Fantasy Baseball Today - Shane McClanahan Injured, Trades & Opening Day Rosters! (3/24 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 24, 2025

Shane McClanahan suffered a scary arm injury this weekend (3:32). ... Mooke Betts is still sick and down to 157 pounds (10:45). ... Alexis Diaz will start the season on the IL (17:12). ... Thairo Estrada suffered a fractured wrist (21:15). ... Kristian Campbell will be on the Red Sox Opening Day roster (23:54). ... Spencer Steer will start on the IL (30:08). ... Zack Gelof has a fractured hamate bone (33:27). ... Vinnie Pasquantino has a hamstring strain (35:11). ... We had some other injuries this weekend (38:55). ... Felix Bautista will be on the Opening Day roster (43:22). ... Sonny Gray is dealing with lower velocity (44:57). ... The Rockies traded Nolan Jones back to the Guardians (48:20). ... It looks like Cam Smith will be on the Astros' Opening Day roster (56:45). ... Victor Scott will be the Cardinals' center fielder on Opening Day (58:54). ... Who were the rest of this weekend's standouts (1:08:10). 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. Here we are. Opening day is this week.

Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, March 24th. I am Frank Stanful, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, there is so much to talk about from the weekend. Injuries, trades, opening day rosters are being set. We just had our first fab run in a few NFBC leagues as well. Scott, we were talking beforehand. You're rocking the Jurassic Park shirt for a specific reason. Yes.

Life finds a way. This is Life Finds Away Day. There were a lot of roster decisions made, some disappointing. Some that haven't officially been made yet, but they might go a disappointing route. But you know what? If the player's talented enough, life finds a way. So let's not flip out over.

Let's not flip out over Zach Veen. Let's not flip out over Hayden Bird's song if that indeed comes to pass. If they deserve the chance this year, it will come sooner than later. I hope you're right, Scott. Let's start with injuries. And there were a lot of them this weekend.

Shane Omeck. Shane McClain is, where we need to start. Pretty scary stuff. He left his start early on Saturday. He made a pitch and you could tell his arm was just in immediate pain and right away your mind just starts wandering like, okay, he's coming back from a second Tommy John surgery. This looks really bad. We did get an update on Sunday. He's dealing with an inflamed nerve in his left triceps. He'll start the season on the IL. But Kevin Cash said they're quote, very fortunate that it wasn't worse. No timeline for a return. they'll see how he responds to rest and recovery.

Chris, how far do you plan to lower Shane McClanahan in your rankings for people still drafting? And what's next for Tampa Bay? As far as the first one, I have no idea. Like, I'm looking through to try to get a sense of some other players who have had nerve injuries. and like there was Dominic Leone back in 2018 missed like three or four months with biceps nerve irritation. There was another guy,

sorry, I just had it in front of me and now I'm losing it. Andrew Triggs missed five months. I have, I don't think that's the case. Wasn't Garrett Coles a nerve thing last year? Well, that, there are a lot of elbow nerve injuries are fairly common. Okay. You'll, you'll, you'll see that because like, that was part of, um,

Felix Bautista when he got that follow-up surgery, it was to move the nerve in his elbow. So like that is fairly common, but, I don't know, triceps nerve irritation is not one that I'm finding any kind of precedent for. The fact that the rays are unco-viewing it as relatively good news, seems like a good sign, but I guess, oh, they seem, I wouldn't even use relative there. Yeah, but if he misses a month, that would still be good news after the way he reacted to throwing that pitch.

Right. Because I think we all had the same reaction when it happened, which is, oh, no, Shane McClanahan's season is over. So a month would be good news in that regard. And I just don't know. You know, we're looking at Parker Meadows, who's been out for, what, a month now with nerve irritation in his bicep? Upper arm area.

Upper, yeah, like. And they said he's not going to throw for another month. Yeah, he, like the problem with a nerve injury is it just kind of depends on when it comes back. You know, I had a Bell's palsy. No, not Bells. Was it Bell's palsy? Is that what I had? Somebody should know this.

My face was paralyzed. And that was like a three week thing. And I don't know. It could just be three weeks. It could be two months. It seems totally unknowable right now. Doesn't look like you guys have moved McClanahan as far down as I have. I have not surprised me.

I haven't moved down yet. Oh, yeah. Oh, okay. Well, I had a bit of weekend. I got back from out of town and dove right into writing a waiver wire piece. So I'm still, I'm still. I'm still catching up. Let me tell you where I moved him.

I moved him 52nd at starting pitcher, which is in the trio of, well, the, what do you call four? The group of four pitchers who we think are good who are currently dealing with injury, Shane McClanahan, Grayson Rodriguez, Jared Jones, and Sean Minia. Of those four, I'm most worried about Jared Jones. We still haven't gotten the second opinion back on the elbow. but until we do, I think you have to consider drafting them late, obviously. McClanahan's at the top of that group, just ahead of Grayson Rodriguez in part because I feel like he's better than Grayson Rodriguez, and well, at least what he's dealing with isn't to his elbow.

Grayson Rodriguez is already throwing again, so in theory he's going to be back before McClanahan. But we don't have a clear timetable for McClanahan. It was the way it was being reported on the. Ray's beat, they were just saying after a minimal amount of time off, which I didn't take to mean literally just the 15 days on the 15 day IL, but not very long. But yeah, I think it's pretty vague. I think it's going to depend on when exactly this irritation goes away. And I don't know that there is a clear timetable for that. But that's the range I'd be willing to gamble on

McClainahan is the same point where I'm gambling on Grayson Rodriguez. All right. The updated raise rotation. Ryan Pepeyo will start on opening day, followed by Tosh Bradley, Drew Rasmussen, Shane Boz, and Zach Lattel. So now it looks like we're back to a five-man rotation at least for the time being with the Tampa Bay raise. If you drafted McClanahan already, obviously you throw them on an IL spot. Hopefully you have an IL spot. Here are some starting pitchers rostered in less than 70% of CBS leagues. Rees Olson, Dustin Bay, Luis Severino, Eduardo Rodriguez, Nick. Martinez, Tomoyuki Sugano, Casey Mize, Jack Leiter.

So we've talked about some of these names, but who are maybe two or three of your favorites from this group as a Shane McClanahan replacement? I'm going to say my favorites are Nick Martinez and Tomoyuki Sagano. They're the ones I'm most comfortable actually plugging into my rotation, and I rank them the highest. You know what, Reese Olson. I'll put Resolson ahead of it. I think Reis Olson's at the top.

Yeah. Yeah. Some names. Also, go ahead. Personally, I would rather get a look at Casey Mise or Jack Lider than Sagano or Nick Martinez, just because, I mean, we don't know what Sagano is, but I feel pretty confident. He's not going to be a difference maker. I think he should be useful, but I don't think either Martinez or Sigano has, like,

top 20 upside. I think it's very unlikely that Jack Lider or Casey Mize do. but at least there's an element of mystery box in that. And so at this point in the season, I'd rather get a first look at Jack Lighter or Casey Mize, knowing that what Sugano and Nick Martinez are likely to provide is useful. Yeah. But it doesn't really,

it's not likely to change the shape of my season if I miss out on those guys. They could be really good for WIP. I mean, Martinez was last year. But that's kind of an outlier for Martinez, right? Redden Martinez, yeah, I know. We're obviously trusting that the control gains are going to stick. But clearly the Reds were. They made him a qualifying offer.

I like him, to be clear. I just, I think it's a relatively low ceiling. And then some names in deeper leagues as a McLanahan replacement. Griffin Canning, Richard Fitz, Shane Smith, Chris Paddock, Kate Povich. These are all names we've talked about at some length throughout the course of spring training. Both Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts were originally in the lineup Sunday for their freeway series against the Angels,

and then Mookie Betz was scratched, and it sounds like he is still dealing with whatever illness this is, and there was a report that he said he's down to 157 pounds. Now, if he started the offseason at his listed weight of 180 pounds, he's down over 20 pounds now. Like, this is very legitimate. He said he hasn't been able to hold food down since before the Tokyo trip, and, yeah, this is pretty good.

serious if he's lost 23 pounds in like two or three weeks you know i mean this is not just like a stomach bug clearly and i'd be worried about mooky bats beyond just his availability to play a baseball game at this point because stomach bugs i mean they're we've all had them before they're intense but they're short-lived they go away usually after like 24 hours maybe at most 48 so that fact that he's still still dealing with like still can't keep food down all these days later. He says he hasn't been diagnosed with anything. Like, get the man to a doctor.

Like something serious is going on here. And for our purposes, I think it's a real concern. It's not something I even really know how to approach. I think Betz is out of, you know, if you're still drafting and plenty of people are, I think Betz is out of the round one discussion, at least, basically. on this. Yeah, just eyeballing it. Like, I've got like

Jaron Duran at 16, Jackson Churio at 17. I think that's a clear like end of a tier. I thought there was a top 15. I'm probably going to put him 15. But yeah, I have no idea. It doesn't, it sounds like he's not going to be ready for, for opening day.

It very well could be a long term, a thing that even when he's healthy, just limits him because he doesn't have his full strength. Between him and Gunner Henderson, I'm much less concerned about Gunner Henderson, personally. Gunner Henderson, by the way, we'll also start the season on the aisle with that intercostal strain.

GM Mike Elias said he hopes the absence will be measured in, quote, days, not weeks. So we're hoping he's back within a week or so. I mean, that's like the optimistic look here at Gunner Henderson's injury. He did face live pitching this weekend. And it mostly sounds like the concern was just not that he's not healthy enough to play, but that they just couldn't get him up to speed in time.

And so my read on it, and I've been more optimistic and I ended up being wrong, I thought he'd be ready for opening day. But my expectation is still like minimum I'll stand. So they can back date it and he could be back the first Thursday after opening day. at the earliest, I hope so. Yeah, again, that was Gunner Henderson that we were talking about. This past weekend at the NFBC, there were 93 drafts done. Mookie Betts's ADP was 16.51 going just after Trujillo and Julio Rodriguez,

just ahead of Yoron Alvarez. So with a max pick of 26, so there was a draft where he fell into the, in a 15-teamor, late second round, and in a 12-team or early third round. So we didn't even know this yet. Like, this just, yeah. I mean, we knew he was. Match from the Dodgers lineup about 45 minutes before we started recording. Yeah.

Yeah. But I mean, we knew he was dealing with an illness. We just didn't know that it was still happening. But we didn't know the details that, you know, it sounds more alarming. Right. Yeah, this is, like I said, we thought it was a stomach bug. This is not just a stomach bug. Where'd Henderson go, by the way?

Gunner Henderson this weekend was at 9.97. That seems right. I've got him at 11 after the injury, but Julio Rodriguez is awesome, right? Like it's, you know, it's not a knock on Gunner Henderson to say, okay, fine, I'll take Julio Rodriguez ahead of him. Yeah. So I think Mookie right now is probably, if you're still drafting firmly in the middle of the second round, something like that, I would imagine. And maybe he'll slip even further beyond that. Let's take a quick break.

Just say, want to send out a big thanks to everyone watching live. Make sure to hit that like button and subscribe on YouTube. If you haven't already, that's YouTube.com slash fantasy baseball today. 31K by opening day. I don't know where we stand at this point, but I think we're actually pretty close to 31K, so that would be awesome. Big thanks to everyone who has subscribed throughout spring train.

Yeah, let's do it. We've got, what, three days, three days to get 300, 300 subscribers, let's make it happen. We'll take a break. We'll be back right after this. Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today, recapping the weekend where we had a lot going on. And let's talk about Alexis Diaz.

And the Reds bullpen, he was diagnosed with hamstring inflammation. We'll begin the season on the IL. That means it'll likely be one of Taylor Rogers or Scott Barlow, right? Not so fast. We've got a new name in the mix. That is Cram Ashcraft, who has moved to the bullpen. And he was mentioned as a possible saves option, I believe, by their pitching coach, Derek Johnson. So three names in the mix.

We have no idea how long Alexis Diaz is going to be. out. What do you guys think happens with the Reds bullpen here? I think part of the question is how hurt do you think his hamstring actually is? Yeah, I mean, my first thought was hamstring is he can't throw a strike right now. They're not calling it a strain. Yeah, it was soreness, right? I read inflammation. And I was reading, I think it was a C-Trent Rosencrantz article, and there was the way he worded it was,

it was something like Alexis Diaz is not, was not guaranteed to be the closer, let alone to make the roster, was the way he phrased it. Like it, that was pretty, sounds like they, they might be pretty down on Alexis Diaz.

Well, he might be running out of time. At the same time in answering questions about this injury, Terry Francona said, uh, I don't think, it's necessary that we name a closer. I haven't given it a ton of thought yet. He also said, we want Diaz to be that guy. So, I don't know, you could read that two different ways, because,

yeah, we had been hearing what did Francona say earlier. It's time for him to get at it or something like that earlier in the preseason about Diaz when he was struggling with walks. So I think it's, what I think could happen is if somebody emerges before Diaz, as is ready to pitch again, then it might just be that somebody. And I would think of the options, Ashcraft is the most likely. But of course, he has no experience even as a late inning reliever, much left a closer. So I don't know that they're going to go straight to that option. And I have no idea how Ashcraft would perform if they did.

Yeah, I mean, the stuff's always been impressive for Ashcraft, but the results have never been. Taylor Rogers and Scott Barlow have been closers before. So I imagine it'll be a committee led by them to start out. It's been a closer too. Yeah, but. I don't think any of them are particularly. I don't think any of them are particularly inspiring. I know Barlow's velocity has been up this spring.

And I believe he trained at one of those pitching facilities this offseason with the hope of improving his velocity. So he's done that and he's looked good this spring and does have closing experience. That's where I lean. I think it'll probably be Barlow and Rogers playing matchups to start the season, but if those guys falter, maybe it's Graham Ashcraft who steps in after that. So if you play in one of these really deep category leagues

and you're just desperate for like a third or fourth closer spec, I would probably go with one of Barlow or Rogers. Or maybe Diaz is back by week three and he gets the save. Yeah, it's possible. First save right away and they just roll with him thereafter. For what it's worth, moved Diaz behind Calvin Foschet and

um uh, uh, uh, Roldus Chapman. I still have him. I'm only drafting him in five aisle spots, I think. Yeah. I still have him ahead of Chris Martin and Mike Clevenger, Clevenger just because who knows what to expect from him and,

and Chris Martin because the Rangers just made the whole situation confusing. But clearly, Alex is, Diaz is, you know, he deserves to be drafted pretty late, if at all, at this point. Let's continue on with more injuries. Tyro Estrada was diagnosed with a fractured right wrist on Friday and will miss four to eight weeks. He suffered the injury last Wednesday on a hit by pitch. And rest in peace to my NL labor team.

Because between Sean Murphy and Tyler Stevenson and Tyro Estrada in an NL only league, it's getting pretty tough. Murphy and Stevenson will be back soon enough. I hope you're right. What's amazing about the Tyro Estrada thing, and I'm sure you're getting to this, is how the Rockies chose to address it. Oh, yes, and we will get to that in just a bit. But if we're talking about replacements for Estrada,

I'm guessing he was only drafted in 12-team Roto Leagues are deeper. So if you're looking at some deeper league names, like David Hamilton is 34% roster, Gavin Lux is 18%. Isaiah Kiner Fleff of 12%. Otto Lopez, 11%. Edward Julian, who looks like he'll have a pretty regular role to start the season, only 10% roster. Does anybody stand out there as a Tyroa Estrada replacement?

Presumably, you're mainly looking for steals from Estrada, even though he had, what, two last year? We thought it was a fluke. So Otto Lopez and David Hamilton would stand out the most there. Yeah. And we had our shared venture on an FPC, we were debating whether to add Otto Lopez or David Hamilton as our replacement for Tyro Estrada. And Otto Lopez ended up getting the higher bid, but David Hamilton is who we got. And I do think he is the higher upside steals play, like specifically steals. But he doesn't have a starting role to begin the air.

spoiler alert and Otto Lopez does so that would be the case for Lopez I'll also just say like if you don't specifically need steals I do think Gavin Lux is fairly interesting it sounds like he's going to play

pretty regularly early in the season for the Reds he was one of those bat speed gainers in the second half last year and was very productive in the second half it's obviously a very good ballpark so if you don't specifically need speed I think Gavin Lux is probably ahead of

Hamilton and Otto Lopez. I like Otto Lopez more than Hamilton. Scott likes Hamilton more than Otto Lopez. Frank, you seem kind of split. I like Lopez more than Hamilton. Just because I don't know where Hamilton is going to play, right? Because Christian Campbell, he plays everywhere. Christian Campbell is on the opening day roster for the Red Sox. We had that for later on. But, you know, we could talk about it now. There were rumors. I'm very in the lead there. Yeah, I mean, there's so much to talk about. You know, so many injuries and stuff. But yeah, Christian Campbell will be on the Red Sox opening day roster. or we presume as they're starting second basement. And we've heard rumors of this for about the past week or so

that this is what was going to happen, even though Christian Campbell really hasn't had a dominant spring. So it is a little bit confusing. But I like the skill set for Hamilton for fantasy. I just don't know where he's going to play. So your thoughts on the Red Sox second base situation. Yeah, he can play second base. He can play shortstop.

He can play outfield. I imagine he's going to play enough to get at least 350 of bats. and it could be more if Campbell doesn't work out. And I think, I think there's a real chance of that. You said he didn't have the greatest spring. He had a pretty terrible spring. Let's be honest. Frankly, I am surprised that they put him on the opening day roster.

They really wanted to from the beginning. You could tell. This was my, I actually sent out of the tweet. This is a recap of all my takes on the Christian Campbell situation. It started. I think the second base job could go to. to Christian Campbell. Then, oh, look, Alex Bregman, so much for Christian Campbell.

Then it was, I think they still really want Christian Campbell at second base. Then if Christian Campbell wins the job, it'll be for outfield, not second base. Then I'm not sure Christian Campbell is doing enough to make the team at all. Then it won't actually be Christian Campbell at second base, but David Hamilton.

Then it was, maybe it'll still be Christian Campbell. And finally, we learned that it is indeed Christian Campbell. So it's been a roller coaster this. whole time. And basically his performance has just been bad throughout. It got a little better toward the end of spring training. And we saw him hit a home run over the weekend.

But the batting average was what, like 157. He's, which isn't as big a deal as the fact that he struck out more than 30% of the time. Yeah. There were reports that specifically he was having trouble catching up to major league velocity, which is something we hear for a lot of young hitters who are first coming up. it's something they can get beyond, but it may be ugly in the meantime. So I am, look, obviously this is really high-end prospect. I think he has a bright future.

I think anywhere you can afford to just plop them on your bench, you should, just in case. But I want to pin a lot of all my hopes and dreams to Christian Campbell. As much as I can predict these things, which is not very much, This is, it's just kind of guess. And okay, this is what the numbers are showing me. But obviously there's a world of talent and he could just blow right past that. I acknowledge that. But as much as I can guess at these things, it feels a lot like Jackson Holiday last spring.

And except Jackson Holiday had a good spring. Well, he had for power, but he also struck out a lot. Yeah. And, you know, we see a spring later. Jackson Holiday is striking on only 20% of the time. So he grew. but he was a waste to pick last year and it was just kind of a mess for fantasy

and so like right now, even with this Christian Campbell news, I'm drafting Jackson Holiday over Campbell. I don't know if maybe we all are. But I don't want to invest in Campbell as a starter even in a roto league where you have that extra middle infield spot. All right. It depends, right? I will certainly draft Christian Campbell

before the reserve rounds. That doesn't necessarily mean I want to go into the season with Christian Campbell as my only option at second base or even my primary option at second base. And I'm with you. I have Jackson Holiday ranked ahead of him. But I would take Christian Campbell inside of the top 200 picks. It wouldn't be top 120, but 180? Yeah.

That's about where we were drafted a holiday last year. I would take the chance on Christian Campbell over Andreas Jimenez or Bryson Stott or any number of whatever players. They're more likely to provide stolen bases in particular, Stott and Jimenez. They're not particularly likely to provide anything else. It kind of depends on the depth of the league. Sure. You know, I think generally us more than most fantasy baseball podcasts out there are geared toward shallower leagues.

And so I think that's a fine take for a shallower league. Like there's only so much upside for Andres Jimenez and Bryson Stott. In a lot of leagues, they're just going to be fringy. Yeah, in a 15-team league, it might be a different story. But in the kind of league where they're fringy, they go very, very late. And so it kind of goes without saying, I feel like, oh, it's your last pick, gamble on Campbell rather than Andres Jimenez. But if you're talking about league where 360 plus players are drafted, I think there's a good chance. Yeah, I just don't have a lot of confidence in how Campbell's going to perform as a rookie.

I don't have a crystal ball, but I just don't have a lot of confidence. confidence. I do like, I don't know how much we've gotten to the specifics of Kristen Campbell's season last year, but for the un-initiated. He hit 330 with a 439 on base percentage and a 558 slugging percentage. He was arguably the best hitter in the minors last year, certainly the best, the best hitter among top prospects. He had 20 homers, 24 steals, and 115 games. I think the biggest knock is just he only did it. the one time. This was a fourth round pick who was not on prospect radars. I don't think he was in MLB Pipelines top 30 for the Red Sox before 2024. So there's a little bit of like what happened with Dylan Carlson where he just shot up the draft,

the rankings after one huge season and it ended up being not sustainable for Dylan Carson. It might not be sustainable. But Christian Campbell does check every scouting box, every analytical box. he had good quality of contact, a great approach at the plate. I'm just willing to bet on the upside in those 12 team leagues more specifically. But I'm happy anywhere I have him because I think the upside is huge. We will get into Tyro a shot as a replacement in just a little bit. There were a few trades this week and we'll talk about those.

Spencer Steer will open the season on the IL as he's been working his way back from a shoulder injury. It appears the Reds will roll with Jamer Candelario at first, Gavin Lux, the third, Christian Encarnacion Train at DH with Austin Hayes, T.J. Friedel, and Jake Fraley in the outfield. Steers NFBC ADP over the past week is 181 going right around Michael Tolia, Brendan Nimmo, Tyler O'Neill.

Is the assumption that that will drop even further now that we know for sure he will start on the aisle? I don't know how much more it should drop. Like you mentioned those names and those are all mostly guys I expect to miss some time or Michael Togali I think it's just underrated. And Spencer Steer, we've been skeptical,

but he's been in an absolute no doubt about it must-star fantasy player both of his major league seasons. Yeah, I think he's trending the right direction, and around Pick 180 sounds right. I'd rather take Nimmo and I'd rather take O'Neill, but I don't know that Steer needs to be much later than that because it's, it doesn't sound like it's going to be, a long-term absence.

And it sounded like he could have hit. Like throughout the whole process, the problem wasn't his swing. It was his ability to throw and play the field. And so they might just reach a point where they're comfortable just, hey, you're our D.H. You know, they might have to reach that point. By the way, Brandon Nimmo had a good weekend.

He's looking good this weekend. Feeling good about those six Brandon Nemo shares. Brandon Nimmo's number one fan right here on the pod, his name is Scott White. U. Darvish will begin the season on the IL with right elbow inflammation. He has no official timeline to return. We know that Michael King, Dylan Sees,

and Nick Pavetta are locked in there for the Padreys rotation. Then we have two spots for Stephen Colick, Randy Vasquez, and Kyle Hart. So not the most exciting options here. I assume you don't really have any interest in any of them. Is U. Darvish dropable in leagues with no IL spots?

What do you guys think? Yeah, I think so. Unclear timeline and unclear what he is, even when he's healthy at this stage of his career. So I only had him in a league where like 250 players are rostered, but I'm dropping him in that. Yeah, I have him in the Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational, 15-Team Roto, seven bench spots, no IL.

And I have Darvish, Sean Maniah, Strider, Sean Murphy. So the injuries are piling up, early on here. We had waivers run on Sunday at 10 o'clock. I didn't drop you, Darvish yet. So who knows? By next weekend, I might not have a choice. Ranger Suarez will also begin the season on the IL

due to a back injury. Taiwan Walker will be their fifth starter. Same question. Is Ranger Swarres a must-hold player? He's 79% rostered. The way that back injury derailed his season last year, I think you have to be pretty pessimistic about this, because he's not a guy, as we've seen,

with a huge margin for. Yeah, I think we have even less idea what to expect from Rangers Juarves and you Darvish, and the upside isn't as high. All right, I think you can drop him. Zach Gelloff will undergo surgery Monday to repair a fractured hamate bone in his right hand. Martin Gallegos put out an article listing the three most likely replacements, Luis Arias, Max Schumann, and prospect Max Muncie.

We're going to have some fun differentiating the Munciees over the next couple of years, I assume. Muncie is on the A's opening day roster, by the way, had a solid spring, 11 for 38, one homer, one steel, was a, I believe a first round pick a couple of years ago, so there is some prospect pedigree here. Do you guys have any interest? Deeper leagues, obviously, in whoever replaces Zach Loff?

I mean, I think Muncie's the only one you should have any interest in. I don't think he's just an AL-only guy. I could see him mattering in 15 team leagues. There's a little bit of just, you know, it's a mystery box. We haven't seen him. But his numbers of AAA were very good last year. He only played 58 games. I think this time with a hand injury of his own.

But 10 homers, five steals in 58 games. OPS was like high 800s. It's a very good hitting environment of AAA, but they're playing in what we expect to be a pretty good hitting environment. So I am marginally interested in Max Muncie. He's certainly behind Christian Campbell. He's certainly behind. Cam Smith, who we have not mentioned yet, I believe.

We have not. But I'm not uninterested in Muncie. There's a little bit of pop, a little bit of speed there. I know he wasn't a top 100 prospect for you, Scott. But I think it could be a fairly interesting profile for fantasy. Yeah, I think he has the upside to matter, but it's a wait and see outside of AL only. Again, that was A's prospect Max Muncie. Vinny Pass Quantino left early Saturday with a right hamstring train.

He underwent further evaluation on Sunday. I haven't seen anything definitive on that just yet. Per an article from MLB.com, he said, quote, I feel fine. And then I don't want to put any time frame on it, but I don't think my gut tells me it's not going to affect anything. But my gut is not the medical staff. So we'll get it evaluated tomorrow. And we'll see. He said that after Saturday's game.

The Royals acquired Marcana over the weekend. so I guess he would step in to play first base, but have you guys seen anything on Vinnie P? Do you plan to lower him a little bit for drafts that are still happening the rest of this week? I mean, first base really needs Vinny Pasquantino. I'm hoping he's right. I have a feeling it's not so much as gut as his heart hoping.

It's not going to cost him any time. For what it's worth, he didn't have like a dramatic reaction on the basis when he suffered this injury. So maybe it was just a little tweak and a few days off he'll be fine. But until I see something definitive, I'm leaving him right where he is in my rankings. Vinnie Pass Guantino,

if he is out to start the season, some replacements in shallower leagues. Reese Hoskins, Ryan Mountcastle, Michael Bush, Jammer Candelario, Jake Cronoworth, do you like any of those names? possible replacement? Well, you know, I like Mount Castle, but at this point I might like Hoskins even more.

Certainly if it's a points league, because the plate discipline might actually be decent for Hoskins, unlike Mountcastle. And then in deeper leagues, there's Jonathan and Ronda, Ben Rice, Carlos Santana, Josh Bell, Thai France, Gavin Sheets. I'm not totally uninterested in Gavin Sheets. I expect Josh Bell to be more useful than his draft data

would suggest. there are always guys like that who are just boring and forgotten about and then end up 50% rostered before long. I think Josh Bell will be one of them. I think Ben Rice is clearly the most interesting of this group. Scott, you may disagree because I know you like Jonathan Ronda a lot, but Ben Rice had really solid quality of contact metrics last year. They've been even better so far this spring.

I believe it's his five hardest hit balls that have been tracked in his professional career have come this spring. and he's going to be the everyday DH against Wrighties at least. So I like Ben Rice. There is one name you didn't mention, though. Shoot. Torkelson. Spencer Torkelson has had a really big spring.

Sounds like he played his way back into. It really sounded like the tigers were kind of done with it. It's like an opposite Christian Campbell where they, they didn't seem to want Spencer Torkelson to matter very much. And he just showed up and hit the. crap out of the ball this spring and looks like he's going to be on the roster. He played so well that they tried him in right field

at one point. So I think Torkelson I think it's the first good spring he's ever had. Might be. Yeah, Aronda, Rice, Torkelson. Those would be the top choices in deeper leagues in some order. I think their upside and is comparable enough that it would be hard to pick which one I want the most.

A Ronda, I hope, is heating up at just the right time. He had good numbers this weekend. But Rice, everything Chris said, I agree with, and Torkelson might get the largest playing time share of the three. All right, let's try to run through the rest of these injuries. Quickly, Clark Schmidt will begin the season on the IL. He said he felt good after his live BP on Thursday, but simply does not have enough time to stretch out.

That means Will Warren and Carlos Carrasco will be in the Yankees rotation to open the season. Any interest in either. Will Warren Carasco? Not a lot. Not outside A.L. only. I'll say 15 teamers for Will Warren. He wasn't like someone I went out and added this week,

but it's a name to watch. Dalton Varsha will begin the season on the IL as he's working his way back from off-season shoulder surgery. As a result, we learned that Alan Rodin has made the blue Blue Jay's opening day roster. He's had a very strong spring, hitting 407 with a 541 on base percentage. He's only 6% rostered on CBS. Scott, I know you like him a lot.

What size leagues do you think Alan Rodin should be rostered in? All five outfielder leagues. He walked twice as often as he struck out. I want to put that out there too. Great launch angle for power and good max exit velocity readings too at AAA last year. Average exit velocity was a little on the low side, but his swing is optimized for home runs. Great plate discipline.

Will he play every day? I doubt it at first. I bet since he's a left-handed hitter, they'll send him against lefties to start out. So I don't know that there's much reason to add Alan Rodin in a head-to-head points league at this point. But his skill set is well suited for that format if he does find his way into more playing time.

Brooks Lee will start season on the aisle due to lower back tightness. The twins are now down, Royce Lewis and Brooks Lee. Roster resource has Edward Julian at second base, Willie Castro at third, Jose Miranda at DH. Julian and Miranda are two names you can look at in deeper leagues. Victor Robles was hit by a pitch on his hand Saturday. Thankfully, X-rays came back negative. Connor Norby is dealing with soreness in his left oblique and underwent imaging on Sunday. He left Saturday's game with that injury. Danny Jansen has been sidelined the past couple days due to a pulled rib muscle, manager Kevin Cash,

said they hope to get Jansen into one of their final two spring training games. So it doesn't seem to be too serious, but opening day is approaching. Gerard Encarnacion of the Giants was diagnosed with a fractured left hand and is expected to miss at least four to five weeks. That means... This one's a bummer. Yeah, he was hitting the crap out of the ball this spring too.

Big X of velocities. That means Wilmer Flores will likely fill in as the Giants' DH to start. and Drew Thorpe is scheduled to undergo Tommy John surgery. He likely won't be back until the second half of 2026. Let's take our final break, and when we return, we'll talk about a whole bunch more. There's still a lot. We'll talk about that right after this quick commercial break. Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today, recapping the weekend.

So much news to go over. And we do have some Orioles updates aside from Gunner Henderson. Felix Bottista will be on the opening day roster. Cade Povich will be begin the season as their fifth starter. Povich had a really nice spring, 307 ERA, 0.89 whip over a strikeout per inning. The Orioles also signed Kyle Gibson

to a one-year $5.25 million deal on Friday and he'll offer the Orioles some depth and could later take over if Kade Povich gets off to a bad start. Deeper leagues, do you guys have interest in Povich or Kyle Gibson? Well, Povich. Yeah. Yeah.

Not so much Gibson, especially. especially since he's still got to build up. But Povich was impressive this spring, has a deep arsenal of pitches. I know he worked on his change-up grip. I'm not sure. We didn't get a lot of data for his starts. So I can't really tell you if that was what made the difference.

But the results were good for Povich. There's upside there on a good team. I don't like him as much as, well, who do I like him? I guess he's probably like a little behind Richard Fits for me. in terms of spring risers, probably ahead of like Jack Leiter because I think my concerns for Jack Leiter are a little more clear,

but in that same vicinity. I like them all more than Will Warren, for instance. Yeah, I think Povich could be a deep league replacement for Shane McClanahan, U. Darvish, Ranger Suarez. If you drafted one of those in like a 15-teamor or deeper, then I would look at someone like Kate Povich as a possible replacement. Sunny Gray acknowledged Friday that his velocity has been down this spring, but he says he's healthy.

He also nonchalantly revealed that he received a pain-killing injection in his right forearm late last season, which delayed his off-season throwing program. So there is, I don't know, if you just follow the T leaves here, like maybe that's why the velocity is down. He, you know, his off-season throwing program got delayed. Again, this is Sunny Gray we're talking about. He insisted that his pitching arm is fine physically. his fastball velocity was down almost two miles per hour

on Friday and he's just been getting clobbered. It's a 1256 ERA, a whip over two. Sunny Gray has allowed eight home runs this spring. Are you guys going to lower him in the rankings after hearing a quote like this and just understanding how his offseason went?

I've been saying I'm not going to worry about velocity unless concerns are raised by the team or the player. Well, he's not concerned. And what's weird about this is, yes, his velocity's down. His velocity's not down to nearly the alarming degree it is for many other pitchers this spring. Like when I'm making notes every day, oh, this guy's velocity was down this much. This guy's velocity was down this much.

I'm not sure I would have made note of Sunny Gray's because it's kind of in the normal range of velocity being down. So I imagine it only came up because the performance has been so bad. and for somebody has established as Sunny Gray, you know, giving up eight home runs in spring training, I'm not sure it really matters. I don't know, Chris. How do you feel about it? Am I being too sanguine, Chris?

I think you're being too blasé about it. No, I don't know, because Sunny Gray is one of those guys that I feel like the fantasy community has sort of disrespected over the past couple years. He goes out and gets a bunch of strikeouts. He's always like a different. type of pitcher, but it's always a pretty useful pitcher. And he never quite gets the respect that he deserves based on that.

But I don't know, man, any time you, like, I wanted to bring this up with Vinnie Pasquantino. There are very few times when they ask a player who hasn't been diagnosed with a serious injury, how their thoughts about the injury, and they're almost always, it's nothing to worry about. I'm fine. It didn't. It's not as bad as it, like, there are very few players. Zach Rankie is probably the only player who, like, could. insisting was like, I might be done for my career after this. I don't know. Like everyone else is

overly optimistic. So I'm inclined to move Sunny Gray down, but part of that is that it's the glob, right? It's just really, it's a really, every ranking is fairly loosely held for me when you're talking about 20 to 55. And so it really doesn't take much to just say, yeah, sure, I'll drop. Sunny Gray. Like, there, there are a lot of pitchers behind him that I'd be fine taking ahead of him. All right, Nico Horner made his

spring debut on Friday. He's returning from offseason flexor tendon surgery. There is a chance he'll be active on opening day. But perhaps the Cubs will opt to give him more reps than the minors first. It's not a guarantee one way or another. But Nico Horner is back. He did make his spring debut on Friday.

Trades. We had a few trades this weekend. Oh, the Rockies. They traded Nolan. Jones back to the Guardians where he started his career in exchange for infielder Tyler Freeman. So that is going to be your Tyro Estrada replacement at second base, at least early on in the season. It's the Rockies replacement. And it's just like the one win I feel like the Rockies have had in a, what a decade is acquiring, like buying low on Nolan Jones.

The Guardians clearly gave up on Nolan Jones too early. the Rockies have a star player. That's where that's where things stood at this time a year ago. And one year later, they're giving it back. They're given it. They're given the win back into the team that they got the win from. It's just,

it's amazing to me. For Tyler Freeman. Like, yeah, like Tyler Freeman might, I can see a world where like, you get an empty 280 batting average from Tyler Freeman and he steals 20 bases and is not unusable for fantasy.

But it just, there's no upside here for the Rocky's perspective. At least Nolan Jones you have that, you know, 100 or so game stretch in 2023 to point to. It's just, it's, it's dumb. It's the Rockies doing dumb things again. Now, can't stop.

The other angle here is should we still care about Nolan Jones now that he's outside of course field? And I think we should. Cleveland played really well for left-handed power, and Nolan Jones hits the crap out of the ball when he hits it. I'm using that phrase a lot today. Well, when you're exceeding 110 miles per hour as often as he does, I think it applies.

So will he play as consistently? I imagine it's going to be a platoon between him and Jean-Kinze-Noel with, you know, one, yeah, I guess in right field. It would be a platoon between those two. Noel's not a good defender at all out there. So it would, I think it behooves the guardians to give as much playing time to Jones as he deserves. So no, I'm not really lowering him now that he's outside of Colorado, maybe just getting away from that.

Is toxic too strong of a word? that situation in Colorado, maybe talks it's too strong for it, but you know what I'm saying. Like they're not good at the whole baseball. Anything like it's just. Exactly. And the next part of this trade was,

and selfishly, one of my first thoughts was, okay, the Rockies are clearing a spot for Zach Veen. He's on the 40-man roster. He's had a good spring. Now granted, 30% strikeout rate is high. I get that, but he also had a couple,

homers. He had nine steals. He was getting on base. He was doing some things and he was one of their top prospects. And then on Sunday he got sent back down to the minors for Nick Martini. For Nick Martini, a 35 year old outfielder to get a chance to play with the Rockies. If you have a chance to clear a roster spot for Nick Martini, you've got to take it. You have to. I mean, you're, you only get so many Nick Martini's in life. He feels like the ultimate right place, right time guy because his name just keeps coming up over the years.

And he got a chance to play in Cincinnati and now Colorado. Like you can't ask for two better environments to hit in, right? Well, do you guys hold on to Zach Veen if you drafted him anywhere? I try to. And, you know, I'm thinking deeper rotissory leagues, five outfielders,

15 teams. Those are the only leagues where I would say he was for sure drafted. And I try to at some point if he doesn't doesn't come up soon enough. I'll have to pull the plug or if I get a bunch of injuries right away. And I just need a clear spot. It might be him.

I imagine he'll be up soon. I think Nick Martini's clearly just a placeholder and they're doing the service time manipulation thing or they just want to be extra sure because the strikeout rate ran a little hot, especially towards the end of spring that Vien really is ready. He doesn't have a ton of minor league experience because of all the injuries. So I could understand that, but, like, martini's clearly just a placeholder. Give your fans a little something.

You know, it's just like... For me, it's just playing the service time manipulation game with Zach Veen. Right. Like, this is not like Chris Bryant, you know? I feel like... And the other thing with the strike rate is, well, Jordan Beck's on the roster. He struck out 34% of the time this spring. That's true.

I think we are glossing over Jordan Beck, who is... I don't think significantly less interesting than Zach Veen. Zach Veen probably a little toolsier, but Beck has put those tools into action at the minor league level a bit more consistently. He had 25 homers and 20 steals in 2023. It's a similar profile, more strikeouts than you'd want, but they've been manageable. Obviously, they weren't at the major league level.

But Jordan Beck has a similar case to what we were hoping for with Zach Veen. like toolsy, bad approach, but maybe he puts it together playing a course field. I'm open to the idea that Jordan Beck could matter for fantasy. I'd just rather it be both. Yeah.

Beck has done some interesting things this spring. He has four home runs and six deals. Not as interesting. Like I feel like Beck still seems overmatched to me like he clearly was when he was up last year. I think it was just the fact he was already up last year. It's why he got preferential treatment to Vien.

But yeah, I mean, Veen's, like I said, Veen's going to be up soon if he stays healthy. That's always been the thing with him and kind of why I feel like, well, he's healthy now. Yeah. Give him a chance before he gets hurt again. Can I give you my little bit of wishful thinking on this one?

What's up? Maybe Hunter Goodman's not just a backup catcher. That's my wishful thinking there. Because Hunter Goodman has played like 170 games at AAA and has 40 plus home runs, I'm pretty sure. Like, if he's a backup catcher and short side platoon in the outfield, That could maybe matter. Yeah, like catches two games a week, starts two games a week in the outfield.

All of a sudden, he's playing about as much as most number two catchers do. And most number two catchers don't have the kind of power upside that Hunter Goodman does. So he might be the third highest Rocky drafted now in the final few days. Am I thinking of any, am I overlooking anyone? There's like Tovar. Zipar and Michael Toagli are top 100, top 200. Doyle. Yeah, Doyle.

Brent and Doyle. That's the one I always forget that one. Yeah, the top 70 guy. We had another trade. The Braves traded Ian Anderson to the Angels in exchange for left-handed pitcher Jose Suarez. So Grant Holmes and A.J. Smith-Shawber will be in the Braves rotation to start the season. Ron Washington said that Anderson will begin the season in the Angels bullpen. Do you guys have any interest in AJ Smith-Shawver in deeper leagues? Sure. He looked good this spring. He won't. I imagine if that things go right if everybody stays healthy, if Spencer Strider remains on track,

Smith Schaver won't be in the rotation for long. I think this is really good news for Grant Holmes job security, because the problem with Ian Anderson and why the Braves had to trade him, he didn't have options. No minor league options. So he would either have to be in the bullpen or the rotation. Holmes had more bullpen experience, so maybe Ian Anderson beats him out when Strider's back because of that.

But now it's a non-issue. I think when Strider returns, as long as everything else is going fine in the Braves, rotation. Smith Schaver gets sent down. Holmes is secure. But yeah, Smith Schaver looks like he's taken a step forward developmentally. And I doubt this will be his only stint in the majors this time filling in for Strider. And it's worth noting because this is Smith Schaver's third major league season now or his appearance in a third major league season, he's only 22. He only just turned 22 in November. So he's been around for a long time. He made his debut as a 20 year old. There's still some upside here with AJ Smith Schroeder.

We don't have an official Astros roster yet, but Jim Bowden tweeted, all indications are that rookie Cam Smith will be there starting right fielder on opening day. Nothing like bringing that up, you know, 52 minutes into the podcast, but lots going on, as I mentioned. And we don't really have that official confirmation yet. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the one thing that makes me kind of scratch my head over it is Zach DeZenzo had such

a good spring too. Yep. And it already has major league experience. I do think Cam Smith is the better prospect, but DeSenzo is a good prospect in his own right. I kind of like them see, I'd kind of like to see them bump Ferretti's to second and start Cam Smith at third and have DeSanzo and right.

That's like the fantasy scenario from the fantasy analyst. But if Smith is in, you know, that's a win in its own right. And I would draft them on the same level as Campbell, I think, Christian Campbell. Yeah, not far off. Yeah. Just in a vacuum, who would you guys rather take a shot on Cam Smith or Christian Campbell? Campbell for me. Yeah, Camble.

Consider the better prospect has the stolen base potential. Camp Smith likely not going to steal any bases. But like in the same round, it would be a situation where if I saw one taken, I'd grab the other with my next pick. I got them in the first and second round of my reserve draft in my home league. And I am just thrilled about that. That's fun. ADP this weekend, Christian Campbell. 261 and Cam Smith at 297.8.

The Cardinals' rotation appears set for now. Sunny Gray, Eric Fetty, Andre Palante, Miles Michaelis, and Matthew Liberator was not really expecting that one. Stephen Mats goes to the bullpen with Michael McGruevy heading to AAA. It does sound like they will shift to a six-man rotation sometime in mid-April. Liberator had a nice spring, albeit with not many strikeouts, a 162 ERA.78 whip, nine strikeouts, over 16 and two-thirds innings.

Any interest in deeper leagues in Matthew Libertor? Look, I put in a $0 claim in my NL-only league, but that's like the last guy on my bench. No. Speaking of the Cardinals, Victor Scott will be on the opening day roster. He had a huge spring, 15 for 43. That's a 349 batting average with four home runs,

five steals, 1172 OPS. He homered on Friday off of Framber Valdez, lefty on lefty, so really impressive stuff there from Victor Scott, 19% rostered. Chris, I know that you are excited about Victor Scott. What type of leagues do you think that he should be rostered in at this point? Anywhere stolen bases count. Well, I guess all leagues, stolen bases count. But any league where stolen bases are a discrete category. So any roto league, any categories league, obviously it's tougher in those head-to-head categories leagues where you only start three outfielders.

I don't think he's a top 36 outfielder. But they're there. are some really interesting skills here. Obviously he stole what 90 bases in 20, 23. We were really excited about the upside he showed there. Good quality of contact metrics for a contact hitter. He's not a totally punchless

guy, even though I don't think the four homers this spring are super indicative of much. I would honestly, if you set the over under at four and a half homers all season, I'm not certain I would take the over. but I think there's a potential for good batting average,

a lot of stolen bases, and I think he's in the top 250 in any categories league. Would you take him over Alan Rodin? I think so. I think it's a more... In Rodo, yeah. Yeah, in Rodo, yeah. I think Scott is unlikely to matter very much in points leagues.

Would you take Victor Scott over Andy Paheads? In Roto, yeah. I think so too. Would you take him over? Jake McCarthy. I would, yeah. Just because we know, like, there's a little bit of Victor Scott could be anything. He could even be Jake McCarthy, but he could be anything, you know, like, I'm pretty confident Jake McCarthy's just a stolen base guy.

I'm hoping Victor Scott could be more. McCarthy is usually pretty good for. batting average. But he doesn't play every day, right? Like, he's, he's pretty strictly platooning. So he had really good. It lessens the impact. He had really good left right splits last year, Jake McCarthy. So I think he's going to play more against lefties as the year went on. But okay, I mean, part of the hang up with Victor Scott for me and why it sounds like I have him lower, because I'm behind McCarthy. I'm behind Pahas. He had a really good spring last year, too. And it was a disaster out of the gate. So I'm just safeguarding against

that and not wanting to put too much on him. Though obviously worth a late round pick in Roto. All right, Max Scherzer's thumb responded well to Saturday's 62 pitch start against the Twins. He went four scoreless, striking out four. Sean Murphy was clear to resume baseball activities earlier this week. He was diagnosed with a cracked left rib back on March 3rd and was originally expected to miss four to six weeks.

So sounds like good news. Maybe trending towards an early to mid-April return. turn here for Sean Murphy. The Mets rotation is set to start the season. Clay Holmes, Tyler McGill, Griffin Canning, David Peterson, and Kodai Senga. Paul Blackburn is headed to the bullpen. I feel like we haven't talked much about Tyler McGill, David Peterson. Do you have any interest in those guys?

McGill is a guy who gets some, like, some of the stuff models seem to like him, and he tends to get some interest because of that. I think they're both just streamers at best. I don't have any reason to believe they're different than they've been in the past. You know, and in the past, they've been no more than streamers, like Chris said. It appears the Tires rotation is set as well. Terrick Scuba, Jack Flaherty, Reese Olson, Casey Mize, and Jackson Job. So Kent and Maeda to the bullpen, Cadeer Montero to the miners.

In the past week, things looked a little bit more up in the air. We didn't know if Job would be in the rotation, but it turns out, both him and Mize are in there. Yeah, kind of surprised about this one, too, as with Christian Campbell. You can't say teams are at least contenders. You can't say they're service manipulating, service time manipulating to the degree they used to, when Campbell and Job could be this overwhelming in spring training

and still make the team. Are there any other teams where all five starting pitchers are likely to be drafted? in a 12-team league or should be drafted in a 12-team league because I think all five of these guys should be. Mariners. Mariners, yeah.

Well, not now with Emerson Hancock, but yeah. Usually. Oh, true. There is an injury there. No, but your point is well taken. The Red Sox rotation is set as well. Garry Crochet, Tanner Halk, Walker, Richard Fitz, and Sean Newcomb.

Brian Beaux, Cutter Crawford, and Lucas G. We'll all open the season on the IL. Nukem had a great spring, 0.63 ERA, 0.84 whip, 13 strikeouts to three walks. He added a new cutter this offseason. I mean, this is probably just AL only leagues. I think a lot of these pitchers could be back early on in the season. Any interest at all in Sean Newcomb?

Because there's a change in the pitch mix there and he was throwing the cutter. It was a new cutter. He was thrown at a ton. There weren't many whiffs with it. He had just two whiffs on 47 pitches total. in his most recent start Thursday. So maybe he'll be a ground ball specialist, but I don't think there's a lot of upside here for Newcomb and fantasy.

We have some Brewer's updates. Jose Cantana won't be ready for the start of the season. He'll need two more starts in the miners before joining the rotation. This one kind of confusing. Caleb Durbin was optioned to AAA. He actually had an okay spring. He hit 250 with a 322 on base percentage, two home runs, seven steals,

just a 15% strikeout rate. I guess it'll be Oliver Dunn starting at third base, at least against right-handed pitching. Looks that way. Not a ton of interest there. His last full minor league season, the numbers were respectable, but he didn't show a lot in a major league trial last year.

And he did steal a decent number of bases this spring. So something to keep an eye on, I guess. But I wouldn't say Oliver Dunn is. is anywhere close to a projectable fantasy asset. Logan T. Allen made the Guardians rotation over Tristan McKenzie. Allen had a great spring, 189 ERA 105 whip, 19th strikeouts to just four walks over 19 innings. And McKenzie, we know, is throwing a lot harder, but he's also struggled with walks and home runs this spring. Any deep league interest in Logan T. Allen?

I could say him being more than a deep league guy. That's how we regarded him. Was it just this time last year? He was kind of a borderline draftable guy in 12-team leagues. The fact that his control was so much better because that's what abandoned him last year. Even in the minors, Logan Allen wasn't throwing strikes anymore.

And it was a problem. So four walks and 19 innings, small sample, obviously. We need to see it put to the test during the regular season. but it's encouraging and you can understand why he won the job. All right. Julio Arias has been suspended through the conclusion of the All-Star break for his second violation of the league's domestic violence policy. He has not pinched since 2023.

We also got some extensions this weekend. Tanner Bybee signed a five-year, $48 million extension with the Guardians. Alejandro Kirk signed a five-year, $58 million extension with the Blue Jays. And Justin Martinez signed a five-year, $18 million extension with the debacks on Friday. Do you think this extension for Martinez influences their usage at all? Because I know... I was...

That was my first thought. Sometimes seems, you know, extend a reliever, and then they're like, oh, well, arbitration doesn't matter anymore. We can just make them the closer, you know? Yep. Price controlled now. Saves are what you worry about with relievers and arbitration. So it could...

It definitely, if nothing else, tips the scales a little more in Martinez's favor. Yeah, I agree with that. It's not a huge deal. But I was leaning that way anyway. I will say Martinez is like 65% rostered in CBS Sports League, and AJ Puck's only like 45%. So in terms of who to add on the waiver wire, if you're speculating on saves,

puck is more likely to be available. And it's, I think it's probably like 45, 44, or 11 is that math right that Ginkle gets the first save? That adds up to 100. Sure. Maybe we'll give Ginkle 10 and 1% for someone else. All right.

We are at the one hour mark here. It's just an entire news dump for a podcast. It's just there is so much that happened this weekend. Were there any standouts from the weekend that you wanted to highlight quickly before you wrap up? Anything that stood out? Soroka, I think, is worth highlighting just how bad he's been over the past couple of starts. He talked about his mechanics being way off in the previous start, clearly didn't get it fixed. Four and two-thirds inning, six earned runs, four walks. He's got 10 walks over the past

two starts. I still like him in head-to-head points leagues just because of the SPARP interest, but I, and in a 15-team Roto League, okay, fine, he's worth rostering, I guess. Those are really deep leagues, but even in a 12-team roto league, I don't have much interest at this point. Again, that was Michael Soroka. Scott, anything for you? See, I have a lot of Brett Beatty notes from the weekend. That guy continues to mash. He does indeed. And I don't know. I think, I don't, I don't, I don't know if Chris agrees, but I still have a lot of, I still have a fair amount of enthusiasm for Beatty. I don't, I don't think he's gotten enough of a chance really he did get an extended look what was it two years ago

but we're seeing hitters need longer to adjust to the majors these days they did give him a long look like not a long look but he had a chance last year he just been he just lost it yeah right it's yeah it's it's just been a lot of in and out of the lineup up and down Guy still hits the ball really hard. He draws walks at a good rate. There's no ability to lift and pull the ball. Well, it's looked better this spring. I'm not saying he can't get there.

Mark Viantos had similar concerns. Yeah, a ton of extra base hits for Beatty this point. Yeah, they changed this. They changed Vento swing plane. The Mets are gaining a reputation for the ability to develop and more importantly finish players off. and he's going to play second base. It sounds like he's the starting second baseman,

probably the big side of a platoon right now. But yeah, I wrote him up in the waiver war column as a deep league target, not a 12 team league guy, but 15 team leagues, I'll take a look at break baby, yeah. A few names I wanted to point out from the weekend. Austin Wells is having a huge spring,

three for four with a double dung on Friday, one of those off of a lefty two. He had four hard hits in that game. One of them was 11.4 exit velocity. he's now up to six home runs. Ronaldo Lopez threw six shot-out innings on Saturday, but he allowed 11 hard hits, and its velocity was down a lot again.

Fastball was down over 2 miles per hour, slider was down over 3. The curve was down almost 5 miles per hour compared to last year. This is someone who dealt with forearm, elbow, and shoulder stuff last season, so kind of scary for Lopez. Lazardo got rocked again.

The results were not good, but the fastball velocity up over 96 miles power. He also threw his new sweeper 15 times. He got six whiffs with the pitch. So the underlying usage I was actually kind of, you know, kind of intrigued by here with Jesus Lazzardo. And Dylan C's, five and two-thirds, shutout innings with nine strikeouts, 18 whiffs on 74 pitches. Four of those on his change-up, which actually looked like a legitimate change-up. It wasn't just this like, let me float up a 69 mile-per-hour pitch and see what happens here. He threw it 80 miles per hour, he got four swings, four whiffs,

and maybe it's something that will be part of his arsenal this season. That is Dylan Sees. Any thoughts on those four? Seas, Lozardo, Lopez, and Austin Wilson. I'm moving Lopez down, Rinaldo Lopez down below Hages-Lazardo at this point. I will say they don't sound concerned at all. I was watching the Braves broadcast of this game. They sound like it's just an adrenaline.

they make it sound like it's just an adrenaline thing. We'll see once the games actually matter. But we've seen a lot of pitchers whose fastballs are down two miles per hour this spring. Yeah, but in Rinaldo Lopez's case, I didn't really buy it to begin with. I think he's more like a four ERA pitcher with the skill set he showed last year. Obviously, there was fluctuation over the course of the season. but yeah I think I'm pretty much out he clearly

as far as he fell in our DGFB or not an FBC draft that we did I'm dropping him to that range of the overall rankings now like 220-ish and maybe even lower I am excited about this Dylan cease change up could be I was tempted to move him

a tier lower in my rankings but I don't think I will anymore. Pretty excited about it. All right, we are going to wrap there. For Scott and Chris, I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to Fantasy Baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow.

Bye-bye. Paramount Podcasts.