Fantasy Baseball Today - Shane Baz Breakout! Too High, Too Low or Just Right? (4/15 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 15, 2025

Shane Baz is on fire to start the season (2:30)! ... Tanner Houck is not (8:50). ... The Rays put up 16 runs on 16 hits (11:45). ... Easton Lucas got clobbered by the Braves (20:16). ... News (22:33): Blake Snell resumed his throwing program on Monday. ... Are the roster rates on these players too high, too low or just right (30:00)? ... What about Mike Yastrzemski, Jaeson Taillon, Tyler Fitzgerald and Michael Busch (38:55)? ... The Pirates lineup had a big game and the Yankees launched four home runs (48:03). ... Let's take a temperature check on these starting pitchers (52:03). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:00:35). 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. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Is Shane Bosch breaking out? Because it sure looks like it.

Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, April 15th. I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, the Rays destroyed the Red Sox. We'll play a little too high, too low, or just right, a temperature check on certain starting pitchers, and much more. Let's jump in.

All right. Oh, my goodness. Players of the night, Scott, you are up first. I guess that's because I'm claiming the breadstick here. I am claiming Shane Boz, who was unbelievable against the Red Sox. The first in what should be a two-star week for him. 11 strikeouts in six innings.

Only two hits allowed, one run, no walks. He had 17 whiffs total, six on the fastball, five on the curb ball, six on the changeup. Notably, I didn't mention slider there. He only threw two sliders.

That used, when he first called up, that was kind of his pitch. And part of the reason I worried about Shane Boz coming into the year and when he came back from Tommy John's surgery last year because he didn't seem to have that slider anymore. Well,

maybe he agrees and he's just created a bunch of other great pitches because this is now in three outings he has two double digit strikeout efforts and then the outing where he didn't get double digit strikeouts that was as long as one of the year so he's just he's just been great shame boss has been great i i know it peaked at 100 miles per hour with his fastball in this start so he looks plenty healthy and i i would say one of my biggest regrets this year is that i didn't draft him in any league. The only league where I have Shane Boz is a dynasty league, where I've had him for a while now, obviously.

And I tried, like, heck, to trade him before the season because I was that worried about Shane Boz. So thank you, anyone out there in that league who got an offer for me and didn't accept it. Sometimes rejected deals are the best deals you can make because I think Shane Boz is great. And I think you should just plan on stapling him to your lineup stapling him

like you know planting him in your lineup leaving him there never touching him again he was like a breakthrough 8th the only throw Shane Boz in a flower pot and just boom he's there in the lineup Chris the only thing

is because he doesn't seem to have the slider now is Shane Boz dependent on sitting 97 like sitting 97 98 99 like he has been so far this season.

His velocity is, I mean, today it was higher than it even was before his injury. He averaged 97.4 miles per hour with his foreseamer. Like Scott said, maxed out at 99.7 round up to 100. And like if he's just going to sit 97 and touch 100, it might not matter because the four seamer can get plenty of whiffs and the curveball is, you know, I think more than good enough. It looks like a very good pitch. and the change up, you know, he hasn't thrown it as much in the past, but, you know, maybe that can be the third pitch and give him that option against lefties. But I do wonder, like, can you expect him to hold 97 miles per hour?

Can you expect him to be this effective if he's sitting 95, 96? I like to think so. But we did see him sitting 9596 last year and he was okay. Yeah, no, he wasn't that good. That's part of the reason I was worried about him. But we have seen him work more at 97 in the past when he first got called up in 2021. That's exactly what he averaged on his fastball. And then so obviously last year was coming back from the elbow injury.

2022 is when he suffered the elbow injury. His velocity was down a little both of those years. Maybe it'll be, I'm guessing it'll land somewhere in between 96 and 97 for the year. Um, but I think it'll be enough bottom line. Unless it gets hurt again, which is always a possibility with hard throwing pictures. Yeah. I worry a little bit that there might be some like Jesus Lazzardo here where like when he's good, he's really, really good. But the margin for error might be really.

So now it's not when he's bad, he's horrid. It's not a totally fair comparison. Cause one, we've just never, we've never seen Shane Boss be terrible outside of I guess 2022 when he was clearly not healthy. I feel it was great last year. I feel like his control is better than Lazzardo too. Yeah. And, you know, Lizarro, the other issue is Lazzardo has, like, the least extension on his delivery of any pitcher in baseball. And Baza's is pretty average in extension.

So that could help him avoid some of the downside that Lazzardo has had. So I'm mostly all in on boss. Like, I think he's looked incredible. It's just, you know, projecting forward. is this sustainable? I don't know. Yeah, I mean, it's a 142 ERA and a 0.84 whip, but based on how he's pitched so far,

just true talent level, can he wind up with like a high twos, low threes, ERA if like this is a true breakout with well over a strikeout for any, like, yeah, that might be what's happening here for Shane Boss. And another thing is, like, part of the reason why I don't know that it pays to not that you can't be critical of Shane Baz's performance

but like a lot of times the angle I take on a player's performance is relative to how he's valued by people at large, you know? If a guy

is acknowledged by everybody as a stud then the only reason we have to talk about him is if we have negative things to say about him because everybody knows he's a stud already, right? Why belabor that point? But if it's somebody who maybe everybody doesn't regard as a stud yet and he's looking like a stud, then that's probably the point I'm going to drive home. And for Shane Baas, I think that's where he's at because coming into the start, all three of us had him rank between 40 and 50 at starting pitcher. So he has a lot of room to climb in the

rankings. And I think he's going to move up a lot for me. Probably, probably inside the top there might be tough to get him in the top 30, but in the top 35, let's say. All right, Chris, let's go over to you. Your player of the night for all the wrong reasons. Actually, the pitcher who opposed Shane Boss. Yeah, we might just be done with Tanner Howick. And that's, I think it's a mistake to overreact to one extremely bad start. And This was, I think I saw it was the worst start by a Red Sox pitcher in 60 years. He gave up 11 earned runs in two and a third innings. Like, that's really, really bad.

And I think it would be a mistake to just look at one start, even a start this bad. A start that in one league raised my season long ERA by almost a full run. It would be a mistake to just look at that and say, drop him because of that start. But we're going on 15 starts in a row now of Tanner Halk being. bad not even mediocre he had like a 430 era after the all-star break last season his strikeout rate collapsed his walk rate climbed to to three and a half per nine and since the all-star break 538 er a he has a sorry since the all-star break last year 15 starts 538 era 148 whip 5.9 k per 9 3.5 walks per night. That just doesn't sound like a player who's worth rostering. And it's not like we

have a long track record before that that we can point to. It's really half of last season where he was a must-start pitcher. And then after that, or before that, nothing really sustainable. So I think what we saw last year was the Red Sox approach of spamming everything but four seamers, got them off to a really fast start and then everybody caught up. And I don't know if Tanner Halk has a another gear to overcome it. So yeah, it's um, I think we're dropping Tanner Halk here. Yep. Yeah, I wonder if it was just his first full season last year and he just kind of like wore down in the second half. But the fact that he's picked it up and been this bad again to start the season. Like he's 84% rostered on CBS. Yeah, kind of feels like a pretty clear drop.

Yep, totally. The only benefit of the doubt you could have given is what you said, Frank, that he just wore down. And the Red Sox tried to make that that case this spring. I didn't buy it enough to rank out highly enough to draft him anywhere, thankfully. I would not pick them up if I saw somebody drop him in one of my leagues. And, man, that Red Sox rotation would be in trouble, if not for that care of crochet trade. because I mean, I don't know, man, maybe Brian Beow and Cutter Crawford

about to ride to the rescue, but that rotation looks great. Look at Shilitos. Yeah, looks Shilitos also. Yeah, but I don't really have any faith in any of those guys. Yeah, so Walker Bueller. We'll see how Walker Bueller follows up his first good start of the season because he did, he did have some interesting things to say about that. Well, let's talk about all the rays that just destroyed Tanner.

How they put up 16 runs on 16 hits. This is like a collective, my, oh my goodness gracious team of the night, I guess you could say. Just highlighting all these hitters here. Yandy Diaz, two for four with his third home run over his last six games. He's got nine hits, three homers, seven RBI. Not really too much to add. He's highly rostered. And just a reminder that things can turn around very quickly early on in the season here.

So Yandy Diaz picking things back up. Junior Caminero. Two for five with his fourth home run. He is batting 2.91 with an 867 OPS hitting the ball very hard early in the season. Also hitting lots of ground balls. So kind of was a bit of an issue for him last year and in the minor leagues. I hope that number continues to come down. It's 54%.

But even with a high ground ball rate, he's off to a pretty nice start here. So I think he can actually start to hit for even more power as the launch angle goes up. Jonathan Oronda. Scott, let's talk about your guy here. Two for five with a double, two runs, and two RBI. he is batting 395 with a 460 on base percentage, two homers, 10 RBI, and 1158 OPS. He has started 12 out of 16 games so far.

A strong side platoon, hitting the crap out of the ball. The expected stats are great. 46% rostered. Scott, can that, should that number be higher if he's not playing against left-handed pitching? How much does you say 46%? 46.

I think it should be higher than that. I think he's, I just talked up Michael Bush yesterday. I think I'd rather have Aranda. So I'll read off some of those stack cast rankings for you. So by X Woba, he's 97th percentile. By XBA, Aranda is 96th percentile. By X slug, he's 97th percentile.

By average eggs of velocity, he's 98th percentile. By barrel rate, he's 94th percentile. Went up from 96 to 96.8 miles per hour because he had three batted balls over 103 miles per hour today. by barrel rate 94th percentile, hard hit rate 96 percentile, launch ankle sweet spot percentage, 86 percentile. It's just a, it's like Urkel's report card going and looking at Jonathan Aranda's baseball savant page. And this is what I was talking about with him the last two years or however long it's been of hyping him up because he was putting up those kinds of exit velocity readings, especially two years ago. Two years ago at AAA, Jonathan Aranda hit 339 with 25 homers in 95 games, a 1063 OPS, reached base at a 449 clip. And then last year, you know, had some trouble with injuries and that kind of affected his numbers for a while.

But he finished strong. And he's got the job for the raise now, at least against right-handed pitchers. Hasn't started against the lefty yet, but has come off the bench a lot when a lefty started. and they've used Aranda as a pinch hitter and he might get a couple of bats even on the day he doesn't start. So the production has definitely been there. I think if he keeps hitting like this,

he'll start to play some against left-handers. I'm not saying everyone, but it's going to have to happen at some point because they can't not let it happen if Jonathan Oranda is being this impactful for them. I would agree if it was literally any other team in baseball. Even the raise. It's the raise.

They don't play. Josh Lowe's breakout season, they played him against lefties sometimes. Brandon Lowe, they play him against the resty. I mean, sometimes, sure, they're not going to sit him 100% of the time, but like, well, Josh Lowe famously sat in a playoff game against a lefty. But look at his platoon partner, right? It's Curtis Mead, who's currently batting 190. I agree.

Again, if it was any other team, I agree, but I just, I don't think that they have as much depth this year as they have in years past. So I can actually see this start to happen. where he just plays every. Maybe I'm just trying to will it into existence, but I'm not saying he's never going to sit against a left-hander or Rhonda. I'm just saying I think we could start to see him play against some left-handers. A couple of the raise hitters here that I wanted to highlight.

Christopher Morel, three for four with a double, two runs and two RBI. He is batting 3-11 early on in the season. Underlying numbers, still striking out a lot. He's hitting average XIV. He's not very good. expected stats to look good here. So I'm still holding out a little bit of hope. We all thought there was talent with Morel entering last year.

It was a disastrous season. But he's playing every day. He's 54% rostered. I think he could make an impact. And Cameron Miser has what hit well so far. Three for four with a double dong, three RBI. One of those home runs came off of a lefty. He has started 12 of the past 15 games for the raise.

He's batting 400 with a 1219 OPS, hitting the ball really hard, 92.9 average exit velocity. Chris is a deep league play, but in some of those five outfieler leagues, do you have any interest in a Cameron Meisner who's hitting well? I mean, Meisner has a somewhat interesting minor league track record. He usually hits around 20 homers, steals 20 to 30 bases.

There are interesting skills here, and I can see him being a useful fantasy player, but it was usually with huge. huge swing and miss numbers, huge strikeout numbers, 30, 35% at AAA. I don't know, maybe he worked out with Aaron Judge's swing coach. I have no idea, but I'm skeptical that he's going to hit enough to matter outside of deeper rhodo leagues, but maybe he will. I don't know.

It's a small sample size, but for Cam Meisner, a 16% strikeout rate so far. That's really good. Can it maintain? Probably not. It was just so bad for his whole minor league career. Yeah. Yeah. And he's an older.

Like, Kiron Paris is 23. Yeah. Cameron Meisner's 27. So, like, he was putting up 30% strike guy rates at AAA, like his second time through AAA as a 25 or 26 year old. So that's why I'm, yeah, I'm pretty skeptical. All right.

Again, those were the raise who demolished Tanner Halk in this one. They put up 16 runs in that game before we hit our first break. Just a reminder to, up for the FBT newsletter if you haven't already. If you're watching on YouTube, you can scan that QR code that will take you right to the website, cbsports.com slash newsletters where you can sign up for free. And for those watching, thanks for being here.

Make sure to hit the like button and subscribe to the YouTube channel if you haven't already. Let's take a break and we will talk about another disastrous pitching performance right after this. Welcome back in that fantasy baseball today. Let's get Easton Lucas out of the way here. clobbered by the Braves, five hits, five innings, excuse me, eight earned runs, four walks, three strikeouts, three homers allowed,

tons of hard contact in this one, really came out of nowhere for the first couple starts. We didn't really know what to make of it exactly. We figured, all right, two starts. Let's see what happens. It did not happen. It was bad. Perfect.

What's up? It's perfect, right? Like, it's just, this is such a classic, a classic. pitcher comes out of nowhere move to get completely ignored for a couple of starts nobody benefits from the two good starts everybody adds him for a two start week i added him in a couple of spots so i'm not even immune from from this and yeah he got absolutely blown up it's uh this was always the likeliest outcome with easton lucas i will say i'm not entirely ready to turn the page unless the Blue Jays are. If they option them tomorrow, fine. And like, if you want to drop them,

I hadn't heard of them two weeks ago. So I don't have like any kind of reason to, I don't have a lot I can point to to to say Easton Lucas is going to eventually be good. But the guy has run really high swinging strike rates and high fly ball rates consistently. And the danger of high fly ball rates is exactly what happened in this start. He gave up three home runs. But the upside to high fly ball rates is when you're not giving up home runs, you're not giving up many hits at all. And that's what we saw from Easton Lucas in his first couple starts. If he bounces back, I think Seattle is who he's scheduled to face later this week,

presuming he gets to make that start. Then, you know, I might hold on to him beyond this week. If that happens, a big if, but I think it's worth, you got them locked into your lineup anyway, so you might as well see what happens. Yeah, I think that's totally fine. Again, he's locked in there. But if there's any starting pitcher that's semi-interesting that emerges this week, I would have no problem dropping Easton Lucas if he's the worst player in my roster,

or the most unknown player on my roster, I guess you could put it. So, yeah, that is Easton Lucas. Let's move on to the news and notes. Blake Snell resumed his throwing program on Monday. He is on the aisle with left shoulder inflammation. Marcelo Zuna will be out until at least Friday due to hip inflammation. he was sent back to Atlanta for an MRI which showed that inflammation

but apparently nothing more than that. So we hope there's nothing more than that. Cody Bellinger was out of the lineup Monday as he continues to receive treatment for his sore back and I know they're in a midst of playing a lot of consecutive games right now. I think it's 13 games in a row something. So I think they're just trying to pick spots

where they can rest Cody Bellinger in between this time. It's definitely been frustrating because he had the great spring and we're all excited and then, you know, he like tweaks his back early on in April, and here we are. It helps that Trent Grisham's probably their best outfield defender, and he's crushing the ball right now. Hit another home run today. I don't think that's real, but it probably gives them a little more flexibility to sit, Ballinger.

Yeah, it's a good point. Brenton Doyle has missed four straight with left quad soreness, and it also came out that he experienced renewed soreness while running sprints before the game. So this kind of feels like it's going to end. up in an I elston, I think that we will learn more about that on Tuesday. It's got to, yeah. And we were talking about this before the broadcast we were watching the game. And Mickey Moniac was like running people over in the outfield, just was not letting any like it. Brent and Doan needs to get healthy. That's a, that's a tough spot for the Rockies to be in that they rely on him so much.

But man, that seems bad. Yeah. They're bad. And he's clearly their best player. So They do need him back. Say Suzuki has missed two straight with a right wrist issue. Teosker Hernandez was out of the lineup with a stomach bug. I did see Suzuki could be out until Friday. Not great. Max Scher will visit with a doctor again in the coming days due to nagging soreness in his injured right thumb.

I just don't really see a way that this works for Max Scher. It's just if that thumb injury pops up whenever he pitches more than 50 or 60 pitches, whatever he said, I just don't see a way how this can work for him unless he just becomes a reliever. I don't know. How far does this day back? I mean, I know he at first came up in spring training of this year, but hasn't he dealt with the thumb in the past? I think he said that everything. Everything that's happened, it's kind of like the kinetic chain where other arm injuries happen because of this thumb issues.

Yeah, it'd be a shame if his career ends because he can't get past a thumb issue. on the other hand you know 43 or 4041 whatever he is you know but yeah it's got to end at some point but he's still effective

when his thumb isn't bothering him you'd like him to end on his own terms rather than the thumb of all things like a back okay you see that happen all the time thumbs down to that one yeah yeah yeah

yeah Sean Manaya started playing catch from 60 feet on Monday he's still working his way back from a right oblique strain. Both Austin Hayes and Alexis Diaz could be activated by the Reds on Tuesday. Brian Beow will make a rehab start at AAA Wednesday, which is expected to be his last before rejoining the Red Sox. Bayo is 41% rostered. Any interest in adding Brian Beow?

I don't really think he's good. I mean, I think he's good enough to hold down a rotation spot, especially for the Red Sox. But I don't know that he does a lot of good things for fantasy. And I felt that way about him for a couple years now. After once, being very high on him, but not anymore. Tobias Myers will make his third and likely final rehab start Friday at AAA. He's 33% rostered.

Any interest in Tobias Myers? I have more interest in Tobias Fuenke. I have more interest in Brian Bay. All right. Hassan Kim of the raise. We'll get a checkup next week from the doctor who, performed his shoulder surgery back in October. Still sounds like he is aiming to return in late May.

Hassan Kim is 16% rostered. You know, in Roto Category Leagues where you have unlimited or a bunch of IL spots, I think you can stash Hassan Kim. John Carlos Stanton continues to hit against high-velocity machines and is, quote, getting close to facing live pitching. One thing I've thought about night, look, things will figure themselves out, especially on the Yankees they usually do. but what happens to Ben Rice

if John Carlo Stanton returns healthy at some point if nobody else gets hurt and Staten is ready to return what happens to Ben Rice? I gotta be honest, I didn't know Stanton was this close to returning things seemed pretty dire just a few weeks ago I mean I would still guess he's like a month away and a lot can happen in a month sure guys like they're starting first base from this 37 years old

they've got other guys who can get hurt John Carlos Stanton could suffer a setback I Ben Rice has found money at this point I don't think like you're not going to drop him because John Carlos Stanton might be back in a month I don't think you're going to trade him so I just hold on to him and

if that happens we we cross that bridge when we get there but I I was like my mom's favorite expression they will I must have worried about a lot lot when I was a kid because she was always telling me we'd cross bridges when we come to them. That sounds right. Yeah. You seem like a worry, a worried child. I was a neurotic kid. I was sure I was going to get rabies. That was like my biggest fear as a kid. That was not like of all the things that

you could have said. I was worried that this could have happened. Rabies was not one of the ones that I thought. I had lots of neuroses too. But it was. was like, I wouldn't go past my bedroom window at night because I was worried about alien abduction. Like, that's crazy. At least mine was a real thing. Hey, hey, hey. They're real to me. Alex Verdugo is expected to join the Braves this week, and he is 3% rostered.

They need them. I know only leagues, I guess, but not much interest in Alex Verdugo. Joe Boyle was optioned back to AAA after his strong start on Sunday. Chris Bryant was placed in the aisle with. lumbar degenerative disc disease, which, you know, kind of like Scherzer. I mean, it's pretty sad to see Chris Bryant's career go down like this, and I just don't really see a way how he really gets things back on track here, unfortunately. Cardinals pitching prospect, Quinn Matthews, was placed in the IL at AAA with left shoulder

soreness. He had six walks in back-to-back starts, and then his velocity was down two miles per hour in his last outing on Friday, which all sounds... Pretty scary for a young pitcher, but hopefully we see him still at some point later this season. I mean, I guess. No reason to stash him in redraft leagues, though, obviously. Matthews is out of that discussion.

I guess the shoulder explains the walks. So in that case, I guess it's good news. Yeah, no, it's bad. Yeah, sure is. All right, let's do a little too high, too low, or just right, with specific players roster ratings. So, take a look at Sean Murphy, who hit another home run, one for three with his fourth home run. He was moved up to clean up on Monday against a left-handed pitcher.

He is batting 273, a 385 on base percentage. He's got the four home runs. He's done all that in just six games. 60% rostered is Sean Murphy. Is that too high, too low, or just right? That's about 40% too low. Yeah, I just moved him into my top 10, 10 at catcher. Sean Murphy.

I am the glasses, man, the specs, he can see again. And it's a sight to behold. Because he crushes the ball when he can see the ball. See the ball hit the ball. Sean Murphy. I'm putting him ahead of Logan O'Hoppy. I'm putting him ahead of Austin Wells. Yeah, I think that's pretty reasonable.

I don't know if I'll do that specifically, but top 12 for sure, yeah. I dropped Austin Wells for Sean Murphy in my home league, which is a 12-te-to-head points league with one catcher. So, you know, I needed the roster spot for something else. I'm not going to hold on to two catchers in a one-catcher league. And so Sean Murphy is more hot right now than Austin Wells, though. He did Homer on Monday as well,

but obviously Sean Murphy is the better option right now. Caber Ruiz is also 79% rostered. So I think you could drop Cabot Ruiz for Sean. Murphy. He's off to a really good start. He is. So I understand not wanting to. He's hitting like 350. Only like a 5% strikeout rate. I'd rather have Sean Murphy then than K. Burris. I rank Murphy ahead. Maybe in a points league I could see it just because

Ruiz probably going to play more. Strike out rate's going to be really low. But I just don't think there's very much upside there. If you want to like take a galaxy brain view here, I don't know. I'm using that term, right? But so I've talked about how, I mean, part of the hesitance with Sean Murphy is the threat of Drake Baldwin. And presumably the Braves didn't keep him around to sit on the bench.

But Sean Murphy's been so good. That's what he's had to do. But now Marcel Ozuna sounds like he's going to be out at least until the weekend. And I think the testing just showed inflammation, right? Did we already do that in news and notes? Yep. for Marcelo Zuna. So it doesn't sound like it's going to be a long-term absence.

But that is a chance to get Murphy and Baldwin both in the lineup for a few days. And it didn't happen on Monday with a left-hander on the mound, but I think it will happen. And if we see Baldwin heat up, I don't know. That could complicate things anew. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. That's right.

Let's stick with the Braves and talk about Grant Holmes, who had a great start at the Blue Jays, seven and two-thirds innings, two hits, three runs, two walks with four strikeouts here. He is down to a 276 ERA 116 whip. Walks have been a problem. They weren't in this start, but they were in previous outings. 76% rostered is Grant Holmes. Too high, too low, or just right?

I mean, I wouldn't let him go un-roastered in any of my leagues. So the shallowest league I play in has 250 players rostered? maybe. Maybe there are enough with fewer than that being rostered that it's closer to right than I'm giving it credit for. But I'm seeing some of the pitchers rostered in more leagues than Grant Holmes, include Tanner Hauk, Merrill Kelly, Casey Mize, Tyler McGill, really? I'd rather have, I'd rather have Holmes than all of those guys.

I think Holmes is extremely similar to all of those guys. I think he's fine. Like if he was 100% rostered, I don't think I would like mind it. I just, I don't think he's going to be a difference maker is really what it comes down to. I think he's good.

But I'm not sure he's must start against like any matchup. And yeah, like I think he's pretty useful. But I don't think like even in this one, four strikeouts and seven and two thirds innings, slider has been it was decent tonight three whiffs on eight swings but overall

hasn't been great this season in terms of wifts and he had five batted balls with an XBA over 500 today expect the batting average over 100 you mean over 500 okay expect a bad all five of them

were outs so like there's there's some good luck coming on here I think he's fine I just, I don't think this is like, finally, Grant Holmes has unlocked his, you know, high end upside. I don't think the high end upside is there. I think it's more about a high floor. We have seen him better than this before.

I will give the actual number if you can hear me, presuming you're making faces like you can. We can hear you. Okay. Yes. Grant Holmes had a 16.4% swinging strike rate last year, which is elite, elite, elite, elite, Like only two pitchers with 100 innings had better than a 16% rate. He didn't have 100 innings, so I'm not including Grant Holmes in that. But it was just Garrett Crochet and Blake's now.

And then Grant Holmes had a swinging strike rate similarly. Now, we haven't seen him missing bats to quite that degree this year. The second start, he did miss a lot of bats. The slider had more movement on it in that start. So maybe he's still, I don't know. I don't know why the slider movement has changed so much from start to start for Grant Holmes. I know he was specifically trying

to be efficient in this start and he was ridiculously efficient in this start. He was throwing strikes because the first couple starts he struggled with walks and that was the knock on him. So like he he adjusts. I don't know. I thought he was really

impressive last year. I thought he's been good enough to keep seeing it through this year. Will at some point he have to be better than he's been so far? Yes. but I am not discouraged by what I've seen from Grant Holmes so far this year. It's not as good as I hoped for, but it's good enough that I want to see it through, and particularly after this start. I also, I misspoke earlier.

I said his slider hasn't been that good for WIFs. It's the curveball that hasn't been that good this year. The slider's been very good. Yeah, the second start especially had nine. Which is interesting because that's the new pitch. He didn't throw that pitch before last season. So, you know, his feel for that one does. seem to be better. Yeah, again, that's Grant Holmes. I think you should throw the

slider more. He actually, you know, threw it a little bit less in this one. And the usage in general has been down the season for the slider, but it's still been really good. It's a 44% whiff rate. So I do think if Grant Holmes throws more sliders, then could lead to more whiffs, more strikeouts in the future. Let's take a quick break. When we return, we'll get back into some more names here right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Too high, too low or just right? Mike Yistremski, two for five with his third home run. He added three RBI.

He's batting 311. He's got two steals on top of that and OPS over 1,000 so far. He's leading off against right-handed pitching. 56% rostered. Too high, too low, or just right? I think that's probably too high. I understand why Yistrimsky's up that high because he has been hitting well. But the guy's 34 years old.

Believe it or not. I think we know who he is at this point. He's been hitting the ball harder on average. Okay. He's been hitting more line drives. When you're doing that, you're going to get better results. It's just, do we have any reason to believe that's anything sustainable for him? I would guess not, given Mike Ostrinsky's career track record.

Yeah, I think he's just hot. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's the simplest way to put it. He did. There was a piece the other day. talking about how he changed his swing. He kind of got caught up chasing launch angle

and pulling the ball the last couple of years. I was going to say, I was going to say, I noticed that. I noticed in past years, fly ball rate, very high, pull rate very high. That's normally like what we want to see, but maybe not from a left-handed here with that great big brick wall.

The irony, of course, his pull rate is up this year and his air rate is up. line drives plus fly balls he's hitting fewer fly balls because he's sending more line drives i don't think that's like that that's a pretty you know middle of the road like not even sure what word i'm looking for that that's that's not a super significant change like line drive rate is super noisy so and his rate of pulled balls in the air is by far the highest it's ever been so maybe it's one of those things where you stop trying to do the thing and you do the thing

more often. I don't, I don't really buy that, but maybe there's something. But I think it's just he's having a hot streak and he'll cool down and be the same barely fringy fantasy relevant player he's been. Yeah. I think Mike Yershrimki is probably too highly rostered at 56% on CBS, but 14% on Yahoo, where it's daily lineup leagues. I think it's probably the best format to utilize someone like Yishremski. I realize those are also shallower formats too, but Yeah, I think he probably should be more than like 14% over on Yahoo. Jameson Tion had himself a solid start at the Padre. It's five and a third inning.

Two runs, four strikeouts here. And he had a bad first start, but he has allowed three earned runs or fewer in three straight. And he has 74% rostered. What do you guys think? Too high, too low, or just right on Jameson Tion. It's a two-start week, so it's fine. It'll be too high next week. Well, you notice some of the pitchers I read off.

that were rostered in more leagues than Holmes. It was a lot of this type. It was a lot of boring innings eater types. And so I think maybe given the high volume of head-to-head points leagues on our site that inflates the roster percentage of those kinds of pitchers, but I play in a lot of those leagues myself. And I'm telling you, James and Tyone doesn't need to be a fixture. I will just note his swinging strike rate is way up this year.

and the whiff rate on the individual pitches is way up. And the spin rate on everything but the fastball is noticeably down, even though he's throwing them just as hard. I don't really know how to square all of that, but it suggests to me that there is some, maybe some underlying change going on with Tyone that I haven't seen reported anywhere. So it's just something to keep an eye on.

But in the long run, I think he's going to be a boring inning seeder type and probably not worth wrong. rostering in leagues of normal size. He is throwing his four-scene fastball more of the season, and James and Tintayone threw his sweeper a lot more in this start. It was great, seven whiffs, 44% whiff rate on that sweeper. I think it's probably just right. I think James Tadion is pretty boring,

but he pitches on a really good team, the fact that the whiffs are up a little bit. I think wins could be there, so yeah, he's like, he's part of that boring group, but I think he's more like on the higher end of that pouring group. Like I'm a little bit more excited about him than I guess, you know, you're Merrill Killies of the world and other names like that.

Tyler, I don't think the word excited has been used regarding Jameson in about seven years. Ah, come on, Chris. We'll get you on board. Tyler Fitzgerald picking things up three for four with his first home run, three RBI, his last six games. He got eight hits, one homer, and two steals.

He is 63% rostered on CBS too high, too low, or just right. still seems a bit high to me because I don't really believe in Tyler Fitzgerald even though he got every hit but the single, the hardest, he got every hit but the easiest hit in the cycle in this game. But it was his first home run of the season. He doesn't hit the ball very hard.

He hasn't been hitting the ball very hard. The one thing I can say for Tyler Fitzgerald is 21% strikeout rate, much improved from the 31% rate, 32% rate last year. and, you know, in the miners, the strikeout rates ran really high, too. That was part of the reason why, okay, if you're going to make wimpy contact, you've got to make more contact. Well, he has so far, but he's also like the chase rate is higher.

The zone contact rate isn't any better. Like, I feel like the strikeout rate itself for Tyler Fitzgerald is a fake out. If that's the only thing that you can point to to say, this is why he's better this year, even though he hasn't been producing. Well, I'm saying that's not going to hold up. So you could probably just move on from Tyler Fitzgerald, despite this big game. All right. Let's talk about Michael Bush, who stayed hot, one for four, his fourth home run here on Monday. And he's batting 310.

He's got 12 runs, 12 RBI, and OPS over 1,000. 65% rostered is Michael Bush, too high, too low, or just right? I mean, like, Soderstrom and Rice and those guys are all ahead of him. And I'm not sure he's dramatically different than any of them. So sure, too low. You know, I think there are obvious limitations for Michael Bush. And it's worth remembering, as I said earlier, he had six homers in April last year. I had an 874 OPS.

It was by far his best month of the season. I think it's fine if you want to add him and he's available. there have been a lot of really disappointing first baseman. So far, I'm working on a piece, like, looking at the, the biggest disappointment so far and just looking for like a sign of life from them. And Alec Bohm, Spencer Steer, Michael Toglio, Jake Berger, Tristan Casas, Cody Bellinger, even like Mark Vientos, we can call him a first baseman.

He probably should be playing first base. It's Wilson Contreras is playing first base. It's been a bad season for first baseman, despite imagine how much worse. it would be, if not for Soder Strom and Ben Rice and Spencer Torrosin, first baseman this year have a 95 weighted runs created plus. That is 5% worse than league average across all hitters. That is bonkers.

So specifically Tolia, because I know we're giving Burger more time in Roto leagues. And a lot of the, like Tristan Kossis, obviously, is getting more time. but Tolia who you know I ranked him 13th or something like that 14th at the position coming in just because he was the most promising last year in a small sample and it's not like there were it's not like there were clear there was upside beyond that in the rankings but it was just kind of a big massive upside so the guy who was best last year ranked highest it was as simple as that but there were a lot of downside concerns for Tolia. And I know you were higher on Tolia than I am.

I have moved Bush. I have moved to Ronda, certainly Rice, Torkelson ahead of Tolia. Are you there yet or do you still have Tolia ahead? I haven't done it yet, but it's entirely possible when I make my updates this week that I will. So, yeah, I, it's been a really tough start for sure. Yeah. there's that's one where I'm not sure there's anything we can point to to to be optimistic about he's hitting the ball hard I guess but yeah doesn't matter because he's hitting everything in

the ground yeah if he's hitting it at all because I think he's running like a 45% strikeout right yeah again that is Michael Tolia that we were just talking about there want to highlight two other lineups here that had big nights the pirates looking to wake things up they put up 10 runs on 14 hits. O'Neill Cruz, 2 for 5 with a double, and 2 runs scored his first time leading off this season. And I noticed the quality of contact is down quite a bit this year. He's also making a lot more contact.

So that might be correlated, might be doing that on purpose. Brian Reynolds, 2 for 4 with 2 RBI, and striking out a lot early on, but he also was dealing with a back injury? I think it was a back injury for Brian Reynolds. Do you guys remember back? Bicep, wasn't it? Bicep, I don't know. It's like an arm injury?

Yeah. I mean, he has such an established track record that I feel like maybe that strikeout rate is running high because of said injury. And Kibryan Hayes had a big game, two for four with three RBI and his third stolen base. He's hitting the ball hard. He's hitting more line drives and fly ball. So far this season, it has not turned into much batting average or power yet, but maybe it could. Kibrian Hayes, 32% rostered.

Any interest in him, anything else who like that? to point out with Brian Reynolds or O'Neill Cruz? Gotta see got to see something from Brian Hayes before. I like more than just him hitting the ball hard because we've seen that from him before and it hasn't led to production. So Reynolds, it's a shoulder injury.

It was originally reported as a triceps injury. That's one more than a biceps injury. But it's actually a terrorist major strain that has kept him off the out of the outfield. As far as I know Cruz, I don't see anything in like the bat tracking data that would suggest that there's a conscious change.

He's still swinging about as hard as anyone. It's a little bit less hard than last year, but less than a mile or just one mile per hour, swing length is not much shorter. So I don't really think that's likely the explanation. I think it's probably just small sample size thing. I'll note with Brian. Reynolds that the exit velocities are on point and the walk rate is normal.

It's really just that he's striking out more than usual. And it's not like the zone contact rate is lower. The chase rate isn't high. Like all the underlying plate discipline stuff is normal. I think he's probably fine. I mean, you don't like a guy playing with a shoulder injury, but apart from him, he's putting the ball on the ground a little more, But apart from putting the ball on the ground

a little more and striking out unusually high rate, everything looks pretty normal. All right, it is definitely a stretch to say that the Yankees had a big game. They hit four home runs. I was just trying to figure out a way to work them in here. But those home runs were hit by Ben Rice, who hit his fifth home run.

We talk about Ben Rice a lot so far this season. Austin Wells hit his third homer. Feels like maybe he's trying too hard to lift the ball. He's got a 61% fly ball rate early on this season. Jazz Chish him hit his sixth home run as well. He has a 35% strike out rate and a 59% fly ball rate. So both of those things will not do your batting average much justice. And Trent Grisham hit his fourth home run. Limited playing time, but he's performing well. I don't think we have too much interest here. But have you

guys noticed anything worried at all about Austin Wells or Jazz? The home runs and steals are there for jazz, but, you know, 175 batting average is pretty bad. I think that'll normalize for jazz. I'm not too worried about it. I would expect the strike high-out rate to come down, the fly ball rate to come down, and he'll probably be who you expected him to be. All right. Austin Wells, by the way, again, he's hitting the ball hard, but it's too many fly-balls. So I do think he just needs to lower that launch angle a little bit there. Let's do a little bit of a temperature check here on these starting pitchers who all had some pretty good games here on Monday.

Dustin May against the Rocky six innings, one run, seven strikeouts. He had 14 whiffs on 76 pitches here and has allowed one earned runner fewer in all three of his starts. And he is just off to a great start. Where are you guys at on Dustin May? Can you see him being a big riser for you in the rankings this week? What if Sandy Alcantor was never allowed to throw more than 85 pitches? That's basically where I'm at on Dustin Mac.

Not just that. Like, I don't think he's, I don't think he's gotten to 75 innings in a season. That sounds right, yeah. A long time ago, and when he was still a minor leaker. Yeah, his 56 is the most he's ever thrown in the majors. So, like, he'll be allowed to throw that much if he holds up. But when you have, like, part of the downside to having a bunch of, like, aesthetically awesome-looking pitches that are coming in at 97, 98 miles per hour with all sorts of crazy wiffle ball-type movement, you know, makes pitcher ninja like it just totally makes his day every time Dustin May pitches. Because it looks awesome.

But the downside to that is the arm doesn't hold up very well. And that's been Dustin May's problem. And although he got a ton of whiffs in this start, that's pretty rare for him, too. It is kind of hard to imagine as hard as he throws as wicked as that movement is. It's more weak contact on the ground. So good ERA, probably good win potential with the Dodgers, but it'll be short-lived and probably not give you the strikeout numbers you're looking for. So I think keeping them in the 60 to 70 range at this point in the season where there's still a lot of healthy pitchers.

that's that's probably where May belongs maybe 50 to 60 but you know not not especially high let's move over to Clay Holmes who look good at the twins five innings one run eight strikeouts here 12 whiffs on 90 pitches and he leaned on the sinker and change up and both were great in this start he has 18 strikeouts over his last two starts where are you guys

at on Clay Holmes it's you know the whip is still he's trying to get it down but I would say he's he looked better since that first start. I think every start's been better than the last. So that's a good trend. And I did set him in one categories league for this week, even though he's a two-star pitcher, tough matchups. Well, okay, matchups, I guess.

But I was worried about him, like, doing double the damage to my whip, you know? And already I'm feeling pretty bad about that. But trying to the right direction for Clay Holmes. His change-up was especially effective. in this one. That's the new pitch. Remember, there are a lot of left-handed batters in the twins lineup, so that probably led to him throwing it more. But it's good to see that it worked. Like it had been in spring training for Clay Holmes. Maybe he should throw it more often, period. So the problem there is, I think it's just a chase pitch. I think it's a good one. But I think his

zone rate with that pitch was like 23% in this start. And it's really hard to throw a pitch that more often than what was it like 28 30% in this one it's really hard to throw up like that that's kind of like you've got to pick your spots if you if you're going to throw it out of the zone that often unless you've got like there are some guys who can just not live in the zone but still avoid whiffs or walks because they have good command they just purposely throw out of the zone um i don't think clay holmes is that guy and so i kind of think the change up just kind of has to be the putaway pitch against lefties. And I actually think he's got really good pitaway pitches now.

Like if the changeup can be consistent for him, I think the sweeper and Sider are both excellent putaway pitches. It's just getting to two strikes without getting to four balls before, especially has been the issue this season. But yeah, I'm feeling okay about Clay Holmes. It's kind of the opposite of Grant Holmes where I think Grant Holmes is kind of a higher floor guy, but I don't know if there's much upside. I think Clay Holmes, it's going to be a

roller coaster ride, but if he locks in, I think the upside could be really high here. Two names that I feel like maybe we had some speculation on early on in the season, and, you know, lately they've just been pretty good, and maybe they're all right all along. Joe Ryan against the Mets, five innings,

one run, eight strikeouts. The sweeper looked much better in this one, the best has looked all season. And Sunny Gray, great start against the Astros, seven shot-out innings, only four strikeouts, only six whiffs on 92 pitches here. But the overall numbers look good. And trikeouts have been,

we're okay before this outing here. So where are you guys at on Joe Ryan and Sunny Gray? I think they're both fine. I think Joe Ryan especially, to a certain degree both of them, but Joe Ryan especially, there will be days when you curse the day you drafted him because he'll just get bombarded with home runs.

like we saw for Easton Lucas here today. But Joe Ryan obviously is more proven. But the same thing will happen to him, where he just gets blasted with home runs. But when he's not, he's going to give you a really low whip. He's going to give you a decent number of strikeouts. He's going to work deep into the game. That's just the profile.

Good to see the sweeper. Oh, sorry. Oh, go ahead. Good to see the sweeper showing up for Joe Ryan, because that had not been. I think his whiff rate with that was like 15% or something coming in. Super low. It was more in the 30 to 35% range last year.

But he got seven whiffs with it today. That that's a very good sign for his chances of getting strikeouts moving forward. Now, we've been, we have expressed concerns for both of these pitchers, Joe Ryan and Sunny Gray, their velocity this season. And that hasn't really been getting better. There have been some cold weather starts that's made it unclear what's going on with the velocity, I think especially for Sunny Gray. And Sunny Gray did have one start where the velocity was basically back and he got 22 whiffs in that start. But it wasn't that high in this start. Didn't get many whiffs.

I think he's got a full enough arsenal. Like we've seen so many different versions of Sunny Gray over the years that I think he can manage fine with his velocity being down a mile per hour. And since we did see that one Star Wars back to normal, I don't know, maybe he can still come back. With Joe Ryan, last year was the aberration in terms of how hard he threw. And so we've seen Joe Ryan succeed as. current velocity as well.

Is there as much strikeout potential? Maybe not, but I think he's good enough and is capable enough to navigate with what he has. Two other names who had mixed outings here. Seth Lugo against the Yankees, six and two-thirds innings, four runs, four strikeouts, four homers. They were all solo homers.

He only has one quality start in four outings. Strikeouts are down, walks are up. It's only four starts. I think he'll be better. I don't know that that's a guarantee, though. And Landon Rup was, again, mixed start because four runs over five things, not great, but eight strikeouts and 20 whiffs. You know, that looks pretty good there. It's just his pitch makes, it's, I don't know, like, can he succeed with just like this curveball and a sinker?

I don't know. I love the note about your, the pronunciation of Rup's name. I won't read it out loud, though. 20 whiffs and 15 of them came on the curveball And by the way It lowered the whiff rate on his curveball for this year Getting 15 because he threw it so many times He entered with like a 58% whiff rate on that pitch

And now it went down So that's like that's a fun pitch Um Now anytime you have a pitch that's capable of missing that many of bats I'm gonna be interested Now he's got some other stuff to work on clearly throwing strikes especially but there's something here for land and rupe and particularly since he's RP eligible that's going to incline me to give him an especially

long leash in the formats where you're more likely to go as far as rupe in the picture pool because it's at dead points I will say you said you expect set Lugo to be better moving forward. I think like only one quality start in four outings that probably going to be better. 386 ERA. That's what I expect from him. Maybe a little lower than a 129 whip, although I think there could be a lot of hits there. I just expect, I guess, the underlying numbers to look better than they, they are right now because they're pretty bad. I expect the walk rate to be lower. And the strike, yeah, I guess another strikeout per nine at least would make sense. But like, I don't think it's so far off from what I expect from Seth Lugo.

I'm thinking 350, 360 for the ERA, which is basically 2023 with the Padres, the numbers he put up that year. That's what I think Seth Luga is going to be in the long run. All right. We are kind of up against it here. So I'm just going to bounce around to a few things here before we wrap up. Your latest reminder that things can turn around very quickly. Austin Riley, two for four with a double dong, five RBI. His last seven games, he is betting 452 with three homers, eight RBI, and a 13-08 OPS.

And Terrick Scoobel, dominant at the Brewers, seven shutout innings with nine strikeouts. His last two starts, 13 shutout, 15 strikeouts to zero walks. So, yes, if you have elite players who are off to a rough start, things can turn around very quickly. I'll also throw Pekra Armstrong on this list. I made a little joke yesterday about how his two homer game got his production to where we thought it would be. And that was a little joke because his OPS even after the two homer game was like 680. But he had three more hits today, including, I believe, a new hardest hit ball of his major league career at 108 miles per hour. Which isn't a particularly hard.

Yeah, hardest hit ball. But relatively speaking. For him. Yeah. So just pointing that out there Since I've been critical of Pekar Armstrong He's all of a sudden the numbers look okay We had a pretty big dud performance from Framber Valdez

Four innings 10 hits seven runs aloud at the Cardinals 12 hard hits in this game Anything that worries you about this Or is just part of the Valdez experience I'm not worried at all Nope we saw him throw fewer curveball then we'd like to see him throw, but it's just one start. So I'm not going to make much of it.

Some hitters, Studs being studs here. Fernando Tatis, the guy is on fire. Just please stay healthy. Two for four with a double dong. He has five home runs in his last six games. Luis Arise, three for five with his second homer. Shohoi Otani, three for four with his fifth homer. And Muki Betts, who seems fine.

Two for three with his fourth home run of the season so far. I mean the results have been fine for mooky bats the exit velocities are a lot lower average in max is what's the number called the the bat velocity that's not what it's called that's it called bat speed bat speed it's down a couple miles per hour yeah yeah it is so like he he just he just buy the data he looks weaker um but that was a trend that already started last year Fair enough, but it's even worse now. Yeah. And notably worse.

This home run was his, was not a wimpy home run. It was, I mean, it wasn't, it was the sort of home run that you'd, it was a more normal looking home run for Moogie Betts, I guess I'm saying. The first two were like, wall scrapers hit 95 miles per hour. And you were like, well, he's lucky you got that one out. But this one was a little closer to legit. So hopefully Moogie Betts is trending the right direction. I'm not actually saying I'm worried.

I'm just saying that not all is fine under the hood. So just keep an eye on that. Some bullpens here for the Yankees. Devin Williams got the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He gave up a hit and a walk, but picked up his second save. It has been a rough start for him so far. 720, ERA 260 whip. We've seen other elite closers to, like a manual clause say,

has been a mess so far. I heard this on, I think, the Roto Wire podcast yesterday, Emmanuel Class A has allowed more earned runs this season than he did all of last season. Yep. And we're like three weeks in. And he was bad. And he was bad in the postseason last year. So that's like 13 bad innings.

I'm not concerned about Devin Williams. I'm not concerned about Emmanuel Class A. Even a tiny small amount. I agree. It's just frustrating when you pay the price tag for those guys. Sure. You know, it's a slow start here. For the Dodgers, Tanner Scott got the ninth inning with a,

two-run lead, he gave up two hits, but picked up his fifth save of the season. To stream or not to stream on Tuesday, and the names I gave out yesterday, I think the same here. Jake Irvin at the Pirates, Tyler McGill at the Twins, Landin Nack at home against the Rockies. I don't hate Quinn Priester versus Detroit. I don't love it, but I don't hate it. I think Tyler McGill is probably my favorite, though. The Tigers, I looked this up earlier, surprisingly. surprisingly, yeah, they've been good against right-handed pitching this here, fourth in Woebug against the Tigers.

The Tigers have, yeah. Okay. Yeah, I'm not sure it's enough of a sample for me to care, though those are the days when Carrie Carpenter's in the lineup, notably. Carrie Carpenter started against a lefty on Monday, by the way. Oh, that's just Monday, you said? Yeah, because he had a good game. Against Tyler Alexander, yeah.

But the home run came off from right-hand of reliever, yeah. Okay. You know, that was one that I was like, I was going to check if, Because I don't know. I'm going to be honest, cards on the table. I do not know what arm Tyler Alexander uses when he throws or does anything else, frankly. Now you're making me make sure that he's a left. No, he is a left.

You're right. But yeah, the Homer was not off a lefty. I agree. Tyler McGill of Minnesota is the only one I would even give half a thought to on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I think some more interesting options here, Griffin Canning at the Twins, David Fess against the Mets Reese Olson at the Brewers Jose Cantana against the Tigers

Matthew Boyd at the Padres Mitchell Parker at the Pirates Nick Martinez against the Mariners Osvaldo Bito at the White Sox Jose Soriano at the Rangers So lots of options I do love that Jose Cantana just like rolled out of bed

no no minor league starts no nothing seven shutout innings seven shutout innings and first start with two strikeouts just perfect I love that. I don't think, like, he could have another good start.

I don't know. He does that occasionally, but I don't expect much. Yeah, I don't. There are some more interesting options here, but I don't know if there's anyone like I want to pound the table. They're interesting. Pitchers, but not great matchups, really. Yeah, Reese Olson's probably the most interesting.

I like Festa, but I don't love the matchup. Martinez against Seattle, that feels like a. because Seattle away from T-Mobile is actually not a terrible offense. And that start is in Cincinnati. Yeah. My favorite two here are Jose Soriano at the Rangers, just because I think he's good enough to throw out there against any lineup. The Rangers lineup has been terrible too.

I think it's a good lineup, but they've been bad, yeah. And Osvaldo Bito at the White Sox was one of my streamer pitchers for this week. and so I'll recommend him as a one-day streamer, too. Yeah, I like both of those quite a bit as well. We'll quickly pull up to see what the Padres are doing so far against lefties, and they are pretty good, so I like what Matthew Boyd has done so far. I don't love that matchup. If I have to choose another name, I think I would go with Kintana.

Like, I don't know. I don't trust the Tiger's offense, so, yeah, I think I would go Soriano, Bito, and Kintana on Wednesday. That's reasonable. Cool. All right, well, you know, two weeks in a row, maybe one of these weeks we'll get back to Team Name Tuesday, but yeah, we're already running along here and don't want to go much longer.

So we are going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, and we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Paramount Podcasts.