Fantasy Baseball Today - The New Shane Bieber, Rankings Movers & Buy-Low Options (4/21 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 21, 2022

Is Shane Bieber back (2:00)? ... Is Jurickson Profar a must add (9:50)? ... Shohei Ohtani was ridiculous again, taking a perfect game into the sixth inning (13:13). ... Which hitters should you look to add (15:36)? ... Which players are moving up and down the rankings (22:12)? ... News and notes (37:14): we have updates on Ronald Acuña and Mike Trout. ... Buy low or no thanks, bro (44:23)? ... Buy high on Merrill Kelly or Anthony Rizzo (49:40)? ... We answer your trade questions (51:06) and then wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (56:11). 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. What's up and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, April 21st. Frank Stamphill joined by Chris Towers today on the show. Rankings, risers, and fallers.

We've got some trade options. Chris puts out his trade chart every Wednesday afternoon. You can find that on the site. And of course, we will recap all of Wednesday's action. There is a lot going on. But let's get right to it. Oh, my goodness gracious. A familiar voice, one Susan Waldman.

Oh, my goodness gracious. Back by popular demand. I've been trying different things out. And frankly, Chris, people just want to hear Susan. That's what it keeps coming back to. Maybe they're just so used to it at this point. But ask and you shall receive. leave. So there you go. Susan is back.

When is the, when is the Susan Waldman bobblehead night? Oh, I'm going to it. I, uh, okay. I wanted to make sure, because if you weren't, I was, I'll go and get you one. No, I'll show up early. I'm definitely going. It's sometime in August, I believe. I'm going to the game. It's a talking bobblehead

too. So I hope it says that. Is it really? Yes. That's wild. All right. I didn't know that. This is just, Yeah, this is beautiful. This is a Susan Waldman and John Sterling Bumblehead. If anyone who lives in the New York tri-state area, if you'd like to get one, it is on, I don't have the date here.

But it's sometime in August. I can't find it. But yes, if you do want it. Anyway, we've wasted way too much time. Chris, who is your, oh my goodness, gracious play of the day? Welcome back. Shane Bieber. Had a very, very good start.

Seven strikeouts in six innings. one earned run, four hits allowed, what was it, 17 swinging strikes on 86 pitches, 11 of them coming with his slider. Velocity was still down, 90.2 miles per hour with his fastball. That was actually lower than it has been so far this season, but he made some adjustments, particularly in becoming a slider first pitcher through it 42% of the time, 36 of 46 pitches. and he had a 39% CSW rate.

That's very good. 11 swinging strikes with that slider. And the fastball actually played up today as well. He got four swinging strikes on 31 of those, 35% CSW. So that's all a good sign. I still think it's a bad sign that he only average 90.2 miles per hour with his fastball. That's lower than we've seen. I think it's going to be very hard for a guy whose fastball has tended to get hit hard in the past.

Any way to continue to be effective in that way. but look, he's aware of it, you know, going slider heavy, I think is a sign of that. And, you know, we'll see. We'll see what it looks like. I'm still pessimistic on Shane Bieber. I was pessimistic about him coming into the season. So, you know, that's a little bit of confirmation bias based on his start so far. But it's a very good outing today.

You know, eight hard hit balls isn't great. But that's, you're going to have that with Shane Bieber, even when he's doing really well sometimes. So I don't know. What do you think? there is a chance that this is just the new Shane Bieber. You mentioned the line, six innings, one run, seven strikeouts, still had 17 swinging strikes, a near 20% swinging strike rate in this start, and it's because he went slider heavy. I mean, that is his best pitch at this point.

Not that the fastball was ever a great pitch for him, but it is better when it's in that 92 to 94 mile per hour range. There is no doubt about that. I think that if he can sustain throwing his slider as much as he did in this start, around 40% of the time, and he just has immaculate control because if he's walking batters and giving up hard hits, bad things are going to happen. I mean,

that just seems obvious. But if he has these starts where he's, you know, one walk or less and he's throwing the slider this much, then I think this new version of Shane Bieber can still be very,

very good. Is that a top 10 starting pitcher that you drafted? I would lean no, but does that mean he could still be a top 15, a top 20 starting pitcher? With this velocity?

Yeah, I think that's possible. So maybe not the pitcher you were hoping for, but I still think that he can be very, very valuable for fantasy purposes. Chris, I was getting questions right after this start. Should I try and sell? Just based on this one start, you know, he looks good.

You can probably present him to another fantasy manager and say, look, Shane Bieber is back. What do you want to give me for him? And someone asked, you know, I just got offered Mani Machado for Shane Bieber. I would do that. Sure. I would have done that, but I would have done that before the season.

I had Mani Machado ranked around ahead of Shane Bieber anyway. Yeah, so I would do that trade too. And again, I wouldn't sell Shane Bieber 75 cents on the dollar. I would try my best to get draft value, what you paid for him, which is likely a top 24 pick, you know, a top two round player. I don't know if he'll be able to do that. I might expand it to like a top three round player. If you can get top 30, top 35 value for him, then sure. I would look to move him.

But don't just sell Shane Bieber for the sake of selling him. there is a chance that he can be a very valuable pitcher even with this diminished philosophy. I want to reiterate. Would you rather have him or Carlos Rodon? I will still take Shane Bieber, but it's really close.

In the trade values chart, I have them, I have Bieber ahead, but I have them for the same value. I think that makes sense. Yeah, I mean, look, Rodon's going to be, I think Rodon's going to be better

when he pitches. I just think there's more risk with him. And so I think, that that ultimately probably gives Shane Bieber the edge. But I think the way to think about it is not like Shane Bieber cannot be good if he's averaging 90 miles per hour of this fastball. That's not the way to think about it because that's not true. You know, we've seen Clayton Kershaw continue to be a very, very good pitcher despite losing velocity. And he's done it by becoming, you know, a slider first pitcher. We saw in that first start, he threw 50% of the time. You know,

that's he, I think his slider has been his most used pitch over the last couple of seasons. That's probably something similar or what we're going to see from Shane Bieber, and he can be successful there. I think that the key to keep in mind is, one, it's just, it's harder to throw sliders and curveballs

for strikes into his fastballs for most pitchers. And so, you know, there might be starts where he doesn't have the feel for it as much, and he's giving out a few more walks. I think ultimately what it means, though, pitching at 90 miles per hour as opposed to 93,

where he was at his best, was the margin for error is just slimmer. and so it's not that there can't be good starts and it's not that he can't be good. I think what it means is that there are probably going to be more bad starts and it's going to be more difficult for him to put together those good starts because now it's, you know, you can make a mistake at 93 and maybe get away with it in a way that you might not be able to in 90. And so he needs to pitch better to get the same results, I guess is the way I would say.

Carl Srodon, by the way, I've noticed, you know, Scott changes. He updated his rankings. You updated your rankings. As you mentioned, we all have Bieber just ahead of Rodon. Scott moved Rodon inside of his top 10 starting pitchers up to SP 9. Beaver is still one spot ahead. Rodon, by the way, on Wednesday. He was at the Mets. Five shoutout endings, eight strikeouts. 19 swinging strikes. 17 of those came on the fastball. Yeah, he threw 77 fastballs today. He presented his fastball, Chris, on a. platter, and he said, hit it, if you can. And the Mets could not hit it. And that was the key for him. He's always had that great slider. But Rodon spent most of his career looking for a second good pitch. And we thought it was going to be a changeup.

He didn't throw a change up today. In 2021, it was just his fastball got a lot better. He got more extension on it. He got a velocity jump, and all of a sudden, it became this overwhelmingly dominant pitch. so far, that's what it's been. So I think as long as Carlos Rodin's healthy, he's going to be awesome. The one thing I will mention of Rodon's start on Wednesday night was that his velocity on the fastball was down at 1.6 miles per hour.

And it's notable just because his velocity fluctuated last season. He dealt with a shoulder injury. So I know we talk about velocity a lot this time of year, but it's data and is there. And it's a fantasy baseball podcast. So why wouldn't we use it? It's one of the few tangible things we can actually point to. We were talking about Garrett Cole last night And Garrett Cole just didn't pitch well

He had five walks and an inning in two thirds There's not a lot you can actually say about that though Unless you either think it's going to be an issue for him moving forward But there's not really any reason to believe that Or like it's just It's hard at this time of the year Because we just don't have very much information Shane Bieber just made his third start of the season

So the outing he pitched today Was a third of his the data points that we have Probably a little more given that he hadn't pitched his deep into his previous couple of games. So, yeah, that's just the, the reality of the situation

at this time of the year is like velocity is going to be the most important thing that we can point to right now because it's the most tangible, concrete thing that we have. It's the most tangible concrete evidence that we have right now.

So, yeah. All right. Oh, my goodness gracious. That's my little velocities feel. Oh, my goodness gracious for me, Jirkson Profar, who had a sock and a shoe on Wednesday.

For those who don't know, that's a home run and a steal in the same game. That was his fourth home run of the season. His first stolen base. He is 53% rostered, Jirks and ProFar is. And what I noticed, Chris, looking at the very early season data on him, is that ProFar is hitting the ball harder than ever before, and he's pulling the ball way, way more.

71% pull rate, according to Fangraphs. He's 42% for his career. And something we've highlighted, especially this offseason, I feel like more than ever, Chris, is that we've seen hitters who you don't necessarily look at as power hitters succeed in hitting home runs by pulling the ball an exorbitant amount. And so far, Jirkson Profar is doing that, and the results have bore that out. So I'm interested.

I think I would be trying to add Jirks and Profar. He's 53% rostered. What do you think about adding Jirks and Profar right now? Yeah, I think it's worth adding, I suppose, but I have a hard time getting excited about it. His max exevalo so far, right where it's been in the past, right around 107 miles per hour. So, you know, it's not like he's hitting the ball harder in absolute terms. He's hitting the ball more consistently hard, I suppose. But, you know, we're talking about 50 plate appearances. So I'm pretty skeptical that that's going to be

sustainable moving forward. But yeah, if you need, you know, he's eligible, what, first outfield and second? I believe it's just first and Outfield. Okay, first and outfield. So, you know, there's a little bit of flexibility there. Yes. I have a hard time. Like, I didn't move him inside my top 25 at first base.

I don't think in adding him today. I'm inside my top 30. So, yeah, still pretty skeptical. I guess if you want to add jerks and profile, you've got to be able to drop somebody for him. And I'm looking at a few names. Like Mike Yistremski is 71% rostered. Is that a move you would make, Chris? I think that's fine.

I think Yostrmski is. is fringy enough that I don't think you'll miss him, but I wouldn't necessarily be surprised at all if you're stremstike was better the rest of the season. What about ProFar's teammate, Trent Grisham? He didn't play the previous two games before Wednesday against left-handed pitching. He is still 78% rostered.

And frankly, he's just not doing anything. Would you drop Trent Grisham for jerks in ProFar? Yeah, I mean, I guess Grisham, the thing is, Grisham still has the potential for stolen bases in a way that I don't think profile does. But yeah, it's been a disappointing start for Grisham after a disappointing 2021 as well.

So I don't know if I would be super enthused about making that, but I can't say that Trent Grisham is not as undropable or anything. Yeah, I think in a three outfielder league, even whether it's a points league or a Categor's league, I would make that swap. Yeah, I dropped Grisham to 50th at outfield. So that's pretty fringe. in a three outfielder league.

In a five outfielder league, those are mostly roto. I would try my best to hold on to Grisham there. And look, in a league that deep, I'm sure you have someone worse to drop for Jerks and ProFar if he is available. I want to get to a few more waiver wire hitters up top

right after ProFar, but I wanted to mention the night that Otani had, Chris, because, oh my, geez, right? Like, actually, oh my goodness gracious. Like, if I said that about anyone today, it was Show Hay Otani. He got rocked. in his second start and then just bounce back here.

I believe the start he got rocked was against the Astros. And then he came back out here against the Astros in Houston and just absolutely dominated them. He had a perfect game going into the sixth inning and he wound up throwing six shutout, one hit, one walk, 12 strikeouts,

20 swinging strikes, 11 of those on the slider. And Chris, I don't know if you watch any of this game or you saw the highlights, but the slider looked ridiculous. much better than I ever remember it being. I know it's a good pitch for him, obviously, and he has that tremendous splitter as well.

But that slider was just sweeping completely across the zone. It was on another level on Wednesday night. Yeah, I don't know if there's been any change in the movement profile for that. I'm looking at it. It looks like it's about the same in terms of the amount of break that it's getting and the velocity's throwing it with. So I don't think there's any change there, but yeah, it's a good pitch.

He threw it 43% of the time. He actually only threw his fastball 23% of the time. His splitter was really effective as well. He's really, really good. I don't know if there's all that much more to say about it than that than that. He is the kind of pitcher who I'm not going to say, like I think he will win a Cy Young,

but he is the caliber of pitcher for whom a Sai Yung. for whom a Syong outcome is well within the realm of possibility. Possibly not because of innings limits. Like he probably won't throw 185 innings or 190 innings this season, but like he is absolutely that caliber of player. Oh, and also he went, what, three for three today as a hitter? Two for four with a walk, two RBI, a double, and a run scored. If he went

170 plus innings, there is a real chance he can win MVP and Siyang in the same season. Yeah, I would bet against it but it's not

entirely out of the realm of possibility. All right, let's talk about some of those other waiver wire hitters. I wanted to get to Anthony Santander, Chris,

we haven't talked about him at all so far this season and he went two for four with a double. Obviously the Orioles lineup is not great, but he's batting 297 early on.

He's hitting a, bunch of line drives and the plate discipline. Santander has a 20% walk rate to a 16% strikeout rate and his career walk rate is 5.7%. So specifically in any type of OBP or points league, I'm kind of interested in Anthony Santander. 56% roster. What do you think? Yeah, I don't know, you know, if the swing profile is much different to back up a big jump in walk rate like that. Like his chase rate is down to a career low 28%. So that's not nothing, but it was 33% last season. So that's not such an outlier jump that I think it explains much of that.

So I don't know, he's being more patient overall, 43.6% swing rate overall. And he's getting fewer pitches in the strike zone as well. So, you know, there's some signs there. But I would guess he's probably going to walk closer to his career rate than, he has moving forward and I don't know if there's enough bat there to to make him much more than a fringe fantasy option but you know it's interesting right now it's certainly worth keeping an eye on the walk right would you rather add Santander or jerks in pro far probably I would say Santander I hmm it's tough because pro far walks and he makes a lot of contact as well

better lineup. I think I would take pro far. It is close. Let's watch Santander and see where this goes. Alec Bohm, Chris, starting to get a little interested here. He went two for four, hit his first home run of the season. It was in Coors Field. He is crushing the ball early on. 95 mile per hour average exit velocity. The launch angle is up. The ground ball rate is down for Alec Bohm. And so far the plate discipline, he has four walks. He just one strikeout on the season. He's batting 4.76. Only 33% roster. I think if I have one of these fringe young hitters, Chris, in a shallow league like a CJ Abrams or a Bryson Stott, I think I would drop one of those guys to add Alec Bohm

and just see where this goes. Because if he plays every day, I think that there is real potential with him. Yeah, I think part of the problem is he's just, he's such a bad defensive player that I'm not sure he's going to play every day. But yeah, if he hits up to his potential, if he puts together, you know, this is what I liked about him as a sleeper in the offseason, was he had the really good contact skills in 2020.

And then in 2021, he had this really poor season, but, you know, there were signs of positives there. He's hard hit rate spiked. His average eggs of velocity jumped. And so, you know, what we're seeing now is kind of a combination of both of those things, where he's hitting the ball hard consistently. He's putting the bat on the ball consistently. And, you know, he's upping his launch angle on. enough that he's not just hitting a bunch of ground balls.

So, yeah, I do think Alec Bohm is very interesting. I think I'd be fine dropping Bryson Stott for him. You know, that one's kind of a zero-sum game, I guess, because I don't know if they're going to just keep splitting time all season. That doesn't seem tenable with two young players. So, you know, at this point, I would say, boom probably is in the lead. And I think he's probably the better player as well. So, yeah, I would be fine with that.

The CJ Abrams one, maybe you hold him in a categories league because I still think he has massive steel potential if he can play every day. But his playing time has been inconsistent and he hasn't looked great so far. He kind of rushed to the majors here in CJ Abrams. So in a points league, I would make that swap. I would I would drop Abrams for Boehm and see where it goes. Chris, Bone versus another corner infielder who is also a great start. Seth Beer, three for four with a double on Wednesday, three RBI. He's betting 438 early. on lots of line drives, lots of fly balls, striking out quite a bit, 26% on the strikeout rate, but hitting the ball hard, he's 30% rostered. They're very similar in terms of roster rate. Playing time has been kind of inconsistent for both. Who do you like more Alec Bohm or Seth Beer? I guess more so as like a stash right now.

I think I like Boe more. I think the in-game power is more projectable because he does hit the ball in the air more consistently. But yeah, I think they're both pretty interesting. I've got them both stash in a handful of leagues. So I'm interested in both. I wish beer was playing more often.

You know, Bome, I kind of expected not to play every day, but beer's been a little disappointing. So, you know, the way he's hitting the ball, hopefully that'll change moving forward. And yeah, I'm interested to see what he's got. So I think I would take beer over Bowe. All right. In some deeper leagues, names that I wanted to mention, Rymel Tapio

had a sock and a shoe on Wednesday night. His first home run, first steal of the season. He's 12% rostered and likely to play a good amount as long as Teasca Hernandez is on the IL. Miguel Cabrero went three for four. He's not one hit away from 3,000, which is just awesome. You know, one of the best hitters ever and obviously of this generation. He's batting 333 early on. He's 11% rostered. And Francisco Mejia with the Tampa Bay raise. When two for three hit his second home run, he's betting 348 the problem. This is only sixth game that he has played in. So not playing consistently enough.

Chris, any interest in Tapia, Miguel Cabrera, and Francisco Mejia in deeper leagues? I think Tapia and a five outfielder, you know, deeper league is definitely worth a look because, you know, he could steal you a decent number of, I mean, not a decent number, but maybe three or four bases in the time that

Teoska Hernandez is out if he can stay in the lineup and stay hot. And that's probably the most valuable thing. Any of these guys are going to be able to give you. you know, there's still potential there, but just the playing time makes it hard to trust him even in a two-catcher league. The other one I wanted to mention,

Isaiah Kiner Folefa. He's up to 33% rostered, but maybe someone dropped him in a Categories League with a middle infielder, your traditional Roto League. He went two for four on... He'll still some bases. Yeah, he stole two bases on Tuesday.

He went two for four on Wednesday. He now has multiple hits in four of his last six games. Again, that is Isaiah Kiner Foleva. Let's talk about some rankings risers and fallers. Chris had the big rankings update on Wednesday afternoon and pitchers inside of the top 25 that saw a big move. Justin Verlander, you moved up to your SP6, Kevin Gosman inside of your top 10 up to SP8. We also see Clayton Kershaw up to SP21, Logan Webb up to SP 22. What have you seen from this

foursome so far, Chris, that has you excited in moving them up? I mean, Verlander it's sort of a vote of confidence for Verlander and a vote of lack of confidence in every starting pitcher basically that was ranked between him because I think he was 15th before this update. And so that means you had Bieber, Nola, Gialito, Wheeler, Ray, Orias, Gossman, Alcuntura in between him, where he currently is and where he was before. and I just kind of feel like the Justin Verlander we're seeing right now looks enough like, I mean,

he kind of looks just like Justin Verland. You know, he had, I want to say it was the first time since Greg Maddox that a pitcher had eight shutout innings with fewer than 90 pitches in his most recent start. Can't remember if that was a complete game or not. It was for him,

but I don't know if that was the metric, but like, yeah, he's got 15 strikeouts and 13 innings of velocity. pretty much where we want it to be, his pitch usage, pretty much where it was before. Like, everything pretty much looks like Justin Verlander. I guess there's elevated injury risk, but I don't know. If you told me both Justin Verlander, if you told me Justin Verlander, Brandon Woodruff and Walker Bueller, we're all going to stay healthy and throw the same

number of innings this season. Based on what we've seen, you kind of want to take Justin Verlander over those two guys, right? I mean, if you were guaranteed health, of course, at his advanced age. Yeah, like that's, yeah, it's, so based on what we've seen, I mean, I can't guarantee health, but sure, I don't know, he, he's, he's not going to have any innings limits. You know, I feel pretty confident in saying that even though he is coming back from that injury. So, yeah, I just, I feel confident enough in him at this point that I'm just viewing him as an elite starting pitcher moving forward. Yeah. And then with Kevin Gausman, I've got to move him up, move him up a little bit more

myself. He is, I guess he hasn't qualified anymore because he only made two starts. But he did lead baseball and swinging strike rate before this recent update. 22% is a swinging strike rate for Kevin Gossman. He's been

absolutely ridiculous. Clayton Kershaw up there as well, 17.4%. That one's as much just I don't feel very confident in anyone else. Gosman hasn't been like incredible so far this season in terms of the results. It's only two starts. But a ton of strikeouts, ton of swing. to misses, no walks. I think he's going to be just fine. And I've seen less to be pessimistic about

with him than I have Arias or Ray or Wheeler or Nolo or Bieber. Golito's on the IL. So it's, that's mostly, Gosman kind of moves up by default, I guess. Yeah, no, that makes sense to me. A couple other starting pitchers inside of your top 50 who have seen the jump. Carlos Carrasco up to your SP 32. I love it. Aggressive on Carrasco. Merrill Kelly puts again, just like Justin Verlander. He just looks like himself, right? And then that's kind of all we needed to see from him.

Like, yeah, there's risk. But I don't know. When I'm ranking for the rest of the season, the injury risk matters less to me than it does during draft season. Does that make sense? Like I kind of just, I tend to rank like, yes, these are rest of season rankings, but I tend to view it more of like,

here's where I rank them right now. that's not 100% it but it's more that than it is the preseason if that makes sense. I mean I think the confirmation of seeing somebody healthy who you had question marks

about coming into the season I mean that's huge. Carlos Carrasco as you mentioned he's looked like himself. Velocity looks fine. Pitch makes is fine. Swinging strikes are there. He looks like Carlos Carrasco

and if he puts together another two or three starts like what we've seen so far he could push inside of the top 25 Remember how good he was in 2020. Like his career's been kind of a mess lately, but you have to remember 2019, he had the cancer diagnosis. 2020, he was awesome.

He was a top 20 starting pitcher. 2021, he was just never healthy. He had that hamstring injury in spring training, and then he dealt with an elbow thing as well, right? So it just, it never seemed like he was right, but he's healthy right now. So I feel pretty good about him. And then a few other pitchers in this range,

Merrill Kelly, you moved up to SP 42, Hunter Green, you have up to SP 49. Merrill Kelly, let's talk about him. He made a start on Wednesday afternoon, and he allowed just one earned run. He's now allowed just one earned run through his first three starts. So this was his first run allowed on the season. Delivers another quality start, six endings, one run, five strikeouts at the Washington Nationals.

And he actually did this with his fastball velocity being down a little bit, down 1.4 miles per hour. And that increased velocity is part of the reason we've had optimism for Merrill Kelly. So, Chris, it was interesting to see that even with that down, he was still really, really good. Yeah, it's, it's, the nationals are pretty bad.

And Josh Bell left this game. So that left them with, I mean, I guess Juan Soto also left the game late, but that was, that was later. But Josh Bell left early, and that left them with, I mean,

really like four major league caliber players in their lineup. So, you know, not necessarily tough its test. And Merrill Kelly did give up a bunch of hard contact. in that game. So that's something to keep in mind. And yeah, this one may be a little too bullish. I don't know. Maybe he belongs more in the 50-ish range. Maybe I'd rather, you know, have probably Tyler McGill over him now that I've seen the velocity down for both of them in the last

two starts. That's something that I'll consider. This is all very fluid. But it's, you know, a sense of optimism around Merrill Kelly and what he's shown the first three starts. All right, let's take a look at, you have a relief pitcher. David Robertson is inside of your top 15 at relief pitcher, and it makes sense. I believe he already has three saves, and he looks so far like the go-to guy. Yeah, he's been awesome. And we need closers, as we will talk about later on. The Royals, they did the old switcheroo on us on Wednesday, so we'll talk about that.

Outfielders, we each of us, all three of us, you, Scott and myself, we have Seiz Suzuki at Outfielder 23. sounds aggressive, might be, but I kind of just think Say Suzuki's awesome. I saw a quote from Wilson Contreras today. I think he said he's the best baseball player he's ever been around. Was the quote from Wilson Contreras? That's, uh, he's been very impressive in the early going to. I mean, he's like Say Suzuki, he's not going to keep this up, you know, 14.04 OPS. I don't think that's an unreasonable thing to say, but you couldn't have asked for more from the first, you know, 15 games or whatever it is from Sayas Suzuki. It's, it's been a pretty incredible performance so far.

The plate discipline has been tremendous. You go to a stat cast page just filled with red. He's crushing the ball right now. Something, you know, Scott told me about, taught me about Sayas Suzuki when we first heard about him coming over was that he had this upper cut swing that was like built for Major League Baseball and we're seeing it. I mean, the guy is, he's launching bombs right now. So he's been awesome.

Hazu Sanchez is the other big riser for you. And all three of us now have Hazer Sanchez inside of our top 60 outfielder. So if he continues to perform, he'll continue to move up. He's hitting the ball hard. And especially what he's done that has me excited is that he isn't striking out.

Hazer Sanchez is making a lot of contact early on. He's also spraying the ball all over the field. His pull rate is down to 29%. He's hitting the ball of the opposite field more, which is going to, you know, if he could sustain that, while still hitting the ball hard. You know, that's going to make it so that his batting average,

especially if we can keep that strikeout rate in the, you know, 20% range. It's going to make the batting average, you know, potentially pretty helpful as well. So it's very early, but I like what we're seeing from Hazer Sanchez. No, that's a great point, too, because if you remember Tim Anderson, his breakout, his true breakout was once he started spraying the ball all over the field. And that's how he's, you know, become the reigning hits leader, batting average leader the past couple of seasons.

So it's an approach you want to see from your hitters. And so far that has been, Hazu Sanchez. Let's quickly take a look at some fallers in the rankings, Chris. Obviously, Shane Bieber, we just talked about him. You moved them down a little bit, but gives us some confidence in this most recent start. Robbie Ray with the Velocity, we've talked a lot about Robbie Ray recently. Eduardo Rodriguez, someone we haven't talked about. And someone who you and I, Chris, were pretty excited about coming into the season.

He did turn in his first quality start against the Yankees, six innings, three runs, five strikeouts to just one walk. But basically everything you don't want to see from a pitcher is what we've seen from Eduardo Rodriguez as far. Yeah, the whiffs, only seven whiffs in today's start, didn't generate a ton of weak contact in this one either. So probably got a little bit lucky. I'm definitely a little more pessimistic about Eduardo Rodriguez

than I was coming in. just hasn't done what we wanted him to do after having very good peripherals last season. So I'm not giving up necessarily. I'm certainly not dropping him. But it's been a disappointing start for Eduardo Rodriguez. Velocities down a little bit too. Yeah, the walks, hard contact, not getting whiffs. I mean, it's, again, it's like the trifecta of things you don't want to see from your pitchers.

Next week he's in line for it looks like two starts at the Minnesota. wins at the Dodgers. So, Dodgers are tough, but actually both of these teams are struggling. Would start him. Yeah.

Both of those teams are struggling against left-handed pitching early on in the season. So you start them, but you hold your nose while you hit set line up there on Eduardo Rodriguez. Chris, we're going to talk

about buy low options in a little bit, but if you can buy low on E-Rod, would you look to do it? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think it would have to be, you know, pretty low given that,

you know, I think there are, going to be a decent number of people who are not far from dropping him right now. So, you know, I think it is a good bylaw opportunity. And I would try to throw out, um, would you throw out one of these hype guys right now, like offer Tyler McGill or Matt Brash for Erod. So I do have Erod ranked higher than those guys, but I would have trouble making that move, which probably tells you something about the confidence level I have.

in the 35 to 50-ish range in starting pitchers. And I mean, that range also has so many guys who are injured. And it's kind of a mess. So I would say, like, yes, I would do that, but I would try to not give up someone with that much upside. Rankings fallers on the hitter side of things. Julio Rodriguez, Brendan Rogers, Randy Rosa Rana, who actually picked up his first steal of the season on Wednesday,

and Bobby Witt, Jr., Chris, of these four, is there one that's... stands out above the rest that you are more worried about? I think you kind of have to be worried about Julio Rodriguez the most just because it's not entirely out of the question that the Mariners might send him down if he continues to struggle words. I don't think that's going to be the case with Bobby Witt. I would imagine he's up for good, but

Julio Rodriguez doesn't have as much experience in the upper minors as some of the other top prospects who got called up. He's been striking out a ton. We talked a little bit yesterday about how there's potentially been some bad luck there and a lot of called strikes on third strikes that weren't necessarily in strike zone. I think he had another one today, which is tough. But yeah, he's just, he hasn't been terribly impressive so far. So, you know, I think he's probably the most concerning. And, you know, I moved him up quite aggressively when he got called up because I, you know, did believe that the upside was worth

it. And now I think we're seeing some of the downside for him. too. Let's see where you, all right, so you dropped him to 36 in your outfield ranks. So still pretty high. Probably, you know, probably giving him a lot more credit than,

than he's earned certainly so far. So, yeah, he could go lower, but that's also another case where, like, once you get past the top 30, and even, you know, top 35, I've got Cody Ballinger at 35.

I'll say I feel okay about Cody Ballinger right now. That range of outfield is really bad after that. It sure is. I want to believe in Julio Rodriguez and Jared Kalanick and Jorge Salar and Randallich and Hunter Renfro and there just are not a lot of good outfielders right now, or at least a lot of good outfielders who are hitting well. So, yeah, it's a little concerning. And there's going to be, I would say, in the next two weeks from now, the 36 to 50 range in outfield could look very different in my ranking. Yeah, there's a lot of moving parts right now, especially this early.

I need someone to step up. We need something. We need something in the outfield. Hazu Sanchez, maybe. We'll continue to climb. Of course, my guy, Connor Joe, has looked amazing so far as well. Again, those are rankings, risers, and fallers.

You can always find those on the site, tbsports.com slash fantasy slash baseball slash rankings. Let's take a quick break. And when we return, we'll get to news and notes here on fantasy baseball today. All right, so let's get into the news and notes. We have a Ronald Acuna update. He went 0 for 3 on Wednesday in his rehab. game and that was with a walk and a stolen base,

which you love to see. He's running. He's trying to prove everyone wrong. The knee is healthy. I actually do love to see it. Yeah. That's a positive sign. The 0 for 3 with a strikeout, whatever. Stealing a base in a minor league game? Love it? I'd love to see that. Yeah, yeah. He's going to be here. He doesn't get hurt. He's going to be here before May 6th. I am confident in saying that. He's already stealing bases. So he'll be here soon. Angels manager, Joe Madden, said,

that he's quote pretty certain. Mike Trout will return to the lineup Friday against the Baltimore Orioles. Trout has missed the last three games with a hand injury. George Springer, Chris, you need to stop liking players because you are cursing all of the players. George Springer left Wednesday's game after getting hit by a pitch on his forearm. X-rays came back negative. You know, it's like I can handle like a quad injury. But like if George Springer gets hurt because he got hit by a pitch, I'm gonna be so mad. Agreed. I have George Springer and Tout Wars, so I need him.

Unbelievable. Stay healthy. J.D. Martinez left on the other side of this game with a ductor tightness, and he is unlikely to play on Thursday. Jose Altovae was placed in the IL with that hamstring injury. Astros GM James Click suggested it could be a minimum length stay. Jeremy Pena led off in his absence, even against the right-handed pitcher in Shohei Otani. Byron Bucson has now missed five straight games with that knee injury. He did take part in baseball activities without any issue on Wednesday.

They haven't placed him on the IL? Maybe this weekend. We'll see with Byron Bucson. Owen Miller, Calquantrol, and Anthony Castro were placed on the IL without injury designations, which suggests it's COVID or an illness. Which is unfortunate because I'm sure a lot of people picked up Owen Miller and started him this week. So that stinks. Josh Bell left Wednesday's game with a lot of.

a knee injury and he'll have an MRI on Thursday. He's off to a blistering start. Really, of the profit pocket, only Josh Bell and C.J. Crone have been amazing. So, we're waiting on you, Joey Votto and Luke Voight. We didn't talk about the Luke Voigt.

The Luke Voight slide, by the way. Did you see that on Tuesday night? I did. I wasn't... He like... He like chokeslamed. Yeah, he like DDTed Tyler Stevenson. as I don't know strange slide very very wacky

not textbook not not what you like to see especially if you have Tyler Stevenson on your team Tyler Stevenson by the way was placed on the the seven day concussion IL so I know we're kind of having fun with the with the slide but I hope he's all right Eloy Jimenez did not play in either game

of the double header on Wednesday because of a sore left ankle he fouled a ball off of his ankle last week Yuan Moncada who is on the IL with an oblique injury is now taking controlled swings but not going full throttle yet. He does not have a timeline for return. On the I.O. with a right thumb injury is Javier Baez,

and he said that he expects to resume swinging a bat off a T on Thursday. Alex Cobb is dealing with a grade one groin strain, and he downplayed the severity of the injury. I'm dealing with a groin injury myself, Chris. I don't know if this happens to you. Excuse me. I'm just old, man. I'm falling apart.

Anytime I go and play sports, it's like something happens. my hamstring, my coin. I'm just sore. Like every Tuesday, I play softball on Monday. Softball is not a particularly difficult sport to play. I do like to take a little, it's like a three-hour, three-mile bike ride. So I like to take a little bike ride over there beforehand.

But even then, that's not very much. And yeah, I'm just like limping around the rest of the next day. There's nothing, no specific injury. I just, my joints are creaky. If you look at my past 10 Google searches, they're all like how to cure groin strain. So that's where I met. Gavin Lux is expected to return Friday after missing the last two games with a back injury. Red Sox manager, Alex Kora, said that he still wants Matt Barnes to reclaim the closer's role.

Matt Barnes has a 6.75 ERA through four appearances and he gave up another run on Wednesday. Austin Riley was placed on the paternity list and we'll miss the next couple of days. Ramon Luriano is on track to return from suspension when he's first eligible on May 8th. Chris, Luriano is 31% rostered, and I feel that he should be rostered at least in all category leagues. Yeah, I think that's fair.

I think he's someone who, over the course of a full season, could go on the highest end, 2020. So, yeah, definitely categories leagues. Matt Manning was placed on the aisle with shoulder inflammation. Kevin Smith was placed on the highest. IL with a bone bruise in his left ankle. Sheldon Noisy has been filling in, and he's actually been solid for those who play

in the deepest of leagues. So the way you wrote this in the notes, you put Noisy in parentheses, and I realize now that was to tell yourself how to pronounce his name. The way I read it was like, that was the, he has an injury, and that was the injury that he had. Like, it's in parentheses, and it's like, nose? Did he? What was the injury, did that one?

He's very nosy. that Sheldon guy. By the way, if you're trying to figure out how to spell that, that's N-E-U-S-E. And it's pronounced noisy. Paul Seawald was placed on the COVID-I-L on Wednesday,

and I just saw that game finished up. It was a 4-2 win. Diego Castillo pitched in the ninth inning, and he gave up two runs. So it wasn't a save opportunity. I feel like Diego Castillo has been the one consistently pitching in the ninth as well there for the Mariners.

You missed one of the news, items, I think. Pretty big one, actually. What I missed? Andreini on the aisle. Oh. Did it? I believe you didn't say that one.

Did I write it in here, though? Yeah, it's in there. How did I miss it then? Yeah. You just skipped over it. I wrote it in there. I just somehow missed it. Andrew Heaney, yes, placed on the aisle

with left shoulder discomfort, which is massive because, you know, he was, looked like he was having this breakout season. I was all ready to move him into like the top 40th starting pitcher based on what we've seen so far, if not higher. And I did move him up quite a bit still.

of my biggest risers. You went from outside of my top 80 to 51, but yeah, if it wasn't for the injury, I probably would have moved him to 40. You know, the slider slash sweeper that he's throwing just looks to be a real difference maker for him.

So hopefully there's nothing here, but obviously shoulders are very concerning when it comes to pitchers. So that's not a great sign. Tyler Anderson will start in his place on Saturday against the Padres. And just because Tyler Anderson pitches for the Dodgers, I think that he should be on your radar in deeper leagues.

Probably those 15 teamers. He is 10% rostered again. That is Tyler Anderson. Anderson. By low or no thanks, bro. Let's take a look at Charlie Morton, who was not great again at the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday, five and a third,

four earned runs, three walks, and only four strikeouts. Chris, I will caution everybody that there was only one other season in my fantasy baseball playing career that I was in on Charlie Morton adamantly in and it was 20-20.

That was the year that he got hurt, did not pitch well, and it was a wasted season, it was a short in 2020 season. So, I'm just letting everyone know, I might just be the curse, the curse of Charlie Morton. Would you be looking to buy low on Charlie Morton

after these previous two downstarts for him? I would. I haven't moved him down. I think he's moved down a little bit in the rankings just because I think he started out at 15 and Justin Burlanders moved ahead of him. So that technically, I guess he's fallen since the start of the season in the rankings,

but I don't really have much reason to be concerned about him. His velocity looks fine. Everything looks fine. So I think it's just one of those things. He hasn't been, he hasn't pitched well so far, but I don't think he's going to pitch poorly moving forward. And he got off to a slow start last year for what it's worth. He had a 5.08 ERA over his first eight starts.

and then for the rest of the season Charlie Morton had a 2.88 ERA last year. So, might just be a slow starter, older, up there in age. Yes, if you can buy low on Charlie Morton, I would look to do so. Marcus Stroman was destroyed against the Tampa Bay Rays. Four and a third, he gave up eight runs,

seven of those were earned, but he did have seven strikeouts. He's got an 8.78 ERA. His ex-fip is 3.32. Chris, are you interested in buying low on Marcus Stroman? I guess. I don't think there's much upside there. You know, that's kind of the, that's always going to be the issue with the buy low guy,

buy low opportunity on a guy like Marcus Stroman. It's just like, okay, buy low, but to what end? You know, like you're probably going to get a high 3 ZRA and not a lot of strikeouts from him on a pretty mediocre team. So, yeah, if someone's like thinking about dropping him or something, I would try to buy, but it's not. it's not like a high priority for me. All right.

Let's move on to Chris Bassett. It's not necessarily a buy low. This was his one bad start of the season. Against the Giants, six endings, five runs, six strikeouts. He had 15 swinging strikes in the start. Again, this is Chris Bassett. And the swinging strike rate for the season is up. Overall, the underlying numbers are very strong.

Chris, I kind of feel like this is a buy medium. It's not a buy high. It's not a buy low. but I would just be looking to buy Chris Bassett in general. What do you think? I don't know if I'd call him a buy low because I do think like the first couple of starts were so good and, you know, obviously pitching.

For a New York team, a lot of people are going to talk about it that I think there's probably still hype around him that, you know, like I don't think he's going to sustain anything close to a 32% strikeout rate. Even at his best, he's been more like 25%. So, like, I think there's regression from where he's been so far. So I would probably not be trying to buy. I think it's more likely that I would be trying to sell.

We differ in opinion there. I like what I've seen from Chris Bassett. I look, I think he's good. I just, I don't know if I've seen enough to think that he's dramatically different than the guy he's been before. He's throwing his secondaries a little bit more, the fastball,

a little bit less. So, I mean, I think that's leading to more whiffs and swinging strikes early in the season. Can he maintain that? You know, that remains to be seen. But if there's,

for example, if someone in your league is, like Chris and they have Chris Bassett on their team, then, you know, maybe you can get him at a reasonable cost. And that's something that I would look to do. I have one hitter on here, Chris. Willie Adamas, we're starting to get questions about, and we were all excited about Willie Adamas overall. He went 0 for four with a strikeout on Wednesday. He's betting 167. Would you be looking to buy low on Willie Adamas, or is there anything in the profile that you're actually worried about? I would be looking to buy low. Yeah, because the, you know, the,

brewers are still hitting him high in line up. He's striking out too much right now, which is a concern, but there's actually reason for optimism in the underlying numbers. He's hitting the ball pretty well. His expected stats are better than what he's done so far. The 31% strikeout rate, that's more like what we saw from him in Tampa. And if that's what he's going to do moving forward, that's going to be a problem. But now, I think from what we've seen so far, I don't see much reason to be alarmed by Willie Adama. So yeah, he has a butt low for me. Yeah, I mean, the profile's a little bit wonky right now. You mentioned the strikeouts. His ground ball rate is 50

percent last year. That was 36 and a half percent. You don't like to see that many ground balls, obviously, but again, it's so early. That's why I didn't include many hitters on here because I just feel like... It's too early to know with hitters. For the most part, at least.

You can look at a player like Cody Ballinger and see reasons for optimism. It's a lot easier to do that. Or Christian Yelich, you know, who we've talked about a decent amount the last few days, than it is. It's easier for me to do that than it is for me to be worried about Mookie Betts or Willie Adomas or something like that, you know? Buy high or no thanks guy. Merrill Kelly, we talked about him, Chris. The other one I'm going

to throw in here, Anthony Rizzo, two for four with a sock and a shoe. He's now up to four homers, two seals on the young season. And it seems like he's kind of selling out for power. 55% fly ball rate on Anthony Rizzo. Would you be looking to buy high on either of these names, Merrill Kelly, Anthony Rizzo? I mean, this is kind of what we thought it might look like, right? when he got traded to the Yankees was, you know, he's hitting all these balls to the pull side in the air in the best park in baseball to do that for a left-handed hitter. So it depends on what the cost would be to buy.

You know, if it's, if you're talking about someone viewing him as a top 12 first baseman, I'm not going to do that. But, yeah, I think, I think I buy in to a certain extent to what he's doing because this was what we expected him. him to do last season. Uh, I wanted to see, I moved them up quite a bit. I moved them up to 15th in my first base ranks. You have them at 22, Scott hasn't met 18.

I just moved him up to 19. Okay. So moving inside of your top 20. A little bit, yeah. Yeah. All right. Um, you know, I have him just behind Yulee Gurriel who's off to like a pretty slow start too.

Yeah. That might be a move that I can, I can make. All right. I'll look into it. Uh, Rizzo, yeah, as long as he could stay healthy, which, you know, he's dealt with some back stuff the past couple of years. I think he's gonna be good. Chris, we got a few trade questions

I wanted to quickly hit on here. This one's from Tyler. Dear Craig, Jeff and Lance. Did you freeze, Chris? I think Chris just froze. I was waiting for him to answer the question and I think he's just frozen here for those watching us on YouTube.

If you're not watching us on YouTube and if you're just listening to us on the podcast side, Chris has gone. Anyway, Craig, Jeff and Lance, those are Astros, I believe. Jeff Bagwell, Lance Berkman, and Craig Bizzio. Grade the trade.

I play in a 12 team. The killer bees. That's right. Grade the trade. I play in a 12 team head to head points league where K's count against hitters.

I traded away Shane Bieber. Case don't count. Kayes don't count against hitters. Yes. Reading should help. I traded away Shane Bieber and Jose Abraeu to receive Vladimir Guerrero

Jr. And I think Chris has gone again. I like this trade. So, Yeah, Shane B. Great the trade? Yes, grade to trade. Are you here, Chris?

I can't tell. I'm here, but I don't have video. My internet has taken a crap, so. Ah. All right. Have you heard the trade? Do you know what the trade is? All right.

We're having some technical difficulties here. But anyway, Chris, I'm going to just bow out and then join back in when you got things figured out. I like the trade. I think this is a slam dunk. A trade. You get rid of the headache. is Shane Bieber. You get a first round hitter in return in Vlad. I'm good with it. This was from Christopher. Would you do this? Give Tyler O'Neill and Carlos Carrasco and get

Freddie Peralta. Traditional five by five plus quality starts and replace batting average with OBP and slugging. So Tyler O'Neill does not walk all that much, but he does slug quite a bit and I think Chris is back. How are you doing, Chris? We'll see, man. Let's see how this goes. All right, this is the latest trade, Chris, and it's from Chris. Would you do this trade? Give Tyler O'Neill and Carl's... All right. And Chris has gone.

All right. Forget about it. It's fine. Give Tyler O'Neill and Carlos Carascoe get Freddie Peralta. I would... I think this is a very fair trade. Would I do this trade? It's not like you're buying low because you're giving up a good amount.

If you have the outfield depth, then... I think it's an iffy trade. Yeah, I think if you have the outfield depth, I would be okay making this deal. But I don't love it. It's not a slam dog. Based on what we've seen from Carlos Carrasco so far, I think I would pass on this trade. Okay, these are Apple Podcasts Review trades that we received from Miles, Dylan, and Spencer. I don't know who those. Byiles, Dylan Spencer?

I don't know. Grade the trade. Ten team head to head with five outfielders. I gave up Cody Bellinger for Catelle Marte. This is the classic by-low scenario on Cotel Marte right now. Grade the trade. I still have Cotel Marte ranked higher. I would imagine Chris does as well.

And Cody Bellinger's off to a great star. To be plus for me. Yeah, I mean, Bellinger, you look at the underlying numbers right now. He's still kind of weird. He's striking out, not making that much hard contact. He's hitting more ground balls. It's weird. I'm encouraged for Cody Bellinger,

but I still would rather have Cotel-Marté. I will give it a B. From Bill Rose. Great to Trade. 12 team, Roto, with two catchers. I gave up Yasmai. Yeah, there's a difference between being... Go ahead, Chris.

And there's a massive delay right now. So I'm just going to keep moving on from Bill Rose. Great to Trade. 12 team Roto with two catchers. I gave up Yosmani Grandal for Carson Kelly, Stephen Kwan, and Anthony Bender. I have Floro on the IL,L, and my other closers are Kittridge, and Mark Malanson.

Oh, man. I don't love this one. Even, yeah, in a two-catcher league, I would give this a D plus. Yeah, I don't like this trade. Yasmani Gradale, I still have him as a top five or six catcher. I think it'll be fine. Carson Kelly is not great. Stephen Kwan has kind of come back to Earth, and Anthony Bender has looked questionable at times this season. From Austin Franks. This is our last trade question. 12-te-to-head points league with five outfielders, two utility bats,

And seven keepers I was offered Shane Boz and Sayas Suzuki for Shane Bieber. Thoughts. Okay, so in a keeper league, Shane Boz and Sayas Suzuki for Bieber, I think I would do this trade if you have enough pitching depth to keep you afloat until Shane Boz returns. I think Boz has ace upside once he kind of hits his peak. That could be for a while. I think we probably won't see him until like June or July or something like that. So I would make this trade in a Keeper League.

It's pretty close. But make sure that you have pitching depth in order to make it. Beat the waiver wire. I have a few names here. Two-star pitcher edition. I'm sure Scott will have some thoughts on these players tomorrow. But Mitch Keller was at his best on Wednesday. Five innings, one run, seven strikeouts to zero walks.

And he is in line for the Brewers and the Padres next week. He is 28% rostered. The key for Mitch Keller in this start was that he did not walk anybody. Zero walks. He had five walks in his first two starts, and he's done a great job of limiting hard contact. Again, that is Mitch Keller. He's only 28% rostered in line for two starts next week. You beat the waiver wire.

I'd look to get him right now. Miles Michaelis was the other one. He was solid at the Miami Marlins, five shutout innings with five strikeouts. He is 50% rostered, and he is in line for two starts next week against the Mets and the Arizona Diamondbacks. If I had to choose between the two, I would... I think Miles Michaels would probably be better next week,

but Mitch Keller still has more upside long term, so that's how I would look at it. In a vacuum, I would go at the upside. I would take Mitch Keller. You know, these guys laughed at me yesterday for bringing up Dalton Jeffries. Did you see what Dalton Jeffries did against the Baltimore's on Wednesday?

Six innings, one unearned run, five strikeouts to zero walks. On the other side, Jordan Lyles was pretty good himself. I don't think that these pitchers are necessarily good. They had great matchups against each other, the Orioles and the A's lineups respectively. So if you're playing a deeper league

and you're looking for two-star pitchers, it's very scary. But Dalton Jeffries and Jordan Lyles, they've been solid. They've been okay so far. A few aces that I wanted to mention that got back on track or just did their thing on Wednesday.

Made it 58 minutes here. And I haven't mentioned Sandy, Sandy Alcantara, against his former team. For those who didn't know, he came over in the, I guess that would be the Marcelo Zuna trade. He was against the Cardinals on Wednesday, eight shutout innings, six strikeouts,

13 swinging strikes, and he is allowed just two walks over his past two starts after walking five on opening day. So you love to see it for Sandy Alcantara. What you don't love to see, no run support. Same thing as always. He pitches amazing, can't get any run support.

Brandon Woodruff looked awesome against the Pittsburgh Pirates, shutout, nine strikeouts, he only allowed one hit. And he's another one where first start of the season did not look great. He gave up seven earned runs. And now he's allowed just one earned run total over his last two starts. Again, that is Brandon Woodruff. Strong matchup against the pirates, but this is what you want to see him do in these great matchups. You want to see him dominate. Carlos Rodon, we mentioned earlier, Jose Barrios. He was good against the Red Sox six innings, one run, six strikeouts. He gave up 11 hard hit balls in this start. And in general,

on this season, Berrios is giving up a lot of hard contact. 94.5 miles per hour is the average exit velocity against 344XBA. So not necessarily looking to sell Jose Berrios, but a little concerned. Let's see where Jose Burrios goes from here. I mean, he's just so proven. I don't want to make a big deal out of it. We'll see if he can get back on track. Tony Gonsland, by the way, too.

I wanted to mention phenomenal start against the Atlanta Braves. six shutout, one hit, three walks, three strikeouts. If anybody dropped him in your league, he is 69% rostered. So he might be floating out there in some 10-teamers or shallow 12-team leagues, points leagues. Tony Gonsolin was great, and they didn't have the luxury of using a piggyback reliever. They've been doing that with Tyler Anderson, so it's been kind of like a tandem starter situation with Tony Gonson and Tyler Anderson.

They didn't have that. Anderson needs to start for Andrew Heaney, so they kind of unleashed Tony Gonselin in the start, and he was awesome. So if you have benched him, I think this gives you confidence in getting him back in your lineup. And if anyone dropped him in your league, please go out and check to see if Tony Gonsolin is available in your league. Mackenzie Gore made his second start of the season. It was a strong one. Five shot out innings against the Reds, seven strikeouts, just two walks, 11 swinging strikes.

His first two starts, he's gone really fastball heavy. 65% fastballs in this start for McKenzie Gore, 72% in his first start. I'm excited for him. I'm happy that he's pitching well. And I hope he sticks in the rotation and he continues to pitch well. But I haven't been overly impressed by what I've seen from McKenzie Gore. Look, he's a lefty that throws mid to upper 90s. That's impressive by itself.

But now I want to see a little bit more. I want to see the slider. I want to see the curveball. I want to see him use those pitches and what the results on those pitches are. So that's what I'm looking for in these next couple of starts for McKenzie Gore. His next one will come at the Cincinnati Reds. So not a great venue to pitch in, but the Reds have just been dreadful against left-handed pitching early on. So I would be okay starting McKenzie Gore once again against the Cincinnati Reds.

A few hitter standouts from Wednesday I wanted to mention Jose Ramirez hit his fourth home run, a grand slam. He's now up to 20 RBI on the season. Just awesome. Kyle Swarber hit a 468 foot home run at Corse Field. It's his third home run in four games, his fourth home run overall. Slowly coming around is Kyle Schwabber. Freddie Freeman, just waiting for the Brave Series, huh? Went three for four on Wednesday, hit his second home run of the series.

Looks like he's coming around, he's fine. I wish Chris was here so that we can rub Nolan Aronado up in his face because Aronado hit his fifth home run in the season. It was a go-ahead homer in the ninth inning. He's not hitting the ball very far on these home runs, but he's doing what Nolan Aronado does. And so far, he's proven all of us wrong. I mean, none of us were really in on Nolan Aronado,

and he's looked really good. He's killing me. Chris there in the background. He's, yeah, he is. He's killing your Marlins too, unfortunately. Tommy Edmund was back up to the lead-off spot with Dylan Carlson out of the lineup, and Edmund went two for four with his first steal of the season.

That's exactly what we want to see. Some quick bullpen updates. Emmanuel Class A got his first save of the season. Corey Kenebel picked up his second save. Fastball velocity was down almost two miles per hour. Let's just pay attention to that for Corey Knavel. Jorge Lopez recorded the final five outs in order, including three strikeouts,

and he has both of the Orioles saves this season. Jorge Lopez, 9% rostered. So if you play in the deepest category leagues, he needs to be rostered. He's looked good so far to the bullpen. I think he had maybe one appearance where he didn't look great, but 9% rostered. he's just widely available and saves our heart to come by right now.

Anthony Bender gave up that two-run home run to Nolan Aronado. He took the loss. Bender's ERA is 8.31. His swinging strike rate is way down. So when Dylan Floro is healthy and he returns, maybe this is more of a conversation than we thought coming into the season. Giovanni Gagos picked up his third save. Aroldus Chapman also picked up his third save.

The fastball velocity down once again for Aroldus Chapman, averaging 94 miles per hour. That's massive. It's a massive difference. But the broadcast said Chapman is doing this on purpose in order to command his fastball. So look if the results are there.

Can't really complain much about it. Jake McGee, one day after telling everyone to drop him, he picks up the save for the Giants, his second save of the season. And then the Royals. The Royals! Josh Stomond was used in the eighth inning of a two-run game

to face 9, 1, and 2 in the lineup, so the top of the lineup there. And then Scott Barlow pitches in the 9th. He gets his first save of the season. I was watching this game. The Royals broadcast mentioned. Mike Mathini will not predetermine which inning to use Stallmont or Scott Barlow.

They will decide which part of the lineup is a better matchup for each pitcher. And it just sounds like a full-blown committee. So if you took our advice and you dropped Barlow for Stallmont, I don't think that's an issue. I would say probably hold both of them, but they're probably going to split saves. Right down the middle.

That would not surprise me one bit. To stream or not to stream for Thursday. Same names that I mentioned yesterday. Paul Blackburn versus the Orioles. Tyler Wells at the Oakland A's. Zach Davies at the Nationals. Josh Rogers versus the Diamondbacks. Taylor Hearn at the Seattle Mariners.

And Paul Blackburn is really the only one that stands out for me. The Orioles are just such a great. matchup right now and Blackburns look pretty good. Velocity up, changes the pitch mix. So he is the one I would look to stream on Thursday. I didn't write down Friday. So I'm just going to quickly scroll through some games. Drew Smiley going up against the pirates. Maybe don't love it. Let's see if there's anyone else that stands out. Corey Kluber against the Red Sox don't love that one either.

Kyle Wright is too rostered now. He's going up against the Barlins. If you have them on your team, Obviously, you love that start. Reed Detmer's going up against Baltimore. Okay, on Friday, we could do that. Read Detmer's. I can get behind that. David Peterson at the Diamondbacks. I like the matchup.

Don't love the pitcher. I'm probably going to say no there. Nick Martinez against the Dodgers, no. I want to watch it to see what he does, but I'm not starting him. Brad Keller's look good. He's at the Mariners. Their lineup has been inconsistent thus far. He's okay.

I would go with Detmer's first, and then, you know, Maybe if you're in a deeper league, Brad Keller is the next one that I would look at. We're going to wrap there for Chris wherever he is. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.