Fantasy Baseball Today - Regression Alert! Plus Rankings Risers & Fallers (5/30 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 30, 2024

Bailey Ober got bombed by the Royals again (3:00). ... MacKenzie Gore has taken a big step forward this season (9:18). ... How should we rank Luis Gil who just had a historic May (12:30)? ... Lane Thomas had a massive game on Wednesday (16:38). ... News (20:14): Edwin Diaz went to the IL with a right shoulder impingement. ... We got some rough regression starts from Shota Imanaga, Jared Jones and Kutter Crawford (28:37). ... Who were some of the biggest rankings risers and fallers (39:30)? ... Ian Happ is picking things up (49:55). ... Cristopher Sanchez had a strong May (55:43). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (59:27). 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. Sound the alarms, we had a regression hit for a few big name pitchers. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, May 30th. I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we've got rankings, risers,

and fallers, regression alert. The Mets are spiraling out of control and it's only the end of May. Usually happens later on in the season. And much more, thanks for staying up late for us. This is officially our latest start of the season, but it was just a crazy day. There was an extra game. There was a double header, rankings updates, blah, blah, blah.

I'm just giving you all the excuses, but that's the reason why we're starting so late. Let's jump in. All right, and we will start with, I guess let's get the bat out of the way, and then we'll start to talk about some good pitchers. Scott, you were up. Oh, my goodness gracious.

Player of the night. Well, it's fitting that you played a clip there of a home run being hit because that is what burned several pitchers tonight, actually. But most notably, Bailey Ober, who gave up three home runs in his five innings against the Royals. Six earned runs total, nine hits. But really, the home runs. are what I want to focus on here.

Because, you know, he missed a lot of bats. He got 16 whiffs on 82 pitches. He didn't walk anybody. He did some good Bailey Ober things, but Bailey Ober is somebody who puts the ball in the air more than 50% of the time. And so when he gets burned, it's going to be by home runs. And it's been especially dramatic this year.

I actually ran some numbers here. So in the five starts, where Bailey Ober has allowed zero home runs, 117 ERA 0.59 whip. He's basically untouchable because he doesn't walk anybody those fly balls are turning into outs instead of home runs.

Again, the five starts without a home run 117 ERA 0.59 whip. And the six starts with at least one home run allowed, 923 ERA 171 whip. It's just been a total disaster. And as I said, Bailey O'Ber figures to be home run, If things normalize in the summer months around the league and home runs become less scarce,

maybe it started tonight with him and we'll get into Shoda Imanaga later, I'm sure. Maybe it's beginning here in late May. Home runs, the home run pace picking up, then that's bad news for somebody like Bailey Ober. And considering also his starts have been on the short side lately, four of his last five, less than six, in an environment, like a pitching saturated environment, I think Bailey Ober is somebody who we may be overrating right now, myself included. I keep looking for excuses to move pitchers down in my rankings, given that it is a pitching saturated environment. And I think

Bailey Ober, with all of these observations I've made just now, has given me an excuse to do that with him. Counterpoint. It's just the Royals. It really is the Royals. He's got a 19 ERA and two starts against the Royals. I think he's given up like 11 run, 12 runs

against them, something like that. More than that. It's like 15 runs. I think it's like 16 runs. Well, it's not just the Royals. He had a bad start against the Guardians. He had a bad start against the White Sox, actually. But that happened. But he's got a 302 ERA.

Against everybody else. Against everyone else. Yeah. It's, I think, But look at the disparity between home runs allowed and not home runs allowed. I have that too. So six, in the two starts against the Royals,

six home runs allowed, nine starts versus everybody else, only four home runs allowed. Sure. I mean, but he is going to give up home runs. He's an extreme fly ball pitch. And he has a 489 ERA.

I would expect that to be a run lower. Hmm. The problem is how valuable, how valuable is a 389 ERA? and a strikeout per inning in this environment. Exactly. From a pitcher who doesn't work into game, deep into games consistent.

Yeah, like that's, that's kind of my concern. It's just like, I expect him to be a lot better than he has been. But in this environment, is that more valuable than McKenzie Gore, who doesn't pitch deep into games himself, but is going to get a lot more strikeouts?

Is it more valuable than, I mean, I feel like Nick Povetta is kind of the same thing, where he's going to, get a ton of strikeouts. Probably not going to pitch super deep into games all that regularly. But it's, yeah, it's a fair question. I've got Bailey Ober 42nd at SP in Roto.

And one thing we were talking about before the show is just for me at least, I kind of feel like, I don't know, from the mid-20s in my starting pitcher rankings through, I don't know, the 60s, the 70s, I don't know how much is separating anyone. in that range right now. It's a lot of like proven guys who are boring like Jose Burrios and Jordan Montgomery or guys who are showing a lot of upside but have really obvious flaws like Ryan Pepio and Bryce Miller. And it's a weird pitching landscape.

It's really hard to pin down. And I would just say that you probably shouldn't get too caught up in the specific order that pitchers are ranked in. That's true pretty much every year. but I think especially so. This season, tiers are more important than rankings right now. And it's a very big middle tier, I guess.

It's kind of a high mid tier. The glob has gone from being low mid to high mid. The good glob. Last year was the bad glove. Yeah. Yeah. And well, I mean, what I was saying, like I,

my process with ranking pitchers is there are so many, many that I like in a broad sense that if you drop them into any normal league context with what they're doing right now, I'd say, yes, this is a very good fantasy pitcher. So I'm having to find excuses to move pitchers down. And Ober, you have them lower than I currently do, Chris, but I've kind of been getting a lot of benefits. I just moved him down. Yeah. I moved him down since the start of this podcast. Right. Yeah. I think we all had them right between SP 30 and 35, but it's something I thought about too

while this start was going on. Maybe we have Bailey Ober a little bit too high. Actionable for him. Obviously, we're not dropping Bailey Ober. Next week, it looks like he's in line for two starts. One of those might be in Yankee Stadium. Could be a little bit scary for Bailey Ober, but if he's a two-star pitcher,

I think we're obviously throwing him out there. By the way, I don't know if you guys saw the home run. He gave out to Salvador Perez, but it was like the most middle, middle fastball that's ever been thrown in Major League Baseball. And one of my favorite things in the world, is when the pitcher knows immediately. Yeah.

That it's a home run. And just like he looks back at the camera and goes, oh, it was hilarious. Chris, let's stay with you and talk about your player of the night. McKenzie Gore, who I have gone from really having no interest in whatsoever at the start of the season and didn't really end up drafting him anywhere to thinking he definitely belongs in that high middle tier that we're talking about at starting pitcher. But I also wonder if he just belongs higher than that. 10 strikeouts, no walks, 5 and 2 thirds inning against the Braves today.

5 and 1 3rd innings against the Braves today. I know it's not the Braves. It's no Ronald Acuna. A lot of guys are struggling there. This is still a team that had seven players with an OPS over 800 last year, who qualified for the batting title. I think this is still a very impressive performance by McKenzie Gore. His velocity is still up.

He's averaging 97 with the first. fastball. He got three whiffs with it. 13 overall on 97 pitches. Change up better than it's ever been. Slider looks really, really good. I don't know exactly where to rank McKenzie Gore because I don't really know where to rank anyone. But I've got him 39th starting pitcher.

I think that could be 10 spots too high, 10 spots too low. Yeah. I mean, this is a perfect example. example of drop McKinsey Gore into a normal league context with his, he's got a, he's got a FIP and an X-FIP both below three. 291 ERA. Yeah, his K-per-9 rate is approaching 11, right? Or is it surpassed 11? It's surpassed 11 after today.

Okay. So it's a really, it's really impressive in career best walk rate by far? All the usual ways. Points leagues. Coming into today. Yeah. McKenzie Gore was 78th among starting pitchers in fantasy points, total fantasy points so far this year, which is exactly what we're talking. There are so many good pitchers that if your innings are a little low or your wins are a little lacking, it really drives you down.

I'm going to move McKinsey Gore probably up to like 50 or so, so I'm going to have them a lot higher than 78th, but they're like, I don't think the innings are going to increase substantially and I don't think the wind potential is going to improve either. So those are the things holding him back. What's fair? It's so interesting that all of the

things that we look at traditionally, the metrics that we use, Mackenzie Gore is better than Billy Ober and almost all of them. I mean, outside of walks, strikeouts, FIP, everything is in favor of McKenzie Gore. Now, team context is obviously not as good, but

McKenzie Gore is doing some really nice things this year. He's lowered the walks. 2.6 walks per 9 is certainly tenable for his strikeout upside. And he's 79% rostered. So there could be a few shallow leagues out there where McKenzie Gore is available. Just checked Yahoo. He's 53% rostered.

If he's out there, I think that probably needs to change. And I think that kind of leads us into a conversation about one more pitcher who is equally as tough to rank right now. And that is Luis Heel, who is on quite the run right now, obviously just wrapped up a ridiculous month of May. And he was at the Angels, he threw eight innings, two hits allowed, one run, nine strikeouts,

had 15 whiffs on 95 pitches. And in May, this is per Katie Sharp on Twitter, 44 strikeouts, a 0.70 ERA, the only pitcher in Yankees history with 40 plus strikeouts and a sub 0.75 ERA, in any calendar month. What he just did this past month is historic, and I barely have him ranked inside of my top 60 starting pitchers

because we don't really know what the workload is going to look like rest of season, especially if Gary Cole gets back into this rotation at some point. Yeah, I mean, the thing with Louise Heel is he's had a ton of injuries over the years. He threw four innings last season. he threw 25 and 2 thirds the year before. He threw about 80 in 2021. That's a really tough one because we know not just that the Yankees are going to have to manage his innings, but that there is a giant,

Cy Young-sized hole in their rotation that Luis Heel is currently filling. And it seems like a pretty obvious call that as soon as Garrett Cole is ready, they could just pull Louise Heel out of the lineup, except he's been so freaking good that how could you? Yeah, I mean, presumably if the playoffs started today, he'd be their number one starter. Well, you'd love if the playoffs started today if you were the Yankees because Louise Heel would be able to pitch in them.

Well, they probably want to preserve something for the playoffs, is what I'm saying, and provided his performance doesn't slip. We're still probably at least a month away. I think from worrying about it and the lock can change between now and then maybe Clark Schmidt falls apart maybe somebody gets hurt maybe Louise Heel himself

falls apart. Yeah. I mean you could certainly consider selling high on Louise Heel just that the base numbers are eye-popping at this point and you could potentially get a great return for him. I'm going to move them up to just outside my top 40

so you could probably get more than that for him. It's worth exploring at the very least. But if you can't, then I think you could take some solace in that. He seems to get like every time, every start he makes, he seems to get better. All the doubts I had about him performance-wise have pretty much vanished at this point. He has now thrown six plus innings in six straight, obviously went eight in this one. He's had two walks or fewer in six of seven. He threw more than 70% of his pitches for strikes in this one. So those efficiency control issues that just seemed like there were going to be a deal breaker early on there, they're like gone now. All right.

I wrote about some by-low candidates. Would you give up Louise Heel for Francisco Lindor? 100%. But that's a hitter. Yeah, no, that's what I, Austin Riley. You do it for both of those guys pretty easy. I trade pretty much any pitcher except the long established aces for a hitter, for a hitter who I think is. That's done.

Yeah, absolutely. That's fair. So you could name more names if you want. It's, well, no, it's really, because even at pitcher,

like some guys I've got ahead of Louis Heel, Cal Braddish, Walker, Bueller, Bobby Miller. I have no idea on any of those three, whether I'd rather have them or Louis Heel. I would, because I have it ranked that way,

but I'm not expressing a lot of confidence in it is what I want to say. Yeah. You might see those guys are ranked. seven, eight spots higher than Louise Heel. That does not, that should not imply a high degree of confidence at this point. I want to give an honorable mention to a hitter. Not that there's anything actionable. I just wanted to talk about him early on because it was a huge game for Lane Thomas,

who went three for four with a sock and two shoes. That's a home run and two steals. He added a walk, two runs, three RBI. And we were talking beforehand, any way that we can get some type of elite outfielders back or performing in that way, it is obviously welcome because, again, just updating the outfield rankings, I think I've got jerks and pro far up to like 27th. It's just, it's a really bad position right now. So if Lane Thomas can get close to anywhere close to what he did last year, that would be

a very welcome site. Yeah, and I will point out for Lane Thomas, though the sample is small. his ground ball rate is much lower than last year, 33% versus 44%. His K rate is much lower than last year, 21% versus 26%. Those are both changes that we'd normally be excited about. And Lane Thomas was great last year, as it is. We were skeptical of it, but if he's improving some of those underlying markers, then it makes me more hopeful he can be great again.

Would you give up Luisio for Lane Thomas? No. No. I think I would, yeah, Lane Thomas plus something else there in that trade. A quick reminder to sign up for the FBT newsletter. If you haven't already, if you're watching us live on YouTube, thanks for being here. We appreciate it.

Hit that like button. But you can scan the QR code and that will take you right to the website where you click on the FBT logo, you punch in your email address, and it's easy as that. It's free, gets delivered right to your inbox every weekday. Let's hit our first break and when we return. We'll get to the news and notes. We'll do that right after this.

Welcome back in and news and notes. Edwin Diaz was placed on the 15 day IL with a right shoulder impingement. And over his last five appearances, Diaz had a 16.62 ERA and a three whip on the nose. Looks like closing duties will likely stick with a combo of Reed Garrett and Adamadovino. But both of those guys have actually struggled recently as well. So it just feels like a really messy situation. Yeah. and the Bullpen

the Mets bullpen is down another pitcher too so it's it's the situation as usual everything as usual for the Mets I guess we should just talk about it now

since you alluded to it Scott but yeah my goodness I mean usually we have to wait till the second half of the season I live in New York so I look I have a bunch of Mets fans friends and I hear it all the time about you know the team stinking

and the implosions and all these kind of falling apart, but my gosh, what is going on right now? They are spiraling. One of their relievers, Jorge Lopez, was ejected from the game on Wednesday. He threw his glove into the crowd. He's going to be DFA'd after this. And he had some crazy comments after the game, too. Chris, we were talking beforehand.

Do you know exactly what he said? Obviously, we can't say exactly what he said, but... It was reported that he said something along the lines of, I'm playing for the worst effing team. It sounds like he clarified that what he meant, Jorge Lopez is Puerto Rican, English is not his first language. It sounded like it was either misinterpreted

or he wasn't quoted correctly. Sounds like he clarified later that he said he was the worst effing teammate on the worst effing team. So not much better. Yeah, is this better or worse than when Francisco Lindor and Javier Baez were flipping off the fans a couple of years back? You guys remember that one? It's not as bad as that.

Okay, okay. Because it's Jorge Lopez. But I mean, you threw his glove into the crowd, you know? Yeah, well, they get someone goes home with a souvenir. Apparently the guy who got his glove was very excited. Wild times. Wild times right now going on with the New York. York Mets. Let's continue on. Pete Alonzo, speaking of those Mets, left after getting hit by a pitch on

his right hand. X-rays came back negative, but he's undergoing additional tests, and luckily it's not the same hand as he injured last season. Tyler O'Neill was placed in the I.O. with right-need inflammation. The Red Sox started Jaron-Duran, Seidon-Rof-Ele, and Wiliere-A-Braeu in their outfield with Rob Ref Snyder at D.H. on Wednesday. I will say I've noticed Williour Abraeus playing a decent amount against left-handers now. We'll get a to the ranking mover segment in a bit, but bonus here. I moved William or Bray you up about 15 spots. What? No love for Rob Refs Fighter. He's been like the best hitter in baseball. Former Yankee. No love. No love for Rob Reff Snyder. Every time I, it's just every time I look at

a Red Sox box score. It seems like Rob Restner has three hits. And he's batting clean. It's been the weirdest thing. I think he's betting like fourth or fifth in their lineup. It's crazy. He has a 960 OPS right now. What is going on? Jordan Westberg was not in the lineup after getting hit in the hand by a pitch on Tuesday. X-rays came back negative and he is currently day-to-day. U. Darvish was removed from his start after three innings due to left hamstring tightness and I was watching some of the start. He is, he looked off today. I wonder if maybe that hamstring was affecting him early on in the start and then obviously that's why they took him out. Alec Manoa was pulled from his start due to discomfort in his right elbow and he will go for

an MRI. It's been a tumultuous past couple of years. Same thing can be said for this season. It's two really bad starts, two really good starts, but obviously not good news there on Manoa. Kerry Carpenter was placed on the IL with lumbar spine inflammation.

Akeel Badoo was recalled by the Tigers. Lars Neupar was removed in the eighth inning with a left side injury. And as much as I do truly believe that there is a talented player there, he has struggled. mightily to stay on the field. And it's just getting harder and harder to trust

that Lars Neupar can actually do just that. Trevor McGill has avoided the IL for now but could miss a few days after getting hit by a comebacker on Tuesday night. Zach Eflin will throw a bullpen session Thursday. He's been on the IL since May 19th with a back injury. Josh Lowe went through a full workout on the field

and hit in the batting cage prior to Tuesday's game. It seems way too soon following an oblique injury, especially a recurring one, but as we all know by now, I am no injury expert. Josh Young has resumed swinging a bat. Bruce Bochy said Young, quote, looks great, and a clearer timetable for the third basement

could be established in the coming days. Chris Bassett will make his next start Sunday as scheduled. He left his previous outing with neck spasms. T.J. Friedel was activated from the I.L. and was plugged into the lead-off spot against a rightee, Andre Palante, and Mike Ford was designated for assignment. The brave signed Ramon Luriano to a minor league contract,

which makes sense following the Acuna injury. Perhaps he could earn some playing time in a platoon with Jared Kellnick or just as their fourth outfielder on the team. Some prospect news, Junior Camerro was placed on the IL at AAA with a grade two left quad train. He's expected to miss four to six weeks, which means we likely will not see him with the raise until, After the All-Star break, it's...

This one, I think you could probably drop him in most leagues, honestly. Like, not Dynasty, not Keep or anything like that. But at Redraft Leagues, you've got to use an actual roster spot on him. You can't put him on your I.L because he's not on the Major League I.L. And it's just... This is six weeks plus however long the Rays want to wait to call him up. We have no idea, but the Rays are less... less aggressive with their prospect promotions than I think any other team in baseball.

And given all the injuries he's had this season, I think there's a chance we don't see Junior Kaminar until like August at this point. Given all the injuries they had on their roster and they didn't call him up. And he wasn't really performing at AAA. So I'm not opposed to dropping him. I still think he's probably one of the top five prospects to stash, but just kind of a note here for people who follow. the writings of Scott White.

I'm having to change the format of the prospects report because there aren't really five prospects worth stashing. It's, and the ones who were like James Wood and Junior Commonero, they're on the IL now in the miners. So, yeah, I'm focusing on different things for the time being,

because that's not a well worth drawing from. I'll give you another name, Scott. I think he still has prospect status. Noelvie Marte. Would you rather stash Noel V. Marte? over Junior Caminero right now. He's going to be back sooner.

I assume once he's late June, right? Yeah, he's already started playing in minor league games, right? Yeah. I don't think minor league games. I think he's playing in the complex games. He can't play in minor league games though, right? Before the suspension's up. I think it's the same thing as a rehab assignment.

I think he can play 20 days before he's eligible. Yeah. So, yeah, I just assume he'll be back as soon as he's eligible. in late June, less than a month from now. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah, it's time to stash Noel V. Marte. One of their prospect note, not that you need more injury news, Scott, for your Atlanta Braves,

but one of their top pitching prospects, Owen Murphy is expected to undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery later this week. So actually, what I was going to focus on in this week's prospects report was the 10 pitching prospects who've gained the most value. Owen Murphy was on that list. Now I'm not going to write about him. Let's get into the regression alert. She kind of sounded less interesting.

I'm just trying to keep this thing moving, man. Regression alert, we had a bunch of pitchers that have been performing quite well this season, take a little bit of a step back here, and I just want to remind everybody, just because I am calling this regression, that's exactly what it is. It does not mean that I dislike these pitchers,

I hate these pitchers. It just means they are regressing to the mean, which is what the numbers, said that they should have been doing or that this was going to happen eventually. Can you clear one thing up before we move on? Yes. Why exactly

do you hate Shota Imanaga? I hate Shota Imanaga. It's not like I wrote them up as a... What is it specifically? I definitely didn't write him up as a sleeper. I didn't draft him on multiple teams. I don't know what's wrong with people. But Shoda Imanaga is human after all. He was at the Brewers. He allowed seven runs

over four and a third innings. He gave up two home runs, lots of hard contact. Clearly, he did not have his fastball working in this one. The splitter, still pretty good. He had six whiffs on it, but the fastball got hit hard. And again, it's like he entered this start with a minuscule ERA. Like, this was bound to happen eventually. And, you know, I'll just throw the other names in there and you guys could talk about all of them. But like, Jared Jones has not looked as sharp recently. He was at the Tigers, four in a third innings, seven runs, five of those earned. He only had four whiffs on 83 pitches in this start. And Carter Crawford, um,

Two rough outings in a row, and actually three of his past four, he's given up four plus earned runs. Nine hard hits allowed in this start. And he's another one where he's a fly ball pitcher, and he did a great job preventing home runs early on this season. But it seems like some of that is starting to catch up here with all three of these pitchers. Scott, I'll give you the first word.

Anything actually concerning here, or is this, okay, this was bound to happen with Cutter Crawford, Jared Jones, and Imanaga. Well, I'm least concerned with Eamara. Imanaga, as in like I have him 14th in my starting pitcher rankings and I'm not inclined to move him down. I had already factored in that there would be starts where home runs get the better of him. He allowed only three prior to the start allowed two in this one. And we've been saying it all along. There will be times when she showed himinaaga has starts like this.

And this happened to be the first one. It happened a lot later than we expected. but I'm not actually like concerned about his, his value changing. Like it's my impression of him changing. It hasn't. Jared Jones is concerning just because all his pitches were down like a mile per hour and a half.

And why did that happen? I don't, I haven't seen an explanation for it. It could just be a one-off. It's not the first time that's happened this season for what it's worth. Okay. So, you know, maybe it's just a weird thing that happened in this start. It was 68 degrees in Detroit. That doesn't sound that cold, but I can't really imagine what 68 degrees feels like living in South Florida. It was a super early start time. It was like 1240, and he just seemed kind of sluggish.

I'm making excuses for the guy, but it could be a thing. I don't know. Yeah. I'm not moving him down to my rankings based on. the start either, but, you know, if the velocity continues to be down in this next one, okay, maybe Jared Jones is having some kind of issue that we're not hearing about. That could obviously cost him. Connor Crawford, yeah, he's been kind of shaky for a while now.

Kind of feels like the Red Sox rotation has been a little shaky lately, right? Am I imagining that? Outside of Tanner Halk. Yeah, like it feels like, they might be getting figured out a little bit with this super breaking ball heavy approach. Yeah, Bayo's been getting hit hard. I know Povetta's had some rough outings recently.

Carter Crawford specifically, he's kind of, he has a high fly ball rate too. Not as high as like Bailey Ober, but it's high. And so it's in his last five starts. No, I'm sorry. What is it? Okay, so three of his last four starts.

have been non-quality starts, and he's allowed three of his five home runs this season during that four-start stretch. So, like some of this, when we look at Cutter-Crawford, we look at Bailey Over, we look at Shota Imanaga. Like I was saying at the top of the show, maybe this is the early signs of home runs becoming more prevalent. The fact that it's happening to all three of those pitchers at the same time,

as we're entering the summer months, maybe that's part of it. It doesn't mean that they will be this way, the way they were today, throughout the summer, but it does mean that that vulnerability that didn't get a chance to reveal itself when the ball wasn't carrying very well,

could reveal itself from time to time now. I do, go ahead. I do want to just with Imanaga, I want to draw one specific comparison. I think there's a pitcher who is very, very similar to him. I have them ranked back to back. That's Joe Ryan. I think it's very much, it's kind of like the Spider-Man meme, but reversed. They're using different hands to point at each other. Yeah, yeah, they're pointing with different hands, but they're both pointing at each other. It's really good,

unique fastballs, splitter is probably the best secondary pitch, a lot of fly balls, really good command. Joe Ryan actually getting a few more strikeouts this season on a rate basis. K rate is like 27% for 28%. I think for Imanaga, it's closer to 26%, but very, very close. And that is the comp that I want to draw because I think Joe Ryan's really good. He's a top 24 starting pitcher for me. I think he's top 24 for all three of us now. But we've obviously seen what it looks like when Joe Ryan goes wrong. And we're seeing a similar pitcher in Bailey Over also have what it looks like when things go wrong. So that's the only thing is, while I like I'm Aminaaga, I am a little bit lower on him to both of you.

He's 24th for me. Just because I do think, I mean, his ERA is still under two. I could see a run and a half, a run in three quarters worth of regression coming for him. and he could still be a very good player. And I'm, maybe I need to recalibrate because a 3-5-36 ERA is not very good anymore. And I do think Eamonaga is very good.

So maybe it's more like he's a 3-3-ERA guy moving forward. But I don't, I don't buy him as- Emanaga. Yes. Yes, exactly. I don't buy him as an ace. So you set me up. Yes.

Yeah, I wanted to deflect and have everybody get mad at you first. No, it's just, I think he's a good but not elite strikeout pitcher. I think home runs are going to be an issue. The walks are great. I think he's probably going to have low babbips. There's a lot to like about him. I also think there are innings concerns,

not necessarily on a per start basis because I think he'll be fine there, but it's kind of like what we saw with Kodai Senga last year. They're going to try to keep him on six days, pitching every six day. They already have, yeah. I've noticed they've spaced out his starts more. And they skipped his most recent

start. So I worry that it might be like 150 very good innings rather than 100E great innings for the full season. Last thing I wanted to mention here is Kyle Harrison who's taking a step back over his last four starts. He was up against the Phillies,

five innings, 12 hits, four earned runs with two homers allowed. And this four-start stretch is a 630 ERA, a 180 whip. Kyle Harrison still 81% rostered. Cut him. Are you guys all right?

Dropping him. I don't think any of us were ever buying into him. He is a top 90 pitcher for me. But no, I'm not particularly interested in Kyle Harris. I don't, I just, I can see a version of Kyle Harrison that is good. But it's not the one we're getting right now. The one who's like, he has a good fastball. He does not have a throw at 70% of the time.

him fastball. And he's showing no indication or willingness to throw his other pitches anymore. So. Well, that's not very good. Well, yeah. The change ups are the, the one thing that's interesting is the slurve because it's had a good swinging strike rate this year.

It was supposed to be one of his better pitches. He stopped throwing it. Yeah, I don't. Those pitchers we talked about yesterday, Matt Waldron, even, but Ben Brown, Hunter Brown. who's the fourth that we liked. Tyler McGill. Tyler McGill. I think I'd be fine dropping Kyle Harrison for any of those guys.

Yeah. I think I'd drop them for any except for Hunter Brown. I still have big questions with Hunter Brown. Yeah, that's fair. Like I don't really want Kyle Harrison, so I drop them for anybody that I kind of want. Fair enough. Let's take our final break,

and when we return, rankings, risers, and followers. We'll talk about it right after this. Rankings, Rizers, and Follers. Ballers, as always, you can find our updated rankings on the website. CBSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball slash rankings. And we are going to change up how we usually do this segment. We're each going to discuss three players that made a big move in the rankings, either up or down and we'll specify.

Scott, you are up first. And we are all on the clock. You have two minutes or less to talk about three players. Oh, but I wanted to say, okay, okay. Let me just say real quick, T.J. Friedel is only 54% rostered. So when you're talking about players to pick up, it doesn't have to be just pitchers. T.J. Friedel could make a big impact now that he's back to full health. I just wanted to stress that.

Okay. So players, I moved up or down. Nolan Aeronado, I moved him down even more. I dropped him behind Royce Lewis, who is on the mend, and I dropped him behind Mikel Garcia. at third base. And part of that's me not super optimistic Aeronado is going to come out of this. But part of that is like,

I think even if he does, he's just going to be so one-dimensional. His whole trick is just elevating to his pole side that he's just, I'm not sure he's that impactful anymore. And somebody like Mikel Garcia, he's averaging half a point per game more than Aeronado did last year with all the contributions he makes.

So really down on Aeronado. Keep moving him down. Giancarlo Stanton, I've moved him up inside my top 40 in the outfield. I moved him ahead of guys like Jackson Chorio and Antiphas, which maybe was overdue. But the thing is, like, I don't feel like Giancarlo Stanton has changed. I just think, okay, he's somebody who's actually hitting for power. And he's healthy. And it's harder.

And he's harder to knock him for the bat batting average because so few players are hitting for batting average. So just take what you can get in the outfield. And my ranking for Stanton now reflects that. I've also moved Christian Scott down about 15 spots. Really, he's done nothing wrong. It's, again, I have to find excuses to move pitchers down. And the excuse for Christian Scott is he hasn't set the world on fire. He's just been kind of decent.

And with less than a strike up per inning. And I think Christian Scott's profile really depends on him striking out a lot of batters. Maybe he will in the long run. but for now he's about 65th in my rankings which still means he needs to be rostered in basically all leagues but not with the same

gusto as before Scott you finished with one second left that was fantastic even with the TJ Friedel time at the top I always love that when we update our rankings I don't look at your guys rankings purposely because I just want to

I don't want to be influenced and I want to see where we wind up after the fact and I moved Scott down to 62nd. And Scott, you have him at 64. So it's just, we did the same thing. It's just I didn't really want to move him down, but I had to move other pitchers up. And, you know, Christian Scott,

he's one of the guys that gets moved down as a result. Chris, let's go over to you, three names who are either moving up or down in the rankings. All right, so Grison Rodriguez moved down in the rankings for me. I have him down at SP 37 at a starting pitcher. And it's weird because, there's a lot to like about the constituent parts of his game. Gets a lot of whiffs with all of his.

He throws four pitches, at least 14% of the time, gets a 25% or better whiff rate on all of them, 30% or better on all of his secondaries. And it just, then you look up and it's like 353 ERA, mediocre whip, should win a bunch of games on that team,

but it's just like, he should be better. He should be an ace. And there could be a point where that clicks. And it's going to look really stupid to have him ranked outside of the top 20 or top 15. But right now with everyone pitching as well as they are, I have to move Grayson Raderiegas down. I move Christopher Sanchez up. And I think that was probably overdue.

He was really, really good last season. I had some questions about how the newfound control would work out for him. but I think for the most part, you have to be pretty happy. He's still doing a really good job suppressing hard contact. I'm surprised the strikeouts aren't there. The change-up with rate especially suggests

that there should be more, and maybe those are coming, but I've tentatively back in on Christopher Sanchez. He is a top 56 pitcher for me. I am actually the high guy on him now, which is kind of surprising. And then, Nico Horner.

Nico, yeah, I mean, he was really, what was eight, strikeouts in seven innings today. Six shut out, seven strikeouts. I'm stealing from your time here. We'll pause it. Uh, and then I finally just drop Nico Horner down to. Yeah.

Imagine you guys have had him for a little while. I tend to be a little more stubborn, but it's just, he's shown a couple of signs of, of figuring it out, but he's really not running very much. Five deals in the month of May. That's like 270. You're in trouble, Chris. And that's it. That's all you have to say about Nico Horner.

It's not fault. No, I think it's totally reasonable for you to move Nico Horner down in the rankings. We will talk about Christopher Sanchez in just a little bit. And I'll quickly run through some of the names that I had here. Luis Heel was one that I wanted to highlight. I mentioned earlier I moved them inside my top 60. It's actually inside my top 50. I moved them up to SP 46.

If you told me he was throwing 150 innings this year, he'd probably be a top 30 starting pitch. I just don't know if that's going to happen for sure. With Luis Heel, Blake Snell, I understand this is part of the experience, but as we continue to talk about, there are lots of really, really good pitchers right now. I think he will get better, obviously, at some point, but I've moved him down to SP 41,

which is not, I'm not burying him by any means to be a borderline top 40 starting pitcher. There's still a respect factor coming off at National League, Sa Young, all that stuff. So I moved them down a little bit, but not completely burying Blake Snell. And perhaps my most controversial one is O'Neill Cruz, who I moved down to shortstop 14 in my headset points rankings, and 13th in Roto. And O'Neill Cruz was better in May.

He's lowered the strikeout rate a little bit. He's just still not really lighting the world on fire. He's averaging 2.1 fantasy points per game. Strikeouts overall still a problem for him. And there are other shortstops that are performing really, really well right now. You know, guys like Anthony Volpe is on a 21 game hitting streak. He just hit another triple.

He had two more hits here on Wednesday. And Willie Adamas hit another home run. He's got nine homers, eight steals. He's in a contract year. So the O'Neill Cruz one was kind of in conjunction with he hasn't lived up to expectations and other short stops have really performed well so far this season. Anything you guys would like to add on O'Neil Cruz?

I've kept them the same. I'm still selling out for upside there. But I hear you. Shortstop has been the most fruitful position so far. And there are about 17 guys that I want to put in the top 12. And I can't put them all in the top 12. By the way, I have Nico Horner down at 15th. Yeah, you've moved him a lot more than I have.

I have them behind like Luis Renhifo now. So I'm the biggest. downer of all. You can't outdown me on Nico Horner. Yeah. So go ahead. The one thing I want to say about Blake Snell is I have moved him down as well. He's SP 39 for me. I've also kind of been inclined to just not move him at all just as a statement of my confidence in how in in him bouncing back. And I want to point this out. This is not even the worst stretch of Blake Snell's last five seasons. He had a-

Of the last five seasons. Well, it would be the second worst in terms of ERA over a five-start stretch. But in 2019, he had a five-start stretch with an 1194 ERA. He has had two other stretches over the last five years with an ERA over nine over a five-start span. I think he's at 10-9 through his first five starts. he always figures it out. I know we say this every time we talk about him, but it's like in 2021,

he had a 572 ERA for the season after giving up 22 runs over a 21-1-1 inning stretch in I think June. He had a 281 ERA over his final 13 starts. When I want to move players down, it's because I think their talent level is worse. Or other players, have been better, but specifically when I'm talking about actively moving a player down.

It's because their talent level is, and I just don't believe that about Blake Snell. I think he's going to be fine. The thing with Snell, Chris, that I will just add here is, so he's got off to slow starts the past couple of years, and then I think it was like last season he turned it on like the end of May. Yep, right around. He got a slow start this year. The indecision of not knowing when he's going to turn it on and how late into the season

that's going to happen, that's part of the real. reason why I just can't justify him being ranked ahead of names like, well, Garrett Crochet or Kyle Braddish. I have all those guys ahead of him. But the one thing I will say is, your expectation should not be that at some point Blake Snell is going to have a sub two ERA like he did over the final 18 starts or whatever it was last year. My expectation for Blake Snell is he's going to be a three-ish, three one, three-two-ish

ERA pitcher the rest of the way. and that's going to include sometimes when he's brilliant and sometimes when he's not any good. But generally speaking, I'm very confident that Blake Snell is going to figure out. All right, let's move on to some Waverwire hitters here and Ian Hap is starting to pick things up. He went two for four with his fifth home run.

Last seven games batting 364, three homers, and a stolen base. He is 68% rostered, Scott, if Ian Hap was dropped in 12-team points leagues, Pretty shallow format. Would you be looking to re-ad Ian Hap? If I needed an outfielder. If I didn't, probably not. But sure, he's heating up.

He was good last year. I'd look into it. A couple middle infielder. We spoke about Nolan Gorman yesterday. He's doing some things right now. Two for five with his 10th home run. Last 15 games batting 333 with six homers, two steals, a 1,200 OPS.

Joey Ortiz got the chance to lead off against Chotei Imanaga. He did not disappoint. two for three with a double, a walk, a steel, and three runs scored. Nick Gonzalez continues to hit for the Pirates. In game two of their double header, he went three for five with a double and his third home run. And Mason Win has extended his hitting streak to 18 games. He went three for four with an RBI, now batting over 300 with a 798 OPS. Chris, how would you rank this group, Gorman, Ortiz, Nick Gonzalez, and Mason win?

I think that's the order I may flop win. and Gonzalez, but I think Gorman Ortiz win Gonzalez is the way I'd go. I think all four of them are super interesting. It's kind of funny that all of a sudden, Nolan Gorman kind of looks like what we expected him to look like,

right? Like he's a third of the way through the season. He's on pace for 30 homers. Batting average, I'd expect something more like 230 to 240 than the 220 mark, but overall, not far. It doesn't feel like he's been playing up

expectations, but he's not super far from them. So I, Nolan Gorman, definitely the top one there. I will say Mason win. I'm getting some Tim Anderson vibes from him in that he might just be able to consistently run really high babbps because he hits a ton of line drives. He hits the ball all over the field. The one thing, and this is kind of in continuing the Tim Anderson lineage, why doesn't he run more?

He's like 88th percentile in sprint speed, but he's got seven steals. It's, I think, 10 attempts. I feel like this is a guy who could steal 30 plus bases. And it would make him a lot more interesting. If one, that happened and two, and this has to happen. They have to move him up in the lineup. He's hitting eighth still.

There were a few games where he's let off recently. They got it. They got to move him up. He's been too good and the rest of that line has been too bad for him to keep him. hitting this low. If I could say a couple of things real quick here. It was just yesterday I pointed out Nolan Gorman would have a stretch where he had like

eight home runs in two weeks. And little did I know he was with this home run at six home runs in 15 games. This basically started to do that now. And four of his 10 home runs this year, including this one on Wednesday off a lefty. So Cardinals. He can hit lefties. He hit lefties well last year. I don't.

I don't think he's a platoon player. I think Ortiz, I've been saying this for a couple weeks now, but I think Ortiz's value could explode. I wasn't even counting on them batting him lead off, but it makes sense because he's getting on base at a 380 clip. And he stole a base in his first start leading off. It was a second steal of the year, but he's fast enough to steal more.

And if they bat him lead off, that might encourage him to run more. You see that a lot. And if that happens, and we get 15 to 20 steals from Ortiz the rest of the way, in addition to everything else, it's going to be really valuable. Some hitters in deeper leagues, do any of these names matter? Elliot Ramos of the Giants, he's hit well since being recalled.

He went two for three with a walk and an RBI. He's betting 292 with an 801 OPS. A name we have not talked about is Otto Lopez with the Marlins, two for four with a steel, and two runs scored. He has three homers, three steals in 30 games played. and has started 16 of the past 17 games. Matt Veerling could be more of a factor with the Tigers now that Kerry Carpenter has gone on the IL,

and he had a massive day across their doubleheader. He went four for eight with two homers, five RBI, and that's just three days after he went four for six with a double dong. I believe that happened on Sunday. He started seven of the past eight for the Tigers. Andrew McCutcheon continues to hit three for four with his eighth homer, Nelson Velasquez, two for four with a double dong, and Corey Lee, a name in deeper two catcher leagues,

one for four with his fifth home run. Scott, anyone stand out here? Corey Lee, Velasquez, McCutcheon, Veerling, Otto Lopez, and Elliot Ramos. I think the one that stands out most for me is Matt Veerling. Mm-hmm. Because in May, with the two home runs in this double header for the month now, Veerling is batting 312 with five home runs,

and we are likely going to see the playing time increase, not that it was bad before. It's dual eligible, third base and outfield. Hit second today. And if you're wondering, okay, but he's Matt Veerling, he's been around a while, he hasn't been that useful. Well, his ground ball rate has gone from 49% last year to 34% this year, a lot more impactful contact because it's either line drys, which turn it to hits or fly balls, which can turn it to home runs. And we're seeing the impact on his numbers. So I think Veerling deserves some looks in five outfielder leagues at least.

Fair enough. Let's get into some of the waiver-wire pitchers. We spoke about McKenzie Gore. Again, he might only be out there in like 10, 12-team shallower leagues. Christopher Sanchez was great at the giant six shutout inning, seven strikeouts. He had 11 whiffs on 96 pitches. Velocity was up in this one. And he tweaked his pitch mix.

He threw less sinkers. And he threw his cutter eight times. and overall it was a very strong outing for him. It's weird because we thought Christopher Sanchez's control was compromised by him throwing harder this year. He's thrown even harder in his last two starts, everything up a mile per hour and a half and walk nobody between the two of them.

So I don't know what's going on there, but I'm glad he stopped walking, guys. Yeah, he's 77% rostered. Same thing as Gore. He could be out there in some shallower league, I would say he's probably got to be closer to 100%. The way that Sanchez is pitching right now, in the month of May, it was a 203-ERA-126 whip for Christopher Sanchez.

And some other names, Braxton Garrett, solid start at the Padres, five innings, one run, two strikeouts there. Spencer Schwellenbach in his Major League debut against the Nationals. It was five innings, three runs, five strikeouts with 11 whiffs on 88 pitches. David Peterson, solid in his season debut, up against the Dodgers, five innings,

three runs, two of those earned with three strikeouts. And Andre Palante made his first start of the season for the Cardinals. He was at Cincinnati. He threw six shutout

with four strikeouts. Chris, anything you'd like to add on that group, Palante, Peterson, Schwellenbach, and Braxton Garrett. Garrett probably under-roastered at 51%.

It's going to be hard for him to stand out in an environment where suddenly everybody's pitching like him, because really the last couple of seasons, he's been like a really solid 360RA, decent whip. But if there are 90 pitchers doing that, it's a lot harder to stand out.

So I'm not saying he's massively under roster, but 51% is probably too low. Schwellenbach, I thought was pretty interesting. He's thrown 13 innings above high A in his career, and he's a converted reliever. So I'm assuming that, the 88 pitches he threw today were the career high. He had never thrown that many in the minors. Probably didn't throw that many in college. Maybe, you know, a particularly irresponsible high school

coach might have had him throwing 100 way back in the day. But it's all to say that it was uncharted territory for him in a lot of ways, making his major league debut. It wasn't an incredible start. But if he sticks around with the Braves, I'm not saying Spencer Schwanbach needs to be out, needs to be rostered any more than he is, 23%. that seems right, but it's definitely one to watch moving forward if the Braves give him another turn. Yeah, I think he earned that much at least.

Again, there's no urgency to make a move for him with all the pitching options. Worth noting that all three runs came on a home run in his final inning. So he was cruising basically before that through 68% of his pitches for strikes. Schwellenbach also has five pitches. It's more of a, like, his profile is more like one of those guys who just throws the kitchen sink at the other team rather than leaning on one really dominant pitch.

Except he sits 95-97. Yeah. No, I mean, with a lot of cutting action, he looked good to me. All right, let's get into the rest of the leftovers from Wednesday's action. and yes, it feels irresponsible that we're getting to some of these names this late, but, you know, lots going on. Corbyn Burns turned in a great start against the Red Sox. He threw seven innings one unearned run with five strikeouts.

Terrick Scuba keeps dominating up against the Pirates. He threw seven shutout with eight strikeouts. And George Kirby produced a bounce back start up against the Astros. It was six innings, one run, eight strikeouts. And he tweaked his pitch mix in this one, made his. his slider, his most used pitch. He threw 32% of the time. The velocity was up. And overall, it looked really good for George Kirby. A pitch that he normally doesn't use all that often. It's got anything to add on Kirby, Scoobel, and Corby Burns. I made my biggest observation there with Kirby was the one you already made with the slider usage. And maybe that'll help to get him back on track. I will say for Corbyn Burns. Remember two starts ago, he had a big. strikeout outing and his slider velocity was was down quite a bit. It looked intentional and he was getting more whist with it.

But since then, it's kind of been back to not missing as many bats as we're used to Corbyn Burns missing. And in fact, he's only had two starts all year with more than a strikeout per inning. That one start I alluded to and his opening day start. So it's a little strange, a little strange for Corbyn Burns. It's hard to knock up too much when he's pitching so well, but I miss the strikeouts. Yeah, it's especially weird in this start, too, because he had 16 whiffs, but only five strikeouts. So kind of felt like he was deserving of a few more strikeouts there. That is Corbyn Burns.

He's actually talked about it. I don't know if we want to get this deep into it, but he's said that he thinks hitters have changed their approach to him. and he's he's got he did kind of talk about how he wanted to find more ways to miss bats and that was before the big strikeout performance where his slider velocity was down so I thought that was part of it

but since it hasn't proven to be sustainable I don't know if it means anything carry on all right this next group includes Paul Skeins who's now gone six innings in three straight he was at the Tigers six innings two runs nine strikeouts, 19 whiffs on 96 pitches. And it looks like he didn't really have his slider working very well in this start.

So what he did was he led with the splinker and it was awesome. It had 11 of his 19 whiffs. And here we are. Paul Skeen's 245, ERA, 0.91 whip in his first four career starts. Seth Lugo, another quality start at the twins, six innings, one run, five strikeouts. I'm not exactly sure how he's doing it. kind of doing like this Chris Bassett thing where he's just throwing a ton of different pitches. And it's working so far for Seth Lugo.

Justin Verlander turned in a great start at the Mariners. Seven innings, one run, nine strikeouts. He now has eight plus strikeouts in three of his last four outings. Chris, anything to add on JV, Lugo, and Paul Skeens. So Lugo has made what, 11 starts this season, 12 starts this season. I just want to, I always want to know if a player is doing. something they've never done before. And it feels like with Seth Lugo, we get a stretch like this every year where it's like,

wow, Seth Lugo is pitching really well, but it doesn't really make sense how he's doing it. And it, yeah, I think that's just something that happens occasionally. And we're going to look up at the end of the year. And Seth Lugo's ERA is going to be like 36, 3.7 where it always is. And that's fine. That's useful. but I think he's one of the more glaringly obvious sell-high candidates in baseball right now.

This is only his second year starting. Technically, his third, but the first was back in 2017. So I don't know that we really have a good grasp of what kind of pitcher Lugo is. He's added a couple of pitches this year, a slurve and a cutter, at least by stack cast how they classify pitches. And so he's got this eight-pitch arsenal like Frank was talking about.

No, I don't disagree with the broader point that it doesn't seem like he's going to be the number two pitcher in fantasy all year. It doesn't seem like he has the profile for that. Just like it doesn't seem Ranger Suarez, likes Ranger Suarez has the profile to be the number one pitcher in fantasy all year. But in fairness, Ranger Suarez is expected ERA as a run and a half lower. Yeah. Yeah. I do have them. him about 30 spots apart in my rankings.

So I guess Seth Lugo is a cell high in that respect. But he continues to get it done. Some hitting leftovers. Corby and Carroll registered the first three, his first three hit game of the season on May 29. Three for five with a double and an RBI. Corey Seeger did it again. He now has eight home runs in his last eight games.

And he's up to 13 home runs total for the season. Kyle Schwaber, he's hot. He's hot all of a sudden. two for four with a sock and a shoe. It's the second time he's done that in his past three games. Nick Castellanos, good news for you, Chris. He's coming around as well. 258 batting average, three homers, 839 OPS in his last seven.

Will Smith, three for five with a double dong. He had four hard hits in that game. Shohei Otani blasted another home run, his 14th of the season. Gunner Henderson continues his huge breakout, one for four with a grand slam. It was his 18th home run. home run of the season. Christian Yelich has basically picked up

where he left off since returning from the IL, 2 for 4 with a mammoth home run, 1 10.5 exit velocity, 441 feet. And Anthony Volpe, I wanted to mention, extended his hitting streak to 21 games. Actually, I think I mentioned that earlier. So whatever, we'll move on.

Some quick bullpen updates for the Cardinals. Ryan Helsley got the ninth with a three-run lead. He gave up one run, but picked up his 18th save and that now takes over the league lead. For Tampa Bay, Pete Fairbanks who worked the scoreless ninth with the game tied, he wound up with the win. For the Blue Jays, Jordan Romano entered with a three-run lead.

He gave up a solo home run, but picked up his eighth save. And for the Yankees, Clay Holmes got the ninth with a one-run lead. He allowed to walk and a hit, but picked up his 16th save of the season. To stream or not to stream for Thursday, and I believe we said,

Christian Scott, Chris Paddock, and Trevor Williams. Oh, no, James and Tyone, maybe. I don't like James and Tyone, but I don't really love any of these choices. Christian Scott is the most likely, even though it's a tough matchup. I think I like Spencer Erigetti against Seattle more than Jameson Tyone. Friday, I didn't write them in, so I'll just quickly list them off. Graham Ashcraft at the Cubs. Nah.

Probably not, right? Miles Michaelis at the Cubs. Phillies. Bailey Falter at the Blue Jays. Probably not. I don't think so. Jose Urania at the Marlins? Revenge game.

Probably not. I mean, it's the Marlins, so anything can happen. J.P. Sears, he could turn out starts, but he's at Atlanta. Yeah. I don't think so. Don't love the win potential against Chris Sale either. All right, here we go.

Michael Walker, revenge game. the Padres. That's okay. Yeah. Jose Soriano at the Mariners. Oh, I like that one. He was one of my sleeper pitchers for this week. Yeah, it's okay.

Most strikeout prone team against Rides, unless the stats have changed. Unless everyone by like two percentage points, I think, their strikeout rate. Yeah. And there's nothing else. So go with Waka against the Padres and Jose Soriano at the Mariners.

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.