Fantasy Baseball Today - Taj Bradley Hype, Mason Miller Promotion & the Worry-O-Meter! (4/19 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 19, 2023

Taj Bradley looks like the real deal (1:20). ... Chris Sale and Lucas Giolito were awesome Tuesday night (6:42). ... Mason Miller is being promoted by the A's (18:10)! ... Add Edward Cabrera and Eduardo Rodriguez (25:21)? ... News (32:26): Jeffrey Springs needs Tommy John surgery and will miss the rest of the season. ... Add any of these hitters off the waiver wire (40:55)? ... Let's fire up the Worry-O-Meter on Juan Soto, Lance Lynn and many more (45:38). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (53:48). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @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. It was another mixed bag of pitching, but I would say mostly good on Tuesday night. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, April 19th. Frank Stanfield joined by Scott White and Chris Towers.

Today on the show, we're going to recap all of Tuesday's action, another prospect promotion that you need to know about, and we'll fire up the Worryometer a little bit later on. Before we get started, please like this video and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. And if you're listening on the audio side, download, follow, and leave a five-star rating. Thank you very much. We do appreciate it. Let's jump in. Oh, my goodness gracious, players of the night. Can you believe it? Wow.

Wow. That was the Astros broadcast of the Yordon Alvarez walkoff home run last postseason. It was a pretty dramatic and I like it. Nice call there. Chris, you're up. Welcome back. And who is your player of the night? My player of the night is Taj Bradley who, hey, the race finally put Jeffrey Springs on the IL. I know a bunch of you were upset about that. And they officially called up Taj Bradley this afternoon. The rays are annoying. By the way, you shouldn't care that they finally disabled. Well, yeah, you can drop him because he's having Tommy John surgery, which that really escalated quickly. That went from like, oh, it's a nerve issue to, oh, it's a flexor strain to, yeah, no, he's having Tommy John surgery in the span of about three hours this afternoon.

So that's unfortunate. But maybe the raise won't miss him because Tage Bradley has been just unbelievable. through his first two starts. 17 strikeouts to two walks. He had nine of them today against Cincinnati. Five and a third innings, three hits, one walk in this one. Innings likely to continue to be somewhat of a challenge for Todge Bradley.

He did throw 84 pitches in this one. I would think if he makes every start the rest of the way and goes six innings and half of them, I think we take that as a big win given the team he's pitching for. but it's also like, as we saw last year with Spencer Strider, if you're good enough, it doesn't really matter. And I'm not saying Taj Bradley is going to be as good as Spencer Strider. I'm saying he has been that good so far.

It's been very, very impressive. Four Seam Fastball. Got five whiffs today. Four whiffs with the change up. I'm not sure I buy him as an elite strikeout pitcher moving forward. I just don't know if the Arsenal is tuned for. massive, massive strikeout numbers the way Spencer Shriders is with that, you know, wipeout slider. But Todge Bradley's clearly very, very good and, uh, deserves to be 100%

rostered if he isn't already. And he is not. 69% rostered on CBS is Todge Bradley, nine strikeouts to one walk in his most recent start. What I found most interesting is that in his first start, he displayed this curveball as his third pitch. He used it 14% of the and it looked amazing. And then on Tuesday night, it was a change-up that he used 21% of the time. He, I think maybe he threw one or two of those in his first start. And it was a good pitch for him in this outing.

Four whiffs, 44% CSW. So maybe those third pitches are a little bit better than everyone thought coming into the season. I know this start was against the Reds. His first start was against the Red Sox. And it was, I think it was a Devers list lineup too. So it has been favorable. matchup so far for Taj Bradley. I think from a pitching prospect perspective,

133 in the third innings last year, I don't know that there's really going to be any restrictions this year. Like maybe some in-game stuff like they only let it go five. I think it's just a raise. That's really the only thing is it. It's not that like on a different organization, having thrown 133 innings last year, I think you'd feel pretty confident saying,

yeah, he could throw 170 this year. With the raise. I don't think he needs to though, Chris. Even if he gets 150, he could be this year's breakout starting pitcher, right? So, absolutely. I agree that he needs to be rostered in every league, Scott. I think of all of the most added pitchers

or waiver-wire pitchers, honestly, that we've talked about this year, maybe it's close with Graham Ashcraft, but I think Taj Bradley is above all of them. I take Taj Bradley over Graham Ashcraft. Yeah. Scott, what do you think? Yeah, I think that's fair.

Yeah, that's fair. That's what I think Fair enough Todd Bradley's good Pick him out Yeah because like Aschcraft The results have been really good 142 ERA

Can't complain about that But we're kind of seeing A continuation of last year Where he's been better But it still feels like He should get more swings and misses And more strikeouts than he does And like I just don't know

If he's ever going to be much more than like an average strikeout pitcher And hey Graham Ashcroft might be able to be a very, very good pitcher without being an elite strikeout pitcher. But I do feel a little better about Todge Bradley's ability to get strikeouts.

I had to fill in the blank, Chris. And if we knew that Bradley was going to be up rest of season for the entire, for the entire season, and he'd be ranked as a top blank starting pitcher. I'm going to say off the top of my head, top 50, but I tend to be a little more conservative with,

you know, small sample sizes. So I could think you could easily make a case. You should be higher than that. I think that's perfect. I mean, that's exactly what came to mind. I'm looking just inside of my top 50. I have Kyle Wright, Reed Detmerers, Charlie Morton, Chris Bassett, Sunny Gray.

I think those names kind of make sense. And look, if he continues to perform like this, could easily shoot inside the top 40 or even top 30. I mean, it could be because like a lot of the guys we have in the top 50 now might just be not good. I mean, those names you mentioned, oh, we, We think of them as good pitchers, but part of the issue right now is it's hard to tell who actually is a good pitcher, who isn't a good pitcher with the way offense is playing right now, which leads me into my, oh my goodness gracious player of the day. A little preamble first, if you don't mind.

Weird Al Yankovic's seminal work, bad hair day. The first track is, as we all know, the cultural sensation, Amish Paradise. The second track is a song called Everything You Know is Wrong. And that is what I feel like should be the theme song for today, particularly with regard to pitching, because it's really hard to get a grasp on what's going on, because everything we know is wrong. anytime we feel like we have a handle on a pitcher,

okay, this guy is thriving in this environment or this guy is totally screwed, it totally flips. On a dime. And that happened for so many pitchers today, both positively and negatively. I'm going to focus here on one, on the positive end of that,

one that I'm highly invested in, one that Chris is highly invested in too, I know, and that's Chris Sale, who, okay, we go into this game here on Tuesday thinking Chris Sale, he's rusty, he's clearly rusty, he's erratic, maybe he's lost it, we're totally screwed if we invested in him, and what happens, Chris Sale looks like an ace again.

At Minnesota, he struck out 11 in six one-run innings, had six swinging strikes just in the first inning. So right away, it was clear, okay, this guy has got it today. I ended up with 19 swinging strikes on 94 pitches overall. His average exit velocity in this game, 83.6, that's compared to 91.2 previously. He threw 67% of his pitches for strikes that's compared to 63% previously. And there were signs that his stuff still had plenty of bite to it, just that he didn't seem to have much of a clue where it was going.

And I know Red Sox pitching coach, Dave Bush, said, just leading up to this start, that he feels like Sale is so close that in his side sessions, he shows a lot better command than he's been showing in the actual games. And apparently so, or it's just another 20-23 fake out. And next time out he's going to get sheled again. I don't know, because everything I know is wrong. With Chris Sale, I noticed the velocity was up across the board in the start as well. All three of his.

main pitches up around one mile per hour. And this is the best that I've seen the fastball look so far. So the velocity has mostly been fine this season, but his ability to command that fastball and not get crushed with the fastball has been a big issue. He had nine swinging strikes on that four-scene fastball. And his average exit velocity against on that pitch, 74.7 miles per hour in this start. So I think it's very clearly the best that Chris Sale has looked. And with that, I'll kind of tie in my, oh my goodness gracious player. And that's Lucas Gialito, who was actually pulled with a no-hitter intact at the time. Going up against the Phillies, it was the second game of a double-header, six no-hit innings, one walk, seven strikeouts, 12 swinging strikes

on 102 pitches. Doesn't seem like he did anything crazy different, at least from what I saw, the fastball and change-up were both working in this one. It could just be as simple as that. This is the best that they've looked so far this season. But he got rocked by the pirates earlier in the season. Outside of that, Gioledo has actually looked pretty good this year. 23 strikeouts. to just four walks, over 21 innings pitched. The swinging strike rate is down where it has been. I don't think he's the same pitcher as he was in his prime a couple of years ago, but I think he's just kind of doing it in a different way,

maybe with better command and better control than we've seen from Lucas Gilito in the past. With that being said, Chris, what you saw from Gialito and Chris Sale on Tuesday night, are you just holding and these are the pitchers that you were hoping to get, or would you use this as an opportunity to sell high while you can't? I would think my first thought was sell high and Lucas Chilito because I just, I think maybe it's one of those situations where someone still views the name as more valuable than the pitcher. But I also think people were down on him enough coming into the season that there's probably still a lot of skepticism. I'd say hold both. And if anything, potentially by Chris Sale, I think of the lesson here.

And it's a very difficult lesson to learn. And it's hard for us, especially because our job is to create content and our job is to react to what we're seeing. And it's hard to, it would be really boring if I said what I think we should say to nearly all of the things that we've seen in the first two weeks and, you know, five days of the season, which is it probably doesn't mean anything. like that that would be my most honest answer a lot of the times it's like scratching and clawing and stretching to try to come up with an answer that's not well that's interesting but it's you know like chrisale has made three starts now right i think this was his fourth this was his fourth if he i'm sure you could go back to classic chrisail and find a three start stretch where he looked just as bad as he did the last three starts And that's not to say that he isn't bad now. He might be. It's just to say that we don't know. And so your priors shouldn't shift all that much.

Now, that is difficult given the macro trends that we've seen in Major League Baseball over the past couple of seasons. And the apparent changes to the baseball and the changes to the offensive environment and all these things. It is important to figure out if it is a different offensive environment, who can thrive and who can't. the problem is when it comes to Chris Sale, to use one example, is it that Chris Sale's not good enough anymore? Is it that Chris Sale cannot be good in this new environment? Or is it that Chris Sale had three bad starts? And figuring out the answer to any of those three,

and those aren't the only three possible outcomes, is really, really difficult. And it's, it's, I've, in my writing, I've sort of pivoted to football over the past like 10 days, which is sort of funny because it's a really important part of the baseball season. But it's like I, the NFL drafts coming up. You know, I got the fantasy football newsletter, you know, stuff like that. But also just like I feel like I'm at risk of giving bad advice right now.

Like I think this is a dangerous time of the year. And so I want to force. myself to not react in certain ways. And I was, you know, that's a difficult thing. I was giving sort of a similar, I was making similar points on yesterday's show where, you know, the most common question we get really any time of year is what's wrong with this player, what's wrong with player acts. And we're still a month away from being able to answer that question with any kind of

confidence. So really the questions you need to be asking about players right now is do I believe in the talent? And do I believe he's going to get picked up right away if I drop them? Yes. If I drop them. Those are really the questions you need to be asking. And if the answer is a pretty solid yes to either one of them, then you should probably just stick with them. But I think what makes this year unique, with pitching in particular, is just the dramatic swings and performance we see for individual pitchers. And that's, you know, that's why I'm calling this everything you know is wrong day. Jordan Montgomery, his previous two starts, a combined two earned runs in 13 and the third

innings. Oh, he seems pretty safe, right? Today, seven earn runs and 10 hits on four innings. Chris Bassett today, six and a third shutout innings at Houston. this was the guy who seemed totally washed in his first start. Nine earned runs on 10 hits, four of them home runs. And since then, he's thrown three straight quality starts. Adding to the weirdness, the walks were way up

and two of those three starts that were quality for Chris Bassett. Only one walk in this one. Let's see, what's another example from today? Nicodolo. Nicolodolo. Like, the breakout, other than Jeffrey Springs, I guess, Nicola Dolo was the big victory lap guy among starting pitchers, just the dominance he showed.

Adern runs on 12 hits in four and two-thirds innings today. Just got absolutely crushed and legitimately crushed. Average eggs of a velocity against Nicolodolo today, 95.7 miles per hour. His ERA jumped from 212 to 498 in one start. So, I mean, I think Nicolodolo is better than a 5-ERA pitcher, but suddenly he has a 5-E-R-A pitcher. And that's happening with so, like on the other end of the spectrum,

Ken Waldichuk seemed like he could do nothing right, nothing right. This guy's got to go back to AAA. Five shutout innings today. 12 whiffs on 100 pitches look pretty good. Just yesterday. Hayden West Nesky, we had all given up. We had moved on. And what does he do?

He throws seven shutout innings, right? Seven one run innings, excuse me. like it's just it's not like guys when it's not like pitchers when it's not like they're just a little bad you know when things go bad or they're just you know four and runs one day two run runs the next it's not that situation it's they're either getting crushed or maybe they look pretty good and so everybody's kind of coming out of this with an er a between four and five like if you if you pitch long enough in this environment you're going to have an era between four and five. That's kind of what it feels like right now. I'm not saying everybody's going to finish with an ERA between four and five. But I mean, Kevin Gossman yesterday, another example. He looked like as safe of an ACE as you can get, had an ERA of 135 after three starts. Now is ERA's 365 because he got crushed Monday. I don't know. It just feels different, doesn't it? Unless your name is Garrett Cole or Luis Castillo, you are probably a pitcher who has had a

pretty rough start at some point. But they're due. They're too. due to give up eight runs, each of them. I hope that isn't the case for whoever has them on their fantasy teams. But yeah, look, it could be a combination of things. Maybe offense was just ahead of pitching coming into the season. But the pitch clock, the new rules, there's all these different things that are kind of working against pitchers to start the year. And I think it's going to take some time to adjust. So I would say have some patience, you know, pitchers that are well established.

We'll talk about Lance Lynn a little bit later on. He's off to a terrible start as well. But these are guys that, you know, for the most part, we've seen do it. for quite some time. So we'll get to that a little bit later on. Let's talk about a, I guess, top prospect. Let's say a hot prospect right now, someone who is in the news.

Getting promoted by the Oakland A's, Mason Miller will make his debut on Wednesday against the Chicago Cubs. Made some loud noise in his last start at AAA. Five perfect innings with 11 strikeouts. He had 20 swinging strikes in that outing. 15 on a fastball, which averaged 100 miles per hour. And it's so hard to,

evaluate someone like this. I mean, you guys thought you had it tough when we were trying to figure things out with Zach Netto. How about a pitcher who has thrown 28 and two-thirds innings in the minors? In his career, that's all he has. Like, what do we do with Mason Miller? I texted the Welsh and tried to get a little bit of a inside scoop on him. He said, 100 plus mile per hour fastball. Saw him in the AFL hit 102. He's a flame thrower, throws a cutter as his second pitch. Has a slider he throws a little and a change up barely used. He's like a Hunter Green type but does work with his fastball. Problem is he has less than 30 career innings in the minors.

Mason Miller is 21% rostered. Chris, I will give you the first crack. What are your thoughts on Mason Miller? Is he a must-ad pitcher? Yes. I'll say yes because I don't know if you guys have watched this guy. He looks unbelievable. Like, I don't know, man.

like Hunter Green throws harder, I guess. I mean, Mason Miller did average, I think, 99.6 miles per hour with his fastball last year at AAA, which is pretty nice. He's thrown, let's throw the Arizona Fall League again there. He's thrown 45 and a third innings as a professional. He's been, he was drafted in 2021. So that's two, one full season, I guess, and then one partial season. He has 73 strikeouts in those 45 and a third innings. And he's been used as a starter.

He hasn't, I don't think he's ever thrown more than five innings. I don't think he's ever thrown more than 64 pitches. There are serious limitations on what he is likely to do, at least in the early going. I mean, he looks outrageously talented. And he was someone like reading a lot of the scouting reports over the last week or so since, you know, people started talking about him. He was in Eric Longenhagen's top 100. I think that was the only top 100 prospect list that I saw him. him crack, but he was in there. He was the number four prospect for baseball prospectus for the

A's. And basically every report I read said, like, we just don't know how good he can be, but he might be one of the fastest risers in the prospect rankings over the next, you know, season. And I think the skill set is outrageous. So I'm really excited. There's the likelihood outcome is he's like throwing four and a third innings in most of his outings, but they could be really, really, really, really good four and a third innings. So yeah, I'm going to go ahead and try to add him and just see what happens. Well, I mean, we, we keep trying to come up with the next Spencer Strider. And it's, it's one of those things like, there probably can't be a next Spencer Strider.

It was a best story, yeah. At this time last year, we were thinking, well, even if Spencer Strider does enter the rotation, would he be able to take on a full starter's work? I think you were pretty happy you invested in Spencer Strider if you did. Mason Miller goes beyond that. Mason Miller feels like the ultimate mystery box pickup. Because I'm willing to admit, as somebody who goes pretty deep into prospects, I mean, I spend weeks of the offseason basically just re-examble.

researching prospects. I hadn't heard of this guy until a week ago. I guess just because he had so few stats in the miners. But particularly at a time when pitching is so unpredictable, what you want more than anything is a guy who can miss bats and isn't going to be susceptible to the environment in any way. And in that the tiny amount we've seen Mason Miller pitch, he's done that to a ridiculous degree.

His two starts in the minors this year, a 26% swinging strike rate. Like 20 is otherworldly Jacob de Grom level, basically, 20%. And his was 26% while still throwing 69% of his pitches for strikes. Also a great number. And like those were the numbers that jumped out to me for Spencer Strider and the miners as well, just how good he was, like outlier bat missing skills in a way that was going underappreciated for him. It is a small sample for Miller, but that's the kind of thing. You know, you can see normalize over a smaller sample.

and I just think you have to take a shot on him and see what happens. Maybe something really good will happen if you do. And if not, then, oh, well, it was just a moment in time and you can move on from it without sacrificing too much. You probably have a pitcher, you're okay dropping at this point. Just to make it clear, because I'm sure someone out there has the question, we are taking Tage Bradley over Mason Miller, correct?

Yeah, I will rank Tage Bradley and Grayson Rodriguez ahead of Mason Miller. But I could see a scenario where Mason Miller's just so overwhelmingly dominant over the next three weeks that like we're talking about him as a top 40 pitcher. I could see that kind of like I think the Spencer Strider comp is perfect. It's unfair, frankly, to Mason Miller or to anyone to comp them to Spencer Strider after the rookie season he had. but like, let's just say I'm extremely excited to watch the Oakland Athletics tomorrow. And that's the first time I've said that in a while. I'm sure Oakland A's fans would tell you the same exact thing, Chris. Scott, you brought up Lance Brosdowski a couple of weeks ago and we were looking into Chris Bubich.

And he actually tweeted the same thing a couple of days ago that there is no Spencer, next Spencer Shrider. But if you wanted to make the case for somebody, it would be Mason Miller. So I just thought I would. Now it sounds like I'm just copying him. Without giving him credit this time. Right. So shout out to Lance.

I know that he's excited about Mason Miller as well. Let's take our first break. And when we return, we'll take a look at some waiver wire pitchers from Tuesday's action. Will we take any of those names over Mason Miller? Find out right after this. Welcome back to fantasy baseball today. The CBS Sports Galo Network, the first of its kind. Free 24-7 channel dedicated exclusively to global soccer coverage is now streaming

on your CBS sports app, Pluto TV, and Paramount Plus. Get your morning started off on the right foot with morning footy, our weekday soccer culture-driven morning show beginning at 7 a.m. Easter time. Plus, don't miss the rest of our top-notch programming, including live matches and re-airs, original studio shows, highlights, documentaries, and much more. CBS Sports Galazzo Network is the ultimate year-round streaming destination for fans of the beautiful game. Let's take a look at a few pitchers

who could be out there on the waiver wire and it includes Edward Cabrera who turned in his first quality start of the season up against the Giants, six innings, two runs, eight strikeouts with 21 swinging strikes, 13 of those coming on the changeup, seven on the curveball. Eduardo Rodriguez had a tremendous start

against the Guardians. It was the second game of a doubleheader and it was very cold in Detroit. I think it was like 30 degrees or something there. Eight shutout with 10 strikeouts to zero walks for him. And Scott, you brought up the name earlier. Ken Waldichuk turned in his best start of the season.

Five shoutout with five strikeouts in that one. Scott, we'll start with you. How do you rank those three if you're looking to add a pitcher? Edward Cabrera, Erod, and Ken Waldachuk. I mean, I think you have to go. Edward Cabrera number one, just based on the upside 21 swinging strikes in this one. Another example, shining example of everything you know, was wrong day because

I'm telling you to add Edward Cabrera and last week I was telling you to drop Edward Cabrera because he was walking everybody in sight and we can't tolerate this can we? But you know things have turned on at their head and we're seeing the good side of Cabrera now

and hopefully he'll continue. Hopefully he can keep those walks at bay all three of his pitches have good swing and miss potential. I think he leaned mostly on the change up in this one right, throwing at 47% of the time. but he doesn't have to lean on the change up every time, which is what's so exciting about him.

And his biggest flaw is he can't really command his fastball, which is weird because we typically think of fastballs as the easiest pitch to command. And you can look at that both ways. You can look at it and say, well, that's a fatal flaw. If you can't throw your fastball for strikes consistently, or really the issue in the first inning, he gave up the two-run, home run to Mike.

Yostremski in this one, the fastball was a strike. It was just belt high and right in Mike Yostromske's breadbasket. So that's not what you want. Or you can look at it the other way and say, well, if anything should be easy to fix, relatively speaking, it should be throwing your straightest pitch where you want it to go. And once he settled down in this one, the first inning was a little rough. But after that, he looked outstanding. The changeup is a plus pitch.

The curveball looks really good. I would want to hold on to Edward Cabrera for sure after this and add him where he's available. Chris, I know that you were talking about Eduardo Rodriguez before the show started. And he was awesome in this start. His first double-digit strikeout start since August of 2021. But even with this one, he has a 7.1K per 9 following a 10 strikeout performance.

So I don't know that it really changes too much for him. What do you think? Yeah, I mean, it's weird because he's now made four starts. He had five strikeouts and five in a third and one. He had one strikeout in four and two thirds. And then he actually had a really good start against the Blue Jays, but he only had three strikeouts. I feel okay about Eduardo Rodriguez.

I've got him in a few leagues. I think I actually started him in one, which is amazing. Started him and Chris Sayle. Way to go. So one of the 10th sleeper pitchers for this week. And so, yeah, I'm, I would much rather have Edward Cabrera. I would much rather have Eduardo Rodriguez than Ken Waldichuk. I would probably rather have Mason Miller than any of those guys.

Just based on the principle that Scott laid out about what are your chances of still having a chance to have them in a week. But I think Eduardo Rodriguez can be an above average pitcher moving forward. Sure. Scott, are you taking Mason Miller over Edward Cabrera? Yeah. All right, a few names. Do we hold onto these? Names that we have touted as waiver ads recently. Brad Keller, you know, this one's on me.

I was pretty excited. Look, the control was just not existing in this one. He had five walks, only six swinging strikes on 81 pitches. But he still used this new curveball 33% of the time. It just was not very effective for him. He got up to 49% roster. Drey Jameson in inefficient outing at the Cardinals, three and two thirds, two runs loud.

Four walks. to three strikeouts. Exactly what we said last week is, look, when the control is on, Dre Jamison's probably going to be pretty good, but when it's not, something like this, this is what could happen for him. Scott, would you look to hold these guys,

or would you be okay dropping any of them for like Mason Miller or Edward Cabrera? I'd be willing to drop Brad Keller for just about anybody. I'd be a little more reluctant with Dre Jameson, because there is obvious upside there. I don't think there's significantly more upside than for Cabrera or for Miller. It's, you know, if you spend a lot of fab dollars on Jameson, which you might have two weeks ago, that makes it harder to swallow.

Just keep swapping them out for the next flavor of the week. But I think most people listening don't even play in Fab League, so it's easier to justify just dropping Jameson for the next flavor of the week. And Miller would be the preference over Cabrera. In deeper leagues, Chris, I have three names here that performed quite well on Tuesday. Bailey Falter, seven innings of three-run ball at the White Sox. Dean Kramer, six and two-thirds shutout with six strikeouts at the Nationals. And Peyton Battenfield turned in a quality start at the Tigers.

Six innings, one run, five strikeouts for him. We're talking, you know, 14 team leagues are deeper. Fulter, Kramer, Batonfield. Anything here? I don't really even in deeper league think there's much appeal for Bailey Fulter. I think he'll have starts like this because Zach Davies had a good season once. Like that just can happen sometimes. But I don't think like Bailey Fultor pitching well this time out

tells me much about his chances of pitching well next time out. I think he's mostly going to be pretty forgettable. Kramer just because, mostly because he pitches in a good home park now, I think it's pretty interesting in the Battenfield. I'm pretty unimpressed so far, but you've got them listed with potentially two starts next week versus Colorado at Boston. That's not uninteresting.

Chris, team name Wednesday. Love is a battenfield. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I was trying to figure out what it was. Can you make Peyton Battenfield fit in there? Yeah, that's definitely a good one, though. Dean Kramer, something to watch with him is that his velocity was up across the board

in the start. Fastball is up one mile per hour. Sinker up 2.7 and the cutter up 1.5. Even with this great start, his ear raise over 6. So I agree with Chris. You don't have to add him, but let's watch and see where that velocity goes. Let's hit some news and notes, and you guys already alluded to it, but Jeffrey Springs expected to undergo Tommy John surgery. We'll miss the remainder of this season. And that means he'll probably miss the first couple of months of next season as well, which is just sucks. If we're being honest. Corbyn Burns suffered a left Pictorial strain Monday, but is hopeful he'll make his next start. The plan is for him to play catch on Wednesday.

So some good news there. Scott, I know we were kind of scared last night, but see where our coach. I remain skeptical. He'll be able to avoid an aisle stint. That just seems like the sort of injury you don't want to try pitching through. And teams tend to approach injuries with an abundance of caution this time of your understandably. So I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch on that one. But it does sound like he avoided a worst case scenario, at least. But let's also not forget that this is the same team that just went through a situation where Brandon Woodruff was like, he's fine. He just, he just didn't feel right. And now it's like an actual injury that is going to cost him, you know,

maybe not significant time, but real time. So we'll see. Apparently Carlos Rodon's back is quote, still barking and he will undergo tests according to Aaron Boone. He did say Rodon's arm feels fine, which was the original concern, but now the back is, he called it a nuisance, a bit of a nuisance at this time. And this is just the negative Yankee fan in me talking, but there's just something about players that go there

or their training staff, whatever it might be, players cannot stay healthy with this team. Or just the way that the Yankees have handled injuries. They have been among the worst teams in baseball over the past handful of years or so. I don't know what is going on. I think they cleaned out their training.

training staff like a couple years ago and nothing has changed like these guys just keep getting hurt and and keep staying hurt so I don't know what it is but it's annoying uh Robbie Ray told I think the other fans of the other New York team can say the same thing about true them as well I don't know I you'd think the New York teams could have the best medical staffs money can buy and maybe they do not to you know maybe it's the water maybe that's the tradeoff right you get really good bagels and pizza but it makes the pitchers get hurt more often. Or maybe it's just a small number of bad events happening. You know? Yeah. No matter how good your training staff has, people can still get hurt.

You might be on to something though, Chris, because I know you tweaked your back the other day. I've got a shoulder thing going on. Yeah, I've got a thing, you know, going on. Yeah. That New York water. Robbie Ray told reporters he's not quite ready to begin a throwing program, but that the progression on his left flexor strain has been good. He'll undergo an MRI later this week. will make his season debut Saturday in Arizona. U. Darvish will be pushed back one day to start on Sunday. Jacob de Grom expects to make his next scheduled start,

despite leading Monday with wrist soreness. Shohei Otani's next scheduled start has been moved up to Friday after throwing just 31 pitches Monday because of bad weather. I know it was the Patriots Day early start, but the way that that was handled, it was just so bad. It's like they had a rain delay, they started, there was bad weather, there was another delay. It was very weird.

That was like the same thing they did. I went to Fenway Park 2021 now, and it was like the same exact conditions where it was just like, they clearly shouldn't have been playing, but they tried to play through it. And it just ended up screwing everything up. Yeah, that was, that was annoying. You know, and it was the rare case where it seemed pretty obvious, you should use Shohei Otani as a pitcher instead of the hitter because, hey, look, he's getting two starts. Yeah. I guess second two start week ever. Yeah.

And guess what you missed out on? A sock and a shoe by Shoah Otani here on Tuesday night. So just perfect. Dodgers catcher Will Smith is, quote, days away from being activated, but the concussion IL, but it won't be on Thursday, as he previously mentioned. Mookie Betts was placed on the paternity list. James Outman let off on Tuesday night. And there was another report that Mookie could play shortstop upon his return to the Dodgers.

So maybe by, I don't know, May or June, we're talking about Mookie with second. shortstop and outfield eligibility. Every every shortstop on their roster pretty much is hurt right now because Chris Taylor left Monday's game with an entry. So yeah,

they might have to. Lukey Betts is a ball player. I just want to point that out. That is a ball player. There was an interview with him before the season where he was like, I still think of myself as a second basement. Like that's,

that was what he played his entire life until he got to the majors, basically. So like, I don't think he's upset about it. And we know he has... He made one appearance. Oh, no, more than one appearance. I'm sorry.

He had 14 appearances as a shortstop in the minors. There you go. Very low minors. We know he has the arm to play shortstop, too. I mean, that guy has one of the best arms at baseball. It's getting up there a little bit. Does he have enough range? I guess we'll find out soon.

Alex Wood left Tuesday start with a hamstring injury and will likely head to the IL. My guess is that Ross Stripling will reenter the rotation. That was an awkward. play. It was like, he like didn't plant when he went to field a bun and just clearly wasn't right. I don't think he even threw a warm-up pitch. He just left the field. Yeah. Danny Jimenez

was placed on the I.L. with a strained right shoulder. This team and bullpen is very bad, but I'm guessing they'll have a safe opportunity at some point. Trevor may I believe pitch in the sixth or the seventh inning on Tuesday night. Zach Jackson has a lot of strikeouts this year, but also

a lot of walks. I don't know. You probably don't want to cheat. Hunter Green and the race. relievers are any good, so. None of their pitchers are good, Scott. I mean, maybe Mason Miller will change that, but. Yeah. That is sort of on purpose. Yes. Hunter Green and the Reds agreed to a

six-year $53 million extension with a seventh-year club option. The deal buys out Green's first two years of free agency. Harrison Bader will start a rehab assignment on Friday and Michael Brantley will begin one this Sunday. Josh Donaldson is still dealing with tightness in his hamstring.

Again, another Yankees injury. and we'll be re-evaluated on Wednesday. Does that make Oswald Parraza more interesting? Potentially, he sticks around. Well, yeah. Sure. If he sticks around and is able to get in the lineup a decent amount, there's definite upside there.

It's more help but shortstop a position that needs a lot of help. I wouldn't be prioritizing Parazzo over. You know, I'd still rather have Zach Netto, for instance, even though he hasn't done anything. There's just more assurances of how much you'll play. But Parraza is interesting. Interesting upside at a position of need. Ramon Luriano has missed two straight due to hamstring tightness.

Joey Gallo is likely to make his return Wednesday against the Red Sox. Brett Beatty was not in the lineup Tuesday night against lefty Clayton Kershaw. I mentioned that as a concern. And we'll see. If he plays next time they have a lefty on the schedule. Both Jorge Polanco and Alex Kirolov had their rehab bumped up to AAA. Kiroloff is 24% rostered for those in deeper leagues.

And get interested yet, Frank? Getting interested in all Kiraloff? I will point out, Polanco seems to be ahead. I think he played nine innings today. Karoloff was only scheduled to play seven. So still some distance there for Karoloff.

I don't know how much, but yeah, he's a little further behind Polanco at least. All right. And Chaz McCormick is headed to the IL with a back issue. Let's quickly run through Wait, yes.

Sorry. Jordan Diaz, the athletics are also calling him up. He's, I think MLB.com's number four prospect for them. First base, third base, second base. I think he's eligible as second base in CBS. He got up, called up a little bit last year. His minor league numbers are kind of interesting. It's very, very good plate discipline in the high miners and just a little bit of pop.

But apparently really good exit velocity. so something to keep an eye on and for now just AL only leagues but that's one that I noticed as well. 120 games in the minors last year for Jordan Diaz. He hit 326 with 19 home runs

and an 881 OPS. So anything for some excitement on the Oakland A's. I think it's very welcome. Let's quickly run through some waiver wire hitters. Just check to see if he was dropped in your league. We were getting questions about Riley Green. I think rightfully so. It's been a pretty

lack lesser starts of the season. But he had a big doubleheader four for nine with a sock and a shoe. He's hitting the ball hard, but also striking out. And that ground ball rate is back up to 54%. But I still think there is some upside there with Riley Green. He's 77% rostered. Yep. Do you believe in the talent? Do you believe he'll be picked up if you drop them? I think the answer to the first one is yes. The second one, maybe. Yeah. Yeah. It only has to be yes to one of them, I think. I do have some questions. about the talent for Riley Green. But, you know, certainly in a five outfielder league, you couldn't consider dropping them.

I might have more questions about the development within the organization that he plays for, but I guess we could save that for another day. Right, right. Gabriel Moreno had a breakout game on Tuesday night, two for three with a walk and his first Diamondbacks home run, and he's 45% rostered. Scott, how would you rank these catchers in a one-catcher league? Logan O'Hoppy, Gabriel Moreno, Francisco Alvarez, and Shia. Jay Langalears, who is off to a pretty solid start.

I think you just did. Ohopi, Moreno, and I'll, yeah, I'll gamble on the upside of Alvarez over the assured playing time of Langalears. Start playing, start playing Alvarez more, Mets. Come on. Yeah, let's get that. Yeah, neither him nor Bady in the line of today. It was just like really trolling Mets fans.

Even against a lefty. Francisco Alvarez is not in there. I think I would actually take Languiliers just because I know he's going to play a lot. Sean Murphy led baseball, led catchers and plate appearances last year. That's a very 15 team mindset, Frank. You're one of those types. Yeah, I guess. But I mean, even in a 12 team points league, I want volume, right?

If you need someone, I don't know if either Langaleers or Alvarez should be rostered in a 12 team points league. I think even Moreno is probably fringy. But yeah, if you need a starter right now, it can't be Alvarez. They're treating him like a pure backup. right now. That's fair. J.D. Davis went three for four with a double is now batting 347 on the season. I read an interesting article about changes he made to his swing this off season. Apparently

he's keeping his front foot down and I'm not kidding about this. There's a video. He has these little like pelvic thrusts that allows JD Davis to keep his weight back and it's helped with his swing. And it's also hilarious to watch if you want to look it up. That's that's that's useful. Every time I'm playing softball, I'm always just like I always go to the plane and I tell myself, like, keep your weight back. That's the most important thing. And I never actually do it. Well, Chris.

I admire his commitment to his craft that he's willing to do pelvic thrusts in front of tens of thousands of people where he is the center of focus. I don't know. I don't think I could do it. I don't think so. Ah, come on. This is FBT after dark. Nothing to be ashamed of with that.

46% rostered his JD, David. I know I asked you, and I know your answer, Scott, from yesterday. But Chris, who would you rather have J.D. Davis or Patrick Wisdom, who is tied for the league lead in home runs with eight? I think I would go with wisdom. I'm not, I'm not super enthused about wisdom. I think it's just a hot streak. But I guess there's a better bet for playing time here.

I don't know. I think that's fine. In deeper leagues, Scott, do any of these names matter? Taylor Walls had a monster game four for, five with a double dung. Jake Berger went one for two with a walk and his fifth home run in the second game of that double header. 118.2 miles per hour off the bat for Jake Berger.

He's like legit a good hitter. They should find a way to keep his bat in the lineup. And Jack Swinsky went two for three with a double dong. Deeper League scout, what do you think? Yeah. I mean, there are playing time issues for all three of these. And I saw a report today. They're not going to consider using Jake Berger at second base after Yon Moncata comes back.

Yon Mokada started out at second base, I feel like. So I don't know why that doesn't get discussed more. But yeah, it's been a few years now where I'd like to see Jake Berger stick around and the White Sox just aren't letting it happen. So I don't see that changing. Just from a talent standpoint, he's the one I would want of these three. I'm going to guess Jack Swinsky ends up being the most usable over the course of the year. But I'm not especially high on him.

All right, let's take our final break, and when we return, we'll fire up the Worryometer here on Fantasy Baseball today. Let's fire up the Worryometer, zero, not worried at all. 10? Yes, this is absolute panic meter. I think we're probably, you know, on the border of dropping this player. Let's start off with Juan Succo, Chris. You know the deal here. Thank you for saying his appropriate name. Entering Tuesday, he was batting 177 with three home runs, one steel. The strikeout rate remains unres. a little bit. The BABIP is also

171 so far this year. Chris, your Wariometer level on Juan Succo. That's one Soto, by the way. But there's, we have a guy who emails us a lot and has referred to one Soto over the past three seasons as one Succo and it's very funny.

Zero. I just, I don't know, like I keep bashing my head against the wall with Wonsoto over the past calendar year basically. And I will just continue to do it because there's really like he's still hitting the ball hard he still has really really excellent plate discipline there are some minor nitpicky concerns in the quality of contact

metrics or in the you know he's pulling the ball and he talked about this actually there was a great piece a couple days ago where he talked about how i think it was in the washington post how he's he feels like he's pulling everything and it's led to hard contact but not necessarily good contact. And so, you know, he's frustrated. He, you know, he doesn't seem to just think it's bad luck. But I have to believe he'll figure it out. If anyone is down on Juan Soto, I'm happy to take trade offers for him. It feels very much like Jose Ramirez a few years ago. Remember where he had that like calendar, basically for a full calendar year divided between two seasons, he was like a 200 hitter. And then suddenly he was Jose Ramirez again. So like this hasn't even been

Juan Soto hasn't even been as bad as that, that stretch. And yet most of us, I don't think, lost faith in Jose Ramirez during that time. And that faith was rewarded in the end. I'm going to go down with the ship. Like, if that's what it takes, I'm going to have faith in Juan Soto until he turns 30. Which is like seven years from now, six years from now.

I think it's a great call out, Scott. I was thinking exactly the same thing with Jose Ramirez. Some people might be listening and say, why are you talking about Juan Soto, right? like we're two weeks in. We got an email earlier today. Someone asking if they can drop Juan Soto. Like these are real things that people ask us.

And it's, I'm not trying to single anyone out. There's all, you know, different levels of experience playing fantasy baseball. So I understand like a beginner might have a question like that. But these are like real questions. Juan Soto's so.

I don't even think it's beginners. He's one of the players I'm asked about most on Twitter. Juan Soto and Miguel Vargas, I think are the two players. I get asked about the most. Like, what's wrong with this guy? I've gotten some Manny Machado.

concerns as well. Yeah, that's started up. You're right. Gosh. Everyone, I know, it's a long season. It's a six-month season. We are not even three weeks in. I know it sucks if you get off to like an 0-2 star or 0-and-3 start or, you know, you're in last place in a Roto league. It's not the end of the world. I mean, things can flip around very quickly. So just, we need to just have some patience. Scott, I'm going to put two players together moving forward just because, you know, trying to move through this, but I'll give you the two pitchers on this list. Lance Lynn was knocked around again, five and a third,

10 hits, five runs, did have seven strikeouts. He was up against the Phillies, and through four starts. He has a 7.59 ERA and a 1.83 whip. The other name is Miles Michaelis, who has an ERA over eight and a whip over two. What is your Worryometer level on those two names? Lynn and Michaelis. On Miles Michaelis, it's probably an eight or a nine.

I could definitely understand dropping them at this point, even if it's just a rough start. The ceiling's only so high, particularly in an environment where there's more damage being done on balls and play. Lance Lynn, I'm going to go 2.5, not that worried. Still getting whiffs at a nice rate. He had stretches, he had a rough stretch that lasted even longer than this last year and turned things around pretty sharply.

So I still have a lot of confidence in, Lance Lynn's first seven starts last year, a 7.50 ERA 1.53 whip. His final 14 starts, 2.52 ERA, 0.97 whip. I would be looking to buy on Lance Lynn. Would you guys drop Michaelis for Mason Miller? Yep. Yep. All right, Chris, you get to, I guess you call this guy a veteran. Tommy Edmund, I guess so.

Jose Abraeu is batting 253 with three extra base hits, all of those being doubles. The strikeout rate is up. The average exit velocity is down. he is now 36 years old. And Tommy Edmund, who's batting 241 with one home run and one steel, consistently batting at the bottom of the Cardinals lineup.

Chris, your Woriometer level for Abraeu and Edmund. Abraeu, it's a little higher just because he's so old. I think Edmund, he's going to be fine. I think the lineup stuff is concerning. Like, I think the lineup stuff genuinely means he's unlikely to hit the upside that we thought he would. But I think he'll be fine. Abraeu he's just not hitting the ball well right now.

He did last year. You know, his quality of contact metrics were actually pretty good. He just didn't get the results. So I was pretty confident he'd bounce back. But now we're talking about a 37-year-old, right? 36-year-old who's showing signs of decline. So I'm going to say a five for him, a four for Edmund. For Abraeu, I will point out he's typically been a slow starter.

that's, you know, as long as he's been in the majors, he's gotten off to slow starts, and Tommy Edmund has been very streaky. Last year he started off great, and then he had like a two-month stretch where he was borderline dropable, and then he was really good after that again. So I think these two guys might just be shrieky players.

Scott, you get the two Baltimore Orioles on this list. Gunner Henderson, who is betting 167, with 22 strikeout so far. That is a 35% strikeout rate. And Anthony Santander, who's betting 200 with one homer and a 32% strikeout rate. Warrior on Gunner and Santander. We're saying this with a lot of rookies.

Corbyn Carroll's performing well, but not trying to think of examples of others. Jordan Walker looked pretty good to start out, but he's scuffled of late. And I think it's, you know, I think you have to show a lot of patience with them just because of the difficult adjustment period. Go back and look at what Julio Rodriguez

and Bobby Witt did last. April and you'll understand why you need to be patient with Gunner Henderson. Between two of them, they hit zero home runs last April. Henderson on my worryometer on Henderson, I'll go like three. I mean, it's possible. He's just not quite ready and we'll have to get sit down at some point, but he looked good enough in September that I don't think that's the case. San Tandere, I'm going to go, I'm going to split the difference in say five. I certainly don't think he's beyond dropping in five outfielder leagues. He has a lot of power.

But last year was really the first time it ever materialized to make him a true fantasy asset. And so I don't think it would be surprising if he fell off here rather than repeat that year. Real quickly, in case people didn't know what we were referring to for Jose Ramirez, because if you go look back and look at his career line, that the year-long numbers seem fine for him. When was he so bad?

So it was a 40 game stretch at the end of 2018. Jose Ramirez hit 166. And then a 66 game stretch at the start of 2019. He hit 198. So a span of 106 straight games when Jose Ramirez was like a 175 hitter. And then he has been just fine sense. Let's wrap up with a few leftovers here. We'll start off with some pitching standouts.

Spencer Shrider looked great at the Padres. Six shutout with 9. strikeouts. He actually did not allow a hit until the sixth inning of that start. Chris Bassett has turned in three straight quality starts after getting rocked on opening day. Clayton Kirschall was awesome against the Met, seven shutout with nine strikeouts, 19 swinging strikes. Marcus Stromian makes it four for four in quality starts and he went six shutout with five strikeouts at the Oakland A's and Nathan Avaldi bounced back with his first quality start of the season at the Royals, six innings, two runs, five strikeouts for him. Chris, anything to add on

Strider, Bassett, Kershaw, Stroman, Yovaldi. It was good to see Bassett, you know, continue to turn things around. The velocity being up is helpful. I think he's not, at least in this outing, he wasn't far from where he ended up last season. So I think we're okay there. Stroman, I just, I can't get excited about even when things are going well, just because he has a very long track record of just,

being who he is, which is occasionally very good. And I think more often than not, you won't regret having him on your fantasy team. I just don't think he's an impact player. And then Spencer Strider's walk rate is up a little bit. And it's 12%. He's still been completely dominant. So I don't think there's much concern there. But it's something worth noting.

I actually, I think I would look to buy high on Stroman this year. I hear what you're saying, Chris, but someone who, I mean, we haven't had. many, you know, solid contributors among starting pitchers so far. And look, I don't want to buy what he's already done. But he has a much better defense this year. He is someone who gets a lot of ground balls. Defense up the middle is great. Cody Bellinger out there in the outfield as well.

He's using his slurve, or I guess you're a sweeper a little bit more this year as well. And his swinging strike rate is back up over 11%. I really like what I've seen from Marcus Stroman so far. The ugly, the bad pitchers here. Jordan Montgomery, we mentioned what he did, four innings, seven earned runs for him. up against the Diamondbacks, Nick Ladolo, destroyed by the Tampa Bay Rays. Four and two-thirds, eight runs allowed.

Only four strikeouts, one walk. Three homers allowed. Scott, this is what will happen. If you allow a 95.7 mile per hour average exit velocity in Great American Ballpark, starts like this could actually happen. Yep. And I don't really know what to say for these two

other than everything you know is wrong. Nick Lodolo and Jordan Montgomery. Blank happens. Exactly. So let's see how it goes next time. And, you know, maybe a month from now, I'll have a good answer for what happening with Nick Lodolo and Jordan Montgomery.

More specifically, blank seems to be happening a lot against the race this year. Yeah. You know, Yandi Diaz hit his fifth home run today, so he's more than halfway to last year's total. His average launch angle is like three times what it normally is, which was always the issue for him. He was always an outlier in terms of average exit velocity,

but just never elevated enough to tap into the power. And maybe that's changing. I mean, even as a guy who would top out at 10 to 12 homers, he was a perfectly usable points league player because the late discipline was so good. If he's more of a 20 homer guy, he might be a stud. He might be like an in his prime Anthony Rendon type of option. It's,

it's all I can say is it's too early to know for sure. Sure. But if Yandi Diaz was breaking out, this is exactly what it would look like. Absolutely. This is what everyone has been saying Yondi Diaz was capable of if he started elevating the ball. A couple other hitting leftovers.

Jazz Chisholm went one for three with a walk, a sock and a shoe, his third home run and fifth steal of the season. I mentioned Shohay Otani had a sock and a shoe. shoe against the Yankees. No slow start for Marcus Simeon this year. He went two for three with two walks and his fourth homer. He's batting 271 early on. Wilson Contreras went two for five with a double dong. His first two Cardinals home runs. J.D. Martinez had a double dong and I always love when we talk about a player as a by low or on the Worryometer. And then the very next day, they go off

because we were talking about J.D. Martinez yesterday. He's been hitting the ball really hard so far. And he's the one with the hip thrusts, right? No, that is JD Davis. Oh, that's the other JD. Yeah. You can't just assume every JD is thrusting their hips. You know, and half the time when I talk about JD Davis, I say J.D. Martinez, because that's just, it's, that's been the J.D. in my life for so long. I need to get used to Davis again.

Remember J.D. Drew? That guy was fun. Ah, come on. I was, I was a wee little lad when J.D. was playing. The Braves, they powered up against the Padres. sixth home run of the season for Matt Olson, fourth for Albies, and fourth for Sean Murphy. The Padres broadcast pointed out that at some point, Sean Murphy's last 11

hits all went for extra bases, so slow start be gone, he looks very good. Some bullpen updates for the Tigers, Alex Lang, pitched in the ninth inning with a game tied in game one of the double header, so Jason Foley got the safe chance in game two, and he did

convert it. For the Phillies, a two-run lead, Craig Kimbril pitched in the seventh, Sir Anthony Dominguez in the eighth and Jose Alvarado in the ninth he struck out two for his first save he has thrown seven and a third inning so far 18 strikeouts to zero walks for Jose Alvarado Chris I actually noticed you picked him up in the Scott White Dynasty League and yeah like it is a pick up it's there's a very real chance that he is just the Phillies closer moving forward yeah I mean I I I would bet against it just because how hesitant they've been to

you know, give one guy the job, but especially him. But he's really good. So I think that was a case of just, I needed a player. And he was one of the players who was available, who is not terrible in that 24 team league. It's easier to justify, I think, now that they have Gregory Soto, another left-hander that they can use in high-leveraged situations. But too early to say.

But Alvarado's clearly been their best reliever. And has long been a guy that has been dangled, as a prospective closer. Yes. For the White Sox, Ronello Lopez recorded the final four outs of game two in the double header with a one-run lead.

He struck out three, picked up his third save of the season. For the Angels, one day after throwing 27 pitches, I assume that Carlos Estevez was unavailable. Jose Quijada got the ninth inning, and he struck out two for his third save and is 22% rostered. So between Quijada and Jose Alvarado,

you do have some perspective save chances between those two. For the twins, Yohan Duran pitched a ninth inning with the game tied. Someone named Yovani Moran got the 10th with a two-run lead, and he gave up three runs against the Red Sox, took the loss in that game. For the Diamondbacks, Andrew Chafin was called upon in the ninth with a four-run lead. He gave up three runs and was then relieved by Miguel Castro, who closed it out for his first save of the season.

For the Cubs, they had a four-run lead. Michael Fulmer pitched the eighth. That's now two outings in a row. He has pitched the eighth. Somebody named Michael Rucker pitched ninth inning. No idea. For the regular...

I think he was in the Walking Dead. I wouldn't know. It was Yandu, right? Yes. For the Orioles, Michael Felix Bautista picked up his fifth save for the Blue Jays. Jordan Romano got the final four outs

for his seventh save, and for the Pirates, David Bednar picked up his fifth save of the season. To stream, or not to stream on Wednesday. Griffin Canning at the Yankees. No.

Interesting in seeing how it goes, but I can't use him. Cal Quantrell at the Tigers. Probably going to be as close as we get to a yes. They're about as close as we get to a yes. For me. Okay. Trevor Rogers versus the Giants. I think they're not.

He's my favorite of this group, but yeah, I'm not viewing it as a must start. Taiwan Walker at the White Selt. Probably not. Mike Clevin traversing. Maybe. Phillies. No, probably not.

Johan Oviedo at the Rockies. I might do it. I might do it. I'm not. It's early season brazenness. I haven't been worn down enough to know, never to start a pitcher at Coorsfield. Because I'm kind of tempted to do it here with Oviedo.

I told you yesterday, Frank. I actually did it in a couple of weekly lineup leagues. We are all with you, Scott. Eric Lauer at the Mariners. No. Nick Martinez versus the Braves. No. Johnny Brito versus the Angels.

No. Mackenzie Gore versus the Orioles. I don't think so, Tim. I wouldn't, but it wouldn't shock me if he was good. On Thursday, Kent and Maida at the Red Sox. Oh, yeah, I'm fine with that. I'm surprised. Man, I'm surprised he qualifies for that.

Yeah, he is back below 70%. I think people have had enough already, Scott. Tanner Hout. A little injury situation, I guess, scared them away. Yeah, Tanner Hout versus the twins. No. Luke Weaver at the Pirates. No.

James and Tyone versus the Dodgers. No. Michael Waco at the Diamondbacks? No. No. Rwandi Ketreis versus the Reds. Nope. Nope. Matt Schram versus the Rockies.

Nope. Ryan Nelson versus the Padres. No. Sean Minaya versus the Mets. I'm just trying to vary the way I say no. That's fair. Not that it was an especially firm no for Ryan Nelson. All right.

Sean Mani also know. And Michael Grove at the Cubs. No. All right. So pick up Kenton Maida if you need a streamer for Thursday. We're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today.

Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.