Fantasy Baseball Today - Taylor Ward Double Dong, Pitcher's Duels & Early Hitter Struggles (4/26 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 26, 2022

Walker Buehler just completed 2022's first complete game (1:05). ... Taylor Ward hit two homers off Shane Bieber (2:25). Should you add him? How is Miles Mikolas having success? ... Why is offense down so much early on (14:11)? ... What's wrong with Bo Bichette, Willy Adames and others early on (20:40)? ... News and notes (35:08): Eddie Rosario needs eye surgery, Jacob deGrom had an MRI and more. ... Monday was filled with pitcher's duels, including Michael Lorenzen, Shane Bieber and more (41:25). ... We wrap up with bullpen updates, streamers and Team Name Tuesday (52:10). 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 league. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Hello there, and welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, April 26th. Frank Stamphill joined by Scott White today on the show. We're going to recap Monday's action.

Take a look at some hitters who are struggling early on. What is going on with them? Why are they struggling? We'll try and figure that out. A bunch of pitchers' duels on Monday, and then we will get to Team Name Tuesday, which should be quite the doozy, because there's no Chris here,

and you know how Scott and I do. You know how we do. We're going to be perplexed. Perplexed. Let's jump right in. Oh, my goodness gracious. I mean, Scott, before we actually get into our players, let's just highlight Walker Bueller,

because this guy just went out there through the first complete game of the season. A shutout. He gave up three hits, zero walks, and he also had, what was it? I think it was eight strikeouts, 10 strikeouts. He was amazing. Of course, he was going up against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

They're not a great lineup. But overall, Scott, for everyone who was worried about Walker Buehler in his first couple of starts, this is exactly what you wanted to see. Yeah. Was anybody that worried about Walker Bueller? I don't know. I had a few tweets like,

what's going on with Walker Bueller? But he's fine. I mean, he didn't go six innings in any of his first three starts, so I guess there wasn't a quality start in there. And the last one in particular against Atlanta, he gave up eight hits, only had two strikeouts.

So I guess people who need something to worry about might have worried about that. But no, it was never anything to worry about. And this start proves it. Yes, indeed. He had 14 swinging strikes on 100. and eight pitches did Walker Bueller, and his fastball velocity was up a little bit in the start, 95.3, which is exactly where he was at last year. So if you were worried about Walker Bueller,

worry no more, because he's fine. Let's get into our actual, oh my goodness gracious player, Scotty, and you have Blank. I'm going to go with Mr. Double Dung, the new leadoff hitter for the Angels. Taylor Ward. Taylor Ward. seemingly the bane of the existence of everyone who has Joe Adele, right? Because Joe Madden declared that Ward would be an everyday player and Adele would not. Brandon Marsh, I guess, the bane of everyone who has him, their existence too. Because those two rookies are forced to platoon while Ward plays every day. And it's like, what's going on?

Why is this happening? Well, Ward has been playing pretty well. Pretty well hit his second and third home runs here on Monday, as I mentioned, and has done a great job of getting on base, walking a ton, which is probably the reason why Madden has decided to bat him leadoff for the time being. Of course, we like hitters batting leadoff ahead of Otani and Trout. I mean, there's not a more optimal lineup spot in all of baseball, probably. and if Ward's going to be somebody who produces, you know, even independently of that,

just a guy who hits home runs and gets on base and maybe steals the occasional bag, then, you know, I think potentially a mixed league option. Obviously a small sample of it bats, but worth pointing out this guy in 179 career games at AAA. So a nice, hearty sample of AAA appearances for Taylor Ward. he has slashed 330, 439, 588. He's been a stud at AAA. And so I think there's reason to believe he could be a quality player in the majors too,

even if previous attempts to become that have not ended so favorably. All right. Well, now the question is, who do we drop from, Scott? If we're looking to add him, he's 25% rostered, is Taylor Ward. You mentioned what he's done in the minor league so far.

Back in 2019, 27 homers, 11 steals. so he's got a little bit of power and speed. He's hitting a bunch of line drives. You mentioned the walks as well, 10 walks to eight strikeouts through his first nine games of the season for Taylor Ward. Scott, would you drop? I mean, there's a few outfielters

that are really struggling, like fringe outfielers, I would say. Dylan Carlson, Avicel Garcia, Jorge Soler. Are those names you would drop for Taylor Ward and say a points league? Well, points league, obviously, there's a much lower threshold

or much higher threshold, I should say, to meet for an outfielder. So I was going to hesitate on Saler because there's transcendent power there. And I don't think in a Categories league I would drop Saler for Ward. But if you want to go for a hot hand play in a points league, I have less of an issue with that. All right. Well, how does Taylor Ward stack up against the outfielders who mentioned recently, Scott, on yesterday's podcast? We talked about Jack Peterson and Ranel Gritchick. What did they do on Monday?

they both went out and homered again. Jock Peterson hit his sixth home run. He's now up to 62% rostered. And Randall Gritchuk home run in back-to-back days now has his second and he is 62% rostered. Where does Taylor Ward rank among that group, Scottie? I will take Gritchick first and Ward second and Peterson third because Peterson's only going to play against right-handers.

I think that's abundantly clear and that inconsistent playing, time is obviously going to to keep his counting stats down. And look, I have some skepticism about the performance anyway, given the long track record, long track record of mediocrity

that Jack Peterson has. I would just kind of, in a general sense, rather gamble on the unknown, the unknown quantity there in Ward, which isn't to say that Ward is a sure thing either, obviously not, but

like Peterson has kind of shown us who he already is and a hot start doesn't change that for me. I looked into his stat cast page, Jack Peterson that is got, and man, he is crushing the ball early on, 98th percentile or better in barrel rate and average exit velocity.

Jack Peterson is first in baseball an expected batting average, expected slugging percentage, and expected Wobah. So he is just absolutely crushing the ball early on. I almost wonder if the, the trade-off of him not playing against lefties, you know, the lack of playing time there

is almost worth it because now he's only playing against righties and his production so far against these right-handed pitchers has been amazing. So I don't like... Yeah, I mean, it's not like he was an everyday player back when he was with the Dodgers, you know? Mm-hmm. And he still ended up hitting 220 to 250 most years,

you know, playing mostly against right-handed pitchers then as well. And we've seen him get hot for stretches like this before. I just think, I understand the Giants have made some magic happen with some veteran players over the years. But I'm still inclined to bet no here with Peterson. That's not what's happening. And he's just hot. That's fair.

I mean, I feel about the Giants the way that you do about the Dodgers pitchers now, Scott. I know you mentioned it with Tony Gonson. And it's just like, just trust the Dodgers when it comes to pitching. I kind of just feel that way about the Giants. They're so great with these hitters. I mean, we all like Alex Cobb for that reason, right? He was going to the Giants.

Yeah. Part of the success that the Giants have had with hitters is just being really situational about all of them. Yeah. You know, it makes them. So there aren't many, they have a productive lineup that scores a lot of runs, but there aren't that many fantasy assets within that lineup. Yeah, no, I think that's well said. And I actually agree with you.

I was just trying to play devil's advocate for Jack Peterson. I would rank them, Gritchuk, Taylor Ward, and Jack Peterson as well. But, man, if you play in any Categories League, daily lineup league, get Jack Peterson, make sure that he is rostered, because obviously you can just play him whenever he's in the lineup. And so far, he has been amazing. Let's talk about Miles Michael Scott. He was awesome.

He went toe to toe with, Max Scherzer, one of those pitchers' duels I mentioned earlier on Monday night. He goes seven shutout here, four hits, one walk, five strikeouts. Miles Michaelis has allowed just one earned run over his last three starts. He had 11 swinging strikes in this one on 95 pitches. I looked under the hood a little bit here, Scott. I didn't really see anything that changed from Miles Michaelis. The one thing that stands out is maybe he's just healthy.

Because he really has not been healthy for a long time. the short in 2020 season. He only threw 44 and two-thirds innings last season. Nothing crazy with the pitch mix. Nothing that's really changed that much. I mean, he's throwing a few more sliders in curveball, so maybe that's helped.

But let's say that you added Miles Michael's for the two-star week, Scott. He is now 75% rostered. Would you hold him now, or keep him on your team after this two-star week? Well, I want to dump him just for the sake of dumping him. You need to have something

that you're really eager to pick up, I think, to drop him after the way he's looked so far, giving up three earned runs and 22 and a third inning so far. But I am skeptical that he'll be somebody you can rely on week in and week out. It's funny, after this start, we got a tweet from somebody, it's a complicated Twitter handle. So I'll just read the tweet.

Looking forward to the is Miles Michael? list back discussion on the pod tomorrow. My initial thought was back to what? And so I had to go back and look at his way back in 2018. It's a long time ago at this point. He went 18 and 4 with a 283 ERA. It was so long ago I had forgotten about it and he'd been so mediocre since then that it was easy to forget.

But that was his first year back in the States after pitching overseas and kind of remaking himself, 18 and 4 with a 283 ERA. As memory, by my recollection, the prevailing thinking coming off that season was that it was a fluke and he was bound to regress and regress he did. Health may have had something to do with it, as you point out, Frank, but ERA over four since then. And even in that year when he had the 283 ERA, it was a 367 X-FIP. I'll also point out that his ground ball rate was much high. that year, that first year back in the States than in any year since then. And especially this year, the fly ball rate is way up.

Now, if the environment's going to be so drastically changed that fly balls are now something a pitcher wants because fly balls are more often leading to outs than we've seen in recent years, maybe that'll be a change for the better, but I'm still going to bet against that, that you'd rather him have the higher ground ball rate like he did in that 2018 season than what we're seeing from so far.

So I think part of it is just he hasn't allowed a home run yet. And so zero damage from something that's going to be regular damage against him normally. That's why he's off to a good start. Or, you know, it's just a good start. But I don't see this, I don't see Miles Michael as sustaining anything close to this, really. I think it'll be basically the same streamable pitcher he's been the past couple years. Okay. He is going to regress.

There's no doubt about that. But something that I pointed out a lot this offseason, Scott, targeting Cardinals pitchers because of the defense they have behind them and the division that they pay and play in. So obviously lots of starts against the pirates. The Cubs are actually off to a great start offensively. The Brewers are not so far. But yeah, it's having a defense that good behind. you, it allows you to outperform your peripheral numbers. We saw that for years with Kyle Hendricks when he had a fantastic defense. So again, I'm still betting on regression for Miles Michaelis,

but it would not surprise me if come halfway through the season, if Miles Michaelis is having this really good season with, you know, underlying numbers that don't back it up that say he's been lucky. That's the reason why is because he has that awesome defense behind him and probably is going to stumble across some really good matchups this season. On the other side of him, Max Scherzer, of course, was amazing. Back-to-back, double-digit strikeout games in a row. This one at the Cardinals, seven shutout, two hits, one walk, 10 strikeouts. He had 21 swinging strikes on 101 pitches.

He was just fantastic. He allowed one hard hit ball. And after a slow first few starts, you know, coming back from that hamstring injury, he suffered in spring training, Scherzer absolutely looks like himself, Scott. Maybe it's a bit of an overreaction. It really ultimately doesn't matter all that much. but I move Garret Cole down to my SP3. I move Corbyn Burns and Max Scherzer ahead of him.

Yeah, I mean, in the end, I think it's going to be six and one, half a dozen of the other, but I don't have a problem with that. They're all great, and certainly Burns and Scherzer have shown it more clearly here their first few turns. All right, let's talk about a few hitters, Scott,

that are off to slow starts. And I know overall hitting has been down. Across the league, Chris wrote a macro level, article that you can read on the site right now, CBSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball. And I know that you have a theory on why offense might be down. What is that?

Well, not to completely, I guess, steamroll Chris's column here. His column kind of laid out a few different theories for why offense could be down. And I think the one he was most gravitating toward was that the ball, the dead in baseball that was introduced. produced last year is in play more here at the start of the season and is going to remain in play more consistently than it was last season when there were production problems and they had to mix in some of the old balls and that kind of corrupted the data obviously. And I think that has a lot to do with it, but for April specifically, there may be something else going on because another one of the changes, which he cited in his article, was that the humidor is now it's been installed in every ballpark and they're looking for

every team to store the balls at uniform humidity. So the same humidity level in every park and obviously we've seen the humidor used for several years now in places like Colorado, Arizona, drier environments where you're adding humidity to the ball.

it's going to deaden the baseball further. It's going to lower offense, and we've seen it lower offense in those two environments. But as Chris points out in his article, if you apply that same humidity to a humidity level to the ball in a more humid environment, and it's actually drying out the ball. It's actually making the ball less humid than the air around it,

which in theory should have the opposite effect. You should see the ball carry better. in those more humid environments. So I'm hoping like a geologist or somebody out there is listening and can tell me how likely this theory is because I know I don't have the time or really even know, would know how to begin to research it. But obviously it's early in the year. There's been cold weather in a lot of different parts of the country.

And humidity, like it's at the lowest point. It's going to be all season right now. So as humidity goes up around the lead, and that ball remember is going to be drier than usual in those more humid environments, are we going to see a more drastic increase in offense in the summer months? It always goes up in the summer months, but is it going to be more drastic that changed than ever this year with the universal application of the humidor? And not only that, but could we see a sharper discrepancy between humid environments and not so humid environments and how well the ball is carrying to the point that based mostly on humidity, we're going to see some more extreme hitter environments, some more extreme pitcher environments in the summer for the majority of the season. And I don't know the answer to that, but, you know, just kind of reasoning my way through it. it seems like that could be how this plays out.

Yeah, I was reading through it earlier in the day, and I was like, it kind of makes sense to me. But, I mean, that'll just be another factor that we have to try and figure out as the season goes along. You know, the past couple of years, it's been really tough. I mean, you know, last year, they're mixing in new balls without telling anybody. I mean, well, mixing in the old ones, rather,

with these new deaden balls. And it was kind of just a mess trying to figure out, you know, like which balls are being, used where. So now this could be something that we have to worry about as well. And I know a few locations that Enosaris, who did a lot of work on this recently, you could check out his work over at the athletic. He theorized that, you know, places like Miami and San Diego are the ones that could see the boosted offense with the humidity there. So, I mean, those are two locations. Atlanta as well. It gets way humid in the summer. Yeah. So, I mean, those are a few that, you know,

just off the top of the head, it could make sense. but we'll see because overall it's it's been a weird to start to the season. It feels like there's so many outliers both ways, Scott, where there's some hitters that are just hitting for crazy high batting average, like the Owen Millers and Stephen Kwan's, but then there's also just a bunch of hitters who are below 200 and just have completely gotten off to slow start. So it's been very weird.

Well, and to, you know, maybe we left out some important context from the beginning here, but as much as we were completely, about offense last April, it's been even worse this April. So I think we all expect it to get better as it did last year. But is it going to get better even beyond the change from last year? Are we going to go from an even worse April to an even better summer than last year, which is what my theory is proposing, at least in certain parts of the country? Or are we going to go from even worse than last April to better in the summer?

but not quite as good as the improvement we saw last summer, which would be more about the deadened ball being applied more universally over the course of the season. And so, I mean, I'd rather not be that second scenario. I hope offense isn't a disaster all season. But that, you know, that is something that we were theorizing even before the start of the season, once we found out that that new baseball, wasn't applied as universally as we were led to believe last year. Yeah, well, cross your fingers, Scott, because I would really like to see some offense. I have a few roto teams that are just absolutely dominating

the pitching categories, but dreadful offense so far. I have one where we spent our first four picks on hitters, and it's playing out that way so far. Hitting is just dreadful, and our pitching is great. Oh, gosh, it's been such a weird start. Anyway, let's take a look at some of these hitters who are off to these. slow starts. Boba Shett, one for four on Monday with his first career Grand Slam, his second

home run of the season. He is batting just 219. Scott, is there anything in the profile that worries you for Bobeshet? No, I mean, with his track record, it doesn't worry me. The profile, like he's not hitting the ball as hard in general. I believe his strikeouts are up, but it's it's just kind of early season stuff I think and we have every reason I think given the way the past few years is gone to have confidence of Boba Chet and I look I think that we're probably going to say that for a lot of these players I mean a few of them are not as proven as someone like Boba Shett

or have a tremendous ceiling like Boba Shet does but yeah I mean this is as much to just calm people down you know, just for that reason, Scott, because a lot of people are hitting us up asking, what about this player, what about this player? And, you know, we'll try and figure out. What is wrong with these players? Boba Shet, you mentioned the strikeouts are up.

He has 21 strikeouts and just two walks. The ground ball rate is way up to. That's what I noticed. 63%. That is 48% for his career. So I think as that starts to normalize, hopefully it does. You know, more line drives, more fly balls. Those will lead to batting average

and obviously home runs and slugging percentage, and so on and so forth for Bobeshet. Willie Adamas, he went one for four with his second home run of the season on Monday. Two more strikeouts. He is batting 194. And when I checked out his page, I thought the strikeouts were really going to jump off the page got. And they really haven't.

You know, the strikeout rate and the walk rate is very similar to last year. Much like Boba Shed, it's really the ground balls early on that are standing out for me for Willie Ademis, still hitting the ball really hard. And again, for a lot of these players, If I can get Willie Adamas for dirt cheap right now, I would look to do that. And I think you can because he just doesn't have that track record.

So I think some people might even be close to dropping Willi Adomis. And to those fantasy managers, I would go and try and buy low. Yeah. You mentioned the ground balls were high. The launch angle is actually about what it was last year. There have been more line drives than fewer fly balls. But here's the thing. his expected batting average,

as bad as the actual batting average to actual slugging percentage are, expected stats, 275 batting average, 439 slug. I mean, you would take that. And I think there's reason to believe

he's even better than that because his barrel rate, I mean, a lot of it for both the hot starters and the cold starters, it just comes down to barrel rate. Most of the players who are off to hot starts,

have a higher than usual barrel rate, and most of the players off to slow starts have a lower than usual barrel rate. And barrel rate is something that can fluctuate from year to year. But I do think it's a, like if you want to sum up how hot a colder or cold a player is in one stat,

I think that's a good stat to look at. It's just how often are they getting those most high impact batted ball events. And Willie Adamas's case, he's not getting it as often as usual so far. So I think he's just, you know, getting his timing down, finding his stroke. It just happens to be happening here at the start of the season where it's more visible. And for those wondering what a barrel is, it kind of seems self-explanatory.

You've heard it for years and years on end is when a, typically when a hitter barrels up a baseball, but now they actually have a way to measure a barrel, which is within a certain launch angle and add a certain exit velocity. So it's literally just the optimal contact that you want to make on a baseball. That is the barrel stat over on stack cast. Reese Hoskins went three for five with two runs scored, and he is batting 232. Like the others, Scott, I mean, really ground balls. I wonder if maybe pitchers are doing something different to try and induce more ground balls.

I have to look into that. But overall, I mean, that's been an issue for the three that we've mentioned so far. But even with that, Reese Hoskins is absolutely crushing the ball early on, Scott. So I really am not worried, specifically in any type of points league where anyone might be freaking out, please go out and try and get Reese Hoskins. Yeah, his barrel rate's actually great. And the production hasn't matched up with it, the exit velocity, as you mentioned. It's off the charts.

Both are the highest they've ever been for Reese Hoskins. So I think his luck should turn here. And maybe the three-hit game on Monday was the start of it. Yeah, elite plate discipline after that kind of took a. step back last year. He's back to walking at elite rate this year. So I see more positive signs than not for Hoskins. And you know what's so interesting about Hoskins, Scott, is that he's someone that always hits the ball in the air a lot. But typically in the past, he doesn't hit the ball that hard. You know, his average exit velocity hasn't really, you know, jump off the page in the past or

his hard hit rates. But, I mean, I see the hard hit rate now. And if he does that in conjunction with raising that launch angle and hitting as many fly balls as he normally does, then I think really really good things are coming for Reese Hoskins. What about his teammate? The beefcake, Scotty. Kyle Swarber, one for three with a double, a walk, and two RBI on Monday. He's batting 177 on the young season. This one's a little bit tougher, Scott, because I was with you.

I liked Kyle Swarber quite a bit. I have him on a few of my biggest teams, my main event team. I have him on Tout Wars. The batted ball data is kind of all over the place right now. Too many ground balls, too many pop-ups. infield fly balls. But we've seen that in the past, too. He also had that issue in the short in 2020.

So while I think Kyle Schwerber will get back on track, I'm worried a little bit more just because we've seen this happen to him in the past. Yeah. What does on track look like for Kyle Schwerber, I guess? Because last year, at least percentage-wise, it was a career season. And 2019, he was great as well. But then 2020 in between, he was pretty often.

Obviously, that was the short season, the pandemic shortened season. So we kind of give everybody a pass for that. But Shorebird doesn't have a particularly stable track record, I think, is fair to say. I don't worry about, like, the exit velocity is way down for him in the early going. But he's, that is something that's been consistent for him over the years is how hard he hits the ball. So I suspect that's going to normalize. And in terms of where the production ultimately ends up, I like that he's with Kevin long in Philadelphia.

That's the hitting coach who helped him make some changes last year with the nationals that that unlocked this new potential for him. And I think those two together will be able to get it right. So I'm not really worried about Schwerber. I wish he was off to a hot start, but I still think he's going to be well worth the investment in the end. All right. How about Paul Goldschmidt?

He went two for three with a walk. He's off to a slow start himself. he's betting just 259 with a 676 OPS. And one of the reasons I was in on Paul Goldschmidt is that last year, his stat cast page, his quality of contact, it was the best that we've ever seen for Paul Goldschman. And this is somebody who has had a tremendous career. So we didn't see any signs of slowing down. You know, you worry a little bit more about a player who's 34 years old. Obviously, you know, you can lose it a lot quicker at that age.

but Scott, so far, the hard contact is way, way down for Goldschmidt. Line drives are down. Wouldn't surprise me one bit if he gets back on track, but the age casts a little bit of doubt. Yes, I think that's fair to say. I will point out, however, that at the end of last April, as good as Goldschmidt's 2021 was, at the end of April, he was batting 214 with a 597 OPS.

That's with about twice as me. many of bats as he has right now. So, I mean, I can't offer you a lot of data that suggests Goldschmidt is fine and you should hold on to him, but I can remind you that we're less than three weeks into this season. And we don't know much. And, like, I was much more down on Goldschmidt at this time last year, and he proved me very wrong. So I'm going to be hesitant to jump ship on him now.

Yeah, and even with that slow April, which you mentioned, Paul Goldschmidt finished with a 294 batting average, 31 homers last year, an 879 OPS. Maybe he's just a slow starter, or maybe it's as simple as there was a shortened, abbreviated spring training, and pitchers are ahead of hitters right now. Who knows? I mean, it could be as easy as that. Kyle Tucker, another early round hitter.

He went three for four with his second steal on Monday. He's batting 169. Scott, I remember it like clockwork. We were saying the same things last year. The expected numbers were much better for Kyle Tucker. We'll point out the strikeouts are up a little bit. He's not hitting the ball nearly as hard, early going here, but I personally have no concerns over Kyle Tucker.

Yeah, I don't either. I feel like we're just seeing a repeat of last season, and I consider him one of the most obvious by-low candidates. I will say that it is. By the way, your Nalvarez kind of in the same boat. Your Nalvarez expected stats are like... Insane. Crazy good, and yet he's been...

batting under 200. Yes. Go, buy, buy all the Astros. You know, someone we haven't talked about, by the way, early on,

Alex Breggman. Alex Breggman is actually off to a pretty nice start. You know, not crazy power so far, but hitting for a good batting average. I think it's three home runs.

He's, he's been solid. He's been fine for where you were drafting Alex Breggman before the season. Yeah, I think any concerns

I had about Breggman performance-wise coming into this season are basically gone now. There's still maybe a durability. question that will take a whole season to answer. But you can't be that picky at third base.

I think Bregman, if you drafted him, it's turning out to be a fine choice. Yerdon Alvarez, 97th percentile average exit velocity, 86th percentile in barrel rate early on. So, buy, if anyone in your league is concerned. What are the expected stats? Like 360 batting average, right? Last time I checked, it was something crazy like that.

Yeah. So 319 XBA 64X-slug. Okay. I exaggerated a little. I guess the slug is more ridiculous, 647. That is, wow. That is just bananas. Yeah, last name I wanted to mention here, Scott, Catelle Marte, who is, he went 0 for 3.

He's betting 159 early on. He's someone who, you know, typically his quality of contact stands out because he's a second baseman and typically second baseman, we don't have a lot of beef cakes at second base. God. So these these second basemen aren't typically crushing the ball, but Catele-Marty usually is one of those. And so far, it's a little bit down so far.

He's not really, he only has one barrel on 43 batted balls. Strikeouts are up a little bit. Doesn't have much protection in the lineup, but you could have said the same thing last year, so I don't know. I mean, it kind of seems like a cop-out, like, yeah, all these guys are just going to get back on track, but

Cate has kind of proved the past two seasons, two or three seasons, he's a pretty legit hitter. Yeah, there is, I may have a little more concerned here, both because the lineup context looks like it's going to be worse than maybe I thought. I mean, it wasn't good last year, right? And he still had a great season. So I don't know how much we should hold that against Catele-Marty.

But his, I noticed this was an update on our site. His chase percentage is up nearly five points from his career average. So his approach is different so far this year. And I don't know if that's just frustration. I don't know if it's because he didn't get enough reps in spring training because no one did. I would still bet on him figuring it out. But that's an underlying change that's a little more concerning to me than some of the stuff we're seeing from these other players. Yeah, the plate discipline stats are kind of all over the place right now for Coutelle-Marté.

chase rate is up, swinging strike rate is 12% at 7% for his career. His in zone contact is down. His contact percentage in general is down. So his first pitch strike percentage is way up. So it seems like pitchers are just going after him, attacking him early in the count. And maybe he needs to just be aggressive on those early pitches. But yeah, I mean, I guess it's easier for pitchers to do that when he doesn't have much around him with the Arizona Diamondbacks. So I would still bet on him being just fine.

but yeah, something to monitor maybe a couple of weeks or a month from now with Catelle-Marté. Let's take a quick break and when we return, we've got some news and notes here. Unfortunately, a note that we received on Eddie Rosario, we'll hit that here on fantasy baseball today. The news and

notes, Eddie Rosario will undergo a laser procedure to correct blurred vision, which definitely explains the struggles he's had not only at the plate, but in the field. I think I saw a week ago he had more errors than hits on the season, which is just like, what is going on?

But the early timetable I've seen, Scott, for Rosario is 8 to 12 weeks. So in those leagues that don't have an IL spot, you're probably dropping him. Yeah, that means he's missing maybe as much as half the season with this injury. And with this procedure, I should say, I don't know if I'd call it an injury, but this vision issue. Yeah, I would agree if, like, if you have a free IL spot, obviously, there's no reason not to fill it. But if you don't, I think this makes Rosario very dropable because it's a long absence and we weren't expecting top shelf production even if he was firing on all cylinders. I don't think that this will force the Braves to rush back Ronald Acuna. But he certainly looks

like he's ready to go through five minor league games. He's betting 357 with a double and three steals. He's running crazy on the base paths already. Probably just trying to prove that his knee is healthy, but he's a great. I did see somebody on the Braves beat saying irrespective of this Rosario issue. It looks like he's going to be up sooner than May 6th anyway. So, yeah, I think Acuna's return is just around the corner. I recall somebody saying that here on this podcast. Hmm, who was that? Anyway, yes, I always thought that Ronald Cunia was going to be back sooner than the May 6th timetable that they gave us. It was David O'Brien who reported that. So, Hopefully we do see him sooner.

And hopefully we see Jacob de Grom sooner. We got some good news. His MRI showed, quote, considerable healing of the stress reaction on his scapula. And he's been cleared to begin loading and strengthening and will undergo another MRI in three weeks. So we won't see him within the next three weeks. We can confirm that.

I mean, I think the best case scenario, Scott, is probably something like mid-June, if everything works out. Yeah. That's what I was thinking too. And again, best case scenario, there are reasons they might want to take it slower than that. But if they want to go full bore from here,

that's basically six weeks from now. And I think that's the normal ramp up time for a starting pitcher. All right. Alex Cobb completed a 30-pitch bullpen session on Monday, but was only throwing at 70% intensity. He will need at least one more bullpen before returning from his groin injury. Teasca Hernandez is progressing well from his oblique injury and will take part in live batting practice later this week.

Stephen Kwan was not in the starting lineup Monday with that hamstring injury. He remains day to day. J.D. Martinez returned to the lineup for the Red Sox on Monday after dealing with a groin injury, which kept him out this past weekend. Adley Rutchman will begin a minor league rehab assignment at High A this week. Scott, do you have any guesses on when we might see Adley Ruchman in the majors? not Dustin AAA. I think sooner than later, obviously the Orioles aren't playing for anything. So from their perspective, there's probably no rush to get him up.

No pun intended. But there was some talk in spring training that he might win a job then, which I didn't take so seriously, but having seen how many rookies went on to win jobs across the league, I mean, that might just be a more normal thing going forward, hopefully. So we'll see how he performs. I mean, obviously he's going to have to hit his way into the majors. But I expect that performance won't be an issue for him and his return to AAA. Adley Rutchman is 77% rostered on CBS.

So he might be out there in some one catcher leagues if you want to pick him up and stash. Yeah, I don't know that it needs to be. I'm 77%. Yeah. That's a lot. Man, that's a lot of teams carrying an extra catcher, which is hard to just. justify. So I don't know that it needs to be higher than that. I will, I don't have any sources on this. I will make an educated guess that Adley Ruchman is in the majors in one month from now. So late

May, I think that's when we'll see Adley Ruchman. Tanner Halk was placed on the restricted list ahead of the Red Sox four game series in Toronto because he is not vaccinated. Garrett Whitlock will start in his place on Thursday. Bryson Stott was optioned back to AAA. And while that sucks for Bryson Stott and his fantasy managers. It's good news for Alec Bohm and his playing time. Scott, I assume we can drop Stott even in deeper leagues. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure there's a depth where I'd still want to hold on to him, but yeah, he's pretty dropable at this point.

I dropped him in a few 15-team Roto leagues this weekend, so those are pretty deep. Right. Maybe the only thing deeper is NL only, so I guess that's one. Lars Neupar was optioned back to AAA, and Brendan Donovan was called up by the Cardinals. Last season, Donovan hit 304 with 12 homers and 19 steals across three levels. Scott, is there anything here with Brendan Donovan? First of all, I'm not sure how much he's going to play. He was not in the starting lineup on Monday.

And second of all, he's not a particularly high-profile prospect, so I am not terribly interested in him as of now. Okay. Mbizio was placed on the COVID IL on Monday, and Taiwan Walker is expected to start Saturday against the Phillies. Scott, do you have any interest in Taiwan Walker? He's 45% rostered. Who took his place in the rotation? I guess that was Peterson, right? Yes. Okay. So we won't miss him. Walker, I don't know. He's managed, he manages to outperform his peripherals often enough that he's probably going to be usable. this year, but I don't think the upside is so high

that picking them up should be a priority. All right. Let's get into those pitchers duels, which I mentioned from Monday night. Opposing Walker Bueller was Merrill Kelly. Not that he was great, but worth mentioning, he posted a quality start against the Dodgers. I thought it was interesting that he didn't have his

best stuff, and he still managed to go six and limit the Dodgers to three runs. I thought that said a lot about Merrill Kelly in the start. He's got a 1.69 ERA through four starts, and 50% ground ball rate. Scott, anything that you noticed here

with Merrill Kelly on Monday. Well, the story for him now is the change-up. There was a velocity increase early on that has since normalized. So if he's a different pitcher, now it's not because of velocity.

Nine whiffs on 98 pitches, nine swinging strikes on 98 pitches. Only one of those came on the change-up. So the change-up wasn't as effective in this start. It was against the Dodgers, as you point out, and he still managed to have a quality start. So how much can we complain about it really?

But I want to see him bounce back with the change up next time out, because that's the key to the breakthrough as far as I'm concerned. All right. Another pitcher's duel was Shane Bieber going up against Michael Lorenzen. Let's start with Bieber. He posts back-to-back quality starts, and this one, six and a third, seven hits, three runs, two walks, six strikeouts. He did have 13 swinging strikes.

on 100 pitches. I thought that they just left him in too long in this start. He was at 88 pitches through 6. You know, we've seen around the league, managers are starting to push their pitchers a little bit more. Obviously, Walker Bueller goes out and throws the complete game. I just didn't think that they needed to do it with Bieber in this one. Scott, what do you think about his performance against the Angels?

A mixed bag. He was cruising there for a while, and the 100 pitches he threw was 14 more than in any other start this year. So that may have been it. I also noticed his velocity was up quite a bit at the start of the game over a mile per hour on average, basically everything. And it got a little less so as the start went on. So that would maybe indicate that he's not fully stretched out either.

Even though he ended up giving up three earned runs and a couple home runs, Let's see, were both of Taylor Ward's off of Bieber? Yes. Yeah, both of them to Ward. Even though he gave up those home runs, his average exit velocity was actually lower than we're used to same from Bieber, which I thought was kind of interesting. But, you know, overall, I am more positive takeaways than negative, I'd say.

Yeah, he still gave up nine hard hit balls overall in this start. So, I mean, that's always been something with Shane Bieber. He gets a lot of whiffs, but he allows a lot of hard contact. Scott, something I said about him last week. I said, if this is the new Shane Bieber learning to pitch at 9091, sitting 9091 with the fastball, then I still think he could be really good, maybe a top 15 starting pitcher for fantasy,

but I think it might put a cap on the upside. Like maybe he's not top five starting pitcher Shane Bieber at this velocity. Yeah, no, I agree with that completely. I am feeling better with each passing start that Bieber's going to be a fine option for you. But it doesn't appear that the upside is what it once was. And probably not going to live up to the second round pick you invested in him. Maybe more like a fourth round pick is what we're talking about in terms of his output. All right. Opposing Shane Bieber was Michael Lorenzen, who now has two quality starts in his first three starts on the season. Six shot out, three hits,

four walks, three strikeouts. He had 12 swinging strikes on 93 pitches. And once again, we see that diverse pitching arsenal through five different pitches at least 11% of the time. And Scott Michael Lorenzen is just 31% rostered. He has SPARP eligibility right now on CBS. So a starting pitcher you can use in your relief pitcher spot. Do you think that this roster rate should be much higher than 31%? I don't know that it needs to be much higher than that. There are some interesting signs underneath for Lorenzen.

But I mean, even in this start, he had more walks than strikeouts. I mean, it's hard to say this is the sort of start that's going to make you rush to pick him up. What I find interesting is he has six pitches and he keeps changing the mix from start to start. Usually when a guy throws a pitch more or less than usual in a start, it really stands out because they're pretty consistent about how often they use each of their pitches. but Lorenzen's pitch usage has been all over the place. And I still think maybe he's figuring out how to start, really, because obviously he's going to use all those pitches as a reliever. So, you know, there are some good signs here from Lorenzen underneath,

but I don't think he's a priority pick up at this point. Scott, the most added starting pitcher on CBS right now is Dylan Bundy. His roster rate is now up to 74%. And I know we talked a lot about it. about him on yesterday's podcast, but would you rather have Bundy or Michael Lorenzen? I kind of feel like Lorenzen's more interesting. I don't...

Yeah. I don't know. I agree. I mean, certainly if you could take advantage of his relief pitcher eligibility, like at a points league. Yeah. Rather have Lorenzen.

I mean, the quality of... We didn't point this out when we talked about Bundy yesterday. It was a crowded show, and we were quick to just move on to the next name. And I don't have a lot of confidence in Bundy. But it is worth pointing out that the quality of contact against him has been very poor. His XERA is about as good as ZRA. So I don't know how he's doing it. I don't trust him to sustain it, but maybe there's something there. So I'm not totally

going to ridicule somebody who picks up Dylan Bundy, but at the same time, I haven't moved to do it myself. No, I agree. Like he should be added. I get why he's been added. Obviously, you know, he's some upside in the past. I don't know. I just kind of feel like the mystery bag of Michael Lorenzen is just a little bit more interesting.

Yeah, I think so too. All right. Let's get to Jose Barrios versus Nathan Evaldi. Both pitchers go seven innings in this one. Burrios, seven innings, two runs,

only four strikeouts, back-to-back quality starts, both of those coming against the Boston Red Sox. Scott, what I noticed here for Burrios, 11 hard-hit balls against, and he is getting crushed

early on in the season. His average exof-floss is in the fifth percentile entering the start. Obviously, he has a very extensive track record of being a high floor pitcher, a very serviceable pitcher. Again, this is Jose Barrios, but I don't know that we've ever seen him

allowing hard contact as frequently as he is right now. Yeah, but I'm not really concerned about it. Yeah, it's Jose Barrios. Yeah, and he struggles with a long ball at times, and I think his first two starts especially, we saw that happen to him. It happens from time to time. But I think ultimately his numbers are going to end up

about where they always are. And there are going to be some highs and lows along the way and the strikeouts might be a little lacking for a picture of his stature. But you knew that going in. Opposing him, Nathan Avaldi was strong as well. Seven innings, two runs, five strikeouts to zero walks. Scott, anything to add on Nathan Avaldi?

He's been fine. impressive that he got through seven innings on just 72 pitches. Yeah, incredibly efficient. It's unusual, unusual efficiency from him. But beyond that, nothing to add. He looks fine. The last pitcher's duel I wanted to mention Framber Valdez going up against Dane Dunning.

Dunning had his best start of the season. Five and two-thirds, two runs allowed, five strikeouts to just one walk. He's only 14% rostered. And then Framber Valdez, a nice bounce back. He got rocked his last time out. He had nine walks over his previous two starts. In this one, he only walked two, gave up one under run over six innings of work. Again, that's Framber Valdez.

He's got anything that you saw here with Valdez and Dunning. Would you look to add Dane Dunning anywhere? He's 14% rostered. His velocity was actually down quite a bit in this start, but like it was even worth looking into, right? Because he's Dane Dunning. And I don't see much, I don't see much reason to be excited there. Once upon a time, I had some love for Dane Dunning in that slider that he throws. It was a good slider on Monday, and I think these can be the results when he has that slider working, but it starts where he doesn't.

It's going to be very hard for him to get by. Two other pitching standouts, they weren't going up against each other, but definitely worth mentioning. Corbyn Burns now has three straight quality starts after his opening day, snafu against the Cubs. In this one, six and two-thirds shut out, 11 strikeouts, just two-hills. just two hits, two walks allowed. His last three starts, he has 29 strikeouts to three walks overall for Corbyn Burns. And Kyle Gibson, another solid start,

five and two thirds, two runs, four strikeouts. Scott, I thought this was interesting. Gibson now has exactly 17 swinging strikes in three of his four starts, which is a pretty good total. Pretty good. It's a great total. Yeah. Look, so Kyle Gibson has a 3.47

ERA and all the ERA estimators really like him through four starts. So he's kind of in that same Miles Michaelis territory, Scott, where you added him for two stars or you picked him up early on in the season. I think he faced like Oakland his first time out. I would just hold on for now because I'm kind of interested in what Kyle Gibson's doing. Yeah, I'm a little more interested in him than Michaelis, I think. Ultimately, I still think he's going to end up being more of a streamer type. and I just have such a long track record of him being that.

He had, so a couple of things about the swinging strike rate. Yes, the rate is off the charts right now. He got 10 of his 17 swing strikes on the slider alone Monday. But we've seen that be a big swing and miss pitch for him in the past, not consistently, but I think in 2019 specifically, that year he had a 13.1% swinging strike rate, an elite rate. right he's still at a 484ERA he still had right out of strikeout per inning and this year it's not like he has the strikeouts to go along with the swinging strikes so we we've kind of seen him do this before

just kind of fake us out with a bunch of swinging strikes and so between that and the track record I'm inclined to bet against him bet against Kyle Gibson being being like this breakthrough pitcher this year, but he can be usable at times. Yeah, it's so weird because you're right. I mean, there's been seasons where the swinging strike rate has stood out for Kyle Gibson, and he always gets a lot of ground balls. So, you know, two things that we look for in a starting pitcher, ground balls and swinging strikes. And he's been okay at that,

and the walks have been an issue at times for Kyle Gibson. But we'll see. Maybe, you know, throwing the slider a little bit more and leading to more whiffs can help him. But if you picked him up to stream, I would hold on for now. I think he's still. more of a streamer, but let's see where Kyle Gibson goes from here. The call to the bullpen for the Giants, Jake McGee gave up a game-tying solo home run in the eighth inning. Camila Duval

then pitched perfect ninth once they took the lead for his fourth save. Scott, Jake McGee is still just rostered in too many places. He's 72% roster right now. Would you drop him for each of David Bednar, Tanner Rainey, Lucas Sims, Emilio Pagan? I would say Rainier Sims

Bednar's in kind of a closing tandem himself but I don't need like I kind of think Camillo DeValls just the closer like as much as the Giants have a closer I'm not saying he's going to get 100% of the save chances but he seems to be getting three quarters of them you know at least

so yeah I think McGee's dropable for any of those four and you could probably find someone even more interesting than them, frankly. Yeah. Well, how about Joe Barlow? Scott? He pitched a perfect ninth in a six to two win. Would you drop Jake McGee for Joe Barlow?

So Chris Woodward has said in recent days that he is treating Joe Barlow as a closer. I don't think he has a save yet, but that's just because of the way it's worked out. He said that after Matt Bush got the, I think the Rangers first save. So kind of as if to say, no, Matt Bush is not the close. I guess so. I guess I'd rather have Barlow than McGee, but obviously the safe chances aren't going to be so regular. And I have questions about how good of a pitcher he is to begin with.

For the Cardinals, Giovanni Gallegos imploded in the ninth inning. He gave up four hits and four earned runs. He takes the blown save and the loss. Edwin Diaz on the other side walked one. He struck out two for his second save. Reiseli Glacius also struck out one. He had a clean ninth inning for his third save of the season. To stream or not to stream, let's start with Tuesday.

Jordan Liles at the Yankees, Mitch Keller versus the Brewers, Daniel Lynch at the White Sox, Jordan Hicks versus the Mets, Chris Paddock versus the Tigers and Dalton Jeffries at the Giants. I think Mitch Keller's the main one I'd look to here. And I'm interested in Jordan Hicks' potential. I'm just not sure he's going to go deep enough for a win against the Mets. I heard Jordan there. I didn't know which way it was going.

I didn't know if we were going to get a Jordan Licks. Miles endorsement from Scott White. No, that, no, that wasn't going to happen. All right. Hell would have to freeze over, Frank. Oh, well, come. Don't talk about my Scott White Dynasty League bench pitcher like that, Scottie. Anyway, 2014 points league.

Yeah, it's, yeah, very deep. I love Nando, just completely fire sailing, right? It's like three or four weeks into the season. I should have hit him up. I was, he had a few interesting players. Anyway, Wednesday, Aaron Ashby, at the, the Pirates, Eric Fetty versus the Marlins, Michael Panetta at the Twins, Christian Javier at the Rangers, and Paul Blackburn at the Giants. So I think the two most interesting here are the

pitchers who are serving as six starters out of the bullpen, Christian Javier at Texas, Aaron Ashby, at Pittsburgh. But as I said with Hicks, there's a question of how deep they'll go into those starts. I think Javier would be my first choice, actually. I'm hoping he sticks after this spot start and maybe Jake Oterizzi goes away. Yeah, I should have just asked you in general about Christian Javier Scott. Would you be looking to just add him anywhere where he's available? He's a 43% rostered. Maybe.

I don't think it's a must, but I did feature him in yesterday's waiver wire column. Obviously, he's relief pitcher eligible and his, I think he's made 19 starts in the majors. the ERA is around 350 low whip more than a strikeout per. He was successful as a starter before they moved him to the bullpen last season.

All right. Would you rather have him or Michael Lorenzen? I'd rather have Javier, I think. All right. Let's see. As a starter

in his career, Christian Javier has a 3.42 ERA, 1.02 whip over a strikeout for ending. Yeah, those are pretty awesome numbers. Nailed it.

for Christian Aviar. Team name Tuesday. Let's see if we can nail this, Scotia. I don't know. From David. Stop looking at me, Kwan.

Ah, that's a Billy Madison reference he put in parentheses here, so you should be all over that. I did have to Google it myself. I haven't seen Billy Madison in a while. These are from these are from Colin.

Kwanseye Tree. Okay. Kami Kwanzi. All right. Calvin Kwanze. Trill. All Cleveland themed, I guess. Mm, okay. This last one's a bit of a reach.

Quam Things in the Way by Nerkwana. They were all kind of a reach. Scott, have you seen the new Batman movie? I have not. So that song is very heavily featured in that film. Some Things in the Way by Nirvana. And it was very good. I was about to say awesome and I caught myself there.

I'll stop short of Awesome. It was very good, the new Batman, but the most recent Spider-Man movie was much better. It was amazing. This one's from Trey, and he's actually roommates with Colin, who sent in the previous ones, and apparently they were debating on these two, and they are Jose Ramirez themed. The J-Ram Slammers. Okay. And Jose Slamirez.

I think he hit... Are these references to something, or is it just... I know he hit at least one grand slam already this season, Jose Remeres. he hit two? Because he's among the league leaders in RBI. I think he has 20 RBI already. I don't know. I don't even know how I would look up. He does have a lot of RBI now. I don't remember how many grand slams he said. He has one game with a home run and four RBI and he's another game with a home run and six RBI. He might have two grand slams already on the season. So home run log here on baseball reference. Yes, two grand slams. All right. That is worthy of a host.

Ramirez Grand Slam themed team name, I would say. This one's from Ben, the Nandelorian. The Nandoorian, rather. Oh, okay. Yeah, nice little throwback. I wonder if Nando's used that for a team name before, because he's kind of a traditionalist with team names. He likes to, he likes team names that tell you whose team it is. So I've seen him name his team like the Nondominiums before. I haven't seen Nondolorian. I'm pretty sure that Nando's a big Star Wars fan too, so I'll have to ask This one's from, these are from Andrew. Justin, comma, Bieber, comeback to her. Schwindles, swindlers.

So that Justin was a reference to Verlander. Yes. Okay. Justin and Shane Bebs coming back together. Keep my wife's name out, you trout. It's topical. Cicuchy cooos. Okay.

These are from Bill. Marilynne Moulanson. I don't think we've heard that one before. It's pretty good. Earth, Wind, and Fire-Ison. Have heard that before, but it's good. Faith No Moran. Okay.

What do they sing? Faith No More. I don't know. Epic? Is that the song? Anyway, Alien Gant Farm. Okay. This one's from Alex.

Joe Boo's on a Bender. Anthony Bender, I guess. from Bernard Ober and out Okay If loving you is Wong I don't want to be right Spelled like Kyle right

Okay King Louis Head Or is that Louis Head Apparently it's a Hamilton reference Have you watched Hamilton's got I have But I don't I don't get the reference

Yeah I haven't seen the movie Or watch the musical play Whatever From Jake Rodon Black Days that's got to be fell on black days i think sound i don't want to say the wrong band name but it's a great song fell on black days uh from matt john means tommy gone ooh who i hurts matt kegan and kell that's because keenan tomkeen his last name is thompson right so kegan thompson yeah that makes

even more sense that's good uh bo bow power rangers okay from samir these are for harry potter Do you like Harry Potter, Scott? I don't think I could call myself a Harry Potter fan. I've watched all the movies and mostly enjoyed them. I watched the first three or four, and then I just gave up. Wip Beyond Measure. They got better toward the end. That's the name.

I don't get it. From Griffin, Kopexed Cetic. Okay. Tyquan Bow. Okay. Tork in the road. Like Torkelson, okay. Manoa Constrictor.

I kind of like that one. Turtles and a half snail. Turtle power. That's pretty good. Into the Voight. Okay. Quantril physics. Hmm.

And these are also from Griffin. A few Simpsons reference. Howdy Glaber? Okay. And Bart and Mr. Burns. Who is the Bart in this scenario? I guess Joey Bart. Yes.

And Mr. Burns is Corbyn. Okay. Did you watch The Simpsons growing up, Scott? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Simpsons was, when I was in middle school, the Simpsons was everything. Yeah.

I think it's probably more of like a generation thing. I'm a little bit younger than you. I know Adam loves The Simpsons too. He would probably, you know, choke slam me if he heard me say, I haven't watched The Simpsons, but. Well, the thing about the Simpsons,

like it's still going on now, which is just ridiculous. And so there's, there have been so many episodes made and the quality. Like, the quality was good for a, like, solid 10 years. You know, like, they had a really good run, but they've gone 20 years beyond that.

And so there's the majority of the Simpsons library now is, is, you know, not so great. But those early years were amazing. I don't know if there's technically a rivalry between the Simpsons and South Park. I mean, they're both just raunchy animated comedy series, but I've always gravitated towards South Park and it, you know. I don't know that I'd call the Simpsons raunchy.

Yeah. I think family guys more in that direction. True. And certainly South Park. South Park is on its own level, of course. Very, very raunchy indeed. You know, we were talking before. Scott, I forgot my fortune favors the brave two-star pitcher of the week.

I won't forget. I'll remember for this Friday. So I want to make sure that we keep that going here. For Scott, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening. and watch Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.