Fantasy Baseball Today - Rankings Risers & Fallers! Buy-High on Tanner Houck? (4/18 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 18, 2024

Back-to-back days with a complete game shutout, this time by Tanner Houck (3:06)! ... Cristopher Sanchez looks locked in (8:40). ... Esteury Ruiz, the power hitter (11:22)? ... News (19:24): Justin Verlander will make his season debut Friday. ... Buy, sell or hold on Bryce Miller and Michael King (21:36)? ... Jordan Westburg, Michael Busch and Colton Cowser are some of our biggest rankings risers (28:30). ... Nico Hoerner and Jackson Chourio are rankings fallers (40:30). ... Are Luis Garcia or Amed Rosario a thing (46:52)? ... Any interest in Luis Severino or Andrew Abbott as waiver wire pitchers (52:30)? ... Daulton Varsho is heating up (59:39)! ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (1:01:30). 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. Well, fantasy! Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Back-to-back days with a complete game? What year is it?

Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, April 18th. I am Frank Sample joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we have rankings, risers, and fallers, buy, sell, or hold to deep league middle infielers who might be a thing, and much more. But let's jump in. Oh, my goodness gracious. All right, Chris, you've been waiting patiently for your chance

at the Olive Garden Breadstick, and you finally got it. Yeah, I've passed on it most days. You guys always seem hungry, so I want to make sure that you guys are taking care of. But yeah, Olive Garden Breast of the night has to be Tanner Halk of the Boston Red So. who shut out the Cleveland Guardians for, I'm going to just say it without looking it up,

his first career complete game at the major league level. Actually, no, I'm just kidding. I didn't think that was one, but yeah. And as has been the case for really the entire Red Sox rotation, when they've been healthy because now they have two guys on the IL, he's been really, really good this season, Tanner Howk has. That's two games with at least nine. strikeouts, three games with at least seven, only two walks over the course of four starts.

He's got a ZRI down to below 2, 135. And like all the Red Sox pitchers, he's basically just stopped throwing a fastball. Tanner Huck had, he threw 22 fastballs in this start on 94 pitches through his slider 37 times, 39% of the time. No surprise there. Taryn Hawke has always had a fantastic slider. But the key to his development this season might. be this splitter that he went out and threw 34% of the time today against Cleveland.

His overall usage rate has actually not been that much higher with the splitter entering today, but he's had two different starts now with at least 20% usage out of his four. So it has become a big part of his approach. And you got six swinging strikes on 17 swings on Wednesday. The slider obviously was the star, 11 whiffs on 23 swings for a massive 48% whiff rate. but yeah, Tanner Halk looks really, really good right now. And I'll admit, I've always been very skeptical of him. But starting to change my tune a little bit this season with these changes he's made.

Yeah, he threw that splitter more, as you mentioned. That slider was lights out. 11 of his 19 swinging strikes. It was a 48% whiff rate on the slider, 54% CSW. It was absolutely amazing. A three hit shut out on only 94 pitches. So incredibly efficient. I have four pitchers lined up for a buy, sell, or hold segment later on.

Tanner Halk is one of them. What do you guys think? Because based on what he's done so far, it was one rough outing against the Angels. His other three were obviously really, really good. Only two walks in the season. I mean, he just looks like a different pitcher. I would argue that Tanner Halk is a buy high right now. Yeah, I mean, the one thing that stood out, at least before this star,

was he was getting hit pretty hard, 91.4 mile per hour. average eggs of velocity 422 expected Wobon contact led to a 443 XERA despite an ERA right around 2. So that has actually not really ever been an issue for Tanner Halk in his career. He's always been someone who had better than average results on contact. So I tend to think that that's probably not going to be an issue for him moving forward. It wasn't today, 85.7 mile per hour average eggs of velocity. So yeah, I think Tanner Howick as a by high makes sense. And I updated my rankings today.

He's in the, gosh, let me see. I think it's like the 50 range. Yeah, I've got him at 50th overall right behind guys like Bryce Miller, Hunter Green, Michael King, and McKenzie Gore right ahead of Aaron Savale, U. Darvish, and Nathan Avaldi. So that's where I've got him right now. I think I just blew in the microphone. I'm sorry about that.

I'm a negative presence on this podcast. So sorry for blowing in the microphone if it sounded like Chris was in a windstorm. That is why I like Tanner Halk, too, FWIW. And, you know, it's kind of interesting the way we evaluate players early in the season because his first two starts, impressive. He's thrown the slider a lot more. Maybe he's found something. And then his third

start was pretty rough, pretty rough. And so the time to buy him was probably then, if you believe. But that obviously, you know, because we had two starts, two good starts to go on. That should have diminished your faith. That third start made me think twice about this Tanner Howe breakout possibility. And then he goes and throws a complete game shutout where he emphasizes that splitter, which is something I've been wanting him to do for years. Glad he finally did it. I don't know if he'll continue doing it. But if he adds that in addition to this breakthrough he's had with the slider,

then the upside could be very high. I would say just as a general principle, trading for a pitcher who just threw a shutout is not the best idea. Yeah, I think that's fair. But if you're asking me to put a percentage on how, how legitimate I think this breakthrough is for for Halk. Probably 70%. All right.

Pretty high, right? Yeah, yeah, I would say so, but they have that new kind of pitching factory with the Red Sox. Andrew Bailey is the pitching coach. They brought in some, you know, I think Kyle Boady behind the scenes, who is the founder of Drive Line. So they're doing lots of interesting things out there in Boston. And I would agree.

Very much so in on the Tanner Hauk breakout right now. and another breakout. I know at least Scott and I were in on coming into the year, Christopher Sanchez. Talk to me, Scotty. Christopher. Yeah, Christopher Sanchez finally looked like, every bit like the Christopher Sanchez we hoped we were getting.

Not that he had been all bad to this point. There had been some good starts, some bad starts. The strikeouts were fine, but he was walking too many bad. and control was kind of what are the keys to his breakthrough last year. So for him to come out here against the Rockies and walk one in six innings while striking out 10, by the way, that's more like it. That's more like it.

And it wasn't just that he walked only one. He threw 70 of 97 pitches for strikes, over 70% of his pitches for strikes. And the velocity game, were still there, which is interesting. It's not like he gave those up, traded them back off for control. It is a one-off against one of the easier matchups in baseball. The Rockies on the road.

I would say the easiest matchup in baseball right now. Well, the white sucks. Oh, yeah. But the Rockies did just get complete game shutouted by Ranger Suarez. Right. Both of whom, by the way, Suarez and Sanchez, among my 10 sleeper pitchers for this week. So that worked out nicely.

So it's not conclusive, is what I'm trying to say. But it's reason not to give up on Sanchez if you were tempted to do so with other emerging pitchers on the waiver. I didn't think you should anyway, because again, two of his first three starts were pretty good. But this was his best start yet, and that makes three out of four starts that are pretty good for Christopher Sanchez. and I think he may still, he may yet live up to our expectations for him. Who has a higher percentage of the breakout, right? Scott,

you just gave 70% on Tanner Halk. What would you put that percentage on Christopher Sanchez? Is it higher than Tanner Houg? Yeah, I'd say like 75. Okay. Chris, who would you rather have Christopher Sanchez or Hauk? I do have Halk three spots ahead in my rankings, so I guess I'll go with that.

I actually had those rankings updated before, either of these starts. So I don't think tonight makes me more likely to buy into Sanchez than it does how. Right. So I'm, I'm okay with those two guys being where they are. When in doubt, go with the guy who's been good before. Sure. I think a good standard, especially this early in the season.

All right. That's reasonable. My player of the night is going to be Estuary Ruiz, who led off against the lefty, Stephen Matts. He went one for five with a sock and a shoe in two games. since returning. Esserie Ruiz has two home runs. This homer, 109.8 exit velocity, his hardest hit ball ever, 412 feet. So it's a very small sample size, but everything we heard this spring was Ruiz has kind of beefed up. He's hitting the ball harder. He's looking to drive the ball, hit for more

power. That's all he's done in the minors since he got sent down. It's all he's done since he's returned to the majors in two games so far. He's got two home runs, two steals, Overall, five for 14, again, it's a really small sample size. He's 61% rostered Estuary Ruiz, so if we're telling people to pick him up or that that number needs to be higher, then we're getting into three outfielator leagues, points league territory. I'm not sure that is necessary yet. And I still don't know if he's going to play every day just because I don't really trust

the Oakland A's to do the right thing. But everything we've seen so far from Estuary Ruiz in a small sample kind of looks like there might be something happening here. We were getting excited about the 106.8 mile per hour home run yesterday, or two days ago, I guess it was. And then he hits 109.8 miles per hour, three miles per hour harder. And so that would make it his hardest hit fly ball. Was that the stat you gave the other day? Yes.

Yeah. So now he has a new one. And I think this is trending the right direction. Yeah, I agree that I don't trust them to play him every day. It's really dumb that we don't trust them to play him every day, not on our part. It's dumb that we don't have faith that they're going to play him every day because none of their other outfielders are hitting at all. Like Brent Rooker has a 90 weighted runs created plus.

That's the best of their non-ester Ries outfielders. 90's bad. And Rooker's not playing every day. I think he's on the I.L. Yeah, he wasn't playing every day before. Right. So, yeah, it just, he should play every day. He should be rostered in every single league where steals are a standalone category.

But no, I don't think if you play in a points league that you have to have any interest in Esther or Restle. I have to let the comments guide our discussion a little bit here. Getting back to Tanner Hout. Uh-oh. Halk or Garrett Crochet was the question posed in the comments. Uh-huh. Easily crochet, right? They were all saying how.

No, I would still go with Crochet, but... They'd probably be like 20 spots apart in my picture rankings if Garrett Crochet was eligible yet. The only thing that makes me a little more nervous is kind of what we're talking about Oakland is how much do we trust the White Sox to do the right thing? We already saw the Marlins send out Max Meyer and the pirates limit Jared Jones to only 59 pitches.

So that just gets me thinking, like how long before the White Sox start doing something like that with Garrett Crochet. And it makes me a little bit nervous. If I had, if Crochet was eligible in a points league, I still maintain my overall rankings because I do the trade values chart, which will be up on Thursday morning probably on C-Bidsports.com, depending if I finish it tonight. And he would be SP 39 for me, Gary Crochet,

whereas Tanner Halk is, this is in Rodo. Tanner Hock is SP-54. or Crochet would be a little bit higher and had to add point because he has that spark eligibility as well. So I think, yeah, I would still prefer crochet because I think he's the better pitcher. But we might reach a point in July where Garry Crochet has literally zero value and how. That can happen to have to. Sure. No, but like there is going to there is definitely going to be a point this year where Garry Crochet has no value.

No matter what. If he and Howk both stay healthy, there is definitely going to be a point where Tanner Halk is more valuable than Garrett Crochet. Because there's just no way Garrett Crochet makes it through the whole season. Like not even healthy. I'm not even predicting an injury. He's thrown like 85 innings in four seasons. I don't think you can expect him to throw more than 100 innings this season. And so there is going to be a point where they have to pull off, either move him to the bullpen or just let him pitch and then shut him down, whatever it is.

it's going to happen. Halk has never thrown 120 innings in a season, I don't believe. If I'm doing the quick math in my head here, looking at major and minor league stats combined. I think that might be Gary Crochet's total since high school, though. It is. That's exaggerating a little bit, but not that much. No, I agree.

I would still take Crochet over Tanner Halk, think he will be better on a per inning basis. That's something against Tanner Houch. Crochet has just looked so amazing. But we have to start to think about it. You know, if you can get top 30 starting pitcher value in return for Gary Crochet, it's not the craziest thing to consider. I don't think we have to start thinking about it in mid-April.

Maybe mid-June. I mean, we might have said about Max Meyer on Sunday's podcast, you know? It's like, okay, it's a different situation than Max Meyer, obviously. How different is it? Crochet has- He's their ace. He started opening day. Max Meyer only made the rotation because they had so many injuries. But Gary-Curray has never thrown more than 65 innings in a season.

And he's also on a terrible. And he's on a terrible team. I'm not saying he's going to throw 180 innings this year. But I'm saying if you're thinking about it in mid-April, I think your priorities are out of order. You have to get the good pitching while you can get it because there isn't a ton out there. Right. But that's what we're talking about.

Like, you'd have to move him for a top 30 starting pitcher. Yeah. That's where it's. I think he is a top 30 starting pitcher. I can't rank him that way rest of the season. I think he's a top 30 starting pitcher right now, but I can't rank him that way. You rank Gerald Jones that way.

Jared Jones might throw 170 innings this season. He threw 125 innings last year. I doubt he throws 170. I doubt that too, but I think 140, 150 is totally doable. I think Crochet could throw 140, 152. I would be stunned if you threw 150. I would say that is clearly the difference between our outlooks right now. is Scott thinks Crochet could throw more innings

than just Chris and I think he can. Let's quickly promote a few things. Subscribe to the FBT Newsletter. If you haven't already, you could scan the QR code if you're watching on YouTube. That'll take you right to the website where you can punch in your email address and it's easy as that.

And if you enjoy the show, be sure to leave us a five-star rating and review on both Apple and Spotify. Much appreciated. Let's take our first break. When we return, News and Notes, right after this. Welcome back in the News and Notes,

and Verlander is back. He'll make his season debut Friday against the Nationals. Rehab was not kind to Verlander. He allowed 13 runs, 11 of those earned over seven innings pitched. Not sure that I'm putting too much stock into that. But yes, he will be back in what should be a pretty good matchup against the nationals. I imagine most weekly leagues are locked, obviously, so you're not going to get Verlander in there. Daily leagues probably play it safe.

I don't think I want to throw him out there his first start. Tyler O'Neill was out of the lineup Wednesday and is unlawful. likely to play Thursday as well. He had a pretty nasty collision with Rafael Devers on Monday. O'Neill was cleared of a concussion, but it looks like the Red Sox are just playing it safe with him for now. Kyle Bradish looked good in his first rehab start. It was three scoreless innings with four strikeouts. His fastball was apparently hitting at 95, 96 miles per hour.

Sounds like good news to me. U. Darvish was placed on the aisle with neck tightness retroactive to April 15. This one kind of came out of nowhere. If you had them locked into your lineups already, I'm sorry. I feel your pain. I have him in Tout Wars. He's in my lineup. No one knew this was happening.

So it's just unfortunate. Garrett Whitlock was placed in the IL with a left oblique strain. Eduardo Rodriguez was transferred to the 60-day IL. Rodriguez was recently shut down after experiencing a setback with his left shoulder. Brett Beatty was out of the lineup due to hamstring tightness, but is optimistic he'll avoid the IL. Taiwan Walker will throw a bullpen Friday. and could be activated from the aisle soon after that.

Who gets the boot here? I'm guessing it has to be Spencer Turnbull, or maybe they go six-man for a little bit? I would think it's Turnbull, because it's not like they have anyone whose innings really need to be limited, so I would guess Turnbull's probably just out of the rotation, which is frustrating because I think he's been pretty interesting.

You know, it should be Taiwan Walker. Well, he's got like... $50 million left on his contract, yeah? But I'm saying it should be. I'd rather... see Spencer Turnbull than longer. Yep, I think we're all in agreement. Chris Bryant was placed in the aisle with a lower back strain.

Jake Cronoworth has missed two straight with calf tightness. And Brian Hayes has also missed two straight due to lower back tightness. Buy seller hold. We already spoke about a few of these names. Tanner Halk was the first one. Christopher Sanchez, I don't know that we actually gave an answer on this, but do you guys have a feel? Would you be looking to buy high, sell high,

or is he just, we're okay with where the value is right now? I think hold if I was going to buy or sell. I think I'd lean sell more than buy, but my preference would just be to stay where you're at on him. Yeah, I mean, I think it'd have to be a pretty deep league to get a good enough return because we're talking about somebody who ranks outside the top 50 for all of us. I think just if you invest in a draft pick and Christopher Sanchez,

you can feel more satisfied with that investment now and not, wonder if it was a waste. Let's talk about Bryce Miller, who continues his great start. He was up against the Reds here on Wednesday, six innings, one hit, one run, one walk, seven strikeouts, only six swinging strikes on 91 pitches, but he limited the hard contact again.

It's something he's done a great job of so far this season. Continues to use his fastball less. He's throwing that new splitter, more sinkers. It's clearly working for Bryce Miller so far. He has allowed a total of seven hits and one earned run over his. last three starts total. So he has been great buy seller hold on Bryce Miller.

Chris, you can go first. I think I'd say bye, but I do think I have him, at least last I saw, I had him ranked a little higher than you guys do. So maybe I'm just higher on Bryce Miller. But I'm pretty happy with what we've seen so far from him. You know, the thing with Bryce Miller was he was really, really good against Wrighty's last season he was really, really bad against lefties. That's the big reason why the splitter became such a focal point for him.

And it's been a really good pitch for him so far. He still just doesn't. The sweeper and slider are still just bad pitches. But to counteract any losses he might have against righties, the introduction of this sinker might be something where what we saw today was didn't get a lot of whiffs, but a lot of weak contact, a lot of, you know, fairly easy outs on balls in play. So maybe the sinker and the splitter working together are kind of helping him balance things out.

So I'm pretty happy with what we've seen from him so far. The splitter looks really good. It's a super low spin rate splitter like in the triple digits, like 850 RPM. So that's a really impressive sign for it. I'm pretty happy with Bryce Miller. I've got him as a top 50 starting pitcher. Scott, buy-seller hold, Bryce Miller. I'm 52nd, so I guess that puts me in the buy category 2.

It was a total lack of whiffs in this one, which I don't like, but he entered with a 15% swinging strike rate, which is elite. So, you know, small samples either way. But I will, since, you know, the year-long swinging strike rate comes with new secondaries, I'll continue to view him optimistically right now. That's Bryce Miller, we're talking about. Michael King had his breakout start with the Padres. He was at the Brewers.

He took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, seven and two-thirds, two hits, one run, 10 strikeouts with 17 swinging strikes on 109 pitches, eight of those on the fastball, four on the sweeper, two on the changeup, two on the sinker. He did a great job limiting hard contact in this one. Didn't notice a huge change in the pitch mix. He threw his traditional slider a little bit more in this one. his sweeper velocity was up almost two miles per hour, so I guess that's something notable,

but it's been a weird start to the season for Michael King. He's had two great starts. He's had three not so great starts. Scott, buy seller, hold, Michael King. Well, I was beginning to fade him prior to this start. I'm kind of viewing this start as an opportunity to maybe cash in. If you did invest in him as a top 40 starting pitch, pitcher because I still think the more likely outcome is he's like a top 60 pitcher in fantasy

and kind of a matchups play rather than being a must-start option. So the 17 whiffs were very out of character, even when he was dominating down the stretch with the Yankees last year was with low whiff totals. Only two of those outings did he have double-digit wiffs. So 17 was a lot. And they mostly came on the fastball, which is also strange. I looked into the recap from the game to see if there were any insights. He just talked about how he executed better.

I imagine he was referring to command and maybe pitch selection. I don't know. But I think both the length of this start and the strikeouts in this start are going to be kind of out of character for King. So I guess I'd put myself in the sell category if you can sell him like a top 40 starting pitcher. If not, then just hold. and I both have Michael King ranked 56th in our Roto SP ranking, so I agree with you there. And I did not watch this start live,

but watching the highlights, I would agree with your assessment, Scott. It's not that he did anything differently, but wherever the catcher put the glove, that is exactly where Michael King hit it. So just pinpoint control and command in this one. And, you know, part of the weird start for him is he's averaging five walks per nine

so far this season. He's got 15 walks in 27 innings. It's not really. something that's been an issue in Michael King's career. So my guess is that will get better as the season goes on. I still have him ranked inside my top 40 starting pitchers. So maybe I'm just out on a, you know, I'm on an island here with Michael King. I do agree that if you can turn him into one of these starting pitchers that we've talked about and another piece, that's something I would look into doing that to me would be considered selling high. But yeah, I don't think that I would just

do its trade up for any of the pictures that we've talked about. But I'm also just a little higher on Michael King. Let's talk about some of our rankings risers. Did you do it for crochet? Oh, he has to think about it. That's interesting. Because if I haven't ranked crochet as a starting pitcher yet, but he would be inside of my top 40. They would probably just be really close to each other. I don't think I would though. I don't think I would. I think I would still take Michael King. We have all updated our rankings here over the past couple days, Tuesday and Wednesday. that's usually when each of us are updating our rankings here throughout the week. And a reminder that you can always find our positional rankings at cbsports.com

slash fantasy slash baseball slash rankings. It's a really long link. Or on the CBS Fantasy app. But let's just get right into it. It's got the risers. You can feel free to mention as many names as you want, maybe focus on one or two, but who were some of the big risers in your rankings this week?

Okay. Yeah. So I do write an article. about this that comes out on Wednesdays. And some of the names in there include Anthony Volpe, who, if you remember, last week, I was struggling to move him ahead of Xander Bogartz and Danes B. Swanson, higher floor players.

I went ahead and did that now. I moved Volpe ahead of them. I moved him ahead of Nico Horner and Hassan Kim, because, you know, it looks like he's just as much of a base stealer as those latter two. And now, you know, a week ago we were concerned about the exit velocity. They've kind of caught up to the production as opposed to the production regressing to that exit velocity. Volpe's been hitting the ball much harder.

He's moved up to the leadoff spot, head of Soto and Judge, which is a great place to hit. And so I have him as my number 11 shortstop now. I think this breakout is true for him. Michael Bush, I moved him up to 11th at third base position that's had a lot of injuries so far. at 15th or 16th at first base. So you see the difference between those two positions there. But that means he's ahead of like Alec Bohm and Kibryan Hayes and that group. But behind like Josh Naylor and Vinny Pasquantino, but not by much.

That's Michael Bush. Westberg, Jordan Westberg, who we've talked about a lot lately. And I've had to. Yes, God. I've tried to. what's the word I'm looking for? Pooh, pooh. No, no, no.

No, I've tried to clarify my stance on Jordan Westberg that like, oh, yeah, he could be a decent fantasy option. I just don't think he's going to be like a top 10. And I didn't move him in the top 10. I moved him in the top 15 at second base. I moved him in the top 20 at third base, hitting the ball hard, great lineup, all of that. And Colton Kouser is 29th in my outfield rankings.

So I mentioned in the article that I have Colton Couser 29th, I moved Taylor Ward up to 35th, which seems pretty close. But the guys right ahead of Colton Couser are Nick Castellanos and George Springer, so Fantasy Stallworts, who are going to remain in that range through all their ups and downs, while the two players ahead of Taylor Ward, six spots later, are Christopher Morel and Riley Green, two interesting players. but not established enough to be rooted there. So I think what I'm suggesting is I think Colton Couser

is at the precipice of something greater of becoming a stalwart in fantasy himself. While Ward might just be on, Ward might just be the hot starter among a very elastic group of outfielders and you shouldn't buy into him as heavily. So those are some of my risers for this week. Yeah, I thought that was interesting.

the way you explain that because I actually move Colton Couser up to Outfield 36, but he's just behind Lordis Gouriel and Taylor Ward. So I kind of took the opposite approach there, just because Gerell's off to a great start, and I think it's something that could be sustainable for him and just hitting third in that lineup that looks like a really, really good D-Backs lineup this year. And obviously, Taylor Ward everything he's done, but I could definitely hear your argument for Colton Couser being higher in the rankings as well.

Chris, let's move over to you, who are some of the big rankings. Thank you's risers for you. I have moved Colton Couser, Volpey, Westberg, and Bush up quite a bit. So not quite to the same spots across the board. I have Volpey, I think 12th or 13th at shortstop. So I'm not quite buying in as much. Love what we've seen so far from him. So the guys I wanted to highlight, Mike Trout is a tough one because.

The biggest question is one that we cannot get an answer to until the end of the season. And that's kind of a cop out. But the biggest question for Mike Trout is, can he stay help? But he looks like the MVP version of Mike Trout again. He had his eighth home run today, has three stolen bases. That is his most since 2019. I will remind everyone. It is April.

Yeah. Not even the end of April. There's still almost two weeks left of April. So I do think If you told me Mike Trout was going to play 95% of the games the rest of the way 90% of the games the rest of the way I think he's a first rounder

based on what we've seen so far this season So I can't move in that high But he is I think outfielder 13 for me in Roto now Frank and I have him 10th Okay so I'm not quite as high Look at that No you like Randy a Rosarena And yeah Dolies Garcia I would guess

You don't have ahead of him as well right. Adoles, Garcia, and Michael Harris. Those are the three that we have Trout ahead of. I move Trout up right to a point where if I move him any higher, then I'm making some drastic changes in my rankings because... You're moving him into the first round candidate. You're up to Jordan Alvarez if you go higher than 10. It would be, I mean, just ahead of him and in points,

I have Julio Rodriguez, Judge, Tatis. So, yeah. I'm not doing that just yet, not yet, but... I think on a per game basis, he's very likely to be better than Michael Harris and Randy Arisorana and Adoli-Scarcia. It's just, I can't just knock the injury concerns out completely, given how much time he's missed. But I can't disagree with you guys putting him there either.

I moved Tyler O'Neill up quite a bit, as has everyone. I think he is, it's definitely like in the top 120. You have him over. We're almost exactly the same. You have him 31st. Frank has him 31st. I have him 30th. These are road up rankings, by the way.

We have head-to-head points rankings too. And Roto is Tyler O'Neill's best format by far. His play discipline is not great. Yeah. So, yeah, those are three hitters that I moved up. Do we want to get into the pitchers now? I know Scott did. We haven't talked about any pitchers.

I just skipped over mine in the run down here. Yeah, go ahead. All right. So I moved Zach Allen back up because I had been a little skeptical of him coming into the season, a little skeptical in the early going when his velocity was down, which it's remained down pretty consistently. It's been getting better. No, it's been getting better with it. It's been getting a little better. And the whiffs have been really good. The knuckle ball and the or the knuckle

curve and the slider have been huge whiff pitches for him. The strikeout rate is actually would be a career high right now, walk rate right where it needs to be. So I have still some lingering doubts. I've moved him up to seventh at starting pitcher, which might be a little too low. And I think you can make a case that he deserves to be ahead of Kevin Gosman to name one. I think that's the one that if I was going to make a more dramatic move, that could be one that I would do. But he's moved up a couple spots for me.

Jared Jones, like we talked about yesterday, he is SP 26 for me in Roto. I'm the high guy on him, but I know Frank, you have him like 30th rate. 28th, 28th, and then Scott has him a little lower. Got to be a little more aggressive, Scott. Don't be afraid of Jared Jones. Let him into your heart. I didn't know we were allowed to move him that high yet. He's the Spencer Strider replacement we've been looking for.

No, look, I talked about it yesterday. I'm not doing a little of where ahead of where I have Garrett Crochet. Yeah, I moved him to right behind Joe Ryan, who has risen a little bit, but didn't rise for me this week. But he's been really impressive so far. I can't really justify Jared Jones ahead of Joe Ryan. I know that there's downside there, but there might be downside with Spencer, or Jared Jones,

excuse me, that we haven't seen. It doesn't help that they both have alliterative names. So maybe I'm just going to make that mistake moving forward. Another alliterative name, Mason Miller, who is a difficult player to rank right now because it's kind of the opposite of Greerick Crochet,

where you can only rank him at starting pitcher. In our tool, at least for two more appearances, I believe, but, man, I don't know. If you told me he was going to save 30 games, I might have him as a top five closer. He told me he was going to save 25 games. He might be top 10.

And maybe that's just where he needs to be because I think Mason Miller is absolutely one of the best relievers in baseball right now. I'd rather have him than Tanner Scott, certainly. I think I'd rather have him than Craig Kimball, although Cremble is going to get a lot more safe, so that's a tough one. I move Kimbril up to seventh. I haven't moved him up that much.

He's been great. He looks like good Kimbril. Yeah, I just, we've seen a lot of stretches of good Kimbril and then bad Kimbril comes around. Yeah, but you look at his numbers over the last three years. They're actually-I think he's good. I just think Mason Miller's a better pitch. And he has more job security than he's had since he was with the Red Sox probably. Orioles are great.

I just think Mason Miller's a better pitcher than him right now. The other, so there's the athletics thing with Mason Miller. That's a problem, of course. You got to think he's a major injury risk too. I understand it's a lesser role than he's had in the past, but throwing 100, 2, 3, 4 miles per hour and never having stayed healthy for long. I don't, it may not matter what role he's in ultimately. Sure, absolutely.

People got mad at me on Twitter because I said he's a failed starter. And like that, I don't, that's, that's just objective. true. It's not a knock on him. Accepted language for relievers for about 20 years now, so I don't know why. Nobody got mad when I said. Every reliever is a failed starter, basically. And then three lefties that we've talked a ton about who've risen a lot in my rankings,

Redetemers, you say Kukuchi and Nicolodolo are all, I think they're all top 50 for me now. Yeah. Yeah, they're all top 50. They're 48, 49, and 50. right behind Mason Miller actually because again, he's a weird pitcher to rank but I really like those guys I really love what we've seen from McKenzie Gore,

Bryce Miller, those guys have all risen up my rankings a lot in the early going. I do want to mention I have Max Scherzer 40th now. I'm struggling with Max Scherzer. I feel like I have him way too low. It's always difficult to rank injured players and he was an afterthought in drafts basically

and now he's talking about being back in early May. Yeah. So. No, I need to move him up, yeah. At least to where Garrett Cole is, because he probably is going to beat Garrett Cole. I think Garrett Cole will be better if he stays healthy. But yeah, yeah, that's a good call.

Yeah. So I have, I have Lodolo 45th, but it was, it gets tough in that range. Because I kind of, I kind of like Lodolo over Shoda Imanaga and Christian Javier, both of whom I consider sell high candidates. I had an article about that earlier this week. But I think Javier is one of the toughest. players to rank right now. Yeah. Yeah, that 40 to 55 range and that starting pitchers really difficult. Yeah, it's a lot of the guys that have broken out so far versus some fallers, like Rodon is in that area,

Javier has been our right. I have Mitch Keller in that area. I know Scott, you have them a little bit higher, but like Mitch Keller is kind of a tough player for me to rank. But yeah, that that range is definitely a tough one. We need to move infinitely faster through the fallers. So whoever wants to take this first, just give me a few names. Who's falling down the rank? So I moved Jackson Shorio down For the reasons we talked about earlier The exit velocities just aren't there And that makes me wonder if he's really

A finished product at 20 So I moved him behind Wyatt Not Wyatt, I already had him behind him The other Rangers outfielder Evan Carter And I moved him behind Teoscar Hernandez Who does look like he's going to be an RBI monster On the Dodgers

I moved Nico Horner down I'm concerned about his base stealing potential batting seventh for the Cubs most days. He hasn't stolen a base yet. I moved Andres Munoz down. For obvious reasons, he's working the eighth inning a lot, and that's frustrating. And also, I'll just leave it at that.

I move Munoz down. All right, Chris, anyone you want to imagine? I move Munoz down behind like Rangers, or not Ragers, Robert Suarez and Clay Holmes, that whole group of relievers. Okay, go ahead, Chris. Yeah, I mean, there are some, I think Max Fried is probably the most controversial one, but I just, given how poorly he's pitched so far this season and the fact that he dealt with that forearm strain last year, I just, I am wondering if we were a little too, a little too forgiving. I don't know if that's the right word, but just.

I was thinking lax or dismissive. Yeah, just, yeah, just kind of like, we just kind of treated him as if, yeah, he's fine. And I'm not saying he's pitching her right now, but he just doesn't. He just doesn't look right. I tried to say it during pitchcon, Chris. I tried to bring up these concerns about Max Fried and the panel left. They laughed me out of the panel, Chris. They're like, he was fine after he came back.

It was. Yeah, but no, he hasn't looked right. Hazer Zazardo hasn't looked right. And, you know, I had some concerns about him coming into the season. He's weird because it seems like the stuff should be really good. But he's kind of got that Aaronnola thing where like if he's not really right, he tends to get blown up and obviously he has had his own history of injuries

so I moved him down and then Abneri Rebe for obvious reasons I don't think he's the closer right he's not the closer right now maybe he will become the closer but y'all piams got the save today right yep yeah so

that's the rebe the eighth the rebe's been working the seventh sometimes works the fourth yeah I did move pyamps I think right in the same range is your rebate. He might be a couple spots lower in the RP rankings, but the other one that I

moved down, Hunter Green. I was optimistic. I might have ranked him highest out of all of us coming into the season. I've just seen nothing from him that suggests that the step forward's coming. And look, there's going to be a great start coming up at some point. He's going to have a nine strike out, one walk,

six innings start very soon, because that's what Hunter Green does. But the splitter and curveball that he worked on this offseason, have been non-existent. I think he threw them five times combined in his start yesterday. I just, I moved him behind McKenzie Gore, Bryce Miller,

Mason Miller, Reed Detmers, you say Kukuchi, Nick Ladolo. I think Hunter Green still has more upside probably than all those guys. But if he's not pitching better than any of them, and he doesn't have any kind of track record to go for, at some point we just have to treat him like what he is,

which is a mid-range starting pitcher with upside, which is what all those guys are. I agree completely. I love that we do these rankings and I don't look at your guys rankings purposely because I just want, I don't want to be influenced by them. I moved Hunter Green down to 52. You have them at 51.

So we're basically an agreement. I'm saying we all moved Mitch Garver way down too. I basically had him there the whole time. I mean, you guys know I was a little bit. I was more down. I had him 7th or 8th, I believe, and now 13th dropping him behind Francisco Alvarez, Wilson Contreras, Luis Campusana, Logan O'Hoppy.

You know, it was just, it was so hard to pick between them in the first place. And you got the 33-year-old in a new role who's injury-prone and... His first home run today, though. He did, but I don't think he deserved... Yeah, no, I agree with that. It's a bigger move

just given that range of catchers than it... It's a less significant move than it probably looks like because they're all pretty similar in terms of upside. All right, let's take our final break. When we return, we'll recap the rest of when Wednesday's action, we'll do that right after this. Welcome back in. Could either of these deep league middle infielers be a thing?

Luis Garcia went one for three with a walk and two steals. And so far this season, he's got a career high in terms of fly ball rate. He's got an 18% barrel rate early on. It's obviously a really small sample size, but the expected numbers look really good for Luis Garcia. He's only 10% rostered. And Amen Rosario, who is now with the Tampa Bay raise, he went two for four with his second home run.

He's betting 328. he's got an 839 OPS. He started four straight games for them, batting fifth in each of those. And while the exit velocity is not up, he's hitting lots of line drives. The expected numbers look good. It's still a really high sprint speed,

96th percentile. He's only 12% rostered. Again, these are deep league middle infielders, but could either of them be a thing? Could this be happening? What are your guys' thoughts? Sure. I've always been interested in Garcia.

He only has the one home run. so far this season, but seven doubles, I think, is that lead the majors? If not, it's right up there with the leaders. He's making a decent amount of contact. He's never going to walk. That's not part of his game. But expected stats are really good.

Quality of contact is really good. I think Luis Garcia has 20 plus homer 10 steel potential with a helpful batting average in the best case scenario. I think it's worth putting an exact number. You say expected stats are really good. His ex-slug. is 92nd percent time. He's way underperformed his expected stats to this point,

and he's been pretty good. The biggest drawback for Luis Garcia is they're not playing him against lefties, but if he keeps this up long enough, I suspect that'll change. And he probably won't be worth picking up in fantasy until that happens, at least not standard-sized leagues. But he's my starting second baseman in the Skywhite Dynasty League, a 24-teamer, and I've been pretty happy with it so far. He's only 23.

That's like he may have, he got called up way too early. He's got a little bit of that, CJ Abrams. Yeah, I mean, CJ Abrams is. I mean, he looks, he looks like we were all way too low on him, even if we were high on him. He might just be a superstar.

His, so he had his fifth home run already, C.J. Abrams did here on Wednesday. His expected stacks, 96th percentile XBA, 93rd percentile X-Lug. He's been crushing the ball. His ground ball rate is only 28%. So everything is optimal launch angle

for both power and average. Pull rate is up over 50% too. So like he just seems to have optimized his swing for maximum damage. It may cost him some stolen bases. If he may have so much power now that he doesn't end up being the 50-60 steel guys we were projecting him to be.

But I think that, the overall output will be I've actually moved O'Neill Cruz back behind CJ Abrams in my rankings. These homers that CJ Abrams is hitting are like bombs too. He hit one to the deepest part of Oracle Park the other day off of Kyle Harrison.

I think he's got two home runs off of lefties so far. He only had three last season. He's got a couple like 430 foot homers as well. It's a little scary, man. CJ Abrams might be like a legit, legitimate superstar. But Luis Garcia, also good. And like you said, got called up when he was 20,

has been really thrown in the fire. I could see this being a delayed breakout for him. Who would you prefer to take a stab at in fantasy? Luis Garcia or Ahmed Rosario? Garcia. I think Garcia has more upside. And so if you can wait, maybe that's the choice. If you can't wait,

I think Ahmed Rosario is more playable. right now. And, you know, at this, going into last year, we all had him as a top 12 shortstop, right? And the rays are good at maximizing every kind of player's potential. Um, so it's, it's possible they maybe unlocked another level with him. So he's, he's more usable than Garcia right now, I would say. All right. Let's quickly talk about Cody Bellinger. What's been going on with him so far. He had a solid game here on Wednesday, two for four with his third home run. He's got 12 RBI. zero stolen bases so far he's betting 200 with a 667 OPS. Plate discipline, totally fine.

11% walk rate, 16% strikeout rate. Average exit velocity is actually up a little bit from last year. The real problem that I've seen is that he's just hitting too many fly balls. It's a 56% fly ball rate. That is way up from 43% last year. The expected stats look very bad. But I'm not overly concerned. The fact that the plate discipline is still really good.

good and the average X velocity is actually a little bit higher. I feel good about Cody Bellinger just getting back on track. I mean, I had him as a potential bust for this year. A lot of people did. But I do not feel like that's been validated yet. In three weeks, if this is still happening, maybe I'll say that. But I think it's too early and I don't see any like new red flags here. I think he just clearly needs to get more two strike counts.

I don't look, I said all I have to say about Cody Ballinger in the offseason. I don't feel the need to rehash it. I didn't believe in him last year. I don't believe in him now. Yeah. All right. Some waiver wire pitchers, three names in shallow leagues. Michael Walker bounced back with a quality start at the White Sox, six innings, two runs,

four strikeouts in that one. He's 76% rostered. And he might line up for two stars next week, home against Toronto, at the Tigers. Luis Severino turned in his first quality start of the season. Chris and I were both at this game and I was surprised to see the line afterwards. It felt like he was pitching much worse than it actually turned out, but it was actually pretty good. Six innings, one unearned run, four strikeouts to three walks, continues to search for that slider. We have not seen much from either the slider or the sweeper from Luis Severino. He's 74% rostered. And Brandon Fott picked up

his first quality start of the season up against the Cubs, seven innings, three runs, Two of those were earned, six strikeouts to zero walks, allowed 10 hard hits in this game. I still think that there are the pieces for a good pitcher here for Brandon Fott. I think the sweeper and the changeup are pretty good, and he can locate his pitches, but it just hasn't come together yet, very obviously, with Brandon Fott. But do you guys have any interest in these Shilohle League names, Brandon Fott, Severino, and Michael Waka based on what they did here on Wednesday? I'm losing faith in Severino

because that slider, you know, you look at the movement profile on it. Yeah. It's just, it's flat. It's, it's like he's lost it.

And I'm not sure he has enough without it. So in deep leagues, I might call him a cell high guy. In shallow leagues, I'd be fine dropping him for Tanner Halk if he's out there. I don't know how rostered Halk is. Yeah,

I would say the one I'm most confident of this, trio is Michael Waka, but he's more of a floor play too. So in shallow leagues, it's probably somebody you stream rather than just stash on your roster. Yeah, Severino, I have similar concerns with him that I have of Carlos Rodon, who is also, at least before yesterday, was off to a superficially good start, but it just, they both introduced cutters to their arsenals last year. or the year before,

I can't remember if it was 23 or 22. And since then, both of their sliders have just been miserable. And I don't, it's a chicken egg thing. Like, did they lose the feel for the slider? And that's why they've had to throw more other pitches.

And in Rodon's case, he had a legit five pitch mix in his most recent star and Severino's throwing a bunch of changeups and sinker. Like, so I, I remain pretty underwhelmed. by Severino, and yeah, if anybody's buying, I think you can absolutely sell.

Because I just, unless he figures out that slider, and it's two years in a row now, I just, I don't see any reason to think he's going to be very useful moving forward. Beat the waiver wire for these potential two-star pitchers next week, and we will find out for sure on our week five preview tomorrow. But Andrew Abbott looks like he lines up for the Phillies and at the Rangers next week, Trevor Rogers, the Nationals and at the Braves.

Eric Feddy. You had a good start against the Braves last week, though. Eric Feddy is home with fire. Eric Feddy is home against the race and at the Twins. And Keaton Win is home against the Mets and home against the Pirates next week. All four of these pitchers pitched relatively well. Any interest in any of those names? I think Wynn is the only one I would even consider in a Roto League.

Rogers and Abbott Are just because of the matchups or because you think? Yeah, because of the matchups. I think they're all pretty similar in terms of talent level. Maybe wins a little behind the other guys. But like, Abbott, I don't know how he's succeeding right now.

And I don't buy it at all because remember, he came up and was getting a ton of whiffs with that sweeper, was getting a bunch of whiffs with his change up as well. He's not getting whiffs at all this season. It's like a 7% whiff rate. And he's not getting any strikeouts as a result. the control's not very good. He still gives up a lot of fly balls.

It hasn't turned into a ton of home runs yet, but that's a lot of concerning things for Andrew Abbott. So in a head-to-head points league with two starts, I guess you can pick him up. I'm going to be writing about him and Trevor Rogers in the waiver wire portion of the newsletter for tomorrow. So I can't say that I'm not entirely interested. I might, I think Trevor Rogers might be the better pitcher right now, though.

Which, I mean, I'll be damning with faint praise a little bit. I don't love the matchups for either. And I'm hoping when I put together my sleeper pitchers for next week tomorrow, that I can find ones to rank over them. But because they're making two starts, I'm worried they might find their way to the back of that list by default. Three names in deeper leagues, Albert Suarez, who pitches for the Orioles, made a spot start up against the twins, five and two-thirds, shutout, four strikeouts,

14 swinging strikes on 75 pitches. Jake Irvin has turned in back-to-back quality starts. This one, at the Dodgers of all teams, six shutout innings, six strikeouts. He had 11 swinging strikes on 73 pitches to get through six. Very efficient, strong start against a great lineup. And Landon Neck made his Major League debut up against the Nationals, five innings,

two runs allowed, four strikeouts. Scott, anything here. in deeper leagues, Landon, Landon, Jake Irvin, Albert Swarres? You know, there might be, and actually the least interesting to me is the prospect, Landonac. Jake Irvin,

so he threw half as many sinkers as usual, and it was a third as many sinkers as he threw last year. And last year, his sinker got pummeled. But if you look at the numbers on the pitches he threw most in this game, the fastball and the curveball. the numbers were actually pretty good.

Both last year and this year, there was about a 200 batting average against on both, and it's even lower than that so far this year. And so if he just focuses on those two pitches, Jake Irvin, there may be something here. I'm not rushing out to pick him up off waivers, but something to monitor. And then Albert Suarez, is this just a one-off?

He's not going to keep taking a turn for the Orioles, is he? Well, they just put Tyler Wells on the IL, and John Means has been really bad on his rehab. So they might let him go at least another start. He might let him go a while. His velocity is a 34-year-old. All right? But he had some impressive strikeout numbers this spring too,

and his velocity is up like three miles per hour. He made a mechanical adjustment. Ronell Blanco has become a thing in fantasy. So it's not so crazy to think Albert Suarez, too. Could too, though obviously I'm not. reacting in most leagues to this one start. Waver Wire Outfielders. We spoke about Estuary Ruiz.

Dalton Varsho is heating up. He went two for four with a double dong. Brian Dela Cruz is picking it up as well. Two for four with his third home run over his last six games. It's nine hits, two homers, nine RBI and one steal. And Harrison Bader heating up for the Mets, one for four with his first home run, last seven games, ten hits, one homer, seven runs, five RBI, two steals. So some names that are picking it up here,

Chris, any interest in Varsho, Brian Dela Cruz, Harrison Bader? So the thing with Varsho is he really doesn't have much appeal in a head-to-head points league. So his 46% roster rate in CBS, that probably covers most of the leagues where he should be rostered. But he's only 42% rostered in Yahoo as well. And that's all categories leagues. They are mostly three outfielder. So I thought you were going to tell me he still has catcher there. And I was going to lose my mind.

Honestly, he might. No, he doesn't know. But that's one where I do think, like, yeah, he stole 16 bases last season. He probably needs to be rostered in any category and especially Roto, if it's a five outfielder league. I do think Dalton Vars show, if he's available in any of those formats should be added. Ruiz, same thing. I don't think he should be added in any points leagues, but any categories leagues. De La Cruz is kind of interesting because he's getting back to.

hitting a ton of line drives like he did a couple years ago. And the expected stats are great so far. Yeah, the expected stats are really good. 299 XBA, 533X slug. He hit second today. I think he's going to be at the top of the lineup as long as Jake Burgers out. So yeah, I don't know. I'm writing about him for the waiver wire tomorrow.

I think he's, you know, worth adding in deeper leagues mostly. Let's get into the rest of the leftovers. Let's a quick temperature check on Kevin Gosman and Max Fried. Freed. He's just been off so far. We mentioned it earlier. He's, you know, been a follower in the rankings, five innings, three runs, four walks to two strikeouts. When Max Fried is at his best, I mean, this is unheard of stuff. The fact that he would be given up more walks than strikeouts. So it just doesn't look right. Obviously, it's a really tough matchup. Next week, he's home against the Marlins. I think you just got to leave him in there based on that matchup. Kevin Gosman bounced back, solid outing against the Yankees, five innings, one run, six strikeouts, 14. keen swinging strikes. The most comforting part of the start, the velocity back up on the fastball. So I felt that was encouraging.

And he's a two-star pitcher next week. One against the Dodgers at the Royals. Don't love the matchups, but I think we're just leaving both of these guys in, right? Yeah. Yeah, I think, like, I think Gosman's back. All his velocity across the board was back to normal in this start. He's been getting plenty of swinging strikes.

I think you missed your by-low window with it. Maybe not. It was a shorter start, obviously. And the ERA and WIP are still real ugly. If you do have an opportunity to buy low on Gosman, I included him in that article I referred to this week as a buy-low candidate, and I would double down on that now. But Freed has me concerned here.

I'm a little worried he's pitching through injury because the control is so out of character, and that would be an explanation for it. you do start him against the Marlins. If that goes well, I might shop him. Obviously, you'd need a top 20 type return for him at starting pitcher or another position. But that's the sort of return you're looking for, as if he's a top 20 starting pitcher. Some other pitching.

Oh, go ahead. And I might follow through with it if I could. Some other pitching leftovers, Pablo Lopez turned in a strong start at the Orioles, six innings, one run, seven strikeouts to zero walks. Terrick Scoobel changed up his pitch mix up against the Rangers. He allowed four runs, two of those were earned. He faded his fours team a little bit. He threw more sinkers and a few more curveballs as well.

He's, you know, off to a great start still. And Reed Detmer's, he looked a little bit more human at Tampa Bay. Five and a third, two runs allowed. One of those earned, four strikeouts. Only 10 swinging strikes. He allowed nine hard hits in this start. The numbers are still fantastic. And I think we all have DETMERS around SP40 overall now in the rankings.

But anything to add on those three. Dettmers, Scouble, Pablo Lopez. I got nothing. I think it's all systems go for all three of these guys. Obviously very different range for Dettmers, but I'm not sitting in them next time out now. I move Scouble up to fifth in my starting pitcher rankings. I thought about it.

I have more confidence in him than like Tyler Glass now and Yoshinobu Yamamoto at this point. But I don't like that he's throwing a sinker so much more. that's a pitch to contact pitch. It actually got a decent number of whist firm in this start, but I think it's going to hurt a strikeout potential overall if it continues. So I don't know exactly what I'm saying there. Just a couple of observations on Scoopal. Hopefully the strikeouts go up.

Hitting leftovers, the Orioles. Man, they just continue to mash right now. Gunner Henderson has homered in three straight. Cedric Mullins stayed high. He hit a walk-off homer. It was his fifth of the season. He's homered in three of his past. four games. Starling Marte is off to a nice start, one for five with his third homer.

Ronald de Cunia is on the board, two for five with his first home run of the season. Juan Soto continues his nice start, three for three with a walk and his fourth homer. Cotel Marte also off to an awesome start, three for four with his fifth home run. Ezekiel Tovar went three for five with two RBI. He's batting 306 with three homers and two steals so far early on in the season. Kyle Swarber, two for five with a double dung and Trey turn. has been picking it up lately over his last seven games at 414 batting average with two home runs. Anything that stands out?

Anyone you'd like to quickly add anything on? I thought about moving Gunner Henderson ahead of Austin Riley and Raphael Devers. I did move Ellie de la Cruz in Roto ahead of those guys. He's my number two third baseman now. And I've got Riley Devers and Henderson 22, 23, 24 in the overall rankings. now. So I think he's right there with those guys. Devers, I'm a little concerned about. Just so many injuries have enough nagging injuries that are slowing them down right now. Hot take. I think L.A. Dela Cruz is a cell high.

I mean, he's got like a 470 OB or BAB right now, right? All the stats, all the underlying stats basically looked the same as last year. And he was about this hot. at the time he got called up last year for a longer stretch than what we're seeing right now. So understand what that means, though. Selling high on L.E. De La Cruz is like you're getting a first rounder in return. Yes, that's, I think. Yeah, he does have better XBA and X slug than he did last season.

So that's worth noting at least. But like ground ball rate, strikeout rate, they haven't gotten better. Yes, we cannot stress enough whenever we bring up a sell high. It's just... High is the operative word. That other word. It doesn't mean, oh, my gosh, we're so worried about Ellie. Get anything you can for him.

No, you have to get first round value for Ellie Daly, Cruz. Would you trade L.A. Dela Cruz for Julio Rodriguez? Yes. I mean, that's kind of a by-low. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yep. Yep.

I would do. I think there's somebody listening out there who could trade L.E. Dela Cruz for Ronald Dekunia right now. Sure. I think it may be possible in some leagues out there. That I'm not sure of. But Julio, I think so. Certainly not the kind of leagues we play in.

but just leagues with a bunch of fantasy civilians, I think it's possible, and I think you should do it. Scott, even if it takes a second piece of some modest value, do it. Scott White, comma, fantasy elitist here on the show. The fantasy civilians, as he refers to them. Some quick bullpen updates for the Giants, Camillo DeValle, struck out one for his third save for the twins.

Griffin Jacks got the ninth with the game tied. He gave up a walk-off homer to Cedric Muller. Yohan Duran, please come back soon. For the Pirates, David Bednar came on for the eighth inning with the Pirates down six to one. All right, let's try and get him some work. See how he's doing. He was charged with three earned runs on a walk in two hits.

He continues to struggle big time. For the Rangers, David Robertson entered with a runner on first and won out in the seventh inning, a one run lead. He got the final two outs. Robertson stayed out there for the eighth. He allowed a one run in to tie the game. He was relieved by Kirby Yates, who, who finished out the rest of the game.

He actually wound up with the win, and Kirby Yates has looked really, really good so far. He got all four outs today by strikeout. 34% rostered on CBS. It might be happening, man. It might, he might just be the closer for the Rangers. Bruce Bochie kind of walked back the, we're going to go back to LaClerc thing too.

There was like a, well, with how well he's pitching right now kind of thing with Kirby Yates. So it's possible he just stays the closer. For the Braves, Riesel Iglesias walked one but picked up his fifth save for the Blue Jays. Eric Swanson got the ninth with a two-run lead. They didn't want to work Jordan Romano in a day game after a night game. He just returned. And Swanson gave up three runs.

He took his first loss. For the Yankees, Clay Holmes allowed a hit, but picked up his seventh save for the Nationals. Kyle Finninginigan picked up his seventh save for Oakland. Mason Miller walked one but struck out two for his fourth save. For the Phillies. Hey, would you look at that. Jose Alvarado. the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He gave up a hit but picked up his third save.

Tampa Bay. Getting a little bit nervous here. Pete Fairbanks got the ninth with a one-run lead. He gave up two runs on two walks and three hits. His first blown save, his second loss. Eight walks in seven innings. That is 10.3 walks per nine for Pete Fairbanks. I think if you have Fairbanks, you need to add Jason Adam, who is only 18% rostered. Fair enough. I'm worried about Fairbanks, too. For the White Sox in game one, Michael Copac entered in the eighth inning. My guess is they were probably going to let him go for that two-winning save, but what happened was he gave up a two-run homer to Salvador Perez.

He took his first blown save and second loss. And for the Royals in game one on the other side, James McArthur allowed a hit but picked up his fourth save of the season. I for some reason did not write the Brewers in here, but you guys already touched on it. It was Yoel Paiamps who picked up the save. How would you guys rank right now, Yates, MacArthur, Pyams.

MacArthur Yates, pieops. I think that's right. Yates, MacArthur, Pyams. Oh, all right. To stream or not stream for Thursday, it's a very light slate, not a lot going on, and our best option might be Jack Leiter

in his major league debut. Yeah, I mean, it's a decent match against the Tigers. That's probably the best one. I would not be surprised at all if Jamison Tyone had a good start against the Marlins either. I think I like Ryan.

Nelson at San Francisco most of this group. I can't see myself having the guts to start lighter in his major league debut, even though that's a good matchup. Just two walk prone, two homer prone in the minors. You probably should not stream anyone on Thursday is the answer. On Friday, there is Spencer Turnbull up against the White Sox. That sounds pretty good. There's, I was going to say Dean Kramer at the Royals,

but the Royals lineup has looked a little bit better. Yario Rodriguez at the Padres, maybe? I would be surprised if he gave you enough innings. It's one where if you've got unlimited ads and have somebody to add for drop it for him, sure, but wouldn't drop anyone a substance. Yeah, if I'm ranking them Friday, I go Spencer Turnbull 1, Kramer, Dean Kramer 2. Not that I'm eager to do it, but he's probably number 2. And then I would say Kyle Gibson 3 against the Brewers. I'd do that over Yario.

Rodriguez. All right, so the answer is don't stream anyone on Thursday or Friday. Maybe Spencer Turnbull. I actually do like that. 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.