innings will he actually be allowed to throw this season. But he's off to a great start.

And I have to imagine the Giants told him, look, man, you've got nasty stuff. Just pump strikes and let's see what happens from there. and so far so good with Jordan Hicks. Hitters who are off to solid starts wanted to quickly mention these five names because we haven't really talked much about them, but Adolos Garcia, Lordis Garell, Jake Cronowardeworth,

and that's right, Chris. John Carlos Stanton hit his fourth home run of the season. He also has a 36% tricout rate to start the year. Who cares? I thought it was 40. 36? Okay. He might have lowered it after this game, but I think the one that's most notable, Chris, is Jake Croneranworth because he's batting in the main.

middle of the Padres lineup and he's hitting the ball really hard early on. The expected numbers are just jumping off the page. I don't think he will maintain that exactly, but this is a very encouraging start for him. Yeah, I think that's all right. It's an encouraging start. He's unlikely to sustain anything like this quality of contact. But I think, you know, a load of mid-800s OPS is within the realm of possibility on the high end. and in the middle of a good lineup,

that can be a very good thing. So I think, yeah, Cronoworth is a very solid starting option for fans. I will say that among infielders, he made the biggest move up my rankings, Jake Croninworth. I now have him in my top 20 at second base ahead of Colt Keith

and Edward Julian, actually. One of the home runs he had, I think, was his hardest hit ball in three years. and his expected stats are much better than the actual ones. I don't know what changed for him, but I think something did change for Jake Grownworth. All right. Bullpen updates for the Twins.

Brock Stewart got the seventh inning with a one-run lead, facing 9-1-2 in the Dodgers lineup. Griffin Jacks then pitched the eighth inning facing 4-5 and 6, and Stephen Okert got the ninth and converted his first save of the season. We mentioned this recently. it looks like it's kind of matchup's three-headed monster until Yohan Duran is back. So unfortunately, you know, if anyone else has emerged recently that you're more excited to pick up like a James MacArthur, I think I'd probably drop any of the Twins relievers for James MacArthur.

I guess, yeah. All right. For the Phillies, it was Jeff Hoffman who once again got the ninth inning with a one-run lead, converted his first save and Jose Alvarado nowhere to be found. not used anywhere in this game. He has not pitched since Monday. And it feels like Jose Alvarado should have been available. Did you guys see anything as to why he didn't pitch?

No, I haven't seen anything about it. I didn't see anything. He's, yeah, he had just gotten a day off. He had worked three of five days. So maybe they were looking to give him an extended rest. But, but yeah, I don't know. It's a little hard to figure out what's going to on with the Phillies bullpen.

I think Alvarado is still the guy to have, but they're mixing and matching for sure. And it sounds like Ryan Kirkering could be back soon too. So just, I don't think they're going to throw him right into the ninth inning, but if they use him in the seventh and he pitches well for a while, then maybe he can earn some saves. It's not crazy.

I was looking into something, that thing I said about Cronidworth. He actually has two balls this year already, harder hit than in the, the previous two years. There were both doubles, though. No home runs. All right. For the D-backs, Kevin Ginkle got the ninth with a two-run lead. He gave up a hit and two-walks, but picked up his second save for the raise. Pete Fairbanks got the ninth inning with a two-run lead, allowed a hit, but struck out three for his second save. For the Marlins, they finally had a normal

safe situation late in the game. Anthony Bender got the eighth inning with a two-run lead. He gave up a hit, a walk, and a run. He was relieved by Tanner Scott, who recorded the final five outs for his first save. He also walked three. Yeah. It was a Tanner Scott experience. But seeing this, I guess it is a reminder that he is actually still the closer. So that's good news for me.

For the Orioles, Craig Kimbrough got the ninth inning with a two-run lead. He struck out two for his second save. To stream or not to stream for Thursday. and I think Garrett Whitlock against the Orioles is pretty good. Ranger Suarez against the Pirates and John Gray against the A's.

Sure. That sounds like the three I'd choose in the same order. All right. And then on Friday, looking up and down the list, Paul Blackburn against the Nationals is kind of interesting. My Ada against the twins,

they're striking out a ton. Oh, revenge game for him too. He's looked. Oh, he's been terrible, but. And like, not just the results have been terrible. He has not looked good. The velocity's been down. Severino against the Royals?

Yeah, that's the one. Yeah, that one's okay. Who's your just top three for Friday, I guess? Severino against the Royals, Andrew Abbott at the White Sox, and Paul Blackburn against the Nationals. Yep. I think that's right, yeah.

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