Fantasy Baseball Today - Strider Dominates, Pitcher Returns & Rankings Risers/Fallers! (6/16 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 16, 2022

Spencer Strider looks like a stud (1:00)! Add Jon Berti if you need steals. ... Both the Padres and White Sox offenses broke out on Wednesday (10:22). ... Jack Flaherty made his long-awaited season debut (17:40). ... How far has Tony Gonsolin moved up the rankings (21:50)? ... Why is Nick Castellanos a rankings faller (31:53)? Can he get back on track? ... News and notes (40:22): Juan Soto was out again plus we got a bunch of bullpen updates. ... Why are people dropping Christopher Morel (46:50)? ... How to value Jose Berrios, Zac Gallen and Luis Castillo (51:04). ... We wrap with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (54:20).  Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @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/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Make that 24 more swinging strikes for Spencer Strider, who is pretty awesome. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, June 16th. Frank Stample joined by Chris Towers today on the.

show, a couple more massive offensive outputs, pitchers that return, pitchers that confuse me. There's a lot that confuses me, but these pitchers, I've got a trio that I want to talk about, rankings, risers, and followers, and much more. But let's jump right in. Oh my goodness gracious. Oh my goodness gracious. Chris, who will be the Olive Garden breadstick for you tonight? Well, yeah, I think this is the Olive Garden breadstick, that extra Olive Garden Redstick obviously and it's Spencer Shrider like you mentioned in the top of the show 24 swinging strikes 11 strikeouts and 5 and 2 3rds innings against the nationals was pretty dominant and only two walks which is a big deal because that's been you know if you had to find you know one

potential flaw for him so far this season it's the walk rate but that's three straight walk three straight starts now with two or fewer walks um and that's that's potentially really big if he could sustain that because this fastball slider combination is really a two pitch pitcher but he's just dominating with them 10 swinging misses swinging strikes with the slider today 12 with the fastball actually got two with the change up on only four of them which maybe he could throw that pitch even more but yeah he's um when he's on he's on he's he's pretty devastating. There are, you know, as I said, there have been times when the control hasn't been as good. And then I think that can be a concern moving forward for him, but he looks

pretty good. He's, you know, we're going to talk about some rankings, risers and fallers a little later on. And I think he's probably going to need to be a riser for everyone. Rightfully so. Before I analyze his performance today and on the season thus far, can we just take a look at Spencer Strider, the person, Chris, because He kind of looks like a cartoon character. Not that, I mean, whatever. I am. I'm no Adonis, like, who am I to call out anyone how they look, right?

But Spencer Strider, you just look at the guy. In his face, looks like a boy, has this awesome mustache. And then he has these quads that are, like, massive. Something you would see on, like, a running back. You know, people would drool over, like, running back thighs and quads, like, this time of year. That's Spencer Strider. So I don't know how I figured this out, but I was making the thumbnail for YouTube and I was like, wow Spencer Strider is like an interesting looking dude. I don't know if you ever thought about it, Chris.

Yeah, running back quad watch is one of my favorite recurring bits in the fantasy football world and yeah, Spencer Spencer Strider's got he's got some good ones. He's got some some ham hawks. I think that's what you could refer to them as, right? I feel like I've heard that word before, but if you said it, outside of that context, I wouldn't be able to tell you what body part it was. So yeah, we'll go with that. Anyway, Spencer Shrider, the pitcher, he's been great so far. His four starts since moving into the rotation, 2.81 ERA, 31 strikeouts over 19 and

two-thirds innings pitched. He had a 15.7% swinging strike rate entering Wednesday's action. That's obviously just going to go up. I will point out, this was a Juan Soto list, Washington Nationals lineup. So it was truly a fantastic matchup. So I guess you take it with a little bit of a grain of salt, but it was still awesome. He's made four starts in the rotation. At Arizona, great matchup, great park to pitch in.

At Colorado, tough matchup, tough park to pitch in. He wasn't great, although only give up one earned running four innings. Versus the Pirates versus the Nationals. So, you know, it's been a pretty soft schedule for him. since going to the rotation and maybe that's coloring and maybe that's something to keep in mind to temper expectations But I don't I don't know man. I don't know if I want temper expectations He's so much fun and I've mentioned this before I always referenced Tyler Glass now right it's you don't want to rely on just two pitches and I actually I think glass now when he broke out you even started throwing a third pitch

But when your two pitches are this good you can kind of get away with it When you throw 98 miles per hour and you have a wipeout slider, you can kind of make do. It's, you know, Chris Paddock was a little bit different a couple years ago. He had that awesome change up, but he wasn't overpowering the way that some of these other pitchers are. So someone like Shreder, I think he can get away with it. He's 73% rostered. That number just needs to be higher. Like we're talking universally rostered.

Universalized rostered. Yeah. For Strider. And he will be tested more next week. He's in line for two starts as of now. Looks like the Giants and the Dodgers. So a little bit tougher matchups there. we'll see what Spencer Shrider can do.

I do have some concerns. I do have some concerns, Chris, just later on in the season. Is he on an endings limit at some point? You know, do they kind of bring him back into the bullpen? But I think we'd worry about that when we get there. And he just needs to be rostered right now. That's where the fact that he was in the bullpen early on, you know, does help him a little bit because we've got, what,

a little over three and a half months left in the season. So you figure that's probably, I don't know, 18 starts, let's say. Yeah, that's probably around, right? 18, 19 starts, depending on how the rotation, you know, maybe they could make it more like 17 if they skip him a few times. And let's say he averages five in a third inning, five and two thirds innings per start. I'm not going to give him six.

But, you know, that's like 90-ish innings, I want to say, for the rest of the season, which would get him to about 130. He threw 94 last year. So it's entirely conceivable that Spencer Strider could be more or less a full-time start of the rest of the season and not have to worry about innings. All right. Yeah, makes sense to me. I mean, I know that what's his name? Starting pitcher Achilles, Mike Soroka.

He's trying to work his way back. And I don't know that we'll get anything from him. But if they want to play a cautious, they could go six men later on in the season as well. Oh my goodness gracious for me. I saw the chat on YouTube talking beforehand. It kind of wasn't the easiest night for oh my goodness outside of Spencer Strider. And I'm choosing to go with John Birdie, who I believe needs to be added in category league, specifically if you need steals.

So he went two for four on Wednesday with two more stolen bases. He's now up to 14, which is tied for fourth most in baseball. And he only became a full-time player like, three weeks ago. So every time this guy is on base, he has the green light. He's been relatively successful throughout his career stealing bases before. And I kind of just think the Marlins are going to let him go. He's got three different eligibility, second, third, and outfield. He's playing every day right now. 19% rostered. I don't think he's a must add, Chris. But I think that there are more than 19% category leagues on CBS. And he probably should be rostered in all of those.

He should probably be rostered in every category's league. It's really hard to find stolen bases right now. And he, you know, he's kind of doing like a poor man's Tommy Edmund right now. And the underlying numbers suggest that he's been a decent hitter so far this season. You know, he's a 351 Wobah, 352 expected Wobah. Strikes out a little too much for a guy who doesn't hit for any power, really. But, you know, he walks. He gets on base and he does a lot when he gets on base.

So I, yeah, I think any Roto or Categories base league, especially if you need still on bases, he's definitely a must roster player. I will say, you know, if Spencer Strider is the breadstick of the never-ending soup salad and breadsticks, that is, oh my goodness gracious, John Bertie's probably the salad. Yeah.

You know, like you'll be, you'll, you're happy to have it there. But that's not the attraction. action, you know, you're mostly there, at least for me, I'm mostly there for the breadsticks. Oh, I mean, come on. The soup, you know, I like an Italian wedding soup. Yeah. But the breadstick is the clear star. Let's be honest here, right? No one else listening or watching. Like, we're there for the breadsticks. There's no doubt about it. And look, you know, John Birdie, there might be, you know, one or two people at the table who like salad or who want the salad. That's John Birdie. So you need steals, you need salad. Go add John Birdie. I will point out that Tyler Anderson could be the oh my goodness gracious player for tonight. But we'll keep you updated. He's currently throwing a up. Did he just give up a hit now? No, he did not. So he's currently throwing a no-hitter, seven and two-thirds innings into that start right now.

He has 111 pitches. So, I mean, I think they're going to let him go. Yeah. I mean, that would be like the most Dave Roberts thing ever to take Tyler Anderson out. But oddly enough, between innings, they show him he keeps rubbing his forearm and his triceps. And that seems really bad for someone who is trying to throw a no-hitter. And maybe it's a good luck. Maybe that's just his good luck forearm. Like, you know, some people rub a lucky rabbit's foot. Maybe it's, you know. I don't know. Well, keep you updated on what happens with Tyler Anderson. Oh, my goodness gracious offense for the day. Goes to the Padres. They put up 19 runs on 21 hits.

They have been scoring a good amount of runs in the series against the Cubs. And guess what? Now they're going out to Cores Field for the weekend. So I hope you started your Padres this week because they are on fire. Mani Machado. Yeah, I did not start Jake Cronoarth. Ooh. Feeling pretty dumb about that one.

He's up to, what, 18 RBI and 15 games so far in June? Yeah, he is on fire right now. I actually thought about adding Nomar Mazzara in my deeper leagues solely because of this week's schedule. Cubs pitching and Cores Field. It's just a match made in heaven. Machado went three for four hit his 11th home run. I thought he had more home runs than that, but I think he has slowed down quite a bit.

Mani Machado. He's still awesome, but yeah, he slowed down a little bit, which makes sense. Luke Voigt went three for five, hit his eighth home run. Might have been listening yesterday to Scotty, who said he would take Nathaniel low over him. Luke Void, if you need a first basement or corner infielder, he's getting hot again.

Jake Cronoer, three more hits. Jerks and ProFar. three more hits. He's been very good over the past month or so. The one I wanted to highlight here, Chris, Jorge Alfaro, three for six with his fifth home run and over his last 10 games, you know, I always write this in where I'm supposed to update it afterwards and I just never do it. And it's very frustrating. But he was he was 11 for 33 entering Wednesday over his last nine games. And I can do, I can do the math on that one. That's a 333 batting average. That is a 3. You're right.

So now he has three home runs over his last 10 games. He's hitting the ball extremely hard, which is something he has always done. Always has. Still striking out a lot. But the ground ball rate is down to a career low 41%. And that was always a big issue for Jorge Alfaro. He's playing more recently. He started five of their last eight games.

I realize most people listening, you probably don't need a catcher. But if you play an 8-2 catcher league, I think he's kind of interesting and he's only 8% rostered. Yeah, I mean, the strike guy rate is really high but the quality of contact has always been quite good for him

and I mean, you look at the expected Wobon contact. For his career, it's 440. And that's for a guy who has, like you said, hit way too many ground balls. His average long-jangle is 5.4 degrees.

It's up to 10.8. So far this season, he's got a 468 expected Wobon contact. So the bar is low enough at catcher that you can be a viable fantasy option even if you strike out 35% of time mike zanino's done it before so alfaro has always run high batting averages on balls in play he's got some real pop he's very fast actually 90th percentile sprint speed wow um that is so

interesting yeah he no horey alfaro might be like the toolsiest catcher in baseball and has but he's got a cannon arm. He's super athletic. He just, he's never been able to put it together. And maybe he is. And in a 12 team two catcher league, I think that's enough to make him

at least worth looking at. Yeah, I think he's kind of in that, you know, Cal Raleigh, Christian Betancourt conversation where those are the fringe top 25, top 30 catchers. So if you need a second catcher, Alfaro is doing some interesting things right now. Honorable mentioned,

to the White Sox who destroyed the Tigers so bad that the Tigers had to have a team meeting after this game. That's how bad they got beat up.

My favorite detail of that is, is AJ Hinch Tiger's manager? Yep. Said he didn't like that he had to use three position players

to pitch today. Which is like the, I think you should leave guy in the hot dog suit saying, we're all trying to find the guy who did this.

of managerial comments because my guy, you're the one who put those position players in. You got 13 pitchers on your roster. You could have used them. Yeah. I mean, I get why teams do it when they're getting blown out, right? Like,

you want to save your bullpen arms for more competitive games? I have absolutely no issue with it. I actually thought it was pretty cool that Roger Clemens' son, who was a position player, wound up pitching an inning in that game. So obviously, it's interesting for its own reasons.

But anyway, the White Sox, they put up 13 runs on 22 hits in this game. Jose Ibrahim went four for five with two doubles, two RBI. His June continues to be scorching. Andrew Vaughan hit three more, had three more hits in this game. And then a massive game for Yohan Moncada, who hopefully uses this game to get back on track. I was going to mention later on that my fallers, I dropped Montcada quite a bit in the third base rankings, because frankly, he has done nothing this year, really? has not done anything the past couple of years.

And then he just goes out there and has this awesome game where he goes five for six, hit a homer, a double. He had five RBI, truly just an awesome game. But I mean, Chris, is it enough to, I don't know, maybe hold on to Mankata

if you were thinking about dropping him? Sure, yeah. I think that you were looking for any signs of life. And he showed some. The most promising thing here for me with Mankata is three of his hits came on fastballs and he had been really really struggling against fastballs so far this season. I'm looking up the numbers right now. 2.15 Wobah against fastballs this season, which is actually better than it was against breaking balls and off speed pitches, but still you're supposed to hit fastballs.

You know, that's the easier thing to hit. 26% whiff rate. I mean, he has looked, you know, pretty overmatched so far this season. So I think this is a good sign. It definitely doesn't mean that he's back to being that 2019 level player that he was. But I think it's enough to stave off the dropometer for now. Since the start of the 2020 season, and you might remember that he either had COVID in that season or right? before that season and he mentioned that it's something that he was battling all of the

shortened season. He really hasn't been the same since then. I don't want to speculate that whatever, he has lasting effects or whatever it might be, but you just look at that and he really has not been the same since. So since the start of the 2020 season, Munkata is batting 239 with a 724 OPS. I mean, that's about as replaceable of player that you can be, especially when you're not contributing power and you're not contributing steals. So I wouldn't fault anybody for wanting to drop Moncada. I think in deeper leagues, I might still try to hold on, you know, 15 teamers, stuff like that. You know, see if this is something that can get them back on track. But yeah, it's been a real rough go the past couple of years for Yohan Moncada. Some pitching returns, we of course have to talk about.

Jack Flaherty made his season debut against the Pirates. And it was a mixed bag. I know Chris, You're not really looking at results much when someone is returning after a long layoff like this. But he gave up four runs, two of those earned over three innings pitched. His fastball velocity was down 1.4 miles per hour compared to where he was at last season. And that's within the range that, you know, you can build up over your next couple of starts. So I'm not overly concerned about that. His pitch mix was pretty normal, didn't allow that much hard contact. I think it was, you know, all in all, it was okay.

it was a mixed bag. Yeah, I mean, look, it's a nice soft landing to get to go against the pirates in your first game back when you don't necessarily have all your stuff there. Although, you know, remember, he was supposed to have at least one more rehab star and they accelerated his timetable because he, you know, said he felt so much better and the stuff looked good. And so it's a little bit concerning that this was what, you know, they determined to be, you know, his stuff looked so good. but, you know, it's still early.

Like, this is still, you know, his fourth or fifth start, I think. So you're still talking about opening day maybe relative to where most pitchers would be. You know, if you count the rehab starts as like a spring, spring training kind of thing. So it's much too small of a sample size to draw many conclusions from. But it wasn't, I don't feel great about Jack Flaherty as a result of this. Sure. Would you start him next week? It looks like he's in line for two starts against the Cubs and at the Brewers. I'd be fine with that. Yeah. I don't think he's a must start, but I think he's a viable two-start option. All right. Sunny Gray was the other pitcher who made a return to the mound on Wednesday. He was solid at the Mariners.

Five shutout innings with three hits, zero walks, three strikeouts. Only had five swinging strikes. Also, only through 65 pitches, but he was pretty efficient. effective in this start. He lowered his four-seem usage in this one. He used a lot more breaking pitches, his slider, and his curp ball. And Sunny Gray has been very good when he's pitched this year, 2.09 ERA, 3.13 X-FIP, and the walks being down has been massive for him. Two point three walks per nine. And something I've always said, Chris, about Sunny Gray, is he doesn't get enough strikeouts to mitigate the amount of walks that he has. And he's like been consistently over three walks per nine. He gets a good amount of strikeouts. But I just, I always felt that way about him.

If he can keep the walks down, I feel like maybe we can see, I don't know, one of the better versions of Sunny Gray. Yeah, I mean, the thing about him is you look at the expected ERA over the last four seasons, 356, 390, 325290. That's quite good. I mean, it's not a, level production and especially given that he's dealt with injuries and he doesn't necessarily pitch deep into games all the time you know it's there's a limitation to how useful he can be but I I'm viewing him as I don't know if it's must start but you know a very solid starting pitcher moving forward mm-hmm what does that look like in the rankings Chris like top 60s I think he's in the 60 range for me

Let me make sure, but I think that's where I had him. I had him 80, but that was, you know, with the injury, so I can, there's plenty of room for him to move up. Yeah, I remember when. I think in the, yeah, I'll move him to 61. I remember when he returned last time and he had a really good start. I was like, yeah, man, like, you got to move Sunny Gray up. He's, you know, when he pitches, he's typically pretty good. And I got him up around, you know, my 50th starting pitcher range before, but,

I dropped him back down because of injury. So, yeah, he will be someone who is moving back up the rankings. Let's just hope that Sunny Gray can stay healthy. That's been a big issue for him. Speaking of rankings, let's take a look. Some rankings, risers and fallers. We'll start with the risers for Chris. Shane McClannahan.

You know his name, Shane O'Mack. Here comes the money. Here we go. Shane O'Mac, by the way. Tough loss on Wednesday. He gave up four runs, but only one earned. a brutal error in the outfield where Brett Phillips dropped a fly ball, extended the inning.

He wound up giving up a three-run homer to Kyle Higashioka. Still, you know, turned out to be a quality start overall. And Tyler Anderson just lost his no-hitter with one out in the ninth inning. To Show Hey Otani, who is about to have a triple. All right. So we'll talk about Tyler Anderson in a little bit, but, yeah, a near no-hitter for him. Other risers for Chris, Christian Walker, Nico Horner, Adolesk Garcia, Tony Gonselin and David Bednar.

Chris, I'll give you the opportunity to talk about whoever you want. But first, I feel like we need to talk about Tony Gonslin who we didn't get to on yesterday's podcast. Someone tweeted at us that we were... It's just our... Our East Coast bias. Yes, that we were purposely overlooking Tony Gonslin.

We do this podcast very late at night. Usually while the West Coast games are, you know, in the 7th, 8th, 9th, they're wrapping up, but it's hard. It's hard to, you know, pay attention to what's happening and obviously pay attention to the rundown. So no, we did not overlook Tony Gonselin purposely. But what would you like to say about him, Chris, because he is the current ERA leader in Major League Baseball, and he's been awesome. Yeah, I mean, he's been awesome pretty much whenever he's been in the rotation for the Dodgers. It hasn't been consistent enough over the years to

to really matter, but he's got a 241 career ERA. Now, only 288.000. strikeouts in 205 innings, not quite elite. That's still very good over a strikeout. It's good, but it's not, you know, 241 in ERA and 205 innings. That sounds like the best pitcher in baseball. He's not that, but he's a good strikeout pitcher who has, if he control at times, but 8.3% walk rate right now, that's perfectly acceptable. And he's done a really good job of limiting quality of contact, 335,

I've expected Wobon contact for his career. That's very good. He's also been someone who's outperformed his peripherals consistently. It's only 205 innings. That's not enough to say that he has a consistent skill when it comes to that. But I don't know. He does a lot of the things that you want a starting pitcher to do. So, yeah, I think Tony Gonsland, I'm moving him up to.

Where did I move him up to? Yeah, 46. that's too low. I got to move him up higher than that. I moved him right behind Mackenzie Gore and that's making me think maybe I just had McGenzie Gore too low. Yeah. So I'm moving them up together to 30, 38 is where Tony Gonsolin's moving up and that still feels too low. Yeah, no, I think top 40 starting pitcher makes a lot of sense for Tony Gonslin. As we've referenced many times, the 20 through 50 range of rankings is kind of this big glob that's hard to figure out.

and hard to differentiate, but, you know, specifically the 35 to 40 range for me. You Darvish, Jose Berrios, Carlos Carrasco, Eric Lauer, Chris Bassett. I feel like Gonsolin should be in that range, maybe even a little bit above that, but, you know, in that 30 to 40 range, I think makes a lot of sense for Tony Gosson. I think that's the right range. All right, anyone else you'd like to highlight from this list, Chris? David Bednar is, I believe I saw he's averaging four innings. per save or per outing this season or not sorry four outs per save four outs per outing so he actually

recorded the final eight outs on wednesday with four strikeouts for his 11 save that's massive that's crazy for a catch or for a closer he's he really i mean he gives up way too many fly balls which is risky when you're a closer especially because he doesn't get a lot of infield fly balls so they know, there's going to be some home run regression there. But man, he looks like an elite closer. 11.8K per 9, 11.9K per 9 under two walks per nine innings. Yeah, he looks really, really good. It seems like a long time ago when we were not sure

if Chris Stratton or David Bednar was the guy to go with, David Bednar clearly looking like a high-end reliever and I've moved him inside my top 12 at relief. pitcher. So I'm a big fan of his Adoles Garcia we talked about. Christian Walker we've talked a lot about. And another guy that I'm going to add on the fly. And I want to see, let's talk it through. Because we were talking a little bit about it before the show, Ryan Mountcastle. I've been very skeptical. I don't think I had him out inside my top 60 outfielders coming into the season. I was wrong, I think. His quality of contact metrics are

really, really strong across the board. He's looking like a guy that we, it's hard to say we overlooked because we talked about him a ton. It's more, he had two more home runs today. He's up to 12 for the season. It's more just looking flat out like we were wrong. Yeah. He's on another 30 homer pace.

He's on a 80-ish RBI pace, which is a little disappointing. I don't know if that's really his fault. But yeah, quality of contact. expected batting average 313, expected slug 593, there are extenuating circumstances that can make you, I think reasonably assume that he will underperform his expected stats, potentially by quite a lot,

because everyone's underperforming their expected stats, and that gigantic outfield that they've got at Camden Yards now is going to make life more difficult for him, and it's going to turn home runs that in most parks, or balls that in most parks would be home runs into doubles or even outs. And he doesn't pull the ball a lot this season, so that's going to limit some of that quality of contact as well. That's something that stat cast expected stats doesn't take into account is vertical or

horizontal launch angle or whatever that would be, you know, spray, I guess. But still, even if he underperforms his expected stats moving forward. 275 with 30 homers doesn't seem like an unrealistic expectation for him. And that's a lot better than I thought it would be. Yeah, yeah, you're right. I mean, we were talking beforehand and look, this is, this was flat out of miss. Like we were all, we were anti, I would say as a podcast, we were just like the anti-Rion Mountcastle podcast.

A hundred percent. If you think about it, I was trying to think more about the process today. and he was a decent prospect, and he performed well on the minors, and he had a pretty good season last year. And when you put all of that together, it doesn't really make sense that we were off of him. So, yeah, I think it was just a miss, and he's playing very well.

He had two more homers on Wednesday. He's up to 12 home runs. And, I mean, looking at outfield, we've talked about how it's kind of a wasteland. I think you can make the argument that he should be top 40, top 35. I moved in my top 36, yeah. Yeah, like, I think, you know, right around, like, Ozuna and Jorge Soler, to me, that's, that's a perfect place to have Ryan Mountcastle, in my opinion. It's worth noting.

He had, like, a 715 OPS at the end of May. So this is also six home runs in 13 June games. He has 692 OPS at the end of May. So this is very much a recent thing. He was not hitting for power. He has six home runs in 13 June games. he had six in the first two months of the season. It's also possible that this is an overreaction

to Ryan Massel, Mountcastle having a couple of good weeks. But the underlying numbers do suggest that he's been better than his performance. A few risers for me. I didn't really have much this week. I'm actually still working through my starting pitcher ranks, but Danesby Swanson and Kyle Schwabber were two that moved up a little bit. Schwabber red hot right now in June. And Swanson, I want to move him higher because he's having this awesome season.

I believe he's in a contract year. Did I make that up? Or maybe it's next year, but he's coming up on a contract soon. And it's, I wrestle with do we move Danes B. Swanson ahead of established names like Carlos Correa and, you know, Willie Adamas, who's still been really good. Yeah, Adamas is an interesting one because he's not really established himself. If anything, you know, Danes B Swanson is more established than Adamas. That's fair. And Danesby Swanson's been better than Adamas so far this season. Now, Adamas. he's an interesting case because he's another one that the power has been there he's got a 257 isolated slugging percentage with underlying numbers that are even better than that I think he's batting 205 yeah 208 batting average you know 27% strikeout rate that's high but not so high that you know it should be he's he probably isn't a Mendoza line level hitter right and so. And so if he was hitting 255, we'd probably be talking about him as a top 10 shortstop. I don't think he's top 10 in either points or roto right now.

He had a few massive games, and he's missed some time with injury. This is Willie Adomis we're talking about. So, yeah, I think Danesby Swanson is kind of working his way into that tier. And I think you can argue he should be ahead of them, but we'll see. A couple more weeks or months like this, and we're moving Dave Sponson up. Some followers in the rankings for Chris Yosmani Grandal, who is on the aisle right now. Trevor Rogers, who has just been brutal. Eric Lauer, the velocity has come back down.

The swinging strikes haven't been there the past month or so. And then Giovani Gagos, who now finds himself in a closer by committee for the Cardinals. Rogers and Lauer are very disappointing for me. It's funny, I played softball with someone who's on a different team in one of my leagues. And he said, oh, I recognized you from a fan. column that you wrote telling me that I should pick up Eric Lauer and I was like sorry for the last few starts and yeah I I still have hope that he can be a useful fantasy option but I you know I had him as a top 40 option I think he's more like in that 60 range now all right fair enough some followers for me in

the rankings Whitman-merfield has slowed back down his last 15 games he's batting 250 with nothing else. Zero homers, zero steals. I'm hesitant to not write him off, Chris, but kind of admit this might be the start of the decline, the downside of Whitmeryfield's career, because we thought that in April, and then he bounced back with like a pretty good May, and now he slowed up again. But he is older. He's, you know, in his low to mid-30s, and never really hit for much power, always relied on volume. It wouldn't surprise me

if this is just kind of the beginning of the, not the end, but like, you know, that decline for Whitmeryfield. Yeah, on the other side, though, the quality of contact metrics are actually a little better than last season.

The expected Wobus 329, the actual Wobus 254, even accounting for this offensive environment. I think that's a more steep decline. So I think it's not, unreasonable to think he could hit more like he did last season, which was 278, 712 OPS, which would be a pretty dramatic improvement and would make him look a lot better. But the biggest concern here is just the stolen bases. He's only attempted eight in 62 games. That puts him on pace for around 20 attempts.

He had 15 attempts at basically the same point in that 2020 shortened season. He had 15 and 60 games. He's got eight in 62. He's never had fewer than 30 in a full season. That was back in 2019. So he is someone, like, steals can come in bunches, right? You know, we talked about John Birdie having 14 steals in a month, basically. I don't think Whitmerfield is going to do something like that, but it's not out of the question. You know, he's still 84th percent on sprint speed.

That's a little down from last season, but not so alarming that you think he's just lost it. So I think Whitmerfield's still a buy low, but yeah, you'd have to buy pretty low. The other one is Nick Castiano's. And I didn't drop him tremendously. You know, I dropped him down to around 20 or 21. He's consistently been right around 15 for me. So it's more so just other outfielders moving ahead of him. And I'm sure this means that he's going to, you know, have a three homer game on Thursday or Friday and make me look dumb.

But what do you think about Castellanos, Chris? Because he goes 0 for 4 on Wednesday. He's betting 253. 7-10 OPS. And outside of the two years in Cincinnati, he was not known for being a power hitter, the way that he was in Cincinnati. And he did have drastic home road splits last year.

He was awesome and great American ballpark, not so great outside of there. What do you think? Do you think Nick Cassiano gets back on track or maybe just closer to the player he was back in Detroit? Yeah, you know, it's possible because he relies so much on hitting, his home runs to the power alleys.

And obviously, Great American Ballpark was a fantastic place for a guy with that profile to hit. Philly is pretty good though, too. Right. That's the thing is Philly's very good for that as well. Not quite as good, I don't think. But the one thing that I would argue, you know, if I had to hypothesize why Nicosthenas is underperforming so much right now, it's possible that those longer home runs and especially

the ones hit the opposite way could be more. impacted by a ball that's not traveling as far. You know, we mentioned it the other day, but one of the things that has been studied this season is the effect of like slicing spin on batted ball distance. And that would, at least in theory, impact balls hit the other way more. And so you just think of the way the trajectory works. So it's possible that he is especially impacted by a ball that doesn't travel as far.

And you do see in his spray chart, he only has one home run the opposite way and one to dead center. So maybe there's something there that he's more impacted by this than your typical hitter. But the quality of contact metrics are still really solid. They are down a little bit. Well, down a little bit. But yeah, but 352 expected Wobo within the league context, that's still very, very good. So I would still be trying to buy.

And like I said, that's a hypothesis. That might be worth looking into. And maybe I'll do that in the next couple of days. You know, try to see if maybe balls hit to the power alleys, the other way are especially impacted this season. It's entirely possible they are. But based on the knowledge I have right now, I would still be trying to buy Nick Castion.

I agree completely. And the keyword is buy low. I'm not trying to pay the you know, fourth or fifth round price tag that you paid on draft day, but if I can get him, you know, for, I don't know, a top 75 or a top 80 player, that's something I would look into doing. Quickly pulled up the park factors according to statcast. So a three-year rolling average, the past three years. Great American Ballpark is far and away the best ballpark for home runs. It's not close. I don't know how they judge this number, but they are 156 and the Dodgers are 129. They are far and away the best home run ballpark.

And then the Phillies are 10th on this list. So they're still good, but Cincinnati, I mean, yeah. Yeah, it could be the kind of thing where there's just like a little bit of a downgrade in park factor and in home park and a little bit of the ball not traveling as far and a little bit of the ball not traveling as far, especially for specific bad. ball type. It's possible that's the explanation. And if so, Castellanos could just fall into like a Goldilocks zone where he just, every, everything is going wrong for him. But I wouldn't want to put too much weight on that until I have more evidence. All right. I think it's an interesting hypothesis, though. So look to buy. Nick Cassiano's low while you can. Let's take a break. And when we return, we'll get to the news and notes here on fantasy baseball today.

The news and notes, Juan Soto has now missed two straight with that right knee storness. X-rays came back negative and it's not believed to be a serious injury. Brandon Woodruff will make a rehab start Saturday, so hopefully that numbness in his fingers has subsided a little bit. Maybe it's something he can pitch through. We will follow that closely. Stalling Marte was hit by a pitch on his wrist, but X-rays came back negative. He is day-to-day. Ozzie Albies underwent successful foot surgery on Wednesday and will be out at least

two months. Josh Hader was placed on the paternity list and we'll miss the next few days. Cotell Marte was removed on Wednesday with tightness in his hamstring. Freddie Peralta has resumed throwing and working out at the Brewer's extended spring training facility. He's not eligible to return until late July. Jeremy Pena was placed on the aisle with left thumb discomfort, which is quite unfortunate because he's been one of the better stories in baseball this season. A few shortstop replacements. If you are looking at the waiver wire, Kyle Farmer has been surprisingly very good this season,

Bryson Stott, who we've talked a lot about recently, and Luis Garcia, who hit another home run on Wednesday. Some closer news, Aaron Boone said Wednesday that he envisions using Clay Holmes in high-leverage situations against the toughest parts of opposing lineups once Arollis Chapman returns. Boone also clarified that Holmes will be, quote, closing some games too.

Maybe it turns into a situation, similar to the Cardinals, Chris, where, you know, it's Gallegos and Helsley. I'm still leaning. I think Clay Holmes will get either, you know, 60, 40 or 70, 30. I still think he sees the majority of the save opportunities. That would be my expectation. He's just been so good. He's been ridiculous.

I struggle with it, though, just because we've seen stretches like this before where a role detractment has struggled or been. been hurt and they've pulled him from the role and they always go back to him and I don't know if that's a temperament thing if that's a you know I could see a role as Chapman being the kind of guy who isn't going to settle for being a set up man the way Kenley Jansen didn't this free agency and the way Craig Kimbril hasn't seemed comfortable with when the white socks tried it you know I I could see that being an issue. It could.

I think I saw a quote somewhere that a role of Chapman said he's willing to do whatever the team asks him to do. Everyone says that, right? Other big closer news, Corey Canable has been removed from the closers role for now. Brad Hand and Sir Anthony Dominguez are both expected to see save opportunities moving forward. Dominguez is by far the more interesting option. Yeah, for sure. Brad Hand obviously has the experience and the surface numbers are okay, but Everything under the hood is pretty scary for Brad Hand.

So Dominguez is the name to look at there. Andrew Heaney could return Sunday against the Guardians. He's 75% rostered and could be out there in some shallow leagues. So make sure to check your waiver wire. This one hurts, Chris. Obviously for our Marlins, but also because I was very aggressive in adding Edward Cabrera in Fab. And he was placed in the IL due to right elbow tendinitis retroactive to June 13th.

Look, anything elbow-related sounds pretty bad, you know, tendinitis, I don't know. The fact that they mentioned that it's retroactive to another date leads me to believe maybe he won't be out so long, but I'm kind of, I'm trying to see Glass have full here, Chris. Yeah, and unfortunately Max Meyer, the Marlins' other top pitching prospect, is also dealing with an elbow injury. He has been ramping up, but he hasn't pitched in a game yet, so I don't think he's someone who's going to

get called up. So not great. All of a sudden, that Marlins pitching depth not looking so great. Oh, man. A lot of my roto teams, Chris, they've done the switcheroo.

So they got off to awful offensive starts. My pitching was dominating. And now it's just going completely sideways. There's been so many injuries recently. Scher and Woodruff and Bueller, Edward Cabrera.

I mean, the list goes on and on. There's been so many injuries to pitchers. So it's kind of, kind of hard right now. And another one, Drew Rasmussen placed on the IL with a left hamstring strain for Tampa Bay.

Nick Ladolo will need two to three more rehab starts to build back up before coming off the aisle for the Reds. He's pretty interesting, someone you can look to stash. Jaron Duran was recalled on Wednesday,

and I believe I saw that he was leading off. I will confirm that. But he is only 17% rostered. They had Christian Arroyo placed on the COVID-IL. I'm still intrigued. Chris by Jared Duran. I believe you are too, right? Absolutely. I mean, I have no idea if he's

going to get the chance to stick around. They've teased us with like these three-day stretches where Jaron is on the roster. I think last time, didn't he like hit lead off in one of the games that he appeared in and then they sent him right back down? So I don't know. Jared Duran's still very good minor league numbers. I, well, very good AAA numbers. He's a guy remember who changed his swing last year and there was a lot of hype.

It was like in the 2020 season. He changed his swing. And he's played 103 AAA games. He's hitting 278 with an 889 OPS, 22 homers, 27 stolen bases. That is a very intriguing skill set. So just hope they let him have a chance this time. All right.

Yes, he did lead off recently when he was called up and he led off again on Wednesday. Hazel Lozardo was transferred to the 60-day IL, which means he can't return until mid-July at the earliest. Josiah Gray's next start will come Saturday against the Phillies. He was scratched on Monday after a 90-minute rain delay. The Nationals have committed to Luis Garcia as their everyday shortstop moving forward, which is good for his playing time.

We don't have to worry about that being in question. Trey Mancini's hand inflammation has subsided, and he hopes to return to the lineup on Friday, and James McCann will begin a rehab assignment at AA on Thursday. He's been on the IL for over. a month due to a broken wrist. Some waiver wire hitters from Wednesday. Christopher Morel, we mention him a lot, but for good reason.

He's been pretty good. And he went two for five, hit his fourth home run. 70% rostered. The other day, this number was 73%. Someone somewhere is dropping Christopher Morel, Chris. That doesn't make any sense. I don't really understand that one myself. And I am looking at a few names that are rostered in more leagues than him.

This is an interesting one. Would you drop Nolan Gorman for Morel? Gorman not playing against lefties. Yeah, I think I would. Slowed up a little bit. I think I would as well. So that's a move that you can make. Of course, Morrell has second base and outfield eligibility.

Welcome back to Brandon Belt, who hit a solo home run. He's still 74% rostered, so it could be available in some shallower leagues. And whenever Brandon Belt plays, it seems like he's pretty awesome. So I would expect more of the same. A met Rosario went three for five with a third. sock and a shoe in Coorsfield helps out for sure. His first home run, his sixth stolen base. He's only 34% rostered.

And it's been a pretty rough go so far this season, Chris. You know, Rosario is someone who, he gets hot. It seems like every year I tell people to pick him up. And then by the time you pick him up, he starts to cool off again. Do you have any interest in adding a med Rosario? If he ran more, I think it would be worthwhile. But because he's a 97th percent off sprint speed guy. like there it's entirely possible he could be a 25 steel guy but he's on a 12 steel pace probably

and so that leaves him as a batting average specialist who hits 270 yeah so not particularly interesting i agree in head-to-head points leagues brendan donovan is an interesting player three for four with a double two rbi he's betting 3.41 with a 913 ops he only has one homer he only has two steals. So in category leagues, I think he might be kind of empty batting average, but in points leagues, he has 12 doubles, he has more walks and strikeouts, he has a near 28% line drive rate, he hits the ball to all fields, his 293 expected batting average is 89th percentile, and he is eligible at every position on CBS outside of catcher. First, second, third, shortstop, and outfield. He's 34% rostered. I don't know about a

standard points league, Chris, you know, 12 teams, just whatever. One of each in-field position, three outfielders. But in any, like, slightly deeper points leagues, I like Brendan Donovan. I think he's pretty good in this format. I think that's interesting. The problem is, uh, your standard 12 team points league is a hundred and eight starting position players, right? Yeah. Nine times 12, 108. That he's not one of the 110 best. hitters in a points league, I would think. Um, and so, you know, there are a handful of players who just kind of fall into that, like they're better in points leagues, but they're not good enough.

And the, the eligibility could help him. Like, that's a really valuable thing to have is a guy that you can just plug into your roster whenever, no matter what happens. But, um, I'm not sure he's good enough to be much more rostered than he is. Yeah, I think daily lineup leagues, Either categories or points leagues because of that eligibility, you could just move this guy all around. Yeah, he plays. You just have one hitter on your bench and it's him. And he just goes wherever someone's available. Yeah.

That is Brendan Donovan. A few reminders, those Atlanta Braves, I don't think they're ever going to lose again. That's 14 in a row. Michael Harris, two more hits for him. He's 52% rostered. I'm going to keep talking about Harris. Big prospect and has all this potential. And he's playing well.

Orlando Arcea, another one. I mentioned yesterday. This is solely for deeper leagues, but he went four for four with a walk. He hit another home run. His average exit velocity is 94.7 miles per hour. So he hasn't done much in his major league career. Frankly, I'm just kind of rooting for Orlando Arcia.

I want him to be a thing. True. Yeah. He's a name in deeper leagues. Pitchers that confuse me, Chris, let's run through these three. Jose Burrios with another strong start up against the Orioles. Seven innings, three runs, eight strikeouts.

and over his last six starts, he looks a lot like Jose Burrios. 3.63 ERA, 38 strikeouts over 37 and 2 thirds innings pitched. Zach Gallen gets back on track with a quality start. Seven innings, two runs, five strikeouts against the Reds. And then Luis Castillo goes a season high, seven innings at the Diamondbacks, where he allows three runs, six strikeouts, 11 swinging strikes on 110 pitches, and his ERA thus far is 3.33. All these pitchers sound pretty good, except they're a little confusing.

Burrios, the swinging strike rate is bad. It's very bad. It's 8.7% entering Wednesday. Maybe that doesn't matter. Maybe he's just so established he'll find a way to work through it. Zach Allen is another one, sub 10% swinging strike rate. And then Luis Castillo, his swinging strike rate and his strikeout rate are both career lows. But his numbers are okay.

His underlying numbers, his FIPP is 3.6. That's perfectly fine. for Luis Castillo. I don't know, Chris. Maybe I'm just making something out of nothing, but not great swinging strike rates for all three of these pitchers. Castillo's had two starts

where the strikeouts really haven't been there. There was one two strikeout game, another one three. So I don't know if I'm too concerned with that in the small sample size that we're dealing with. Gallin looks like a sell high to me, given the injury concerns, the underlying numbers not being nearly as strong.

He is someone who does benefit a little bit if you take into account quality of contact because he's been very good in that regard so far this season but right around an average strikeout rate middling swing and miss stuff i i think alan you know obviously with his injury history last season with the elbow i think it's there's a chance at the bottom falls out any minute and i think there's just a chance that the performance gets much worse so he he's someone i would be willing to start shopping um And then Berrios, you know, like getting annoyed with Jose Berrios when he's inconsistent is like staring at the sun and getting annoyed that it hurt your eyes. You know, like that's who he is, right?

Like his career has been defined by these weird stretches where he just looks really hittable. And then these weird stretches where he looks awesome. And I think, you know, there's an element of a random number generator to him. And, you know, maybe it's like there's eight numbers and five. Five of them are good. And sometimes you just hit those three, you know, four or five times in a row. But I think all in all, he's going to be more good than bad. I'll point out with this specific start against the Orioles, obviously pretty good matchup.

He threw his curveball a season high 43 percent, and that is far and away his best pitch. 164. Always has been. 164 batting average against 14 percent swinging strike rate. So if this is something he leans into more, I think we could see more swinging strikes and strikeouts for Jose Burrios. Some pitching leftovers, Chris, we'll do rapid fire. I'll mention a pitcher if you have anything to say.

We'll talk about it. If not, we'll move on. Kyle Gibson goes a season high. Eight innings against the Marlins. So much for pointing out that they were great against right-handed pitching. Eight innings, one run, six strikeouts. He had 14 swinging strikes. Anything on Kyle Gibson? I think he's a fringy

guy. Okay. Would you rather have Kyle Gibson or Martine Perez? Martin Perez. All right, fair enough. Luis Garcia gets back on track after a recent rough start. He goes six innings, two runs, nine strikeouts.

Really awesome from this game. Two immaculate endings thrown in the same game, first time in MLB history. Luis Garcia and Phil Maton, they also did it against the same three batters. That's wild. Very weird.

Anything on Luis Garcia? No, I think it's pretty good. He's awesome. And he's fun to watch because he like rocks back and forth. Yeah. Yeah. It's great. My wife was in South Florida and she was watching that game with her dad.

And she texted me, I can't remember if she asked me who it was or what his deal was. But she said her dad hates the way he pitches. And I was like, oh, that's such an old man thing to say. I get it. I get it. Nestor Cortez with a solid bounce back up against Tampa Bay. Five and a third. One run.

He had four strikeouts. 13 swinging strikes and the velocity was up one mile per hour on his fastball and cutter. Anything here? I still think he's a South High candidate. I think he's more like a mid-3 ZRA guy. But I think he's also a solid, you know, very useful starting fantasy pitcher. We were talking beforehand, Chris, and this time of year for me is reflection period. I'm looking back at my teams and my drafts and trying to figure out, you know, what I did wrong and what I did right.

And I notice a lot of the good teams in my leagues make sense. They have Nesser Cortez. And I think at the end of your drafts, just kind of blindly taking pitchers on good teams, it might not be such a bad strategy. It's something we do in fantasy football too, right? Like later on in your drafts, just take players on good teams and see what happens. Take pitchers on good teams. It might not be such a bad strategy.

So it's something I got to look into more, but I noticed a lot of good fantasy teams have Nester Cortez. Corbyn Burns bounces back after a rough two-star stretch. He goes six innings, two runs, eight strikeouts, and the ERA is down to 2.52. Anything on Corbyn's? Him and Garrett Cole both bounced back. That's what the best pitchers in fantasy do. That's what they do.

Tyler Anderson, is he one of the best pitchers in fantasy? I don't know. But he almost threw that no-hitter. Eight in a third. He gave up one run, and he had eight strikeouts. The ERA is down to 2.82. He had 13 swinging. strikes on a hundred and twenty three pitches nine of those whiffs came on the changeup which continues to look

just a remade amazing pitch yeah I'll caution that his next start you know may not be a long one I would bet against it actually because of the hundred and twenty three pitches I feel like when that happens you'll often see teams give a guy a quick hook and the Dodgers you know especially seem likely to do that so I I wouldn't be surprised if he only throws 80 pitches next time out. Chris, do you think that Tyler Anderson should be in that Tony Gonslin kind of discussion, you know, top 50, top 40-ish starting pitcher? Top 50-ish, yes, top 40-ish, no.

All right. So clearly a tier behind Gonsland, but Tyler Anderson has been awesome. And regression alert, apologies to anyone who streamed Alex Fayetteau because the underlying numbers never lie. and that's what happened in the star where he gave up seven runs and I had him in a few lineups and I feel pretty awful about it. I don't see what you and Scott have seen in him. Yeah, I think we were just kind of riding a hot hand, but like every time I looked at it,

the underlying numbers were so bad. Yeah, he just doesn't get strikeouts, doesn't get enough whiffs outside of the slider. Yeah, I just can't. I mean, that is admittedly a fault of my own. It's, I'll have pitchers who I know very clearly are, outpitching what they should be doing, what their underlying number say.

Sometimes they're going to stay hot. Yeah, I'll just continue to ride it out. And yeah, unfortunately, I did that a little bit too long with Alex Faito. Some hitting leftovers from Wednesday. Adolias Garcia went two for four with his 10th stolen base. Aaron Judge, a little MVP on Cy Young Crime, maybe. Hit his 25th home run. It came off of my guy, Shane O'Mac.

Adley Rutchman clearly listened to yesterday's podcast. He went two for four, hit his first. career home run added three RBI. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Three hard hit balls in this one. The one that wasn't hard hit, he hit 93 miles per hour. So that's a good sign. I think the home run he hit came off of, yes, it came off Bereos. Off of Barrios. That's a double double in a home run off Burrios. It's a pretty good pitcher to do it off of. So some signs of life for Adley Rutchman. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went four for five, hit his 16th home run. He had three.

batted balls of 115 miles per hour. Yeah. That is not supposed to happen. That is crazy. Vlad has a hit on a 68 mile per hour. Exit velocity. Bad ball. That's interesting.

So far in the month of June, Vlad is hitting 333 with seven home runs, 15 RBI, and 14 games. He's very good. To Oscar Hernandez had a sock and a shoe, his fourth home run, his third stolen base. His homer was 4161 feet, and the by-low window has been slam shut for Teasca Hernandez.

Alex Verdugo went three for five with his fourth homer. Rafi Devers went one-for-three with his 16th home run. Brian Reynolds went two for three with a triple and a homer. He's having a great June himself. He missed your by-low window on that guy too. 404 batting average, four homers, 11 runs, 9 RBI. And the Braves, I mentioned, 14 wins in a row. Chris, you know, since we're admitting,

defeat on a few players today. You and I were very wrong about Austin Riley. He went three for five, two more homers. He is up to 18 home runs. That's all right. I feel like I'm more, my brand is more tied to the anti-Nolan Aronado thing and that one's looking better.

Yes. Yeah. We'll just, yeah, we'll just focus on that one. All right, I'm going to delete that from the podcast side of things. We'll leave it on YouTube, but yeah. Nolan Aronado, he stinks again. Yeah, let's talk more about that. Call it to the bullpen.

For the Marlins, cue the Tanner Scott Meltdown. He gave up a walkoff three-run homer to Garrett Stubbs. All right, who knew? The Royals, Scott Barlow recorded the final five outs for his seventh save. His ERA is 1.63. He's pretty awesome. The problem, the Royals are not. The Yankees, Clay Holmes allowed one hit but picked up his 11th save.

And we mentioned earlier, David Bednar, final eight outs for his 11th save of the season. To stream or not to stream, I mentioned yesterday, Thursday is very bad for streaming. I've got two names. Rich Hill versus Oakland and Tyler Wells at the Blue Jays. I agree. Friday, Zach Thompson versus... Honestly, like, maybe Chad Kuhl. I might prefer Chad Kohl against the Guardians to either of those guys.

Don't do it. Just don't do it. Probably shouldn't, but if you're gonna ask me for one. Speaking of the Guardians, if you have not seen Stephen Kwan's catch, his diving catch. Incredible. On the warning track, that was ridiculous. Friday, Zach Thompson versus the Giants, Ross Tripling versus the Yankees,

Michael Waka versus the Cardinals. Ooh, revenge game. John Gray at the Tigers, Daniel Lynch at the A's, Devin Smelter at the Diamondbacks, and Michael Lorenzen at the Mariners. Lock in John Gray, that's never gone poorly for fantasy players.

Yeah, the Tigers are just so bad. But you know what? Maybe they come out hot after this team meeting. I don't know. I feel like that's something that just happens. Maybe that's mostly the Oakland thing. I streamed Daniel Lynch

in a 15 team league a couple weeks ago and he was awful. Yeah. So I, yeah, that left a bad taste. Michael Lorenzen I think is okay at the Mariners. We're gonna wrap there for Chris.

I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy baseball today. We'll be back to get tomorrow. Bye-bye.