Fantasy Baseball Today - Rookie Hitter Hype, Injury Replacements & Waiver Wire Pitchers! (6/12 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 12, 2023

Garrett Whitlock might have unlocked something with his sweeper (2:00). ... AJ Smith-Shawver and Andrew Abbott's underlying numbers have been underwhelming (7:45). ... Corbin Carroll is on fire and Gunnar Henderson is coming around (14:35). ... How much FAB did Elly De La Cruz go for (23:13)? ... Let's break down all of the latest waiver wire pitchers (28:20). ... Pete Alonso is out 3-4 weeks (39:16). How do we replace him? ... What about Yordan Alvarez replacements (45:33)? ... News (49:16): Julio Urias had a setback and didn't return this weekend. ... What's the latest on Shane Bieber and Blake Snell (55:41)? ... We wrap up with bullpen updates and streamers (1:01:55). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  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/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. It was a crazy weekend. Let's break it all down.

Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, June 12. Frank Stanfield, joined by Scott White and the returning. Chris Towers. That's right. He is still on this podcast. Today on the show, injury replacements for both Pete Alonzo and Yoron Alvarez. Gunner Henderson had a breakout weekend, a vintage performance for Kyle Hendricks, and much more. Before we get started, please like this video and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. And if you're listening on the audio side, download, follow, and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify.

Chris, you are back. How was life? I'm back for the last time. I know we've had this like four different times. over the last month and a half. It's been a crazy couple of weeks for me, or month and a half, I guess, six weeks.

But I am back. I'm here. And, yeah, it was in South Florida for a little while. It was hot. I'm back. I got children in my apartment this week.

It's weird. That's strange. My nieces are staying with me. That's been fun. But I'm here. I'm back moving forward. So, yeah,

let's go. I'm happy that you pointed out that they were your family, not that you just have random kids. Just random kids. Just left the door open, you know. And even just the way you started the sentence, I got children. Like, where's the sentence going?

Anyway, we've got a lot to talk about. Let's get into it. I don't believe. All right. Well, let's go over to you, Scotty. Me? Yeah, why not? Let's do it.

That's fine. So I will do Garrett. You said it was a crazy weekend, first of all. I actually don't think it was a crazy weekend. It was rather. tame weekend. Waiver Wire was pretty lame in most of my leagues, I have to say. But one player who caught my interest from this weekend

was Garrett Whitlock, who of course is a familiar name to people who play fantasy. He's been a perpetual tease, I'd say, since he first moved into the rotation for the Red Sox last year. But he's firmly in the rotation now. He's had a couple of IL stents. He's healthy now. And he's doing some interesting things. So at the Yankees on Friday, Garrett Whitlock allowed one earn run in six and a third

innings, seven hits, one walk, six strikeouts. A pretty good start. He had 18 strikeouts on 88 pitches. That's a really good rate. And uncharacteristically. Swinging strikes. You said strikeouts, guy. I'm sorry, 18 swinging strikes on 88 pitches.

That's a really good rate. Yeah, that'd be a good reason to lead the show. Yes, it would. 18 strikeouts. 18 swinging strikes. strikes on ADA pitches, noncharacteristically good rate for Garrett Whitlock. Ten of them came on 30% sweepers. He threw a sweeper 30% of the time he was responsible for 10 of the 18 whiffs.

Now he, notice I said sweeper and not slider, and there's, of course, some crossover between those two pitches. Sometimes it seems like stat cast reclassifies them on a whim. But this pitch, this slider slash sweeper that Garrett Whitlock is throwing, is four miles per hour slower than the slider he threw last year. So I think it's fair to say it's a different pitch and is suddenly his best swing and miss pitch. For the year, he has a better than 50% whiff rate on it. And in this start, he threw it a lot more. Like I said, 30% of the time.

I've always been kind of a downer about Whitlock in the starting role because even when he was this dominant setup guy for the Red Sox, he wasn't a big bat misser, and normally when you're extended over more innings, you become even less of a batmisser. So what does the upside really look like for Garrett Whitlock? And like I said, he's been a perpetual tease. So, you know, he hasn't delivered huge results in fantasy.

but this pitch might be a game changer for him. And I feel like this start, we could point back to this start maybe as the time Garrett Whitlock emerged as a legitimate fantasy asset. So if he's out there in your leagues, certainly in points leagues, you know, he's for leave pitcher eligible. That makes him interesting.

Might be worth giving him a second look. Maybe he's just teasing us again. But I'm going to look into Garrett Whitlock again. Yeah. A few things I'd like to point out, too. at that game on Friday, he looked dominant. Want to point out, again, the Yankees lineup without Aaron Judge and without Harrison Bader,

it's not great. So I think you kind of take that... It's a bad lineup. It's bad. It's a bad lineup. Whenever Willie Calhoun, as much as I love the guy, is hitting lead off or batting third in a lineup, you know it's probably not a great lineup. And Scott, you pointed out that Whitlock has been better in his career as a reliever

versus a starter. And just to break down that split, as a starter in his career, a 4.44 ERA, a 1-26 whip and as a reliever 2-24 ERA with a 0.99 whip. So much better as a reliever so far. But this is interesting, the sweeper for him. And we'll see where it goes from here. There were other sparse that pitched pretty well this weekend. Also, Tanner Hauke, also up against the Yankees,

six endings of two-run ball, six strikeouts with 14 swinging strikes. He's another one that, you know, he flashes some upside here, there, but he's just been wildly inconsistent. Johann Oviedo has allowed three earned runs or fewer in six straight starts. And then Clark Schmidt on Sunday night baseball, five and a third, one run, four strikeouts to zero walks. Scott, how would you rank that group of SPARPS in particular? Clark Schmidt, Johann Oviedo, Tanner Hauk, and Garrett Whitlock. Well, I'm going to put Whitlock number one after this start, after what we saw with that pitch in this start.

I'll put Hauk second And like he has He has a great swinging strike rate Every start he has a great swinging strike rate And it takes me a long time to fall out of love With those kinds of pitchers You know whatever whatever timetable took me To fall out of love with Patrick Sandoval

I guess that's what we're working with with For Tanner Halk too But the consistency hasn't been there in terms of everything else his two starts prior to this one were pretty bad, even though he got a lot of swinging strikes. But I remain intrigued, even though I wouldn't call Tanner Huckmust roster. So he's second.

And then the other two, I don't care that much about Oviedo. And who was the other one? Clark Schmidt. Schmidt. Schmidt's been getting better results recently, but not good enough to really move the needle for me. I'll go Oviedo slightly ahead of Schmidt,

but they're both much lower than the two Red Sox. Yeah. I agree on the Red Sox. And if you're just looking for pitchers to stream this week, Whitlock is going up against the Rockies in Fenway, so you get them out of course field. And Tanner Howk is going up against the Yankees again next weekend in Fenway. And obviously, Aaron Judge, will not be back by then.

Chris, let's slide over to you. Oh, my goodness gracious, from the weekend. Yeah, let's talk about two interesting prospects. We got the call last week, A.J. Smith Schaver and Andrew Abbott. And I know we like to get excited about prospects. We're going to talk a lot about Ali Dela Cruz soon and some other guys. But I don't think AJ Smith Schaver especially, but also Andrew Abbott, look particularly interesting right now. Both of them, Abbott's results are pretty good, 11.2 scoreless innings through his first two starts.

Shaver, I mean, it was what, one run in five and a third innings against the nationals in his first start. Am I remembering that correctly? That was two unearned runs over five and a hundred. third, yep. Two strikeouts, six swinging strikes in that one. And I thought just giving the benefit of the doubt with the Braves, given that, you know, they are an aggressive organization. They prioritize stuff with their pitchers. The fact that he's 20 years old, started the season at high A, made the leap to the majors. This is AJ Smith-Shawber. I just kind of assumed like, okay, this guy's got to get, got to have really good stuff. Like this is a situation where, you know, he was, I think he wasn't draft. as a pitcher or he was a two sport, two, uh, two sport guy or two way guy. Yeah, he didn't really start pitching until senior year of high school. Big athletic guy. I just kind of assumed this was a guy who was going to come up and, you know, maybe it wasn't

99, maybe it wasn't 101 like Spencer Strider, but I assumed like, okay, he's got good stuff and he's just been learning to harness it. That's not what we've seen from him. He's got a 93 mile an hour average fastball velocity in this start. That's below average. for a right-handed starter at this point, which for those of you who are new to baseball, that has not always been the case.

Averaging 93 miles per hour used to meant you were a pretty hard thrower. That is not the case anymore. His slider is interesting. It's this weird, like, really low spin pitch that gets a lot of, a lot of drop from gravity, not necessarily from spin. And, like, the results in the miners were really good. but I look at what AJ Smith-Shawber did in his first start, especially, and just, I don't see much to get excited about it. It just kind of looks like a fourth or fifth starter, which for a real-life baseball team, getting that from a 20-year-old who started at high A is really impressive.

But for fantasy, I just, I don't see much in AJ Smith-Shava. The various stuff metrics aren't particularly impressed with him. And kind of the same thing for Andrew Abbott, who had. just absolutely bonkers numbers in the minors. 90 strikeouts and 54 innings between AA and AAA, obviously much better in AA using that like tacky ball. There were some concerns that that was kind of skewing the numbers a little bit. 11 and 2 thirds scoreless innings in his first two career starts.

However, just 10 strikeouts, seven walks, not a lot of swings and misses. The stuff metrics again. Don't love him. I think it's an 86 stuff plus. according to or through his first two starts. And so it's just both of these, AJ Smith,

Chavez just seemed like guys. They don't seem particularly, it's not a Mason Miller situation. You know, obviously wasn't perfect and then got hurt. So, you know, he wasn't a big hit.

But it's not the kind of thing watching both of these two guys pitch where I'm like, oh, I need these guys on my roster, you know? Yeah. I mean,

I've been kind of, surprised by how big some of the bids have been on them and some of those 15 team analyst leagues where the, you know, Fab only runs Sunday night. And so we get a chance to compare, you know, how big the bids have been on these. Because I agree, these aren't like Tanner Bybee or even like Bobby Miller. They're just not that caliber. Not Bryce Miller even. With A.J. Smith Schallfer, Josh Schallver, I'm not a,

I'm not ready to jump to that conclusion yet. I agree that the performance against the nationals on Fridays there's nothing to write home about. It was good enough for a first major league start, but I expected him to get more strikeouts. The velocity, he doesn't normally average 93 on his fastball. That's not in the scouting reports, but some of the data we do have from the minor leagues,

he was averaging 95 on his fastball. I don't know why it's been slower so far in the majors. I don't know if he's just being extra careful. I don't know what's going on there, but that doesn't have to be a permanent thing for AJ Smith Schafer. And, you know, if he does get that fastball up to closer to where he was thrown in the miners, maybe the results would look different. But I am definitely in cell high mode on Andrew Abbott because the scout, like the M.O. on him was,

okay, not a lot of velocity, but, you know, He's got this optimal vertical approach angle on the fastball that makes it really, you know, sort of like the report on Joe Ryan makes it really difficult to hit, gets a lot of swings and misses. That's why he had all those strikeouts in the minors. You know, pretty good breaking ball to pair with it. He has to miss bats in order to be effective because he's not, you know, the stuff, like the raw stuff just isn't that good for Andrew Abbott. And so in his second start that we saw a continuation of what we saw in the first start

where he just wasn't missing that many bats, he missed. And on the fastball in particular, what's supposed to be his best pitch, he had one swinging strike on, I believe, 51 fastballs this weekend, did Andrew Abbott, managed to get good results, okay. But I think he's playing with fire there.

You mentioned the average exit velocity was very high. 96 miles per hour in this start on his average. Jags of velocity. Yeah, it doesn't get much worse than that. So that he got through five and two thirds innings without giving up a run. Yeah, I mean, the ERA through two starts is great for Andrew Abbott. And that combined with the prospect type, combined with the minor league numbers, I think it's a good time to see what you can get for him. Because if he continues down this path, it could get a lot worse. Only other thing I'll point out with A.J. Smith-Shaw, are going up against the Nationals

in his first start on Friday. They have the third lowest strikeout percentage against right-hand pitchers this season. So they do put the ball in play quite a bit. And if you're just looking at matchups for this upcoming week, Smith Schaver at Detroit, obviously, you know, one of the best matchups in baseball right now in terms of pitchers. So yeah, we'll get back to the waiver wire pitchers in just a little bit. But I wanted to highlight two names here for me. Oh my goodness gracious. And kind of a tag team of the two top prospects coming into the season. And that's Corbyn Carroll and Gunner Henderson. First and foremost with Corbyn Carroll. He is just going wild right now.

Three for five with a double dong on Friday. And then he went three for five again on Sunday. He added another stolen base. He is up to 13 home runs and 19 steals. Entering Sunday, he was the third best outfielder in head to head points leagues and in Roto. I mean, I know he's clearly the rookie of the year frontrunner. There's nobody I'm forgetting, right? No, he very clearly is, although I saw L.A.

LeCruz's betting odds are closer to Corby and Carroll than they should be. Go put some money on Corby and Carroll for that. I agree. He is on pay and he's not, he's probably not going to continue this, but his current 150 game pace, 308 average, 116 runs, 32 homers, 81 RBI 47 stolen bases. He's not just the rookie of the year frontrunner. He's a legitimate NL MVP candidate right now. Before today's game. He was fifth in the National League and wins above replacement. Just point two behind Ronald Acuna. Yeah. He, like, that's

like, he's a first rounder, right? No, I mean, he's the way he's playing right now, he's the top five, top three picnics here. Those numbers that you read off. He's Tray Turner. Those numbers you read off, Chris, just 150 game pace, it reminded me a lot of breakout Ronald Acuna, right? Like, yeah. Basically

what Acuna is doing right now, he's really not far off from that. And he's doing that as a rookie. So Corby and Carol has been obviously ridiculous. And we've been waiting all season for signs from Gunner Henderson. And we've seen some stretches here to there, but not enough consistency. Hopefully this is what gets him on track. I think maybe we could look back at this weekend later on in the season and say,

that was the weekend. That was the one that got Gunner Henderson on track this year. He had nine hits, including two homers and two steals. He's let off two straight games for the Baltimore Orioles. And the home run that he hit on Sunday, 11.8 exit velocity, 462 feet. So it seems like the game might be slowing down a little bit for Gunner. In the month of June, he's hitting 458, four homers, two steals, a 1480 OPS, and making a lot more contact. And I'll point out that this was about the time last year when Bobby Witt took off in his rookie season

after a very rough stretch. Now, Gunner Henderson did enter this year with a little bit of major league experience that Bobby Witt didn't have at the start of last year. But still, I mean, this kind of talent and we've talked before how in recent years it seems like it's taking longer for prospects to adapt to the majors they could fire it up mid-season like this and be a force to be reckoned with

for the rest of the year and hopefully Gunner Henderson's going that route as for Corbyn Carroll like are you guys ready to move and pass Lake Julio Rodriguez Mike Trout in your rest of season rankings. Kyle Tucker, do you put him past him?

Kyle Tucker's an interesting one. I was just thinking about it today. I saw it. It's like 774 OPS, I think, for the season. It's like, I feel like we've mentioned Kyle Tucker's name like once since the start of the season and we haven't gotten any like, ah, what's going on with Kyle Tucker? And it's just because he's just been like just good enough

not to garner any panic. But that's an interesting one. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if I'm ready for it. it yet, but I probably need to be. My gut is telling me yes. I brought that up. I think it was either Thursday or Friday, Scott, and I'm like, at what point do we move

Corby and Carol ahead of those names? Basically, the same question. And, you know, obviously, you know, Alvarez can drop down a little bit with his injury going on the IL. But I think you can make a case for top five, right? Like Acuna, Tatis, Betts, and then I'm, like, you can make the case for Carol over bets. What were our pie in the sky hopes for Corby and Carroll coming in? We said, best case scenario, he could do sort of what we expect Trey Turner to do.

And that's kind of seems to be what he's doing now. Now, you could look at the expected stats. Okay, the expected batting average is closer to 260 than 300. But, you know, you also look at the minor league track record, and this guy was basically this at every level. And, you know, maybe it's taken him a couple months to really get up to speed in the majors, too. Not that he was struggling early on, but maybe this is him taking off and becoming who Corbyn-Carrill was always meant to be. Now, you know, I'll point out, like, you mentioned it, but he's outpacing his expected stats by a lot.

He has a 404 Wobah. He has a 350 expected Wobah. A 350 expected Wobba is very good. But, for example, Julio Rodriguez's expected Wobah is 340. 345. So, you know, if those two numbers converge, I'll still lean towards the guy who was already a first round caliber player last year, although certainly it's close. The other thing I would point out is just his numbers against non-fastballs are pretty grim. 283 expected Wobah against breaking pitches, 272 against off-speed pitches. He's absolutely destroying fastballs. He has a 498 Wobah. against fastballs. 368 batting average 728 slugging percentage

does Corby and Carroll against fastballs. But, you know, this could be a situation, could be, where there's an adjustment coming, and then it's an adjustment to the adjustment. That's what it always is with young players. We've seen it with Julio Rodriguez. We've seen it with Bobby Witt. And it could just be that this is the peak

for Corby and Carroll and then there's you know what he becomes what he eventually becomes could just be this once he adjust but you know I do think there are there's likely to be some regression moving forward it's look yeah I mean

we're talking about him in the context of first round players now so like you start nitpicking this is not a knock on Corby and Carroll I think he's a first round player now it's just like and really in terms of like what's actionable is anybody really trading one soda for corbin carroll is anybody

trading corbin caro for won soto i don't think there's anything actionable there you know so it's like we're splitting hairs in a way that doesn't really matter the point is the fact that he's even in this conversation means that he's living up to the 85th to 90th percentile expectations yep and the last thing i'll point out on corbin carroll makes a lot of contact 19 percent strikeout rate i wonder if he'll become a player The same way that we look at a Jose Al Tuvei where every year he just outperforms expected numbers and his stat cast numbers because Corbyn Carroll does pull the ball a lot, a near 47% pull rate. And we've said that for, you know, I guess smaller guys like this in the past, too, where he just gets the most out of his skill set because he pulls the ball as much as he does. But it's so interesting because when you actually look at his spray chart, it doesn't look like Jose Altuve at all.

Interesting. More than half of his home runs have gone to the opposite field. Let me see. One, two, three, four, five, six. Two to center. Yeah, it's been a very equitable distribution. All right. So it's, I don't know.

He's awesome. He's really, really good. Yes, he is. Corby and Carol and hopefully Gunner Henderson, we're talking about him. Probably not in the same light, but hopefully does use this as like a launching pad for the rest of the season. Gunner Henderson, the longest home run that has ever been hit to Utah Street at

Orioles Park at Camden Yards, 462 feet. That's impressive. Yeah, yeah, sure is. All right, let's take our first break, and when we return, we'll talk about another player who's young and really awesome.

We'll do that right after this. Welcome back, and are you interested in buying some fantasy baseball today? Merch, well, now you can at the Paramount Shop, which offers a mountain of merch from the Paramount shows and movies that you love. Scan the QR code in the top right corner if you're watching on YouTube

or head to Paramountshop.com. Paramount Shop, where, products are paramount. I know that we've talked a lot about L.E. D.A. Cruz, so far in his short stint up here in the majors. He's only played seven games. He just continues to amaze.

He had four more hits this weekend, including two more steals. And Chris, I just kind of wanted to get a, I guess, a cliff notes, spark notes, your early takeaways from L.A. De LaCruz and what he's done. Because power and speed has been there, but he also has 10 strikeouts,

which equates to a 37% strikeout rate. What do you think? I'm really, really happy that we only had to live like a month in an O'Neo Cruz-less world because L.A.D.A.Cruz

is just like a carbon copy of O'Neo Cruz, and I love it. He has the two hardest hit balls by Cincinnati Reds player this season. He has the, I think it's at least

the six fastest sprint speeds by a Reds player so far this season. I'm not sure if it's more, but it's at least the top six. And the two hardest thrown balls by a major league infielder this season.

I think one of them reached 97 miles per hour. He is ludicrously tooled up. And also, I think you can reasonably call him a sell high candidate right now because he's the most exciting player in baseball. And he's must see TV and people are dropping 500 plus dollars in fab on him in high stakes leagues. And this is a guy who's going to strike out a. lot. No matter what, there's going to be a lot of strikeouts here. And it could be a point where he just can't overcome it. It's entirely possible. We saw it with O'Neill Cruz last season. Everything

we've said about Ellie Dela Cruz this season was true about O'Neill Cruz last season. He was arguably the most tooled up player in baseball. And he kind of stunk for two months before he figured it out. So that could be what happens with L.A. Dela Cruz. But you want him on your team. it's way more fun to not sell high on Ellie De La Cruz isn't it? I mean, like, I just wonder how high you would have to because he got called up and I immediately moved him up to ninth in my shortstop rankings. And one through eight in shortstop are awfully good players, you know, like eighth is, like in categories leagues, I immediately had him ahead of Xander Bogart's for instance.

So, I mean, that's a top 60 plus. probably, maybe top 50. Right. So you'll have to get somebody real. And I'm not opposed to it. But I think anything less than that, you're really risking, missing out on huge production because, you know, the O'Neill-Cruz comparison is apt

and they're often compared. I do think L.E. De La Cruz is just a little bit better. Just a little bit better. It's hard to say that because we've already used such superlatives for O'No Cruz. Elie De La Cruz seems just a little bit better at everything. And the fact he managed to maintain very high batting averages in the minors, despite striking out at a high rate there too.

I've often made the argument that a guy who strikes out more than 30% of the time of the majors is probably doomed to a low batting average at worst. But the way to get around that is with premium exit velocity, perilative exit velocities. And I don't think we know what it takes for somebody who hits the ball as Ellie de la Cruz does. I don't know what it would take to stop that in terms of strikeout rate because we've never seen somebody

who hits this ball before, this hard before. Except maybe O'Neill Cruz, but again, Elie de la Cruz seems a little bit more consistent with how hard he hits the ball even than that. And in my two 15-team Roto leagues where Fab already ran, Ellie De LaDela Cruz went for 690, 690

out of a $1,000 dollar budget, So 69% and he went for 377 in the other one. So yeah, I don't 3.08 and 580 in in my two ones that just ran. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's going to be all over the place. But yeah, ranging anywhere from 30% to as high as nearly 70% is what I mean, he's already he's already 95% rostered on CBS. So. Yeah. That's it's just because Tout Wars and TGFBI have we or NFBC have. have weird weird rules about when players can and can't be added I think is the only reason why

Tele Cruz is available. And most leagues have daily pickups in some way. So, you know, it's only relevant if you're in a weekly Fab Run League or Waver Wire Run League that he'd still be out there. But no, I'd throw as much as you possibly can throw at him without putting yourself in a position where you can never pick up anybody again. Like if zero bids are allowed in your league,

throw everything at him and just rely on zero dollar the rest of the year. If you have to make a $1 bid to get anybody, minimum $1 bid, then maybe leave yourself with a couple dozen dollars. But that's it. All right. Let's get into the waiver wire pitchers.

And this first group was going to include A.J. Smith-Shawver and Andrew Abbott. The other name I had in here was Brian Beow, who now has back-to-back quality starts. He pitched seven innings of two-run ball with just three strikeouts at the Yankees. He's down to a 378 ERA. He does have a pretty high whip 1.34,

nearly a strikeout per inning. Has been pitching much better as of late. Chris, since you had the skepticism on this group of pitchers, would you put Brian Beyo at the top ahead of Smith Chauver and Andrew Abbott? I think he's right in that same group. I think there are things to like

about Brian Beow, but I don't know. He throws hard, but he doesn't get a lot of whiffs. He doesn't have like consistency with his breaking pitches. Even today's game against a very bad Yankees lineup, you got three strikeouts and walk two over seven innings. So it's like, was he actually good or was it just that nobody on the Yankees can hit? I mean, DJ LeMayhew has like a 30% strikeout rate right now. Like that's, it's a, it's a rough time.

Yeah. In New York. I'm going to put Bayo ahead of those other two because I think he's an extreme groundball pitcher at least close to the level Frumber Valdez is and among what we've seen in the majors

so far between Abbott, Ms. Schaver, and Bayo Bayo's change up appears to be the best swing and miss pitch of the three of them. So I think he has them beat on two fronts and I think he's close to I think Bayo's potentially close to having like a real breakthrough that makes you wish you had already picked them up.

So I'm going to say Bayou, Bayo over those other two. And Bayo going up against the Yankees again this week without Aaron Judge. So pretty good matchup for him as well. Waver Wire pitchers part two. Domingo Hermann has turned in another quality start. He was up against the Red Sox, six innings of one-run ball with five strikeouts. He's got the ERA down to 3.49 with a 0.99 whip. Josiah Gray had a solid start at the Braves.

five innings of one-run ball, six strikeouts, with 18 swinging strikes on 96 pitches, and Braxton Garrett keeps racking up the whiffs. I know he's not getting quality starts. He doesn't go six innings, but five-and-a-third shutout, nine strikeouts to one walk, 14 swinging strikes at the White Sox this weekend.

Scott, how would you rank this group? Braxton, Garrett, Josiah Gray, and Domingo Hermann. I will go Hermann first, and then I will go... I guess I'll go Garrett just because the more we see of Josiah Gray, the less there appears to be to like. He goes deeper into games than Garrett.

Like, that's the biggest knock on Braxton Garrett. I think he's only had one start this year where he's gone six innings. And that's kind of a big deal, if you're talking about making a fantasy impact. But over his last, I guess you have the number here, last seven starts the 289 ERA.

And also like a 16-10, percent swinging strike rate during that stretch. Oh, actually, okay, this is what I have. Last six starts for Braxton Garrett, 225, VRA, 104 whip, 16% swinging strike rate, mostly on the strength of that slider. He's introduced a cutter to his arsenal that seemed to help him take off some way. It doesn't look like a big swing and miss pitch on its own, but it's helped. I think it's helped bring out the best of the slider and make it so he gets more whiffs with that.

So I'm interested in Braxton Garrett because I like the way he's trending. And yet I don't think because he tends to have these five-inning starts, I don't think he's been particularly useful yet. I think it's a low-ceiling high floor play with Braxton Garrett. And I don't know what the Marlins are going to do about Trevor Rogers, who had a setback this week, but it was a non-throwing shoulder. And it seems like he could still be back within the next week. or so.

And so I think they should just go with a six-man rotation. I think it would be incredibly stupid if they sent Yuri Perez down. I don't think Brax and Garrett's going to get sent down. So we'll see. But I would probably rather have him than Armand or Josiah Gray just because I feel like he's a little more predictable, right? He's basically, he's had the one horrible start. That came against the Braves where they had, I think, 14 hits and 11 runs.

Outside of that, his ERA is like 2.6 or something. Gregson Garrett's actually been really good this season. So I think, just because I don't have much trust in Armand or Josiah Gray, both of them, you know, the peripherals suggest that they're more like four, five pitchers than, you know, mid three. So I would just kind of go with Garrett there. Hermann gets strikeouts at least. He gets some strikeouts, but he's below one per inning, right? And Hermon has a 0.99 whip on the. Yeah, that's...

Yeah, that's... Gry has got to be at one point. Like, the... Josiah doesn't get a strikeouts at a good rate, and his walk rate is now, uh, 4.6 per 9. Yeah, his whips over one force. I don't know how Josiah Gray still has a 3ERA. I really...

Yeah, his quality contact metrics are much improved this season, but yeah, there's a reckoning coming for him. Mm-hmm. Yeah. All right, let's move over to Waverwire pitchers, part three. Obviously, there's a lot of names emerging every weekend and Kyle Hendricks. It took us nearly 35 minutes here to get to him,

but the reason being is maybe we just don't buy it, even though it was a fantastic start and he took a no-hitter into the eighth inning at the San Francisco Giants. He allowed one hit, one walk, three strikeouts over those eight innings. He only had six swinging strikes. He gave up eight hard hits in this game.

Through four starts, Kyle Hendricks has a 309 ERA and a 1.07 whip. Ranger Suarez had a great start up against the Dodgers, six innings of one-run ball, eight strikeouts, and 14 swinging strikes for him in that one. At some point, I guess we have to kind of take Julio Tehran seriously, the way that he's pitching up against the Oakland A's, seven innings, one run, six strikeouts with 12 swinging strikes in that one.

And Taiwan Walker, I just want to point this out, two strong starts in a row where his velocity has been way up in both of them. And yeah, his previous starts seven shutout innings against the Tigers. and over the weekend, he faced the Dodgers, five shutout innings with five strikeouts there. So it's like kind of interesting, and he's at the Oakland A's this week as well. Chris, your latest thoughts on vintage Kyle Hendrix,

Ranger Suarez, Julio Turan, and Taiwan Walker. Hey, the red-hot Oakland Athletics winners of four straight in a row. Woo! Four in a row. JP got a win today. Did you see that? Yeah.

I forget what his last. last name is. Let's go. Cheers. I've been so bad about themes. I'm getting old, I guess. I don't know. I think Ranger Suarez is the most interesting of this group.

We've seen him pitch at a relatively high level over the past couple of years. I don't really have much interest in any of the other ones. Like Hendrix, it would be fun if he was good again, but I'm going to see more than, what is it, two good starts out of four. I know the overall ERA is pretty good, but it's not been like super great production overall. Mostly on the strength of this start is R.A. and WIPP.

So Ranger Suarez, I think, would be the most interesting. 327 FIP, XERA, not really backing it up. So I don't expect him to be particularly good, but he's the most interesting in this group.

I won't say a great group, one that you could trust, but I think it's intriguing. I think this is the group. And I'm willing to put all four pictures in this group, Julio Taran, certainly Taiwan Walker.

The most questionable of them are to Ron and Hendricks, just because it's been a while since we've seen them do anything worthwhile. But they're all for in like a category of when they're at their best, they give you a lot of length. And so they can be really useful to you for a time. But they're never like must-start pitchers that you should rely on. you should rely on beyond what their last couple starts have been, you know, and they're going to be added and dropped as needed throughout the year as they're going.

And I think the biggest thing is I don't necessarily know that there's much that any of them are doing that's super predictive moving forward. Like I think it's just like sometimes pitchers like this pitch well. and that's not to say that there's no reason for it. Like in Kyle Hendricks example, his command was probably really, really good in this start. And that's always been the thing is he gets a lot of weak contact. He doesn't give up walks.

And it helps him overcome a lack of strikeout stuff. It's just it's been a long time since we've seen him do that consistently enough. And I don't necessarily know that the fact that he did it this weekend means he's going to do it for the next five starts or 10 starts or even two starts. And the first time around. I mean, even the Kyle Hendricks we knew 2020 previously.

Like it was such an odd type of pitcher, such an odd formula for success, soft tosser. It was one of one. Right. And so it took me, you know, it took me like 50 starts into his career for me to actually buy into what he was doing. So how long is it going to take? If he has a career resurgence here, how long is it going to take for me to fully trust in it? Kyle Hendricks was like. one of the most profitable pitchers in fantasy for like five straight seasons because it was just like,

he can't keep doing this. And it was because there are a handful of pitchers who just blow up the model, right? Like the X-FIP model where it assumes, hey, most pitchers don't have that much control over the results on balls and play, strikeouts, walks, and home runs. That's what matter. And Kyle Hendricks is one of the very rare pitchers who actually did at his best. And maybe he's back to being that. It's just, it takes a really long time to know when that's a skill and when it's just noise. And especially in this environment too, with the shift restrictions and being a pitcher who puts balls in play, it's, this isn't the most ideal time to be a pitcher like that. So just pointing that out once again. And I think Hendricks's velocity, while he does not throw hard, it's like

88 miles per hour. It's actually up compared to where it has been. So we'll monitor and see, you know, if he could build off this. Obviously a great start here. But, uh, not fully on board yet. The big news from the weekend, we got Pete Alonzo and Yerdon Alvarez on the IEL. Let's start with some first base replacements. Pete Alonzo dealing with a bone bruise and a sprain in his left wrist, expected to miss three to four weeks. We also had Vinnie Pasquantino place on the IL on Saturday with right shoulder instability. So we are in need of some first baseman.

And I know, Scott, one of your sleeper hitters for this upcoming week was Nick Prado. We've talked a lot about Nolan Jones recently, who, I mean, he could potentially regardless of which injury you're dealing with. He has first base and outfield eligibility on CBS. We spoke about him extensively on Friday. What does he do this weekend? Two more homers, another steal. His home run on Sunday, a walkoff shot,

472 feet. I mean, this guy has massive, massive power. It's just, can he make enough contact? That is the biggest question for Nolan Jones. The other most added first baseman right now, Lamont Wade, he's someone who plays up in a head-to-head points league. Luke Rayleigh has played very well

over, I mean, really the whole season, but the past couple of weeks. The problem is that he does face three lefties, so is he going to play in those games this week? Probably not. And Owen Miller is the name that, you know, has consistently produced this season, five more hits this weekend, another steal. On Friday, he is up to 50% rostered, but only has five games this week. So it's got a lot of names that I'm throwing your way. I know, again, Prado was a sleeper hitter, Nolan Jones is emerging. And then three other names I threw out there, Lamont Wade, Luke Raleigh, and

and Owen Miller. Well, if Lamont Wade is out there, I feel like that's the easy solution. I think there's a case that he's the most under-rastered hitter in fantasy right now. You've got a guy with a OBP over 400 who generally bats leadoff and hits for power. I mean, I ran the numbers at one point last week. And Lamont Wade's home run rate, as in home run per plate appearance, was very similar to Luis Robert over the last three years.

So, like, that's an easy answer. That's somebody who, if you pick him up as a short-term replacement, very likely, just hold on to him the rest of the year. Nolan Jones is second on the list. I think he has the most upside of this group, especially playing in Colorado. I am worried by how much he's striking out, but he also, like, walked a ton in his minor league career.

The power's certainly there. with the peak ex of velocities are exactly what you want to see. Obviously has all the benefits of course field. And he's even stolen four bases in a short time up. So that's a nice bonus too. I would say I'm excited about Nolan Jones, regardless of whether you have a need at first base. And then the others I'm less interested in.

Even Prado, I think that's one where I want to emphasize the, He is a sleeper for me for week 12, but he's not a sleeper for me for the rest of the season because I don't like a lot of the underlying metrics. He's hot. He has good matchups. Okay, you could roll with him this week if you need a first baseman. Don't think Owen Miller has a lot of upside. Ryan Noda gets on base a lot,

but I don't think he has a particularly high ceiling, and Owen and Luke Rayleigh just doesn't play with the consistency. to matter in the majority of leagues. I think, you know, rotisserie leagues, five outfielder leagues, okay. But, yeah, he sits a lot. There's a name that you didn't mention that I think I like more than anybody but Wade or Jones. I really like Jones. I'm very excited about what we've seen from him.

Career 888 OPS at the AAA level, he's got ridiculous raw power. Would you like to hear the entire list of players with multiple home runs of at least 470 feet this season? Now, granted, L.A. D.A.Cruz has not been in the majors for that long. Yeah. So, and John Carlos Dan was on the I.O. Right. It's the entire list of players with multiple 470 plus foot home runs. Nolan Jones.

Pretty impressive. Yes. It's pretty impressive. We hit one 483 feet, I think, on Thursday as well. Especially since like half of Acuna's home runs are 400 feet. 50 feet or something. He's only got one over 470. But yeah,

Nolan Jones has 15 homers and nine stolen bases between AAA and the majors. And yeah, he was playing in Albuquerque. That's a very good offensive environment. But, of course, fields are pretty good offensive environment as well.

So I like Nolan Jones. But the name that you didn't mention so far, who I don't think we've mentioned on the podcast yet, but I really like is Kerry Carpenter, who had 30 homers at AAA last season, and was off to a decent start in April. I think he only hit like 214, but had like a 750 OPS. And then had multiple hits in every game since coming back from the IL this weekend.

It was three games. He went 8-4-12, if my math is correct, on that one. And he's up to an 847 OPS for the season, small sample sizes. But I kind of like Carrie Carpenter. He was someone I liked a little bit as a sleeper coming in, and what he's done so far is pretty impressive. So I'm pretty happy to have him. I think I would take him over Luke Rayleigh, Owen Miller, Ryan Noda.

Chris, it's all right. I know you haven't been here for a while. It might be a little bit of a little bit of rust that you're shaking off here on the podcast. You jumped ahead, man. Kerry Carpenter is in the outfield replacements. He doesn't have first base eligibility. He's not a first basement and we aren't talking about your now,

Vres yet. All right. I'm sorry. I'll leave the podcast. I'll leave. No, no, no. No. Yes, I do like him.

Perry Carpenter in deeper leagues as well. We'll get to him in just a little bit. I want to take our final break, and then we will talk about Yerdon Alvarez injury, and some of his replacements will do that right after this. Big thanks to everybody here watching us live. 643 people. We do appreciate you.

Make sure to hit that thumbs up, like this video, and subscribe to the channel. If you haven't already, Yerdon Alvarez was placed on the IL Friday with right oblique discomfort. We don't have a firm timetable, but as Scott pointed out, you know,

four to six weeks. That's probably what we're looking at here. There's something that it might be shorter than that I saw over the weekend. They're not ruling out a minimal stay. I expect it'll be longer than a minimal stay. But maybe it'll end up being two to four weeks instead of four to six. I hope you're right. And I hope many people are, I know many people are agreeing with that as well. Some of your sleeper outfielders for this upcoming week's got names that you liked. Marcel Ozuna. We know he had a big May. So far, he's having a very good June as well, batting 3.93 with two home runs.

Adam Duval and Eddie Rosario were also on your list. A few names that made some noise this weekend. Jock Peterson went 4-4-4 on Friday and then hit a home run on Sunday. The problem is that he faces three lefties this week. So maybe more of a long-term play. I don't know that you want to trust it this week.

And Jack Swinsky had multiple hits and a homer in two of his past three games. And he has six games this week. Only one lefty on the schedule. So Swinsky is solid. names in deeper leagues. I thought that there was a lot of interesting ones. Chris, you mentioned, Carrie Carpenter.

Leoti Tavares, two for two with a double dung on Friday. He's played really well over the past month or so. Will Brennan had two more multi-hit games this weekend and stole a base on Sunday. Dylan Carlson returned from the IL on Friday. He went three-for-three with a home run on Saturday. Tommy Pham playing more now that Pete Alonzo was hurt and over his last seven games. He's bat in 333 with three homers and a steal. And Michael A. Taylor.

Yeah, used to play for the Royals. Now he's with the twins, mostly known for his defense. He quietly has nine homers and 11 steals this season. So I just picked him up in a few 15 team leagues because, you know, pretty desperate out here. But Chris, anyone else other than Kerry Carpenter kind of catch your eye. Leoti Tavaris, Will Brennan, Dylan Carlson, Tommy Fam, and Michael A. Taylor. Not necessarily. Carlson. I mean, Tyler O'Neill is nearing a return from his injury. He could be back by the end of the month. So I think it's a short-term-ish thing for Carlson. Fam, I mean, I think he's still pretty good. I'm just not sure he's going to play every day moving forward.

So I think there are those concerns. A guy who's rostered in the same number of leagues as Jock Peterson, who I like more than him or Swinsky, is Ezekiel Duran, who has a 900 plus OPS since the start of May. He's been awesome. and the stackhouse numbers mostly back it up. He's actually 377 expected Wobah right now for his equal Duran. So really like what he's doing.

Can't say I have much interest in Michael A. Taylor. Deeply, sorry. One more name. I'm not the prospect guy, so I'm sorry for stepping on both Scott and Chris the Welsh's feet here. But Luis Matos has to. to get called up soon, right? He's been...

It wasn't on my radar. I'd go for Colton Couser over him. He's been outrageously hot lately. I think it's like three or four straight games with a home run. OPS over 1,000 since getting called up to AAA. Kind of looks like a mini Ronald Ocuna when he swings.

There was a clip on my Twitter page where I was trying to figure out who it was and like four people immediately were like, yeah, it's Ronald Acuna's swing. So that's one. if you're looking to speculate in deeper leagues, maybe get ahead of a waiver wire, San Francisco Giants outfielder, Luis Matos,

what was a name I wanted to bring up. Let's quickly run through some news and notes from the weekend. Oh my gosh. We're 50 minutes in and I'm like talking about news and notes. There's so much stuff. Anyway, let's get to it. Julio Arias did not start this weekend due to his hamstring, giving him problems in a bullpen on Thursday.

He'll throw one or two more bullpen sessions before beginning a rehab assignment that will, I assume, come in the next couple of weeks. Chris Sale was transferred to the 60 day IL and was diagnosed with a stress reaction in his left scapula. He'll be shut down for three to four weeks and is not eligible for activation until August 2nd. I almost dropped him in TGFBI. He was dropped in my NFBC main event league. There's no IL spots. He was dropped in my league actually. Yeah, I've got like seven guys. I had seven guys on IL before waivers this week. I almost dropped him. Yeah, I did drop in one of those no IL leagues.

Yeah, yeah. I hate no IL leagues because they force to drop Chris Sale. But that's, I did it. Yeah. Carlos Rodon faced live hitters for the second time on Sunday and we'll throw another live batting practice session Thursday before potentially beginning a minor league rehab assignment. Lars Neupar felt lingering discomfort Thursday while trying to hit off a T.

The discomfort in his back, worth mentioning. He's been out since May 30th. Andres Jimenez left Sunday's game due to left leg tightness. Tyler O'Neill said Sunday that he, quote, sees the light at the end of the tunnel in his recovery from the lower back strain that has kept him on the IL since early May. He'll be reevaluated on Thursday. Chris mentioned this earlier, but Trevor Rogers was scratched from his rehab start Saturday

due to discomfort in his non-throwing shoulder, but could make another rehab start this week. There has been a lot of speculation that Uri Perez could be the one that is sent down. Apparently him and Trevor Rogers have been on the same start schedule with Rogers and the minors and Yuri Perez in the majors. Yuri is 20 years old and he only threw 77 innings in the minors last season. And I know Craig Mish, who is as plugged into the Marlins as anybody, basically speculated that they want Yuri Perez to be fresh later on in the season if they're going for like a playoff run or whatever it might be. So there's a real chance that

Yuri Perez is going to get sent down. Just go to a six-man rotation. It's just like, if Yuri Perez throws another pitch in the minors this season, it's a disaster for the Marlins. Like, there's just, there's no way to justify that. I guess if you send him to the minors, you don't have to use a roster spot on him if you want to shut him down for a couple weeks. But like, he should not throw a pitch in the minors.

Just the Marlins have a bunch. Hazers Lozardo has innings concerns. He's only ever thrown like 111 in the season. Trevor Rogers has never thrown a full season. They got a lot of guys that they got to worry about innings for. To just go with a six-man rotation, have Sandy pitch every fifth day. And if they're trying to compete this year, you can argue. There are eight games over 500.

They're second in the NL East. There's no reason you should be going for it right now. Yuri Perez helps that cause. He has a 2.17 ERA and six starts. Well, that's also why they have to preserve his innings, though, right? Yeah. Yeah. Like, it could be, it could be a why not both situation where they send him down to the minors for the minimum 10 days.

Don't have him throw a pitch. This is, of course, is when Trevor Rogers is healthy. And then bring him back as part of a six-man rotation. For fantasy, regardless of what the Marlins decide to do with Yuri Perez, Yuri Perez will be back pitching soon enough. Yeah. So I'm not, I'm not that concerned with it for fantasy. I'm letting myself start to believe that the Marlins can make the play.

playoffs this year. And I just want it noted, June 12th, 1222 a.m. I'm saying that on a podcast. They're going to lose seven games in a row. Uh, I thought about this today because they had another come from behind win in the ninth inning. And I'm like, the Marlins kind of feel like that not destiny team. It's the year of South Florida sports, baby. You know what? FAU, UM, Dolphins made the playoffs. Heaton Panthers are going to lose in the finals, but that's okay. It was still fun. Yeah. You're not wrong. I don't want to have hope. There is something there. Kenza Maeda threw four scoreless innings in his latest rehab start at AAA.

And somebody asked me this weekend, would you rather stash Maeda or Trevor Rogers? I would rather stash Rogers. I think so too. I'm going to, I'm going to say Maeda. But I don't think it's a high priority either one. Yeah. Yep. Bryce Miller had his start pushback from Sunday to Monday. which now makes him a two-start pitcher. He's going up against the Marlins and White Sox. Scott, I know you have your two-start pitcher rankings.

Are you starting Bryce Miller? I do have him in the advisable in most cases category, which is just above the only in head-to-head points league's category. It's dangerous. I understand. His last two starts were dreadful. He's right there behind Luis Severino, who's in the same boat. But two starts with good matchups.

It's just too tempting. I would mean yes, on starting Bryce Miller. Amazing how quickly we go from. Historic start to, I don't know if you can start them in a two-star week. Yeah. Yeah, I hear it. I understand why. I mean, it's past two starts have been really bad, but Marlins and White Sox.

Oh, yeah. Exactly. That's why I ultimately decided to put him where I did. I think you got to go for it. Not with a lot of confidence. Yep. Other players that went to the aisle this weekend, unfortunately, Liam Hendrix with right elbow inflammation and expect

Kendall Graveman to see the majority of the save opportunities going forward though he did blow one on Sunday so I guess him or Ronaldo Lopez those are the names there Charlie Blackman went to the aisle with a fractured right hand which should help the playing time of guys like Nolan Jones

and Brenton Doyle and Randall Gritchick Jorge Polanco with a hamstring strain and apparently this one is worse than the previous one so Edward Julian probably going to stick around with the twins for quite some time Jake Frailey with a right wrist contusion, Stuart Fairchild, and Will Benson both stand to earn more playing time,

Graham Ashcraft with a left calf contusion, and Angels Reliever Ben Joyce with ulnar neuritis in his elbow. Two big picture questions here, and we've got to talk about it because obviously Shane Bieber, I just feel like either I am really bad at timing up Shane Bieber or maybe we all are, I don't know. The question here, are we just, bad at analyzing Shane Bieber.

Last year, the start of the season, the velocity was down, and it felt like we were just kind of writing them off, like, oh, you know, this is the beginning of the end. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. I take exception to that, all right? I was fine with Bieber last year. But continue. I know we're running out of time.

We are running out of time. Look, I've been telling people all season to sell high on Shane Bieber, and he goes out on Sunday, up against the Astros, seven shutout innings, nine strikeouts, 14 swinging strikes. and he changed up the pitch mix a little bit in this one.

And look, he still has a 3.290 array. I know that there are some troublesome signs, but Chris, your latest thoughts on Shane Bieber? Are we just bad at analyzing him? The thing that's frustrating is like, yeah, he changed up his pitch mix in this one in a way that I would not have wanted him to. He threw his four-seem fastball and his cutter more in this start.

I think his usage combined for those two pitches was like, was it up near like 70%? his slider and curveball were way down in this one. And those are not his best pitches. The slider and curveball are his best pitches. There's a piece in the athletic about two weeks ago now where he, there was a quote where he was like, he was asked,

is your current pitch mix likely to be your pitch mix in August? And he said, no, I would bet against that. And he's very open about how frustrated he's been about his lack of swings and misses, about the iffy command that he's had. And so I don't know. The results have still been good. I don't really,

I really don't know what to make of Shane Bieber right now. I'm going to spend this a different way. If you are somebody who has Shane Bieber, this start just did you a huge favor. You have another chance to sell high on him. It wasn't looking good. His five starts prior to this one, his ERA had gone from 261 to 357.

It's hard to sell high on a pitcher with a 357 ERA. Now it's back in the low threes. This was his third start all year with more than four strikeouts. For all the innings he's thrown, it was only the third time he had more than four strikeouts. The breaking balls are not getting the whiffs they did last year, which allowed him to survive the dropping velocity. I think he's still very scary.

I'd be looking to sell. Do you still have him as a top 24 pitcher? If he is, he's right on the fringes. and I'm you know it's just it's just kind of rank it's just legacy putting him there at this point I don't know what the future holds obviously and an emphasis is on the high when I say sell high obviously you're trying to you're just you're trying to capitalize on the fact he's still Shane Bieber in the eyes of some people and and and not be there when it all comes crashing down you're not trying to like unload him because you know would you trade him for

Dylan Seas. Well, that's kind of a, yes, I would. I have more of a confidence in Delin Seas moving forward, but that's not a sell high trade in the purest sense. What about Joe Musgrove? A little underwhelmed by that return. Last week on the podcast with the Welsh, I said that I would trade Bieber straight up for Logan Gilbert.

Well, that doesn't look so great. Logan Gilbert had his worst start of the season. It does not. I don't know that it's wrong, though. I mean, like, who do I think is going to be better moving forward? It's close. It's a close call. Like, certainly the Metrick's favor Gilbert.

I would take Mitch Keller. Pablo Lopez? Yes. I don't know about that. Logan Webb? Yes. I would do that. I would take Webb.

I think you could get Gilbert plus, though. just the name of Shane Bieber and the surface level numbers for Logan Gilbert have been underwhelming, although his strikeout to walk rate and his swinging strike rate looks really good this year. So that's why I keep telling people to buy on Logan Gilbert, but it's kind of. I think my theory, someone's got to go into the Mariners locker room and just like, it's okay to walk someone, both him and George Kirby. I think like, I honestly think that's the biggest issue is that they're just like, they so badly want to not walk anyone that they end up leaving pitches in the zone and it's just like,

it's okay to walk someone, guys, it's fine. Just let it happen. Yeah, that's my theory. Yeah, might be. The other big question here regarding a pitcher, Blake Snell, is Blake Snell back? It sure looked like it this weekend. At Cores Field, seven innings of one-run ball,

12 strikeouts to zero walks, 17 swinging strikes on 85 pitches, and the fastball velocity was up one mile per hour. That's now four straight where his fastball has averaged over 95 miles per hour, and during that time, he's allowed one earned run or fewer in each of those outings.

So, seems like there might be some kind of correlation there. And what's crazy is he's doing all of this without really utilizing his slider, which is arguably his best pitch. I mean, he threw a bunch of changeups and curve balls in this start, and it worked.

But Scott, as we pointed out, like when we were burying Snell earlier in the season, we always kind of did it with the caveat that he does this, and then he just kind of turns, on out of nowhere, and it kind of looks like that's what he's doing right now. Yeah, I mean, it's the unpredictability that made him so annoying because, like, he's either useless or he's dominant.

And last three starts have been his best three starts, and each one has been better than the last. So it kind of seems like he's finding that gear he has in the second half of each of the last two years earlier this time, which is nice. I wouldn't be so eager to buy him right now, Blake Snell. but I wouldn't be so eager to sell him right now either. I think he's just kind of a sit back and see where it goes from here. All right.

Well, let's talk about some bullpen updates really quickly for the Nationals this weekend. Kyle Finnegan on Friday, he entered in the eighth inning with a one-run lead to face the heart of the Braves lineup. He gave up two runs, one earned, took his fifth blown save and third loss, and it seems like they were going to go to Hunter Harvey there in the ninth inning. Don't really have much confidence in Kyle Finnegan at this point. For the Oakland A's, Trevor May struck out one or two. I didn't write it down. But he picked up his second save of the season. Looked like he was the A's closer. And then he pitched on Sunday pitching the ninth inning with a five run lead. And he looked really bad. He walked three gave up a hit. And he actually had to be relieved by Sam Long. So back to square one with the Oakland A's bullpen. I think Sam Long got two saves in a row, didn't he?

I don't. Did he get one on Saturday? I thought he did. Let me make sure, but that's what I wrote earlier. Sam Long. Yes, you are correct. He did that. Yep. But I assume Trevor May wasn't available for that one. He might not have because, yeah, he was

pitching on Friday. For the Cubs on Friday, for the Cardinals, rather, excuse me, Giovanni Gagos got the final four outs for his eighth save, and Ryan Heldsley last pitched on Wednesday, so it seems like he should have been available, but the Cardinals kind of I guess use both of those guys to get saves. For the Cubs on Friday, Mark Leader Jr.

entered in the seventh with two outs, a runner on third and a two-run lead. He gave up a hit to Jock Peterson and then retired the next four batters. Adbert Alzali then pitched a clean ninth inning for his third save. And the Cubs bullpen seems kind of wide open right now. But if you do play in deeper leagues,

Adbert Alzlis is only 13% rostered. For the Braves on Saturday, Riesel Iglesias was unavailable. gave up a run but picked up his ninth save. For the Tigers on Sunday, Alex Lang entered with two outs in the seventh inning. Runners on first and third with a three-run lead. He struck out Emmanuel Rivera.

He came back out for the eighth, and he actually gave up a run. And then Jason Foley got the ninth inning with a two-run lead. He promptly gave up four runs. His second blown save and second loss. Scott, we recently speculate. I brought up the name Jason Foley because I know Lang has struggled recently,

but he got his opportunity, and he was not good in that opportunity. Yeah, I kind of wish AJ Hinch would stop messing around with Alex Lang because he was cruising when he was purely the ninth inning guy and then they started playing these leverage games with him. And I don't know, he's clearly the Tiger's best reliever in my mind. And he was a pretty reliable fantasy option for not being on such a great team before this recent stretch.

For the Diamondbacks on Sunday They had a two-run lead in the ninth Andrew Chafin Came in for the save He gave up a triple and a walk Scott McGuff Blast from the past Then closed it out for his second save

He has not allowed an earned run In his last 11 appearances Which spans 14 and 2 thirds innings 22 strikeouts during that time So I don't know Coming back around He is coming back around Have you seen his ERA and whip lately

He's got like a 0.87 whip He's good, yeah. And Miguel Castro has struggled as well. So I did have some bids on Scott McGuff in those deeper category leagues on Sunday. For the White Sox, Kendall Graveman, entered in the ninth with a two-run lead. He gave up three runs, two of those earned.

He took his first blown save and third loss. On the other side for the Marlins, AJ Puck then came in and pitched a scoreless ninth inning for his seventh save. To stream or not to stream, we'll start with Monday. And I don't. really like anybody here. Do you guys see anything you like? I don't know. Nope. If you're

forcing me to start somebody, it might actually be Zach Granky against the Reds. I think that's the one, yeah. I don't love it, but I think it's the best one. Imagineing Zach Granky's lack of velocity going up against L.E. De LaCruces' tons of exit velocity just sounds and looks amazing in my head right now. On Tuesday, Does anyone stand out here? Oh, Edward Cabrera at the Mariners. Yep, absolutely. He's been awesome.

The only, he's making this start, right? Yeah, I think. Because he left the last start with a blister, but I haven't seen anything on it since, so I assume. I looked this up on ESPN, but they're kind of liberal in their matchups. They throw a lot of names out there. I haven't seen any mention of who it would be if not. So I assume he,

so that one and, I don't love Dean Kramer versus Toronto, but at home, I think he's an okay one. I think Cutter Crawford against the Rockies could turn out pretty well. That's what I was looking at too. That's probably my second choice. And though I liked Reese Olson as a two-star sleeper this week, if you're going day by day, I don't know that Reese Olson against the Braves is the best choice. I agree completely.

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