Fantasy Baseball Today - Royce Lewis vs. Matt McLain, Big Returns & Waiver Wire Adds (5/30 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 30, 2023

Well, Bryce Miller finally had a rough start (2:08). ... Is now the time to sell Hunter Greene (8:05)? ... Royce Lewis made his long-awaited return Monday (15:15). Lewis or Matt McLain? ... Could Elly De La Cruz get called up soon (20:40)? ... Michael Soroka also made his return to the mound (23:57). ... Where might Tyler Glasnow be ranked at starting pitcher (28:52)? ... Let's rank waiver wire hitters (31:00). ... Logan T. Allen was great Monday (36:00). ... News (42:07): Jacob deGrom threw another bullpen. ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates, streamers and Team Name Tuesday (50:17). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Welcome back after the long weekend, and welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, May 30th. I am Frank Stamphill, joined by all the Chris's Towers and the Welsh.

on the show four days worth of baseball to recap. So you're going to get lots of yeses and knows, not too much talking. 20 pages on the rundown. Let's see how much we actually get. Is that for real? Yes, 20 Google document pages worth of stuff that I have written down. Right. Yeah, I'm up to 2,800 words in my weekend recap piece that'll be out tomorrow morning. It's actually going to be the FBT newsletter. Make sure you subscribe to that. And I haven't done bullpens or Royce Lewis yet. Did anybody enjoy their week, which by the way, we're doing this. It feels like it's Sunday, but it's really Monday.

So you guys are listening on what we think is Monday, but it's really Tuesday. It really like, it mess with my head today. Like, why are there three games on Sunday night baseball? That's weird. I guess it's because it's Memorial Day. But then I was like, it's not Sunday. Yeah, it's Memorial. It's Monday.

Really screwed with my head. Yeah, I actually went upstate for the weekend. And so I didn't, you know, I wasn't paying that close attention. to baseball and then what do you know? I come back today and I've got to figure out everything that happens. So here's where we are. We'll get into team name Tuesday, the latest waiver wire ads, all that fun stuff.

Before we get started, please like this video and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. And if you're listening on the audio side, download, follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. Let's jump in. Holy cow, how about that? Holy cow, Welsh. We'll start with you, buddy.

Oh my goodness gracious, player of the weekend. Well, let's all say hello to Bryce Miller's secondaries because we saw plenty of them. What did Bryce Miller tell us? Well, no, I don't even need to do anything with my fastball. It's been so good. I can throw it 80% of the time. Not so much. Little regression in play.

58% fastball percentage here because he was getting hit. Velo was down kind of across the board, gave up eight runs, couldn't get to five. this is the really the outing we were all kind of waiting for and unfortunately for Bryce Miller and this very curious to see if this is what this is going to be like we all knew like 80% wasn't going to work I actually think Bryce Miller can live in the 70% fastball range but this was the vibe 58% fastball 20% curveball so he really laid into his curveball in this bad outing the slider 13% he threw 11 and the change up it was up as far as WIFs go the fastball wasn't working, as you can tell.

Four of 29 swings induced whiffs off the fastball. He only had a 27% swing whiff rate on the curveball. Slyder was worse, only 14%. An overall CSW of 20%. We knew this was going to happen at some point, whether you're a, hey, sell, get off the boat, or whatever it was. I don't think it's a worst thing in the world. It's a tough team to play.

He's got to battle through adversity to see what level he's going to be. Definitely concerned with where the usage went. and where the effectiveness went because everything was down across the board. But I don't think we need to destroy Bryce Miller now that he actually gave up a run. You know, he wasn't pitching against the A's. But this is the game we were unfortunately waiting for

and it came out in explosive fashion. Oh my, Bryce Miller giving up all the runs. Yeah, I'm really struggling to avoid confirmation bias just because I have been skeptical of Bryce Miller and just it's not impossible to throw seven. percent fastballs and be effective in major league baseball in 2020. It's just really, really hard. And you can say the same thing about Michael Kopeck, who had a not a great start.

He got a bunch of strikeouts, but got hit hard. Miller gave up 10 balls in play with an average of 93.8 miles per hour average X velocity on his four-seem fastball today. So clearly that pitch wasn't working. And the problem was the curve ball was six balls in play in 98. mile per hour average X velocity in the slider three balls in play 100 mile per hour average average X velocity change up 93.3 mile per hour average X velocity on two balls in play so nothing was working and look it's the Yankees they've got some good hitters although it's not exactly

like stacked top to bottom that Aaron Judge guy is pretty good. It's all right. I is this the I told you so is this the I told you so moment for people that are like ah Bryce Miller's no good You can't do this. He's getting lucky. He's pitching to the A's. Or is this just what we know is going to happen with young pitchers and he can battle through this. Because I think that's a big question.

All the analysis we can have, people are going to be like, am I still cool with Bryce Miller after this outing? I think it's a bit of column A, bit of column B. I think it's really unlikely that Bryce Miller is going to be an ace moving forward. Just based on the underlying numbers that we've seen, the fact that really none of his pitches are getting whiffs so far. it's only six starts and, you know, obviously that they've been for the most part very, very good. But 20% whiff rate with the curveball, 14% with the slider.

Even the four seam are 25%. Like that's fine for a four seam fastball, but it's not, you know, Hunter Green levels. And so I do, I do still think there's an opportunity to sell high. I do still think Bryce Miller's probably going to be more like a high three's ERA pitcher than, And a low threes ERA pitcher, it honestly wouldn't shock me if he was a four plus ERA pitcher moving forward. So I do still think, obviously, you would have preferred to sell high before he gave up eight runs in this start. But I still think there's probably a sell opportunity for Bryce Miller. I think the bounce back is going to be key here.

I'm looking for the bounce back. And I think you're going to see a bigger focus on the secondaries. And I do think it can work because that basketball is so magnificent. I think it's a top 10 stuff plus. especially as far as the fastball goes. If you can get those secondaries going with how he's been hitting the zone, I think Bryce Miller be okay. Again, how do you bounce off of adversity?

This is a big thing we do in the prospect world that you're going to look for. That's what I'm looking for. I think your cell window is gone and you just hold up and hopefully he can bounce back on it. Yeah, I think it's more the latter for me, Welsh. I think this is a young pitcher who obviously was pitching over his head based on the matchups that he had earlier in the season. and he was allowing 49% fly balls entering the start and hadn't allowed a home run yet.

So he gives up two homers in this game. And we kind of comped him to Christian Javier and Joe Ryan last week with that kind of like invisible fastball and being able to get whiffs with that fastball. The one thing we didn't mention is that like Javier has a really good slider to go along with that fastball. And you know, Joe Ryan, this is kind of what we saw from Joe Ryan last year.

year too where he was a little bit up and down. There were some blow-up starts in there too because he didn't really have that secondary out pitch. Well, now this year, Joe Ryan has that pitch with the splitter. I think we have to see Bryce Miller kind of make some adjustments here and find at least one secondary pitch that works, whether it's that curveball or slider, whatever it might be, or maybe it's both of them a combination of those two pitches, but he's got to find something to pair well with that fastball. I'm more so, yeah, in the, I guess, positive camp of Bryce Miller. But yeah, We did know there was going to be some regression at some point for him. Chris, you mentioned the name Hunter Green, and I know he's one that you wanted to talk about as well.

Yeah, I mean, we've got to talk about a guy who took a no hitter into the sixth inning, ultimately struck out 11 Chicago Cubs over six shutout innings, two walks, no hits, obviously. And it's really frustrating when Hunter Green does something like this after how up and down he's been all season. And, you know, the hope would be, hey, maybe he'll parlay this into, you know, maybe he'll start to build, right, and start to become the guy we hoped he would be. Obviously, we thought that coming out of the end of last season that he had figured something out.

And I do, like, not to be a Debbie Downer coming off the best start of Hunter Green's season, certainly and arguably one of the best of his career. But it's just like, is there a sell opportunity here with Hunter Green? Like, we, I know there's upside because fastball velocity is usually viewed as a proxy for upside. And Hunter Green has arguably more fastball velocity than any major league pitcher in the game, possibly ever, in terms of how often he throws 100 plus miles per hour. I do just like, I kind of think this is what he is.

Now, that's not to say this is what he is forever. there's going to come a time where Hunter Green figured it out. But as good as he was in this start, we're still seeing similar things for his four-seem fastball. 353 expected Wobah allowed on that pitch, six home runs, six of his eight home runs allowed with the four-seem fastball. A lot of whiffs.

That's great, 27% whiff rate with the four-seem fastball. But despite a year and off-season, despite the growth he showed at the end of last season, still kind of looks like a guy who throws really, really hard, but his fastball is not actually that great of a pitch. And his slider is elite. And that's all he has. And I just, I think it was reasonable to buy Hunter Green in drafts this year

with the hope that he would figure his upside out. I do think we might be at the point now where it's, it's worth trying to get something for him to see if, you know, it becomes someone else's headache. Yeah. So Hunter Green is an interesting case because, spoiler alert, you know, let everyone behind the curtain. When I'm ranking my starting pitchers,

I like to look at K-minus Walk-rate, I like to look at Sierra and things like that, and Hunter Green is eighth among qualified starters in K-minus walk-rate this year. So in that category, and you look at each of like X-Phib, Sierra, FIP, all those things, they love Hunter Green, but I almost wonder, is he just, is he someone that will always kind of,

maybe not always, but at this point in his career, have inflated numbers. Like, his ERA will be higher than his underlying number suggests because he pitches in Great American Ballpark. And he gives up a lot of hard contact and he gives up home runs. And gives up a lot of fly balls. I mean, he's only at 34% ground ball rate guy too. Nicolodolo also had this same issue.

If you go back and look and especially if you go and look at some of the expected stats versus, you're going to see a pretty big plethora of like him being at the top five of like batting average versus expected batting average. Wobah versus expected. And I think Hunter Green is pushing in that same territory. So there might be some ballpark factors into these really good pitchers going on as well, like you were mentioning Frank. I guess the question, Chris, is what do you sell Hunter Green for, right?

It's, I still have them inside my top 40 starting pitchers. Scott and I did a podcast that we recorded, which came out on Memorial Day about like players to buy and players who like have struggled so far this season. and I brought up Lance Lynn again and, you know, three strong starts in a row looks like he's kind of getting back on track. Like, is that something you would try to do? I would imagine you could get like Lance Lynn

and maybe another piece for Hunter Green, but that's something that's kind of brewing in my head as like a possible trade scenario, I guess. Yeah, that's a tough one because I do think like, I feel like there are like 40 good pitchers and I don't know if Hunter Green's part of that group. I don't know if Lance Lynn is part of that group, but when I'm looking at my rankings,

it just feels like once I, hit like 38, which is where I have Jesus Lazzardo, which honestly kind of feels low for Jesus Lazzardo. And so it's like, but then I look at the point after that and it's like, that's where I have Carlos Rodon's stash. That's where I've got like

Lance Lynn and Chris Bassett and Blake Snell. And it's just like, I don't know how much I like any of those guys outside of that, you know, beyond Hazel Lazzardo. It feels like there's just like a cliff there. And so you'd rather have Hunter Green or Bryce Miller?

probably Hunter Green kind of similar situations where I'm not sure either pitcher has more than one good pitch but yeah that's that's a that's a kind of tough one I've got Bryce Miller in that same range you know he was 42nd for me before this start

and so yeah if you could trade Hunter Green for Tristan McKenzie who I had as a bust this season even before the injury but you know I still like And he's coming back from that injury. He's making his third rehab start and then, you know, could be back after another start after that.

So would you do that? Like Hunter Green Fortress of McKenzie Plus? I think there would have to be a second piece involved. I wouldn't do it straight up. But if you could do something like that or, you know, I was thinking about like Tyler Glass now. But I think whoever has him, they've been waiting all season, right?

Like they're probably not going to give out Tyler Glass now at this point. So, yeah, maybe. I mean, wins are a huge problem with Hunter Green. That's, I mean, one win on the season. So, like, you guys are, when you bring in, in my mind, when you bring in the fringier, or let's just call it a big group, big old globy group, I'm not sure like why I wouldn't trade him for, why I would need plus on McKinsey. I mean, these are all better team context.

Sure, maybe the biggest strikeout option is Hunter Green, but he has the worst ballpark factor, worse run support across the board. Guys like even Bryce Miller off of this blow up, or Tristan McKinsey, the team context alone works in their favor. and we kind of know who they are a little bit more. They just lack the big strikeout upside. And some of those magical performances, I always have likened big, streaky players to Justin Upton. And I'll be like, that guy's the Justin Upton if people remember watching him.

And I think Hunter Green is like the Justin Upton of pitchers. So you can have like an awesome month and then he can have just like a trash month. But now put Justin Upton, this Justin Upton on like a really bad team. And that's kind of where Hunter Green is at. Like I talked myself into all these Reds pitchers, but I don't know. It's kind of, I think, blowing up in our face quite a bit. And the streakiness freaks me out. And I'd probably be comfortable just moving on to one of those guys that can pick up some cheap wins.

Because we're for the most part talking about five category stuff, wins playing some role, whether it's points or roto category. So, you know, each his own on that. But I don't think Hunter Green stands out over that other group. See if you could move him for Dylan. Seas. Oh, my goodness gracious for me is Royce Lewis, who made his return on Monday. And it was actually the one-year anniversary of him tearing his ACL last year.

Comes back, he went two-for-four, hit a three-run homer in his first game back against the Houston Astros. He started at third base. There was another report that confirmed Royce Lewis would not be playing any outfield this season for the Minnesota Twins. And if you remember last year, 12 games with Minnesota, obviously it's a very small sample, but he hit 300 with two homers. He had eight games at AAA this year where he hit 333 with four homers. and two steals. Well, I know you could speak on this. Royce Lewis was once considered one of, if not the top prospect in all of baseball. He is up to 55% rostered. What are your thoughts?

Is this someone that needs to be added in all leagues moving forward? I think so, especially in the land of speculation that we live in right now. You know, I just did something talking about Royce Lewis and how much of a buy I think he is. I think he gets clumped in with these other twins guys. like the Edward Julian's and the Trevor Larnix and stuff, but he's not. I think he's actually more of like the Alex Kirolov. Remember, you know, we weren't sure. We're like, ooh, where's Kierloff going to go? They just brought him up.

He's in. He's supplant. He's good to go. The rest of these guys are kind of turnstiles. Royce Lewis is not the turnstile guy. They love the bat. They like the flexibility. He played third.

I mean, think about this. First game back off a 60 day I.L year injury, hitting five and playing third base, not the natural position. He played third base when he was out here in the Arizona Fall League, which seems like 12. years ago. And that this guy can play four different positions. I mean, really, we should say six, because he could play all outfield positions. I've watched him play center. He can play short,

of course. Third, I know Donaldson's working his way back. I just think Royce can be the third baseman moving forward. He's a power speed combo guy. You saw the hard hit come back into play multiple hits. I think he's the perfect glue for what this team has wanted. And regardless of the players coming back with Polanco coming back, I just don't think it has to be taken away. from Royce. I think Royce is up in this top tier. Edward is the next guy to kick rocks. And I think I wouldn't be shocked if the team just made a full commitment to Royce being an everyday player. Like, I'm not sure if it would be like the Diamondback situation where there was Josh Rojas, who was kind of moving around a couple different spots. Like, I don't think

Josh, I think Donaldson could become the Evan Longoria of that situation where Royce is playing somewhere every single day. So I think he's a must add. Long way to come back around and say, I think he's a must add. Why would you not? All five categories are in play. And he's not fully built off a speed for points league.

So yes. And we know like Karea is not very healthy either. Well, this brings us to the next question because Matt McLean is coming off a massive week. Don't do this. I have to do it. I have to do it. Well, as people have this question,

I got asked on Twitter, this exact question. And it is a great one. Matt McLean had 42 fantasy points on CBS last week, five multi-hit games, two homers, one steal. He is up to 64% rostered. Do you want Matt McLean or Royce Lewis? There's somebody else.

Like make the decision on somebody else. I'm going to give the real answer. I do want to say from a pure talent perspective, I would still side with Royce Lewis. And I know Matt McLean has been playing amazing. This is like a long-term, like long-term perspective. I would side with Royce Lewis over Matt McLean. Matt McLean strikeout rate is still pretty high.

He's got a 500 Mabbat in 12 games, which is not going to be sustainable. And so he's doing awesome stuff. Long term, I want Royce Lewis. Everything I just said about Royce, I think he's guaranteed maybe like a little bit less than Matt McLean. So I would find it hard to cut Matt McLean for Royce Lewis right now because Matt is a little bit more entrenched. I'm just waiting for the twins to give us the word. When they give us the word, hey, Royce is a starter all year, I'm going to take Royce over Matt McLean. That might not be popular and whatnot.

But, you know, Red's got some stuff we're going to be talking about here soon that doesn't exactly put them in a spot where every single player is locked in because they got too much talent that's going to be coming up here. So I will say Matt, but if you give me confirmation, I will go Royce. It is super close to it. I actually think I would go with Royce Lewis. And I don't, look, time will tell. But with Matt McLean, everything that he's done, you know, look, this past week was amazing, right? But still has a 28% strikeout rate so far. It's a small sample size.

I get it. He's not really hitting the ball all that hard. 87.7 exit velocity, 35% hard hit rate. He's making the most of it. Obviously, it's a great ballpark to hit in Cincinnati. And I like him. I don't want to, this isn't me talking down Matt McLean. But if I'm trying to fight.

Yeah, why do you not like Matt McLean for him? Yeah. Why do you hate Matt McLean? It's just, look, when you're splitting hairs, you got to, you got to look into it a little bit deeper. And I think Royce Lewis has as much upside and, you know, he plays for a better team. So, yeah, I'm very true. I would take Royce Lewis. But I think both of these guys, if they're available, you know, like say someone else already picked up Royce Lewis, go add Matt McLean.

Because he's still only 64% rostered. I think both of these guys need to be closer to 100%. We were talking beforehand, Welsh, one other thing I want to point out, look, this is all kind of, we're speculating right now. we don't know if this is actually true. L.A. Dela Cruz posted something on his Instagram, which makes it seem like he might be getting the call,

but like we haven't actually seen that happen. What's the latest there? Congratulations. Dna-da-da-da-da-na-posed little post-Malone. There's a picture of him in a reds uniform. Post-Malone, congratulations. I don't know what the song is called or whatever. I don't know.

I like, I have, so I get so much entertainment out of speculating off of little Instagram things. unfollowing someone or changing a photo. And then I inversely get more entertainment out of people to get mad about the speculation. So everything about it is beautiful. But it's kind of hard to like, you put something like that out there. You kind of think this is coming soon.

So Ellie, Ellie is probably going to beat CES and I'll eat my words, I guess, on that. But you should have picked them up by now. Like that, that would be of all the. So now let's throw a big wrench into it. I know we're spending way too much time on it, Frank. Take all those short stuff we just talked about. now throw Ellie De La Cruz into it in Speculation Nation.

You put Ellie over every single one of them because I would probably drop any of them even to speculate on Ellie because I think he's coming this week. If you knew he was there, I think you would say easy. But like if not, if you could, if Ellie was sitting on the wire, would you drop every single one of those guys to pick up Ellie thinking he's coming up this week? In a shallower league, yes, I would do that. But in a deeper league, you know, you need. You still need played appearances and stuff.

You just need guys that are playing. So something like that, in a deeper league, I'm sure you have someone worse that you could drop to speculate. He's probably already rostered in a deep league. I'm gonna say he's probably not even available. Right. But L.A. De La Cruz, 57% rostered on CBS.

That's the latest. We'll see everyone knows he's absolutely crushing the ball in the month of May. And this comes right after an article was released on The Athletic this past weekend, talking about how close Ellie De LaCruz is and the Reds have a decision to make. What do they do with Jonathan, India?

Who's like their team leader? it was a very it was kind of a weird article like as well as Jonathan India has played like why does he have to be the odd man out but I guess he's very odd how it was placed and maybe you won't say it here but like definitely had the smell of like

what Red's official put that in his ear like why would we even have why would any rational conversation be around like well Jonathan India the team has a decision about Jonathan India why why would they have a decision about like a pretty talented middle infielder that they can control and who's seen as a team leader.

Why would that be the decision regardless of all these other guys? It was a very odd article. But the thing that may be focus on is even in that article was, hey, Ellie's coming. And you know, you guys might be listening to this and we've got the official announcement anytime. All right. Let's take our first break when we return. A couple other players who returned Michael Soroka, Tyler Glassdown this weekend as well.

We'll get into all that here on fantasy baseball today. Welcome back. And for those interested in soccer, Sevia has conjured magic on the way to a 7th Euro Europa League final where they face UEFA trophy specialist Marino and his experience Roma side in Budapest. Catch the UEL final this Wednesday with coverage beginning at 2 p.m. Eastern Time on the CBS Sports Network and streaming on Paramount Plus. Michael Soroka made his first start since 2020.

We're talking about multiple Achilles surgeries. He was doomed by three-run Homer by the aforementioned Ryan Noda, unfortunately. he was at the Oakland A's six innings, four runs, three strikeouts with 11 swinging strikes on 83 pitches. I guess it doesn't give you the most confidence that he couldn't turn in a quality start against Oakland of all teams. But it was his first start in a really long time. And it was a 355 foot home run. It was one of those that like, I think it would have been out in 17 of 30 major league baseball stadiums or something. So like, I don't know.

That's not the concerning thing for me. I thought it was actually all things considered a relatively promising start because it wasn't a disaster. And I think it very easily could have been a disaster for Soroka who had a 433 ERA at AAA during his rehab assignment. Now, you know, rehab assignments aren't necessarily always judged by the results. But I think expectations should still be low, but not necessarily because he gave up four runs and six inning against the eight. I thought the results weren't as the results were worse than he actually pitched. By the way, shout out to Ryan Noda, who I believe has the second highest barrel percentage in May. He's actually been like absolutely murdering the ball.

So I was dismissive, but shout out to Ryan Noda. You know, he might be more of a problem than Nick Sanzel, but just putting that out there. And getting back to Seroca, the last time we really saw him at his best was 2019. And his pitch mix was very different in this start compared to what it was back then. I mean, he used four different pitches between 22 and 28% of the time in his return on Monday. And back at 2019, he was really like leaning on the sinker 45% of the time and then kind of branching off that and using other pitches. But much more diverse pitch mix in this return, he is up to 64% rostered, the third most added starting pitcher on CBS this weekend behind Bobby Miller and Michael Kopeck. Speaking of those two, by the way, Bobby Miller had a strong second start up against the nationals.

six innings, one run, four strikeouts with eight swinging strikes on 87 pitches. Kopec, he did struggle. He allowed, I think it was four runs over four in a third or four and two thirds, but did have 10 strikeouts, 17 swinging strikes on 102 pitches. It was really like his first inning, he got doomed and then, you know, kind of turned it back on after that. Towers, how would you rank that group of most added pitchers this weekend? Kopec, Bobby Miller, and Mike Soroka.

I would probably go. Actually, let me see where I've got I've got Michael Kopeck one spot ahead of Bobby Miller in my starting pitcher rankings and both are many, many spots ahead of Michael Soroka. So, yeah, I think Soroka's a distant third there because I just, there's obviously some upside. He was very good in 2019,

but I think the path to regaining that upside is pretty tough. That being said, You know, his changeup had a 39% whiff rate in 2019. His slider had a 38% whiff rate. He threw both of those pitches a decent amount in this game. Changeup was actually tied with his sinker for his most used pitch. And the sinker velocity was actually up from 2020, the limited amount we saw him there. And back to where it was in 2019.

So that's interesting. Something to keep an eye on. Physically seemed okay. But yeah, I would rather chase the upside of Kopeck and Miller. I guess I would go Kopeck ahead of Bob. Bobby Miller. But, you know, Copac is, I still think he's a one pitch pitcher, you know, and that pitch was good today. But the velocity was down a little bit from where it had been the last couple of starts. And, you know, it wasn't quite as effective. And he got hit pretty hard. You know, that was five balls and play 101 mile per hour. Average exit velocity allowed for Michael Copac. So I don't think any of those three are guarantees. Yeah, I think I would. take Bobby Miller at the top of that group, but then, you know, there's a conversation to be had about Kopec versus Seroca. I still overall like what we've seen from Kopec the last

couple starts. So I guess I would take him, but yeah, it's, I think it's close between Kopec and Seroca. But potentially bearing the lead here, I mean, Liam Hendrix made his return to the mound just four months after a cancer diagnosis. It's just like remarkable stuff. It's, you know, we'll be watching to see what happens with the results here. But obviously, like, the results are second to like what Liam Hendricks had to deal with here. He did give up two runs and an inning of work, but again, just great to have him back. Fastball velocity down two miles per hour. I think, you know, if he stays on the mound and stays healthy, eventually kind of works his way back into that closer roll, but, you know, we'll just kind of see where

it goes from here. And this wasn't a return on Monday, but did return this weekend and a long awaited return back from Tommy John surgery. Tyler Glass now, a bit of a mixed bag going up against the Dodgers, obviously a tough lineup there to face in your first start. He went four and a third, three runs allowed, eight strikeouts to one walk, so you like that K-to-walk ratio, 17 swinging strikes on 83 pitches, but allowed eight hard hits, 101.1.1 was the average exit velocity in this one. Welsh, what did you see from Tyler Glass now in his return, and I don't know if you just had to ballpark, you know, where does he rank the rest of season? I think I have them like top 25 or top 30 is like right on that fringe.

What do you think about him moving forward? Yeah, I was going to say 30. I think like 30 feels like pretty good right now. But I think Tyler Glass now has a potential to break inside the top 20 if things can get back right again. It was good. I think it was it was a solid early performance. This is what you want. Fastball hitting 96, almost 97 heavy usage.

As far as a whiff rate goes, slider was big whiff rate on this. Fastball made it happen. He got, it's interesting too. His slider batting average was one, was perfect, 1,000. And they expected was right around there, but it had a 62% whiff rate. So, you know, he's going to pound the zone. He's got to get deeper into games. I'm encouraged.

I think the stuff is still there. And that's like kind of the big thing I'm concerned with. And what I also like about it is I still think there's a general fear. So as much as like you say 25 to 30, I say 30. I think he could probably be had in that 35-ish 40. There might be a little bit of a discount. Maybe someone's trying to get out from under, unless it was someone that was stashing and reaping huge benefits.

Like, that's a guy I think I would take a chance on buying that there's more upside through the rest of the year. Because I really do think he can break the top 20 if everything's right, because look at how the race have been playing too. So much offensive support. We just got to get him to five. Maybe he's not the best in quality starts leagues. But I'm encouraged by the first outing for Glass now.

All right, let's get into the waiver wire and some hitters here. Which outfielder do you like most in a Categories league? Jose Siri in 25 games since returning from the IL. He's only batting 222, but he's doing that with seven homers and four steals, tons of barrels. That is a 42 homer, 24 steel pace over 150 games. Leoti Tavaris, really having a great May. He's batting 395 with two homers, 15 runs, 15 RBI, and four steals. I guess it helps that he plays for the,

juggernaut known as the Texas Rangers right now. It's like their offense has been amazing all season long. And Jake McCarthy made his return over the weekend in four games since returning. He has three hits and three steals. Towers, how do you rank those names in a category league? Siri, Tavaris, Jake McCarthy. I go Siri, Tavar as Jake McCarthy in that order. McCarthy is like he's going to be such a nice source of steals that he just

needs to give you anything as a hitter. You know, he needs to not hit 143 or whatever it was before he got sent down. And so, like, if he hits 265, he's probably just a starting caliber player in Roto. I really like what we've seen from Siri, though. The quality of contact metrics are really good. Expected batting average for the season is 257. Like you said, he's got that big homer and stolen base pace. So I would rank him highest.

Tavares, though, he's got the highest line drive rate of his career. the lowest strikeout rate of his career. His expected Wobah is 328, which is not great. It's maybe a little bit above average. I think average is right around 323 or something like that. But it would be by far the best of Liottaveris's career. I think last year he was like 289 or something. So he's certainly shown some improvements,

our 278 last year. So yeah, he's showing some real improvement. There's like, I would say like 10 home or 20, steal potential there for Tavares, maybe more in the stolen base category. So not huge, but, you know, I think he can be a useful player in categories leagues. In deeper leagues, Luis Garcia went six for six with two doubles, three runs to RBI on Friday. Just the third player in national slash expoes team history with six hits in a game. And then he followed that up with two back to back.

Oh, for five games. So that's how you even it out, Louise Garcia. He is 22% roster. He's got three homers and three steals on the season. Zach McKinstry, quietly, having a really good year for the Tigers so far. He went three for four with a sock and a shoe on Saturday, and then he added two more steals on Sunday.

He's now batting 291 with four homers and ten steals and has let off nine games in a row for the Detroit Tigers. Michael Massey, three straight multi-hit games. He is having a great May so far, hitting 324 with four homers and two steals. Akeel Badu went one for four with a three. a grand sock in a shoe, his third homer and fifth steel of the season. Welsh, any thoughts here?

Let's say, you know, five outfielder leagues or just like classic roto. I think any of these names could be in play. Luis Garcia, Zach McKinstree, Michael Massey, and Akil Bedou. Zach McKinstree is actually my favorite, to my own surprise through it. I love the barrel percentage. If anybody heard last week, I did a show with Enosarra talking about really the usefulness of baseball savant and especially kind of like the, you know, the charts that you get and everybody's screenshots. And one of the things that kind of came out of it universally was there's a lot of

stuff that might not necessarily be really sticky and useful, but like barrel percentage is one that really should get maybe, you know, a little bit more focus and 74 percentile barrel percentage for Zach McKinstree, who also stealing a bunch of bases we didn't see. You want to get into the expected world. All of those are working more in favor of what he's currently doing. he's destroying fastballs and it holds up. XPA is actually higher on fastballs and he's done the same thing against breaking pitches. He's just not really being beat right now.

He's playing a little over his head, but he's actually my favorite, and I think in some formats he's qualifying. He's already got that third base eligibility. So I like him. I kind of like Luis Garcia and my like levels go a lot further down for the rest. And I'm not a Keobadoo guy, but I would focus on Zach McKinstree.

The one thing with McKinstree, I agree. He's by far the most interesting of this group is just he has yet to start a game against a lefty so far this season. So that's the one thing. He's batting lead off against righties. He's playing every day. They just apparently haven't faced a lefty yet because in this last three, nine games. So that's the one thing he's, he's been, you know, nine played appearances.

He's got four walks against them. So it's not that he's been horrible when he's had the opportunity. But, you know, he's, I think a clear tier. or two below the Siri, Tavares, um, Tavares, excuse me. Yeah. Let's get into some waiver wire pitchers and the name that really stood out from Monday's action, Logan T. Allen does not want to give up his rotation spot because we know Trista McKenzie and Aaron Savali are getting close to a return.

So someone's going to have to get the boot in this Guardian's rotation. Um, maybe it's like Calquantrtle or whatever, but yeah, Logan C Allen made his case. He was awesome in this one. Seven shutout. with 10 strikeouts, 19 swinging strikes going up against the Baltimore Orioles. He limited the hard contact in this one. And all of a sudden on the season, he's got a 272 ERA. The whip is a little bit higher.

He has a really high babbip. I feel like maybe he's been unlucky in that way. But Logan T. Allen, 67% rostered. I think he's in that same conversation as the names we mentioned earlier, like the Bobby Miller, Kopec, and Soroka Group. I think I probably would take Bobby Miller over him, but then after that, it's Logan Allen for me. Well, else, what do you think?

Yeah, it's funny, too. Every time I feel like we talk about him, it's like the Patrick Bateman meme, the ooh, yeah, you know, just the ooh meme when you look at it. But funny enough, not to start this conversation, but boy, it's not a pretty baseball savant page when you go and look. It is very blue. It doesn't have a, it doesn't let you walk away with like really pretty feelings

about like how this is going to progress. Strikeout rates a little bit lower. This is a tough, like, what they're doing versus where Bobby Miller is going to be as things go on. I mean, Bobby Miller to me is clearly won that rotation spot over Gavin Stone. So I do feel more comfortable about that. There are bigger questions with the Guardians. So I'm going to lean Bobby Miller,

but Logan Allen is beating up that baseball savant stuff. And he's performing at a really, really positive level. And I also think that they need that lefty in the rotation. So I don't think Logan Allen's going anywhere. I think both guys are good. Logan Allen might be the right answer. but I like the little bit more upside with Bobby Miller. The Dodgers did already confirm that Bobby Miller will make at least one more start.

He's pitching Sunday against the Yankees. That's he hasn't exactly shown huge swing and miss stuff yet. So I'm not sure I would want to trust him. Yeah. In that start, but you know, the fact that he's getting that start I think is a good sign. Other names that pitch well this weekend. Jared Schuster has turned in three solid starts since returning to the Braves rotation. He allowed three runs over five and two thirds against the Phillies.

Alex Wood, a solid start at the Brewers, five and two thirds, one run, five strikeouts there. Griffin Canning has put together two solid starts in a row. He was at the White Sox on Monday night. He went six innings, three runs, nine strikeouts, to zero walks with 20 swinging strikes on 87 pitches. Towers, does anyone stand out here from this group? Jared Schuster, Alex Wood, Griffin Canning. If we're not including Allen, no, I don't think anybody here stands out. I think they're all probably, if any of them cracked my top 100, I would be pretty surprised right now.

I'll point out with Schuster, he threw his slider a career high 45% in that start, and it has been a really good pitch for him, 154 batting average against a 33% whiff rate so far this season. So perhaps he's finding success using that, and he'll continue to use it more moving forward. But overall, I do agree with you. This next group, not the most exciting, but, but they are pitching kind of well. I guess we could say that. Michael Lorenzen got back on track

with a quality start up against the White Sox, six and two thirds, two runs allowed. Four strikeouts. Dean Kramer has allowed three earned runs or fewer in five straight games. He was up against Texas this weekend, six and a third, three runs allowed with five strikeouts. Garrett Whitlock was solid in his return

to the Red Sox rotation. He was at the Diamondbacks, five innings, one run, four strikeouts to zero walks. And Kyle Bradish had a strong start up against Texas. Six and two thirds, one run, four strikeouts there. Welsh, anything on this group, anyone that stands out, Braddish, Whitlock, Dean Kramer, and Michael Lorenzen. In deeper leagues, I've got interest in Bradish and Whitlock.

You know, Bradish outside of the New York Yankees game, he's got three of his last four. He's given up one earned run or less, which is nice. Walks have been a little bit all over the place. But I can still, I think he's a streamable option. I kind of think Garrett Whitlock is too. The Diamondback's performance was solid, but he's definitely got more blown up. Maybe the walks aren't going to be as big of an issue,

but I also don't think the strikeouts are. I probably would lean Braddish, kind of minimal excitement group, but those are the only two that get anything going if I'm looking to stream. In the deepest of leagues, we're talking 15 team mixed, maybe even like AL only here. Daniel Lynch had a solid first start of the season

up against the nationals, five and a third, two runs allowed, six strikeouts. did have 14 swinging strikes on 95 pitches, and Mike Myers took a combined, perfect game into the eighth inning on Monday that spelled M-A-Y-E-R-S. He is a former reliever for the Angels back in the day,

but he's now made two starts for the Royals, and he's looked pretty good in both of them. Towers, anything here. The deepest of leagues, Daniel Lynch, Mike Myers. I mean, I feel like you left some stuff off Mike Myers' resume. I beloved Canadian comedic actor, terrifying slasher horror movie star. I was basically raised on Austin Powers.

That, that's the first thing you think of when you think of Mike Myers real quick. I think this is going to age everyone. Wayne's World for me. Wayne's World for me too. Frank, have you ever seen Wayne's World? Yes,

I actually watched it for the first time on the flight to my honeymoon. It's great. I have no idea of that movie has aged well. I have not watched it in... 15 years? So funny. It was hilarious. It's hilarious.

I quote it all the time. But you were Austin Powers. Yes. That's what you said. That's your Mike. Okay. That's a little age thing. That sums up our interest level in Daniel Litch from Mike Myers.

All right. Well, let's take our final break. We'll hit some news and notes that I've got some other leftovers from the weekend. We'll do that right after this. Yeah, baby. The news and notes from the long weekend. Jacob de Grom threw a 31 pitch bullpen. on Friday and was able to use all of his pitches.

All right, progress. Juan Soto sat out Sunday with back tightness, but is expected to return on Tuesday. Bryce Harper is unlikely to play first base until after the All-Star break. Cedric Mullins left Monday with a right groin, a ductor strain. He'll undergo further examination.

The pirates revealed that they expect O'Neill Cruz to remove his walking boot in the next 10 days. At that point, Cruz will begin regaining strength and range of motion in his surgically repaired left leg. He's not expected to return until sometime in August at the earliest. Trista McKenzie is scheduled to make his third rehab start at AAA on Tuesday. Carlos Sardon threw a bullpen session Friday and is reportedly doing well. He was slated to throw another one on Monday. I saw something about it. I think it was 20 pitches and so far so good. It sounds like he's all right.

Yeah, he threw a 20 pitch bullpen session at high intensity on Monday. So that's Carlos Rodon. Again, there's no timetable. Maybe it's late June. If they really just want to kind of play it safe, maybe it's like the second half of this season. But it seems like things are trending in the right direction. Or never.

Or never. We'll never see him. Don't you dare, Welsh. I'm waiting on him in a few leagues. And man, I need it bad for Carlos Verdon. Max Muncie will undergo an MRI on his left hamstring after leaving with a cramp on Sunday. Lars Neupar exited Monday with lower back spasms.

And speaking of the Cardinals, their fifth starter spot will come down to Matthew Libertor or Stephen Metz. They will not use a six-man rotation. I think Stephen Matt's pitch well in relief on Monday. And Matthew Libertur's most recent start wasn't great. I feel like Marmal would be the type of guy, be like, listen, guys, we're not going to do a six-man rotation. We're going with a four-man rotation. This is how we're going to fix this.

I don't know if he knows anything of what they're doing. Libertur-Mats, neither one of them, four-man rotation. and Contreras will catch none of them. That's how we're going to fix all this. By the way, Tyler O'Neill has been released and Jordan Walker is moving to the mound. Those are all of Marmal's moods. Yeah, it's, uh, he's, he's an interesting one.

I guess we'll just leave it there. Adam Duval will begin a rehab assignment at AAA Tuesday. He was betting 455 with four homers in eight games before injuring his wrist. He's 67% rostered and could be out there in some shallower leagues if you do want to stash Adam Duvall. John Carlos Staten could be getting a rehab assignment on Tuesday. He's been on the IL since mid-April because of a hamstring strain. Owen Miller left Sunday after getting hit by a pitch on his forearm.

X-rays came back negative. One of the hotter hitters in baseball right now, he's day-to-day. Ben Joyce was called up by the Angels. He's a reliever that routinely throws in the hundreds, though he does struggle with command at times. And towers, I mean, obviously he's going to be like a fun pitcher to watch, but I don't know that he'll have much. value outside of like a saves plus holds leagues right yeah i mean carlos estavis has just been so good

yeah this season it's possible given his track record that he falls apart and ben joyce you know forces his way into that role but it's not going to happen anytime soon at the very least he's going to have to earn it it's real like jordan hicks vibes where it looks like an incredibly uncomfortable experience to be in the batters box against ben jose he's got like a a funky low three quarters arm slot and you know the ball comes just jumps out of his hand it's it's one of those ones where it's like it's 102 and it looks tougher than that um but yeah i think he probably only matters and in saves plus holds kentemayda is said to begin a minor league rehab assignment tuesday at triple a charlie blackman was placed on the bereavement list and ellie harris montara was

recalled montara was destroying triple a but it seems like he'll likely be sent down once blackman returns hazu sanchez is expected to return Tuesday and was crushing it before he got hurt. He is up to a 290 batting average with a 914 OPS. So if you do play in a deeper five outfielder league, I would check to see if Hazel Sanchez is available. Trevor Rogers will begin a rehab assignment at Singale this week. He's been out since late April with a left biceps strain.

Terry Francona said over the weekend that Cody Morris will be built up to three innings during his rehab assignment before the organization decides whether he'll serve as a starter or reliever upon returning. Lance McCullors is no longer throwing off a mound. Jock Peterson swung a bat Monday for the first time since going on the IL May 15th. Omar Nervaes will move his rehab assignment to AAA on Tuesday and what happens here because Francisco Alvarez has really picked it up. He hit home runs on Saturday and Sunday. He's now batting 269 with eight homers and an 885 OPS Welsh. Please tell me that the Mets do not mess this up. No. I'm not going to say that.

and I'm not going to give you that, but I do think one of the, I feel like one of these rookies is getting the chop soon. And the reason I'm saying I'm putting in like Viantos and Bady in here because they really do need to make a decision on where they're going with it. Because they can't, like they won't make the commitment to like getting rid of some of the dead weight and let's just build up these guys. I mean, I've said like let Bady be third, let Viantos be a D.H. Get Alvarez out there every day. They just don't seem committed to that. So I kind of feel like Alvarez has played himself into the spot. And it's Viantos and Bady.

And one of those guys is going to get the smack here coming soon. I kind of think even though Bady hasn't played well, I think it'd probably be Viantos. And they don't seem to know what to do with him. But no, I think Alvarez is in a pretty safe spot. I mean, just project him out to 130 games based on his current pace. He's at like a 5.6 war pace right now. I don't know, man.

Like, I know Thomas Nito, Tomas Nito has good defense and probably a good clubhouse guy and they like all the intangibles and all that. But like, come on. Don't do it. Players who went on the IEL since Friday, Willie Adomis went on the seven-day concussion IL. He was struck in the head by a foul ball in the dugout. Oh, scary. Yeah. Yeah, it's obviously a very scary situation for him.

Hope he's a right. Tyro Ashrata went to the IL with a wrist issue. Pete Fairbanks with left hip inflammation. Jason Adams should once again take over. to the closers role. Danny Jansen with a left groin strain, which should be more playing time for Alejandro Kirk, Ezekiel Duran with mild right oblique discomfort, Will Myers with Kidney Stones, and Vince Velasquez with right elbow discomfort. Some prospect news from the weekend, Grayson Rodriguez, all three of Grace Rodriguez, no, let me say this again. All two of Grace

Rodriguez and Brandon Fott were sent back to the minor leagues. Gavin Stone, I have in this mix, He's likely to lose his rotation spot. I think it's probably going to happen for him as well. But Towers, with those three, are they drops in redraft leagues? Grayson, Brendan Fott, and Gavin Stone. Well, I've still got one league with Jordan Walker sitting there on my bench. So I can't, I guess, say in good faith that I would definitely drop Grayson Rodriguez. But yeah, I think probably all three of these guys are dropable.

It's entirely possible that Grayson Rodriguez goes down for a couple of starts and figure something out. but given that the Orioles gave him the chance in spring training, didn't like what they saw there, sent him down, and then he flamed out in the majors, suggests to me that it's going to be longer than just a few starts. And fought, I don't want to say there's not upset there. There clearly is,

but I worry that he might have gotten exposed a little bit in the majors. You know, he was always one of those guys where the results kind of outpaced what the scouts thought of him. And that can go one of two ways, right? Shane Bieber is an example of a guy who ended up making that work. And, you know, maybe it'll be a similar situation for Fott where he struggles his first year and then figures it out. But yeah, I definitely didn't like what I saw. All right.

Let's get into some leftovers from the weekend. And we'll start with some studly pitching performances. Part one. We spoke about Hunter Green earlier. Max Scherzer had his best start of the season. And it was at Coors Field, seven innings of one-run ball with eight strikeouts and 20 swinging strikes. Hunter Brown put up a career high, 10 strikeouts at the Oakland A's. And Luis Castillo dominated the pirates.

Six shutout, one hit, two walks, 10 strikeouts with 24 swinging strikes. Welsh, I don't know that there's much to add for any or all of these names, but do you have anything on Scherzer, Hunter Brown, Luis Castillo? I mean, Hunter Brown specifically, I was just doing a video on him. He's outperformed his season totals in this month as well. I mean, he's been at the top of the leaderboard. I'm trying to recall in my brain. I want to say it was like top 10 Sierra this month,

K-minus walk percentage was, I want to say, also up there. He's just like, the thing I've been chewing on is like, man, we all slept on him in this AL Rookie of the Year idea. You know, it was I did. It was Yoshida and Masataki Yoshida and Volpe were my main focus. And he's performed at ace level. Another weird one about him, I believe it was five of six starts where he went over five innings. He picked up a win.

So it's like the guy goes five, he picks up a win. And if you don't, if we just like get our brains out of stupid innings, you know, management and stuff. And if he just goes, you might be looking at like a 15 win guy, a 15 win rookie this year on a team that will support him. He can go five. And when he does, he dominates big strikeout numbers. I love Hunter Brown. I actually think he's one of those guys you can buy on right now for the people that are like,

ooh, I'm selling high and he's going to be capped on his innings. I'm going to buy that because I think he can still outperform as he has through the first two months. All right, Stubley pitching performances part two. Zach Wheeler had one of the best starts of his career at the Braves. He went eight shutout with 12 strikeouts and 22 swinging strikes. Tanner Bybee had another great start up against the Cardinals, six innings, one run, nine strikeouts with 19 swinging shots.

Mackenzie Gore posted a career high, 11 strikeouts at the Royals, seven innings of one-run ball, 11 strikeouts, 23 swinging strikes, and Merrill Kelly has now hit double-digit strikeouts for the second time this season. Tough match up two against the Red Sox, six and a third, one-run, 10 strikeouts with 12 swinging strikes. Towers, anything you'd like to add on Merrill Kelly, McKenzie Gore, Tanner Bybee, and Zach Wheeler.

So Wheeler threw the slider more than usual in this one. right? Because that's he's another guy who I just I'm never sure how much I want to buy in when he's pitching well because he's so fastball dependent. He actually threw more four seam fastballs in the start. He had 13 of his 22 whiffs came on the four seam fastball. Sorry, are we talking about McKenzie Gore? No, Zach Wheeler. Oh, okay, no, sorry. I meant to talk about McKenzie Gore. Yes, McKenzie Gore did throw more sliders in this. 52% forcing fastball usage. Got seven whiffs with it,

but the slider, 11 whiffs. The Royals are bad. They're really, really bad against righties. I would imagine they're still pretty bad against lefties. So, you know,

don't want to overreact. But it was a good sign that he could throw the slider more and have it be effective for him. I do think that's something he's going to have to start doing, moving forward to live up to expectations. You know, 60% forcing fastball is.

left-handed pitcher just doesn't feel like it's going to get it done. So it's a, I think that's a promising sign. I don't want to say it's like, yay, McKenzie Gore's a top 40 pitcher now because I don't believe that, but it was good to see. Studley pitching performances part three. Marcus Stroman tossed his fourth career complete game, the second shutout of his career up against the Tampa Bay raise, no less. Only one hit allowed, one walk with eight strikeouts and 20 swinging strikes. That comes one start where after having just two swinging strikes total in his previous outing. So I don't know where this all came from, but a truly dominant performance for Marcus Stroman. And then we had a good old pitcher's duel between Corbyn Burns and the Logan Webb on

Saturday. Burns went seven innings of one run ball, eight strikeouts. Logan Webb also went seven innings of one run ball, 11 strikeouts on the other side. Well, so anything here on Logan Webb, Corbyn Burns, Marcus Stroman. If there are, we'll never go. get through the sheet. I'll just point out that the change up usage change on Corbyn Burns is very promising. That's something to watch because those are the type of things that can be the

silent little lead back into dominance when they can find that. It worked. Hopefully it's something he does. So, Corbyn Burns, a little bit positive. We spoke about the good. What about the bad? Some pitching duds this weekend. Freddie Peralta, he is going through it right now over his last

three starts, an 856 ERA and a 205 whip, just a 10% swinging strike rate during that time as well. Garrick Cole has allowed exactly five earned runs in three of his last five outings. And during that span, a 567 ERA and a 156 whip, eight homers allowed over his last five starts. And Dylan Sees had another clunker at the Tigers of, you know, look, I know the Tigers have been a little bit better, but this is still a team that I think we want to stream against, or at least have confidence against.

And Dylan Sees allowed four earned runs over four innings pitched. four more walks, did have eight strikeouts, and he is now up to a 488 ERA on the season. Towers, any lasting concerns here with CIS, Garricole, Freddie Peralta. Peralta, I think

you have to be concerned. He's got the worst XERA of his career in addition to generally underwhelming numbers overall. None of his pitches has been particularly effective. Obviously, that's heavily weighted towards the past three starts, but yeah, he's not

just getting bad luck. I think he's earned his poor results so far. Cease is, I don't know, it's a really difficult one because I've said it every time we've talked about him, but the thing that made him break out last season, we always talk about the swinging strike rate and the slider and the strikeout rate and all this, but really what it was last season was he went from a 383 expected Wobon contact last season, or in 2021, to a 313 mark in 2022 to 394 this year. And that is the kind of thing that pitchers have some control over the quality of contact they allow. But it takes a long, long time to figure out when they do or who's good at it and who's not,

I guess it's the better way to put it. And, you know, Cs has lost the strikeouts. Like that's just awful. He's down to 24%, which is slightly above average. That's bad enough. coupled with the fact that he's regressed on the quality of contact stuff. And right now, Dylan Cesar is just a bad pitcher.

I don't think he'll remain a bad pitcher. I still have him ranked in my top 25, although that's getting harder and harder to justify. But like, the things that he did well last season, he's not doing well anymore. And I don't know when he's going to figure it out. I still have faith that he will.

I'd still, you know, like I said earlier, buy low, try to sell, I think I said, Brace Miller for him. I'd be down for that.

But like, Hunter Green. Hunter Green. Yeah. I'd be fine with that too. I think Hunter Green has very similar concerns. So I'm fine making that trade-off. But it's been a really, really rough stretch for Dillen C's and not just because it's bad luck.

All right. Let's get into the bullpens for the Phillies. Craig Kimbril picked up saves on both Friday and Saturday. He's now up to seven saves and is 63% rostered. So if you do need to close her in some shallower formats, I think Craig Kimber will be that guy. I feel like he's going to be the guy moving forward, even when Alvarado's back. I don't think he's better than Alvarado, but I think it's like as long as he's good enough,

I think he's going to get more opportunities. Yeah, you might be right. They could just use Alvarado in like the highest leverage situation before that, I suppose. For the Mets on Friday, David Robertson entered in the eighth inning with the three-run lead to face the top of the Rockies lineup. Brooks Raleigh started the ninth,

allowed two base runners, and then Adam Adivino recorded the final two outs for his fifth save. For the nationals on Saturday, Hunter Harvey got the eighth inning, with a two-run lead, facing the heart of the Royals lineup, and then Kyle Finnegan struck out two in the ninth inning for his 11th save.

For the Dodgers on Saturday, Bruce Dar-Graderol pitched the seventh with a one-run lead facing the start of the, you know, restarting the lineup here, 9-1 and 2 against the raise. Evan Phillips pitched in the eighth inning with a two-run lead, and then Phillips got the first out in the ninth. He was relieved by Caleb Ferguson, who did give up a run, but picked up his second save of the season.

For the Cardinals, Ryan Helsley recorded four outs across the eighth and ninth inning on Saturday. Giovanni Gagos then got the save in extras. And then on Sunday, Ryan Helsley got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He gave up two runs, took his fourth blown save, and fourth loss of the year. For the Rockies on Saturday, Pierce Johnson pitched a clean ninth for his 11th save. For the Marlins on Sunday, Dylan Floro was unavailable. so J.T. Shargwa converted his first save of the season. And then for the D-backs on Sunday,

Andrew Chafin entered in the seventh with runners on first and second and a four-run lead. He did allow a run to score. Miguel Castro later pitched in the ninth to pick up his fifth save of the season. And then on Monday, Chafin entered with two outs in the ninth inning. Runner on first with a two-run lead. He struck out Eleharos Montero for his eighth save

and kind of feels like they're just mixed it up right now for the diamond back. So a little bit of chafin, some Castro, but yeah, I think like 12 team roto leagues are deeper. Both of those guys probably should be wrong. I hate when you got a little bit of chafin. Hey, it's the time of year.

It's, you know, it's starting to heat up. It's pretty hot here in New York. Let's wrap up with the to stream or not to stream. On Monday, there are nope, that would be Tuesday. Tuesday, lots of names here on the list. And who do I have written down that I liked? Brian Bayo up against the Reds.

Kyle Gibson up against the Guardians. And... I wish Alex Fayetteau didn't have the Rangers who have been arguably the tough matchup in baseball so far this season because I'd like to see what he could do to follow up last week's 10 strikeout game. Remember that correctly? Yep.

Yeah. But I don't think you can stream him in that one. I think it's mostly Bayo and Gibson and... I might throw Oviedo in there. Yeah. I don't mind that one. That him and Bayo are the two that jump out to me. On, I guess this would be Wednesday, then.

I will, I like Dane Dunning at the Tigers. I think James Paxton going up against the Reds. I think that's fine. Braxton, Garrett, who is he facing? San Diego. San Diego. Yeah, I mean, they've kind of struggled this year. Don Machado in the lineup.

Jared Schuster going up against the Oakland. I think that's fine too. Dunning Schuster, those two are like, and Paxson, I'll even give that. Those three are big standouts for that day. I like all three. I like Louis Varland too, but at the Astros, they're kind of heating up now too. It's like, eh, I think I'll stay away there. Let's wrap up with team name Tuesday.

We're already whatever this long into the podcast. Why not? From Brian, Anthony's sun tanned here. Yeah. He wrote in the email that it's been a long week too. So at least, I like it. At least he acknowledged it. From Felix, X-Men, Zach Netto versus John Gray.

I think you're supposed to read it as Zach Nito. Zach Nito. Like Magneto. And then Gene-Rae. They're supposed to be Gene Gray. Yeah. I'm my X-Men fan. I'm going to go with the first one.

It's a little bit of a stretch, but I like it. Yeah, yeah. They didn't, that one didn't grab me. And I'm an X-Men guy. This one's from Rob. Strider Webb. Strider Web. Strider Webb.

Strider web. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Also, ever a strider webbed? Another conversation, a conversation for another day is, I don't know, I might move Spencer Strider up to my SP1 overall. It's something that I'm, I think I, I think he probably could do that.

We didn't mention it, but the quickest pitcher ever to 100 strikeouts in the season. Yeah, crazy stuff for him. 61 innings, you just beat like Shane Bieber in 2020, I think. It was like 62, you know, in one-third or something. It's wild. Crazy stuff. And this last group is from Richard. They are musical themed.

All right. So I'm going to say it how it's written out first, but I think there's probably a better way to say it. Kelnick in the name of. Yeah, Kellick in the name of. But I guess if you kind of just like really enunciate his name, you could just go Kellenick the name of. No,

because you're going to go Kellenick. Yeah, you couldn't go Kellenick in the name. You couldn't do the rage thing. This one is Sywood Buck. 500 miles No, it's I would buck 500

miles I guess you could go either way right delightful and then the last one here is Witterwit trout you yeah yeah

that was nice that was a good rendition Frank thank you and also shout out to Richard for dropping a new menu at the Picton Hotel we're not associated with them in any way but whatever

I thought I'd give you a shout out it's in Sydney Australia so that happened last week Anybody else who lives in the land down under? Go make sure to check it out for yourself. What is it? It's a new menu in Picton Hotel. I think it's a food menu.

Oh, okay. I mean, is there like a CBS name? Is there like a frank name to it? Why are we? No. I think you just said it. Yeah, I just wrote in the emails. Hey, give me a shout out.

Yeah, sure. Oh, okay. I get. I thought he was like naming something, you know, like the tower hour. Maybe there was like, you know, an hour where the drinks are a dollar or something or whatever. I don't know. I'd be a CBS theme thing. That would be a pretty good idea if he, if he wants to. Want to work that in? Yeah. Let us know, Richard, if that's something you wind up doing. Whiskey Welsh Wednesdays. Just throwing that out there. We're going to wrap there for the

Chrissies. Towers and the Welsh, I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in. Tough fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.