Fantasy Baseball Today - Rowdy Tellez's Monster Game, Rankings Movers & Sell MacKenzie Gore? (5/5 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 5, 2022

Rowdy Tellez just went off (2:30)! Is he a must-add hitter? Add Garrett Whitlock or Austin Gomber? ... Are any of Yusei Kikuchi, Jose Quintana or Martin Perez worth adding (15:10)? ... Alek Manoah and Daulton Varsho are moving up the rankings (17:05)! ... Mookie Betts and Joey Votto are moving down (26:27). ... News and notes (31:27): Teoscar Hernandez looks ready to return Thursday. ... Which hitters should you buy-low on (36:50)? Is it time to sell-high on MacKenzie Gore? ... What did we see from Zack Wheeler and Mike Clevinger (46:08)? ... Add Pavin Smith or Josh Naylor anywhere (50:20)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (54:05). Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. With fantasy! Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Big, beefy baseball boy. Let's talk about him.

Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, May 5th. Frank Stample joined by Chris Towers. Happy Cinco de Mayo, Chris. Will you be celebrating on this fine day? I might go get a taco, but I don't, you know, it's not my heritage. So I'm never quite sure how I feel about celebrating Cinco de Mayo. You know, I mean, there's a part of me that feels like it's a little insulting that everyone's like, let's go get tacos and drink tequila.

And it's like, you know, there's other things about Mexican culture, you know, like, that's true. That's not all it is. But yeah, I'll probably go have a taco and some margaritas. Yeah, why not? Any excuse to... Right, I just love tacos and margaritas. Yeah, I mean, there's nothing wrong with that.

Today on the show, by the way, we've got Rankies Movers, trade options, and of course we will recap all of Wednesday's action. But first, take it away, Susan. Oh, my goodness gracious! I've got no winning streak to talk about, and in fact, before I actually start talking about Radi Telez, I've got to get this off my chest, Chris, because some people, they tweeted me, they get angry that, why are you mentioning the streak? It's so annoying. Just trying to have a little fun, man. Like, if the Marlins were on a 12-game winning streak, I would hope that you would talk about it too, Chris.

Uh, yeah, I might mention it. They just got swept by the Diamondbacks, though. So, you know, not really a lot promising there to talk about. Things felt really promising for the Marlins three games ago. And the Panthers lost in ignomious fashion in their first playoff game. It's not a great week for the few sports things that I've decided to be invested in this year. Panthers, like, what sport is that even? I don't, I don't know.

Hockey, come on. They won the president's trophy. The one sport I've never been able to get into is hockey. I don't know why. It just, it does not work for me. Anyway, Routy Tellez, let's talk about him. He was amazing on Wednesday. He goes four for six with a double dong, eight RBIs.

He now has four home runs over his last four games. overall he's batting 257 he's got seven homers a 924 OPS and Chris this stack cast page for Radi Tiles it is a thing of beauty early on 97th percentile or better in max exit velocity expected Woba barrel rate expected slugging percentage and you might ask yourself why what is Roddy Tiles doing differently this year he's kind of selling out for power his 52% fly ball rate this season is a career high by far and for his for his his career. It's right around 38%. So it's up about 14 percentage points. The plate discipline looks fine. He's still sitting here or there against some lefties. We were talking beforehand,

Chris, Roddy-Tales is actually pretty damn good against lefties. This year, he's hitting 286 against them for his career. He's got a better batting average against lefties than he does against Ritees. He's only 28% rostered, and he's got six road games next week at the Reds and at the Marlins. So he gets to face this vaunted Reds pitching staff. once again. Chris, how imperative is it to add Roddy Tellez right now? You know, ironically, when we were talking about this yesterday, he's one of the guys who's not pulling the ball more this season. He has a career low 27% pull rate. I think Roddy Telez is just red-hot right now. He's crushing the ball, and he's always had the underlying raw power production

numbers to, you know, be an interesting fantasy option. The problem is just that I'm not sure if he's going to play every day. You know, you look at, you know, I just happen to be looking at Christian Yellage page at the same time, and Raleigh-Tales has about 20 fewer plate appearances. Yelich is at 100. Telles is at 82. So, you know, that kind of tells the story

of how much he's sitting relative to, you know, one of the Brewers' real everyday players. And whether Teles can hit lefties, the brewers haven't treated him like he can for his career, at least. And so, you know, that's the concern. If you're not going to play every day, then, you know, there's only so much you can do to have value. And it feels like we did this last April with Tyler Naquin having a really good start, but he was mostly crossing Ritees. I'm not saying that's necessarily the same thing with Routy-Tales.

It's just a question of whether he's an everyday player moving forward. But the way he's swinging the bat right now, he's kind of forcing the brewer's hands. So it'll be interesting to see what they do. But there's an interesting skill set here. I mean, he doesn't strike out very much. He's been at 22% or below the last three seasons. He hits the ball really hard. His expected Wobon contact has been 400 or better every season.

League average is 369. So that's very good. Now, expected Woba is not as useful right now as it has been in the past because the offensive environment is so strange, and the ball's not traveling as far. But Rattice, the way he's hitting the ball right now, not if that matters. He's hitting the ball with the kind of authority

that dejuiced ball humidifiers, none of that's going to hold him back. It's just a question of whether he can hit the ball this well moving forward. But yeah, 28% is probably too low. If you're in any leagues with daily lineup moves, especially, he's a must roster player. And, you know, I guess you have to see what the schedule looks like moving forward. But I would say most 12-tele's probably needs to be added. partially because he's a hitter who's hitting well right now. And there's like 18 of those.

Not many. You kind of can't pass them up when they're there. All right. The question is, who are we dropping for him? Chris, so I'll throw a few names your way. Would you drop Yulee Gereal for Rowdy Tellez? Yeah, I think that's fine.

How about? I still have faith that Yulee Gerell will turn it around, but he's not hitting right now. How about Frank Schwendell? Yep. Owen Miller. Sure. Nate Lowe.

Yep. Now, this is a fun one. Would you rather have Eric Hosmer or Roddy Tellez? I probably have more faith that Radite Tellez will be useful moving forward than Eric Hosmer. But I would probably try to trade Eric Cosmer before I dropped him. Yeah, do not drop Eric Hosmer, but I think that is a, that's a fun question right there. Eric Hosmer versus Roddy Telles. the other brewers that went off in this game, I think they scored 18.

18 runs, so that is quite a bit. Roddy Telles was not the only one doing damage. Andrew McCutcheon went 4 for 5 with 4 RBI. Christian Yelich went 2 for 4 with 2 RBI and Luis Arias. Our guy, he's bad, Chris. He looks pretty good. Two for three with 2 RBI. You know, then again, everybody can look good against the Cincinnati rights or nearly everybody.

Man, Arias, now that he's healthy, he's like somebody I wish I had more of Chris. I kind of backed off once he got hurt and I kind of just want to go out and trade for him now because I think he's going to be pretty good. Oh my goodness gracious for... I hope so. Oh my goodness gracious for you, Chris, from Wednesday.

Garrett Whitlock, I think he's got to be in the rotation for the Red Sox moving forward the way he's pitched. He had another good start today. Against the Angels, five innings, two earned runs on two hits,

nine strikeouts, no walks, a bunch of swinging strikes, 17 of them, seventh most, or second most of any pitcher in baseball today. He looks awesome.

I mean, he's getting whiffs with his sinker, which is not something we typically see. He's mostly sustaining his velocity as a starter average 95.1 miles per hour with that pitch today. Changeup and slider have both been good swing and miss pitches for him over the past couple of seasons. Changeup hasn't quite been there yet so far this season. But yeah, there's a lot to like with Garrett Whitlaw.

and he's managed to mostly sustain it since moving into the rotation, which is always a good sign because we've seen like Michael Kopeck have some bumps in the road in trying to pitch out of the rotation after pitching out of relief last season. And Whitlock's got 18 strikeouts in 12 innings as a starter so far. So that's a really good sign. I would like to see him pitching deeper into games. And today he only threw 78 pitches. So hopefully, you know, if he does stay in the rotation,

that will continue to improve. But yeah, it's been very promising. Yeah, he has been awesome. I think he has to remain in the rotation. Though, as we'll get to, the Red Sox bullpen is just an absolute mess right now. So they can use him there too. But I think as a starter is where he's going to stick for now.

He's got a 1.25 ERA, all the underlying numbers, back up what Garrett Whitlock has done. He had a 1.96 ERA last year over 73 and a third innings pitched. Those were most, yeah, they were all in relief, actually, 46 appearances for him. Some of those were extended outings for Garrett Whitlock. He is 65% rostered.

He's at the Braves next week, who a lineup that hasn't really gotten going yet. They're 17th in Wobah versus right-handed pitching. I think if you need a streamer, I'd be okay with Garrett Whitlock in that spot. Chris, would you rather have Whitlock or Austin Gombard, you alluded to Whitlock having the second most

swinging strikes on Wednesday. Austin Gomber had the most. He had 19 swinging strikes. Post a third straight quality start. This one against the Nationals. Six and two thirds, two runs, six strikeouts to one walk. Would you rather have Whitlock or Austin Gombor? I would rather have Whitlock.

It's not out of the question that Austin Gombor could be useful, but it's just so hard when you're pitching half your games at Coorsfield. I think he's a relatively talented pitcher. but as long as he's calling course field home, it's just going to be hard for him to have sustained success until, I mean, really, like,

it's not an Austin Gomber thing. It's just course field. Like, how many pitchers have been sustainably good there? Ramon Marquez for about a year and a half, maybe. Yubaldo Jimenez for a couple, like, you have to go pretty far back. You'll get the occasional, like, good Kyle Freeland season, but it's just, it's really, really hard to do that consistently. So give me Garrett Whitlock in a better situation.

All right. I was going to, I'm looking up, I know last year, Austin Gomber had a sustained stretch where he, he was pretty awesome. So it was eight starts last year from May to June for Garrett Whitlock, where he had, for Austin Gomber, rather. He had a 1.62 ERA, his FIP and his ex-FIP were both below three, 42 strikeouts, the three walks during that span,

and four of those starts came at home last year. So I'm not saying he's going to necessarily do that again, but we've already seen some signs that Austin Gomber is a pretty good pitcher. I agree with you. I would take Garrett Whitlock, but Gomber is someone that I would be looking to add right now. Chris, would you drop these names for either one? Zach Plesack, Dylan Bundy, Matt Brash,

and then Kyle Hendricks, another subpar outing here. What do you think? Those four. Dylan Bundy for sure and probably the rest of them. If I could, I would hang on to Matt Brash. But honestly, unless you're in a league that gets fantasy points for pitching ninja jiffs, I'm not sure how useful he's going to be because he just, he still seems like he's developing.

Like the stuff is really impressive, but there's a difference between getting swings and misses and pitching. And I think he's still trying to figure out that part of it. there could be a point where the light switch just flicks on for Matt Brash and he looks awesome for an extended stretch. But I would drop him for Whitlock. And the rest of them, I would drop for Gomber. Yeah.

All right. Kyle Hendricks is the one that, you know, maybe we're on the fence most because, you know, we've seen him have a lot of success in the past as well. It's just not happening for Kyle Hendricks right now. And looking under the hood a little bit for him, Chris, he's going through a lot of the same things that Charlie Morton is going through right now where he's not getting first pitch strikes

he's not commanding his fastball he's not getting opposing batters to chase pitches outside the zone Kyle Hendricks now has a 5.64 ERA his ex-fip is 4.61 the problem with dropping him is he's got a two-star week next week it's at the Diamondbacks at the Padres for Kyle Hendricks so would you

still want to drop him knowing he has the two starts he would probably be among the please Zach Bundy Hendricks trio he would be the one that I would be least likely to drop even without the two star week with the two start week especially makes it tough but yeah I think it's fair to wonder if just like

most things look fine like he's never been a hard thrower and he's still not a hard thrower but I do wonder if like he throws so soft that the margin for error is just incredibly slim and he has to be he has to have pinpoint control when his stuff is at a best and when it's at something less than it's best, it just may be too much to ask. So I think it is,

it's fair to have those questions about Kyle Hendricks. And given the fact that he was bad last season, you know, he hasn't, he doesn't have the benefit of the doubt in the way that he has in the past. Yeah, Kyle Hendricks has 12 walks over his first six starts this season. He's averaging 3.6 walks per nine. That is just not going to get it done. For somebody, 10% walk rate is just not viable for him. Yeah, for someone, as you mentioned, Chris, I mean, the margin for error for him is just so, so slim. As for the two starts, maybe I'll use him in a points league in any type of categories league. There's just no chance. There's no chance. I could use Hendrix. That's the thing is that those, like, you can look at a categories league or a roto league and see a two-star guy. And I made this mistake in one league. I had Armand-Marquez. And I started him because he had two starts. And I benched. I can't remember who I benched him for specifically right now. but presumably their start didn't go as poorly as Armand Marquez's first one did.

So, you know, that kind of thinking can get you in the wrong, can get in the wrong place in a category-based league. All right. A few names in deeper leagues, Chris. Are you looking to add any of these? You say Kikuchi had his first quality start of the season up against the Yankees, six innings, one run, seven strikeouts to one walk. It was his first start with fewer than two walks this season. And I noticed that he has ditched the slider. His last two starts, he hasn't thrown it a single time.

And that pitch was absolutely getting bombed on the season. So maybe something that can help you say Kikuchi. The other two names, Jose Kintana, another solid start, five innings, two runs, three strikeouts. Martine Perez went toe to toe with Zach Wheeler in a pitcher's duel. Seven shutout innings, four hits, four walks, four strikeouts. Chris, anything on Kikuchi, Kintana, Martine Perez. Yeah, I mean, Kikuchi was really good today. and he got 15 swinging strikes on 78 pitches,

seven of them coming on that cutter that he used more without the slider. And so, you know, I've always been intrigued by the skill set, and I've always wondered if he was ever going to be able to find a mix that works for him. I think I would rather have him than Dylan Bundy for sure. And even like Zach Pleasack at this point, I kind of think anybody who shows some upside, might be worth adding over Zach, please, just because I think he's so underwhelming.

But I'm not, I wouldn't expect you say Kukuchi to be a top 60 pitcher moving forward. Fair enough. Kintana, I'll just point out, he's made five starts. His ERA is 3.38. His ex-fip is 3.72. He's throwing his change-up 31% so far this season. That's a pitch that he's never thrown more than 14% in any season.

And it's a pretty good pitch for him. He's got a 40% whiff rate on the changeup. Again, that's Jose Cantana. More so for deeper leagues. You're playing 15 teamers. Anything deeper than that? And only Jose Cantana is a name to watch there. Let's talk about some rankings movers.

Chris updated his trade chart on Wednesday. That'll be coming out on the site on Thursday. And some risers for Chris. Austin Riley, Jazz Chisholm, Dylan Sees, Alec Manoa, and Carlos Carrasco. Chris, I noticed Alec Minow in particular is one that I moved up quite. a bit as well. Now inside of my top 20 starting pitchers, might be too aggressive.

I wasn't as aggressive with him. He moved up to 27 for me in Roto. But a top 75 player overall, he, and you know, you look at the guys ahead of him could very easily move Charlie Morton ahead of him. You mean move him ahead of Charlie Morton?

That's one that I, you know, right now I would certainly rather start Alec Manoa. But yeah, I think that like 17 to 28 range where Dylan Cis, Alecmanoa and Carlos Carrasco all are, is really interesting right now because for the most part, you've got guys in that range that are pitching well.

Pablo Lopez, Clayton Kirshall, Frankie Montas, and then a couple of guys who aren't pitching so well, but I still have some faith in. So, yeah, I'm encouraged by what I've seen from Alec Manoa. Yeah, and I've moved Dylan Seas up as well. And I guess this is just a tier. because I could see Dylan Sees being right behind Alec Manoa right now. I mean, technically, Sees has pitched better than Freddie Peralta, who I have ahead of him.

He's pitched better than Jose Barrio. So a couple of more starts where Dylan Sees looks this good. And maybe, you know, Jose Barrios or some of these other names underwhelmed. Then, yeah, I could see moving Dylan C's closer to that top 20 starting pitcher rank as well. Yeah. Burrios has been the guy who I haven't moved down, like consciously. I haven't like, you know, we've got a little. and you drag and drop.

And I don't think there's been a point where I've clicked Jose Barrios' name and actually dragged him down. But he's dropped like 10 spots since the start of the season, mostly because I feel like there's just like limited upside with Jose Barrios. And so it was easy once Pablo Lopez came out looking so good to move him up. Or Clayton Kirshall, Carlos Rodon, Shane McClan, Dylan Seas. So there have been quite a few movers there. And it's not really because of Barrios pitching poorly as much as it is.

just being really interested in what these other guys are doing. Cease is one who I just, I continue to kind of hold at arm's length and maybe this is my own issue. Because I just, I don't necessarily trust him, but I can absolutely see the potential. And right now, obviously, he's pitching out of his mind. And it wouldn't surprise me at all if this kept up

because the stuff's always been really good. he took a big step last season. He's taking another big step this season. And the swing and strike rate on all four of his pitches, he doesn't use his change up very often at all. But if you include that one, that's also got a pretty strong swing and miss rate. So through, you know, what, six starts,

this is about as good as you could have hoped for for Dylan's season. And so, you know, there's nothing in his profile that I can point to specifically and say, I don't think this is going to work for Dylan Seas. It's mostly just a, I don't necessarily trust him. And every good start makes me trust him a little more. It really just comes down to control for Dylan Seas. If he can keep those walks under control, and I know earlier in the season, not necessarily this most recent start, his ground ball rate was way up. So obviously last year and even before that, if you walk a lot of batters and you give up fly ball is pitching in that park in Chicago.

That's just, it's not a recipe for success. But, you know, if those things are going the other way now. And overall, he's just progressing as a pitcher. That would make sense, obviously. Then, yeah, he's climbing up the ranks and rightfully so. Chris Austin Riley is someone you and I haven't been able to talk about together. Scott and I talked about him the other day. And obviously, you and me were a little bit more skeptical on him coming into the season.

And you look at his stat cast page, the plate discipline. He looks like a player that is just, getting better and better and better. Yeah, it's, it's making me feel pretty dumb for being skeptical. I mean, I was, there was only so much I could be skeptical about. I mean, he was like a top

50 player for me still, but I wasn't buying him. I didn't have any, I don't have any Austin Riley shares this season and. Yeah, I'm regarding that because his, he's taking another step forward with his strikeout rate in a way that, you know, hopefully is sustainable. Obviously, it's

very early on and the difference between last year and this year's strikeout rate is like three or four strikeouts over the course of the season so far. So it's still a very small sample size. But yeah, I mean, he is making more contact across the board. He's chasing a little less. He's hitting the ball really, really hard just like he did last season, but even harder this season.

So it's one of those things where every indicator across the board is pretty much moving in the right direction. So, yeah, there's a lot less for me to be skeptical of with Austin Riley than I thought there would be. And yeah, I'm feeling a little, feeling like I have to eat some crow there so far. Chris, you're not the only one because the risers that I'm about to mention in my rankings are all players that, not all of them, but some of them that I was just, I went out on a limb to be lower on and it has not worked out. So Dalton Varshow is someone that I've moved inside my top four catcher ranks. You can argue he should probably be a top three catcher right now. Eric Hosmer, I moved up.

Tommy Edmund has looked awesome so far this year. I was lower on him. Logan Gilbert, someone I actually did like quite a bit. Eric Lauer has come out of nowhere. I moved him inside my top 45 starting pitchers. He's looked fantastic. Dalton Varsho is really the one I wanted to focus on. He went two for four on Wednesday with his fifth home run.

He's betting only 244, but he also has those two steals. The strikeout rate is a little high, 27%, but that's manageable. Fly ball rate is up, pull rate is up, so he's kind of selling out for power. It's kind of working right now. Five home runs for a catcher eligible player is pretty good. He entered Wednesday, Chris, as the number one catcher in head-to-head points leagues. Dalton Varso did, and the third best catcher in Roto, and he is leading the position with 25 games played. So I just...

And that's what we talked about coming into the season. That it's just, even if he wasn't that great. And he's been good, you know, especially relative to, as we talked about yesterday, catcher's been a disaster even within the realm, even within the context of how bad offense has been overall. But he's got an 802 OPS. And if he's going to be an above average major league hitter while playing every day, he's probably going to be the number one catcher just because the volume that he provides. Like, it's either him or Salvador Perez. And right now, Salvador Perez hasn't been all that great. don't have a lack of faith in Salvador Perez.

But yeah, this is very encouraging stuff from Dalton Varsho and the underlying numbers largely back it up. He's stranging out a little bit too much, but he's hitting the ball relatively hard enough that you can view Dalton Varsho as a viable starting option. Yeah, he's got an 802 OPS. So as you mentioned, Chris, I mean, if he just floats somewhere around there playing as much as he is, he's good.

By virtue, he's just going to rank very highly at the catcher position. One thing I do want to go back to, we briefly touched on Alec Manoa. The one thing I do want to keep an eye on with him is last season, he actually faced more lefties than righties, which is rare. There are more right-handed hitters than left-handed hitters in baseball. so most pitchers face more right-handed hitters and left-handed hitters. But Manoa, you know, he's got that really strong fastball. He's got that really strong slider, and then the change-up remains a work in progress. And right now, his splits are, he's dominating right-handed hitters.

He's given up six hits on 69 plate appearances against right-handed hitters. That's ridiculous. 22 strikeouts, two walks. Lefties are 12 for 43 with 10 strikeouts and six walks. And he had a split last season where lefties hit hit hit. him better and he has faced a much lower proportion of left-handed batters so far. So what I want to see moving forward is whether that's just normalizing, whether he just faced an inordinate number of left-handed batters last season, or whether teams are going to

start strategically stacking their lineup with more lefties and he's just kind of benefited from a quirk in the schedule. Because that remains the question for me, not so much with regards to whether Alec Manoa can be very good because I mean we're enough into his career 142 and two-thirds innings with a 284 ERA and a bunch of strikeouts that like I'm pretty confident he's good. The question is can he be a top 15 starting pitcher? And I think the splits are going to be the key. So that'll be something to watch moving forward for sure. All right. The followers in Chris's rankings, three names here, Mookie Betts, Marcus Semyon, and Trevor Rogers.

Chris, maybe you should send us some fallers more often with first round picks on them because Mookie Betts, of course, is having a great game on Wednesday night, two for three with his fourth home run of the season. We talked a lot about Semyon and Rogers recently. What about Mookie Betts? Why did you move him down the rankings? I just ranked him very aggressively coming into the season. I mostly ranked him as if he was going to bounce back all the way to being one of the

handful of best players. I think I had him top six in Roto or top six. seven in Roto and top eight in points. So, you know, I moved him down to like 15-ish. I think I moved him below the top three starting pitchers. So Garry Cole, Corbin, Burns, and bling on the last name. Max Scherzer. Max Scherzer, yes, thank you.

So I moved him down a little bit. So it's in the trade values chart, it was like a three point slash dollar drop, which is significant. mostly because of where he was at. I moved him to 16. So below those three and Mani Machado, who's just off to a ridiculously great start and has been everything I hoped he would be.

So, you know, it's a relative fall for mooky bets, but I still think there have been enough promising signs and I'm not like panicking about him. You know, he's running, which I think is a good sign, three stolen bases, and I think he has four attempts, right?

Nope, just three attempts. But that's a good sign given the hip injury and the concerns about what that would do. And the bat has been heating up lately. So those are all good signs, but it's mostly just an acknowledgement that like, yeah, this guy's probably not going to be one of the handful of best players in fantasy. He's also among the league leaders in Run scored, as you would expect. And, you know, he hasn't really hit his potential yet. So if that happens, I mean, we could just see a monster season in the run.

It helps that he's got a. 347 O BP, despite hitting 238. Yep, for sure. Coming into today's game. Some followers for me in the rankings, Joey Votto, obvious. I mean, he's got the COVID situation going on right now, and he's been dreadful.

I believe he has just one extra base hit on the season. I moved them down to 14th in the first base ranking. So behind Thai France, behind Thai France, Rizzo, Connor Joe, Jake Cronenworth. So if he,

I am willing to be wrong, I would be happy to be wrong, if Joey Votto can turn it back around once again. Akeal Badu, another name I was very excited on coming into the season. He has been awful. I think he finally stole his first base of the season here on May 4th, but not really doing much outside of that. Charlie Morton, I moved down to, I believe, 27 in the starting pitcher rank,

so we've got to see him bounce back and we've talked about him quite a bit. Trevor Rogers is now outside of my top 35 starting pitchers. Again, we've got to see that change up, get back on track. for Trevor Rogers. Before we hit the break, Fantasy Baseball Today is here to help you dominate your league all season long,

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That's fantasy baseball 20, and it's only available for our listeners. Head over to store.cbsports.com slash collections slash fantasy baseball today. That is a very long link. It is in the podcast and the YouTube description. Go there and shop now. Let's take a quick break, and when we return, we'll get the news and notes here on fantasy baseball today. The news and notes to Oscar Hernandez is expected to be.

be activated on Thursday. He went two for four with a double and home run in a rehab game on Tuesday. A bunch of Reds Nudes. David Bell said Luis Castillo is penciled in to return Monday against the Milwaukee Brewers. Chris, would you start Luis Castillo his first time around? It'll be a two-star week against the Brewers and the Pirates. I would prefer not to. And yeah, you don't have to. So I would I would avoid it if I can. All right. Jonathan, India's hamstring injury will keep him out, quote, a couple of weeks, but they assured us it won't be four to six weeks, but it'll be a couple of weeks. The Reds have a bit of a COVID situation going on. Nixon Zell and Tyler Nakeet landed on the COVID aisle one day after Joey Vado was placed on it. Speaking of Vado, he's unlikely to return this week. So he's going to be out a little bit here with that COVID situation. Jose Al-Tube. By the way, Luis Castillo pitched very well today. I believe he had seven strikeouts in like four and a third. And he's got like 18 strikeouts in 12 innings or something in his minor league rehab stint.

So that's a good sign. So hopefully he can, you know, carry that out. Aren't the Reds like 3 and 20 or something crazy like that? 3 and 21. Ooh. Their run differential is like negative 8 billion. I told Scott's... All right, nine billion after today.

I told Scott the story recently, Chris, that as soon as they started trading away their players, I was looking to bet their season win total under, and I didn't do it. And I should have done it. It looks like easy money right now. Yeah, entering today before they lost by a billion runs, they had been outscored by 62 so far this season. No, 68 runs. Uh, so... Not great.

82 runs in 22 games, 21 games so far for them. That's, uh... Not great. Jose Altuve was removed from Wednesday's game due to right groin soreness, and if you saw where he fouled the ball off, then you'd understand why he left the game. Yeah, not, not a... I don't think it's a muscular injury.

I don't think he... I don't think it's a groin strain. I don't think so either. I hope he was wearing a cup. Ramon Luriano is okay. is on track to return from his suspension when first eligible on May 8th last year Luriano hit 246 with 14 homers and 12 steals over 88 games. Chris, do you think Ramon Luriano is a must add right now?

He's 89% rostered. Yeah, you've probably got some scrubby outfielder that you can drop or at least consider starting Ramon Luriano instead of. And I would expect something like a 15-15 pace from him moving forward. So, yeah, I think he's absolutely in all categories, leagues at least. Maybe not a 12-team points league where you'll only start three, but anything deeper than that. Yoamancada is expected to return from the IEL on Monday. Nelson Cruz was not in the lineup because of that back stiffness that forced him to leave Tuesday's game.

Andrew Vaughn will most likely be placed on the IL ahead of Friday's season opener against the Red Sox. He has not played since last Friday when he got hit by a pitch on his right hand. Tiger's outfield prospect Riley Green is no longer wearing a walking boot for his fractured right foot he remains without a timetable but manager AJ Hinch said it won't be in May. Cole Irvin

underwent an MRI on his left shoulder on Wednesday. Mike Yistremski was activated from the COVID IEL and was batting sixth in the lineup for the Giants Joey Wendell has missed three straight games due to hamstring soreness Rich Hill and Tanner Halk will work as tandem starters on

Thursday and I think that bodes well for Garrett Whitlock remaining in the rotation. This last one, Chris, I hope you saw it. This was bizarre. This was the weirdest thing I've seen all season. Madison Bumgarner was ejected after one inning of work on Wednesday. The umpire was checking his hand

after the first inning for sticky substances and he was doing it for quite some time longer than I've seen any umpire check for a pitcher's hand and he was just staring at Madison Bumgarner's face. Staring into his eyes. I mean, of course, if you've been anywhere on social media, you've seen it. It's one of the weirdest things I've seen.

Yeah, I don't know what was going. I mean, like, Madison and Bombrunner, he got ejected for saying bleep you to the umpire, which that'll get you ejected, but like, that umpire, like, I don't know, man, maybe there was something else going on there. But the way he was staring at Madison and Bombrnerner, like, it seemed like he was like testing him. Yeah. And like, Madison Bumgartner is not really a dude. That felt like the kind of thing where like, that umpire should probably get some time off.

Yeah. After that. That was, it was just such a weirdly like passive aggressive move that like it felt like he was trying to get a reaction out of him. It was so weird. All right. Let's quickly run through some trade options. There's a lot of other stuff that I want to get to. So let's talk about this quickly.

Hitters to trade for right now. Seems obvious. Catele Marte, he went two for two on Wednesday. He's slowly coming along. He has a modest five-game hit streak. So I would say bye while you can. Jose Abraeu, same thing, slowly coming along. Two for four with this third home run on Wednesday. The expected numbers look much better for Jose Abraeu than the actual numbers. Any someone that typically gets off to slow starts and plays better as the weather heats up.

So those are some obvious names. Chris, would you actually look to buy low on Tyler O'Neill? I know you and I were both kind of skeptical on him coming into the season. He hit his second home run on Wednesday. It was his first home run since opening day. Would you buy Tyler O'Neill right now? Yeah. I mean, it's like he's someone that I moved down a little bit,

but it wasn't like a huge drop. And part of that is just there aren't a lot of good outfielders. And so there's only so far you can drop someone like Tyler O'Neill. But yeah, the underlying numbers are not nearly as impressive as they were last season. You know, expected Wobo 319. It was 392 last season. He's not hitting the ball nearly as hard as he did last season,

at least not consistently. He's also not striking out as much, and so you wonder if maybe he's making a conscious decision to trade some contact for some pop, but Taylor O'Neill doesn't have such a long track record that you can just overlook a slow start the way that I think you can with Jose O'Bray. certainly and in my opinion,

Catele Marte, who has a three-year track record or at least two of the past three years of being very good, I'm very confident Cotel Marte and Jose Bray will figure things out. There are two that I have not thought

about moving down yet. I think I moved I moved someone ahead of... CJ C.J. Cron? No. No, I didn't quite move C.J. Cron ahead of him, but I thought about it. Yeah. But yeah, like that,

but that's not moving him down. Whereas I have moved. I did move Tyler O'Neill down a little bit in my most recent update. So I definitely have less concern about Marte and a brayu, but I think all three of them are fine by low candidates. Other statcast underperformers thus far, Whitmerry Field. He's another obvious one. Jesse Winker, his expected batting average, I believe, is still over 300.

So someone there. And Cody Bellinger, I stumbled across his expected batting average, is 265, his expected slug 501. know we don't want to put too much stock into expected numbers, but he's hitting the ball much harder this year, much more consistently than we've seen at least last year. And the past couple of years, strikeout rate is still high for Bellinger, but he's kind of in this lump. And I think someone might be looking to just offload Cody Bellinger, and I'd be looking to take advantage of that. If you can get him out of suppress costs. Have you looked at Chessie Winker's spray chart?

No. It doesn't look like he has a single hit more than like 300 feet away from home plate so far. It's really weird. And that's the kind of thing where I do wonder, like, with the move to T-Mobile Park away from Cincinnati, he was one of those guys who I wondered, like, even in a regular, in the offensive environment that we thought we were going to have, or at least that we had last season, I thought that would cost him both batting average and home runs. And then with the ball traveling less far, you know, I wonder if that is an even more pronounced change so far. So I'm not necessarily 100% certain that Jesse Winker is going to turn things around, at least in such a way that he lives up to expectations or lives up to the production he had last season or his expected stats. His expected batting average is 326.

I think, you know, a lot of that is tied to the fact that he's barely striking out, but he's also not hitting the ball well. So that is something that I would say about him, that I'm not 100% convinced that Jesse Winker is going to figure things. out. Okay, a pitcher you might want to buy. Freddie Peralta, he had another meh start on Wednesday, five innings, three runs, seven strikeouts against the Reds. He had 11 swinging strikes on 98 pitches, and his slider usage is down so far this season. And I'm surprised he didn't use it more in this start because it was actually a pretty good start for him in this one, 44% CSW, 44% whiff rate. But overall, the ERA for Freddie Peralta's 5.09, the XFIP, is 3.08.

Chris, do you actually like the idea of buying Freddie Paralta right now? Yeah, he's another one that I haven't moved down yet. I've moved a couple of guys ahead of him, Justin Burlander and Carlos Redon especially, but I'm not too worried. The slider has been getting hit hard this season. And I'm not sure if, you know,

maybe he had some loud contact on it early in this game. He did give up one batted ball, 103 miles per hour. So, you know, that did happen again. but he did also get some good results otherwise. But yeah, that ball's been, that pitch has been hit hard so far. He has a 436 Wobah allowed with his slider through his first six starts. So, you know, that's not the be all and end all.

That doesn't mean that he's lost the feel for the pitch, but it can help explain why the usage hasn't been there. But, yeah, I believe in Freddie Peralta enough that I'm not too worried. and he's the kind of guy that because he has that really good suppressing of hard contacts skill set, or at least he has throughout his career, I have faith

that even if he's not quite the strikeout guy or swing and miss guy that he was last season, he's still going to be quite good. You know, he shares that with like Sandy Alcantara. I have a sell high pitcher, Chris. Tell me if I'm crazy. Mackenzie Gore in redraft leagues, not in dynasty, but he put together

another solid star, two earn runs or fewer, in all four of his starts, but he only had four swinging strikes in this one against the... I didn't write down who he was going up against, but it was... Oh, it was the Guardians. Mackenzie Gore was up against in this one.

He's so hard to read because he's been throwing his fastball so much. I can't tell if he just doesn't have a feel for his secondary pitches, or he's just not using them because he hasn't had to, because he's had such great success already, just using his fastball. So it's kind of like the... chicken or the egg situation with McKenzie Gore. Either way, I think at some point he might be on an inning's limit. Clevenger's coming back. Clevenger is back. Blake Snell is on his way back.

I just kind of worry, Chris. I think that you can cash in on the name value of McKenzie Gore right now in redraft leagues. Yeah, I want to see one thing in particular. He pitched in the second game. because McKenzie Gore only had one swinging strike on his curveball coming into today's start, and he didn't have any today on 13 of them. That is surprising because it's a pretty aesthetically pleasing pitch. It sure looks the part, but yeah, he has not been getting whiffs with it. The slider hasn't been a great swing and miss pitch either. And he's throwing a ton of fastball.

His fastball usage today was 77%. 77 out of 100 pitches. It was 65% coming into the start. So, you know, you can get away throwing your fastball that often if you've got really good command and a really high spin rate and you can consistently throw it up in the zone to get swings and misses the way someone like Brandon McCarthy does. Or if you're like Lance Lynn and you can just change the shape and rotation and velocity of the pitch in enough different ways that nobody can just sit on it. But Gore, his command hasn't been quite good enough with it. And the secondary pitches haven't quite been there. So, yeah, I don't know.

I don't know if I necessarily want to sell high just because there is a bit of fomo there. Like, you could end up missing out on a really, really good pitcher breaking out if things click for him, if he gets the feel for the curveball or if the fastball shape, you know, stabilizes and he can throw it up in the zone for strikes more often.

But right now, there was a really good piece on fan graphs last week from Ben Clemens about McKenzie Gore's early performance. And, yeah, I think he's a decent sell high candidate, yeah. Yeah, no, I get it, man. Like, there's a chance that this can blow up if he just remains in the rotation and starts to use those secondary pitches more and gets swings and misses with them. So I will acknowledge there's a way that this goes south.

But I personally, in leagues where I have him, will be looking to sell high on him. Chris, I think this goes without saying. But if you can turn McKenzie Gore into Catelle-A-Brayu, you would do that? How about even Cody Bellinger? Would you do that one too? Sure.

All right. I think one that you might want to try is Charlie Morton. I would do that. I have my concerns about Charlie Morton, as we talked about yesterday, but I have more confidence in him than McKenzie Gore. All right, let's take a look under the hood at these two pitchers on Wednesday.

Zach Wheeler made his deepest start of the season, and he looked a lot like Zach Wheeler. Seven and two-thirds and shutout innings. Six hits, one walk, seven strikeouts. He had 16 swinging strikes on just 78 pitches. His efficiency was outstanding. The fastball velocity was up to 96.2 miles per hour, so inching closer towards last year's average.

And then Mike Clevenger, Chris, made his first start since 2020. Kind of a mixed bag here. Four and two thirds. Three runs. Only four strikeouts. I believe some of those runs came in as they were inherited by relievers. So he wasn't the one who necessarily allowed them to score. But what did you see from those to Zach Wheeler and Mike Clevenger?

I mean, with Clevenger, you don't really look at the results. It's his first start in almost two seasons. And, you know, he threw 93 pitches. Like, that's super promising. Average 93.5 miles per hour with his fastball. And not quite where he was the last time we saw him, but he's been effective in that range before. He threw all five of his pitches consistently.

You know, had at least the 17% usage with the changeup, the foreseeing, the cutter, and the slider. So it doesn't seem to be any limitations there. Eight swinging strikes on 83 pitches, whatever. That's not great. Like, this is the first start. And so you would expect only growth from here. And that's not to say that Mike Clevenger is definitely going to come back and be a superstar.

You look at the spin rate on his pitches was way down on pretty much everything except the change up. The four-seem fastball spin rate down 400 RPM's, which is, that's a lot. So even with reduced velocity. So definitely not all perfect for Mike Clevenger, but you know, you can't ask for perfect in the first start back. You know, you give a guy like that some benefit of the doubt and some time to get his legs under him. So I think it was a promising start overall. Zach Wheeler, again, I think this was a super promising start because the velocity was not quite all the way back. he averaged 96.2 with the fastball, I believe, compared to 97.2 last season. He was at 95.2

coming in. So right in the middle of where he was coming in and last season, but got a bunch of whiffs with it. The velocity was up. And that's the most important thing, because velocity is not everything. I think we've been accused of focusing too much on fastball velocity early on in the season, the thing is, it's one of the few tangible things that we can look at and say, well, this could be a tangible change in skill for a player. And it's, it just means you're, you know, when you throw harder, you get more whist. Generally, it's harder to hit. Like, those are good things. It doesn't mean it's a panacea. Panacea. I don't know how you actually pronounce that word. It's one of those words I only ever write. But yeah, I think like Zach Wheeler throwing hard,

that's the most promising thing to come from this start. And I saw some griping that he only threw 78 pitches and was only allowed to throw seven innings and whatever. Take the seven innings and feel confident that Zach Wheeler is going to be better moving forward. I think that's the biggest takeaway from this start. Yeah. And I hope you bought low while you could.

We were telling people after his last start that he looked pretty good and velocity was creeping up a little bit. So yeah, Zach Wheeler, getting closer, getting closer to the guy that we expected. The nice thing is even when the strikeouts haven't been, been there so far and the walks have been a problem for him and all that, you know, he hasn't looked like himself. He's been getting pretty good results on balls and play. And that's always been something that Zach Wheeler's been pretty good at, especially, you know, in the last

couple of seasons. So the fact that that skill set is still there, like Sandy Alcounter, like Freddie Peralta, you know, it gives a high floor, even when things aren't perfect. All right, where should we add these hitters? If anywhere, we'll start with Pavin Smith back-to-back games with a home run. He now has all three of his home runs over the past six games played. He's got an 18% barrel rate, which I found interesting 95th percentile, according to StackS. He's 25% rostered. Chris, are you looking to add Pave and Smith anywhere? No, even like a 15 team league, I'd be surprised if I was looking to add him in my waiver runs this week. I have him in a 15 team, Roto League. He's kind of valuable there because he has outfield

and first base eligibility so you could plug them into corner or five outfield spots. So I would say 15 team leagues. That's probably where you want to target him for now. John Bertie had a double dong, his first two home runs of the season. I don't know.

Is there anything here, Chris? Not for power. John Bertie is not the guy who, if he hits home runs, you take notice. It's more about playing time so he can steal bases. And I think he's mostly just benefiting

in that regard from Joey Wendell not being there. Chris, I woke up on Wednesday, and I just, I had this urge to make DFS lineups for the early slate, and I had John Birdy and all of them. So call it, call it luck.

I hope you won. I won a few bucks. Nothing too crazy. Josh, Josh Niller went three for five with three RBI. He's now betting 3.40. He's 30% rostered. Should you add him anywhere?

I added him in a 14-team road to league. where I needed some outfield help. So, you know, I think definitely leagues of that depth. So 15 teamers as well. And even 12 teams, like there's not nothing there.

You know, he's shown the ability to hit for contact. He's shown the ability to drive the ball. You know, his max exe, Exavilo has been relatively high in the past. So, um,

yeah, I think Josh Naylor's worth a look in, you know, he's fringy in 12 teams, but, anything deeper than that. All right. Juan Yuppez,

prospect with the Cardinals, made his Major League debut, and he went two for three with two doubles. They were both eerily similar, just bloop doubles down the right field line. 9% rostered. He has first base eligibility.

He started in right field in this one. Chris, are you looking to add Juan Yippez anywhere? I would say similar to Josh Naler. It's not clear if Yippez is going to play every day or how long he's going to have that opportunity. Obviously, you know,

if he hits well, then he can make that opportunity for himself, but right now, probably only 15 teamers. Yeah, he's definitely a name that you just want to watch. Let's see where it goes. Let's see how much he plays because he was awesome in the minors last year,

and he was really good to start the season as well. Mike Musacus went two for four with an RBI. He has three multi-hit games in six games since returning from injury. He is 20% roster. He's got seven games next week with four of those coming against the Pirates. Chris, are you looking to add Mike Mustakis anywhere? I can't say that I'm super excited about it yet. I'll need to see him.

I mean, look, he was kind of one of the like, I don't want to say originators, but one of the examples of those guys that we've talked a lot about, Nolan Aronado being a high profile example of just the super pole heavy fly ball hitters who always have a ceiling on their batting average and don't hit the ball. hard. The problem is, you know, with the ball not traveling as far, Mustakis probably needs to hit the ball a little harder than he has been to hit for power. And I just don't know if there's going to be enough of that. But worth watching. All right. Let's get to some leftovers from Wednesday's action. Some

pitchers. Adam Wainwright got back on track. Had his longest start of the season at the Royals. Seven shutout innings with two strikeouts. Tyler McGill posted a season high nine strikeouts up against the Atlanta break. Justin Verlander makes it four quality starts in a row, six and two-thirds, two runs allowed, three strikeouts. He threw 100 pitches for the first time since October of 2019. We had a pitcher's duel out in Oakland where Frankie Montas threw seven shutout innings with six strikeouts. Corey Kluber on the other side, he's now allowed just five base runners over his last two starts. In this specific start, six shutout innings, seven strikeouts

to just one walk. And then Lucas Gialito, he allowed a few home runs. but posted his first double-digit strikeout game of the season at the Cubs. Chris, anything you'd like to add on Giolyto, Cluber, Montas, Verlander, McGill, Wainwright. I don't think there's much there with Cluber, and he's 80% rostered. He's got two starts next week. I think if someone was buying, I would be trying to sell. I can't imagine there's going to be too many. but velocities down, swinging strike rates aren't super impressive overall.

I just, I don't see it with Cory Kluber. I don't think there's some kind of bounce back happening. So we've probably seen the best of him that we will so far this season, and I wouldn't necessarily view him as a must-roster player. Montas, he's looked good. Geolito, it's been a weird start to the season, but I haven't seen anything too alarming from him, tons of whiffs, tons of strikeouts.

Tyler McGill, the velocity hasn't quite been as high over the past handful of starts, but results are still very good. I don't know if you saw on this one, but he had maybe the worst strikeout of the season against Marcelo Zuna. I mean, it was three called strikes

that were all at least two inches off the strike zone, and I'm not a person who complains about bad umpiring all that often, But those were, that was, that was real bad. So, you know, probably, probably should have had more like eight strikeouts, but it's okay. But yeah, he's looked good. You know, I think the, the dreams of him making like an ace leap, like we thought, might happen in the first couple of starts.

I don't know if that's going to happen with the velocity more like 95 average, but still overall very good. And like you, I've moved him. I'm not sure if he's quite in the top 40 at starting pitcher, but he's very close. Let's see. I've moved him up to exactly 40 myself. It's 50 for me. But I could probably stand to move him up a couple more spots. Yeah. Yeah, I'll move up to 48.

Yeah, no, the strikeout to walk ratio has been awesome for McGill, 35 strikeouts to eight walks, all the underlying numbers like Tyler McGill as well. So he is not one of those sell high situations. think he might just be legitimately good. And I talk about this a lot. Anytime a pitcher joins a pitching staff, or he was already on the Mets, obviously, but surrounded by other really great pitchers, Scher, Chris Bassett, obviously, Jacob de Crom, it can only help.

I am a firm believer in that. So, you know, I might just be buying in on the narratives here, but I think Tyler McGill is just legitimately good. Some hitter standouts. Jazz Chishol went two for three with a walk and his fifth stolen base. Mani Machado added his fifth. fifth home run and fifth steal across the double header. Nolan Aronado went two for five with his seventh home run, five RBI.

Chris, I'm sorry. My guy Francisco Lindor is, he is battling it right now. He's 0 for 14 over his last four games. J.P. Crawford went two for four. He now has multiple hits in four of his last six games. He's batting 364. A. E. E. E. E. E. Hennio Suarez went one for three with a 441 foot home run off of Justin Verlander.

he was hitless in five games before this. He's kind of slowing down right now. Alex Bregman went three for three with a double, three RBI. Batting averages down. He's really kind of selling out for power. Lots of fly balls. Pull rate is even higher than ever before. So I think Bregman's selling out a little bit there.

Marcus Semyon back-to-back multi-hit games. Carlos Correa hit his second home run. Cedric Mollins went two for five with his third homer. He's got eight hits over his last five games. Zander Bogartz went. two for five with his second homer. Taylor Ward came off the bench, hit the go-ahead home run in extra

endings for the Angels. That is his sixth home run. Anthony Rendon went two for five with his third homer, and Jared Walsh went three for five with his third homer. Call to the bullpen. Oh man, there's a lot going on here. Let's just talk about what matters most. The Marlins. Anthony Bender

entered this one with a one-run lead. He gave up two hits and two runs. He takes his second blown save, third loss. Chris, I think there's a real chance that once Dylan Floreau is back from his rehab assignment, he will be the closer. Yeah, I mean, it's been weird because I feel like Bender hasn't been that good, and the Marlins have gone back to him consistently. So that's a good sign for him. But yeah, we'll see what it looks like when Flora is back. But I would say at the very

least, Bender doesn't have a particularly long leash. For the Pirates, Chris Stratton entered in the seventh inning up four to two, David Bednar, then pitched a final two innings for his third save of the season. Gorda Romano loaded the bases but worked out of it for his league leading 12th save, 12 saves on May 5th. That is just awesome. Liam Hendricks now has three saves in three days. So he's up to you. The back's feeling good.

Seven saves there. Yeah, he's looked fantastic recently. Oh, the Red Sox. More fun for the Red Sox. Hansel Robles, he started the ninth inning in a one-run game. He had a strikeout, a walk, a walk, a flyout. then there's two outs. They pull him for Jake Deekman who faces Jared Walsh, gives up a game tying single, they go into extras, and then Matt Barnes and Sahuamora

proceed to get clobbered in the 10th ending of this game. It is a real struggle for the Red Sox bullpen. And I would say right now, nobody there is a must roster player. All right, to stream or not to stream, we'll start with Thursday. Rich Hill versus the Angels. Again, that's going to be a tandem start with Tanner Hauk. Adrian Hauser versus the Reds. Taiwan Walker at the Phillies. Nick Martinez versus the Marlins and Chris Archer at the Orioles.

Not to stream. Preferably. But if I have to pick one, Adrian Hauser against the Reds would be the guy. Yeah. Nick Martinez is probably second. I don't know if any of these.

Honestly, Friday's not great either. Carlos Hernandez at the Orioles. Jordan Lyles versus the Royals. and Jordan Hicks at the Giants. We've got a lot of TBDs this time of year, unfortunately. Yeah, TBD has been set up for a lot of starts this season. Jordan Hicks is the most interesting of this group, but you can't start him yet.

He hasn't shown the ability to pitch deep into games or pitch super effectively, but I definitely want to watch him. This one just... This one popped up. Chris. Tyler Anderson at the Cubs. I think that's okay. Yeah, that might be fine. I think I like him more than any of the other ones. Anybody else? Cole Irvin was originally supposed to start against the twins. I don't think that's going to happen. Wow. What a fun game this one is. Shane McClain against Logan Gilbert Friday night. 940 Eastern Time. That's that's that'll be worth watching.

That sounds like a date. All right. Let's watch that. We're going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching. Fantasy. baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.