Fantasy Baseball Today - Royals Promote Jac Caglianone, Corbin Burnes Injury & More! (6/2 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

It's time! The Royals are promoting Jac Caglianone (2:15)! ... Spencer Schwellenbach had 11 strikeouts in back-to-back starts (8:29). ... Jesus Luzardo and Brandon Pfaadt got bombed this weekend (12:44). ... News (19:58): Corbin Burnes will have an MRI on his elbow. ... We had some other prospect promotions, including Cole Young to the Mariners and Jacob Melton to the Astros (31:32). ... Carlos Correa is hitting well since coming off the IL (43:40). ... Zebby Matthews had a mixed start this weekend (49:27). ... Start or sit these pitchers (55:01). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (58:46). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow FBT on TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow our FBT team on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@FBTPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CPTowers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CBSScottWhite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@Roto_Frank⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join our Facebook group at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. What's up and welcome in Tough Fantasy Baseball today. And welcome to June. I am Frank Sample joined by Chris Towers.

Today on the show, we got some big prospect promotions. Also, some big injuries to talk about, waiver wire moves, starter sit decisions, and much more. But Chris, June gets kicked off with a bang, courtesy of the Royals who are promoting Jack Caglione, who we have talked about so much already on this podcast, on FBT Express podcast. He is 22 years old, the sixth overall pick in last year's draft,

and this season, 49 games across three levels in the minors. he is hitting 323 with 15 home runs, and he has gotten even better. Once he got to AAA, six homers, 1147 OPS, making a ton of contact, hitting the crap out of the ball.

66% rostered, last I checked, is this just a must add? Grab them while you can. Absolutely. And I want to highlight, like, the reason we say

Jack Haglione or Nick Kurtz or whoever is a must roster, player when they get first called up is not because we think they are guaranteed to make an impact. I think the likeliest outcome for Jack Caglione is he's just fine. He heads for a lot of power, but struggles to make consistent contact and is not an impact player right away. That's probably the most likely outcome, just like it was for Nick Kurtz and every other prospect who's gotten called up. The reason we add Jack Caglione everywhere is, because you look at the first basement who are available in most leagues,

and it's like Gavin Sheets and Josh Bell and guys who are productive and are probably fine, but they're not more than fine. And that's what you're hoping Caglio will be. You're hoping that this is a guy who has legitimate top of the scale raw power, has been putting it into action in games since he was at the University of Florida. has a swing geared towards lift. This is not a guy who needs to hit the ball in the air more to live up to his potential. That is not the thing with Nick Kurtz.

And actually, he doesn't really, at least so far in his career, have huge issues with swing and miss, at least on pitches in the strike zone. The biggest issue for Caglione has been going back to college, he chases way too much. And that was an issue in his first taste in the majors last year, or his first taste of the minors last year. It has not been an issue so far this season. His strikeout rate right around the major league average, his chase rate in AAA was 31%. That's fine. It's a little bit higher than league average, but not worrying.

Liso. And so if all of that is transferable, it's great. That's awesome. He'll be a difference maker. It's not the likeliest outcome, but absolutely you should add him because the chances of anyone else being available on first base who could become a difference maker? Pretty low. Yeah, I would agree with that.

Again, 66% rostered for Jack Caglione here. And that's only 24% on Yahoo. So just widely available. If you play over there, if you play in a Head Ted Categories League, take a shot. I mean, we're looking at legit 80 grade power here for Caglione. It's one of those where it doesn't matter that he's playing in Kaufman and it's a bad park for home runs. Like, this is a guy who has power that transcends. ballparks. It doesn't really matter where. If he hits, it's going to go a long way.

I do just want to acknowledge as well that the Royals now have Jack Caglione and Vinnie Pasquantino in the same lineup. That's pretty awesome. It doesn't get much more like Italian meat of the order than that right there. Yeah, that's pretty good. Trying to figure out where I'm going to drop them in the first base rankings and should note, I think he's going to get outfield eligibility. Oh yeah, he's going to play outfield. Yeah, like that's the plan here for Cagallon. He'll be first base outfield eligible. You'll have that dual position. That's awesome.

I was looking at my first base rankings and I kind of thought around 16th. So that would be just ahead of Jonathan Arronda. The Ben Rice one is still tough because like hits a home run off of Yamamoto and we still know how talented he is. Only one more appearance for catcher eligibility. Not playing every day and reinforcements are coming for the Yankees. So I don't know. I mean, maybe you feel differently about that.

one, but I was thinking I'm going to put Caglione ahead of Aranda, ahead of Ben Rice, ahead of Michael Bush, ahead of Jake Berger, but behind names like Reese Hoskins, Paul Goldschmidt, I don't know. What do you think about that? Yeah, I think that's right. I don't, eyeballing it, like Caglione versus Jake Berger, that's a tough one because Burger is one guy who I really think does have the kind of upside that I said you can't really find on the waiver wire. So like if he and Caglione were both a very important. You probably just add Caglione just because this is the chance. There's not going to be another time to add Caglione if he's good.

And so that I think 17-ish makes a lot of sense. So I would lean, man, it's really hard with Ben Rice, Jonathan Aranda, Kyle Manzardo, Michael Bush. Like those guys are all good hitters already at the Major League level. I mean, Bush just not playing against any lefties. Yeah, but like they all have their drawbacks. Yeah. You know, Aranda has playing time issues. Manzardo, really low batting average that might just be a problem for him forever. I think the median outcome for Caglione is he's right around those guys, talented but limited in a way that makes him something less than 100% must start player.

But those guys are sort of known quantities in a way that Caglione isn't. So I might be inclined to just put him ahead of Rice, Aranda, Manzardo, and Bush. and just bet on there being some kind of upside there because there certainly is. All right. So again, the Royals promoting Jack Caglione, go at him if he's available in your league. Let's get into the players of the weekend.

Is this happening? It is. All right, Chris, who do you have here from the weekend? We'll, there's a lot of bad to talk about this weekend. So I'll be positive for once. I've been told I'm too pessimistic. So Spencer Schwellenbach, remember Spencer Schwellenbach couldn't get any strikeouts? And he had gone, what, like nine starts in a row, eight starts in a row with no more than six

strikeouts. And then he struck out 11 against the Padres earlier this week. And then he goes out and strikes out 11 more against the Red Sox this week. Those are two tough matchups to get a lot of strikeouts with. And yeah, that was a good sign for Spencer Schwellenbach because there's been a lot of talk this season, just about who he is and what the seal. is and just how good he is. And it was good to get a reminder that, yeah,

the ceiling still can be really, really high. It was interesting, like, the way he went about it, because it was mostly the four seamer dominating in this one. He got eight whiffs on 29 swings. The splitter had seven whiffs on 10 swings. He only had one other swing and miss in this start. It was one with the slider. But that four seamer has actually been a really good swing and miss pitch for

Spencer Schweltenberg this season. 27% whiff rate for the season. It was 20% last year. He is throwing it about a mile per hour harder. And that can sort of help to make up for what he's lost with kind of every other pitch in his arsenal being a bit worse. It's not like been a total collapse on any of them, but it's just been like a few points worse with the whiff rate on pretty much everything else.

And so good to see Swellenbach reminding us of what the season. can be and yeah I still it almost makes him even more confusing to to rank and value moving forward because if he was just like a a high volume but low strikeout rate guy and then it's like okay well maybe does he have the ace upside or is he like a really good number two and then it's like well now we have three double-digit strikeout games from Spencer schwanbach on the season there were eight starts in between them before he goes back to back so I don't know I don't know what to make of him. He's, he's SP 15 for me.

SP 14, because Michael King was ahead of him. I hadn't moved him down with the injury. That's probably right, right? I have him at 23. I think I've just been a little bit harder on him because my expectations were so much higher coming into the season, which doesn't make the most sense.

I think he probably should be. It's tough not to do that though. Yeah. I mean, I think he should be a top 20 starting pitcher. So I'll move him up a few spots here. And obviously it's easier to say after he has back-to-back 11 strikeout starts here. It's just, I'm trying to find something that's consistent with these big strikeout starts, and the fastball has played better in terms of whiffs, but trying to figure out

how to balance that with the fact that he gives up a lot of hard contact on that fastball when they make contact. 94.7 average exit velocity on that pitch. And I realize again, like, I'm nitpicking 11 strikeouts is awesome. This is a, you know, back-to-back great starts for Schwellenbach. You love it. But the force seamer was the top-width pitch in both starts. Yeah, so maybe it's just playing better, but it still is giving up a lot of hard contact. So, you know, just trying to figure out, like, who is the real Spencer Schwellenbach? I think he's also trying to figure that out, like, sure. On the fly, he doesn't have that much experience.

Yeah, he's still relatively new to pitching. As a professional pitcher. So, I mean, the fact that he's been this good this early in his career, I think is a, it's just more of a positive for him than anything. You know what it feels like a little bit? What's that? It feels a little bit like Jack Kerp, George Kirby, last year. year remember where he got a ton of hype coming into the season. People were talking about him as a top five starting pitcher and he wasn't that. And I think it was easy, especially there were a couple of really bad blow-up starts for George Kirby that inflated his ERA. And he didn't take the big strikeout leap that many were hoping for. And it was easy to like be a little overly pessimistic about him. But then you like, you do step back and it's like, okay, wait, it's still a 313 ERA. And it's still a strikeout branding.

And so, like, you know, the, it's important not to, to miss the forest for the trees when it comes to players who are, you know, quote unquote disappointing. All right, Chris, you went the positive route. I am going the other way here. We've got to talk about Jesus Lazardo. What the heck happened in this one? Just destroyed by the Brewers. The brewers of all teams, you know, it's been a pretty good matchup for pitchers so far this season.

three in the third innings 12 hits 12 earned runs allowed two homers against Jesus Lazzardo just three whiffs on 76 pitches clearly a lot of hard contact here didn't really have much work working look his fastball and sinker have just been getting destroyed the season that's even with the velocity being where we want it you know we want Lazzardo up over 96 miles per hour that we made a big deal about that and rightfully so he's been awesome the season outside of the start so I almost just want give him a pass Chris but it's like man when you give up 12 earned runs and your your era jumps jumps like three quarters of a run and your whip is now 134 it's all right it's something

we got to talk about yeah i mean the nice thing is for the first time in his career really luzardo sinker is doing what you want it to do which is generate a ton of ground balls his average launch angle against what that pitches negative five degrees last year it was 18 degrees his sinker was getting hit in the air the year before it was five degrees the year before it was seven um and so yes the the exit velocity is high 92.3 miles per hour but it's a lot of ground balls and you can live with a hard hit ground ball now the four seamer that's a bigger concern and that's where it's probably just always going to get hit hard because it has he he might have the least extension on his fastball of any pitcher in baseball. And so it sits 96, but because he releases it so far from home plate,

it plays lower relative to other 96 mile hour fastballs. And it doesn't have like special movement or spin or anything like that. So he, his fastball is probably just always going to be a problem. But I still think the rest of the arsenal is strong enough that he can get past it. And look, I think the big takeaway here is he was never going to have a 219 ERA the rest of the way or whatever it was down to. I think it was 219. You just hate when it comes all in one's Oh yeah, no, it's terrible. But that's how the regression monster does

sometimes. Yeah. Sometimes it's all in one start. Sometimes it's a month. As long as he remains more like a 35 or lower ERA pitcher. He has a 335x ERA still.

I still expect you'll be very, very happy to have he's a Czarter in your lineup. Moving forward, you weren't this weekend. And I think you got to leave him in there because he's at the Pirates later this week. So obviously that's a great matchup.

And again, he was so money before this started. It's a rough one. And believe me, I get it, because I have Lazardo in a bunch of spots. And so he crushed my ratios this weekend. But I'm leaving him back out there against the Pirates this upcoming week. Let's stick with the rough pitchers real quick.

I want to talk about Brandon Fott, who also got destroyed without even recording a single out. He was charged with eight runs on six hits. Two hit by pitches here. Only two whiffs on 31 pitches. You know, three hard hits. DeVossey was actually up in this one, but man, you look at his

May. It was rough. Six starts. An 810 ERA, a 158 whip. And, you know, shout out to you and Scott because, you know, we did a buy, low, sell high segment. I think towards the end of April or early May, and both you guys had Brandon fought as a sell high pitcher at that point. And so you look up now, it's a 505 ERA, a 132 whip.

I think maybe the worst qualified XERA among starting pitchers this season at 674. So I almost want to take this a step further. It's like, I don't want to start him this week at Cincinnati for sure. Drop him. Is he dropable? I think so. Yeah. Last year, at least we had, when things were good for Brandon Fought, they were really, really good.

And like he had, I think, four starts of at least 10 strikeouts. It might have been four starts of 10 strikeouts and no walks or something. It was something bonkers like that. And this year, that just hasn't been there. Even when he was doing well in April, the strikeouts were really low. And so that was what made him, I think, such an obvious sell high candidate. And it's why I'm just not all that interested in buying low or even hanging on to him at this point because he's always gotten hit really hard. And he needs to miss a lot of bats to overcome that.

And I mean, I guess part of my question with Brandon Fott is like, let's compare him to Sandy Alcantra. With Sandy Alcantra, I know what I'm chasing there. I might not get anywhere close to it. But I have seen Sandy Alcantra put together a whole season where he was a top five pitcher in fantasy. And he has been a must start pitcher at least two other years in his career. Brandon Faw had a 471 ERA. last year. Like, what am I chasing? A couple of good months strewn about over the course of two full seasons now. I just don't know

if there's, um, if the, the juice is worth the squeeze, as they say. All right. Before we take our first break, just a reminder to sign up for the FBT newsletter. If you haven't already, if you're watching on YouTube, scan that QR code that will take you right to the website where you can sign up for free. And big thanks to those watching us live. Make sure to hit the like button and subscribe on YouTube. If you haven't already, let's take that break, and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in news and notes, and all eyes are on Corbyn Burns right now, Chris.

This is the big news that came out on Sunday. He left his start due to right elbow inflammation, and you knew something was wrong. Immediately he called to the dugout. He yelled in frustration. He had a shoulder thing that happened earlier this year, but now he will undergo an MRI on Monday for that right elbow. and I mean I would bet on him being out at least this week so you know plan on a replacement there but it could turn out to be much much worse

I mean based on his reaction obviously I don't want to like totally do the body language and lip reading thing but based on how he reacted to the injury gosh if he only misses like a month I think I'd be thrilled at this point it looked really bad I don't know obviously we can't say at this point

but yeah, it's pretty frustrating given the way he's been pitching for the last month or so. Yeah, and he was pitching well in this start as well here on Sunday. I am trying my best to pull up Scott's sleeper pitchers to remind everybody what they are. It's like Luis Severino was in there. I think Lance McCullors might have been the top one. So it's McCullors in order McCullors, Shane Smith, Ryan Weathers, Hayden Birdson, Michael Waka, Luis Severino, Max Meyer, Tomoyuki Sugano, Landon Rup, Jeffrey Springs, and that is it. So if you need a replacement this week, those are some sleeper pitchers that you can look at.

Oops, the Astros did it again, Chris. This is crazy. Like, when I saw this yesterday, I could not believe that they did this again. I'm sorry, continue. Yordaun Alvarez is dealing with a fracture in his hand that apparently, is 60% healed, and to this point, they have just been labeling this hand inflammation. So he'll be shut down from hitting until the fracture is fully healed, but eerily reminiscent to last year's kind of shadiness involving Kyle Tucker and a shin injury, which we later found out was a

stress fracture. Like, you're paying all these like McKinsey consultants, $250,000 a year in your front office. Hire me, and I will. provide a return on investment that you wouldn't believe by just saying, hey, maybe let's have like an x-ray or a cat scan, you know, like what like I just don't like this doesn't happen that often. Like if I had a nickel for every time that the Astros accidentally misidentified

a fracture as just a regular injury for several weeks, I would have two nickels, which is not a lot of money, but that's it's weird that it happened twice yeah this is great this is crazy i like i just i don't understand how you do this twice i don't like how does someone not get fired when you when you when your superstar last year misses a half season because you misdiagnosed a fracture and then months later like within the next calendar year you do it again how does that that happen.

That is unbelievable. Like how are you having a guy doing batting practice with a fractured hand? I understand that like there is swelling and that can make it difficult to read. But like, come on, there's got to be. This does not happen to other teams that often. I mean, as a Yankee fan, I feel like I've gone through stuff like this in the past.

But you know, I didn't even think that it was incompetence. I thought they were just kind of being shady. and not telling us what was up, but. I don't know because it was similar last year where like he was trying to do baseball activities and he just could never get right. Like they were having run the bases

and then he was still sore and it's like, they are exacerbating these situations. Yeah. That's the thing that's the most frustrating. It'd be one thing like, he broke his hand. Okay, that happens. Like you can't, you can't account for that.

But he broke his hand a month ago. and they just found out and they've been having him hit batting practice multiple times and that like I just don't understand how this could possibly happen. This is this is crazy. Yeah. Well, like,

because as far as I know, I hadn't seen that he had had an x-ray before this even. So like that that's my thing is like, did he just not have an x-ray or a cat scan or whatever until this most recent thing? I mean, he was diagnosed with hand inflammation. Yeah. I don't know.

I feel like they had to have done some tests, but... You would think. Yeah. Yeah. So, we'll see. Not great there for Yordaun Alvarez, and not great for Mookiee Betts, who apparently is dealing with a fractured toe,

but expects to miss just a, quote, couple of days. He did not play in any of the three games against the Yankees this weekend. Chris, do you start or sit Mookie Betts this week? I think I'd have to sit him and just hope that it really is just a couple of days, but fractured toe.

It's not just a question of whether he comes back. Like, Mookie Betts hasn't really been himself this season already. Like, he hasn't been terrible, but it's been a frustrating start. And now he's going to be playing through a fractured toe that seems like a situation that you should. I will say I want to see him look right before I start him at this point. What about Bryce Harper, who's missed five straight after getting hit by a pitch on his right elbow earlier in the week. He said that he's feeling much better and anticipates playing on Tuesday.

Do you start or sit Bryce Harper? I'm inclined to start him, yeah. All right, Kyle Tucker left early Sunday with a jammed right ring finger. He suffered on a slide into second base. X-rays came back negative. Maybe misses a day or two, but I'm inclined to leave Kyle Tucker in there unless we, you know, hear that this injury is a little bit worse. Cole Reagan's made a rehab start at double A on Saturday. He got up to 62 pitches and could be activated to start Thursday against the Cardinals that has not been confirmed. Chris, do you risk it and start Cole Reagan's in weekly leagues this week?

I try not to, yeah. Yeah. The Rangers did finally place Nathan Avaldi on the aisle with triceps fatigue. He actually played catch in recent days and said he felt good, but it appears the Rangers opted to play it safe and Kumar Rocker is set to take Avaldi spot in the rotation and start this Wednesday against the raise. Me personally, I'm not looking to add Kumar Rocker, Chris.

I think it's more of like a, let's scout him and see how this goes. Yeah, I think that's very much a wait and see because he actually, from what I remember, he looked good at AAA. It's just, I think he's kind of solved AAA, and it's just he's got to make that next step and we haven't seen it yet. So we've really barely seen anything from him at the major league level yet. All right, you brought up Yuri Perez, who is scheduled to make his eighth rehab start Tuesday at AAA. He threw five shutout innings in his start before this one.

And if all goes well, this could be his last one before joining the Marlins. He's 68% rostered. This is your last chance to go grab Yuri Perez while he's still available. Jackson Job went on the IL with a grade 1 flexor strain, which is always scary for any pitcher, especially one that throws hard and has all this prospect pedigree. his velocity was down in his last start as well. There is some talk that Sawyer Gibson Long will take Job's spot in the rotation.

If so, he is a name to watch. He's been pitching very well at AAA so far this season. So much for our convoy on Friday, Chris, because the raise option Chandler Simpson to AAA and activated Jake Mengum from the IL. Simpson was hitting a cool 285 with 19 steals in 35 games. But apparently the raise cited his defense as a reason for sending him down.

And despite his elite speed, Simpson ranks 13th percentile in outs above average, and he's second percentile in arm value. So, I don't agree with the move. I mean, I want him here selfishly for fantasy, but the defense is legitimately bad. So, I mean, I guess that is an argument to send him down.

Yeah, I mean, look, it's also like, I'm pretty sure Christopher Morel's out of options, and Cameron Meisner has been good on defense and shone a little pop. I understand how you get to the point where Chandler Simpson's the guy to send down because he has options because he's so inexperienced. I would rather have kept one of the, I would rather have kept him up and sent

Meisner or Mangum or even DFA, Christopher Morrell. I just don't think that's going to happen. But I understand how they got to that, especially with it being the raise, they're always going to prioritize defense. I think we'll see Samson Simpson before long. I think his defense has to be better in the future than it was in this stint. He's relatively

raw as an outfielder, but certainly has the athleticism. And I thought he was good as a hitter. You know, 285 batting average, 315 OBP, very little power. Obviously, that's not great, but I think it was a 305 XBA. So I'm I'm hoping we see Simpson before. board long. Maybe they give

Mangum or Misenor or I think Johnny DeLuka is going to come off the IL soon. They'll give those guys a chance but I think the most fully realized version of the Ray's outfield in the next year will include Chambersome. Yeah. I mean the defense, I've listened

to like other prospect podcasts and stuff and I've heard legit you know skepticism over his defense. So I'm not sure how much better it's going to get, but obviously, I mean, offensively, he was doing exactly what they wanted him to do. So in five outfielder roto leagues,

I think you have to hold on Chandler-Simson. If you play in, you know, a three outfielder head-ed categories league or something like that, you know, look, if you need the steals, you can hold for now and hope he gets called back up. But in a league that shallow, you might be able to get away with dropping him there.

Anthony Santander was placed in the aisle due to a left-shoulder inflammation. Alan Rodin was recalled, and he was crushing it in the minors. 361 batting average, three homers, three seals and OPS over a thousand more walks than strikeouts.

You know, Chris, in 15 team, five outfielder leagues, I would be looking to re-ad Alan Rodin if he was dropped. I am trying to do that in, in AL only labor because I had him

and then I dropped him when he got sent down. So would like to be able to pick him back up? I think, yeah, it's only 15 team leagues. And even then, like I would think Colton Couser's pretty widely available and he should be back sometime this week.

So, you know, I think I'd prioritize him. All right. Next up, Cedric Mullins went on the aisle due to a right hamstring strain retroactive to May 29th. Dylan Carlson and Jorge Mateo are seeing extended run as a result. Mateo, if you need steals in deeper leagues, if you lost Simpson, could be a name to look at there. Some other prospect promotions, again, we got a decent amount. The Mariners promoted middle infield prospect Cole Young, who is 21 years old, first round pick back in 2022, consensus top 60 prospect in baseball,

mostly known for the hit tool here. There's a little pop, there's solid speed, 16% rostered. Chris, were you looking to add Cole Young anywhere this weekend? Yeah, I think he's a pretty interesting player, a really good approach at the plate. it is sort of ironically like a J.P. Crawford-esque-esque profile where a really, really good approach at the plate.

I think the career high is 11 homers in the minors. Last year he didn't hit for much power because he was dealing with a wrist injury. But you'd prefer a little more speed from this profile, but maybe it's like a Chase Midroth where I think his career high was like 13 steals in a season. And he's already got 8. you know, in 30-something games.

So maybe Young will be a little more aggressive, but I do think he's a pretty interesting option who should have for a good batting average. And there's like 1020 upside with Cole Young. All right, what about the Orioles who recalled Kobe Mayo with Ryan Malkastel going on the IL? And we've heard Mayo's name the past couple of years a ton. He still just 23 years old.

The power is there. He's still hitting the ball hard. But, you know, batting average. and strikeouts have been an issue in the minors. Chris, any interest in Kobe Mayo in Deeper Leaks? Sure. I mean, I think he's got to get in the lineup and show us something first, which has been a problem for him.

And this is definitely a situation where, one, I think the Orioles handling of him has just stunted his development a bit, but also I think the Orioles handling of him probably tells us something about what they think of him as a player, that they haven't moved mountains to get him in the lineup, I think that probably tells us that they aren't sure he's definitely going to be a star. And so, you know, skepticism is reasonable. But I hope they give him a real chance here.

That's what I'll say. The Astros promoted two names this weekend. Outfield prospect Jacob Melton. He at AAA was hitting 254, two home runs, three seals, 880 OPS, hitting the ball extremely hard. And then they also promoted Shea Whitcomb, who was crushing the miners. He's older, he's 26 years old,

but 18 home runs, six deals at 956 OPS. Chris, any interest in a Jacob Melton or Shea Whitcomb? I think they're both mildly interesting. Whitcomb, I think since the start of last year. Yeah, it was 161 games at the AAA level since the start of last season. he hit like 285 with 45 home runs 43 home runs and 32 stolen bases we've I think there have been times when Wickham has been called up and we've been

kind of interested in and you know he clearly didn't take the job and run with it last year but I do think there is some potential here with Shea Whitcomb if they if they give him a real chance as well yeah it feels like aL only for now but maybe if they get playing time that's a big thing. They can work their way into some deeper mixed league conversations. You mentioned this one earlier. The Phillies plan to recall Mick Abel to start Thursday in Toronto. He is taking Taiwan Walker's place in the rotation.

And a reminder, his Major League debut on May 18th was awesome. Six shutout innings, nine strikeouts to zero walks, 34% rostered. Yeah, honestly, I think 12-team Roto Leagues are deeper. Man, if you need pitching, take a shot, see what happens. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, I I wrote up for today's Waver Wire like five pitchers to stash

and it was Bubba Chandler, Yuri Perez, Abel was one of them and then I saw he was getting called up, Andrew Painter and who's the other? Oh, Logan Henderson. Just because it's not really an exciting time for pitching ads on the waiver wire. We kind of moved past an interesting crop.

And so. I think you throw Shane Buehers. in that mix too. Oh yeah, sure. Yeah. So yeah, those are, those are some pitchers to stash if you have the roster space for them. Obviously, Able, because he's going to be in the rotation, look, yes, Aranola could be back relatively soon and push him back out, but life finds a way, right? Like, that's, we, we didn't think there was going to be an opportunity for him. And then, you know, they've had a couple injuries come up. So if he's good and Nola comes back, Then it's like, well, what happens when painter's ready?

Cross that bridge when we get there. Life finds a way. Oh, yes. Jazz Chisholm could be activated as soon as Tuesday, and he will play third base upon his return. Chris, you go ahead and start Jazz Chishm if you have him. Yeah, I think that's fine. Christian Yelich left Sunday after getting hit by a pitch on his right hand. X-rays came back negative, and let's hope he's all right because he was really picking things up.

Last eight games for Yelich, 4-72 batting average, five homers, 13 RBI, and two steals. Sean Mania will face hitters before beginning a rehab assignment in early June. He is 62% rostered. I don't think he's as exciting as those other names we just talked about, Chris, but I think it's another pitcher you could stash. Sean Mania. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we saw him pitch like a difference maker for, you know,

what, two-thirds of the season last year, Baser? I guess it was only like his last 12 starts that he really took a big step forward. I don't know how sustainable that was going to be, you know, with the lower arm slot and the, the Chris Sale impersonation that he was doing, but it was impressive enough over long enough that, yeah, I think we should be pretty excited about him making his return. I do want to point out with Yelich, assuming he's okay.

He has a 271 Babbitt right now. His previous low in a non-2020 season was 321. That's a 50-point gap between his previous low. So look, his XBA, I think, suggests that he has earned that. so I'm not saying that he's just having bad luck, but I do think there's room for him to take off if this is just, you know, a minor issue. All right, next up, Adolese Garcia has been on the bench

for three straight as part of a mental reset. He's batting 208 with seven home runs and five steals. He's 84% rostered. Chris, are you holding Adolias Garcia? Sure. I mean, I don't have a lot of faith that he's going to turn it around, but who were the top, let me see who I wrote about as the top outfielders. It was not a super enticing group, but maybe there's one.

Okay, oh, there were two. Miguel Vargas is 62% rostered. I think I'd just be okay dropping Adelis Garcia for him. And the other one, Tyler O'Neill's down to 52% rostered. I know he's been bad. I think he has one home run since opening day and has obviously been a, us some time, but we know when he gets hot, he's a must-start player. So I, that would be one that I think I'd be okay with dropping Adolice Garcia in the kind of league where those guys are available.

Yeah. And this goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, I would drop Adolius-Carsia for Jack Caglio. Sure. Yes. If he was, you know, if you had Adolius-Carcia on your bench. Turns out, AJ Smith-Shawver has a torn UCL in his right elbow and will require surgery. It has not been determined if it will be Tommy John or something else. I want to give a shout-out. out to Mets prospect Ronnie Maricio, who is crushing the minors right now. He was a big prospect a couple of years ago. He tore his ACL while playing in one of the winter leagues. He's still 24 years old. But 18 games in the minors this year, Maricio is hitting 311 with three homers, five steals and 876 OPS and just hitting the ball extremely hard. So I think it's a deeper league

name to stash, but wanted to mention that one, Ronnie Maricio there. Other players who went on the IL this weekend, Austin Hayes, unfortunately, with a left foot contusion. Zach Dezenzo with left hand inflammation. Dalton Varsho with a left hamstring strain. Jordan Walker with left wrist inflammation. Ryan Mountcastle with a right hamstring strain. Lane Thomas with Plansart fasciitis. Liam Hendrix with right hip inflammation and Lucas Ersig with a lower back strain.

Did also just want to quickly mention the Rockies. I mean, they are just unfathomably bad. nine and 50 through 59 games. They are on pace for 25 wins this season. After the White Sox just set the record for least wins in a major league season. It's wild. And they're probably going to sell anybody

who has any value at the deadline, or at least they should, which they never do. Well, like, what is the reason for optimism here? Like, how are things supposed to get better? like I would have bet on Michael Toglia hitting better than he had so far but they sent him down well yeah I mean anytime you can bring Kessin herea back into the mix you gotta yeah like I just maybe Amador I know they have some interesting hitting prospects I'm not saying that but like for them to avoid that record like oh yeah that Armagh Marquez has had some flashes recently of not

like their pitching has actually been relatively speaking less of a weakness than the hitting. They have a, I believe I saw they have a 70 WRC plus as a team right now. Oh, which is the worst that I've ever seen. There must be someone worse, but relative to their league, this is, I believe, the worst any team has ever performed. Gosh, just so bad. Also wanted to give a shout out to Denzel Clark.

If you did not see his home run robbery on Friday night, please go watch it because it is, As advertised, he was supposed to come up and he's like an 80 grade glove right away and he just stood there on the wall and just waited like five seconds for the ball to lead. It was insane stuff. Let's take our final break.

When we return, we'll talk some waiver wire moves, some starter sit decisions. We'll do all of that right after this quick commercial break. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Let's dive into some waiver wire hitters and some names in shallow leagues. Carlos Correa is hitting well since coming off the IL. nine games, 300 batting average, three homers,

94 mile per hour average exit velocity. He's 72% rostered. And Xavier Edwards returned this weekend. He went 5 for 5 on Sunday. He has 11 steals in 44 games. I mean, this could be your, if you just need speed in a shallower league and you lost Chandler Simpson.

Obviously Xavier Edwards doesn't play the same position, but he can provide a similar skill set here. Just in a vacuum, Chris, is it just league dependent? I think I would go Correa in a points league and probably Edwards in a Categories League. I think that's the way to go, yeah. It is a very good sign that Correa had that concussion and has come back and has hit the ball well, because that's not always a guarantee. Concussions can really knock guys off their game.

So that's very promising to see. Some shallow league corner infielers, Reese Hoskins led the charge in that mauling of Jesus Lazzardo, two for six with a double dong and six RBI. He is up to a 367 on base and an 832 OPS. Max Muncie had a huge game against the Yankees on Saturday. Three for six with two homers, seven RBI, 26 games since getting the glasses. Updated numbers here. 265 batting average, six homers, 27 RBI in 26 games, and an OPS over 800.

If you're just shooting for upside, Chris, at corner infield, would you rather have Hoskins or Max Muncie? Oh, Hoskins. I think they're fairly similar, but Hoskins is younger and I think has a little more power right now. And plays every day too. Yeah. Once he's not going to play against lefties.

But any leagues with a corner infield spot, like he was available in our NFBC beat FBT league and we picked him up because, all right, we throw him in there when he faces some righties and, you know, he's hitting well for now. Some utility players, guys that you can move around here, Jose Caballero has been heating up. Last 14 games hitting 25, one home run,

10 steals and OPS around 800. He's got four different position eligibility, and Willie Castro had a big weekend. Two homers on Friday. Three for four with a steal on Saturday. Has been disappointing overall thus far. But Chris, if you're just looking for a name that you can move around your

team and you need some speed here, would you go with Caballero or Willie Castro? Probably depends on specifically what you need. If you need stolen bases, especially Caballero. But I think he's probably the play overall. just because Castro has not been

particularly impressive himself. Caballero, I think you're just hoping he hits 260 and steals a bunch of bases, but he is at least scoring some runs lately. I think it was 21 runs scored in the... No, it was 13 runs scored in the month of May. Six of those in the final five games.

So that hasn't been a consistent part of his game. It's mostly steals. But I think he's probably the better overall. all-player than Willie Castro. And I do have some deep league outfielders. Addison Barger is on fire. He homered in all three games this weekend. Last 22 games, he's hitting 316

with five homers and OPS over 1,000. And the quality of contact just looks awesome right now for Addison Barger. Robert Hassel is doing some things. Has multiple hits in three of his last five games. And he has one home run and one steal in 10 games overall. Mike Talkman

has been hitting for batting average for those in deeper leagues. He's up to a 379 with a 481 on base in 12 games so far. And Denzel Clark, who I mentioned, not just defense. He had two hits on Friday, first career home run on Saturday, and then he had two steals here on Sunday.

So he's got a little power, a little speed. Chris, anyone stand out there, some deep league outfielders. Yeah, I think Barger and Clark stand out. Clark has a kind of interesting talent. Like, he's a big time athlete who actually has real raw power

and a really good approach at the plate. He's a very patient hitter. He'll draw a walk. The problem is the A's have been, I think, kind of retooling him to be a contact hitter, you know, trying to just get the ball and play and let his athleticism take over. And so he hasn't really hit for much power in the minors this season. That's probably by design, but I think he is somewhat interesting in deeper leagues. And then Barger, here's the thing with Barger.

His value is limited by not being an everyday player. by being a platoon player. And it's one of those things where it's like, can he hit his way out of the platoon? Well, maybe. But then I think that runs the risk of the stats not following, right? Like he's doing so well, I think in large part because he is a platoon player. But he's, the numbers are, as you said, phenomenal. He has an 816 OPS and he's underperforming.

It's a 345 wobo with a 386X woba. It's red. all over. The plate discipline has been very good. The quality of contact is excellent. I don't know how much I buy it, but because he's so low rostered, I don't think you need to buy it. You know, you can just add to him.

And as long as it, whenever it goes south, if it does, just got out of it. It looks like he's only set one game since May 8th. So unless they just have not been facing lefties. Addison Barger looks like he has been playing most of the time. So, yeah, I mean, especially with third base and outfield eligibility, you know, we lost Alex Breggman research. we lost Mullins, we lost Anthony Santander.

I mean, I think Barger is a really good injury or replacement right now, and maybe more than that, because, you know, he's hitting the ball really hard right now. What about Waverwire pitchers? Let's slide over here, and the first group includes Jack Leiter, five and two-thirds shutout innings with six strikeouts here. He's at the raise later this week. Zebby Matthews, a mixed start here. He gave up four earned runs in the first inning and then settled down after that,

but it was seven innings total, four runs. seven strikeouts, 15 whiffs on 94 pitches. And Zach Lattel, one of the weirdest starts you will see. A 10-hit complete game at the Astros. Didn't they win this game by like 10 or something? Yeah, I mean, I guess they just feel like, all right, we'll let you. Yeah, I think this was just like a, yeah, we don't just go out there. Throw as many pitches as you want.

He gave up three runs. He had six strikeouts. But look, last nine starts for Lattel, 297 ERA 106 whip. he's not getting any strikeouts. I don't necessarily buy it, but he's home against Dunbarlands this week. Yeah, I think that's a fine stream. Yeah.

Anything else on the other two, Chris? Zeb Matthews and Jack Leider. I'm very intrigued by what Zebby Matthews is doing so far. I think his strikeout rates over 30% right now. It's just, we haven't seen like a great start from him. This one, obviously, the four-arm runs held him back, but I think otherwise he was really good. And overall, I think he's been,

been pretty impressive despite, you know, the ugly 643 R.A. I think Sevian Matthews is more or less a must roster player. Yeah, he might not get there. But if he's available in any of my leagues, I would like to add him. And certainly ahead of lighter and Lattel and I think any pretty much any other widely available pitcher right now. All right. Anything to see here with these deeper league pitchers? Chris Paddock, I don't think it's a thing, but look, this is an awesome start. Eight innings, one run, 10 strikeouts against the Mariners this weekend. Edward Cabrera last five starts, a 2 ERA and a 119-whip. Charlie Morton, back-to-back quality starts for the Orioles.

Kyle Harrison looked good. He had 14 whiffs against the Marlins this weekend. Chad Patrick, a quality start at the Phillies. He's got a 297 ERA. And Ryan Yarbrough keeps pitching well. This time at the Dodgers, six innings one run. He had 17 whiffs on 93 pitches against that lineup. So it seemed kind of interesting.

but what do you think? Anything to see here with any of these six? I am mildly interested in all of these six. Paddock, I didn't realize this until today, but he's reworked his slider over the past month or so. He's throwing it harder with less drop, and it's performing well. I think it has a 30% whiff rate on the season,

which he has not had a pitch with a 30% whiff rate since 2022. So that seems like a good sign. Now, I will also point out, that despite, I think he has a 247 ERA since the first start of the season. Remember you had that awful first start? And we were like, yeah, he's out of the rotations. Zeb Matthews was coming for his job. That didn't happen.

He has a 247 ERA. This was his first start with more than six strikeouts all season. So I don't want to overreact or make it seem like I think Chris Paddock is suddenly a difference maker. But I think he has the Blue Jays, Rangers, and Reds in his next three starts. those are pretty good matchups. So like the Blue Jays are mediocre, but the Rangers and Reds are good matchups right now. So I think Paddock's an okay ad.

I think Cabrera's command looks good, which is weird. He is trading some four seamers for sinkers, which is probably a decent decision. He's going to get fewer whiffs, but he might be able to command that pitch better and it gets weaker contact. The changeups and sliders just, you know, need to be good.

and he can kind of make up for it. So again, not a must roster player, not a must add player, but someone to keep an eye on. Charlie Morton, the stuff didn't look terrible. It was just the command was horrible in the first month. And it's been really good.

I don't think he's walked more than two in an outing since the first outing of May or something like that. And generally has pitched pretty well since going to the bullpen. Kyle Harrison's velocity is up about two and a half miles per hour from last season, which it needs to be because you can't throw your fastball 65% of the time if it's 92 miles per hour. So that was good to see. Yeah, I think these are all moderately interesting pitchers.

Certainly none are must roster or must start, but I think they all have something going for them. Let's fire up the dropometer for these two pitchers. Chris Bassett has allowed four plus earn runs in five of his last eight starts. And during that stretch, it's a 544. for E-R-A-N-A-151 whip, Chris. Where is Chris Bassett on the drop-o-meter? I prefer not to. I don't, for any of the guys we've talked about,

I don't know. Maybe Zebby Matthews, probably Yuri Perez or Bubba Chandler, if you don't need the help right now, but certainly not a must-drop. What about Tony Gonsland, who had a rough outing against the Yankees? He actually earned the win in this one,

but it was six innings, four runs, four homers allowed in this one, and last three outings, a 780 ERA and a 187 whip. Where is Tony Gonson on the dropometer? I think it's pretty high, yeah. I think we got fooled by the first couple of good starts, and yeah, I think we can go ahead and release him to the land of the streaming. All right, starter, these pitchers this week.

Zach Eflin bounced back against the White Sox. He better. Seven shutout innings with six strikeouts, 12 whiffs on 99 pips. is here. His first quality start since before he got hurt. 47% started for Eflin. He's at the Mariners this week. I feel like their lineup has slowed down, but I might be making that up. What do you think about Eflin? It certainly does feel like the Mariners lineup has slowed down. I don't have the numbers in front of me to prove that. But at Seattle, I think he's an okay start. Not a must start, but he's fine. Let's see. The

Mariners over the past 14 days are 21st in weighted on base average. So yeah, that's not the best. Seth Lugo, kind of bad in his return from the IL against the Tigers, three and a third innings, four runs allowed, two homers allowed in this one. He did have five quality starts in a row before getting hurt. He's at the Cardinals this week. What do you think about Seth Lugo? Cardinals are a weird matchup, but I would lean towards starting them.

Or starting Seth Lugo, yeah. All right. What about Bryce Miller, who made his return? He wasn't great against the twins, four innings, three runs. Only two strikeouts here. Velocity looked okay coming off the IL, dealing with an arm injury.

The curve was down a little bit. Everything else looked mostly fine here. It's, well, he just has not looked right all season. The problem is his velocity looked fine relative to pre-injury, or pre-IL stint,

but it's still down from last year. True. I'm looking for an escape hatch I'm hoping he has a good start and I can try to trade him because I this just feels like it's going to end in heartache yeah he does get the angels this week

so I mean I how can you start him though as bad as he's looked this season you can't start him right I would really try not to yeah he just hasn't had any he hasn't shown any signs of upside and then we have Gavin Williams, who turned in a quality start against the Angels,

six and two thirds, two unearned runs with six strikeouts. He had 11 whiffs on 130 pitches. Through that cutter, a bunch in this start, and it was great. He had seven whiffs on the cutter, 41% whiff rate. So, you know, he's tinkering a little bit and maybe finding something. Last five starts, a 230 ERA 110 whip for Gavin Williams, but still 15 walks over five starts. It's just way too many.

if you have Gavin Williams are you starting him this week against the Astros? Yeah, I think he's looked really good the last couple of starts. I don't understand Gavin Williams, just his whole process where last year he doesn't throw the sweeper, what we now call the sweeper. Instead, there is this bullet slider and the cutter, and they're both pretty good.

And then he starts out this season, completely, like sliders out of the picture still, doesn't throw the cutter at all until like the end of April. April. And since he's reintegrated the cutter, he's looked much better because this was a good example. Today, his fastball velocity was down. He wasn't, I don't think he got a single whiff with the fastball, but the cutter was great. He got seven whiffs with it and that helped pick it up. And it just, I don't understand this like bifurcation that he does where like he can only throw certain pitches at certain. It's like we've seen like six different pitches from Gavin

Williams in his major league career. And they're not, I'm not saying they're all great, but the finding the right mix is important. And I appreciate that he seems to have found the right mix right now. I'll run through the rest of what happened this weekend. I have four names that look like the breakout is happening on the hitter side of things. Cal Raleigh will just not stop hitting home runs. Four more homers this weekend. And he took over the league lead with 23. He also has an OPS over a thousand. Pete Crowe Armstrong, two more steals on Sunday. He's hitting 280. with 15 home runs and 19 steals. Junior Caminero.

The dude is red hot. Four for five with a double dong. Five RBI on Saturday. Last 10 games, he's hitting 400 with five homers, 17 RBI in 10 games. And an OPS around 1,400. And Jeremy Pena just very quietly continues this breakout. Last seven games, he's eating 407,

three homers, four steals, and overall he's hitting 309. nine home runs, 31 runs, 30 RBI, 10 seals. He's a true five category player, Jeremy Pena. Yeah, the weird thing about Jeremy Pena is the expected stats don't quite back it up. He has a 369 Wobah, 347 X Woba. So there is a gap there, but that's not that big of a gap.

And that 347 expected Wobah is way better than we've ever seen from him. What's hard to figure out is why. Like his quality of contact metrics look very similar to last year. His 367 expected Wobon contact. Basically league average, his average eggs of velocity actually slightly down from last year, but basically right on barrel rate a point higher but not significant. It's mostly just that he's making a lot more contact. His strikeout rates down from 17.1%, which is already good to 13.8% so far.

I don't know how much I buy that. that that feels a little unsustainable. So I think Pena is probably a sell high. That's not to say that he's totally a fluke, but I think he's probably more like a 275, 280 hitter than a 310 hitter, which there's nothing wrong with being a 270, a 275, 280 hitter. It's just it's not 310. Yeah.

All right, we did have some pitchers duels this weekend. It's time to do. First up, we had Ryan Pepio up against Framber Valdez. Pepio, six and two-thirds shutout with four strikeouts. Still allowed 10 hard hits in this game, but he has turned in five quality starts in a row. And Framber Valdez, a three-hit complete game, nine strikeouts to one walk. He did that on 83 pitches. He was incredibly efficient in this one.

He has also turned in five straight quality starts. Throwing that curve and change up more. Chris, Valdez looks like he's back on track. I think Ryan Pepeo is a cell high right now if you can try and get something for him. Absolutely. His whiff rate on the foreseamer has dropped significantly. I mean, it's dropped on everything.

He really, even when he's pitching well, he's not getting strikeouts. The strikeout rate is like 18% right now. And I don't really see a path to that strikeout rate getting better. He was so dependent on his foresemer being an outlier with pitch last year to get strikeouts. It doesn't look like it's coming back. he's he's limiting hard contact well enough, but not to sustain this.

I think he's more like a four ERA pitcher. Him and Tage Bradley are both. I think kind of like four-ish ERA pitchers. They just go about it in really different ways. And right now Bradley is probably, he had a very good start this weekend, but he's probably underperformed and Pepio's probably overperformed. Framber is very interesting because he's going on another run. It's not the same way the right.

happened last year, though. Remember last year it was like 40% curve balls, a lot more strikeouts. Even in this one, I think it was 36% curveballs, which is one of the highest marks of the season for him. I don't think he's gotten up to 40% in any start. So I think we're seeing more normal good for Amber Valdez than the what we hoped was a breakout at the end of last, or the second half of last season. Next up, we had Terrick Scouble against Michael Walker. Scubal, shutout innings with seven strikeouts here. His last two starts, 16 shutout innings, four hits, zero walks, 20 strikeouts for Terrick Scoobel. And Michael Waka on the other side took a no

hiter into the seventh. He went seven shutout, one hit, one walks, six strikeouts. He's rock solid. You know you're getting from Waka. He's 288 ERA, 117 whip. He's looked good. And in shallower leagues, he's available. He's at the White Sox this week. If you have Corbyn Burns and Waka's out there, like, Yeah, no-brainer. Waka against the White Sox, great match. Yeah, that's fine. Yep. And then the last matchup here we had, Todge Bradley up against Hunter Brown.

You mentioned Bradley. Great start, seven innings, one unearned run with 10 strikeouts. That was a season high. He had 18 whiffs on 104 pitches. And then Hunter Brown, six shutout innings with five strikeouts for him. He now has a quality start in 10 of 12 outings this season. Anything on Todge Bradley or Hunter Brown? Hunter Brown's another one where like Like we said with his Hazers Lozardo There's probably going to be some regression

He's not a true sub two ERA pitcher But His ERA could be a run higher And I still think Hunter Brown would be One of the 15 best pitchers in fantasy So I Fully buy into what he's doing Even if I think there's a little bit of regression there

And then Bradley It's just He has these stretches where he looks really good. He never looks consistently good for long enough to buy in. I think he's just, where 60 something starts into his career, I think. I think that's just what he's going to be.

All right, some hitting leftovers. It was a huge weekend for Jackson Trio. He had a steal on Friday, a sock in a shoe on Saturday, two more hits on Sunday. The power, the speed, the counting stats all there. We just need the batting average and the OPS here to bounce up for Jackson Trio.

Signs of Life from Tyler Soder. Chris. He homered twice this weekend. He only had one home run in May entering this weekend, so nice to see that. Big weekend for the Met Stars, we had three homers from Lindor, two homers from Soto, and then a three-run homer from Pete Alonzo on Sunday. Facing the Rockies, we'll help that for sure. Big weekend for Marcus Semyon, which was sorely needed. Four-for-four with a sock in the shoe on Friday, and then two-for-two with three runs and

another steal on Sunday. Hopefully this could be the start of something for him. I finally moved him down to like 20th at second base. So that's why this is happening. I saw that. I haven't met like 15th. So I moved him down quite a bit as well. It's very tightly packed between like 12 and 20th at second base.

Yeah. Look, the Yankees got beat up by the Dodgers weekend, but Friday was awesome. Judge starting that game with the home run and then Otani matching him. Yeah, that was great. You know, the two best hitters in baseball just duke it out. That was so cool. I think the first time in MLB history that the defending MVP's homered in the same That's so awesome.

Judge hit two more home runs on Saturday. He's up to 21, and Otani did hit two home runs on Friday overall, and I think he's up to 22, 21 or 22 at this point. I know Raleigh has the lead at this point. George Springer continues his renaissance, hit two home runs on Saturday. Jose Ramirez extended his on-base streak to 28 games. He homered twice this weekend. L.A. LaCruz is on a tear last eight games.

He's hitting 367 with four home runs. and an OPS over 1,200, and Mani Machado picking up the power. He has four home runs in his past nine games. A lot of these names are just studs being studs. Chris, is there anything that stood out to you? My feelings on L.E. De La Cruz have not changed since the start of the season, but I know there was a lot of concern about his relatively slow start.

So I'm sure this is something that a lot of people wanted to see from L.A. de la Cruz, and I'm happy it happened. I think he is what he is. And that's frustrating, but I think you accept him for what he is rather than what he, what you want him to be and you'll be happy because what he is is a dominant fantasy player who's just not quite as good as people want him to be. And then Manny Machado's been awesome this year. Like we, I feel like we barely talked about it at all.

Yeah. And we've talked so much more about Raphael Devers, certainly, but also Austin Riley and and some of the other guys at third base. And the power was very disappointing before this recent stretch. Yeah. But I feel like we just haven't talked about Mani Machado at all. Like, he's got seven steals. He's been 308.

It's been awesome. It's been great. Yeah, 40 runs. That's 27 RBI is low for him, but. But the underlying numbers, I think, are much better for the power as well. So, yeah. No concerns there. Yeah, he has a 549 expected slung percentage.

Nice. Some pitching leftovers. Part one, Andrew Abbott had a stellar start at the Cubs, seven shotout innings, one hit, one walk, eight strikeouts for him. him there. Nick Povetta continues his breakout season with the Padres, six innings, two runs, eight strikeouts, and Sunny Gray, awesome at the Rangers seven shutout with 10 strikeouts for him. Three straight quality starts, two of those with 10 strikeouts for Sunny Gray. Anything that stood out for Gray, Povetta, or Andrew Abbott. It's really crowded, so it would be hard to do.

But I'm kind of talking myself into Abbott as like a top 40 pitcher. I moved them up to 53, 57? Last update was around 60, but I looked more closely into him. And he's getting the strikeouts. The walk rate is lower lately, but it's around 9% overall. He's still doing a great job limiting hard contact,

which that was the thing he did last year. He limited hard contact really well last year. It was just the strikeout rate was way lower. Now he's doing both. And that, I don't know. He's always been a weird pitcher. He's always been a hard pitcher to figure out. out, but I really like what we're seeing from him lately.

All right, and then pitching leftovers part two. We have Robbie Ray, tough luck loss at the Marlins. Seven innings, one run, nine strikeouts with 19 whiffs in that one. Garrett Crochet has been tremendous. He was at the Braves, seven innings, one run, 12 strikeouts, 23 wifts on 112 pitches. I really just hope, I hope the Red Sox prove us wrong. I hope Garrett Crochet does. They are just really working him, man.

seven plus innings in six of 13 outings. He has thrown 100 plus pitches in seven of 13 starts. He only did that twice all of last year. So they're just really, really pushing him. And then Chris Bubich took a tough luck loss against the Tigers. Seven innings, one run, nine strikeouts for him. Chris, anything on Boobich, Crochet, and Robbie Ray. The one thing I noticed on Crochet, his changeup has been ridiculous this season.

It has a 51.7% whiff rate, and he has not allowed a hit on 11 at bats against the changeup so far. That's been, he doesn't throw it often. He throws it exclusively to Ritees, but it's really good. All right, the call to the bullpen. Just some things that stood out for the Giants on Friday. We saw Camila Duval in the closer roll for the first time. He recorded the final four outs for his sixth save.

And then on Sunday, Deval recorded four. four outs once again. He did walk two, but picked up his seventh save. So Deval, clearly the guy, uh, anywhere where he's available, just go out and add Camillo Duval. For the Tigers on Friday, Tommy Canley got the eighth inning with a three run lead facing at nine one and two in the Royal's lineup. He picked up his seventh hold and Will Vest, uh, then picked up his eighth save. On Sunday, we got the same recipe. It was Tommy Canley in the eighth inning for his eighth hold and then Will Vest in the ninth for his ninth save of the season. For the Dodgers on Friday, Tanner Scott entered with two outs in the eighth.

Runners on first and third, a three-run lead. He got DJ LaMayhew to fly out. And then they only let Scott face that one batter. And Alex Vescia came out for the ninth inning and picked up his second save. I was watching this game. I think what they said was they didn't want Tanner Scott to sit down and then come back out for another inning.

So that's why they only let him face one batter. I mean, whatever. It's the Dodgers. His usage is kind of inconsistent at times. He also has been a little bit more hitable recently, but they just have so many injuries. I just think Tanner Scott's the guy. Yeah, he's on pace for right around 30 saves.

I never thought the ceiling was much higher than that, but if he gets to 30 saves, you're going to be thrilled about it. Oh, yeah. You know, he hasn't been as good this season, just on a skills level. Strikeout rates down. Walk rate is actually minuscule. That's weird.

3% walk rate. That's shocking for Tanner Scott, but it's been a little more hitable as a result. Yeah. For the Cubs on Saturday, Daniel Palencia got the ninth inning with a two-run lead. He struck out one for his fifth save. Very clearly looks like the Cubs closer for now. And for the D-backs on Sunday, Shelby Miller pitched in the eighth inning with a two-run lead.

And Justin Martinez got the ninth. He struck out two for his fourth save of the season. To stream or not to stream on Monday, we have Max Meyer home against the Rockies. Tyler Anderson's at the Red Sox. Richard Fitz is on the other side against the Angels. Savali at the Reds Severino home against the twins Fitz

only through like three innings in his most recent start right? That would be the concern because he was rushed back from the IL I believe so I don't know if you can count on him for six endings I like the matchup though man

I mean if we don't get a good start at a Max Meyer against the Rockies on the road it might actually be time to drop him so I I will say Max Meyer, Luis Severino and Aaron Savale. But I wish I was confident in Max Meyer. On Tuesday we have Lance McCullors at the Pirates,

Kate Horton at the Nationals, Shane Smith gets the Tigers, Brian Bayo gets the Angels, Sagano is at the Mariners, Clayton Kirshoff, home against the Mets. I really don't like this group. I could see a good start from Bayo.

I could see a good start from Horton, although the nationals have actually been pretty good lately. Yeah. Josh Bell's in one of those streaks that he goes on where he can just carry a lineup. I have men in a labor, so I need it. Yeah, I would say McCullors and Beah would probably be my top two here.

I will go with McCullors, Horton, and I guess I'll say Sugano, but you know the deal with Sagano. You're hoping for a quality start. Not much upside there. We are going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today.

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