Fantasy Baseball Today - Skubal or Gilbert!? Weekend Recap & Most Added Players! (6/7 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 7, 2021

Who is this Patrick Wisdom fella that keeps hitting home runs (2:26)? Just how good are Cedric Mullins and Jesse Winker? Tarik Skubal or Logan Gilbert (12:12)? ... With all the talk about foreign substances recently, we had a handful of starting pitchers with their spin rates down this weekend (15:34). ... News and notes (27:28)! Jackson Kowar will be promoted Monday, John Means went to the IL, Trevor Story is returning and more. ... Who were the most added hitters from the weekend (36:33)? Should you add Jonathan India? Ryan Mountcastle or Justin Upton? ... Who were the most added starting pitchers (45:12)? Patrick Sandoval did what on Sunday!? ... We end with some more weekend recap, bullpen updates, and streamers (50:41)! ... Email us at [e-mail]. 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank, @AdamAizer Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. I drive. Centerfield is magnificent. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott, Chris, and Adam.

Happy Monday, everybody, and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today. Frank Sample joined by Scott White and Chris Towers here on June 7th. This is actually the first time we've all been together on the podcast in quite a while. What's up, guys? There was one last week, I think, right? Wasn't that? We tried. We tried on Thursday.

Well, Thursday, gave out. My internet wasn't working, but I thought there was one last week. It wasn't last Sunday. Weren't we together? I don't think so. No. No, I wasn't here. I was on vacation.

Yep. Tuesday? No, I'm never on Tuesday. Wednesday? Scott's never on Wednesday. Monday? It was solo. Not solo.

Duos, basically. Wow. my bad guys it's all good it's not your fault chris uh but i'm off all next week too so really screwing you guys over we we have that part of the year coming up where look people got to take time off i get it it's going to be interesting the next couple of weeks or so next month but uh bound to happen man baseball season is a long season indeed anything interesting happening speaking guys yeah i had the most expensive meal of my entire life last night we went to the grammarcy tavern I've got a friend who's leaving New York and he's kind of doing a great like a bucket list of

New York restaurants. And so, you know, it was good. Wasn't was not worth the like luxury car payment that we dropped up on the on the check. But it was pretty good, you know. Please do not reveal how much money you spent on. I don't want to give a specific. You've said too much already. Oh, man.

I feel. I don't usually. do that. I'm not a fancy food person. I was disappointed they didn't have chicken fingers. I'm right there with you, man. It doesn't take much to please me. If you have to dip those chicken fingers from a place

like that, then... It was a tasting menu. I was like, can I get the kids tasting menu, please? Oh, man, let's talk about baseball, because I know Scott doesn't want to talk about his weekend. Oh, my goodness gracious. Scott, where would you like to start? Who is

one of your biggest end-outs from this weekend. So there are a few places I could go here. There was one player who literally made me have an, oh, my goodness, gracious reaction. But we'll save him for a little later, I think. And I will talk about Patrick Wisdom of the Chicago Cubs, who just homered twice again on Sunday. That brings him up to seven home runs,

even though he has not been playing for very long. It was his 13th game, and he's already up to seven home runs. And, you know, I thought him being a 29-year-old minor league journeyman that he'd be out of the lineup as soon as Anthony Rizzo came back in it. But clearly that hasn't happened. Chris Bryant has moved to the outfield instead to accommodate Patrick Wisdom at third base. And Wisdom twice had a 31-homer season in the minors in 2017 and in 2019. It was in what was then known.

as the PCL. So, you know, hitter-friendly environment. But it's hard to hit 30 home runs in the minors. Like, you don't see many 30 homer seasons in the minors, period. Like, that's legit power. Never hit for much average. Pretty one-dimensional in that way. So him sticking in the minors for that long,

I don't know that there's anything here, but in these 15-team leagues where I'm struggling to just fill out a healthy lineup, I think it's time to pick him up. Now, having said that, I'll say that Jason Hayward just came off the IL. They managed to keep wisdom in the lineup by having Ian Hap sit out Sunday's game. But I, you know, there's more competition here. It's going to be harder and harder to get wisdom in the lineup.

So he has to keep performing. But I don't see why they're going to take him out fresh off a two-homer game. I don't know. It's hard to find offense, particularly. particularly in those deeper leagues. So I'm just inclined to roll with it till it stops. You know, I was wondering, like, who is this guy? Where did he come from?

And I was reading a story about how they just plucked him out of the audience. And they said it was wisdom of the crowd. So, Oh, no, Chris. I thought there was a joke happening there. That's my, that's my contribution. No,

I mean, his batted ball numbers are very impressive. And his plate discipline, his plate discipline numbers are pretty depressing. But you know what? There was a 28-year-old who hung around in the mind. Actually, formerly in the Cardinal system, just like wisdom. He's 28 instead of 29, and he came up and looked at how offered these plate discipline numbers are, but he just kept homering and homering and homering, and his name is...

And that guy's name... Adolice Garcia, and he's still around, and everybody wants him. I thought you were talking about Randy or Roserina, or Luke Voigt. Yeah, I thought you were talking about Luke Voight, too. I was like, yeah, you know. Maybe that's a fair comp. I picked up Patrick Wisdom in Scott White's dynasty league. That's a 24 team head to head points league.

So obviously a very deep league there. Chris, your oh my goodness gracious standout from the weekend. Frederick Mullins, who I think he had a stretch of eight for eight with three home runs between the end of Friday, all of Saturday, and early Sunday. You went three for four on Sunday. Yeah, three for four with a pair of walks, hit a home run. run, two runs, two RBI. He is on pace for like 25 homers, 25 steals.

He's hitting 32. And that comes with a 368 Babbat, which is high. But it's not that high, you know, it's not so high that you think like, man, this is a total fraud. He's got a sub 18% strikeout rate, which is very good in today's environment. And I don't know, I think he could just be, you know, a legitimate must start fantasy. the outfielder moving forward. XBA is 272, which would still be actually quite good

for this season, although not elite like he looks. I think there's really something here. And we've talked about him a lot over the course of the season. And I just, I don't think this is a fluke. He's not the same guy he was before. Another thing we've talked about a lot this season with

Cedric Mullins is he did ditch switch hitting. And he is only hitting from the left side now. He was not a good hitter from the right. He had no power. And so I, you know, he's, there's almost no chance he's available in any leagues. I'm sure he's 100% rostered right now. But Cedric Mullins not someone I would necessarily be looking to sell high on.

Yeah, I think that's a good way to put it. Ced CBCMullin's 93% rostered on CBS, so likely not available anywhere. But he has been amazing. And one of the things that stands out to me in his batted ball data is, His pop-up rate, infield fly ball rate, has gone way down, and those are automatic outs. So he's making more solid contact than ever before. 5.9%. Whereas in 2020, that was 21% for him.

Back in 2019, that was 25%. So the fact that he's just hitting more line drives, ground balls, even fly balls, like hitting fly balls in Camden Yards is a recipe for success. So I don't think he's going to keep this type of power production up. but someone who's providing both power and speed right now. Just to add some additional context, he had a 796 OPS against right-handed pitchers in, sorry, yeah, in 2020.

He had a 751 in 2018. Those were the two play seasons where he had the most plate appearances. So it's not completely out of nowhere that he would be, you know, an above average hitter. Obviously, he's been a lot better than that with a nine, 23 OPS. But, you know, with the power and speed, I think there's a lot to like about Cedric Mullins right now. Fair enough there with Cedric Mullins. Jesse Winker, the man is awesome. He hit a triple dong on Sunday and now has two three homered games this season. He is batting

350 with 17 home runs, 37 RBI, and a 1077 OPS entering Sunday's action. He was the fourth best outfielder in Roto, 3.9 fantasy points per game that was tied for third best among outfielders in points leagues. And he is 94th percentile or better in expected batting average, expected slug, and expected Wobah. He's doing this all with a sub 700 OPS against lefties, which is just, he's absolutely destroying right-handed pitching this year. I put up a poll on Sunday asking, where should Jesse Winker rank among outfielders rest of season? Assuming health, of course. and the options were top five, top 10, top 20, and outside the top 20. What do you guys think had the highest percentage in this poll?

I would guess top 10. 20. It was top 10, 48 and a half percent for Jesse Winker. And I know before this weekend, I had them inside my top 15. I think, Scott, you had them close inside your top 15 as well. But what else can we say about Jesse Winker? Jesse Winker. I mean, the guy is, he's awesome.

I mentioned this was about the point when last season ended. So Jesse Winker's slash line right now is 350, 412, 665. Last year, when the season legitimately ended around this point, Juan Soto's slash line was 351, 496, 95. It was better, but it was comparable, you know. So I wonder if, if Jesse Winker had done this last season, where would we have drafted him this season? Well, I mean, he was going like 200th or something.

Yeah. Yeah, and he was not, he was going late. He was going significantly better than Nick Castiano's last season. And he's been better than Nick Castiano's this season now. After the three homer game, obviously, that helps make up some ground. But I mean, you have a 1020 OPS coming into this game. They're both really good. Right, right, right.

But Nick Castellanos was legitimately not that good for fantasy last season. And Jesse Winker had a 932 OPS with 12 homers. Yeah. So I'm asking why wouldn't Jesse Winker at the least be ranked as high as Nick Castellanos moving forward? I think that's fair. And I have Cassiano's ranked inside my top 10 outfielders. I have him at seven. So just behind him, Chris Bryant, Whitmerfield, Kyle Tucker, Aaron Judge.

I mean, it's a pretty legitimate group. of outfielders. I don't know that I want to move Winker ahead of any of them yet, but... Yeah, I don't have Castellanos is quite that high. I haven't... I had him 12th. I just moved Winker ahead of him. Because why the heck not? Man, Castianos is awesome too.

Oh, no, it's not an argument against Nick Castianos. It's just like Jesse Winker over the last 103 games. This is before the three home runs. Was hitting 304 with a 981 OPS. He's got 29 homers in his last. 104 games. He's, and he was pretty good in 2019 when he was healthy too. Yeah.

This is a, this is a Nick Kess, this is a Jesse Winker discussion, not a Nick Kestiano's discussion. That's fair enough. And it should be after this weekend, after what he just did. I do just want to pit some starting pitchers up against each other. You know, we've only gone so long without talking about pitching. Obviously, we've got to talk about some. But I thought, you know, Terik Scoobel, the most added starting pitcher this weekend on CBS

League, rightfully so, goes out, five endings, one run, 11 strikeouts, 20 swinging strikes on 103 pitches. He's been much better over his last five starts. Now that he's gone back to a traditional change-up versus a split change that he was working with earlier in the season versus Logan Gilbert.

They're both rostered in less than 60% of CBS leagues right now. And I watched this start on Sunday. First inning was rocky, and then he just really settled in. And this was the best that I've seen, Logan Gilbert. Fastball velocity. up commanding his breaking pitches. Slider look great. Seven strikeouts for Logan Gilbert on Sunday.

One earned run over five innings pitched against the Angels. 20 swinging strikes as well on 105 pitches. Nine of those on the slider. Eight of those on the four-seem fastball. It's only 52% rostered. Scoobel is at 53%. Chris, if you can only choose one, Scoobel or Gilbert, which one would you add? A scubel for me. That's not necessarily a knock against Gilbert, who clearly is starting to figure some stuff out and getting more comfortable. But scoble's got the deeper repertoire, and I feel more comfortable betting on him. I mean, you know, Gilbert did have a very good,

or I don't know if this counts as a very good start, four walks and five innings, seven strikeouts. It was a good start. He didn't really throw much besides the fastball and slider today. And it still seems like he's, you know, trying to find the feel for the knuckle curve and the change up, especially, you know, the change up, I feel like this might have been one of the most

he's thrown the change up. Nine times. Nine times. And he got three of the 20th game on that changeup. Yeah, coming in, he had thrown four. Yeah. So this was the most he's used to change up.

He kind of came in as a three-pitch guy with the change-up as more of a show-me thing. So that'll be worth watching. It's interesting that Scoobel has the deeper repertoire than anybody because the knock on him last season was just a great fastball. But yeah, I mean, the changeup and slider have really come around for Scoobble. And to me, it's as simple as, okay,

so Gilbert's had one start where he kind of opened our eyes and Scoobles had, what did you say, Frank, five in a row? I know the last four for Scoobal, 37 strikeouts and 21 innings. A lot of them have been short starts, obviously. But short as in five innings, not short as in, you know. Yeah, who's not making short starts now? Right, right.

Would you guys be okay dropping any of Stephen Matt's, Frankie Montas, James and Tyone for either both one. I would be okay dropping any of the three for either Scoobel or Logan Gilbert at this point.

I think you're chasing upside there. I would I don't think I'd drop Montas for either. I would drop Mats for both. And who is the other name? James and Tion. He's still 75% rostered. Yeah, Tyone, I would drop for scoble, but not Gilbert.

Frankie Montas on the season has a 4.52 ERA and a 1.41 whip. And what I noticed this weekend, because I was paying very close attention to spin rates, is that he is one of about a handful of starting pitchers. There was, look, there's some noticeable spin rates being down. Frankie Montas was one of them. The slider was down 102 RPM this weekend. His splitter was down almost 300 RPM. And a few others that stood out to me.

Merrill Kelly had four different pitches lose over 100 RPM. Clayton Kershaw, his fastball was down 71, which I don't even know if that's... That kind of fluctuation happens from start to start. I'm looking at anything over 100 as being. We'll just mention the elephant in the room, which is Trevor Bowers was down 200 plus in this start. I know it was early. Garretel.

Garret Cole was also down pretty significantly. Trevor Bauer also notably had trouble commanding his curveball. And this one, clearly there was a message sent from Major League Baseball to teams in some way. I don't know whether it was Giovanni Gallegos getting called out and having to change his cap in a recent outing. and then Mike Schilt going on that long rant or something,

but clearly there has been a message received by Major League teams and players that the crackdown on foreign substances and grip enhancers is afoot. Yeah, I mean, Theo Epstein has said as much. There was a good interview with him by Bob Nightingale that came out early this week that pretty much said, okay, this is going to happen now. And pretty much immediately we've seen spin rates dropping across the league. Garrett Cole was over 100 on his fastball earlier this week. You mentioned Trevor Bauer, which was over 200 on his fastball.

And I wrote about this for Friday's waiver wire with Garrett Cole. If you want to read some thoughts on that, that's still up on the site on CBSSports.com. And if it's not clear, Theo Epstein, he's not, he's not an executive with the Cubs anymore. He's, he works for Major League Baseball. He's like the joy of the game advisor or something. Yeah. So he like has a hand in influencing. is happening.

Another notable one, Corbyn Burns today, his cutter, which is kind of his fastball, was down over 100. He actually had four different pitches that lost between 100 and 200 RPM in this start, Scott. Yeah. And I'll get to, I have some things I want to say about that in a second,

but just Corbyn Burns was way down. And those three guys, Cole, well, definitely Bauer and Burns are like top five in some. spin rate in all of baseball. Cole, I think, is a little outside of it, but he's top 10. Notably, Dylan Sees, who had

maybe his best start of the season, granted it was against the Tigers, seven shutout innings, 10 strikeouts, one walk. Dylan Sees, his fastball RPM was only down 16, which is like nothing. His slider was down 60, but even that's not really something

that's going to raise alarm from one start to the next. So, Dylan Seas is a top five, RPM guy for both the fastball on the slider and that's something we've been hyping up about him. But there was basically no change there for him in this latest start. So that's an encouraging sign for him. As for the rest of them, I mean, we talked about Garrett Cole after his start, Frank, that his RPM was, average RPM on the fastball was still way up from his pirate's days.

So I don't know that I'm worried necessarily. Corbyn Burns, I brought him up. the big drop and spin rate he saw on everything, Frank, and he had his best start of the season. So yeah, I mean, in strikeouts. I think you can look at it like the changed ball in 2019 or 2017, I guess first and then another one in 2019.

It affects everyone, obviously. And I think the assumption at this point is that nearly every pitcher is using something to enhance their grip, whether it's rosin and sunscreen, which everybody seems to agree is kind of who cares versus like spider grip or whatever they call it which allows you to like pick up a cinder block with your palm there's a great athletic piece by you know Saris

where he did some testing on it everybody seems to be using something and so it's going to affect everyone we don't know how much it's going to affect everyone it's going to be like an environmental change I think like the introduction of a new baseball And what we've seen this year is some of the guys who we thought might be affected by the new baseball really have been. You look at DJ LaMayhew. You look at Kevin Bidgio, two guys who we pointed out before the season.

If the ball's not traveling as far, they could be really affected. It's a lot harder to say what the impact of that is going to be on pitches because there's so much more that goes into it. This is not just how far the ball travels and we can look DJ LaMahue hits every single one of his home runs exactly one road deep into the stands. You know, it's not like. that. There's a lot that goes into it because some pitches you want less spin. And so if a guy throws a really good like, who was it? We just mentioned someone's splitter was way down. Franki Montas. Yeah. That's actually not necessarily a bad thing. If you lose spin on

all of your pitches but your splitter loses more spin, that's not necessarily a bad thing because there does appear to be evidence that splitters and changeups are positively affected by low spin rate. so it would cause it to drop more right yeah that would be the impact because the impact of all of this is basically the higher the spin the more the the magnus effect which is some kind of science term that i don't actually know what it means but it's how much the ball moves and how much the air flow on the ball impacts in so with forcing fast balls the the impact on higher of higher spin is more apparent rise the ball drops less than it should

based on the impact of gravity. There's actually a really, really good Sports Illustrated piece on this last week where I think Charlie Blackman talks about, he's very blunt about the impact of it and how it's just like, you expect the ball to fall more than it does because you've seen a million pitches in your life

and most of them move one way. And so when they move differently, all of a sudden, it makes it much harder to hit. Yeah. And I think the biggest takeaway from this would you guys have hit on is we just don't know. We don't know what the overall effect is going to be by this, pointed out by...

We don't know who's using. Exactly. And while Corbyn Burns' spin rates are down, again, he had the best start of the season for him. Seven shutout with 13 strikeouts to zero walk. So we're going to continue to note these things, obviously. These are factual statements that their spin rates have been down, but it might not be anything. Like, Trevor Bauer might still be really good. Corbyn Burns might be perfectly fine.

Yeah, Trevor Bauer is the one I worry about most because we've seen. huge fluctuations from him and you know he was somebody who raised some of the biggest suspicions regarding this and his control and command got way better yeah yeah overnight and that's the thing like we don't it's not just spin rate it's not just spin rate it's not it's implemented you know they're enforcing it now because they want to see strikeout rate go down but there are going to be other impacts when pitchers don't grip the ball as well that more hit by pitchers impact pitchers command. And we don't, that's going to be the hardest to judge.

I mean, we can look at spin rates and say, okay, you know, maybe this guy will be affected in some way, but we don't know the extent he'll be affected. But how are you going to pick out the pitchers who, you know, the ball's just too slippery for them now to throw strikes consistently? There's no way to identify those guys ahead of time. And even for somebody like Bauer, going back to the point I was bringing up about him, It concerns me for him, but if strikeouts go down, the way this, today's hitters have been trained to launch the ball. Like, what we're going to see is a lot more home runs, right?

And if we see a lot more home runs, suddenly the pitching pool could start to look a lot like it did in 2019, right? Where there's this huge chasm between good pitchers and bad pitchers. And if that's the case, now is not the time to sell your presumed. Ace and Trevor Bauer, even if you are worried about him, you better be getting another presumed days back in the deal. I think the biggest takeaway from all of this. One, if I did have to bet on one impact, I'm very confident. We were already seeing the highest hit by pitch rate in major league history. I would expect that continues to rise and we're going to see more injuries as a result of that. And from what I understand, most hitters are generally okay with pitchers

using something. You know, like I mentioned, sunscreen and rosin, that, is generally something that, you know, everybody kind of seems to agree like, okay, that's fine. It helps you grip the ball better. We're cool with that. It's the other things. But the other real takeaway from this is this injects a ton of uncertainty

into the league context moving forward. And we're already, I mean, we've already dealt with this season. One, a significantly different offensive environment, overall, but especially early on in the season, than even what we expected.

It's leveled out a little bit, but it's still different than it had been the previous years. And then I think I L stints, there are currently more players on the IL than any point last season. I believe there are currently more players on the aisle than any point in 2019. And I think over the same time from now until 20, from the same point in 2019 compared to today, There I think is a 57% increase in IL trips right now.

So all of this is to say that fantasy baseball has been harder to play in 2021 than I think any other season, 100%, including last season. And it's not going to get easier. Yep. It's just it's the introduction of more and more uncertainty is what we're dealing with in so many different ways, which is for hitters too. You're making me feel better, Chris, because I'm having probably the worst season I've ever had.

And I'm having one of my best. So obviously, this season doesn't count. Which isn't to say all my teams are terrible, but there are three in particular that are just as embarrassing as anything I've ever put out there. Yeah. It's been a very weird season. We're going to continue to monitor the overall offensive environment. And looking at June so far, 244 batting average, that technically, would be up from the first two months, so we'll monitor these things, but it's hard to know when

so much continuously is changing here. Before we hit the news and notes, I wanted to let you know what's on CBS Sports HQ this week. As always, CBS SportsHQ is the network to start your sports news day at 8 a.m. Eastern with morning buzz in hour of highlights. News and all the days need to know and come back or leave us on all day at 6 p.m. where we break down all the night's action and release dozens of picks from the best analysts and cappers in the sports world. How to watch HQ. It's easy. Go to your Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV, really most connected TVs,

and look for the CVS sports app. Fire it up and check out HQ, the only 24-7 free sports streaming network out there. Some news and notes from the weekend. Royals pitching prospect Jackson CoR will be called up on Monday, which makes him a two-start pitcher. He is 18% rostered. CoR was the 33rd overall pick back in 2018, and through six starts at AAA this season, he had a 0.85 ERA, a 0.88 whip, and 41 strikeouts in 31 and 2 thirds innings pitch. Scott, is CoR a must-add starting pitcher? Look, I hesitate to call any prospect call up a must add at this point because if Jared Kelnick is hitting under 100, I think he is now, right, after today.

I think so. It's like how many prospect call-ups have been good since the start of last season? Ian Anderson, Brian Hayes, I guess Sixtho Sanchez was good. We got to count him. Yeah. I mean,

let's talk about, so one, rookie hitters have their lowest way to run to creative plus, which is relatively league average since 2001. So that. Pitchers have the second lowest FIP minus, which is just FIP minus, which is just FIP. relative to league average since 2000 or since 1992.

So, uh, gosh. Yeah, and even like let's let's think about the last couple of must add quote unquote prospect pitchers. Alec Manoa who won great start one pretty bad one. Yeah. Logan Gilbert is still out. Jury still out. Logan Gilbert definitely hasn't lived up to expectations, although I think there are promising signs.

Daniel Lynch. Yeah. Like I, I, and then we just, we haven't seen, we've seen. Jackson Coor make six starts since 2019. So we have no idea who he is right now. So he has a 0.98 ERA, AAA, could be 890,

could be the reverse of that once he gets called up. But, you know, like, I don't think he was my highest priority ad in any league I'm in, but I in every league he was available. I put in a bid for Jackson Coir because you just,

you have to take a chance on talent and if it doesn't work out, You know, you move on. But, you know, I think one of, we did a, we did a segment last week, Frank, and lessons learned this season. And one I wish I had brought up then was, I don't know, maybe it's premature to say this, but, you know, for the past five plus years, I don't know exactly when it started, but several years now, it felt like if you stashed away the big minor leaguer ahead of time,

odds were very good. He was going to deliver you a big outcome right away. And so I started leaning into that more and more over the years. And I feel like I over-invested in a lot of those guys this year because none of them have paid off. And so I'm reluctant to throw like gobs of fab at Jackson-Kawar, I guess is what I'm saying,

which of course means he's going to be the great one. He's got a great change-up. I mean, obviously there's a chance that goes well. but, you know. Yeah, I mean, look, to talk about him as an, I'm reluctant to have the same enthusiasm. As an actual pitcher, there's a lot to like. He's got a mid to high 90s fastball. He's a college pitcher, so he's advanced.

He was probably Major League Ready sometime in the middle of last season. If they had played a normal season, probably Major League Ready sometime at the start of this season. But, you know, they wanted to make sure the changeup is exceptional. As Scott mentioned, that is considered his best pitch, everything else. from what I understand is pretty mad. But what we said about Alec Manoa, when he got called up, the Scouting report was kind of different

than what he actually has been through his first two starts because that change-up looks really good. And so that's what I mean about saying we don't know who Jackson Coer is because he hasn't pitched in a lot of competitive games in the last two seasons.

So he could be completely different than what he was. And we brought this up about prospects previous. is the fact that they miss an entire year of development last year, not having the minor league. So I think, you know, definitely a lesson learned. We probably should have factored that into our analysis more. But, you know, hindsight being 2020, it's easier to say that now.

John Means was placed on the IL with a left shoulder strain. The MRI did not reveal any structural damage. Means will be shut down for at least seven to ten days. Trevor's story is on track to return Tuesday, so you can get him in your lineups for this week. though the Rockies are on the road the entire week, so it's not great, but Trevor Sturray. Get him in your lineups. Yeah.

Adelbert Tomondisi went to the IL with that hamstring strain. Josh Stallmont was activated for the Kansas City Royals. Luis Severino made his first start at low A on Sunday. He allowed one run over two and two thirds with three strikeouts. Apparently he was sitting 96 miles per hour with his fastball, which is good to see there from Severino. Just a reminder to keep your expectations realistic for Severino and Chris Sale, guys coming back from Tommy John because

I don't think they're going to push either one very much. Do we know at this point if there's still a limit on how long a rehab assignment can be? It used to be 30 days. I think I saw that in reference to somebody that. Was it 30 days or was it? I think you might have been less than

that. Well, it might be less for a position player. I think it's 30 for a pitcher. I think I saw as it related to Luis Severino. I could see Severino up by late June. Maybe he gets one start in July before we hit the All-Star break. I think that's probably realistic for him. The Dodgers are expected to reinstate Tony Gonsland from the IL to start on Wednesday against the Pirates, obviously. That is a great matchup, but he will not be a two-star pitcher,

so keep that in mind. Bryce Harper returned from the IL on Saturday. George Springer is, quote, very close to a rehab assignment. Kevin Bigio began a rehab assignment on Sunday. Evan Longoria is placed on the IL with a sprained left shoulder. He's expected to miss 40. of six weeks. John Gray went to the IL with a right flexor strain. Spencer Turnbull to the IL with right forearm tightness. Michael Fulmer to the IL with a right shoulder sprain. Billy Hamilton IL. Right oblique strain. G. Manchoe to the IL with a left groin strain. Mike Mustakis is about a week away from starting a rehab assignment. Joey Vado could return on Tuesday for the Reds. Tyler Naquin left Sunday's game with a tight left hamstring. Byron Buxton could begin a rehab assignment

within the next week or so. There you go, Chris. Yankees manager, Aaron Boone, mentioned June 15th as a potential date for Luke Voight to begin a rehab assignment for his oblique injury.

The Mariners want Kendall Graveman to make at least one rehab appearance at AAA, so he likely won't be activated until next weekend. Colin Moran returned from the IL on Sunday. Kyle Gibson will not pitch this week. The Rangers don't want him

batting against the Dodgers. He's coming back from a groin injury. So Kyle Gibson, get him out of your first. lineups. He's not going to start. Nick Senzel is expected to return from knee surgery in mid-July. Corey Klobler and Elias Hernandez were both moved to the 60-day IL for their respective teams. I did want to bring up a quick prospect update as well. Joe Adele is hot again. He's been very inconsistent this year for home runs over his last four games at AAA with only two

strikeouts during that time. So he goes through these peaks and valleys this season where he's really hot. Just call him up. Well, I mean, you know, whenever you can just roll Juan Ligaris out there every day, Chris. You just, you got to do. I mean, from a service time perspective, they are highly incentivized to keep him down longer than most top prospects because he did, you know, get 40 days of service or whatever. I guess 153 days of service.

So I'm actually not sure there's really any way that, like, they would have to keep him down all season to derive any benefit at that point. So actually, they probably should just call him up now. All right. We're going to take a quick break. But when we return, we're going to take a look at the most added hitters and pitchers from the weekend. We'll do that next here on Fantasy Baseball today.

Your number one most added hitter this weekend is Jonathan Scope, who has been very hot recently. How would you guys rank? Scope, Jonathan, India, and Thai France. All of them are playing well. Specifically, Jonathan, India has eight hits over his last five games, including two home runs and a stolen base.

He has led off two straight for the Cincinnati Reds. Scope, India, France. Rank them. You know, Scope's been the best. best recently by a long shot. I mean, he just had this great home run tear over the past week, but he's such a limited hitter.

He's probably my least favorite of the three if we're doing a rest of season ranking. France, I probably have the most faith in. I really trust the profile as a hitter, and I think his batting average lagged for that two to three weeks stretch because he was hurt, and he's looked a lot better since coming off the IAL.

But India, quietly has started to break out, it looks like. This doesn't include his Sunday numbers, but last 20 games, 328 batting average, four home runs, three steals of 446 on base percentage, you know, 11 walks versus nine strikeouts. That's not a stretch he can probably sustain over a full season, obviously,

but it demonstrates his skills in a way we didn't see early on, in a way that got us excited in spring training. So in a 12-team Roto League, one of those three that I'm doing terrible in, I need a lot of hitting help, and I picked them back up. I will throw out an old favorite bit here and just kind of say,

we're sort of doing the like, Jonathan's scope is Jonathan's scope, but Thai France could be anything. Over the last two seasons, going back to the start of last season, Jonathan Scopes on a 26-Homer pace with a 266. average.

He hits 20 home runs with consistency, but that's about all he does. There's not, he's always fringy. He's a, he's a perma, perma fringe status for Jonathan's scope. And I think Thai France is a reliable source of batting average who will also hit home runs. I would agree with that. I would put France ahead of the three. Scope is fine. I mean, he'll give you a little bit of pop from the middle infield if you need that,

but he's not going to walk very much. He doesn't have great plate discipline. So he's fine. I think you can ride him all he's. I will just say France is, it's theoretical. Like he's played 162 games in the majors. He has 14 homers, 63 runs, 68 RBI, and no steals. He's hit 259.

And yes, part of that was 2019. He hit over 300 last year. Yes, he did hit 305. He hit 399 in his last minor league season. He's hit 300 outside of that stretch where he was dealing with a wrist injury this season. So, I mean, he just has such an consistent track record of hitting for average. Okay. As long as he's been healthy this year,

Ty France has been really good, and he looks like he's healthy again. So I think I'm pretty excited about him. Tyler O'Neill is up to 81% roster. He's the second most added hitter from the weekend, rightfully so. Going to strike out quite a bit, so obviously temper expectations there in a points league. Pavin Smith has been very good for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Recently, he's got the batting average up over 290 on the season. Patrick Wisdom, we spoke about earlier. Avicail Garcia, 71% rostered. I think he was one of your sleepers on Friday, right, Scott? Yeah, he was number one. Okay. Payvon Smith was, too, for what it's worth. And I actually, particularly like a points league context,

I'm really starting to like Payvon Smith. He kind of reminds me of Eric Cosmer, actually. He hits a bunch of ground balls, too, just like Eric Cosmer. So fair comp there for Pave and Smith. Hunter Renfro, he's got seven games this week. He's 39% rostered. So if you do need some out. He'll help is someone you can look at. Andrew Benintendi has been pretty solid all season long.

He's up to 77% roster. 77's too low, I think, for Andrew Menendee. I think that's fair. I mean, I don't know that he has massive upside, but regardless of format, he makes a lot of contact this year. So that's going to help you in points leagues. And then in Roto, he's run a decent amount. And he's on pace for like 15 plus home runs and steals each this year. So also all my sleeper hitters for this week.

Yeah, lots of light there with Benentenni. And I mean, he's. seven for 13 on steals, which is not good. But stolen base percentage is the kind of thing that doesn't really... It's very unstable. And so you can have stretches where you get caught a lot, and it doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be caught a lot moving forward. So I think he's probably a 20-steel guy.

A few other hitters that were actually not among the most added right now on CBS that are hot recently. Ryan Mountcastle's last 15 games, he's betting 327 with five home runs and 14 RBI. He's 59% rostered. And Justin Upton has three home runs over his last four games. He's betting 278 with five homers over his last 15 games. He's been leading off consistently for the Angels too. It seems like that has reinvigorated Justin Upton.

Who do you guys like more between Mount Castle and Upton? Upton? Mountcastle's strikeout rate has just been ridiculous this season. And a few games, just like we saw a lot of players turn their season around in May, it wouldn't surprise me if we saw some dude in June because that's normally the biggest jump in league-wide Babbitt from month to month is May to June. And, you know, with all this,

obviously it's going to benefit offense, all these changes, you know, if they are able to enforce the foreign substances rule with pitchers, that's obviously going to benefit offense. So that's, you know, just an extra factor. That might help guys like Ryan Mountcastle improve. So I'm open-minded to him turning a season around, obviously off to a very good start in June. But yeah, I think I have more faith in Upton at this point.

Chris, which one do you like more? I think probably Upton. The batting average has been awful the last two seasons. But, you know, it's mostly Babbitt related. I mean, he's striking out a lot, but when has Justin Upton not struck out a lot? And his pace going back to the start of 2019 is 34 homers. So probably upton. Some hitters that may be available in the deepest of leagues,

Nick Gordon, a former first round pick for the Minnesota Twins. He has second base and shortstop eligibility on CBS. He went two for four with his third steel on Sunday, and he has started four of the last five games for the twins. Luis Arias is coming around. He's playing well for the Milwaukee Brewers. Last 15 games, 273 batting average. Three homers, one steel.

He has six games this week. Jonathan Dazza has an eight-game hitting. streak for the Colorado Rockies. He's batting 331 overall, only 9% rostered. And then Lamont Wade Jr. has three home runs in his last six games for the San Francisco Giants. And he has let off four straight for the team as well. So Nick Gordon, Luis Arias, Dazza and Lamont Wade Jr. Any interest? Deep. Arreus is batting leadoff right now, right? I mean, it's only been, I think, two games, but he has batted leadoff in two straight games for the Brewer since Colton Wong's injury, which is two more games than I would have expected him to

hit lead off this season. It's fair. I've always liked Luis Arias. He makes a lot of contact. He hit for some power in the minors. So I'm always going to be interested in him. Yeah. Look, it's a great place to hit in, obviously, in Miller Park. So you like the venue there. It's not a great lineup, obviously. But as long as he's playing, I think, in deeper leagues, I put a few bids on him on him in those 15-team Vroto leagues where do need some help in middle or corner. I believe he has both eligibility there. Some other hitters that are hot right now, we mentioned Cedric Mullins and Jesse Winker at the top, but Jesus Aguilar is heating back up.

He has three homers over his last five games. Cabrion Hayes, we waited all season. And he looks awesome right now. He's got seven hits, including a home run in four games since returning from the IL. And Glaber Torres, while the power has not returned, His last 30 games, he's batting 318, 3 homers, 3 steals, 9% walk rate, 18% strikeout rate. Again, power is down, but I like the fact that the batting average is coming back around here for Glaver Torres. So probably not going to get to like the 2530 home runs that we were expecting for him,

but it's a welcome site there for Glaver Torres. The most added starting pitchers from this weekend over on CBS, Terrick Scouble, 53% roster now, still widely available. So go out there and get him. Same thing with Logan Gilbert. Chris Bubich, 41% rostered. Adbert Aalai, finally up over 80. He liked to see that.

Framber Valdez, 90% rostered. If he is available in your 8, 10 team leagues, make sure you add Framber Valdez. Tony Gonslin, 75% rostered. Luis Garcia, 86%. He had his third straight quality start over the weekend. Martine Perez, 38% rostered. Oh, actually, Jackson CoR is up to 24%.

So I think I said. 18% earlier. People are adding him somewhere. And I want to stress again if Tony Gonselin's still available in your league and he's up to 75% now, I think he's going to be must start. Rest of season,

he's got a lot of innings in the tank. The Dodgers need him more than ever. He's been awesome. Ever chance he's gotten in the majors. I was close to moving him into my top 30 preseason until the injury. Well, before the season, until the injury. Oh.

See, one of my intentions about Gonsulin is like he should be more valuable than ever now because preseason we didn't really know what role he was going to have. And like this is this is the most defined role he should have to this point. Now he did lose his two-start status. Remember we were talking about him on Friday as being a two-star pitcher. It's just one start. It is at Pittsburgh, but I think he only got up to like 60 pitches on his minor league rehab assignment. So I don't know that I'd activate him right away, but you want him on your roster. 100%. Some, uh, jinks, you owe me a soda, Chris. Some deeper waiver. I mean, we buried the lead, man. It's 53 minutes in. The gentleman with the most swinging

strikes in a game this season, Patrick Sandoval, up against the Seattle Maritors on Sunday, six endings, three runs, 10 strikeouts to one walk. He had 32 swinging strikes on 101 pitches. 17 of those came on the changeup. He is 3% rostered. A few other names in deeper leagues. Kegan Aiken, Ross Stripling, Kobe Allard, and Caleb Smith. who has been starting for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Do you guys like anyone from this list? Patrick Sandoval, I don't even know if he's going to start next time

through the rotation. I mean, this was the most swinging strengths in Angels history. And this team had Nolan Ryan. Pretty sure they weren't counting swinging strikes. But it's still true, Scott. It's still, as far as we know, yes, the most swinging strikes in Angel's history.

Yeah, I mean, He was known to have a good change-up in the minors. Patrick Sandoval was, and in 2018, he had a 206 ERA.98 whip, 10.7K per 9. Was very young when he first got a shot in the majors. And, you know, I don't know. Maybe, I don't know if he's figured something out and is ready to take off. He was facing the Mariners, so he kind of surprised he didn't throw a no-hitter. But, yeah, I mean, the real reason, even though I had, he was the guy.

referred to earlier that gave me the oh my goodness gracious reaction when I saw the swinging strikes but yeah I just don't know what his role is for me or forward so he has made one specific change that jumps out which is he's throwing a sinker now which he had not done in the past sinker obviously not a great swing and miss pitch but you know his issue has not just been strikeouts his issue has been that he gets hit really really hard so if a you know if if he's throwing a sinker instead of a four seamer or in addition to a four seamer, his four seamer has gotten hit very, very hard in his career. So if that pitch can just be better, you know, maybe there's, maybe there's room for Sandoval to be a useful option.

I did add Caleb Smith in a couple of those 15 team leagues as well. You know, he's, he's been a guy who's excited us in the past with the strikeout potential, somebody with a high spin fastball. And I think he shows, I can't remember which, what his second best pitch is, but he has a couple secondaries that have, have a decent whiff rate. It looks like he's pretty solid in the Diamondbacks rotation now with some of the issues

they've had. His season line, Caleb Smith, 314, the R.A.126 whip 10.5K per 9. Now, a lot of that came in the bullpen. Not sure if he's going to be able to sustain that in the rotation, but in a deep enough league, I think it's worth a look.

It is very, very early. He has introduced a curveball over the last couple of seasons. He only threw it 20 times last season. He's only thrown at 62. times this season. So very, very early, too hard, too easy to, too early to say, you know, what that pitch might be. And he's only thrown in 10% of the time so far this season. But it's been a good swing and miss pitch for him so far. And he is, he's always going to hit hit really hard. I think that's just kind of the thing with Caleb Smith. He's got, he's got a little bit of,

Robbie Ray. Robbie, I was going to say like a Marco Estrada, but like Marco Estrada didn't get hit that hard. It was just you know, he's kind of got like, but that kind of like over the top pitching motion that you know, he'll pitch better than than you would think, given the raw stuff is, I guess, the way I would put it. Okay.

And I love that Marco Estrada comparison. Yeah, like there's no podcast that mentions Marco Estrada more than us. It's just, it's hilarious. That was more of an aesthetic comparison than a you know. We did have bounce back performances this weekend from Luis Castillo and Blake Snell, which obviously we've been

following these two very closely all season long, Castillo at the Cardinals, six endings, one run, five strikeouts, 16 swinging strikes on 95 pitches. It was his first win and his first time going six innings since April 7th. And then Blake Snell up against the Mets, seven shutout, one hit, one walk, 10 strikeouts with 15 swinging strikes. He did still allow eight hard hit balls. It was only his second start all season with just one walk. So I thought that was key here for Snell. What did you guys see from these two? Castillo,

Snell. What did I see from those two? I can't remember what I did this a long time ago. I just pointed out there was a very good article on pitcherless.com from Michael Hado about Blake Snell and how he kind of lost his curveball since the start of the 20th or the 2020 season. And that's been a real issue for him. And as good as he was in this start, you know, the curveball still wasn't there. His average, I think Blake's average velocity was way up in this start.

That's what I'm trying to look up right now. Well, I do think it's worth reminding everyone that before Blake Snell had his worst two starts of the year, which came prior to this seven- inning, 10 strikeout performance. He had his best start in like two years, six-innings, 11 strikeout. So he's had his best start, two best starts since 2019, as the bread of a sandwich of two awful starts, if that makes sense. In this start, yeah, his velocity was up. He threw his fastball 60% of the time.

The fastball was awesome. 10 whiffs on 31 swings, 38% caught and swinging strike rate. The rest of the pitches just weren't like the curveball and slider were fine. They didn't really get great results. So he's changed his arm angle quite a bit over the last couple. of seasons. I'm not sure if that's a result of the elbow injury that he was dealing with in 2019, but that, you know, he's throwing much more of a three-quarters kind of arm slot. And so, you know, reading that made me a little more pessimistic on Blake's now moving forward

just because there do seem to be some real tangible changes in his approach. The bread of that sandwich, by the way, was the Rockies in San Diego and the Mets and their awful lineup right now. so that you know just putting that out there I need to see a lot more from Blake what kind of bread would you say that is is that like a

pumpernickel I kind of like pumpernickel bread I like pumpernickel like long hard of steakhouse brings you some like hot pumpernickel bread I always love that but I can't say I love pumper nickel in all contexts well the bread is the best part of this particular sandwich

those are the two good starts so there's like I have a friend who believes that the bread is the best part of every sandwich he has the worst food takes like Adam Azer level bad food takes He also believes the crust is the best part of pizza Which is just nuts There's one part of the pizza

That has tomato sauce and melty cheese And it's not the crust So that can't be the best part of the I can't don't get me started on David Well we don't have much time left But I did want to quickly run through a few other names Here some pitchers from the weekend I think now is actually a good time to buy low

on Clayton Kirshaw. He was at the Braves this weekend. He allowed five runs with nine strikeouts over six innings pitched. And he does have a 3.66 ERA that comes with a 3.07 X-FIP and a 3.10 expected ERA. His 15.8% swinging strike rate is his highest since 2015. So I would be sending some offers out for Kershaw if you can. Some studs being studs, Jacob de Grom. The guy's awesome. And yes, we can move him back up to our SP1 now that he seems to be healthy. He's Great. There's nothing else you could say about it. Seven shutout with 11 strikeouts to just one walk. He has a 0.62 ERA, which is the lowest ERA through nine starts ever. In the history of baseball. Jacob de Braun is pretty good. Amazing. Freddie Peralta took a no hitter into the eighth inning against the diamondbacks, seven and a third. One earned with nine strikeouts.

Shohei Otani was very good this weekend as well. Six innings, two runs. Zero walks. Always the key for Otani. The fact that his control looked great in this one. strikeouts with 15 swinging strikes and Kevin Gosman, the guy just continues to mow people down, seven innings, two runs, zero earned 10 strikeouts.

He is currently the SP1 in Roto. You heard that right. The SP1 in Roto, the SP2 in fantasy points per game for Kevin Gossman behind only Jacob de Grom. The call to the pen, some bullpen updates from this weekend on Friday.

Cole Solcer was used in the seventh inning in a tie game, Paul Frye pitched in the ninth for his second save. So I think we're getting closer to saying Paul Frye is the guy. 9% rostered if you do need some help in saves. For the Tigers this weekend, Michael Fulmer went on the IL. Gregory Soto was using the eighth inning two different times. Jose Cisnero was used in the 9th on Friday. He took the loss.

Then he picked up his first save of the season on, it was either Saturday or Sunday. He is 1% rostered. So in the deepest of leagues, Jose Cisnero is the name there. For the Cincinnati Reds, yeah, Lucas Sims, baby. Let's do it. He picked up his fifth and sixth saves of the season on both Saturday and Sunday. Only 27% rostered, so. I think he's got five of the last six saves for the Reds now.

Yeah, Michael. Five of his last six appearances were for a save. Yeah. And in the first of those five saves, he bailed out, T.J. hand tone, I think, in a tough spot in the ninth. I'm applauding because the Reds finally have settled on a closer, and I couldn't be more thrilled with that. I just wanted to mention Gosman being the number one pitcher in Roto leagues.

He was waived by the Braves on August 5th, 2019, and now he's the number one pitcher in Roto. That is an amazing turnaround to a career right there. Kudos to him. Obviously, you know, his velocity is up. And the Giants, man, the Giants have done great work with these starting pitchers the past couple of years. They're getting a lot out of Anthony Desclafani right now.

As long as Alex Wood remains healthy, he's been great. So shout out to the Giants and Kevin Gosman. And speaking of those Giants, Jake McGee was used in the eighth inning on both Friday and Saturday with Tyler Rogers being used in the ninth. Rogers picked up his seventh and eighth saves of the season. he is still 50% rostered on CBS.

Diego Castillo got his ninth save on Saturday. J.P. Fireerson was not used from Wednesday through Saturday. Firecson then pitched on Sunday. For the twins, they basically flip-flopped. It was on Saturday. Taylor Rogers in the 8th. Hansel Robles got his fifth save. And then they did the opposite on Sunday.

Taylor Rogers came in in the ninth inning and he got his fifth save of the season. There was a bunch of other stuff. What is the most notable here? Daniel Bard had a two-inning save on Sunday. He's actually been very good recently. So credit where he's down to 375. How did that happen? Yeah.

Credit where it's due for Daniel Bard. There's not many streamers on Monday, but I'll just ask you guys, would you be willing to stream Jackson Coar in his debut at the Angels, Dylan Bundy versus the Royals, or Ryan Weathers versus the Cubs? Any of those? Not me, guy.

I'd rank them Bundy Coer Weathers. Cowar. Coar. Coir. Coir. Okay. That's... I'll mispronounce it

the next time. We all will. And then on Tuesday, Andrew Heaney versus the Royals, Chris Bubich at the Angels, Carlos Martinez versus Cleveland, Adrian Hauser at the Reds, Antonio Sensitella at the Marlins,

and Marco Gonzalez at the Tigers. Marco. Yeah, I like Gonzalez. I like Keeney versus KC. And I think Hauser at Cincinnati could be fine. Could go okay. All right.

We're going to wrap there. It was a very busy weekend of action for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching fantasy baseball today. When we are back tomorrow, the we might actually only be Chris and a bunch of fun guests. So just giving you guys a heads up. Scott will definitely not be here.

And there's a chance that I might not either. But just wanted to give you all a heads up. We're going to wrap there. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. I'm