Fantasy Baseball Today - Spencer Strider's Return! Do We Bench Struggling Pitchers? (4/17 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 17, 2025

Spencer Strider made his long-awaited return (2:25). ... Chris Bassitt is off to a great start (9:10). ... Robbie Ray and Aaron Nola were both terrible against each other (15:08). ... News (24:24): White Sox plan to promote Edgar Quero. ... Do we have any interest in these waiver wire pitchers (32:09)? ... Buying Sal Frelick (44:08)? ... Do we buy hot starts from Max Meyer and Nick Pivetta (47:27)? ... What do we do with Gavin Williams (52:50)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (58:28). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CPTowers @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. What's up and welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, April 17th. I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, Spencer Shrider made his long,

awaited debut. Robbie Ray versus Aranola. Woof. How much do we buy these three pitchers who are off to great starts? And an early season eval on very specific hitters. We'll get to that a little bit later on.

Let's jump in. And what I just saw was Spencer Strider's debut. Five plus innings, five hits, two runs, one walk, five strikeouts, 13 whiffs on 97 pitches, seven on the slider, five on the fastball.

did give up some hard contact here in his first start. Velocity down a little bit like we saw in his rehab outings. And during spring training, he averaged 95.4 on the fastball, which was down a little bit from last year and down even more from back in 2023. So Scott, you are donning the strider shirt. You will get the first chance here. What did you see from strider? What did you think?

The strider shirt that I believe was a Christmas gift from you a couple years ago. Is that true? I'm pretty sure. You like to send me gifts, Frank, and I don't think I've ever. I sent you a wedding gift. There you go. I sent you that. Even though you didn't invite me, I sent you a wedding gift.

So I guess that makes this even. Strider, he was fine. He was fine. So two runs in five innings, 13 swinging strikes on 97 pitches. That's all fine. Obviously, we have to talk about velocity because it wasn't any better. And I wasn't necessarily expecting it to be better, but that was one of the hopes was that

magically he gets in a competitive environment and the adrenaline kicks in and he's back to throw in 97, 98 on the fastball, which I believe he did hit at one point or like that was his max for the game, but he only averaged 95.4 on the fastball, which is similar to what we saw in spring training, similar to what we saw in his minor league. rehab assignment down about two miles per hour from two years ago. And the same goes for his slider. And he mostly threw those pitches. He mostly leaned on them like we've seen from him historically.

He did mix in six changeups and four curveballs. But he mainly stuck to his usual approach, fastball slider, did get hit pretty hard in terms of just exit velocity given up. So he didn't seem quite. quite as dominant as the strider we remember. And there has to be a little bit of concern that if he stays at this velocity,

maybe he will not be. He won't get back to being the strider we remember. I still think he'll be pretty good in that scenario, but is he going to be, like he just in this start, he became the fastest pitcher ever innings-wise to 500 strikeouts by a consistent. considerable margin. Like, he's been a historic bat missing pitcher, the best ever through 500

innings. So that's, it's difficult to live up to, just assuming everything is normal. If the velocity's down, you know, it makes for much longer odds, I think. So I did move him up to 13th in my starting pitcher rankings. You guys can tell me if you think that's too aggressive. Obviously, last year he was being drafted number one. So we know what the overall ceiling is. It's best in fantasy or at least top five, let's say.

I have him 13th for now. And I'm expecting not to move him up much from there. Like that's that's kind of how I'm thinking he's going to perform the rest of the way. I struggle with that because like, you have Hunter Green ahead of him. Do I? I'm asking. I don't think so. No, you have Scott has Strider at 13 and Green at 16.

Do you have Jacob DeGrom ahead of him? No. I have Green, DeGrom, 17. do you have max are you ahead of him i have i have yoshinobu yamombo yamoto yeah that one makes sense um michael king ahead of him from ver valdez yep um yeah um yeah i i don't know i i think i expect spencer schreider more or less to be a top 15 starting pitcher the rest of the way i did um there was a lot of adrenaline clearly early on in this start and he looked like himself right he he he pumped a a 98 mile and

our fastball past Vladimir Guerrero. He struck out Boba Chet and Vladimir Guerrero to open the game. He averaged 97 with his four seamer in the first inning. Then after that, it was 95.4, 94.7, 95.3, 94.9, 94.8. They clearly left him out too long. I couldn't believe he came back out for the sixth inning with 85 pitches already thrown. Me neither. Yeah, that surprised me.

Predictably, he gave up a home run to Vladimir Guerrero. his first of the season and then walked Anthony Santander and they pulled him with 96 pitches. And, you know, in some ways, I kind of feel like that's a good sign that they were willing to give him that long of a leash. I also think you can look at Sandy Alcounter who hasn't gotten close to. I think he also threw like 96 or 97 pitches in his first start. And they've been much more careful with him since. It was a very similar situation. So I don't, like I expected it to be more like 85.

pitches at the max and the fact that they were willing to let him go that I think speaks pretty well I would guess they're going to be pretty cautious with him on a on a schedule basis they're going to try to get as many five days of rest as possible just like they did with Chris Sale Lopez last year I would expect that from the Braves but oh I think it's hard to take this as anything but a resounding success. Hmm. Okay. Just that is relative to like that is a resounding success for Spencer Strider coming back from surgery. Relative to other pitchers, what I expect the rest of the season, I don't think I expect him to be Spencer Strider, you know,

what he was in 2023, the best strikeout pitcher in the world, a guy I expected a three-ish ERA from. I know he had a higher ERA than that, but the peripherals were incredible. I think he'll be a little diminished. You know, he had five swinging strikes on, 18 pitches in his first inning.

It was 11 in 79 pitches after that. Is that right? That sounds too high. I don't think you had 16 swinging strikes. No, yeah, 13. 13. Yeah, and eight swinging strikes on 79 pitches after that.

So again, I think all in all, it was about as good as you could ask for. And I think top 15-ish probably makes sense the rest of the way. Chris, let's go back to you. the player that opposed Spencer Shrider, Chris Bassett, man. He is off to an awesome start. Yeah, kind of the polar opposite of what he did last season for Chris Bassett. Remember, you know, last season 416 ERA, 146 whip.

But he's been phenomenal so far. He struck out 10 in 5 a inning against the Braves. The Braves lineup is clearly not what we hoped it would be. And especially without Marcelo Zuna. I think it's kind of pretty bad right now, even if they were hitting better than they thought, just the talent that's in there. Like, Drake Baldwin and Sean Murphy are both in the lineup. I think that kind of speaks to where this lineup is right now. Though, so they struck out 19 times against the Blue Jays, 10 against Bassett.

11 of those were the top three hitters. Yeah. Michael Harris, Austin, Riley, four each, and then Matt Olson three. Yeah. But Bassett, you know, part of the problem with this start for Bassett is as good as he's been, 31 strikeouts. Yeah, 31 strikeouts to five walks in 23 and third innings for the season. A 077 ERA. I'm not sure there's like a good explanation for it.

His fastball velocity is actually down significantly from last season. He's down about two miles per hour. he's still throwing it was up a decent amount today actually pretty close to where he was last year but coming into the start it was down about a mile per hour um and he's still throwing that kitchen sink approach i think this is sort of like the ranger swarez run last season in the first half where i'm not sure there's a good explanation for why he's doing this i'm not sure there's a good reason to think he won't do it moving forward for at least for a while while it just Chris Bassett isn't an ace obviously so I think he's probably just executing at a really

high level and major league pitchers are capable of runs like this when they're executing at a really high level it's just it's really hard to sustain that level of execution and I would bet Chris Bassett doesn't do that moving forward yes the fact he has 11 k per 9 or it's actually 12k per 9 now 13% swinging strike rate. Those are both career highs by far, and I don't think, I don't think there's any reason to think he's going to sustain that, becoming this huge batmisser at age 36. But what I've been saying for Bassett all along is that just look at what he did from 2021 to 2023, throw out 2024 as the outlier. And he was a must-star pitcher those years. He wasn't a big bat misser, but he was like 8K per 9 with a low whip and a fine Eard. and working deep into games, getting wins. So I do think we can approach Chris Bassett as if he's verging on must-start status. But if somebody wants to pay an ace price for him

on the trade market, then you've got to do that. Yeah. Yeah. He was part of the segment I had planned for later. How much do you buy these hot starts? And it sounds like you guys don't necessarily buy it. I buy Chris Bassett, but I don't buy the, the numbers Chris Bassett has put up through force.

Which, yeah, kind of goes without saying. Right, but there might be people. I wouldn't buy, I wouldn't buy a sub one ERA from anyone. Yeah.

But there might be someone somewhere that's willing to buy that. So like Scott said, I mean, if you could turn Bassett into a top 25 starting pitcher value, something like that, or, you know, a top 15,

top 20 outfielder, whatever you might need, you know, really like a top 50 or top 100, player or something like that. Like, yeah, that's something you can look into doing for Bassett. But, you know, right now, just kind of looks like he's getting back to the player he was before. The biggest thing is just the control.

I mean, he is hitting his spots and he always kind of has been this like finesse pitcher. He throws all these different pitches. He really needs to be, you know, on point with that command and control. And so far, Chris Bassett has done exactly that. Let's take a quick break when we return. Scott will get over to your player of the night. We'll do that right after. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today.

And I tease it up top. This matchup between Robbie Ray and Aranola, whatever the opposite of a pitcher's duel is, that's exactly what this was. Scott, Robbie Ray, your player of the night for the wrong reasons. Yeah, it's been bad. It's been pretty bad for Robbie Ray, and it seems to be getting worse here against the Phillies,

four runs and four innings, but really the five walks and four innings. is what made this start so ugly. He actually did get WIF set a decent enough rate, 13 on 93 pitches, but he entered this start, Robbie Ray, with just 10.2% swinging strike rate, which is pretty bad.

And, like, Robbie Ray has always had control issues. He's always had a hard contact issues. He's only going to be good if he is a high-end bat misser, and we just haven't seen that from him. The velocity hasn't been as good during his Cy Young season, even though we saw flashes of that this spring. The new pitches he was working on the changeup, I think he got two whiffs on it in this one. It hasn't been a difference maker for him, clearly. I think he's fundamentally still Robbie Ray with all the downsides.

It's just not clear that the strikeout upside is enough at this stage of his career. after all he's been through to make him any kind of, anything close to reliable for fantasy. I'm not to the point of dropping Robbie Ray yet, but I think I'm closer to that. I'm closer to thinking, yeah, he's just not going to be that useful this year than thinking, oh, we're going to see Cy Young Caliper Robbie Ray again.

So it's another spring fake out. And we've had, we've seen a lot of those. I mean, players who you look at the skill indicators, the underlying data points, and you say, yeah, I see a lot to be excited about with this guy. Another one who went tonight. I'm sure we'll talk about him later. Gavin Williams, same thing. Gosh.

And I think the lesson to take from that, if we can remember it, when the time comes, is, yes, point those things out. But don't draft them as if it's true. it shouldn't fun spring should never fundamentally alter how you view a player and and i think with ray part of how i justified it was i think he was just underrated before and i think spring was reminding people of how good robbie ray can be but there has always been an inherent volatility in robbie ray's skill set and you know last year he really struggled with command in the seven starts that he made but we just kind of chalked it up to rust coming back from tom and john surgery well he's been healthy the whole way since spring this year.

And the command has been pretty iffy so far. So that I'm not worried about Robbie Ray in that I think he's dropable. I mostly chalk this up to the wrong side of variance for Robbie Ray. And there will just be stretches where he's not generating as many chases as he needs to because he's never going to throw the ball. Robbie Ray is never going to pound the strike zone. right? Like, he, him and Blake Snell are very similar players in that even when they're succeeding and when they're avoiding walks, it's not because they're filling up the strikes.

It's because they're generating weak contact and chases on pitches out of the strike zone. And right now they're just not doing that. Robby Ray is not doing that. I think the Phillies probably came into this game with a patient game plan. They only swung at 74% of pitches in the strike zone, only 28% of. and pitches out of the strike zone. That's not going to work for Robbie Ray. He needs to be generating with strike swings to be able to generate results.

And he's not doing it right now. I'm still pretty optimistic that he'll be a useful fantasy option. And Robbie Ray, I have even less concern about because we just do this at some point every single year. You mean Aaron. Ray. Aaronnola. Yeah. We do this at some point.

Sorry, I'm feeling a little burnt out right now. So if I'm not on the top of my game, that's, but. Just to clarify, just to clarify, because I want to make sure I understood you correctly because I'm sure the listeners want to understand you correctly too. Are you pretty confident Robbie Ray will still be a useful option this? Yes. Okay.

And then you pivoted to Aaron Nola after saying. Yeah. And saying I'm even less worried about Aranola because sometimes it's a whole season of this, right? Like sometimes it's Aaron Nola. knowledge just never figures it out, but it's usually fine. It's not an ace, but it's usually a mid three ZRA, great volume, and they're must start pitcher. That's where I think both of these guys are for the most part.

Like, I think it's just the wrong side of variance in both regards to start. Yeah. But Ray has a much worse track record. Right. That's the thing. Like the track record, there's much spotier than Aranola. Aaronnola always ends up being basically must start. Sometimes I think he had, was it one year or two where the ERA was over four.

Yeah, he's had a couple years with like a 450 ERA. But he was doing so many other good things that he was still basically must start. And I think. Especially in points. Yeah, especially in points. I will say the velocity's been down a mile per hour on average for NOLA. So that is the one red flag for me. But he's still missing bats at his usual rate.

So I think it's going to be fine. And to pretty much agree with your assessment there. to highlight that point, Arnolla did have a year with a 463 ERA. That's bad. He had 223 strikeouts in a 113 whip that year. He had another season, 203 with a 446 ERA.

He had 202 strikeouts in a 115 whip. So, like, yes, the ERA was frustrating. Rob, Aaronola was still a must-start pitcher, those seasons for the most part. It was just he was hurting you in that one category. Robbie Ray, he'll get a lot of strikeouts. The whip, like even in the best of times, the whip can be pretty hairy for Robbie Ray.

So that's one where like if he is a 430 ERA guy, you might be able to stomach that from some pitchers. Probably not from Robbie Ray. Guys, we missed the most pivotal piece of analysis on Aaron. It is, it is an odd year. It is an odd year for Aaronola. And if you bring up those ERAs over for Chris, they happened in 2023 and 2021. and this year is 2025. So guess what?

19 was like a high threes, right? We are doomed. We're just doomed. That's it. But did he cut his hair, Frank? Oh, that I need to research. That I do not know, but I got to find out about the hair.

In all seriousness, I mostly agree with everything that you guys are saying. The next question, and this is kind of a sneak peek, I guess, for tomorrow's, you know, week five preview is do we start them next week

because they are both in line for two stars? So Robbie Ray is home against the Brewers and the Rangers next week, and Aranola is at the Mets and at the Cubs, which just not good matchups. I'm starting Nola on both either way. I just don't think you want to play too many games with Aaron Nola. As long as you keep them in your lineup,

you'll be happy where the numbers end up. And in Roto, you know, because it's a full season thing, you only like if you, if you, if you try to if you try to plan for okay I'm going to sit him for the starts I think will be bad and start him for the starts I think it'll be good

I just think you'll end up missing out on a lot of the good starts and may end up hitting all the bad starts and then and then that's where it becomes a problem in Roto so I think you just stick with Nola Ray in points fine because only so much damage can be done when a pitcher has two starts and Roto

I probably lean against it but if strikeouts are my main priority, or even wins, if they're my main priority, it's hard to have clear priorities in specific categories this early in the year. But if I'm not that worried about my team ERA and Webb, I probably start them in Roto even. Yeah.

We'll be going to move on to the news and notes. I do want to promote something we've got coming up. CBS Sports Fantasy is starting a new live comments chat on the website on all of their articles. This upcoming Monday is Patriot Day with the Red Sox game kicking off at 1110. a.m. Eastern time. So man, if you live on the West Coast, I am sorry

because that is a really early start. We'll have a live Q&A in the comments section of a post that we set up ahead of time from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. and by we, I mean Chris. So again, 10 a.m. Eastern Time on CBSSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball. Get your lineup questions answered by Chris ahead of that Red Sox game on Patriots Day.

Make sure if you're watching us live, hit the like button and subscribe to the channel. If you haven't already, we really do appreciate it. Let's talk some news and notes. The White Sox plan to promote one of their catcher prospects, Edgar Caro on Thursday. He is 22 years old. Last season in the minors at 280, with 16 home runs in 829 OPS between AA and AAA. He's only 5% rostered. This is deep league stuff, but would you guys be looking at Edgar Carrow in 12 team two catcher leagues, or does it have to be deeper? Is it maybe like just 15 team two catcher leagues. I don't think it's just deep league stuff because he's a catcher with some upside. There are not very many of those. So yeah, in a 12 team league where you if you don't have a good

second catcher, sure, go ahead and add Edgar Quera. It's not the likeliest outcome that he's a superstar, but he is a top 100 prospect pretty much across the board. He has pretty good numbers across the minors. He had a 139 WRC plus last season as a 21 year old spending the entire season between AA and AAA. So I think Kyle Teal's a better prospect. Yeah. But Carrow's up first. So yeah, let's see what he can do. I think it's going to go poorly. And maybe there's not a lot of downside to taking the risk. But the exit velocity readings are, they've been pretty consistently bad. And he's on the white socks. Yeah. So like, I'm not. not I'm not dropping Carson Kelly for him in a two-catcher league.

Oh, I would do that easily, actually. I think you already got everything Carson Kelly is going to give you this season. Yeah, I just think Edgar Carrow is going to be actively bad for you. So I put Pedro Pahas ahead of him and Dylan Dingler ahead of him. I'd probably do that too. But like, I'm looking at one league. Okay, I've got Che Langaleers and Adley Rushman. I'm not adding Edgar Carrow.

There. Right. But I'm looking at another team where this guy's starting Yiner Diaz and Danny Jensen. I would I would take the chance on Karo being better than Danny Jansen. It's not a guarantee, but like I don't think you're likely to regret dropping Danny Jansen. I don't think you're likely to regret dropping. How long do you stick with Tharo though? And I know we probably don't want to have a five. Yeah, only a couple of weeks. Because you might regret starting him. I agree you won't regret dropping Danny Jansen, but you might regret starting Edgar Carrow. Yeah, but you might. You might. regret starting Danny Jansen for the next two weeks too. Yeah. Man. Any low end two catcher is usually pretty hurtful, I would say.

So I mean, look, again, like Patrick Bailey, Bo Naler, guys like that, like, if you're in a deeper two catcher league, sure, like, I think you can drop them for Edgar Carrow. To Scott's point, I mean, Dylan Dinger is doing some nice things right now and, you know, he's pretty much playing every day for the Tigers and same thing with Potheads. So I think I would stick with those guys, but, you know, other names that are just kind of in there every day and doing nothing. Sure, let's take a shot on Edgar Caro and see what he could do. Brenton Doyle has now missed six straight with left quad soreness. Has not been placed on the IL. Sayas Suzuki returned to the lineup after missing three games with right wrist sorness.

Alex Bregman went on the paternity list, which means he'll miss between one and three days. I had someone send me this crazy stat on Alex Bregman that I think it was something like he leads all of baseball and errors. Basically, they move Rafael Devers off third base so that they can get a good third baseman there defensively, and Alex Bregman now leads all of baseball and errors. So I don't know if it's just like third base is cursed

for the Red Sox or whatever it might be, but it seems kind of fluky. It'll go fine. Yeah. Zach Netto could be activated from the IL as soon as Thursday. He's up to 82% rostered, and he was rehabbing from off-season shoulder surgery, and last year

had a great season. Hit 240. that part's not so great, but 23 home runs, 30 steals. That is a very useful player for Roto. Not sure he'll do exactly that again. It's, you know, maybe it'll take some time here coming back from a shoulder. That's a very big injury, obviously. But at some point, I think Netto could provide a decent amount of power and speed this season. Tyler O'Neill was scratched from the lineup due to neck discomfort.

Kyle Schwerber got a start in the outfield on Wednesday, his first of the season. He only needs four more appearances. on CBS to gain eligibility. Zach Eflin played catch on Wednesday. He's on the aisle with a mild latch strain. Some Cardinals updates. Mason Wynn expects to be activated. When first eligible on Tuesday,

Yvonne Herrera hopes to start running this weekend. Yuri Perez is about a month away from beginning a rehab assignment, which sounds like he could be back sometime in June if there are no setbacks. And Yuri Perez, 36% rostered. What do you guys think about? Stashing Yuri Perez right now.

He was among my top 40 IL stashes. He is on the IL. Monday. Yeah, just a reminder, Yuri Perez turned 22 years old two days ago. Wow. He had a 315 ERA, 10.6K per 9, and a 1.1 whip as a 20 year old two years ago.

If you have an aisle spot, he's absolutely worth stashing. and I believe the rule is you can be on a rehab assignment up to 40 days if you are coming back from Tommy John surgery. Am I making that up? I know the usual is 30 days. You can be on a rehab assignment for a max of 30 days, but I think for pitchers coming back from injuries,

it's a little longer, but I could be wrong there. But either way, that's just to give a timetable that once he does start a rehab assignment, it's fairly clear what the timetable is. It'll be no more than 30 days usually, but I think there is maybe it's just 30 days for pitchers and 20 for hitters. I presume Yuri Perez has minor league options, though. Yeah, I would have to imagine. So they could go that route if they want to be.

It is 30 days for pitchers. Yeah, 20 days for position players, 30 for pitchers. 30 days is a pretty long time, though. I mean, he can get stressed out quite a bit. That's a spring crank, basically. So I think that's fine. Yeah, if he starts, again, it all kind of lines up for like a mid-June activation,

assuming there are no setbacks here for Yuri Perez. The Marlins will definitely play cautious with him. I'm not, you know, he won't go deep into starts. I think probably the first three, four, five turns through the rotation. But by the second half, you might have a potential difference maker on your hands with Yuri Perez. Louise Heel's throwing program has been pushed back about 10 days.

He was scheduled to play catch this week, but apparently that won't happen. The twins acquired Jonah Bride from the Marlins in exchange for cash considerations. They just need more bodies. They are suffering a bunch of injuries already. I mean, this is kind of the story with the twins, and the injuries haven't even been to Buxon or Correa yet. The guys that we typically see get injured, Royce Lewis. But Matt Walner is going on the aisle with a left hamstring strain, and Willie Castro left Wednesday with tightness in his right oblique.

So names are dropping in Minnesota. The White Sox designated Mike Clevenger for assignment. The Dodgers option landed knack back to AAA. They're probably going to option Bobby Miller back to AAA as well. We'll talk about that in a little bit. And DJ Hers underwent Tommy John surgery on Wednesday. Likely will not return until the second half of next season. Let's take a look at some waiver wire pitchers from Wednesday's action.

we had Clark Schmidt, who was okay in his season debut against the Royals, five and two thirds, three runs, only two strikeouts here. Matthew Boyd, solid outing at the Padre, is five and a third, two runs, three strikeouts. Has a 201 ERA on the season, but a 125 whip starting to climb up a little bit. Mitchell Parker had a strong start at the Pirates, six innings, one run, six strikeouts, 12 whiffs on 89 pitches. He is now four for four in quality starts, is Mitch Parker, Mitchell Parker, this season. Do you guys have any interest in these names? Parker, Matthew Boyd, Clark Schmidt.

I mean, we did this with Mitchell Parker last year, right? If I'm remembering correctly, he was pretty good and pretty widely rostered in the first half of the season and then things fell apart. So I can't say I have a ton of interest in Mitchell Parker personally. I think the stat that says it all for Mitchell Parker, 5.9K per 9. 3.3 walks per 9. He had a 344 ERA in his first 16 starts last season. That was with a 7.3K per 9 and a 1.9 walks per 9 just by comparison. Yeah.

Yeah, I felt more reason to think, maybe there's something here last year than I do right now. I don't think, I don't think Mitchell Parker is worth pursuing at all. I think Schmidt, like, I'm not going to write about him for the Waverwire article for Thursday because he didn't give us any reason to run out and at him, but there was no reason to drop him. He's 72% rostered. If you've got a roster spot to play with, he showed some upside last year. I'm pretty skeptical that he's going to be like a must start pitcher, but he had a stretch last year where he certainly looked like one.

So I have no problem continuing to roster him. Matthew Boyd gets the Dodgers next week. So if you don't already have him on your team, I don't really see much reason to go out and at him. It's not, he is not so necessary for your team's future success that you have to add him when he's not worth starting. Yeah. Clark Schmidt looks like he might be in line for two starts against the Blue Jays and at the Guardians next week. Not the best matchups, not the worst kind of middle of the pack there, but, you know, if you're chasing volume, I guess it's something you can look at. But, you know, second and third starts back off the IL. I probably play it safe. A couple of other names here, Osvaldo Bito was okay at.

the White Sox, five and two-thirds innings, one run, zero strikeouts. Man. David Festa pitched well, but got another quick hook by Rocco Baldelli, man. He just will not let his pitchers go. Four and a third, shut out, five hits, one walk, six strikeouts for David Festa. And Jose Cantana looks good so far. In his first two Brewer starts, he was up against the Tigers. Five and two-thirds, one run, four strikeouts.

Last name, Zach Lattel bounced back with a great start against the Red Sox of all teams. six innings, one run, five strikeouts there. Scott, any interest in Lattel, Kintana, David Festa, Osvaldo Bito? This kind of feels like streamer central to me. Especially, so let's leave David Fest out because I think there is some upside there for Festa. But Asvaldo, Bito, Jose Cantana, Zach Lattel, I think they'll all be pretty fine.

But there's not enough upside. that you're ever going to want them to occupy a spot on your roster permanently, outside of deeper leagues, of course. Bido isn't going to be a big strikeout guy. He didn't get him against the white sucks. That's not really his thing. He has a pretty dangerous profile, but one that can be really effective at times because it's a ton of fly balls,

hit softly. He's good at preventing hard contact and puts the ball in the air. So that turns into a lot of outs, not necessarily by way of strikeout, though. And I just like, he's like the least proven of these three, Letell and Kintana being the others. But that is what you're working with with Beto. So it's just not a high upside profile. And I think that's one that you run the risk of leaving him in your lineup one start too long. And he undoes any good that he had done prior.

That's always going to be my concern with someone like Osvalda Bito. With regards to David Festa, I think he's good. and the twins, would you guys like to guess how many times a twins pitcher has thrown 100 pitches in a start this season? I'm pretty sure you said yesterday that Joe Ryan did his last start. So I was saying. Joe Ryan did in his last start. One time. You are underselling them by 50%.

Simeon Wood Richardson also had a 107 pitch start where he didn't make it out of the sixth inning somehow. I was going to say Pablo Lopez. Pablo Lopez had a 98 pitch start and Chris Paddock at a 93 pitch start. That is the entire list of times Twins pitchers have thrown 90 pitches in a start this season out of 19 opportunities. They are just, I would guess they've had more starters with fewer than 80 pitches in a start than 90 pitches. And that's just maybe they'll have a longer leash, but this is kind of always. been the thing with them. And it's frustrating because I think David Fest is good. And it's just, there's only so much upside you can have if you're only throwing 80 to 85 pitches at most in a

start. And he only threw 77 in this one. He got ran into a little trouble, uh, in the fifth inning when they pulled him. But yeah, that's, um, that is a source of frustration for me. But you know, what, Chris, 75 to 80 pitches against the white socks next week. That might work for David Festa. Yeah, I think he could be worth using there. I think he's worth adding. He's only 19% rostered. I think there are probably not points leagues

but certainly categories leagues where David Festa will be helpful. Some names in the deepest of leagues. Stephen Mats, I can't believe this. Patrick Corbyn in the year of 2025 had a good start against the Angels. It's just what happened there.

Billy Fulter and Kate Air Montero who I just wanted to mention he had a good spring. He got called up for the Tigers. He had 15 whiffs in the start. Pretty much everything else was bad for K Dare-Montaro. But some very deep league names. You guys have any interest here?

Sometimes the random number generator comes up in a pitcher's favor. I don't think there's anything with any of these guys. If there's anything with any of them, it's Kater Montero, but I do not really have any confidence in that. All right. What about these two? Are you okay dropping? I think I brought up Ronell Blanco last week,

but he's still 88% rostered. I don't know. I feel bad kind of like pulling the plug too quickly on him. He was good last season. The underlying numbers did not buy it, but through four starts to 648 ERA 168 whip for Renele Blanco. And Nick Martinez has been dropped in a lot of leagues already. He's down to 43%.

But he's got a six ERA on the nose. He allowed 11 hard hits in this start. What do you guys think about dropping Rennel Blanco? And how about dropping Nick Martinez in a points? would you do that? I want to check one thing before I answer that question about Nick Martinez because it probably depends almost entirely on if he's a two-star pitcher next week. And I would guess he is.

Yeah, Monday and Sunday. Ooh. Well, at Miami, that's awesome. The second start if he makes it would be at Colorado. I think you probably still start him in a point. league as a spark, but I think it's very dropable in

roto league, yes. The Rocky's offense is so bad, and his pitch is the change-up, which I don't have data supporting this, but just logically it makes sense to me that a change-up would play better than a lot of breaking balls at Coorsfield.

So I yeah, I mean, Coorsfield could go all Coorsfield to any given moment, but a Rocky These are so bad. I think I'd stick with Martinez in a points league for that two-star week. But I am, I've definitely cold on Martinez right now generally, because if he was going to follow up on last year, it was going to rely on immaculate control.

1.1 walks per nine last year. He's at three per nine after this start. Obviously, it was a particularly bad start for walks. And I think he was like 2.2 per nine before this start. But still, you're talking about a walk rate twice as high. as last year, even prior to the start for Nick Martinez. So I just, I'm not seeing any evidence that, um, that those control gains are, are carrying over to this year.

I will say, and I know Chris is probably going to disagree. Chris was over Ronel Blanco before the season even started. Other than the walks, there have been too many walks for Ronel Blanco. But other than that, it's kind of like a 15% swinging strike rate. He's still got the, the numbers like FIP like a more this year. He's actually putting the ball on the ground more. So he's looking less susceptible to homeroes.

I don't know if that's going to last, but I'm saying mainly the rate Ronell Blanco is missing bats after the way he performed last year. I don't think I'm ready to move on. I don't have a ton of confidence on him. He's definitely teetering on that edge. But I think I want to see a little more from him. Yeah, my thing is just the case for Rennel

Al Blanco mostly came down to, yeah, the peripherals were bad last year, but look at the ERA. Maybe he has some way to avoid giving up runs that his peripherals aren't picking up. Well, we're not seeing that certainly so far. And so I think he's a pretty easy drop. All right. Let's take our final break. And when we return, we'll talk about some waiver wire hitters. Not too many names.

We'll do that right after this quick commercial break. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Taking a look at Waverwire hitters. Sal Freelick off to a nice start, two for four with his first home run. He's batting 318 with a 408 on base percentage. He's got 11 run scored, five seals, an 863 OPS.

51% rostered is Sal Freelick. What do you guys think? Are you intrigued by this strong start? I am. I think Sal Freelich, I think, like, he was a good prospect, even though it was known he didn't have. have much power. He's still rated highly as a prospect. And I think the biggest disappointment for him

to this point in his career is he just hasn't made the most of his speed. Like he needs to be a base dealer to be a useful fantasy option. And now he is. So I think it is kind of, you know, if you already missed out on Junghu Lee, I'm not saying Sal Freelik is going to be as good as that, but he could be a poor man's version of that, probably with more speed, but less power, less constant. overall. Still pretty good contact, but less than Chunghuli. South really like 91st percentile sprint speed. I did not know he was that fast. So on a team like the Brewers that does like to run quite a bit, yeah, maybe he can get 20-25-ish steals this year. That would

be pretty helpful. Two names in deeper leagues. Gabriel Arias off to a star for the Guardians one for three with a walk and his fourth home run. He's batting 288 with an 894 OPS has second and third base eligibility. And Henry Davis crushed his first homer of the season. He has started four of the past five games. Andy Rodriguez went on the aisle, and Joey Bart is currently banged up a little bit as well. Chris, what do you think?

Any deep league interest? Gabriel Arias, Henry Davis. Arias is kind of interesting. He was, I believe, a pretty big bat speed gainer this spring and had, I want to say, the hardest hip ball of his, career this spring. It wasn't in the regular season, so it's not going to show up on

Stackass, but I think he had like 115 mile per hour homer this spring. I seem to remember that. And his swing speed is up about a mile per hour. So he's in the 94th percentile in bat speed, which it was already pretty high last year. And he was not a great hitter. So that is a clear limitation for bat speed. Like that it's not everything. Swinging a bat hard doesn't necessarily mean everything.

but there's a little bit of pop here. There's probably too much strikeout risk to ever be much more than a deep league guy, but Arias could be pretty useful in a deeper league context. Yeah, I mean, maybe he's a middle infielder that can pop 20 home runs. I don't know, close to 15 to 20 home runs. Yeah. Yeah, and some of those 15 teamers, and maybe Gabriel Arias could make an impact there. Would you guys rather take just a speculative shot?

on Henry Davis or Edgar Carrow. Caro for me. Yeah, I guess Carrow, just because he's going to play. They still haven't put Joey Bart on the IEL. At this point, it's kind of ridiculous that they have in as many games as he's missed, but they can only back day to three days. So maybe, I don't know, maybe Joey Bart will be back tomorrow. How much do you buy these hot starts?

We already spoke about Chris Bassett. Two others on the list. Nick Povetta, great start against the Cubs, six innings, one run. six strikeouts here. He has allowed one earned run or fewer in three of four outings, a 157 ERA, a 0.83 whip, and Max Meyer has turned in three quality starts in a row. This one against the D-back, six innings three runs,

eight strikeouts, 18 whiffs on 90 pitches. Pretty much just span the slider in this one, and it worked. He's got a 263 ERA and a 113 whip early on in the season. How much are you guys buying the hot starts for Paveta and Matt? Max Meyer. To a certain extent, I'm buying both. Pivotta, I mean, we've done this a lot.

And there is no pitcher in baseball who more consistently underperforms their peripherals than Nick Povetta. So at some point, things will get ugly, but he is in a better ballpark. He isn't a better ballpark. He's in a good ballpark for a pitcher for the first time. And notably, his three homesteads, he's made four starts. The three homes tarts, he's allowed a combined eight hits in 20 innings. So, I mean, obviously it's not going to be that good all season. But it's kind of, you know, early proof of concept there that his profile is going to play much better at Petco Park than it did at Fenway or before that Citizens Bank Park.

Yeah, I think he's going to be pretty good. I would still like I'll take a sub 4 ERA for the first time from Nick Pavetta I think that's likely I'm giving a mid 3rd is it going to be sub 3 5 I would guess not not sub 3 5 I'm thinking 3 6 yeah I was thinking like 3 8 3 9 but like with a bunch of strikeouts and a good whip

like that's a really useful player especially on a team that should win 80 plus games Max Meyer might just be really good which I'll be honest I had kind of given up on him when he came back from Tommy John surgery last year and was like averaging 94 with his foreseamer and getting terrible results with it. But he came back with about a mile per hour more in velocity. He was sitting 95.7 today. That pitch has looked fine.

His new sinker has actually been pretty useful as well. He's getting some weak contact with that. But that slider is no joke. and it's always been by far his best hit, and I kind of just thought he was a one pitch pitcher, and it wouldn't be enough. But he's got a change up now that he throws a little more often. He's got a sweeper he'll throw occasionally.

And the fastball comes in at 95, 96 instead of 93, 94. And all of a sudden, if you can't sit slider, well, look what he did with it today. He got 25 swings on 45 pitches with the slider today. 14 whiffs. That is a bonkers number, especially when you throw a slider 50% of the time. Like they knew that thing was coming and couldn't really do anything with it.

That's really impressive. I think he might have given up a home run on it. But other than that, it was very good. The problem is it's the Marlins, right? And he's young and hasn't. Injury of three, they're going to have a quick hook with him. Even in this one, he only went 90 pitches. Enjoy it now.

Enjoy it now. But there will come a point where you'll probably want to sell high on Max Meyer. Yeah, I think the biggest issue is just going to be wins. I think, you know, they're just not going to be bad defense, bad offense, bad bullpen. Other than that, you know, the Marlins have a lot going for them behind Max Meyer. So my expectation is Meyer, honestly, not much worse than Nick Povetta in terms of results. I just think Nick Povetta might win 11 to 15 games. and Max Meyer might win 8 to 10.

And the reason I should clarify why I say enjoy it now, but you might want to sell high later is I don't think you can sell that high now. I don't think he's accumulated enough value. You just recently picked him up off the waiver wire, presuming he's not still there. So you can't turn around and trade him yet. And look, maybe he won't sustain this for long and he never gives you enough trade value. That's fine. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. but there's a chance Max Meyer

sustains this for a couple months and accumulates enough value that you can then spin him off for something more durable. I don't know if this is an overreaction but among pitchers who pitched today, I'm just looking at the list. I'd rather have Meyer than Clark Schmidt,

even though Schmidt's got a better team situation. I'd rather have him the brain of fought. I don't know if that's a hot take, but I think he's just a better pitcher than brain of pot. I don't like fought. I'd rather have him than Gavin Williams. I'd rather have him than Reno Blanco. then Nick Martinez

Yeah I think he's good I would take him over all of those Except for Brendan Fought But I like fought more than you guys I'm hesitant to move him ahead of Gavin Williams Yet that was the only one I hesitated on Oh yeah that that's yeah I probably wouldn't do that yet either But we're getting closer

We are getting closer We will actually yeah let's just talk about Gavin Williams right now What to do with Gavin Williams Because a rough outing at the Orioles Now obviously tough matchup, tough lineup to navigate here. But five earned runs allowed, four walks to four strikeouts, two homers allowed in this one,

13 hard hits, 97.5 average exit velocity, and he only threw 53% of his pitches for strikes. So before you even think about looking into pitch mix and, you know, induce vertical break on his fastball, just think about those two things. 53% of his pitches for strikes and 13 hard hits allowed.

I don't care what pitcher you are. It's not going to work. Those things just won't work together. Yeah, he, he's one of those pitchers that I watched his most recent start pretty closely. And I, I will, I will not lie to you.

I did not enjoy that experience. He is not a fun pitcher to watch when he's not doing well. Things tend to unravel pretty quickly and his command is bad. And that is just like, it wasn't even bad in that start. I just didn't enjoy the experience of watching. him because I hate pitchers who have bad command. And he just so often has no idea where pitchers are going.

But the thing that really grinds my gears about Gavin Williams is last season, he's dealing with that elbow sprain and spring training. He comes back. Clearly he's not comfortable throwing this. It's now called a sweeper, his slower slider. He's clearly not comfortable throwing it. So he's throwing both a harder slider at 88 miles per hour and a cutter at 92. and this year he's healthy

and it's just four seamer sweeper kerbill. Like he threw two changeups today. Those were the first two changes he's throwing all year. He threw 74 of them last year. Like I don't understand the thing with Gavin Williams where, okay, fine, he wasn't comfortable throwing the sweeper last year. That makes sense. He wasn't healthy.

But he's presumably healthy. His velocity's up. He looked great in the spring. And he's back to this simple three pitch mix. where I just don't think his command is good enough to get away with a three pitch mix. The stuff is good. Like he averages 97 with his four seamer. It's got good shape.

The sweeper gets good to plain break. The curveball has been a good pitch in the past. It's just you've shown a good cutter last year. He had a 282X wob on it with 34% whiff rate. The changeup was a nether look. And I just don't understand why the oppressor. is so different this season. So I, well, that's why, that's why I'm hesitant to like just move on from

yeah, William. I'm just, I'm discouraged. I'm, I'm, I'm getting closer to moving on with him. But, you know, it has a great top prospect pedigree, great stuff as you point out. And he could bring back that cutter. Like, I presume they're going to keep making tweaks until, until they find something they're happy with. And the Guardians are one of the best organizations, if not the best, in maximizing their pitching talent. So they know how much talent is here with Gavin Williams.

Clearly, he's not maximizing it. It's a long season. Unless he gets sent to the minors, I want to have the depth for that right now. Yeah. I want to. I'm not saying there won't come a point where I'm willing to cut Gavin Williams. I just think we're a few weeks away from that. You know, all those waiver wire guys we were talking about earlier, Osvaldo Obito, and even like, I'd rather have Gavin Williams even pitching poorly than Mitchell Parker just because I, yeah, I, again, I think there's a, there's a pretty low chance that Gavin Williams becomes a must start pitcher. I think there's a almost zero chance Mitchell Parker does. I think there's a decent chance you regret dropping Gavin Williams. I think there's very little chance you regret passing on Mitchell Parker.

or even like Matthew Boyd, who I think is interesting, but I don't think you're ever going to look back and say, boy, my season would have been different. If only I had added Matthew Boyd in April. You know, I don't think that's going to happen. The name I keep going back to, again, he's the most added starting pitcher on CBS is Tyler Malley, though. And again, I don't want to put too much on Tyler Malley,

but he has looked really good. And as we talked about Williams to do, there was, you know, there was this kind of, we had a bunch of starting pictures early on in the season that you could go on and add, and then there was like a lull. And now Tyler Malley has kind of emerged as like the next big name to add.

And even there, I don't think I would drop Gavin Williams for Tyler Malley. I would just think you have someone more boring than Gavin Williams. Like, probably. I get, like, I'm not starting Gavin Williams next week,

but again, we had this conversation over the weekend. Like, you got five to seven bench spots. You probably have someone boring in one of those bench spots who like, won't hurt you if you have to use them, but you're not going to regret dropping them.

I definitely think Tyler Malley's worth adding in most leagues. I agree. I would not want to drop Gavin Williams. Gavin Williams has 51% started on CBS, and it looks like he's in line for two stars next week, Yankees and Red Sox. Yeah, I'm not starting them. Maybe in a points league,

but I would hope I have a better option. Right. You probably have enough one start. options that are actually good, that you don't have to do it even in a points league. All right. I did have a segment plan for early season evaluations on some specific hitters here, but we're kind of running out of time. A few names that I'll just quickly mention.

Michael Harris, 0 for 4 with a golden sombrero on Wednesday. I think he's one of the most clear by-low candidates right now. And people have tweeted at me saying he's been dropped in some of their league. So I still think Michael Harris is going to be fine. and I'll be looking to buy low on him right now. Lars Neupar, I wanted to point out the ground ball rate down from 52% to 37%. So this is what we've always wanted from Lars Neupar. Will it last?

Trade for. Yeah. Will it last that I'm not entirely sure of with Neupar, but he is kind of doing the thing that we want him to do. Jackson Holiday hit a grand slam. Outside of that, he has not been very good this season. I will point out the underlying plate discipline stuff seems a lot. better than it was last year.

There was only one place that could go really is up and to get better. His batted ball distribution is kind of the weirdest part about his profile. It's 11% line dries, 54% ground ball rate. That's just, that's not a batted ball distribution

that can do damage. He's not whiffing against breaking balls like he was last year. Whiff rate on breaking balls was 39% last year. It's down to 25%. And the biggest thing with Jackson Holiday was, this was supposed to be like a very good all-around player, but the carrying tool was supposed to be contact. Like that was supposed to be like a 70 grade tool.

And he had a 75% zone contact rate last season. Lee averaged 82%. That's really bad. This year it's 82%. So that given that he's also not chasing, he's swinging at good pitches, you'd like to see him hit the ball with more authority. You'd like to see him hit the ball in the air a little more consistently.

But I think this has been a much more promising start for Jackson Holiday than last year. The weird distribution with the line drive rate, I think, is so exaggerated that, I mean, I am seeing it was similar in his rookie season. But I do think that's going to normalize over time. And I find Jackson, like, I'm taking the approach with Jackson Holiday that Chris was just mentioning with Gavin Williams, where I rank of 10th at second base because so many of the alternatives at second base are just so boring and replaceable. And Jackson Holiday, I think, is giving us enough reason

to remain interested that I can't... Obviously, this would be a shallow league context where a Brandon Lowe would be even out there, but I can't see myself dropping Jackson Holiday for Brandon Lowe, for instance. All right, let's get into some leftovers here from Wednesday and Bryce Miller looked good at the Reds five shutout innings with eight strikeouts, but not really going all that deep into a start so far. He has not completed six innings a start. He was limited to just 78 pitches in this one. Brandon fought pitched well at the Marlins,

five and two-thirds. Innings, one run, six strikeouts. Chris Bubich hasn't been as good his last two outings. This one, three runs allowed over five and a third, four walks, but six strikeouts and 14 obviously you'll take that. And yeah, Bobby Miller just had to mention three innings, six runs allowed, seven strikeouts, two homers allowed to the Rockies. So like the strikeouts are great, but everything else is bad. I just, I don't know what happened to this guy. It's crazy.

Even the seven strikeouts, I think he only had four whiffs. Seven whiffs on 84 pitches. So that's still pretty bad. Yeah, man. I don't know because you watch him in the same. stuff still looks good. Like he's still sitting in 98. He's still got a five pitch mix with a bunch of things that move in all kinds of

different directions. And I don't know if he's not healthy, if his command is just atrocious. But even today, it feels like he should be better than he is. And, you know, it was 11 walks in 12 innings at AAA before getting called up. So I, no, I don't, I don't think there's anything there right now at all. Yeah. Anything else that stood out from a boobitch, Bryce, or Brandon Fott.

Yeah, I want to worry about Boobich. It hasn't been as good the last couple outings. But if these are what is bad outings look like, I think you're going to be satisfied with that. Plenty of whiffs, as you point out, wiffs on all different kinds of pitches. I think things still look really good for Chris Bubich. And especially against the Yankees,

they are the number one team in baseball against left-hand of pitching so far this season. So pretty tough match up there for Chris Bubich. Some hitting leftovers. Vlad Jr. launched his first home run of the season. Byron Buxton is picking things up. Last six games, he's got seven hits, two homers, eight runs scored, and two steals. O'Neill Cruz launched a grand slam after the benches cleared and that came between the Pirates and Nationals. Cal Raleigh, two for five with a double-dong in Great American Small Park. Josh Naylor off to a great start with the D-backs. He hit

his third home run. That's a great bus call for me so far. Bryce Harper backed back to games with a home run and Aaron Judge is off to a red hot start three for three with his seventh home run he is getting on base at a 519 clip so far this season still trot trail uh man I couldn't say the words still trails Tyler Soderstrom and home runs though that's true yeah I believe him and Kyle Rally are tied for a second in the majors and home runs tied with Nick Kurtz for the professional lead and home runs. Yeah, I mean, it is fun to imagine, like, what if Aaron Judge just does what he did last season,

but without the terrible April? And, like, I think he had, like, an 800 OPS in April. So, like, even that just tells you how high the bar is for Aaron Judge. That's terrible for him. Yeah, well, it was, like, 400 points of OPS lower than the rest of his season. He's completely completely, completely. ridiculous. Cow rally

100th career home run. So that's awesome. Hit it from both sides of the plate. Love when he does that. He's incredible. He's awesome. He's one of the best catchers in baseball.

And even with the 217 batting average, you are thrilled to have Cow rally on your team. I don't really like Vlad, I was never too worried about it. I know there's a little consternation, but he was always going to get going.

He got off to a bad start last year and was awesome. Not too worried there. O'Neill Cruz, where are we at on him with the low batting average and the tons of stolen bases? I think the stolen bases are obviously a huge plus. And it's great to see his late season breakout with steals carrying over. Yeah. The plate discipline has been better. The strikeouts haven't been radically improved, but slightly improved in the walk rate is,

it's been huge. So, I mean, if batting average is the one thing you're worrying about, especially over what's still a very small sample, then you're not, you have nothing to worry about. That's going to be one of the noisiest stats. All right. The call to the bullpen for the Blue Jays. Jeff Hoffman got the ninth inning with a three-run lead.

He gave up a solo homer but picked up his fourth save. For the Cardinals, Ryan Helsley allowed a walk but picked up his third save. For the Padres, Robert Suarez, closed it. out for his eighth save of the season. For the Mariners, Andres Munoz, picked up his seventh save. And it really feels like Munoz is just being used, like, a traditional closer now. Dan Wilson is the manager there. So it's, you know, a different regime.

Yeah. Andres Munoz might turn out to be like a top five closer this season. I moved him ahead, Andres Munoz. I moved him ahead of Ryan Halsley. and Ryssel Iglesias. Nice. I think that's reasonable, yeah. For the Red Sox,

O'Rold's Chapman was unavailable. Justin Slayton struck out two for his second save. For the Yankees, both Devin Williams and Luke Weaver were unavailable. Fernando Cruz pitched the final two innings for his first career save. For the athletics, Mason Miller struck out the side for his fifth save.

For the Rangers, Luke Jackson, pitched a clean ninth inning for his sixth. And for the Dodgers, Tanner Scott allowed a hit. But struck out three, for his sixth save of the season. To stream or not to stream on Thursday, and we have a good amount of interesting options, I would say.

Eduardo Rodriguez at the Marlins, Edward Cabrera facing the D-backs, Will Warren is at the raise, Andrew Heaney is home against the Nationals, J.P. Sears at the White Sox, Tomoyuki Sugano facing the Guardians, Reese Olson, home against the Royals, Andre Palante at the Mets,

and Griffin Canning, is home against the Cardinals, also coming back from an illness. So I would avoid that one. I kind of worry about it a little bit. So yeah. He's not so good that you need to run that risk. And I think there are a couple of good options here. I think,

Eduardo Rodriguez, I would be surprised if he didn't have a good start against the Marlins, frankly. And I like JP Sears against the White Sox. I kind of wish J.P. Sears name was J.C. Sears. it would get kind of a like a mall theme going on there so close one letter on I was not sure where you were going with that

I had it immediately yeah that one I don't get many things but that one I got I guess I'm a big fan hasn't seen a movie ever in his life but department stores love him Frank is here for big fan of the department stores there

Sears isn't even around anymore is it I think there's still a Sears Right? There's I don't know that I'm not entirely sure of not roboc. No, not roboc They bucked that can we get a third on Thursday? What do you think Scott a third dame? I don't I wasn't I hear what Chris said I was too busy thinking about my dumb joke errod and Eduardo Rodriguez and uh jp. Sears I also I actually versus Kansas City I prefer Sears to to erod but those would be one and two and uh yeah I guess Resolson would be three. The Royals cannot hit right now.

It's bad. Yeah. So I agree. I like those top three. And then on Friday, um, David Peterson against the Cardinals, maybe. And,

uh, I don't know. There's a couple of maybes. Like Chase Dolander facing the nationals, but it's in course field. J.T. Ginn at the Brewers. Nice start his first time out. I like, like, loose term, I like Peterson, but the other ones are a little bit tough.

Yeah, this is worse. I don't mind Luis Ortiz. Revenge game at the Pirates. Yeah, it feels dangerous, but it's a risk-reward play coming off the 10 strikeout effort, Luis Ortiz. I think I probably do prefer David Peterson to him. And along those same lines, J.T. Ginn. Milwaukee, good ground ball guy. I get, we'll make him the third list after Peterson and Ortiz.

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