Fantasy Baseball Today - Spencer Strider Looks Ready! Week 4 Sleepers & Two-Start Pitchers (4/11 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 11, 2025

Why is Scott so into Peeps (3:28)? ... Walker Buehler had his best start with the Red Sox (5:08). ... Chris Bassitt is off to a nice start (9:03). ... Angels smacked six homers against the Rays (11:52). ... What have we learned about the A's and Rays ballparks (17:01)? ... Jesus Luzardo vs. Spencer Schwellenbach was fun (19:28). ... News (21:11): Spencer Strider looks ready to return! ... Let's take a closer look at Bailey Ober and Gavin Williams (32:00). ... Time to check back in on Kyle Manzardo (35:42). ... Any interest in Jose Soriano and Michael Wacha (41:09)? ... Time to preview Week 4, two-start pitchers and sleeper hitters (46:47). ... What's the latest on bullpens and weekend streamers (55:49)? ... We wrap up with Scott taste testing the Peeps cereal (59:40)! 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

Cocoa Friday and welcome in Tough Fantasy Baseball today on April 11th. I am Frank Stamphill joined by Scott White. Today on the show, we are going to recap Thursday's action, a very short slate of action, as it normally is here on a Thursday. We've got week four sleepers, two-star pitchers. Scott, I didn't preempt you with rankings movers, but if you have some of those names you want to talk about, then if we have time, we'll get to it. Also, if we have time, Sky will be taste testing peeps.

cereal. How about that? This is all your arrangement, Frank. You texted me tonight saying, hey, did some peep cereal show up at your house? It did. It did. It's right here. Peep cereal. It was a pretty diabolical plan. It's kind of been in the works for a while. A couple of weeks ago on your birthday,

I sent you a picture of peep cereal when I was at the supermarket. And I said, have you ever tried these? You're like, no, I haven't tried to get it. But I want to. and then I ask you for your address to send you the trading card from Uncle Wax that he made and then that's how I got your shipping address. I don't know about this box. This box has been through the ringer.

You see this? I ordered it through Amazon. So whatever happened happened. I don't know. I don't know. Hopefully it's not a fine powder at this point. Before we get into the players tonight, do you want to share some of your history with Peeps for those who might not know your, you're a, you're a, affinity for them?

You know, it's funny. Like, yes, I get bombarded with a bunch of, sorry, Kyle Schwerber almost did a home run. The Braves game is still going on because there was a near three-hour rain delay. So that hasn't quite wrapped up. It's in the 11th inning. That was a, not just a home run, Scott. That was in your grand slam for Kyle Schwerp. Yeah.

Yeah, so peeps, I think peeps are fine. I think the. War against them online is totally overblown and ridiculous because it's just, it's, it's, it's such a perfectly ordinary candy, just a marshmallow coated in sugar. You don't have to like it, but like it's, to say it's the most vile and disgusting thing ever to show up in an Easter basket is, is a bit much. And so that's been my very, like, mild defense of peeps, but it is somehow turned into, I am I'm like world's number one peeps fan,

and people constantly send me updates on the latest peeps products and photos of crazy peeps memorabilia. And sometimes peep's products just show up in the mail. So there you go. That's happened here. We will taste test those later on in the podcast. Let's get into our players of the night. Oh, my goodness gracious.

Whoa. How did that get in there? I don't know the sound of that. All right, Scott. Who was your player of the night here on Thursday? My player of the night actually pitched during the day, and it was Walker Bueller. Walker Bueller, after we were so quick to dismiss him, finally had a good start, a really good start against the Blue Jays, gave up one run run and six in a third inning, struck out seven, walked only one. It was a good start.

now only eight whiffs on 89 pitches that's not particularly impressive i'd like to see him miss more bats but he did give up a lot of weak contact and the weirdest thing about it is the movement on all of his pitches was different and the induced vertical break on everything was like up two to three inches. And he had some interesting comments after the game. He looked, he kind of looked relieved. I actually saw his press conference. But the way he described it is he said he felt more violent than he has in a long time. It's the first time in a regular season start where he felt since having the second Tommy John surgery, where he felt like his delivery had two different tempos is how he described it. When you're winding up and starting toward the plate, it should be one tempo.

And then once you get that foot down, you should really like explode forward. And he felt like he wasn't doing that. And he felt like he had that feeling. That's what he meant by feeling violent again. He said he's so tired of sucking. So he pushed all his chips on the table this week work-wise. and just worked really, really hard. Didn't go into specifics on what that meant,

but the pitches looked a little different. I'm not totally buying in, mainly because, again, just eight whiffs on 89 pitches. That's not a very good whiff, right? But I'm curious to see what his next star looks like and to see if, if, oh, did they just tie it up? They sure did. Yeah.

Yeah, 2-2 and the 11. Let's go to the 12th, baby. Yeah, I'm curious to see what Walker Bueller looks like next time out, especially since he seemed to think a lot was fixed this time. Yeah, I think that's all well said. I do wish there was more whiffs than this one, but the fact that there was two more inches of IVB on the fastball, and he averaged 19 inches of IVB on that pitch.

A lot of inches. I mean, that is an elite mark there on a four-seem fastball. So that's a good sign for Walker Bueller. If you held on to him this long, obviously continue to hold on. He's 79% rostered. Only 37% started. Scott, how would you feel about starting Walker Bueller at the Tampa Bay Rays next week? I probably wouldn't unless I was pressed into doing that.

It's more of a let's put him on the scout team situation. I'd say, I don't know how rostered he is at this point. 79%. Yeah, so it's still very high. Although I imagine that's a CBS inflated roster rate. And we're not going to the 12th because Marcelo Zuna just walked it off with the ding-dong. That was fun. That was fun.

As someone who has a lot of Marcelo Zuna and his doppelganger in the crowd, that was pretty fun to watch. There you go. Yeah. They did have a Marcelo Zuna look alike in the crowd, a very small crowd after the long rain delay. And so they kept talking about him during the broadcast. And then later he caught a foul ball. Yeah. Pretty amazing moment for that guy.

Hopefully this isn't confusing for everyone because we're kind of jumping around. We're talking about players from Thursday and this Braves game that just wrapped up here. But yeah, Walker Bueller. On Friday. Yeah, yeah, now we're into Friday here. Walker Bueller, let's see what he does in his next start.

On the other side of that game, my player of the night here is going to be Chris Bassett, who you have been talking glowingly about, and he had another strong start here at the Red Sox. Five and two-thirds, innings, one run, five strikeouts to one walk. 16 whiffs on 86 pitches, which is just a massive amount for Chris Bassett and doing it in a hostile environment, tough place to pitch against a really good lineup in the Red Sox.

Did a good job limiting hard contact, 84.1 average exit velocity against this one, and really had all the secondary pitches working for Chris Bassett. The biggest thing for me has been the control. The fact that he has allowed just three walks over three starts, that averages out to 1.5 walks per 9. Last year, 3.7 walks per 9. And last year was really the first time that we saw control that bad from Chris Bassett.

I mean, every other year it's about average, maybe a little bit better than average control for him. But this year it's been really good. It looks like he's throwing with conviction. Secondaries have been on. And we have gotten really good Chris Bassett to this point in the season. So he's not, I wouldn't call him.

I'm a must start pitcher. He's home against the Braves next week. I think that's an okay start. If you have him in a deeper league, you can probably use him. But, you know, shallower formats. I think if you have Bassett, you should just feel pretty good because he looks like Chris Bassett from a couple of years ago right now. And he's done this, I think, mostly against tough matchups.

I've been tempted to sit him in some of the Roto leagues where I have him. But I've decided to keep the faith and I keep running him out there. This start obviously came. Because the Red Sox is a good lineup. Previous two Metson Orioles. Yeah. You know, the Braves, I think they entered the day with the second lowest number of runs scored. So you could argue they are a good matchup right now.

Now, I think that's the situation where they're a good matchup until suddenly they're not. But I don't think you should necessarily be scared away from a bad matchup with Bassett. And while I agree for some of the shallow leagues, I want to go as far to call a must start. I think he's closer to that end of the spectrum. than not. I have him now in my starting pitcher rankings 56th. Yeah, I saw you got him up there

quite a bit. I moved him up as well, Chris Bass, and I think I got him up to 67th or something like that. I mean, I had him like pretty much buried before this, so getting him up to 67, he's around other names that have been rising like Max Meyer and Reese Olson and Casey Mize and names like that.

So if he continues to look like, like this. I think I'll move Chris Basset up a little bit more, but now he's into a very respectable range in the rankings and rightfully so. I wanted to mention the Angels up top here. Bombs away, six home runs at the raise in George M. Steinbrenner Field, two homers for Taylor Ward, two homers for Mike Trout, and two homers for Joe Adele. Nice to see from Taylor Ward, who was off to a bit of a slow start here. And no torpedo bats to be found. No torpedo bats, that's right. Joe Adele, by the way, his first two home runs of the season, sitting out a little bit more than you'd like.

He sat out, I think, three times in 12 games, and, you know, Kyran Paris emerging. You know, they've had to find ways to get him into the lineup. So it has come at Joe Adele's expense a little bit, but just wanted to point out, under the hood, 24% strikeout rate for Joe Adele. Like to see that. Still hitting the ball really hard,

91.8 average exit velocity with a 47% pull rate. Really small sample, but I think overall these are positives for Joe Adele. And he's 25% rostered. That feels a little bit low. I mean, for those who play in five outfielder leagues, I think Joe Adele should be rostered. I don't know that you have to play him every week, but he's got some power. He's got some speed. And I think more often than not, the angels are going to play him.

Yeah. I am curious to see if the strikeout, if the reduction in strikeout rate continues. It's not a huge reduction. So I think it's probably not going to. Some of the deeper plate discipline measures haven't really changed much either. So I think in the long run, Joe Adele's going to be the same guy that we thought he'd be coming in that he was last year. But that has some usefulness in Roto Leagues, five outfielder Roto leagues for sure. And I don't know.

Do you have Brent and Doyle on the rundown? I wanted to mention him too. I do. But you can talk about it. now if you'd like. Yeah. So he had a three for five performance here on Thursday, third home run, third double. His strikeout rate is 17.9% so far. So we saw a huge improvement from him there last year, but it was still not good. Like he improved massively in terms of how much he makes contact, but still 25.4% isn't good. It's just a lot better than the 35% he had previously.

Well, now, again, a huge improvement over a small sample, but strikeout rate normalizes earlier than a lot of stats do. I'm not saying we're there yet that you can just take any strikeout rate of face value for a hitter. But it's really encouraging to see for Brent and Doyle. And if it continues, then certainly my bust claim for him coming into the season will be wrong. And he may have more upside than any of us imagined. Last four games for Brenton Doyle, eight hits, three homers, six runs,

11 RBI, and one steal. So got off to a bit of a slow start, but back-to-back series in Coresfield, that will get you back on track. Before we hit our first break, make sure to download and follow our 10-minute podcast, FBT Express, wherever you listen to this podcast.

Every Saturday throughout the season, we'll do a bonus prospect episode of FBT Express, so make sure to check those out. And thanks to those for watching us live. Obviously, very late here on the East Coast. We appreciate you staying up with us. Make sure to hit the like button and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. Let's take a break, and we'll be back right after this.

Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today, and before we move on, I do want to just quickly bring up the park factors for these new ballparks that teams are playing. And obviously, the Angels hit the six home runs here in George Steinbrenner Field. It's a really small sample size. I think we need a little bit more data, but just wanted to let it. let everyone know how it's looking early on in the season at least. So for the A's and Rays, who are, again, both playing in minor league parks, for the athletics, they are currently sixth in overall park factor and seventh and home run park factor.

Last year for the A's, it was 23rd and 29th, respectively. So that is a massive jump in terms of offensive output in the home venue for the athletics. And then for the Rays, they are 22nd in overall park factor, 27th. and home run factor last year that was 26th and 16th respectively so i yeah i don't i don't know maybe like we just over-projected or we just need more data just more games in george steinberger i mean i know there were a few big homer games and thursday's game isn't even included yet so that that'll probably raise it up so right my understanding with how park factors are calculated is is if more home runs are hit there it's going to be taken as a more favorable park for home run

So it's kind of a which came first chicken or the egg thing. And I'm not sure we can deduce much from it yet. Like it's, it's, yeah. I mean, I would lean toward it playing hitter friendly, but is it at an extreme? I don't think that we can say that yet. Do you feel the same way about the A's where they're playing in Sutter Health Field? Because that's what I was talking about.

Okay, yeah. Because those aren't just so much high, you know, top seven in, of park factor and home run factor is just, it's really hot. I have early on, you know. I do feel really confident the rays are going to play in a, in a, in a homer friendly,

offense friendly ballpark because it's the same dimensions as Yankee Stadium. So we have a case study there. And it's an environment that's all on top of that, is an environment that's more conducive for home runs with the humidity, the Florida humidity. So yeah, I would be very surprised if, That one didn't play hitter friendly.

It's the A's venue that I'm less sure about. I would lean toward it being header friendly again, but how much I think it's hard to say at this point. All right, let's quickly run through the pitchers duel that we had in Atlanta before the rain came down. It was a pretty fun one. Jesus Lazzardo up against Spencer Schwellenbach. Lazzardo, six innings, one run, six strikeouts,

had 12 whiffs on 98 pitches. And for Schwellenbach, six innings, one run, five strikeouts, 10 whiffs on 81 pitches. If it didn't start raining, him being at 81 pitches, I feel like probably could have came out for the seventh inning, but we'll never know. Both guys were very good here. Scott, anything that set out to you on Lazardo or Schwellenbach. They both pitched well, as you said. It wasn't the best we've seen them before, and Lozardo's fastball was down a mile per hour closer to the last. the velocity we saw from him last year.

So I don't know what to take from that. It's not like it was a cold weather game or anything. It was mid-70s. So it may have just been a one-off. Obviously, the result was good. I'm not panicking about it, but it is probably the most notable thing about Luzardo's start this time.

And as for Schwellenbach, he, I don't know, he looked good. He didn't have quite as diverse of a pitch mix as we usually see from him. But to have the kind of start he did against the lineup like the Phillies, I mean, I'm not going to take anything away from it. His whip is all the way up to 0.65 now. Oh, no. Yeah. Yeah, great start from Schwellenbach. Control has been very good for him, and a 58% ground ball rate early on in the season as well. Let's hit some news and notes and stick with the Braves for a second.

plan is for Spencer Shrider to make his Brave season debut next week. He had another awesome rehab start Thursday, five and a third innings, one run, 13 strikeouts with 25 swinging strikes. Frankly, I am surprised that this start did not come in Atlanta, but they wanted to play it more safe and obviously give him another start here. But it sounds like his next time out will be with the Braves. Scott, if you have Spencer Shrider, do you just throw him back out there? Oh yeah, I don't think you play games with that one. The upside is so great that you'd hate to miss even one start where he gets you double-digit strikeouts.

And I think it's totally possible he does that first term back as many strikeouts as he was racking up in the minors and during spring training during the couple outings we saw him. I'm not totally at ease with everything for Spencer Strider. I will note that even in this most reason outing he struck out 13, his average fastball velocity was still down about two miles per hour from where we saw it two years ago. And his fastball is such an important part of his arsenal.

It was arguably the best fastball in baseball, just in terms of how good it was at registering whiffs at his peak I'm talking about. And so what does it mean for him to lose a couple of miles per hour on it? is that a permanent condition? Is it just that he's facing minor leaguers and clearly just ramping up and realizes he doesn't need to go 100% with it? As we saw for a lot of pitchers in spring training

and then their velocity was down a couple miles per hour and then they come in when it counts and suddenly it's back. So maybe that's what's going on with Strider. He kind of introduced the curveball last year and we didn't get to have a full it didn't get a full reckoning because obviously he got so hurt early on

so there's the addition of the curb ball it looks like there's a little more of a change up for him this year potentially so he has broadened his arsenal and maybe isn't going to be as fastball dependent anymore. I'm just saying there's that one little seat of doubt there with the fastball not being quite at as usual velocity.

Now still 19 inches of induced vertical break. He's still got a ton of whiffs with it. 13 strikeouts overall against minor leaders. So I don't know. All I'm saying is, I don't know. I want to make you aware of this detail I noticed for Strider because it could end up being something that matters. But that doesn't mean it's going to keep me from starting him when he first comes back.

It doesn't mean it's going to keep me from predicting that he'll be great this year. And just a must start ace for you the rest of the way. I think that is the likely scenario. I just wish he was throwing a couple miles per hour. harder. Well, coming back from the internal brace surgery, maybe playing a little bit safer, but maybe it's also a physical limitation, as you mentioned. So something we will have to watch for Spencer Shrider this season. Ronald de Cuneo will have a checkup with doctors early next week and is expected to be cleared for lateral movements and change of direction running. The twins are

promoting David Festa to start Friday against the Tigers. We saw Festa in 13 starts with the twins last year, 490 ERA 132 whip. Underlying numbers did look better than that. Pretty good at getting swings and misses as well. We'll talk about Zb Matthews in just a second, but David Festa 12% rostered, Scott, do you have any interest in a speculative ad there? It's not the worst idea.

I don't think he's, well, I'm clearly not as excited for David Festa as I am for Zepi Matthews. He wasn't as dominant this spring. He hasn't been as dominant in his first couple turns in the minors this year. He did make more of an impact during his time in the majors last year than Festa did. And with a very good 12.8% swinging strike rate, like there is ability here for David Festa. And so it wouldn't be the most shocking thing if he turned himself into a fantasy asset.

But I do see it as more of a wait and see situation. And do see this news as something of disappointment, given that Zebby Matthews turn, lined up directly with Pablo Loeb. and instead they're bringing in David Festa a couple days early to push everyone else back, give everyone a day of rest. And I'll note that because that's the reason for it, because they're trying to build an extra rest, I saw at least one Twins beat writer speculating that Zebby Matthews will still come up on Monday, on his normal turn, Monday. And line up for two starts, potentially, if that's the case. So if you did pick up Zebi Matthews in anticipation of him filling in for Pablo Lopez, don't turn around and drop him just because you hear David Festa's coming up.

I would still rather have him than David Festa, and I want to wait and see if they call him up early next week. What I read about Zebby Matthews is, again, he could be called up, but it also could be part of a temporary six-man rotation, Scott. So would that still make him a two-star pitcher next week? The twins have six games. So it just depends how long they stick with that six-man rotation. They had a stretch of 12 games and 12 days that will be coming into an end Wednesday,

so in the middle of next week. So would they send a guy down with that off day and make it a five-man rotation? Maybe. But I don't currently have Zebby Matthews in my two-star rankings, obviously. I don't even know if he's coming up. It's just I'm saying it's a possibility if he does start Monday that that's what ends up happening with him. Yeah, Zebby Matthews, 32. percent roster. Festa is 12 percent in a vacuum, even though Festa is getting called up on Friday.

I would still rather have Zebby Matthews than David Festa at this point. The White Sox are promoting one of their prospects, Chase Midroth, who came over from the Red Sox in in the Garrett Crochet trade. He's 23 years old, big hit tool here, a little bit of speed, not much power. Last year, AAA hit 293 with a 437 on base percentage, seven homers, 13 steals, in 838 OPS. Only 6% rostered is Chase Midroth. Scott, do you have any deep league interest? Oh, yeah, definitely.

Deep League interest. Probably not more than that yet because he does seem like the sort of player who during the height of the money ball year would have gotten people really excited because, hey, he walks a ton and he does walk a ton, his on-based percentage. And the miners last year was 437.

And the year before that was 408. So Chase Midroth, he knows how to get on base against minor league pitchers. But we've seen in more recent years that particularly if a guy doesn't have enough impact in the bat, major leaguers are much better about throwing him strikes. And it just doesn't end up translating. So that's my fear for Chase Midroth. I will say for him, though, he hit the ball harder last year than the scouting reports would have you believe. his average exit velocity, whole year spent at AAA, 88.6.

That's not great, but it's not terrible either. And the max was 108.1. Again, not great, but not terrible. He has been elevating to his pole side more early on at AAA with the White Sox. Remember last year, Red Sox organization, now White Sox came over in the crochet trade. So maybe got some different coaching there and is learning to maximize his swing for power. more three home runs already after hitting seven all last year i'm keeping an open mind that maybe my droth could be a jake cronanworth type hitter but with better on base skills uh and cronanworth

you know he's pretty fringy from 12 team context but usable and has plenty of value in leagues deeper than that yeah i think that makes sense again that was chase my droth so for those who play in you know 15 team mixed rhodo leagues or anything deeper than that i do do think he's a name that should be on your radar. Also just wanted to mention that Colson Montgomery, another one of their top prospects, was scratched on Thursday from the AAA lineup. No injury was announced. He also has a 50% tri-cow rate at AAA and he's been a disaster this season. But I don't know, I wonder if maybe they'll just call them up as like a package duo here. I haven't seen that anywhere, but again, he was scratched from the lineup here

on Thursday. Yeah, that would be surprising as much as he's been striking out. I am very worried about him from a dynasty standpoint, Colson Montgomery. Yeah, Ezekiel Tovar was out of the lineup Thursday due to a hip issue. Hazu Sanchez began a rehab assignment at AAA on Thursday.

He's on the IL with a left oblique strain. Austin Hayes also began a rehab assignment at AAA on Thursday. He's on the IL with a left calf strain. The Pirates option Thomas Harrington back to AAA. He had a rough first start and then he served as a piggyback reliever with

Carmen Maginsky on Monday. Ryan Gusto will start for the Astros on a Saturday against the Angels. He's 26 years old. OK numbers in the minors last year. I don't really see anything, Scott. Do you have any interest in Ryan Guesto? No, I can't say that I do. Yeah, it's, it's a pretty underwhelming the rates there for both.

Breakouts and walks last year. Neither of them are bad, but they're just like, yeah, I don't know. I don't think there's a lot here. All right, Kyle Gibson made his first start at AAA for the Orioles. He went three and a third innings, one run, four strikeouts. He got up to 47 pitches, so sounds like he'll need a few more turns in the rotation there before he rejoins or joins the Orioles for the first time. 2% rostered.

I don't think we have much interest in Kyle Gibson. and Mike Talkman went back on the aisle due to a right hamstring strain. Ryan Bliss will undergo surgery Friday to repair his left biceps tear is expected to be sidelined four to five months. Yoan Mokato was placed in the aisle with a right thumb sprain. That'll help Kyron Paris get in the lineup consistently. And Yasmani Grandal signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox, which does make sense.

Connor Wong was placed on the IL. Let's take a closer look at a few starting pitchers here. and I had Chris Bassett and Walker Bueller as part of this group, but we already talked about them. Bailey Ober and Gavin Williams. So Ober, his first quality start of the season at the Royals, six innings, one run, four strikeouts, nine whiffs on 73 pitches.

Changeup looked great in this one. Not really sure why they took him out after only 73 pitches. I know his first two starts were not great. The Twins also immediately blew the lead after taking him out of the game after just 73 pitches. so not great on their part. And then Gavin Williams looked better against the White Sox. You know what?

He should have against that lineup. There was no Luis Robert in there, and it was just, it looked like a spring training, AAA lineup. It was bad. But a good outing here for Gavin Williams, five innings, one run, seven strikeouts,

16 whiffs on 94 pitches, and threw a lot more sweepers in this one. Same amount of sweepers as fast. So I thought that was an interesting takeaway. Scott, anything else on Gavin Williams and Bailey Ober here? Listen, I was very high on Gavin Williams in spring training and I'm pretty invested in him in fantasy. So I want him to work out. I want this to work out for Gavin Williams. but even though he got a good result here against the White Sox, I don't see what I want to see from him,

which is a really overpowering fastball. And I'm not just talking about velocity. Both the fastball ant sweeper were down one and a half miles per hour, 44 degree weather. So, you know, that probably explains that. But it's more like the break. the induced vertical break he was getting on that fastball in spring training that made it look like an elite swing and miss pitch, made it look like the mechanical changes he made early on had helped him recapture the form that made him an elite pitching prospect.

It was only 16 inches. I mean, that's, we were seeing more like 18 in spring training, and that makes pretty big difference. Now, he did get a high number of whiffs on the fastball on this one. So it played well, but against, like you said, a pretty gross-looking lineup. And I just don't know that we can take anything away from the actual performance for Gavin Williams. Like the performance was great, but was the process what we wanted to see. And I would say it wasn't. So it buys him more time on my roster, but I'm not feeling at ease with Gavin Williams right now.

He has 53% started and at the Orioles next week. So don't love the matchup. It's definitely not a must-star pitcher. If you're in a deeper league, I think you're probably just rolling with Gavin Williams, but 12-team points league, you only start five starting pitcher, Scott. I think you could probably find somebody better than Gavin Williams.

I would lean against starting him if I could help it. I don't want to go so far as to drop him yet. Yeah. So if I'm forced to start him, so be it. But I'd rather not. Did you see anything with Bailey Ober that was worth mentioning? his average fastball velocity is still down from a year ago he doesn't operate with a lot of velocity to begin with so it might not be a big deal for him he might still get it back one mile per hour is only one mile per hour but notably it's still down all right let's move on to some hitters i want to check back in on kyle mansardo who popped another home run one for four with his fourth homer but the batting average has dropped down to two twenty T5. Under the Hood doing some interesting things here.

67% rostered and a little sneak peek. One of your sleeper hitters this week, Scott. Kyle Manzardo. Yeah, I haven't lost faith in him, but the strikeout rate has climbed in recent days. And he hasn't, he's been hitting the ball obviously hard enough that he has, what was it? What was the home run?

the total now was this number four for number four yeah the average exit velocity's been been solid it's been better than last year he hasn't really like laid into one yet you know his max is less than 108 uh and last year it's not like it's huge last year is 109.8 so he may not have those we didn't see it much from in the miners so that kyle mozardo has these the ability to to really put uh um an obvious popping exit velocity number up there. So it's going to rely on him being more consistent in how hard he impacts the ball. And that's, I think, is a harder way to live.

And particularly if the strike at rate is creeping up. I'm still, though, again, I'm still feeling good about where he is. I like that he's performed well against lefties. I think he's about to pick up first base eligibility. These are all good things for Kyle Manzardo. I'm not bailing on him. I'm just saying there are, we are starting to see some cracks here. where if it doesn't work out, we can point to why.

He did start a third base in this one. This was his third appearance at first base, so needs two more of those, and he'll gain eligibility on CBS. So at the rate that he's been playing, I think over the next week or two, Kyle Manzardo probably should gain that eligibility. Michael Tolia, who is off to a rough start.

He has a 42% strikeout rate. Finally had a good game. He went three for four with a double, a run, and an RBI. he is down to 58% rostered scout would you drop someone like toolia for Kyle mansardo yeah I prefer Manzardo at this point but it was nice to see toliya have a good game finally at the plate 42% strikeout rates so far that's obviously unsustainable but it's it's early enough that that it could

begin to come down and I do have tolia among my sleeper hitters for this week too with the Rockies they have half a half a week at home and they're facing some of the recent call-ups for the Dodgers in their other series next week. So it's a pretty good matchup for the Rockies, is my point. And we'll see how totally it does over the weekend if he can build off this three-hit performance. But I'm taking it as a sign that he is starting to get his timing down. And we know he has considerable power if he does. wanted to mention one other deep league corner infielder,

and we've talked a lot about deep league corners early on in the season with guys like Wilmer Flores and Carlos Santana had a good game, you know, good series here. But Ty Francis wanted to mention back-to-back games with a home run for him, and he's striking out just 8% of the time early on. And his expected stats, 321XBA, 523X slug, really small sample size, I get that, just something to pay attention.

So if you play in 15-team, mixed roto leagues, or deeper, maybe you take a shot on Thai France and see where it goes, but interesting numbers early on here for Thai France. Let's take our final break when we return. We'll quickly take a look at some Waverwire pitchers and preview week four right after this quick commercial break. Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today. Taking a look at Waverwire pitchers from Thursday's action.

Jose Soriano pitched well at the raise, seven and two-thirds innings, one run, four, strikeouts did allow 11 hard hits in this one, but he is off to a nice start and is 68% rostered. The other name here is Michael Waka, solid outing, five in a third innings, two runs. Four strikeouts had 11 whiffs on 88 pitches. And he's been actually been kind of bad early on here. He might line up for two starts next week, Scott. Michael Waka at the Yankees at the Tigers, you know, so one good matchup, one not so good.

but do you have interest in adding either Waka or Soriano? Well, more Soriano. I think Soriano is a good rotation stabilizer. You mentioned he gave up some hard contact in this one, but he is one of the most extreme ground ball pitchers in the game, like a 60% ground ball rate. And I don't mind hard contact as much from pitchers who keep the ball on the ground.

Harder contact tends to come on the ground. and usually if it results in a hit, it's just a single, but it often doesn't result in a hit. So I think just by keeping the ball on the ground, you can mitigate those hard hit tendencies. And his velocity, Jose Soriano, I believe it was back up a little in this start. It had been down.

He's such a hard thrower that he could probably afford to give some up. But yeah, I think he's looking pretty solid overall. all, I don't think there's a huge ceiling here, but I think he's good enough that you'll want to keep him around. And the other one, Michael Waka, I like how you mentioned he may be in line for two starts. Because I think that's how we should approach the Tuesday, Sunday two-star pitchers, particularly when it's a seven-game week, like the Royals have coming up. There's a good chance they're going to want to insert a six starter somewhere that week, and maybe Waka loses his two-star status. And if he does, he's just facing the Yankees. So he seems a little dangerous.

He qualifies for my sleeper pitchers, but I actually left him off because I don't know that we can actually trust Waka for those two starts. And he might be fine eventually for a one-start week. Doesn't look like he has his change-up yet. It's missing about four inches of drop from a year ago. And that was with it actually having a little more drop this start

than his previous couple turns. So that's always been Waka. make or break pitch, it just doesn't look like it's there yet. Two deep league pitchers. Quinn Preezer actually survived Corse Field in his Brewer's debut, five innings, one run, four strikeouts. And on the other side, Ryan Feltoner turned in a quality start against the Brewers, six innings, one run,

seven strikeouts, 10 whiffs on 86 pitches. I know he's a Rockies pitcher. I will, I just think Ryan Feltoner is doing some interesting things early on this season. He's changing up the pitch mix. He's throwing more change up. and sweepers. It's probably not going to work out

because he's a Rockies pitcher, but I don't know. He's doing some interesting things. Yeah. I think we should stop trying to make fetch a thing with Ryan Feltoner because it's been a couple years now that we want to see the good in him.

They're still good in him. We think like Darth Vader, but there's not because he pitches for the Rockies and I don't think he's a talent, the caliber of Chase Dallender. Maybe if you pitch for some other team, there would be something there for Feltoner, but I just choose to ignore these starts where he looks pretty good because I know in the long run,

the stats aren't going to be there. That's probably right. Some hitting leftovers, Stephen Kwan had a huge game, four for five with his second home run, added four RBI. Jared Ran two for three with two walks and his fifth steel, still searching for his first home run of the season. Trevor Story is running early on, two for five with two steals.

He's up to two home runs and four steals on the season. Two studs being studs, Bobby Witt, Jr., two for three with a double, and his fourth stolen base. And Kyle Schwerber is raking early on. Hit his sixth home run of the season. It came off of Spencer Schwellenbach, and Schwerber is in a contract year, and he looks like he is on a mission. Scott, any names here that stand out, anything you want to mention? I mean, there's studs being studs, right? I don't have a lot here.

Yeah, I mean, let me check Schwerber's fly ball rate because that was the thing I was going to watch the most closely with him because he traded off some fly balls for more ground balls last year, but that got his batting average back in the respectable range after a couple years of it being right around the Madoza line. And so far that fly ball rate looks. looks about the same as last year. So tiny sample, of course, it could change.

But that is, I prefer the Schwaber who hits 38 home runs with the 240-250 batting average versus the one who hits 45 home runs with the 200-2-10 batting average personally. Yeah, and the quality of contact early on has just been outstanding for Schwaber. 97.8 average exit velocity, 1-16.7 max. which is already his hardest hit ball since 2019. So a very nice start here for Kyle Schwaber. Let's get into our week for preview, and we will begin with the schedule next week.

20 teams have six games, and then there are 10 teams with seven games, the nationals, rays, cardinals, giants, royals, tigers, Yankees, Mets, Phillies, and Pirates. What about the Rockies? Scott mentioned earlier, They have three games in Coresfield against the Nationals, and then three on the road at the Dodgers.

Starters sit these fringe two-star pitchers, and I think most weeks you are just starting Ryan Pepio, but he's home for two against the Red Sox and the Yankees, so pretty tough matchups there. Yeah, we just saw him give three home runs at Swamp-Brenner Field last time. So I have him a tier below, the must-start two-star pitchers, but he is at the top of that still advisable starts tier. And I'm a little nervous about it,

a little nervous about the home run potential in that park against those two lineups, but I still think you've run Pepio out there in almost every case. What about Clay Holmes, who's been a little bit shaky early on? Probably more than a little bit. He's been shaky. He's at the Twins and home against the Cardinals. And I was surprised to see how high the Cardinals rank in offense so far. because it's basically the same lineup from last year.

And I don't know that it'll last, but I know the twins have been pretty awful in terms of scoring runs. So I see it as fairly favorable matchups here for Clay Holmes, and of course there's two of them. He's gotten a little better with each start. And so I'm hopeful that continues, and you get two pretty good starts out of him. What about?

Lean yes on him. What about you say Kikuchi at the Rangers and Home Against the Giants? know late on yesterday's podcast, Chris brought up that the arm angle was down quite a bit for Cacucci early this season. Yep. And that concerns me. I think if you're going to keep you say Cacucci around though, and you should, for now at least, then you probably should be starting him when he's in line for two turns.

I think that's a harder decision to make in categories, leagues, of course. But I feel like there's a good enough chance there. I feel like it's pretty unlikely he just totally crushes your ratios. And so I think I'd rather take the chance that, you know, getting double-digit strikeouts from him with the two starts, maybe a win as well. All right. What about Tanner Halk, who is at the raise and home against the White Sox?

Pretty good matchups there. but I don't trust the pitcher, so I'm leaving Tanner Halk for points leagues. And then Merrill Kelly, who last time out, quality start, obviously looked better. You can't be worse than his outing against the Yankees last week.

He's at the Marlins and at the Cubs. I can't bring myself to do it. The good start, he walked a bunch of guys still, right? Like, it was a qualified success. and I just don't think there's much there for Merrill Kelly anymore. All right. Let's get into the two-star pitchers that you are looking to add in the stream for next week. All these names are under 80% rostered on CBS.

Who you got? All right. Two-star pitchers to add in the stream. So Jeffrey Springs gets the White Sox and the Brewers. And for the most part, he's looked good this year. The velocity's been trending up. He's my favorite of those rosters. in less than 80% of leagues.

Grant Holmes is in line for two against the Blue Jays and twins. Like the strikeout potential he's shown so far. By the way, Merrill Kelly did not walk four in his last start. It was just two, but he has a lot of walks overall this year. So still worried about him.

But anyway, back to pitchers I like. Jeffrey Springs, Grant Holmes, Tyler McGill gets the twins and Cardinals same matchups as Clay Holmes. Though less certain he'll actually make two starts because it's a Tuesday-Sunday situation. Mitch Keller. Yeah, Mitch Keller, rolling the dice.

Rolling the dice on Mitch Keller. But it is two starts and the matchups are pretty good. Nationals and Guardians coming off a good outing. Two of his three outings so far. It's been really good. And then the other was a disaster. So, you know, you got to know what you're getting into with Mitch Keller, but there's a chance for two very good starts there.

Landon, I feel like I've been saying that wrong, Landon Raup is how it looks with the Giants, but is it not? His baseball reference says Rup. Rup. I could see that. You know what? I'm going to mute myself and I'm going to go listen to the broadcast. Yeah, finish what you're saying first.

Okay. Landon, Rup, Rup, Rup, whatever you want to call him, that Giants pitcher, he used to be a reliever. He gets the Phillies and the Angels. So the matchups are a little concerning, but there's some strikeout potential there. course, in points leagues, you get to take advantage of the RP eligibility. I think in points leagues anyway, it's worth the roll of the dice. So those are the two start options. I got five one start options for you as well.

Tomoyuki Sugano against the Guardians lineup that's really struggled so far. And then three pitchers, highly available pitchers against the White Sox, J.P. Sears, Richard Fitz, and Osvaldo Bido. According to the Giants broadcast, it's Landon Roup. That's what they said. in a start earlier this season. So that's what we will go with, Landon Rup. You already went through the one-star streamers?

Yep. All right, let's slide over to the hitters. The best matchups for next week, the Pirates, Nationals, Rays, Dodgers, and Athletics, the worst hitter matchups, Blue Jays, Orioles, Cubs, Brewers, and Rangers. Scott, who are your sleeper hitters for week for? Already mentioned Kyle Mazzardo, the Guardians weren't mentioned among the best hitter matchups,

But theirs are pretty good, apart from Paul Skeens. The second toughest pitcher they face is Tomo Yuki-Sugano. And only one lefty on the schedule. That may not matter in Mazzardo's case anymore, but it doesn't hurt. Michael Conforto, it has mattered for him how many left-handers the Dodgers face. Only one on the schedule in their six games. And they're facing the Rockies rotation. They're facing Patrick Corbin is the one left-hander.

I would hope Confort is in the lineup against him. He's been decent when he's played, and I think there's more to come. You mentioned the athletics have the fifth-best match-ups. They are facing the White Sox, and the really beaten-down Brewer's rotation. So I think it's a good time to run Jacob Wilson out there. I don't think he's going to hit in the mid-300s all season,

but it's not unthinkable, and he's certainly doing that right now. You mentioned the Nationals, have the second best matchups. They're one of the teams playing seven games. Good time to use Nate Lowe or Nathaniel Lowe, as he's known on most sites. The Rockies, we already talked about their good matchups.

Tolia's on here. Hunter Goodman, who continues to play every day as a catcher eligible player. He's on here. Andy Pahas, who's homered twice, already this week. I like him to take advantage of those Dodgers matchups as well as Conforto.

I like Jake Mangum because the Rays have such favorable matchups, seven games, and obviously he's performing well. Don't like him long term, but I think if you're looking for a streamer off the waiver wire, particularly if you need steals, Mangum isn't a bad choice.

I'm going to keep sticking with Max Kepler. I think there's something he's, year. The Phillies have seven games, six against righties. Kepler's been walking a lot at least. It's a deep lineup. We know he has the potential for power. He's number nine on the list here,

but available on three quarters of CBS leagues. And finally, Brian Hayes hitting the ball hard early on. I had to pick a pirate since I have them as the most favorable hitter matchups. I think he's stolen, is he stolen three bases so far? We're seeing Hayes do a little more of that this year. So if you need corner and field help, you could do worse than him. Key Brian Hayes has two steals so far with one home run, but the pirates have been very aggressive on the base paths early on.

So I do expect them to continue running quite a bit there for the pirates. Call to the bullpen, some updates here for the Royals. Lucas Ursa got the eighth inning with a one-run lead, facing the heart of the twins lineup. He retired all three in order. It was Carlos Estevez who got the ninth, gave up a hit, but picked up his fourth save of the season. The Royals have five saves as a team, four for Estevez and one for Daniel Lynch, which was, I think it might have been an extra inning save, or maybe everybody was unavailable. It was one of those for Daniel Lynch.

And then for the Rocky, Seth Halverson closed that win out with a five-run lead. He walked one, also struck out one. I know Vodnik picked up a save, I think, maybe last weekend. I don't know if it's completely clear, Scott. I still lean that Seth Halverson is the first one up. Do you feel differently? No, I lean that way too. It's a shame they brought him in and that blowout

and he made it an even worse blowout. As you often see, sometimes for pitchers who are used to pitching in high adrenaline situations and suddenly when they're thrust into not such a high adrenaline situation, Lent situation, they just implode. So that kind of skewed howverson's numbers. It's sort of like we were saying for the Marlins bullpen the other day, where if it's not clear and they're not making a point to make it clear who the closer is,

it's going to take a long time to figure out because they so rarely have saved chances. Yeah, that's true. So Rockies and Marlins expected to be two of the worst teams in baseball this season. to stream or not to stream and we will start with Friday where there are four names, maybe

more, but the top four for me Tomoyuki Sugano against the Blue Jays Mitchell Parker at the Marlins, Eduardo Rodriguez versus the Brewers, Reese Olson at the Twins I think are all fine. There's also Griffin Canning at the Athletics, J.P. Sears

Home Against the Mets. Yeah, I go Sugano one here, Resolson, two, and actually Griffin Canning, three, against the athletics. On Saturday, we do have a lot of names on the mound, but

not so trustworthy names. I would lean with David Peterson at the athletics, Richard Fitz, who hasn't been great, but he's at the White Sox, so it's a really good matchup. He's going to have back-to-back starts against the White Sox. Yeah, and

the third one was tough. I know it's a bad venue. It's a tough matchup. Jordan Hicks at the Yankees? I don't know. Anybody else from Saturday you might like instead? I don't think so. I mean, AJ Smith-Shawver at the Rays, Kumar Rocker at the Mariners. Those are boom or bust kind of starts.

I don't think either has earned a place in fantasy lineups outside of a desperation situation. but you could see it going really well for them, given how talented they are. I'd rather start Fitz, Hicks, and Peterson, though. Yeah. And then on Sunday, I like Hayden Wesneski, home against the Angels. Really like what I've seen from Shane Smith,

but it's against the Red Sox, so I don't love the matchup here. Same thing for Easton Lucas. He's looked good, but he's at the Orioles, so I just don't really love the matchups there. Hayden Wesneski is the only one I would definitely start, and I guess if you're desperate, Shane Smith or Easton Lucas for me.

I think that's right, but I don't even, I want to eagerly start any of them, West Nesky included. I mean, Angels just did hit six home runs. Yeah, after all. Yeah. All right, Scott. Well, we made it to the end.

And here we are, for those still watching and listening, I'll try to give you a little bit of a play-by-play. Scott is here to try the Peep's cereal, which let's hold us up to the camera and see exactly what we're working with here. So, all right, we've got a bunch of little peeps, marshmallows mix in there. What's the cereal base? Is it like fruit loop type things? It's a cornflower blend according to the ingredients, very high sugar content in the cereal.

And I say that as somebody who usually defends the sugar content of cereal is not as high as people claim. But this one is a lot. It says there are chick and bunny. shaped marshmallows. Real ones know that the chicks are the are the true peeps. For sure.

Not those bunnies. All right. Well, let's... Get out of here with your bunnies. I got a little bowl here. Got a little milk. What's the cereal to milk ratio? Because that's what I'm dying to know here. Well, I'm not really supposed to drink whole milk anymore.

And that's all we have in the house. But for the good of the show. I got, I got to put a little, I got to put some, I got to put a little splash. in or else it's not the proper serial experience. Oh, they're kind of ring shaped, the actual cereal pieces.

Yeah, that's what it looked like, some kind of fruit loopy type things and then... I'm not gonna lie, it smells good. Well, when it's loaded with sugar, Scott, how could it not, you know? Oh, I was like the marshmallows are tiny. I was expecting big peep-like marshmallows. You're gonna be up late working, Scott, and you'll have all that peep's sugar keeping you up late at night here. late at night here so so here's what it looks like okay okay it does kind of look like fruit loops you're right and uh let me see if i could pick out a marshmallow you know

show you how this looks exactly like lucky charms this is exactly like lucky charms isn't it well no i mean lucky charms aren't little rings like that so that's a that's the marshmallow that's the size of the marshmallow. Pretty small. Yeah. Pretty small, right? Okay, a little splash of milk like, like I said I'd do. All right. Well, cheers for you there, Frank. Scott is sacrificing his body while drinking and eating whole milk here for the good of the show. Moment of truth. All right. Hmm. I want some cereal now. I think I got to eat some cereal after this. I mean, the room temperature milk is, I'm not good because it's just been sitting here the whole time.

Right. It's not helping, but I got to say it's pretty good. Yes. It's pretty good. It doesn't really taste like, like I'm not getting that true authentic peeps flavor coming in, you know? Yeah, they would have to make those marshmallows a little bit bigger, I think, to really capture that. actual cereal pieces. So I'm excluding the marshmallows,

but the corn blend or whatever it was, is sweeter than like a Lucky Charms. Okay. Like it's pretty good just on its own before you even get the marshmallows in there. Yeah, because sometimes you need the marshmallow to really kind of help bring up the taste of the cereal base. But if it's good even without the marshmallow,

that's a pretty good sign. Oh, yeah. I mean, when I was a kid, I called Lucky Charms Yucky Charms. Because I, you know, the marshmallows weren't enough to make, which I know the cereal itself is sweetened, but, you know, I'm a kidding. I knew, I only knew sweetened cereal. So, so sometimes I eat out the cereal pieces and just leave the marshmallows for the end because I was, you know, save the best, save the best for last kind of kid. And just eat the marshmallows by themselves? And just eat the marshmallows.

Just eat spoonful of after spoonful. full of marshmallows. That is diabolical. I had to mix in a few marshmallows. Otherwise, I could not get through that lucky turn. That is a mature way to eat it, Frank. I would not call myself a mature child. That's probably the last word I would use.

Well, with your cereal eating habits you were. Yeah, I don't know. It's pretty good. It's not my new favorite or anything, but I am not revolted by it. But then again, I'm not revolted by peeps. A lot of you freaks out there are. So what do I know? All right.

So it passes the smell test. It passes the taste test. Not bad. Pretty good go here on Peep Cereals. I'm going to finish this bowl. How many booms do we get on the Peep Cereal? Do you? Are you in tune with the boom?

The boom culture? No. I have no idea what you're talking about. We'll talk about it after this. But all right, that's pretty cool. All right. So Peeps, we get a thumbs up here from Scott on the peeps cereal. For those who are wondering,

thanks for sending this to me. Yeah, happy birthday, Scott. Happy belated birthday, so we're going. Thank you. You get me a box of cereal. It's more than I got you for your birthday, so I don't know. Because I can't complain. Hey, it's totally fine. We are going to wrap there. It's a good way to head into the weekend.

For Scott, I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again next week. Bye.