Fantasy Baseball Today - Thursday Recap, Week 12 Sleepers & Two-Start Pitchers! | Fantasy Baseball Advice

Episode Date: June 6, 2025

Chris Towers and Scott White recap Thursday's action and then preview Week 12, going over the schedule, two-start pitchers and sleeper hitters. Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow FBT on TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow our FBT team on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@FBTPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CPTowers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CBSScottWhite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@Roto_Frank⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join our Facebook group at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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

We're previewing week 12 on a Kokomo Friday. Hello and welcome to fantasy baseball today. I'm Chris Towers. I'm here with Scott White. It is June 6th, and we are here on a Kokomo Friday to preview week 12. We're going to talk about what's gone wrong with Jesus Lozardo. It's a lot over the past couple of starts. We might do some trivia.

Scott may or may not know the. answers. I don't want to presume that Scotty will or won't know. But before we get to that, I don't have the drop. So it's going to be a totally different segment. It's not the same thing at all. Don't worry. I'm not worried. Oh, my goodness. Let's be super negative for about nine minutes before our first break because there was a lot of bad stuff going on around baseball. And I think we got to start with Jesus Luzardo, who looked like maybe the single best pick among pitchers in the entire game eight days ago. First 11 starts. He had like a 215 ERA. He was seventh in the league in strikeouts. He looked like an ace. All of a sudden, he's got like a 450 ERA because he has given

up 20 runs in his past two starts combined. If you remember how poorly his previous start might, That means he gave up eight runs today on nine hits over two and a third innings at Toronto. Two walks, two strikeouts. I was watching this game as it happened, but, you know, I was doing either. I was working, so I didn't like pay full attention. So I went through and watched the whole start, which didn't last very long, obviously two and a third innings. I didn't think it was like that worrisome, you know? like the results were terrible obviously and he didn't pitch well i don't want to make this sound

like he's lizards luis dexed and dunked their way to eight runs like we gave up a home run to boba shed he gave up some loud contact but the velocity was fine the average exit velocity was like 90 miles an hour which is not good but it's not horrible his command of his sweeper and slider were terrible he had no feel for either of those pitches the movement profiles on both were all off. That was the biggest problem. And so the Blue Jays were able to just sit on fastball change up. And those are his weakest pitches.

And he wasn't commanding everything well. He was leaving a lot of stuff out over the kind of fat part of the plate against Ritees. And it was bad. But I watched it and I expected it to be worse. Does that make sense? I suppose it makes sense. I mean, I don't, you say the movement profile was off on the secondaries.

Not a lot. I mean, it was off more on the fastball, if anything. Yeah, I don't, like the key to Luzardo's breakthrough this year, I would pin it on improve velocity across the board, but especially on the secondaries. And it's just kind of transformed him into a higher level of pitcher. And that's been fine. That's been fine over the,

the last couple starts, the velocity is still there. So for things to go this wrong, this quickly. I mean, first of all, I don't want to turn this into like a format superiority thing. You can enjoy whatever format you want. But the fact that Luzardo suddenly has a 446 ERA and 144 web, like all the good work wasted. He's been a lot more good than bad this season. He has been. So if you have them in a head-to-head league, it hurts a lot less than if you've started them all this time in a Roto league.

And he's gone, he went, in a matter of two starts, he's gone from being a very, very big positive to your Roto team to a very, very big negative for the whole season. And that sucks. And it's, there's just so little margin for error for this kind of stuff in Roto. And Lazzardo's two-start stretch here is, um, emblematic of that. But putting that aside, I wonder if there's a pitch tipping thing. Now, he brought that up. He brought that up himself. He said he looked at it after his last start.

He looked at the video. He didn't see anything. But he's going to go back and look at it again because he feels like, one, they're attacking first pitch a lot and having a lot of success with that. And two, they're taking a lot of good pitches. So it's not like he has a firm answer. He's kind of searching for what's going on. And they feel pretty confident it's not a health thing. That would also be an obvious explanation for things turning so sour so fast.

I don't think anybody really knows. So for me to sit here when the pitcher and the manager are both saying, I don't know. Like, I, like, I'm not going to be able to figure it out. Yeah. I, I think all I'm able to say is, gosh, sit them. Yeah, definitely. He's got the Cubs in his next start.

Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it totally figures it out, which, which wasn't so obvious after his last start, because, you know. It was just one start. Now it's twice as a man.

You flush it and move on. But, but now, you know, now, now, now there's, even more damage done. Yeah, I think it's a clear sit for the time being, although the matchup against the Cubs, okay, you sit him, that's easy. I think the following one looks like it's going to be a two-star week with the first start coming against the Marlins.

So, like, what if he goes out and has three runs in five innings and the next one just kind of straddles the line between good and bad? You're probably just starting Lazardo in the next week. Yeah, I mean, I would say, I would say whatever's very wrong right now. If things look more or less fine next time out, then with a very good matchup following a two-star week, as you said, and you probably turn right back to them.

Yeah, that's, I think it's as simple as that. It's a really big problem with, I think, a really simple approach in fantasy. like just sit him until he looks okay again and i think he probably will based on what we're seeing under the hood but yeah i think it's more likely than not that he's very useful moving forward i would call him a by low candidate right now if you know people people love to panic about these kind of things and people love to take starts like this personally you know like i'm just going to drop him spite drop yeah and like don't don't do that i guess if you're in like a 10 team league maybe but don't, don't spite drop Hazers Lizardo.

I mean, spites just, you should always avoid spite in life. I think so. It's not a good look. It's not a healthy emotion. But I would be trying to not drop Hazers Lizardo. I cannot say the same for your, oh my goodness gracious player of the night. Yeah. I think this guy is just droppable in basically every league.

Yeah, it's Brandon Fott, who himself had, A laughably bad start last time out. He gave up eight earn runs without recording a single out. That was against the Nationals. And he followed it up with a really ugly start in Atlanta. I gave up six runs, five earned in just three innings of work. Average exit velocity was 97.2 miles per hour. and that's

not a one-off for Fought it's worth pointing out his average XIV's a velocity for the season I'm not even sure it counts this start second percentile like he gives up

about as hard contact as any pitcher can and it seemed like I had a lot of concerns about Fott coming in he was one of my bus picks and it just seemed like

everything everything that looked suspect to me has only gotten worse. He's become even less of a badmissor. He's getting up even harder contact. He has a good win loss record, which I think masked some of those issues for a while. But now, I mean, we talked about what Luzardo ZRA looks like. Fotz is up to 551 with a bad strikeout rate.

and yeah, I just, like, I don't know that he, I don't know that he's going to sit there. If you drop him now, he'll never be picked up again. There may be stretches where he's, he's plenty streamable. But I think that is the range of starting pitcher he is. I don't think he's somebody who needs to be rostered all season long. I mean, look, he's got a 514 career ERA over 343 innings. I don't really get why this. I will say Brandon Fott has gotten probably more benefit of the doubt for a non, like, elite pitching prospect type young pitcher than anyone I can think of.

I know there have been stretches where he's been very useful and he's shown upside. And I think he had three different 10 strikeout games last season. It's a 514 ERA. And we're not talking about like a Shane Boz level prospect. So if we're dropping Max Meyer, I think that's the kind of player Brandon Fott is more than anything. So I think Brandon Fott is very easy to drop. Unfortunately, Scott, I'm so sorry. The Braves lost this game.

Yeah. They scored five runs and three innings off Brandon Fought. Then Tommy Henry replaced Brandon Fott, and they scored three more in the next four innings against him. they entered the ninth inning with a six-run lead. 10 to 4. And this joke is less fun when he's on your team. But Scott blew it. Gave up five earned runs in the ninth.

Not on the team anymore. Ricell Iglesias came in, gave up, allowed a couple of inherited runners to score, and then three more runs on four hits and a walk to blow it. Grant Holmes was not very good in this one, which is very disappointing because he was really good in May 322 ERA 38 strikeouts and 36 in he started off this game great it's just once they gave him a 6 to nothing lead it's like he got in his head and wasn't able to throw strikes anymore and they took him out the very next

inning yeah uh they probably felt pretty good about their chances of getting the win after oh yeah uh come out catalate went two for four with a home run three runs to rbii he has a two a 1028 OPS on the season. He missed some time with that. Was a hamstring injury or quad? It was some kind of leg injury. Yeah. But he has been even more awesome than he was last season.

And last season he was one of the, what, 10 best players in fantasy? Yeah. So. Yep. I mean, far and away the best second baseman. Far and away. I think there's a bigger gap between him and any other position. There's basically one good second baseman.

Yeah. Unless you're buying to Brendan Don. of it completely, I guess. One bit of good news for the Atlanta Braves is that Ronald Cunia hit another home run. It was his fourth. He's hitting 333 with the 1056 OPS on the season. Excellent quality of contact metrics. You love to see all of that.

I guess it's not surprising he has no stolen bases, right? Do you really, do you expect that to be a big part of his game? I know Alex Anthopoulos does because I don't remember the exact quotes there made weeks ago, but Acuna kind of said with a wink and a nod that he might take it easier on the base paths and Alex Anthopoulos said, yeah,

I don't believe him. He's going to play his game. So it's not like it's a mandate from on high that he shouldn't run. I think eventually he'll get back to stealing bases. It's one of those things where the sample is still so small.

When you've got a 1033 OPS, there's not a lot of opportunities to steal this. Not a lot of opportunities. I do want to comment on just the emotional aspect of this game a little bit if I could because I was watching it with my kids who are very into baseball. This is a kind of game that can screw that up. So like I've got to say like I've been, you know, following the Braves for probably like 30 years now,

like on a very intense close day-to-day level. and they're not the worst team in baseball. They don't have the worst offense in baseball. But really going back to last year, it's been very unfun to watch. They have not been a fun team to watch because even when they score runs, it seems to be all confined to like an inning.

And just like so much of the game is a total snooze. And so we finally get a game in the afternoon. the kids can watch the whole thing. It's fun. They are putting up runs just about every inning. It looks like an easy win. And then this happens in the night. I got to say they took it pretty well, considering.

You know, they were frustrated. I think my oldest one's reaction was, yeah, I think he actually said that was frustrating, which, you know, he could have used or annoying. I think he said annoying. That's annoying. So, like, you know, they weren't in tears or anything over it, but it was, it pretty much ruined the day. And, you know, I'm sure there are some families in Arizona, Diamondbacks fans with kids who, you know, it made their day.

And that's great. Like, I understand how that works. But yeah, it was, it was, it was, it was not a good moment in this household, not at all. I think it was rock bottom for a team that's been I mean the biggest disappointment in baseball considering people have them in the World Series. Yeah, Orioles, I guess, they're up there too. But yeah, it's been bad.

Orioles are at least hot right now. Yeah, I do want to ask before we move on to our first break, real quick, Ryssel Iglesias, his ERA's up to 675. He only has eight saves on the season, 25 strikeouts to six walks. It's still pretty good. the Braves did activate or recall

Craig Kimberle from AAA. Do you think there's any chance he factors into the saves situation? I think there's a very good chance. He might be the favor for the next save to be perfectly nice. I don't see how they can stick with Rice-Eleglacius at this point.

They used the excuse and maybe excuses in a fair way to put it because you looked at the numbers. His slider was just getting lamb-baseded, like a 600 batting average against with most of the home runs coming on that pitch. And he's a rare reliever with four pitches. So he has a full arsenal aside from the slider.

It's his fourth-most-thrump pitch. And so they've just had him ditched the slider. Problem solved, right? Well, he's made four appearances since ditching the slider and has given up at least one run and three of them. That's not good. Yeah. So, like, it's, I don't, I think just because the emotional toll of another Ricell Iglesias blown safe would be so much that, like, I don't know that it'll be Craig Kimbril for sure.

It could be like Pierce Johnson or Dylan Lee, but. You just don't think it'll be Riceall Iglesias. I just don't think it'll be Iglesias and Kimbril was on a good run at AAA. His velocity hasn't been as high there, which I think is why. they delayed calling them up so much. But like, since they don't have an heir apparent here for Iglesias, it wouldn't surprise me at all if it's Kimbril. I tried to add him in Alonle and other deep leagues where saves are scarce.

All right. That's thanks to those watching live on our YouTube channel, Fantasy Baseball today on YouTube. Make sure you hit that like button and subscribe, and we will be right back after this. Welcome back to fantasy baseball today. I'm Chris Towers here with Scott White. And let's talk about the news and notes from Thursday. And hey, we got another prospect promotion and an embarrassment of riches at the catcher position. You know, we've always said that there are too many good catchers in baseball.

And it's never been more true. Kyle Teal is being promoted from AAA Charlotte to join the White Sox on Friday. He is hitting 295, 394 on base. 492 slugging percentage. Oh, so close to the golden ratio of triple slash line. On the season, he's got a good approach at the plate. He's shown some speed in the past. There has been some talk of him playing some first base.

I don't know if he actually did down at AAA, but obviously that's only a concern because the White Sox have a very similar catching prospect in Edgar Cuero, who's already up and finding some success at the major league. level. So they are going to have to find a way to get both of them in the lineup. They might just be their two best players right now with how bad Luis Robert has been. Luis Robert sat out a third straight game on Thursday. I haven't heard anything about an injury. So I assume they're just trying to get him right with extra work on the side. But yeah, I think Kyle Teal and Edgar Carraro are basically going to play every day somewhere.

Catcher slash DH, maybe first base. No reason those two guys shouldn't be in the lineup as often as they can handle it. is Kyle Teal just a must-add player in any two-catcher league? Two-catcher league, sure. One-catcher league, I don't see how you could put him in the rosterable range yet, just because there are so many other good options. You sound a little more confident than I am that they'll both play every day. And look, they don't have a dedicated DH, the White Sox.

They've been playing Andrew Ben and Tendee a lot there since he returned. So, like, if they wanted to make it work, they could. I think Kyle Teal will have to earn it. He had been hot at AAA last 28 games slashing 353, 45569. But he is kind of he's he's he's an unconventional prospect in that he doesn't have like a standout tool he's kind of just pretty good at everything decent to pretty good at everything. And sometimes when you get that guy up against Major League pitching,

it goes disastrously. Now, I'm fairly optimistic for Teal. I've compared him to J.T. Rio Muto in the past. J.T. Rio Muto had a multi-year run as the best catcher in fantasy. But I don't like that Kyle Teal was striking out 25% of the time at AAA. I feel like he doesn't have enough thump in the bat to get away with doing that. I mean, 26 or 25% of the time against AAA pitchers, what's that going to translate to in the majors? So he's got to earn it, I think.

He's got to earn what playing time he gets. And so it's a way to wait and see in most cases, but could I get him in my top 24 right away to make him worth adding two catcher leagues? Sure, that's not a stretch at all. All right. Matthew Libertor left Thursday's game after struggling in four plus innings. his velocity was down across the board overall, but it crashed late in that start. He threw two four seamers in the fifth inning

that were 91 and 89.5 miles per hour. He's averaging 94.4 for the season, and then he left with a trainer after that. I have not seen any update, but that doesn't seem good. So that's something to keep an eye out for. One of the biggest breakout starting pitchers so far this season, so hopefully he's okay.

There are a couple bad starts in a row for him's got his ERA. over 380 now. Yeah, yeah. Francisco Lindor fractured his right pinky toe during Wednesday's game, but he's going to try to play through it. Did I misspell pinky there?

Is that how you P-I-N-K-I-E? Is it P-I-N-K-Y? It is, right? I think both are acceptable. I think both are acceptable. And I know, all right. I know there was some indecision

with the CBS Sports Style Guide back when I first started working for the company and they kept their own style guide. I'm not sure. I'm not sure that's such a priority anymore. But, but yeah, there was some indecision over how we should agree to spell Pinky.

So I think either way is acceptable. I spelled it I. And it doesn't look right. I don't like it. I'm going to make the executive decision that is P-I-N-K-Y. There you go. Anyway, Mookie Betz is going to try to play through this injury.

He was out of the lineup on Thursday, but the expectation at this point is he'll avoid the I-L, but obviously that could change. The Rockies could call up Ryan Ritter. from AAA to replace Ezekiel Tovar if his oblique injury forces him on the IL, which kind of seems like it will. Very, very rarely do players avoid the IL when they have an oblique injury? Ritter is MLB Pipeline's number 12 prospect.

It's a bad system, but he has 16 home runs and 52 games at AAA this season. He's got an OPS over 1,000. Albuquerque is a great place to hit, so that's inflated. But he was pretty good in the previous couple of seasons, has some pop and some speed. would you have any interest in Ryan Ritter if he gets the call? Yeah, sure. I would. Shortstop is, even in the deep sort of leagues where he'd add a second catcher,

shortstop, I would say, is a position of greater need than catcher. So, yeah, the exit velocities are at least solid for Ryan Ritter. The plate discipline is good. And he's going to be playing half his games in Colorado. if it happens. And he has been one of the, he's 24 years old, but he's been kind of a pop-up prospect this year

because not a lot of people were talking about him prior to it. All right. Josh Naylor is day to day with a hand and shoulder injury. He's been playing through for a while, especially that shoulder. So maybe that explains the mediocre power production for Josh Naylor so far this season.

Kyle Tucker was back in the lineup for the Cubs on Thursday after missing a couple games with a jammed ring finger. He went. one for four with two walks, I believe. I didn't put it in the notes, but I think that's what he did. Zander Bogartz missed Thursday's game after leaving Wednesdays with a shoulder injury.

Carlos Correa missed his second straight game with a back injury. Shane Bieber, this one sucks. He won't make his next schedule to start Friday at AA after he came out of his last bullpen session with some soreness. He met with some team doctors, and he's going to meet with orthopedic surgeon,

Keith Meister, to determine the next steps. this feels pretty ominous for a guy coming back from Tommy John surgery, who we just talked about, I think, yesterday as one of the potential Pablo Lopez replacements. We don't know anything more than that, but you never like to see the second opinion from an orthopedic surgeon. If nothing else, we know Shane Bieber isn't going to be back as soon as we were saying yesterday, which was hopefully within a couple weeks. Not going to happen now.

uh she langlears was removed from thursday's game due to what was termed left flank sorness which i'm assuming is like side i don't really know the the term flank outside of like uh well where cut of beef right what part i i would think that's like oblique or lat what part of the cow is the flank steak i don't know love a flank steak though some rupa viaja love that uh so hopefully Shaylingleers is okay. Hopefully it doesn't end up like Rapa via it's all shredded. That'd be bad. That is my favorite Cuban dish.

So you're speaking my language. Yes. The Rangers option, Kumar Rocker back to AAA after his if he's showing on Wednesday. They promoted, activated Chris Martin from the IL. They got to give him a shot. Robert Garcia struggled on Thursday.

I know they've tried to avoid pigeonholing Chris Martin into that ninth. role and they like having him be flexible but like everyone else is bad in that bullpen yeah but but why why do they insist on that with chris martin is there something unique about chris martin because i feel like i feel like teams don't usually do this when they have one reliever that is clearly better than all the rest they're like but he can't pitch the night that would be that would be heresy i i don't know It's been strange this whole time, especially seeing how Chris Martin started the season. Maybe the fact now that Luke Jackson has washed out and that Robert Garcia is struggling,

maybe Bruce Bochy will have to relent on that finally. But I'm not holding my breath. Yeah, no, I agree with that. Justin Robleski will start for the Dodgers Friday against the Cardinals, Kirby Yates, coming back from a hamstring injury and Michael Copac from his shoulder. Could both be back for the Dodgers this weekend? uh they there was a a point earlier this week where dave roberts said kirby a tanner scott is not the closer i think he's the closer i think he's gotten two saves since dave robert said that or at least two

save opportunities but you know with yates and and kopeck back do you think it's going to be just a committee i think so yeah i mean that's i i would say the dodgers bullpen is getting to be as frustrating as the Marlins except the Dodgers are really good and they're going to get saves often enough that maybe they could divide it between three guys and they could just all be useful for fantasy

but I don't think any of them is going to be you know one of the top closers in fantasy just because they have no inclination to give any one pitcher that high a percentage of the saves.

All right. Brandon Woodruff was pulled from his rehab assignment after being diagnosed with a right elbow contusion. It could have been worse. He was hit on that elbow by a comebacker in his most recent start, but he will have to take some time off before ramping back up. This is the second setback that Woodruff has had in returning from that shoulder surgery. And I don't really think he's worth stashing. I know he's been fairly widely rostered in CBS.

And if you've got unlimited aisle spots, sure, there's no harm. But if you have to make a decision, Brennan, and Wooder feels like an easy cut in basically any league for me. Yeah, it's a luxury stash. I would agree. I don't have a lot of confidence coming back from this serious shoulder surgery. His velocity is down like three miles per hour. They're going to give him a shot, but I'm not optimistic.

All right. Something to watch. Christian and Carnaccio and Strand started at third base on Wednesday on his rehab assignment. It's the first time he's played there on his rehab assignment and just maybe a sign that they want to get him in the lineup. when he's healthy. So that's something to keep an eye on. And then Luis Raias left Thursday's game with left knee soreness. So that is another thing to keep an eye on, though it didn't sound too serious.

Let's move on to a next segment. I love to just have a segment where I just say something. And it's a segment. So this segment is, what do we make of this then? And that's just asking you about guys who played on Thursday. That's all. Sure. let's not overcomplicate things.

Cole Reagan's returned from the IL, and he was not very good. Five earned runs in three innings, five hits, three walks, four strikeouts. Fastball velocity was down one mile per hour in his return from the groin injury. He's still got 11 swinging strikes on 78 pitches. Just rust.

Any concerns? I think so. The one, I guess, reason to wonder is that his one minor league rehab to start, on May 31st was also bad. But the fact that the stuff mostly looked okay, the fastball velocity was down a little, yes, but everything else was normal.

Mostly he just didn't throw strikes, walk three and three innings, 60% strike rate, which isn't very good. I'll give Reagan's a pass, and I believe he lines up for two starts next week. So I think everybody should be motivated to give him a pass. No, he doesn't line up for two. who starts that that's right chris boobitch they ended up skipping chris boobitch this week so sorry to all the

people who started chris boobich this week we didn't know until today that they were going to do this i mean you still start chris boobich with one start but it will except it's going to be zero now oh it's zero stars zero yeah they're just skipping them this time oh well that's bad so now chris boobitch lines up for two starts next week because they're going to they're going to reintroduce him the rotation. You know, Scott, you were talking talking all that stuff about the downsides of Roto leagues. Well, Roto Leagues,

you just get all those starts. You don't lose the starts for this week. That's true. There you go. In your face. Roto Giveth and take it the way. Is Marcus Simeon back? He's got his OPS all the way up to 600 now after going 3-4 with two solo homers on Tuesday.

No, but he has been better lately he has multiple hits in three of his past six games three of his six homers for the season have come in that span and his expected woebo over the past 50 plate appearances and during thursday so that was before he hit two home runs as expected woba over his past 50 played appearances was 378 that's not a range you usually see marcus simeon in did we give up on marcus simian too early well did we give up on because he remains in my top 12 and I haven't dropped him anywhere. We adjusted our expectations for him. But I think given how thin second base is,

it paid to retain some hope. And there's even more reason to retain hope now. I don't think it's a final verdict. Yeah, he's fine now. Everything's going to be totally normal. But if you were tempted, if you were on the edge with Simeon, now you're not.

Now you're incentivized to hold on. And, you know, most things, most of the underlying data for Simeon looks pretty close to normal. It's all just kind of a little bit down. The strikeout rate is probably the biggest thing. A couple points up, yeah. But even that, I mean, you go back to his Toronto days. His strikeout rate is similar to that. His still 77th percentile sprint speed.

That's a little down, but it's still a good sprint speed. Average exit velocity, very normal. Max XVI velocity, very normal. Polair rate down a little, but still better than a reasonable range. Yeah. So there's reason to hold out hope for Simeon. It's, it's, but it's not like, it's not totally for certain that he's just back to normal either. All right.

Ryan Pepio had a nether. good start. That six quality starts in a row. He allowed two earn runs on three hits in six innings with eight strikeouts. I believe that's a season high for Ryan Pepio, two walks. That was against Texas. I put Tampa Bay in the notes, but it was Texas.

And Texas's lineup is just bad at this point. It's weird. I still think they'll figure it out at some point, but they've just been bad all season. Six straight quality starts for Ryan Pepio, but only two starts in that span with more than five strikeouts, just 30 and 42.

two innings overall in that stretch. Fastball and changeup were really good today, 17 swinging strikes, but on the whole, fastball has been much less effective than it was last season. Do you agree with me that Ryan Pepe as a sell high candidate? Yeah, I think so. There isn't a lot to be encouraged by other than the ERA itself, and that is like the clearest reason to sell high on a pitcher. he's prevented runs from scoring

which is a very important thing that's the goal that is the goal and so that's why people are likely to pay for it why you could succeed in selling high but there has to be reasons

why a pitcher is good at preventing runs and I don't see the reasons why Pepio is his control is decent his swinging strikes underwhelming he is still more of fly ball pitcher than a ground ball pitcher. The fly ball rate is a little down this year, but still,

you don't want to, you don't want much of a fly ball rate at all at that home venue. So I think home runs could become even more of an issue than they've been. And yeah, I mean, just look at all the expected stats for them. They had there about a run higher. All the, the ERA estimators run higher than his actual ERA. All right, let's, let's ask the same question about Casey Meis and David Peterson, both of whom have sub three ERAs, although kind of going in different directions. Casey Mize has been scuffling since coming off the IL. He's only got, let's see,

seven strikeouts to six walks over the past two starts. It's 13 to seven walks since coming off the IL. Still roughly an average strikeout pitcher. Command has been good, but doesn't have a super long tracker to that. I don't really buy Casey Mize. Where are you at on him? Yeah, I think he's pretty fringy.

So, I mean, I don't think you were asking the SELHI question with him. I don't think anybody's looking to buy that much. He is missing a lot more bats just in terms of swinging strike rate. Yeah. The splinter especially has been great. But there hasn't been like a really impressive start in a while. And I don't think that's enough for me to feel obligated to hold on to my. I'm not saying he's a must drop, but I wouldn't mind dropping him.

All right. And then David Peterson, he's got like a 288 ERA since the start of last season. Are we just totally underrating this guy? Well, I do think I can, unlike Ryan Pepio, I can point to a reason why David Peterson is good at run prevention. And that's because he's one of the best ground ball pitchers in the game. And it's been truer than ever this year, 57% ground ball rate. at least according to how fan graphs measures that. And the strikeouts have been decent.

For somebody with that high of a ground ball rate, it's a decent strikeout rate. So the biggest issue, I think, is efficiency, because he walks a fair amount of batters, and so that keeps it starts on the shorter side. But when he goes deep into games with those ground balls with the Mets lineups backing him. Met's lineup backing him.

I think David Peterson is solid enough. Yeah, I mean, he's going to be a net negative for whip and strikeouts. I mean, decent strikeout rate, but still a net negative compared to who else you could put there. But he's going to be a net positive for ERA and wins, I think. So it's a bit of a tradeoff. And then Noah Cameron, he can't keep getting away with it, right? It's six innings today, no earn runs, two walks, two hits, three strikeouts. The Cardinals had eight batted balls over 98 miles per hour today.

They got two singles out of them. The rest were outs. I just, strikeouts aren't everything. But if you're going to be this dependent on your defense, you've got to be superlative in multiple different ways. And to be fair, Cameron's had very good control and very good results

on balls in play so far. But it just really feels like Bowden Francis last year to me. Maybe I'm being unfair. Maybe I'm being too close-minded. But I just, like I can see Cameron settling in as like a Jose Burrios

or Chris Bassett type, who's like useful. But he's not a star. There's just no, there's nothing in, his skill set that suggests that Noah Cameron's going to be a difference maker moving forward. Not even like sub 1 ERA. That's obviously unsustainable.

But like I think he's more like a three nine, three eight five ERA guy than an 085 ERA guy. Yeah. Is anybody arguing he's a star? Because I don't know. Maybe he's only 62% rostered, which I think is. That's reasonable. Yeah. I think it's reason.

I think at this point, He should probably be rostered in most leagues. It's sort of like we were talking about with Lance McCullors yesterday, except I have even less optimism for Cameron than McCullors, and my optimism for McCullors was definitely muted. But he's, you know, sometimes you just got to bet against your own sensibilities because baseball's a weird sport. and many things are unpredictable in it still.

And so when a guy has a run of success like this, the hit prevention has been particularly noteworthy. And that's, you know, usually I tie that to a high fly ball rate, which isn't really, hasn't really been true in Cameron's case. So, yeah, there's plenty of reason to be skeptical. But there are some unknown variables sometimes. Okay. Do not drop Jesus Lazzardo for no account.

No, no. I just let's get out ahead of that. Yeah, of course not. I don't mean to, I don't want to sound like I'm. No, you love Noah Cameron. We get it. Can you believe somebody commented on the YouTube video yesterday? Like, I don't get Scott's hate for McKinsey Gore.

What did I say yesterday about McKinsey, what about that conversation came off as hateful? toward McKinsey Gore. You only want to rank him as a top 24-star picture, Scott. I know. Nobody wants to hear me whine about YouTube comments. But anyway, that was an odd one.

Yeah, so like, I think of the long run, Cameron's going to become a streamer at best. But at this point, he probably needs to be rostered. I would drop Brandon Fott for him, for instance. Oh, yeah, that's an easy one. Yeah. Like, somebody in your league, it may not be you, but somebody in your league has a pitcher that doesn't need to be roster anymore and they can pick up Noah Cameron and hope for the best. But it's probably not going to get it.

That's all fair. Let's take a break. We'll talk week 12 preview right after this. Welcome back to fantasy baseball today. And now it's time for the week 12 preview brought to you by Travis Matthew. Apparel designed for confidence and comfort no matter where your day takes you. Father's Day is approaching, and Travis Matthew has some great package deals they're offering. More on that in a bit, but first, let's talk about week 12.

26 teams play six games, four teams play seven games. So we got a jam-pack schedule. We got the Cubs, Pirates, Burrs, and Cardinals getting that extra game. So get your NL Central guys in your lineups. And then what about the Rockies? They've got three games at home versus San Francisco, three on the road at Atlanta. Was there something you wanted to add? sorry, I heard a noise.

Nope. I am. Okay. Go ahead and keep setting it up for me. All right. Let's talk to start pitchers to add and stream. And are we just doing it? We're just throwing Yuri Perez right back in our lineups week one.

We've watched Spencer Strider. We've watched Sandy Alcantra. They've been terrible in their returns from their elbow injury. Shohei Otani may never pitch again. That's an exaggeration. He's almost certainly going to pitch this season. But the point is it has. not gone well for the guys coming back from Tommy John surgery this season. And we're just

throwing Yuri Perez right back in there because he starts with a two-start week at Pittsburgh at Washington. I mean, unless you can give me a better pitcher rostered in less than 80% of CBS sports leagues to start, I think Yuri Perez is at the top of the list. Yeah, with those matchups with the fact his velocity looked good on his rehab assignment, you don't have to do it. these are sleeper pitchers after all. And I'm not, if you go look at my two-start pitcher rankings, it's not like Yuri Perez is in the must-start category.

I mean, he's pretty high, though, in the two-star pitcher rankings. But yeah, I think, I think because he lines up for two starts, in most cases, you'll throw caution to the wind and I hope he delivers two good outcomes. We've also got Jack Leiter,

who had a pretty good start. on Thursday, six strikeouts, five innings, one earn run. He gets the twins and the white socks next week. That's pretty good. So I like those matchups, yes. It isn't clear that he'll actually make two starts. It relies on the Rangers sticking with a four-man rotation until Nathan Avaldi returns next weekend, which they have the off days that like nobody's going on short rest for doing that.

Yeah. But it wouldn't surprise me if they called up someone for a spot start and ruined Jack Lighter's two-star week that way. I also don't know that lighter is as good as the results have been lately because he's not he's not missing bats at a very good rate at all and his walk rate as is as it's always been. That's always been an issue for him. No, he's been pretty disappointing since he came back from the IL, unfortunately.

And these are number one, numbers one and two on the sleeper pitcher list. Yeah, there are some interesting, like widely available. types, especially among the two starts, but I don't have a ton of confidence in any of them. Mitch Keller does get the Marlins for his first start. I think that's a pretty good one against the Cubs. Griffin Canning Nationals and Tampa Bay, at least that's not in Tampa Bay. So that should be a little better. Zeb Matthews, they've shown the willingness to let him go deep if he's pitching well.

So he just has to pitch well and versus Texas, like I mentioned earlier. That's a really good matchup. Who else do you like next week? So just among two start options. So yeah, we've been through Yerd Perez, Jack Leiter, Mitch Keller. Did you mention Griffin Canning? Yes. Griffin Canning, Zebby Matthews.

Those are the top five streamers, two-start sleepers, let's call them. Jeffrey Springs is on this list as well. He gets the Angels and he gets the Royals to lineups that pitchers, they're easy to pick on. And Springs has been pretty steady of late. I know two turns ago he got knocked around a bit, but basically since May the start of May, it's been a lot of quality starts for Jeffrey Springs. I don't know that you'd want to risk your ratios in a Roto League, but I think at a points league for the two starts, he's fine. Luis Ortiz.

I like this one. Also more of a points league play with the relief pitcher eligibility. You can take advantage of. He gets the Reds and the Mariners should, with two starts, should give you between 12 and 15 strikeouts,

I'd say. Clark Schmidt gets the Royals and the Red Sox. And also that was... Got to avoid those like one bad innings. That seems to be his problem. He just like has to avoid the big blowup. pinning.

Yeah. So Springs, Ortiz, Schmidt, I would leave all of them for points leagues in an ideal scenario. But, you know, they give you that extra start, and in points leagues, that's golden sometimes. A couple of one-start streamers that I like, Hayden Birdsong at Colorado. Even in Colorado, I'm happy to pick on Colorado. And then Shane Smith at Texas, you brought it up a couple times. The Rangers have the third worst offense.

so far this year. Nope, nope, I'm not giving them enough credit. Fourth worst offense. But a worse offense than the White Sox is maybe the best way to say it. It is unbelievable. It is unlikely to last, but it is nonetheless true so far.

And I think Shane Smith should do fine against them. All right, let's move on to the hitters for week 12. The best hitter matchups. Love it. Love to see the Marlins and Angels at the top where they belong. They need all the help. can get they've got the two best

matchups, Pittsburgh and Washington for the Marlins. Angels get the athletics and Baltimore. Then you got the Braves, Reds, and pirates. Not the fiercest lineups among the best hitter matchups this week. And then on the other side, naturally,

some of the best lineups in baseball have some bad matchups. The Yankees, they get the Royals and Red Sox, the Blue Jays, get the Phillies and Cardinals. Dodgers, you're just starting them anyway. It doesn't matter. Rockies and Nationals. and let's talk about these sleeper hitters. And we've got, it seems like a lot of outfielders out there,

but we've got some Marlins. Let's hear about some of them. Yeah, so I have to say, just like I wasn't thrilled, so thrilled with my sleeper pitcher selection this week. I'm even less thrilled with my sleeper hitter selection. And that's after a couple weeks where I actually thought I had too many to fit in a top 10. It was a struggle to get to 10 this time. So at the very top of the list is Josh Lowe, who doesn't play for any of the teams with the best hitter matchups, but the Rays are scheduled to face nothing but Ritees, which means Lowe should be in the lineup for every game.

And the toughest pitcher they're scheduled to face is Clay Holm. So it's okay matchups, really, though, the surplus of Rite's his reason to get low end. Jonathan Arronda, too. he doesn't qualify for this list anymore. He's been picked up in too many leagues, but it's a good week to start him as well because of all those righties. Kyle Stowers,

back below the 80% rostered threshold after a slow week, but you mentioned the Marlins have the best hitter matchups. I still think he is the best choice to take advantage of those. Other Marlins, who make the cut here,

Augustine Ramirez, who plays more often than the typical catcher. And, you know, for some reason you don't like the catcher you already have and he's out there he's still out there in a third of CBS sports leagues amazingly a good time to try him out Xavier Edwards also makes the cut here he and he he should be second base eligible by next week that's true that's true that which helps because that's very weak position uh Michael

Bush has been hot lately and the Cubs are one of the teams with five games two lefties on this I'm sorry seven two lefties on the schedule so Bush may only start five of those games, but that that would be enough to call him a sleeper hitter. Matt Shaw, taking advantage of that seven game schedule. He, I added him to this list because he just had a big game Thursday,

three for five with two stolen bases up to seven on the season. He is kind of a weird, like he's been fine since returning for the miners. He's been contributing in fantasy with a 300 batting average and all the steal. but his average exit velocity since returning is still 83 miles per hour. So should we be, how thrilled we should we be with Matt Shaw? This week anyway, I'm willing to say.

At least he's being an aggressive base stealer. He stole another base on Thursday. There you go, two, actually. Let's see, Lordeus Gueriel is here with the Diamondbacks having pretty good matchups. The splits actually don't favor him. He is not as good at home as on the road and all their games are at home. You're asking why am I calling Lordus Gurriel a sleeper and then giving all these points against him? Fair point.

I'm just explaining why he's so far down the list rather than being at the top. So Andrew McCutcheon, only 5% rostered. He's a sleeper hitter for this week. He was strong at the end of, he was strong. he was on a good run as of about a week ago. I know he just had a bad game Thursday. I wish I had a better option for you.

But he is only 5% rostered and the Pirates have the fifth best hitter match. It's one of those teams playing seven games. I say a kinder for Leffa with a lot of eligibility, some batting average steals help. He's also on this list for the Pirates favorable schedules.

I mentioned the splits didn't favor Lordus Gariel. I talked about how they were at home, but also nothing but Ritees. Not good for him, but that is good for Pavin Smith. Yep. Who should be in the lineup every day. He has better numbers at home than on the road.

Hasn't been productive, hasn't been providing much in fantasy lately, only 26% rostered. But I think this is a week where if you're hurting at first base or the outfield, he could make an impact. And that was the weekly preview for week 12, brought to you by Travis Matthew,

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loved the shirt, by the way. Every, like, I almost don't know that the video does it justice, the way it feels she, every time I wear it, she comments on it. See, that's, that's great to hear. And they've got some Father's Day packages on sale until June 5th,

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So once again, big thanks to Travis Matthew for making clothes for any occasion that are not only comfy but stylish too. And Scott, we're going to do some trivia. I don't have like a fun song that will evoke memories of the mid-2000s or anything like that. We're just doing some trivia. Okay? Matt Damon is not involved in this. We don't need the bells and whistles necessarily. I just don't have Franks got like a thing where he just hit a button and voices come out.

I don't have that. You could sing it. I could. But like the riff is really the big thing with that. So we're not going to do that. I've got guests here so I can't bring out my guitar and play it. But I was doing my rankings on Thursday. and I just some stuff surprised me.

So we're going to talk about the 2025 Roto Rankings. That's what all this trivia is based on. We will start with the catcher position. Scott, which of these catchers is not ranked in the top six at the position in 2025 to date? Hunter Goodman,

Shea Langaleers, William Contreras, or Wilson Contreras, who is not a top six catcher this season? Wilson Contreras. Were you looking? Did you cheat? No, I did.

That is true. That is correct. And I picked this one just because I feel like people would think it was William Contreras. He's been a big disappointment. Wilson Contreras obviously was very disappointing early on, but he's been really good for a while. And yet, William Contreras, top six catcher. How about that? As disappointing as it's been.

Yeah. I mean, it's all relative, right? I mean, disappointing by his standards. But still, uh, I want to say. see if Wilson Contreras has fallen off. So it has been a rough couple weeks for Wilson. Okay. But yeah, I happened to notice, as I was updating my catcher rankings earlier this week,

that the overall numbers haven't looked so great for him. All right. We got one. Scott does know. Who ranks the highest out of these first basemen this season? Bryce Harper, Tyler Soderstrom, Josh Naylor, or Paul Goldschmidt, who is the highest ranking of those four we're doing roto roto roto is it updated with soderstrom's two homer game i don't think so i mean i was looking at like 11 o'clock at night so it might be i think it's harper it is not okay

it is i thought this was shocking josh naler okay is the number three third baseman this season first baseman first baseman and he has has not really been that good. He's got a really high batting average. He's in 293, 289, but only seven homers. He's on like 100 RBI pace, only on like a 75 run pace. You know what it is though? He's got nine steals.

Does he? Did you realize Josh Naylor has nine steals with his, that's, that is three stolen bases per percentile that he ranks in sprint sprint. He is a third percent on. sprint speed and is nine for 11 on stolen bases. I knew he was pretty high in the points league rankings and

the low strikeout rate always helps with that. But I thought in Roto yeah, I mean the steals obviously makes a big difference. I don't know that we should count on him having 25 steals this year. And for what it's worth, he did leave today with a minor shoulder

or hand. Yeah. Hand and shoulders. He's dealing the hand and shoulder. Yeah. So, you know, it doesn't sound like a big deal, but worth bringing up. All right. Let's move on. Which of the following second baseman is a top 100

player this season? Brendan Donovan, Brandon Lau, Tommy Edmund, or Glaber Torres. Only one of them ranks in the top 100 overall this season. It's got to be Brendan Donovan, right? It does not

got to be Brendan Donovan. He is 104th. Torres? Brandon Lowe Lowe is the number 88 player in Roto leagues. He had done nothing up until about three weeks ago. But he leads to the second base position

with 12 home runs. He's got 33 RBI, 32 runs. Those aren't even particularly impressive run in RBI totals, but he is on a 30-home or pace, which Cattel Martes and Jorge Palanka are the only other second baseman with more than eight,

I believe, this season. so that helps explain some of it, but I found that pretty surprising about our dude, Brandon Lowe. You would think we'd be doing some victory laps on that one with how much we liked him. Yeah, it's been so,

it's been confined to such a short period of time that, like the Brandon Lowe experience, I think this is part of the reason why he keeps dropping outside the top 200 in drafts. It's like the experience of having him is not as enjoyable as the, final numbers end up being because

if you lose faith and bench him at the wrong time you're missing a quarter of his production for the year. All right. How many players in a Roto League rank higher than Pete Carr Armstrong so far? In a Roto League, how many players are going to come up with the precise number?

So definitely Judge, definitely Otani. Anyone else? Is there somebody obvious I'm forgetting? Yeah, I'm going to say it's just those two. Two players rank ahead of Pete Crow Armstrong. You nailed it. Exactly, too. I was going to ask you to name them, but you beat me to it.

I already did it. I'm not sharp. Let's move on. How many outfielders currently rank ahead of James Wood in Roto for the season? And can you name them? Presumably you can name at least two. Yeah. So Judge and Crowe Armstrong.

Yep. Corbyn Carroll. That's one of them? He's kind of falling off. Has he? Fernando Tatis. Oh, he is right behind, James Wood. But there's one more.

There's one I'm missing. I don't know how many there are. There's no way of knowing. O'Neill Cruz. Nope. No, batting average is too low. He is seventh at the position. Who am I forgetting?

I'm forgetting somebody or you would have cut me off already, right? Yep. Someone in the comments has it, but you can't look. You're not allowed. I'm not allowed to look at the comments. That would be cheating. Oh, man. No, it is not Andy Pahas commenter.

Who am I forgetting? Although Andy Pah has somehow top 20. player or top 40 player overall. I can't, I can't think of it. I can't think of it. Kyle Tucker. Oh yeah. Kyle. Yeah, there was pretty odd.

There was one obvious one. Yeah. All right. Who is the number one starting pitcher in fantasy right now? It's Max Fried, right? Well, maybe after tonight. This was before tonight. Okay.

So as of as of Thursday morning, the top pitcher in fantasy and Roto specifically, because that might make a big difference format. It's not Max Fried. So is it is it is it is it is it is it is it is it is a textbook? It is not Terry. That would be way too easy. Yeah. He's all the way at number three.

Mm-hmm. Behind freed. Max Reed. Four actually. Ah, come on. man. So am I forgetting? Is it Hunter Brown?

Number two. Ah. Ah. Man, who's been better than them? We were talking about him yesterday. Obliquely. He wasn't like a direct point of conversation, but he was mentioned multiple times yesterday. It's not still Hunter Green, right?

We talked about him yesterday. Yeah. It's, hmm, I don't know. I don't know. Carlos Rodon. Really? Yeah, 98 strikeouts, a 248 ERA, 0.93 whip, and eight wins. That's pretty good for Carlos Rodon.

The wins. The wins count for a lot, and the wins are not something we usually analyze much. Yeah, we don't really think of it. Interesting, four of the top five are lefties. Carlos Rodon, Hunter Brown, or Ritey, then Terrick Scuble, Max Fried, and Garrick Crochet. are the top five starting pitchers in fantasy right now. And then, all right, well, we'll do one more.

Four closers have at least 17 saves this season. Can you name them? Probably not, but I'll try. Four closers with 17 saves. I'm going to get it wrong with my first guess, probably Robert Suarez. Number one, Robert Suarez. Who else? Who else? I'm going to say

Kyle Finnegan Kyle Finnegan is tied for number two at 17 Wow pulled that out of my butt All right Who else? I think it is fair to say that we were not excited about any of these four pitchers coming into the season

Although one of them is actually very, very good He's just been surprisingly getting a lot of saves Huh Okay Gosh, who else is up there? Oh, Andres Munoz.

Andres Munoz is the one I was referring to just now, so you got one more? I might do it. You might do it. I might do it. Somebody else who we weren't excited about coming in. At all. At all.

No enthusiasm for this guy, and this guy would be I can't think of a name. He was the second most exciting reliever on his own team coming into the season. Can you give me a league? American. American League, okay. Oh, Carlos Estavis.

See, that's all it took. I just needed the league. Yeah, I thought those were some interesting and fun rankings for the season. I think they were too. I had fun, and I learned a lot. I'm glad you had fun and learned. that's the whole it's like the magic school bus that's what we're here for all right let's uh very quickly do some pitching leftovers where are we at on dylan cise it's been a weird year he has

struggled despite actually i think his lowest walk rate of his career uh so far five innings three runs three walks seven strikeouts on thursday at san francisco he was showing signs of pulling out of it in may but three straight with five innings pitched or less and at least three on runs allowed and my concern with Dylan Cease is that he has already pulled the throw sliders in case of emergency lever and I just don't know if he's got another trick after that. Yeah, I hear you and it's frustrating and I hope we don't have to rank him as high next year just so, not because I don't think he could repeat his 2024 production just because we know there are flaws here. and we know there are going to be headaches,

but he has underperformed all of his ERA estimators by a substantial margin. And I think the best choice now is to just keep the faith. You're stuck with him now. In the long run, you're probably going to be happier than you are today. Robbie Ray went seven innings, two earn runs, one walk, nine strikeouts.

He's got 53 strikeouts to 13 walks in 46 innings. since the start of May with a 157 ERA. He might just be really, really good. He might be. How high was he in the year-to-date roto rankings? I think he's top 12. Carlos Rodon have been kind of joined at the hip. I guess just a win difference there.

Yeah, no, he's been really, really good. Yep. Let's see. Zach Eflin, two quality starts in a row for Eflin coming back. had been struggling since coming back from the IL before that has a really good one. I think he has a sub one whip on the season now

because he has like six walks. He's just had unbelievable control. You know what? Robbie Ray just got his eighth win today, so it's not a win. I would guess whip is the biggest difference. Rodon is in 0.93, Robbie Ray.

1.1 coming into today. So, well, and actually coming into today, Robbie Ray had 20 fewer strikeouts than Carlos Rodon as good as he's been. Carl's Rodon has just been ridiculous. He has been, like, I knew he's been good, but when you compare it to Robbie Ray like that, he also has been good. Fourth most strikeouts in baseball, one behind Terrick Scouble.

Yeah, it's pretty good. I forget who you were talking about. Zach Afflin. He's fine, right? He is fine. I don't think he's more than fine. Yeah. But he's fine.

All right. And then we talked a little bit of a Jack lighter. Nine whiffs on 80 pitches isn't great. Couldn't command the change up at all. He threw six change up. Six of them were balls. That's 100%. I don't think he needs to be rostered in every league.

Certainly there's some upside there, but he has not shown it since he came back from the IL. So if you need to drop Jack lighter, I think that's totally fine. But he is the number two sleeper pitcher for what it's worth. I thought there was some upside with Slade Cicconi. he came back from AAA and was flashing from strikeout upside in his first couple of starts, but has not been there the past two, three strikeouts, two walks,

two and runs in five innings against the Yankees isn't bad, but very bad quality of contact allowed. I think he's just a guy. Let's move on to the call to the bullpen. Camilla Duval gave up two hits, but got the save with Randy Rodriguez setting him up. We have mentioned Raina Rodriguez as a potential alternative there. They want to go away from Deval, but he's got to lose the job first.

So today did not do that. Carlos Estevez, this was surprising. You don't see this often. Blew the save in game one of the double header, came back and got the save in the second game of the double header. Lowered his ERA back to two. He's up to 18 saves, actually now. I said 17 earlier, but he's got 18 now after getting that one. We talked a little bit about it earlier.

Robert Garcia gave up three runs on four hits and a walk to blow the save against the raise. The walk-off hit was an infield single, I believe, but. You give up four hits and a walk. You don't really get to complain about a little bit of bad luck. What if the Rangers just don't have any good relievers besides Chris Martin? I kind of think that's where we're at, right? Yeah, that's why it's, that's why I have some hope for Chris Martin. But it kind of looks like that coming into the year too.

Yeah. And they just haven't given them a chance. It's been frustrating. And then in St. Louis, Ryan Helsley blew his third saving game, one of the double header on Thursday, gave up a couple of singles and a sack. so it's not like he was terrible and he'd been very good lately after a somewhat shaky start had this is first blown save and 10 chances so not too concerned about that and I'm making an executive decision we're not going to do to stream or not to stream for the weekend I apologize

to everybody who hangs on for 70 minutes to get to that segment but I just don't have it in me I don't have the strength Frank is a stronger man and a better host than me and he would have given you to stream or not to stream. And I apologize for that. We all look forward to him returning. We do. We got one more show without him. I think it's gone okay, but it's better when Frank's around. I'll be back here on Sunday in the host chair. Frank will be back the next day, and we will see you then on Fantasy Baseball Today.