Fantasy Baseball Today - Starting Pitcher Risers & Fallers with Nick Pollack! (3/11 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 11, 2026

Welcome back to the show, Nick Pollack (2:20)! ... We learned that Hunter Greene is out until July (5:18). ... Other news (10:54): Corbin Carroll is returning on Wednesday. ... Let's get into the pitchers we've been watching closely this spring, starting with Spencer Strider (24:30). ... Shane McClanahan's velo has been down (26:25). ... What have we seen from Grayson Rodriguez (29:30)? ... Andrew Painter has had a weird spring (38:03). ... George Kirby has some new pitches (41:57). ... Cam Schlittler is throwing his cutter a lot harder (49:35). ... Let's talk spring risers, first up Mick Abel (57:35). ... Does Nick buy into Mike Burrows and Braxton Ashcraft (1:03:40)? ... What about Cody Ponce, Joey Cantillo, Parker Messick and Cade Cavalli (1:08:00)? ... We wrap up with some deep-league names to watch (1:13:44). Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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. And first pitch, watching. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Hey there.

Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, March 11th. I am Frank Stample joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. plus a special guest we'll get to him in just a second. Today on the show, we are talking pitching. The names that we've been watching closely this spring, but also who is rising up the draft board? Should we buy in to help us do that friend of the show?

Nick Pollock, how you doing, buddy? I'm doing great, Frank. I appreciate you so much. I really do. And of course, you, Chris, and Scott, you're looking wonderful. The situation you've got is great now. I love the bookcase.

Yeah. You don't miss grandma's living room? I mean, I don't think I've ever said that freeze in my life. You're the one who I think suggested I get, you know, a backdrop with that photo printed on it so that it was like I never left. That was your suggestion. You know, maybe you put it in a frame photo on that. Oh, that'd be a good one. Yeah.

Yeah. I was going to say, like, maybe you'll get like a photo realistic painter to paint it on the wall behind you. Oh, yeah. It would have been fun if Nick just showed up in Scott's old living room. There was one episode one time where Scott wasn't here, and Nick kind of like Photoshopped Scott's background behind it. You don't know how much I watched this YouTube channel for the one moment that Scott White dipped down just a little bit so that I could freeze it and get the background.

For those who don't know, you should. But if you don't, Nick Pollack, he is the founder of Pitcherlin. you can find his top 400 starting pitchers. I believe there's a new top 100 coming out later this week over at pitcherless.com. I know that you also have a ton of podcasts and live streams that you do on Twitch. So why do you let everyone know what you have got going on right now? Going on right. Yeah, join me in the morning, Twitch.TV slash pitcher list.

I go over all the spring training games from yesterday pitchers, obviously. And we have 20 million things. We got a live draft assistant. We got a draft guide. We've got podcasts galore. but the coolest thing ever is to hang out with Chris Towers on our PL Plus Discord. It's just the best way to enjoy the site.

It's ad-free, and we get the greatest baseball community ever. That's where Chris Towers hangs out all the day. It's good people. You got to me and Chris. You got to get PL Plus guys. Yeah, I do enjoy these new graphics that you guys are putting out on X too.

The pitcher list PLVX account that is putting out these plots of where pitches are moving in spring training and grades and all these things. it seems really helpful. I appreciate that. Yeah, we worked a long time creating those. Those aren't like AI generated charts or something. We've been spending like a year trying to make a good visual design

and get models that actually tell you things that matter. It's a lot of hard work by Kyle Bland. And we cannot believe that it, what was it like 100,000 followers in 24 hours? I don't understand what happened. I saw the number earlier. I was like, oh, this is a new account. What does that say? 114-4-4-K.

I don't understand. That's crazy. It's like double my main one. Yeah. I'm like jealous of it now. I don't get it. That is pretty awesome stuff, man. So shout-out to you guys putting out some great work.

The good news here is that Nick Pollock is here with us. The bad news, we've got to start there. Hunter Green. We got an update. Finally. And here's what we know. Bone chips and loose bodies in his elbow. But there is no damage to his UCL.

So he was right about that. part. He is getting the elbow scoped and the hope is that he'll return in July. Scott is Hunter Green worth drafting in a standard 12 team mixed league? I mean, if Spencer Schwellenbach isn't, then I don't know why Hunter Green would be because it's the same procedure basically, right? It's the same timetable. I don't think it's a clear timetable in either case, right? They're just hoping, oh yeah, midseason maybe he'll be fine. Hunter Green and Schwellenbach,

they were being drafted in the same range prior to this news. So I would say no. Now, I did take Schwellenbach in the reserve rounds of the Memorial Magazine League, a league where 360 players are rostered and there are five IL spots to play with. So I'm not going to put a strict hard line no on it, but it has to be the right circumstances.

and it has to be very late, and it has to be a situation where you feel like you could stash them for a long time with possibly no payoff. Yeah, I think if you're in like a 15-team league, no IL, one of those NFBC leagues, it probably takes them not entirely off your board, but it's going to be really hard to stomach a zero for three months. I drafted. That would suck if it happened to anyone who's already drafted, say they spent a third round pick on Hunter Green. That would be really unfortunate. it. But in a 12 team league with an IL spot, I do think it is different than Spencer Schwellenbach's injury just because while it's the same type of injury, Spencer Schwellenbach did miss half of last season with a shoulder injury, or an elbow injury, excuse me, goes through the

whole offseason and can't get through even, what, five days of spring training before suffering a setback. Green, I know he did have this injury last year. Part of that is we know he can pitch through this injury and pitch effectively because he did last year. And so I think, look, complications are possible in any situation when you're having surgery. It's entirely possible. They open them up and discover that the injury is more severe than they first thought. That happens sometimes. But I think the median outcome is probably Hunter Green has less injury risk and less performance risk than Spencer Schwellenbach. So I did rank him. I kind of just moved him down to where I have Shane McClanahan, another pitcher who I think has some upside this year,

but has some real, real question marks. Maybe that's too high for Hunter Green, knowing that he'll miss three, three months, probably at least. But that was my first thought. I'm much more likely to move him down than up, though. I mean, at least with Shane McClanahan, you will be able to make a quicker decision. Yes. Right? And it does depend on your IL spots, of course. Even if you want to say you have one IL spot, I probably still wouldn't do it.

Because I don't trust my own discipline to say when it's the third week of April and I have my first guy on the IL that I'm going to drop Hunter Green then, right? I just, even though it's obvious, of course you're going to do it. I hate myself as a manager sometimes. So I just won't put myself in that position. That's why I'm not drafting Corbyn Burns. That's why I'm not drafting Justin Steele, right? These other guys we expect at the middle of the season as opposed to the Garrett Cole side, the Zach Wheeler side,

the Carl Swardone side, maybe even Jared Jones, who's faster, I think, than the others as well. Those are part of the other aisle stashes that I would certainly favor over Hunter Green. Nick, that was weird. Why did you say Justin Steele's name like that? I know, I know, because I don't have the soundboard, Justin Steele. There you go, much better.

I updated the rankings earlier. I dropped Hunter Green down to SP 95, 300 second overall. One spot ahead of Spencer Schwellenbach, so pretty much right in line with what you were saying earlier, Scott. Nick, do you have any interest in who replaces Hunter Green here? It looks like one of Rhett Louder or Brandon Williamson. Louder is the better prospect. Williamson, I guess, has had the better spring. Do you care about either?

Well, so Rhett Louder to be isn't very interesting. I know he had a really good season in 24. It was very fortunate when he did. And it's not much of an arsenal. It's exciting. There might be something more in like the sinker slider that he has that actually gets results. But really to be a guy that you roster in Cincinnati, it needs to be very impressive in something that's very repeatable and believable. Otherwise, you're putting yourself in a big risk for home runs and just a much worse E-ray than you want.

Brandon Williamson has proven before that he can be successful there if he has this cutter working inside to right-handers and change-up away, kind of like the swatch, the south ball with a tight change-up. And he actually went today and threw a really good cutter at 90 miles per hour and got it inside on right-handers consistently. Three-inning zero runs, three strikeouts, four whiffs on 40 pitches. One hit zero walks.

And I wouldn't be shocked if Williamson did get the chance he's coming back. I believe from Tommy John, it's unclear really right now, but I wouldn't be chasing either one. They might be the first week pick up kind of guy instead of someone that I'm circling and seeing how they do out of the gate. All right, let's quickly move through the rest of the news before we get to some of those spring risers here. How about some good news?

Corby and Carroll will make his Cactus League debut as the DH on Wednesday. He is less than a month removed from having that right hamate bone surgery. I guess it's good news that he's back. I also kind of worry a little bit about him. returning too soon. Chris, is that were you at all with Corby and Carroll? I feel like people would roll their eyes if I spent the entire spring saying my concern is that Corbin Carroll's not going to be ready for opening day. And then I turned around and said, oh, now I'm concerned he's coming back too early. I feel like that would be a kind of silly thing

to do. So, look, I'm not a doctor. I do not have access to Corbyn Carroll's medical records or anything like that. I assume if they're clearing him, he's healed. This is a relatively minor surgery. So it's earlier than I would have expected, but it's not totally unprecedented for a player to come back this soon from a hamlet bone injury. There was one, I was looking the other day. There was someone who came back in like 22 days, return to action. So it's possible, but I mean, it's, it's a little risky, but I think you'd rather him be playing tomorrow than not, right? Yeah. Yeah. I just want to stress, given the nature of the injury, that being back doesn't mean Corbyn Carroll's out of the woods.

Because at least in my case, it was never the timetable for return that concerned to me. It was the what is his power production after he returns. Not that I think it would be gone permanently, but a lot of times with the handmade bone injury, we see it take a few months for a player's power to return. But not always. You know, if Corp and Carroll comes in, you know, Homer's in his first game back. Okay, I guess he's back in my first round. But that might be all it takes for me to say. And I know even in the earliest days of the injury, he had only fallen to like 15th and 80p.

So I pushed him down a lot further than the consensus. But that might be all it takes for me to be right back on board. If, okay, he's going to be there for opening day. Okay, we have some evidence of the power production still. there's a lot to like about Gordon Carroll overall, obviously. So if I can get him at the end of round one, you know, I might be back on board with that.

And I know last report on Francisco Lundore, it sounded like he was optimistic for opening day still. And I think things are looking up for Jackson Holiday too. Yeah, Orioles kind of walked back the, because remember when they initially announced it, they said he's going to start the season on the eye out. The last I saw, it's like, okay, no, Jackson Holiday might be ready for opening days.

So yeah, these guys are all doing really well. My biggest concern is once they are healthy, is just getting enough reps to avoid a slow start. And so assuming they're healthy, my understanding is, while not everybody avoids setbacks or side effects from this when they play, for the most part,

it's just a question of it healing. And then you should be okay. It's just they are all moving very quickly. they might not get the reps they need, but if Carol's playing on Wednesday, he's going to get, you know, 30 plate appearances, 40 played appearances probably before the end of the spring. So as long as he's healthy, I think he should be okay.

So we'll watch the stat cast data to see, you know, if he's hitting the ball with the normal authority. But yeah, I'm starting to think Corbyn Carroll, at least in a 15 team league back in the first round for me. We do have an update on Lindor. he progressed to playing four innings in a minor league spring game on Tuesday. So it sounds like he's getting closer to returning to actual game action as well. Josh Hader said his 15 pitch bullpen session was, quote, all positives.

So this was the first time throwing off a mound since being diagnosed with left biceps inflammation. We'll see how he responds. Derek Gould of the St. Louis Post Dispatch named four different Cardinals relievers that could be part of a closer by committee. Riley O'Brien, Jojo Romero, Matt Svonson, and Ryan Stannick. So we just kind of assumed it would be two guys, but it might be four. It's not great. I've been intrigued by Matt Svonson for a long time, and it just seemed like last year, Oliver Marmel showed no interest in trying him in the ninth inning.

So I presumed it would be status quo, but maybe it won't be. Maybe it'll be a little more. Bad news for Riley O'Brien, who I was warming up to as a late round save source. I would still give him the edge, but Matt's Fonson is interesting. Would you call this the Marmal strategy? A bunch of relievers, why not? Blake's now threw off the mound to a standing catcher on Tuesday. He's still expected to begin the season on the aisle due to lingering shoulder issues from last year, but I guess progress.

Trey Savage is scheduled... Was that the catcher was supposed to be standing, or he just couldn't find the... strikes. Man, we're just going to this is going to be a long one. All right, Traya Savage is scheduled to throw a two innings simulated game against minor leaguers on Wednesday that leaves time

for two more starts, though we don't know if those will happen in minor league games or real ones. And Nick, we've actually heard a lot about Yosavage recently being slow played and they want him to have innings for later in the season and into the postseason. It's been I don't know, a little bit

kind of mysterious the way that they're handling a tray is savage. Have you lowered him in your rankings with the way he's being treated right now? He is a really tough one to rank because the way that they're treating him kind of means like in three weeks into the season, it'll be just completely fine. Right? The whole thing is about, hey, you had the most rest ever entering 2025. And now you're having the least amount of rest because of the World Series push. So they just want to give him more time. That's all this is. And all right, so they're going to add like three weeks essentially to.

the plan. That's what they're doing. So I often think about this. Like on May 1st, how are you going to feel? Right. And if you have Trady Savage on May 1st, you're going to be happy. It means that I'm not going to move him down too much. There is a large glob of guys to use Spores term, term that is just they're all very good. So yeah, this is a tiebreaker that pushes the Savage down. But it's not like I'm pushing him out of my top 60 or anything like that. Merrill Kelly will make his Cactus League debut this Friday. He's behind scheduled due to midback tightness, but he is progressing. Kyle Stowers

is scheduled to return to Grapefruit League play this Saturday. He's been slowed by a mild right hamstring strain. Josh Lowe is likely to begin hitting in a minor league in minor league games this weekend as he works his way back from a left oblique issue. And Josh Young ran the bases on

Tuesday is hoping to return on Thursday. He's been out the past couple weeks with a grade one adductor strain. before we hit our first break Can I follow up on you Savage real quick Do you guys think there is

Given that they're slow playing him This spring Really beyond slow playing him They don't think he's going to make a start In the Grapefruit League And given that we just saw Max Scherzer throw For no hit innings And given that they've said

They they don't want to pile too many innings on your Savage's arm at the start of the year. Do you think there's a chance he's just not in the starting rotation to begin the year that he's bumped for Max Scherzer? Because I'm trying to remember if it was the Rhodo World Update or the Rota Wire update, but they floated that idea and that. Whoever wrote the update, I don't think it was part of the report

they were citing. And it got me thinking, you know, that makes a lot of sense. They'd just go six-man. That's what Ross the resource has right now is six men. Yeah, they have burrios, they have Scherzer, like they have rotation depth. But it is hard to do a six man rotation and have a guy limited, right? Like that's only going three or four.

Yeah, that's what John Schneider was saying originally for you, Savage. You have a shorter bullpen because you have an extra starter and you're going, you're going to have that guy short. So I mean, that's tough to balance. Yeah. I don't know if I agree with that necessarily. just because if you have a six-man rotation, actually what we generally see

or the managers are more willing to push their starters deeper into the games and save the bullpen a little bit because they have more time to rest, right? So, I mean, I'll put it this way. Rios is not very good. Sure. And I don't think that it's in the best interest of the Jays to completely take a savage out of a full-on rhythm.

Like, he needs to get reps of some kind. I think they've even mentioned that they would be eliminating him in like three, four innings. Yeah, that's what they were saying. And, but, you know, different, they originally were saying for Max Scherzer that, oh, yeah, we're just going to keep him around as somebody we could insert in the rotation later on. And then he has a huge spring start. And it's like, well, are you being totally forthright with such blue jays about your rotation plans?

Because it sure seems like you're getting Scherzer ready in a hurry. My first thought is that is it a good team that he faced? It's a good offense. A lot of guys are gone to the BBC. I'm seeing a lot of really good performances and then checking out the lineup. I mean, oh, none of these are.

Yeah, I mean, less about Scherzer pitching well, but just that he pitched. Sure. He pitched over a true ramp-up start. He didn't just make a one-inning cameo appearance. Yeah,

yeah. Yeah, I'm getting a little bit worried about you, Savage at his cost. And I like him. I obviously, I thought he was being undervalued for the relative to Nolan McLean especially. But now they're just, it seems like there's something new every day that points to the idea that the Blue Jays are going to slow play him.

And that's going to make for a frustrating stash if you invest real draft capital in him. All right. Let's move on. Before we hit our first break here, just going to keep reminding everybody that when you're listening, to this, tomorrow is our mock draft mega stream. That is Thursday, March 12th, starting at 3.30 p.m. Eastern Time. We will do four drafts in a row. We're live streaming all of them. We're going to be live for like seven hours. It's going to be crazy. But our first draft will be 12 team brodo on CBS with our buddy Vlad Sedler. At 5 p.m. Eastern time, we will do a 12 team head ted categories on

Yahoo with Joe O'Riko. At 6.30, we will do 12 team head to head points on PSPN with Ariel Cohen, and then 8 p.m. Eastern Time, roto-wire online championship over at the NFBC. That is a 12-team Roto with an overall component. And if anybody wants to compete in the first three drafts, we still have a few spots available. So hit me up on Twitter, X, at Roto underscore Frank. Let me know which draft you want to be in and attach your email.

Let's take that break. We'll be back right after this. Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today. We are talking pitchers that we've been watching very closely throughout spring training. We'll get to some risers as well. We're here with our buddy, Nick Pollack from pitcherless. And look, I don't think we need to spend too much time on this name

because I think we're in all agreement, and we have talked about him a lot lately. Spencer Strider, in his first spring start, the fastball, just 93 miles per hour. It was down two and a half miles per hour from last year. And then in his second spring start, yes, the velocity was up, but still down compared to last year, and he had zero whiffs on the fastball and just one called strike.

So Nick, you're joking beforehand. You've been fading Spencer Strider since before it was cool to fade Spencer Strider. I imagine nothing has changed for you. Nothing has changed. Yes. Until we see Elite Spencer Strider, I'm not in because Spencer Strider is not your crafty pitcher who, okay, if I don't have that elite fastball, I still have all these other things. I know how to attack guys.

No, he needs that fastball. Otherwise, it's, eh. I'd rather go for someone else who has a higher ceiling then. Yeah, I think he's kind of being treated like. he still has a high ceiling and that's why it's like yeah he might be bad but we'll take him 25th or whatever and because the upside is so but like we just haven't really seen like I know there was a stretch at the beginning of last season where he was better than the total numbers but the fastball was still not very good um I think that got figured out pretty quickly and don't forget

rocky road that is the Rockies on the road are all right-handed lineup and they're so susceptible to a slider down away from right-hander that's what's It wasn't just the rock. 15 strikeouts. Bryce Elder did have an 11 strikeout game. Right. Grand Holmes at 12. Yeah.

Yeah, but it was a ninth start stretch with 11K per 9. It wasn't just the rocky start. 15Ks in like what six innings or something will help a bit. Yeah. Yeah. It definitely did. But all right, I think we're all in agreement there on Strider.

His ADP in March is 119. He's still the SP 26. And we've mentioned like in some of these high stakes drafts, he's still being drafted really, really high. So Spencer Strider at that cost. I think it's going to be a no for all of us. Let's talk about Shane McClanahan. His first spring start was on March 3rd.

He averaged 93.8 miles per hour on his fastball. That was down three miles per hour from the last time we saw him in the majors, which was two years now at this point. And two years, three years? 2023. It was like August of 2020. And his curve was down four and a half miles per hour. His second start, fastball bumped up a little bit, but still down quite a bit.

The curve, the slider down between like three and four miles per hour. So Nick, what have you seen from Shane O. Mac here in Springtime? Yeah, McShane. Look, I am a McClana fan. Don't get me wrong. But this is hard to see. Right? I mean, the first one, he was public about it, which is understandable.

Hey, 80%. No velocity on the scoreboard on purpose. Like, just go out there and pitch and experience it again. But you would think by the second one, he would turn on the Jets a little bit more than 94. And I understand turning on the Jets can be depressing. Yes, that's a football joke. But what I mean is that you would think he would do it.

And I know this wasn't quite there. It's a little different than Strider because McClanhan isn't just about velocity. His change up is fantastic. His slider is great. His curbel is as well. And I would not just say that this is who he is now. It does make me a bit concerned that the ceiling is getting lower. and lower. I could just because we haven't seen it yet. And we have seen other guys coming back

before who are much better out of the gate. So two starts in. I don't want to fully have a judgment. I just need to see the third one. I think for McClanahan more so than I do with Strider, because Strider is just kind of doing the same thing from last year. But I'm not feeling great about it. And look, it's his second Tommy John surgery and as he came back from the Tommy John surgery, he has this big setback that ultimately requires another surgery. So he had surgery to repair the nerve damage. The nerve compression. So it's like, I think the prior should be that unfortunately,

Shane McClan is very unlikely to ever be that guy again. Yeah. And then we're seeing now, at least so far, he's definitely not that guy. That's not to say he can't be, but I'm pretty skeptical at this point. He is shaking off a lot of Russ again. Like he hasn't pitched.

He pitched a little bit in spring training last year. He made a few rehab starts in the minors in the middle of last season. But he really hasn't pitched in, you know, competitive games in like three years. So I think he could get better and the velocity could tick up a little bit. But, I mean, we're starting from such a low point here on Shane O'Mac. His ADP in March is 203 as the SP 56. And Nick has him more like SP 65 now. in our consensus rankings, SP66.

So I think we're all kind of in agreement there, lower on Shane McClanahan. Grayson Rodriguez, also coming back from a bunch of injuries last year. It started out as a lad, but then he dealt with other arm-related things. He's made three starts this spring. The results have been bad. Seven earned runs over eight innings. He has six walks during that time.

Another one who just hasn't really pitched in a long time. And his velocity has fluctuated, like his first. two starts, velocity was pretty close to where it has been, at least the fastball. And then the third start in spring, Grayson Rodriguez, down to 94.1 miles per hour on that fastball. So Nick, what are you seeing here from Grayson Rodriguez? Any hope here with him with the Angels now? I mean, I'm so down to draft him. Because with a guy like Grayson, Rodriguez, and still also with Strider and McClanahan, it's just about the price of it. Grayson is again treated like the other guys

So I'm down to just Take him and see if he can recover anything I mean our expectations were zero Okay, the Orioles traded him away for one year of Taylor Ward Like Okay, writing's kind of on the wall there And the very least he does have that seven feet of extension than he used to have

That's what we saw in that March 7 start He's supposed to have a really good slider and change up that's supposed to get it done and we really haven't seen those return? I don't know. I just want him to be the guy that we envisioned him to be by this point. And he's obviously been disrupted. It's possibly gets better of the next two or three.

But if I'm taking him at the end of my draft, like the last round, sure. You know, that's a guy that I'll see one start of him or maybe even the last spring training start right before my draft before the season starts after my draft. And I go, you know what? I'm out. I'm good. Great. You can make that quick decision. I'd much rather have a guy like that than someone I would have for a month and would get like one good start, one bad start, and I don't know what to do. Scott, I know when we entered the offseason and draft season, you were pretty just optimistic about Grayson Rodriguez and where his ADP was again, just going as late as he is. Where are you at now based on, you know, three spring starts that we've seen so far?

Well, I was encouraged until the most recent one when the velocity was down on everything. and fairly significantly, multiple miles per hour. And so I came out with my sleepers 2.0 this week. I originally thought I put Grayson Rodriguez on in. I decided to leave him off. For now, I got deep sleepers coming out this weekend, and he's going late enough that it's pretty deep. So I may end up including him on that.

It's obviously a low-cost gamble on a guy who, You know, just a couple years ago looked like a top pitching prospect. Like the top pitching prospect in the game for two consecutive years, he was leased in that discussion. And he seemed to be on a good trajectory once he reached the majors, and he just kept having lad issues. And eventually had bone spurs removed from his elbow that he thinks he was pitching through that injury for a while.

He thinks it contributed to the lad issues. And the velocity looked fine at first. So like the wrinkle is that the Orioles gave. up on him and how much do we want to read into that. But in theory, that injury should not ruin him as a pitcher in theory. And so, you know, if he can stay healthy, then why wouldn't we like him just as much as we did before? It's just his last spring start.

His velocity was down a couple miles per hour. But that's the difficulty with all of these pitchers we're talking about. We're trying to read a lot. we obviously want more than just good feelings about them. We don't want to just rely on, okay, I can imagine this optimistic scenario, and I'm just going to hope it comes through. We want to see tangible evidence that it's happening, but we're reading into results and data from a level of play that's not true competition. It's not a true competitive environment. So we're having to just, it's always.

have to go on and so we don't know if we need to treat it at face value or if we can insert a little hope and good feelings in there just based on what we've seen from the guy in the past I think with injury cases like wrayson Rodriguez and certainly strider and mclanahan you know it's almost like they're starting over again you can't rely so much on their history but there is still that history and so if the price is right like nick was saying knowing that what we're seeing right now isn't really a true representation necessarily of who they are,

then it's probably worth gambling on. And the price for Grayson Rodriguez still looks good enough to take that gamble to me, more than the other two, especially Strider. Now when it comes to spring training stuff really quickly, Chris, is that you can really trust the guys who are competing for something

or need to prove something, more so than the ones who have a secure position, right? So when you see like veterans pitching and they're ramping up, cool. But if you see like a veteran like Zach Eflin, who's a tick up all of a sudden in the spring, I get excited because normally you would see that like a tick down. And I'm like, oh, hold on a second. That actually might be something more legitimate

if it's over 60 pitches or so, right, instead of just a one or two. But like Strider, McClanahan and Grayson, they all are trying to prove that they have this thing again. right and when that's not performing at that level after the first one then you get a little bit more worried it's the same way with a lot of these young guys fighting for that rotation spot that's how I look at it for the most part you are completely right in that like so so much of these results that we just got to throw out the window we have to really look at what the pitch shapes are like what the

velocities are what the usage is and kind of you know figure it out from there yeah to make to highlight that point Roki Sasaki had a great start today I don't know if you guys saw. No, yeah, it was in a minor league game. He struck out like nine and four innings, and I saw some people like, oh, but it's like he was going against a full minor league lineup. The problem is baseball reference has this really neat thing where you can look at the average quality of opponents faced in spring training.

And let's see what it is for Spencer Strider. He's made two spring starts, his average opponent. has been a little better than your average AAA pitcher, or player so far. So he is not facing full major league competition. We actually kind of saw this last year with that start that Strider made in spring that got everybody excited. Remember he had like seven strikeouts in his first three innings in his first start. And then you looked at the lineup and it was like Christian Campbell was the best player in the Red Sox lineup that day. That was maybe a little foreshadowing for what we were about to see from Spencer Shreder.

But just to be clear, I could not be more out on Rookie Sasaki right now. And you know what? Same could be said for Nick because honestly, I might have to clip that out as a gift because as soon as you said Roki Zasaki, Nick just looked at the camera. He's like, nope, not doing that. You know, Justin Rubezzi is the guy. Robo. Robo is, oh, he's going to get that rotation spot if he asked me and nobody's talking about him.

I think Justin Rumski is a solid 15-team-tealer play. It might actually be a 12-team. There was a quote from Dave Roberts today, something like I have a very hard time seeing Roki Sasaki not in the rotation. But no, not as a starter, but he didn't say at what level. He essentially could be in the conversation of like as a reliever or as a starter. He goes, no, I see him as a starter. But that doesn't mean. Okay.

I miss that context. Okay. It could be for AAA, right? I mean, you have a, well as a starter for the Dodgers is looking good in spring training. if River Ryan also coming up not quite as stretched out as Reblesky, but I would be shocked. I just don't see how the Dodgers could go, no, we're going to force this instead of the value of Reblesky. I made a joke yesterday.

He looks like he's two years away from being two years away. If you remember the, uh, that all that be a draft quote, it's pretty rough right now. Let's talk about Andrew Painter who had Tommy John surgery and ulnar nerve transposition back on July 25th of 2023. He returned last year, pitched in the minors, did not pitch well, but still a top prospect. He has made two starts this spring. Five shutout, only one hit, one walk. Also only just one strikeout. Nick, it's been kind of a weird spring here for Andrew Painter. What have you taken away from his spring outing so far? You know, I, what's wild to me is that the Philadelphia affiliates. They are a team that's like, yeah, we are, we are competitive. We are like the team. We're

going to win the NL East. They are always in it. And then I look at the rotation and their four and five are Taiwan Walker, who somehow, three years later, is still finding a way to be a rotation piece for this team. I will never forgive him for kicking out Spencer Turnbull during the peak of his career. Oh, yeah, I remember that. Never will forgive him for that. And then you have Andrew Painter who is clearly not the Andrew Painter that you thought he was going to be. I don't care what J.T. Real Mutu said as a quote,

that's the sign of a great catcher trying to give his young pitcher confidence at the beginning of spring training. Andrew Painter right now is not the dominant arm that we want him to be. I'm not saying that he can't be in like two, three weeks. There's a lot of things to be said about jitters of camp and really trying to lock in

all that kind of stuff fine. I'll take a chance at the end of my draft because you will get those in. right you'll get that opportunity and that's cool but ah dang this is not like this overpowering pitcher he those 96 but it is a hitable 96 he has some cut action on it sure but it's not a overwhelming fast one like a bubba chanler fastball or anything like that and then it's all about the secondaries which are not impressive at the moment they're not the well-commanded pitches that they used to be so i'm just i'm looking at this going i even thought like alan ran hell would be a contender

for the rotation, you know, and he's not even doing well. So I just signed Gialito. Can you do that, Phillies? Like, well, they're, they're expecting Zach Wheeler back soon, we hope. But then it's silent Walker. Yeah, I mean, that's, and that's still a total unknown what they're gonna get out of Wheeler.

So it's, it's a tough spot. That Luzardo stays healthy. Yeah. Yeah. Well, they like Lazzardo enough to give him $135 million. So, I mean, great. Yeah. I, uh, I moved Painter into my

sleepers 2.0 column when I wrote it that was right before he made his first start but we were getting all these positive reports out of cam and it's like this is the type of late round flyer you should take yes but right now it looks like velocity is the only thing that stands out about his fastball and before the injury it was 98 now it's 96 like he used to regularly touch triple digits we don't have the the the stack has data for it, but every scouting report says he touched triple digits regularly, and now he doesn't really come all that close. And he's not really throwing the secondaries all that much either.

So we also just like can't tell how good they are right now. It's just no, man. It's not working. How would you guys rank Shane McClanahan, Grayson Rodriguez, and Andrew Painter as just last round flyer types? McClanahan, yeah. I think I'd go McClanahan. You said Grayson in there as well? Yeah. McClanahan, Grayson, Painter is how I rank them, but I have McClanhan about 40 picks behind his ADP, which as you mentioned, is around 200 in the month of March. Grayson, I have around his ADP, which is still around 276. So I would rather have McClanahan, but at price, I would definitely rather have Grayson.

All right. Next up here we have George Kirby, who is coming back from that shoulder injury last year. He returned last season, but, you know, His arm angle was down last year, and he changed up his pitch mix, and we thought maybe that was related to the shoulder injury. And Chris, I feel like we were talking about Kirby just probably yesterday. And you said he has a new pitch, right? Because I was looking through his stat cast stuff,

and it doesn't seem like there's a new pitch unless it's just not picking it up correctly. Yeah, he threw a four seamer at 94 miles per hour with... So there were two four seamers at 94 miles per hour. The story I'm reading from Lookout Landing said that the four seamer at 94 was a cutter or the fastball at 94 was a cutter. I don't know which one those were because they had very different movement profiles, but he is working on a cutter this spring. He threw it in a game for the first time. He's also throwing a true change up, not the splitter. We don't have the arm angle data, unfortunately.

I'm sure there's a good reason why they don't release it in sprint training. Yeah, so the arm angle data is weird because, it's like inferred arm angle right now. And anywhere you see an arm angle for someone, it's not correct. It's not official data. And like we like on our cards, we don't have them right now because the data is kind of messy with it. And we don't want to put out a wrong arm angle.

You know, we don't want to. Yeah, we don't want to do that. So that's why it's like I don't have a lot too. Some people might look at a PLV card and say, ah, his arm angle is the same as last year. and then be corrected that actually it was just because it was last years. Yeah, we have like sometimes we have it in there and then it's, we say this is 2025 because we can't tell you. That's because I don't read.

Yeah. But yeah, he is working on multiple new pitches, but my take was, and I'd love to get Knicks, but my take is mostly, I'm not saying Nick George Kirby is not good anymore. That is not what I'm saying. But I do think because he had the lower arm angle last year, and because he's not throwing the splitter again this year. I'm working under the assumption that the arm angle is still lower. I think the movement profile on the pitches is closer to last year than it was pre-injury as well.

So I'm working into the assumption that the arm angle is still lower. And what that means for me is that he's just a different pitcher than he was pre-20205. Could be better. I think there's more strikeout upside. Certainly he's getting more lateral movement on his pitches. But I think he's different. And so that makes it harder to. to analyze. I don't think you can just say George Kirby before his injury was this really high

floor borderline ace. He might still be that. There's just a little more uncertainty in his profile now. Yeah. Nick, what have you seen from George Kirby? Are you okay with him where he's being drafted? SP 15. The overall ADP is 71. Yeah, I have George Kirby right around there. Actually, when I did my end of season rankings, which are the ones that are not the official ones, it's just kind of like on vibes, not really diving in too much. George Kirby was like 10. And I remember getting to the whole thing with Kyle Bland, our director of analytics of pitchers saying that

George Kirby is better than Christopher Sanchez. And I've stepped back on that one. I'm on Kyle's side at the moment. That said, it's for a good reason why George Kirby was seen so highly by me and also that Christopher Sanchez, I feel like just had a peak season. I don't really want to pay for that,

but that's another conversation. With George Kirby, his slider is so good. It's so money and he doesn't even know it. It's not getting the whiffs that we want it to get yet because he's just not quite locating it right.

However, we saw multiple starts at the end of last year where George Kirby was nailing that slider down in glove side beautifully and oh my gosh, that's why you have those like 14 strikeout games. And I know that understanding a movement plot

can be very intimidating. I'm going to make this. very simple. The dead center of the movement plot is where he expect most sliders at 87. Where his sliders are going at 87 is like where we see curveballs, which is just a

diagonal deeper, like more depth and more sweep than expected at the same velocity. And oh gosh, it should work. He's a guy who's always been able to command things well. Like you see how that fastball works. And he's also throwing more

singers the right. He says he should because the four singers surprisingly a dead zone fastball. It's not like withs because he's really good at locating it, but its actual movement when guys would hit it had the number one swing rate of all four seamers. Yeah, they hit it kind of hard because it's an easy to hit force seamer when they know it's coming and where it's going. So I like that he's going into more sinkers to right handers. We've seen that already in the spring.

And I love his slider. And I still feel so strongly that there's a breakout coming. But that's wishcasting. And you can't really wishcast in the top 20. You just can't really do that. So I've pushed him down. He's like at 17 or so. And I have to do that.

I guess he's a 16 because Undergreen is not there now. Yeah, he's 16 for me as well. Yeah, it's just, oh, I like if he's going at 71, that's actually, George Kirby can be the guy, my SP1, because I'm going for my first starter right around there. Right? Right. The start of the sixth round is when I'm aiming to go for my starters because I want to go hitters for the first five.

This is just, I say this. every year hitting versus pitching value in the first five rounds is so disproportionate that I by the middle rounds by 10 through 12 or whatever it's just so far in the other direction that you're better off getting hitters early so then when I turn to pitchers George Kirby's often one of the guys that I would gravitate to all right let's take our final break when we return we've got some other spring performances to talk about some risers we'll do that right after this welcome back in fantasy baseball today we're here talking pitching with buddy Nick Pollock, who is a McClanna fan, as you could see if you're watching on YouTube.

One more name to talk about before we get to some of these big risers. Cam Schlittler, I want to ask you about this big cutter velocity increase that we saw in his spring debut. Two and a third shutout innings, four strikeouts had six whiffs on 39 pitches, four of those on the cutter. And he threw that cutter a bunch, basically doubled the usage of that pitch in this one outing here. he averaged 94.9 miles per hour on that cutter. And Nick, one thing that I think on this podcast at least, we've kind of collectively worried a little bit about is just how much Camp Schliller's velocity has jumped up

over the past two seasons. And now he shows up to spring and his cutter's 95 miles per hour. So I don't know if that's a good thing. Does it open up more risk for injury? What do you think? It's so filthy though. And he's a better pitcher. Like I say this a lot about sophomore pitchers.

I'm generally more inclined to go for them just because oftentimes they have a foundation that they leave down that isn't their final form. And when they're in good organizations, you'll see that over the off season, they'll be given a new plan. They'll be given something new in the spring and then they'll crystallize, right, more in that full season as a starter. and that makes me so amped for Cam Shloth because we've already seen him embrace sinkers to right-handers a little bit as well. It's not the greatest sinker, like it's bad horizontal movement, but it's great that he's throwing that because now he has three fastballs in the zone for strikes, and that's really good. Now, you also have an 85 mile per hour curveball with great movement. So it's all there. It's just, yeah, I'm terrified too.

and I really don't know what to do because I want to say there's a high in injury risk with Cam Schloader he hasn't been injured right I mean there was the delay at the beginning of the season but that was nothing

I mean that was that was a back thing it wasn't that was your typical hey it's my first time at spring oh I'm still a little like getting out of bed you know that is not a actual issue and I mean look at Joe Ryan right now he's fine

So I I'm with you though like it's so scary that cam Schilder could get hurt but everyone could get hurt yeah everyone get hurt yeah I just I don't know what to do I mean I think this gets to this gets to what we always talk about we're talking about injuries is any velocity increase probably carries injury risk but injury risk is not the only kind of risk and I think that is something that we talk about too much where okay, injury risk might be higher, but if it makes him a better pitcher, then it probably is worth rolling the dice. And then with Cam Schlittler, it's like, the injury risk, the apparent injury risk, or what we're implying is injury risk, just comes from he used to not throw as hard,

and now he throws harder. We think that leads to more injury risk. It probably does. But when you're talking about other pitchers who have had dealt with injuries. I don't really like is Jesus Lozardo a better bet to stay healthy than Cam Schlittler given Hazers Lizardo missed time with a fractured back has missed tons of time with shoulder and elbow injuries over the years like are we sure he's a better bet to stay healthy is Yuri Perez a better bet to stay healthy then Cam Schlittler maybe because he had the UCL replaced but it was like the perfect rehab was last year is is Chase Burns who has has not had the UCL replacement is Nick Povetta,

who's currently dealing with arm fatigue. Like you can go through all these guys and come up with reasons why they all have risk. I think Nick Povetta has significant performance risk. Pivotta has been dealing with arm fatigue in spring. Since when? Two days ago, I think. Yeah.

No. How did I miss this? It's, it doesn't sound serious. Everybody downplayed it. So it's probably fine. It's probably just like normal spring. I've been really in on Pivotta. Like, understanding what he did last year

and then. seeing that what he's doing in the spring. I'm just like this guy is a completely different pitcher and he's been such a rock as far as workload goes or like like you know who's going ahead of camp Schindler who definitely has injury risk at more than him. Tyler Glass now is about around or five picks ahead of camp Schlittler and well I agree with that I agree with that he's he's great he's a really good pitcher but he's never thrown more than 134 innings the major level and he's like 33. We got to assume that's probably the ceiling.

Question. This is something I wrestle with a ton. I don't have a good answer. I don't know really how to treat it. Let's say you get 130 innings from Glasna, right? The quality of inning for Glasnow is far more guaranteed than Schiller. Right? And in a 12 teamer, especially considering that he's healthy now,

that is so valuable because the replacement level quality, is higher than I think it's ever been. I mean, the past, like last year was so high, and now it's still incredibly high that Glassnow, with that super high quality of performance that you can lock in, plus that replacement is really good. And it's, to me, I'm going for that a lot in my drafts,

especially my 12-teamers that have IL slots. And, like, I see him as like an SP2.5. Well, and the thing with Glassnow is, when he pitches, we talked about this, I think, when we did our all head to head versus all roto maybe. When Glass now pitches, he is phenomenal on a per star basis. This is not an innings limit thing, like Trey is Savage, where you might have a whole month. It's way better this way, right. Tyler Glass now is going to be awesome.

You're going to start him every single time. And then he's going to get hurt and miss some time. And you'll have, I mean, you look at the ADP outside of the top 300, you've got like, Robbie Snelling's going to be up at some point. Parker Messick and Will Warren looks pretty interesting. Like there are interesting guys that you can replace him in in a 12 team league. In a 15 team league, it does get harder to. Different in 15, yes.

Maybe I'm putting too much emphasis on last year. I've talked about this a lot with Glass now, but there was some skill decline. The walks went up, the swinging strike rate went down. The slider was worse. But now he has a new one, which is a harder slider, which I think is going to make it say throws more strikes with it. So I feel a little bit better about it.

Last point on Cam Schlitler, and this is completely anecdotal. I'm just trying to think of reasons why this would work. I guess probably more so as a Yankee fan, but being 6'6 foot 6, maybe he could just take on more velocity and workload just because he's like a massive human being. Like, I don't know. It works for Paul Skeens, right?

So I don't know. I don't have any data to support that, but yeah, that's fair. Nick has Cam Schlittler, SP25, by the way. or around there, but higher, higher than all the other kind of second year pitchers, Nolan McClain, Bubba Chandler, Trey Savage, Mizzierowski, and even Chase Burns.

I thought that was interesting. I would have Chase Burns higher if it were not for the flexor strain last year, which I understand could be kind of like your false, you know, your Dodgeritis kind of injury. Just a little bit. Like that is really just a limit as innings or so. But I have to flag that as a real.

as a radio thing. So he gets a ding for that. Yeah, I think it was a grade 0.5. Yeah. Bad job by me. I probably should have mentioned Scott is having internet issues. We haven't just ignored him

for the last 20 minutes. That would now be... He's just holding his tongue. He's just really trying not to be disagreeable this whole time. Yeah, we appreciate that, Scott. But yeah, he's dealing with some internet stuff. Let's move into some spring risers here.

And let's, I guess we can do a little rapid fire with these names. And Mick Abel is a name that has performed very well this spring. This is one where in the past, I might have overreacted to. I'm trying not to overreact. Trying to just react because he's looked really good.

But came over from the twins, nope, came over to the Twins from the Phillies in the Yon-Duran trade last year. He has thrown 10 shutout innings, 13 strikeouts to just five base runners, tons of swinging strikes here. Roster Resource now has McAbel in the Twins rotation.

Zebby Match. to use on the outside. So I don't know if that's based on any reporting. I haven't seen that. Maybe it's just based on performance. But Nick, are you buying what we've seen from Mick Abel? I have been a Mick Abel fan since I saw him with the Phillies. And I think I want to even say before this, like in spring training of 2024, I want to say. And it's kind of funny because you look at the Phillies rotation right now. You know who they could use? Makeable. And the McAble guy is so good. I love his four seamer. He commands it so well upstairs.

It is flat. It kills it there. He has a singer he goes inside with. And he has these breaking balls that need a little bit more polish. I'm same with the change up. But they are, it's just a great package. And I do innately think he's a command pitcher. So the second that he's starting, I want him in my 12 teamers.

I think this is not someone who I call a hipster, headache-inducing pitcher, stifling the entire roster. That is someone that I'm talking about before of like he does well for one game, but he's so inefficient that he doesn't do well the next one. You don't know what to do. And now you're missing all the other guys you could be grabbing instead. That would be Zebby Matthews. Zebby Matthews, though, I feel like still should be in the rotation.

Even though he had that bad game against Atlanta, he had a really unfortunate first inning. And then he came back out because he was removed from that one because of spring. And then he came back out. And he was he did well for the next couple of innings. And I think that Taj Bradley shouldn't be in there, but whatever. I don't think that Simmy Woods Richardson is looking very good. right now.

His loss at his way down at 91 instead of like the 93, 94 that we saw last year. And I just think that Zebby and Mick Abel should both be there. But I would love for Mick Abel to be there. He hasn't pitched as much as far as like pitches in games as you'd want to see. But yeah, I would be very interested in taking him as a flyer. I've actually been considering pushing him up into the 70s or 80s because like I was saying before, you want those easy decisions. Is he in the rotation?

He's on my team still. Is he not? he's off my team. You don't want that. We'll wait around and he's my SB 5 who goes against the Dodgers the first week. So I won't start him and now I don't have to start from this roster spot for 10 days. And I still don't even know if it's good or bad. You want to avoid that situation as much as possible. And Mick Abel's 80p so far in March, still very late, 378, but it was outside the top 500 in February. So now with this performance, he is firmly on people's radar and he's moving up. And I think as, you know, last pick in a draft before we know whether or not he's on a team.

If he doesn't make the team, you could cut him or stash him. But once he gets called up, man, I think there's a lot of excitement there with McAbel. I just want to say, Frank, you were saying you're trying not to overreact to spring. And it's good. We've been working on this. Yeah. That was one of my New Year's resolutions. Don't overreact to spring.

But when I wrote my spring training, believe it or not, column yesterday, Today's Tuesday, right? Yeah, yesterday. I had Mick Able is the big, the biggest spring training riser for pitchers. And Matt McLean is the biggest spring training riser for hitters. And I did believe it for Mick Able and don't believe it for Matt McLean. And the big distinction there is Mick Able was starting around 580p and Matt McLean was starting around 220. So the opportunity cost of raising Mick Able in your rankings is not. nothing. You are going from undrafted in 15 team leagues to sure, let's throw a flyer at him.

And so that's the kind of movement that I think you should embrace, even if you're skeptical of Mick Abel. And I've never been a huge fan of his as a prospect, but like, yeah, if I'm looking at the last pick of my draft and it's like, well, Jameson Tion's in the rotation and he's boring but helpful, it's like, no, I'd rather take the chance on McAbel every time. Tyone does not deserve those strays, okay? All right? He does not. He's a useful player, but like if you don't have James and Tyone on your team,

are you going to look back in June and be like, oh, no, that's why my team is terrible. I didn't draft James and Tyone. He did have a sub-40 ERA last year. Yeah. Nice pitching for the Cubs. Cade Horton, I know he didn't have a good game today. I think it was like six run runs or something like that. Yeah.

But I actually really like what Kate Horton does. I think he could be, oh, he's a little bit overlooked, I think, because it is a very good situation in Chicago. Yes. Yeah. I've kind of just been blindly drafting a lot of their pitchers. Like Shoda I've been back on this year too. Velocity's back up and like I think everyone's overreacting to the fact that the,

the Cubs released him or didn't take the deal. And I couldn't believe that they didn't, honestly. That just made no sense to me personally. But it looks like they wanted to sign one-year deals. And because of that, everyone fell off. and I'm sitting there being like why what are we doing here guys I feel like John Travolta

you know with his jacket so I mean on show to Minaga too even the bad year was still was this sub one whip right that's whip he's overlooked yeah whip is so hard to find like even if he's just a four ERA pitcher but the whip is one like that's useful

he was a 3-7 with the higher home member nine and he still had that like 101 whip yep yep I think we're on agreement we're in agreement there Two names that I've been kind of pumping up as, you know, breakout sleeper types this year, and, you know, they are on the rise. About 20-30 picks so far in March compared to their February ADP.

Mike Burroughs, who was traded over to the Astros this offseason in that three-team trade that sent Brandon loud to the Pirates, and Braxton Ashcraft, who has a clear opportunity here in the Pirates for Rotation as well. So, Nick, do you find yourself interested in buying the rise on these two? Burroughs with Ashtroes, Braxton Ashcraft with the Pirates. I think these are the two most talked about past 300 pick starters.

And I'm not drafting either one in all likelihood. I mean, Burroughs I'm fine with. Like, I would be happy to take a chance on Burroughs and just see what happens there. But I don't... This isn't like Musgrove and Cole

and Charlie Morden going from the pirates to the Astros here. Okay. This is a change of first right-hander who has an improved slider like the astros have fixed it a little bit as we've seen so far and the fastballs well when he throws six innings are not 95 96 he didn't throw deep into games last year so a lot of those numbers that you see from last season are inflated because he's not having to go deeper into games and i think it can be fine but i don't think we're also going to see the ceiling of like a top 40 guy or anything like that

With Brax and Ashcraft, he has a dead zone four seamers. It's what I call empty velocity, where you throw hard, but it's not a swing strike rate pitch. And you go, why not? It throws 97, 98, what's going on? It's because it has movement that's very hitable. There's nothing deceptive about it. It doesn't have a flat attack angle, doesn't have that rise to it, all that stuff. Doesn't have great extension.

So it's just a slider that's really good. And yeah, that it's pretty much just a slider that's really good. great. I have a thing called the Wasker and Noah rule, which is if you throw hard and you have an elite slider and a hitable fastball and that's it, you don't go for it. Hey, we had that one to Nelson Lemette year. Yeah. Oh, man. Well, Lamette was like multiple breakers and like the fastball was like 99 and better than in Noah, you know, oh, I got, that was 2020 a bit, right? And like maybe 21. Yeah, he was the top 10 pitcher in 2020. Yeah. Oh, that was so cool. Um, but, yeah.

Yeah, I am not in either one. Also, I would say with the Pirates, sure they should get more wins and it's a nice park in PNC, but like that's not, you don't want to draft and natally pirates pitchers because it is a lower win situation.

They are also not teams that let their younger guys go deeper into games, right? So the whole thing combined, I mean, Ashcroft and Burroughs both have not proven themselves to be consistent six-inning pitchers. And when you're drafting later on, look back at last years,

sleepers, the guys who went deeper in ADP were not drafted in your 12 teamers. The ones that overperformed, Matthew Boyd, Merrill Kelly, Noah Cameron, Andrew Rabbit, Ranger Suarez, what do all of them have in common? Boring. Lefties was changeups,

but they all were 90 pitch guys. Consistly going six innings. Volume that has potential to be quality is way better than quality that has potential for innings. Yeah, I mean, and the pirates were, remember, we were complaining about it. There was a point in July, I think,

when the pirates were babying Paul Skeens again. Like, they were playing games about his workload two years in when he's clearly the best pitcher in baseball, or one of the three best pitchers in baseball, at least. Like, the pirates are very cautious about their young pitchers. So, yeah, that's a concern. He is the best pitcher in baseball. I'm sorry, Scoobel.

Oh. Ashcraft, by the way, you mentioned his slider. His curve ball is really good, too, Nick. I mean, it's a... Yeah, that's the most thing. I was trying to make sure it wasn't confusing him with Milginzky for a second. But I think both of them have a really good curveball, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. So he's got the two good breakers. He does throw hard, but yeah, the fastball does tend to get tagged there a little bit for Brax and Ashcraft. I've got five other names here, Nick, that I know that you had some level of opinion on. And so I'll just throw them all your way. Cody Ponce, he signed the three or $30 million. deal with the Blue Jays is off season. He's returning from the KBO. We have two guardians that are

competing for rotation spots in Joey Cantillo and Parker Messick. And then Cade Cavali, who might be on the worst team in baseball, but former top prospect and he's got a nasty curveball. So what do you got here on Cavali, the Guardians guys, and Cody Ponce. So Ponce and Ryan Weiss are, I mean, it's often, it's often what you do. You get these KBO guys and you just kind of compare them together. The one thing that we often do see, though, is they are allowed to go deeper into games. And when they're signed for these cheaper deals like this, the reason teams get them are to be innings eaters. And I see Cody Ponce in Toronto as just like, great, we want this. We want like an innings guy when we don't know if we were going to get so many good innings in Burios.

We just signed Scherzer, but who knows how much that's going to last? We're slowing down you savage, let alone the health of everyone else in there too, right? So, okay, he's going to be going for a bit. He's 9596 with a great breaking ball and a really nice change up. Like, awesome. Oh, wait, that's also Ryan Weiss. And Ryan Weiss is going for the Astros. And look at that rotation.

I mean, McCullors somehow went like 50 plus pitches today, which I can't believe. But there's Ari Getty in there, too. And Christian Javier is looking bad. And it might be a six-man because Amai is around. and again, all those injured guys. So yeah, you're going to need Ryan Weiss to get innings. And because they're unknown, because they're not understood, it's a great thing because we know that they're not bad.

Like definitively bad. That's not the case with them. So go chase that opportunity and hopefully that the quality is actually going to match it. So I'm in on those. Cantillo and Parker Messick, they both might be in the rotation because Logan Allen might be out. He should be out. If anyone's been following the Guardians, I mean, Logan Allen is. clearly the worst of those three Southpaws.

The only reason we haven't been considering Messick is because Alan has been gained more of the or the opportunities. However, he pitched for, I believe it was Canada. He started and he left five walks. And it was kind of like you're hoping that your parents didn't see you, you know, when you're out with your friends or something like that. Like, oh, I hope they don't tell my parents about that one. And now that you're having in relief.

So like now Alan's just going like one inning for, I believe it's Canada, right? And that's not what you want for like your SV5. Meanwhile, Parker Messick just went and he went over 50 pitches. And I'm like, all right, he's in the rotation. And so is Cantillo. And I would rather have Parker Messick because Cantio does not have good command. He has a really filthy changeups. It's a Vulcan change.

If you know anything about Vulcan changeups, is that they're thrown like this. And if you try to make the Vulcan sign and stick a baseball between those fingers, that you can realize how inconsistent this is. You can throw 10 great ones, but then you'll throw five bad ones too. And it's why Cantillo, with a bad fastball he can't command, is going to be more volatile. He's going to have those eight strikeout games that are great, and then he's going to have some weird ones. While Parker Messick has much better command. So I'm a fan of Messick, and that's a Guardians team that likes to let their guys go.

So Parker Messick, beautiful. And Kate Cavali, no, he has a really good curveball. I love it. He breaks the Wascarianola rule. Four seamers bad. The sinker can be good, but I don't really think that there's anything else except that curveball. And it's just such a bad team.

It's a bad defense, too. It's why I'm also not touching the Angels guys, really for the most part. I mean, I should mention that with Grace Marviguez. Jose Soriano, the number one ground baller in the league, had the worst defense. No wonder he had such a high whip, right? Yeah. Like, that's just how it goes. So, yeah, avoid the nationals in the same way.

One thing on the Guardians guys, because I'm a big Parker Messick fan. I just think Parker Messick is already their third best pitcher. I don't really... Oh, yeah, yeah, over the slate, absolutely. I don't think Slate to Soconi should be a lock for the rotation at all personally. But he is, yeah. The thing that really helps Cantillo, Cantillo, right? Cantillo.

Cantillo. It is. Really? He's Italian, so it's Cantillo, yeah. Yeah, that was surprising. people have misled me and Cantillo does not have an option

Logan Allen Slate Ticone and Parker Messek all have options I mean Logan Allen you can toss them in the bullpen if you want they have a couple lefties in there also just start them at AAA I think if they're going their best five Parker Messex should be in there no question I think Parker Messec is actually real I'm a big Parker Messec fan

yeah you're right I totally thought it was Allen who didn't have the option. Oh, great call, Chris. Assuming roster resources is right. No, no. I mean, yeah, Logan Allen has one option. Yeah, so. Logan Allen is not very good.

Yeah, that's the one that he should probably just start in AAA. I think Parker Messick's really good. He threw like 150 innings, I think, last year. So I don't think there are really any innings concerns for him. I think he was always at the top of the zone beautifully. I think if he was guaranteed a rotation spot, I might rank Parker Messick as like a top 50 SP. I won't put him a top 50.

I would have him around where, like, Noah Cameron-esque, so it's like late 50s, early 60s. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And if you are into the Bulldog type pitcher, I mean, he is a fiery dude, man. If you've watched Parker Messick, he is kind of a wild boy. So he's a fun one to watch on the mound as well.

Some deep league names here, Nick. I wanted to quickly ask you about some of these. The Cardinals trio, Matthew Liberator, Richard Fitz, Kyle Leahy. Right now, Rastor Resource has Liberator and Leahy in the rotation. Richard Fitz on the outside looking in, but they've all done kind of interesting things

this spring. Any thoughts here on those three? You know, all three should be in the rotation and Andre Palante should just not. Okay? Panate should just no. I'm so sorry, I'm happy they's moving away from the cut four seamer because it's just not good in the slider. He threw like 50%

the time and it's much better. Sure. But But with those three, actually, I was messaging Eno about this. Like, I was doing my write-up for the Cardinals, and then I realized that Cal Leahy had Braxton Ashcraft slider. And I go, whew, if anyone would like that, it's Eno, because Eno has, like, Ashcraft in, like, the top 60 or something like that. And now that was more so in relief than it was as a starter, so we shouldn't expect the same velocity. And again, I do you want to mention that Brexon Ashcroft didn't go very long in games last year either. but Lehi is, I think Lehi has from a stuff standpoint is far better than I certainly gave him credit last year.

And Fitz went today, did not do as well. Maybe it was or was yesterday. I can't remember one of the two. Matthew Liebertoe, though, amazing sleeper. Like, I really can't emphasize enough. How many pitchers can you think of who you know can get the pearl and go every five days and be trusted for, six innings by their team, right? Okay, it used to be like Jake Irvin.

Fine, don't draft Jay Griffin. But Libra Tour is better than that. And he does fluctuate his velocity, but we just saw him in 94 to 95. Cutters getting inside to right-handers as he does when he's at his peak. Working in the change-up as well, the slider had like eight over 13 whiffs to lefties. It was a bad lineup. Just want to say it was a bad lineup. I think it was Giacoriels, and there was Kobe Mayo and everyone else in Kirsten and then no one.

But I it's yeah, I think Liberator is a really good 15 team ad. Kyle Leahy is interesting. I think that he's going to be less efficient than I want him to be. And Fitz, Fitz's routine for having like really exciting velocity at first and then disappointing you. So I am cautious with the Richard Fitz right now. I'm going to mention another name. He's flowing, flying under the radar now. He had a lot of hype this time last year, and he's looked pretty good this spring.

Quinn Matthews, I am a big believer in Quinn Matthews. Hopefully the shoulders healthy. His velocity was way down last year, but it's back up higher than it was in 2024. Quinn Matthews, still a interesting sleeper. I agree with you. I'm not. Who was I supposed to say? You'll see me reacting because you teeted up so perfectly.

Because I'm never. You were going to say, I've never been a dust and make over here because it was going to be May. And that's what I thought you were going to say. I'm not a Dustin May believer. But here's the thing. The Cardinals, again, Cardinals defense, great. I know it's no more Aeronado. Sure, but it's still a very good situation.

Great Park. Pitching at NL Central is just kind of proven to be good. Believe it or not, pitching in Miller Park, and I'll always call out that, is a good thing for pitchers. I know that sounds crazy, but they get more strikeouts there almost as much as the Mariners, which is nuts. It's better for pitchers. You have P&C Park in there as well.

sure the Reds, whatever. Riggily is actually generally more beneficial for pitchers than it is harmful. So Dustin May, ground ball guy, in a finally like a relaxed scenario, he was asked to do so much of the Dodgers, all these people in his ear, goes to the Red Sox, has to prove that he's worthy of this trade that was the most ridiculous thing ever. And now he just gets the coast in St. Louis. So I'll tell you this, that Dustin May probably won't be that guy that you really want. April. As the season goes on, I think he's going to find his groove and actually be a decent

12th team replay. He's no Quinn Matthews, but that's fine. I think Quinn Matthews is ultimately better, but he's not pitching. Yeah, he's not going to be in the rotation, yeah. Right. Nick, you mentioned the Brewers in there and pitching in Miller Park. We know that they're dealing with some injuries right now. Quinn Priester has a wrist issue. Logan Henderson dealing with an elbow. He had the flexor tendon last year as well. So look, they have some depth. Could be interesting depth. What do you think about Kyle Harrison

and Brandon Sprote potentially stepping into the brewer's rotation? Well, Sprote is interesting. There's also Robert Gasser there, of course, too, Chad Patrick. Kyle Harrison, I'll start with, though, is, yeah, the change-up is new, it's better. What's so funny to me is that the last game that we saw with Kyle Harrison against for the Giants

was in Cors. And he had this change-up that was just amazing. And it was cores as well, which kind of weirds movement too. So it might have actually been a similar esk changeup. I don't know. Actually, I do. And I'll get to that in a second.

He goes then to the Red Sox and we're saying, well, he's going to learn a cutter now, all this stuff. And he abandons this change up. And I'll just go, what just happened? We were on the verge of this and it gets stripped away. Kind of like Nate Carnes when all of a sudden he was throwing breaking balls half the time, had these three great games and blew out his shoulder. And that was the last we ever heard of him.

That's a throwback. Okay. I don't remember that one. Yeah, Kansas City Royals. Anyway, you have also him now with the Giants in the offseason before the trade. Or not the Giants, I'm sorry, with the Red Sox before the trade. He's actually learning this changeup now from someone from the Giants. And it wasn't the Brewers who taught him this changeup.

But it's great. It's a really good change up. He doesn't command it super well yet. And that's always been the biggest issue. However, I do think that there's some. something in the water there with Milwaukee of at least nailing down approaches at the very least. So I think it's a very good situation for him. And I'll be completely honest with you. The thing I'm most jazzed about is the camera angle. He's going to have such a good camera angle

pitching in Milwaukee. I was excited for it with the Red Sox because they have arguably the best left-handed one, but finally didn't really get much of that. But it is really good for Milwaukee. And Brandon Sprote, I just want to see him get volume. I mean, I think he's a perfect. case of hey you have a fastball sweeper combination you need a little bit more by overtime i think that you'll find a rhythm you'll find a way to attack lefties effectively etc and you throw them into milwaukee beautiful just getting him settled but you know how much time is prester and woodruff going to actually miss how much time is you really going to get in that rotation i don't know yeah so as far as a drafts goes harrison i take the flyer on sproat i don't know

I'm a little bit more tepid there. Yeah, it's kind of a wait-and-see approach and maybe a stash once the season starts, or just pick him up whenever he gets called up for Brandon Sprote there. Last two names here, big Velo jumps, but I mean, these are in the deepest of leagues. Carson Wizz and Hunt with the Giants, Randy Vasquez with the Padres. Big velocity jumps this spring. Do either matter, Nick. Okay, so I'm so happy you mentioned Randy Vasquez.

You have no idea. Yeah. Okay, Carson Wisen and I'll get out of the way. Big velocity jump, swatch type. He was throwing like 92, right? South Pole Vauxite changeup. Kind of watched them. We were like, this should work like all the other guys.

And it just kind of wasn't. But then all of a sudden, we saw it on 94 or 96. Like, that should change things, but you just can't locate it right now. And it's a common thing of like, I can throw harder, but now I don't know where it goes. So that's cool. The Giants have all their guys. And actually, I will say Tyler Malley is a wonderful sweet sleeper over there. I got him in NL labor.

Let's go, Nick. I just got him in TGFBI at like 320 or something. I'm stoked about it. Also, Adrian Houser for your deeper NL only leagues. Like, I would go for that too. Yeah, it really, it's a great situation. Also, Mali, like, Homer's is the problem. But then again, you remember he was part of Cincinnati before and like on the twins.

And then you have Oracle Park. You know, he pitched well in Arlington. I don't know. I think it's, I think it's pretty safe there. But with Wisenhunt, yeah, you have a little. guys in the way you're gonna have tidwell probably beforehand because you saw tidwell going up against um lane and rupe both battling for the fifth spot so you often see that in spring training when the manager throws both their guys in the same same game for the

same amount of innings and uh rupe going first means he has the inside lane he hasn't lost it it's going to be him table is probably going to be second and then it's wiz and hunt so whiz and hunt will get his time to work on the polish with that and we'll talk about that later but randy vasquez you know i actually got to talk to people close to Randy about like what's been going on and everything. And his arsenal is so different now. It's so cool. He throws two ticks harder.

Really, he's just been like doing stuff with like training and everything like that. Just simple like development and all that with it with the Padres. And he has a cutter now that has seven inches of cut. And I don't think you guys really can grasp like how good that is at 89 miles per hour. like normal sliders that we see at 89 are like zero inches of cut like it's normally like that gyro I was talking about before it's zero zero and to see that he gets that extra seven is a ton of movement he can't wrangle it yet but just showcasing that he has that is super exciting there's a really good curveball that he's trusting now as well and what we saw with him with the yankees

and initially with the potteries is that he knows how to jam that sinker inside two right-handers great. He has a four-seamer now that he can flirt upstairs and actually be a whiff pitch later and counts at two strikes. There's a change-up that's actually looking pretty good. Like, wait a second, Randy Vasquez, out of nowhere,

is looking like a very very solid arm. And he was really good at leaving guys on base last year. Like, he is someone who knows how to pitch the contact already and get out in, like, induce weaker contact than others. You throw in

more velocity, you throw in that kind of cutter that doesn't need to be precise. It just needs to be in the zone, like a 2-0 pitch you throw it to a righty, and all of a sudden they, you know, you dribble it to the third base, and there you go, you're out of the inning. Like, this, there's so much potential in this.

And he's the SB 4. He's not even the 5. Like, he's locked in. There's a lot of opportunity there, yeah. And that is a good offense and, like, good defense. And like, in San Diego, in April and May, is a great place to pitch. Oh my gosh, we saw,

last year, Michael King gained like 23 inches of horizontal movement because of how ridiculous San Diego gets with the humidity and everything. Like, I, I don't want to go out too far in a limb, but everything I'm seeing right now about this is just saying this is the clear like absolutely out of nowhere sleeper is Randy Vasquez right now. It's so wild. I just want to say like one or two more spring starts before I really stamp that one. Chris, that is my long running faith in the Scott White Dynasty League.

and Randy Vasquez. He's finally paying off, baby. Because he gained two ticks of velocity in the offseason. Everyone knew it was going to come, right, Chris? My, I mean, look, that is a team that I took over like seven years ago. Oh, my gosh. And I have never been able to bring myself to fully commit to rebuilding. And so I have had no pitching for years.

But Randy Vasquez and Reid Dettmers are going to carry me to victory this year. Look, I have the Reed Detmer's no-hitter bobblehead. Okay? I have that. And I want him to be so good, but... It's a 24-team league. The pickings are slim. I'm just...

I'm hoping, but like, first and foremost, that defense is terrible. He's got to be better than better. Yeah. You know? I'm not expecting much, but... I hope he hasn't. I hope it's good. Get that change it back working, you know?

That would be great. He is Nick Pollack. Make sure to follow him on X at PitcherLiss. You can follow him on Blue Sky as well. Find all of his work over at PitcherList.com. And Nick just remind people again where they can find your streams and everything else he's got going on. Well, the number one thing you got to do is get our subscription, PL Plus. It's $5 a month.

And what you get is all of our staff just answering all your questions. You get to hang out with Chris Towers in our Discord. You get to hang out with me, of course. and Scott Chu and Rick Graham and Nate Schwartz and Kyle Blaine and everybody. And you can add-free version of our websites where we have all of the daily content that you want, including my SB Roundup, every day going over all 30 pitchers. And that started last night and what you should be doing with them. So go check that out.

It's PL Plus $5 a month, guys. All right. We're going to wrap there for Nick, Chris, Scott, and his internet. 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 spot. and we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.

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