Fantasy Baseball Today - Trade Targets! How Good is Aaron Nola? (08/11 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 11, 2020

Apparently the recipe to get a hitter going is to just face Sean Newcomb or Steven Matz! For the OMGG player of the night, Frank gives the nod to Asdrubal Cabrera (1:38) who had four hits, including two homers and five RBI! Next up we have Aaron Nola who has been ridiculous over his last two starts. How high is he moving up the ranks? It's also nice to see JD Martinez hit his first homer of the season. ... Onto news and notes and Mike Clevinger is a ding dong (12:02). Apparently he was out partying with Zach Plesac Saturday night so Clev will not make his scheduled start on Tuesday. Also, are we still excited about Spencer Howard if he's being used in a piggyback role? ... We hit some weekend leftovers, including Isiah Kiner Falefa who is a must-add even in one-catcher leagues (19:09). Which one of Alex Verdugo, Anthony Santander, AJ Pollock, and Jacob Jones are we most excited about? Should you drop Matthew Boyd? ... It's a trade target Tuesday and surprise, surprise, Frank likes Eloy Jimenez (33:17). We're also interested in Luis Castillo and Jose Berrios if you're talking about pitchers. Scott and Chris reveal their favorite buy-low targets. ... We finish up with some Monday recap (48:55), including Lance McCullers, Dustin May, Randy Dobnak, and Freddy Peralta. ... Email us at [e-mail]. Subscribe to our new YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @CBSFantasyBB, @AdamAizer, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday 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/ Download our printable Draft Kit from CBSSports.com/draftkit! 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. I drive, center field, and swing. This is magnificent. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, Chris, and Adam.

If you're ever going through a rough stretch in life, just getting a batting cage with Stephen Matt or Sean Nukum. Welcome to Fantasy Baseball today on a Tuesday, August 10th. Frank Stamphill alongside Scott White and Chris Towers. And guys, just like that, Bryce Harper and J.T. Real Muto have big knights. They're batting over 300 while Juan Soto goes three for four with a double and a homer, no lineup protection, no problem for Soto. The kid is a stud, and I would assume playing against Stephen Mats and Sean Newcomb had

something to do with it. I mean, J.T. R. Muto, hasn't he worn like four straight days? Oh, yeah, he's in Flago. He's been absolutely red hot. And Bryce Harper's been having it. an awesome season all year. We really haven't had much reason to talk about them at all because... They're just good.

Frankly, we haven't really talked about hitters at all because closers have taken up all of our time, but yeah, those two guys have been awesome. No concerns there. Yeah, I'm going to try and hit on a few more hitters today. Some leftovers from the weekend, some trade targets to talk about as well.

And then we'll give you some updates on some West Coast games because we're of course recording this the night before on Monday night. And Lance McCuller's just had a no hitter broken up, and Dustin May is pitching pretty well, so we'll update you on those a little bit later on, but let's get things started, guys.

Oh, my goodness gracious. You know, I mentioned going up against Stephen Mats, and specifically what as Drewble Cabrera did on Monday night, was otherworldly. 4-4, 2 homers, 2 doubles, 5 RBI, 3-runs scored, and a walk. and Chris, thank you for pointing this out to me before we started. But apparently since last year's All-Star break, as Drewba Cabrera has just been ridiculous.

Since then, he is batting 306 with 57 RBI, including tonight. And that's in like 66 games. So I'm not saying as Drewbukabrera is like a must add by any means, but there are a lot of injuries right now. Mike Moustakis, Josh Donaldson come to mind. as Drew Blercabura has dual eligibility, I'm kind of interested. He's probably more worth rostering than Carter Kibum,

who we were all really rooting for, but who's not playing every day, and who has a 42% strikeout right. As Drew Briborra has kind of always been underrated a little bit, and it's because he's not great, he's just kind of consistently pretty good every year. And in an offensive environment like this, that's not all that valuable, but,

I don't know, he's, he's, he's not bad. He's just kind of old and boring. He's 34 years old now. He's 35% rostered, so he's available. Again, I don't think he's a must add, but I just think if you're dealing with some injuries or some underperformance to start the year, you need a middle infielder, a corner infielder,

whatever it might be, and try and ride the hot hand as dribble Cabrera is playing quite well. Scott is here. We haven't heard from Scott yet. Who is your, oh my goodness gracious player of the night, Scott? I believe I just said, yeah, minute ago, but that's fine. That's fine.

Nobody knew where that yeah came from. I understand. We need more, Scott. Goodness gracious player. I mean, probably Aaron Nola. He was ridiculous. He was in his last start, too, but he managed to one up it with this one. He'd two hit innings with 10 strikeouts through only 89 pitches to get through those eight

innings. And it's really good. He's an ace. He's an ace. Congratulations. folks who drafted him as your number three. He is pitching more like your number one and probably is the guy we saw two years ago,

closer to that than the guy we saw last year. 22 strikeouts to just one walk over his last two starts. He had 15 swinging strikes on Monday night against the Atlanta Braves. What's been most shocking for me regarding Nola is how good the change-up has been. His change-up has never been this good and he had nine swinging strikes on that pitch tonight.

You always hear about the... the curveball. The fastball's just kind of mad. It's like, get me over pitch, but works well in conjunction with those other pitches. You know, 91, 92 miles per hour. Changeup has just been utterly ridiculous. Scott, once you update your ranks, which I know is something you do every week for your trade chart piece, how far up are removing Aranola? Is he in that Mike Clevenger, Jack Flarety range? Is he in that like, you know, six to ten starting pitchers now? Jack Flarety, we've seen what one? start from this season.

And who knows at this point because they postponed double header on Thursday too for the Colorado Tigers. Yeah, I mean, I don't see why not. They were all in the same tier to begin with. I had reasons to slightly

prefer one versus another. But yeah, it was a large tier for me. So I could see moving them up into my top at six, potentially, that high. I mean, yeah, it's possible I would move them ahead of those two, who you mentioned, Flaherty and Clevenger. And just for people wondering out there, Scott, since we're going to talk about trades today on the show, you know, you see two great starts, phenomenal starts like this out of Aranola. I think some people's minds automatically go towards, well, let me see what I could get for him.

Let me see if I can sell high on Aranola. I don't really think there's a reason to do that, given the landscape of pitching right now. I think he's just an ace. Yeah, I mean, like I said, we've seen this from him before. We've seen him be dominant ace pitcher in fantasy four. And like he wasn't far off last year. He had some uncharacteristic control problems, a couple of really bad months.

But yeah, still somebody who, I don't know, Chris has pointed out that it seemed like he was being oddly downgraded the closer we got to the season, but still drafted in a range of starting pitchers that we classify as high end. It's just where he would ultimately land on the high end spectrum. and it looks like with him back throwing a lot more strikes and having maybe a better change up than ever, it looks like he's back to being among the highest of the high end.

And there's not really a good reason to suggest he's not that good. Chris, a standout for you on Monday night, whether it's positive or negative. God, there's really not all that much to pick from. So I'll just go ahead and go with J.D. Martinez, who I'm sure there have been some people worried. He finally hit his first home run today. And look, the underlying stats have not been what we're used to from J.D. Martinez. And he's 32 years old. So there might be some concern that he's slipping. I think he's fine. I'm glad he hit a home run tonight to make me feel better about that. But yeah, you look at like this Red Sox lineup has kind of. been a huge disappointment, even relative to the down expectations that people had. I think things are going to be a lot better for them moving forward. They look like an offense that you can take advantage of right now,

and I just don't think that's who they are. And I think J.D. Martinez is getting on the right track. Raphael Devers getting on the right track. I think both of those will go a long way. Zander Brutress has obviously been awesome. Yeah. Penn and Tendee's been. that I don't know if Andrew Benintendi's going to be better. He seems like he might just be broken,

but Martinez and Verdugo and Bogart's endeavors, I'm pretty confident in. Yeah, Ben and Tendi, look, I'm not rooting for it, obviously. I mean, the guy is 26 years old. I don't want to be too rash, but he might be done. I'm not going to rule it out. He's just been, it's just so bad this year. such a, he just doesn't look anything like the guy he was supposed to. Like this was supposed to be a guy who put the bat on the ball, consistently hit line drives to all fields. And he's got a 34% strikeout rate right now. He,

he looks completely, completely lost. Yeah, not just the guy that he was supposed to. I mean, the guy he was. I mean, he was a serviceable player, Chris. I mean, 2017, 2018, Benintendington, he was a very good player. He went 2020 the next year, you know, 16 homers, 21 steals 290 batting average? Looks like he was kind of budding. He became very boring the last year

in the half. I've called him Nick Marquakis like during that stretch. You know, obviously if he's going to strike out at this rate, he won't even be that, not that that is particularly valuable, but of course he's literally done nothing so far, betting,

056. I brought him up with Devers and Martinez, because I put together a list of 46 names today, hitters who people made a fairly substantial investment in, and they've just been awful. It's a really long list, which to me is reassuring, right? If you have one of those players to look across the league

and see how many high-end bats are just off to miserable starts, you know, I don't know how much of that has to do with hitters being behind pitchers at the start of the season, which we kept hearing how much of it would be, we would see the first couple weeks of any season and it's just magnified as it always is when we're in the moment and as it especially is in a season that's only nine weeks long. But things can turn around pretty quickly.

You look at where Matt Chapman was four days ago versus where he is today having homered four times and three games. It can turn around very quickly for all of those guys. Maybe not been attending, but Devers and J.D. Martinez was actually one who homered in that list of 46 today, also on that list who happened to Homer today, Trey Turner, Eddie Rosario, Anthony Rendon. And I think there's one more. So like it may already be turning around for those guys. Yeah, and to put some context on it, the league as a whole is batting 230.

I believe there have only been four seasons in Major League Baseball history where the league has batted 230 or worse. and I think, I want to say it hasn't happened since. It may have happened in 1981, but I don't think so. It was another season that was weird. It might have been one of the years where replacement players were in because of World War II or Korea. Like, it was some kind of weird. And look, this is a weird circumstance.

Several players are not playing right now who otherwise might be. But yeah, the strikeout rate is the highest it's ever been in Major League Baseball history, 224. 23.9%. Isolated slugging is actually down from last year, but a little bit higher than the year before. And league-wide babubs, 276. It's weird.

Pitchers are getting hurt drastically more frequently than normal. I think I saw 56 pitchers have gone on the IL so far this season, which is, I think, it was something like twice or three times as many as you would normally have at this point. And yet hitters stink. Yes, they do. Someone that you mentioned there, Scott was Matt Chapman, who again, double-dong on Monday, has four multi-hit games in a row, has four home runs over his last three games, as you mentioned. So it's coming around for Matt Chapman. Let's hit some of the news and notes. Don't want to spend too much time on this because there's a lot that I want to get to. But got to start with, you know, the biggest news of the day, which came out of Cleveland, once again.

And Mike Clevenger will not make his scheduled start on Tuesday against the Cubs after Vibe. Violating health and safety protocols this past weekend in Chicago. Apparently Clevenger went out with his teammate, Zach Plesack on Saturday night, and instead of having to take a rental car home, he flew back on the team charter with the rest of the team. This is especially bad because he was around the team for at least Sunday, maybe parts of Monday.

I don't know how that was handled. And was in a team meeting defending Zach Pizak when everybody was criticizing. He was like, wait, wait, guys, let's go easy. on Zach. It could have happened to anyone. Just an absolute bonehead. This is just unbelievably irresponsible. And honestly, I think he should be suspended. I would guess he won't. And for fantasy,

I would guess he's still going to make a start this week. I don't think he makes a start this week. We'll see what happens. Adam Plucoe is going to be in there for him today. when you're listening to it on Tuesday. But the other teams that did not play on Monday, the Reds, the Royals, the Marlins, Blue Jays, Yankees, Orioles, and the Cubs. So if you still have the ability to take him out of your lineup

and you want to use a pitcher from one of those teams, it's something that you could look at doing if your league allows you to still do that. But I don't think Mike Clevenger makes it start this week. That's just my hunch. I don't really have any more information than that. Ramon Oriano, he was in somewhat of a brawl on Sunday, and he's in the lineup Monday.

He's likely going to face a suspension. We don't know how long that is going to be, but obviously a situation to pay attention to for Ramon Luriano. Another very just weird situation in general, apparently, you know, drawing back and forth with like a coach of the Houston Astros. Alex Entrone apparently said something very rude

to Ramon Luriano. Yeah, so we'll see what happens. The Rays plays Charlie Morton on the I. on Monday and manager Kevin Cash said that he's hopeful Morton will be ready for activation when first eligible. I don't know if that's going to happen. We shall see. Corey Seeger is still out with a back issue. He hasn't played since Friday as a Seeger owner. I don't feel great because I know he's dealt with back injuries in the past, but it's got there. I mean, there's nothing you could do with Seeger. You just kind of hold him and hope he gets healthy because he was ridiculous before he got hurt, right?

Right. I didn't start him. Well, that's not true. I have a lot of Corey Seeger. I did have to start him in some leagues. But in leagues where I could help it, I didn't. Speaking of players that are still out, George Springer was not in the lineup on Monday as he's dealing with a wrist issue. Rafael Devers was not in the lineup for the Red Sox Monday with a sore ankle. I have a feeling we'll talk about him on tomorrow's show. We're going to do a little bit of worryometer with some of those players that you were referring to, Scott, that are off to slow starts. And Devers is one of those that I want to talk about.

Thursday's double-heder between the Cardinals and the Tigers has been postponed, no surprise there. Now we wait and see what happens between the Cardinals and the White Sox this weekend. Madison Bumgarner was placed on the IL with the back issue that he left with in Sunday's game.

We mentioned that you can drop Madison Bumgarner, especially if you don't have any IL spots, that's fine, you could do that. Someone else you could drop is Marcus Stroman, who has opted out for the season. He was working his way back from a calf injury he is eligible for a free agency after this season concludes.

But yes, you can drop him in redraft leagues, of course. Philly's pitching prospect, Spencer Howard, and Vince Velasquez, are both being prepped to start on Friday, which apparently means that we're looking at a piggyback situation. If that's the case, Scott, we just spoke about Spencer Howard on yesterday's show, and we said that he is a starting pitcher, a starting pitcher you should be looking to add.

Is that still the case if we're looking at a piggyback? role for Howard? Well, I wouldn't want to react rashly and dump him now. It would have to be a pretty shallow league to even consider it. We don't know exactly what the distribution of those innings would be. We don't know who would come in first. But yeah, it was kind of disappointing in that way that Velasquez had actually an effective start in the first game of that doubleheader on Sunday because it meant probably

weren't going to drop him out of the rotation so easily. But obviously they want Howard to stick around. And, you know, I don't know. Based on that first start Howard had against the Braves, I wouldn't be activating him right away in fantasy anyway. So it's more of a continued-to-stash situation and see how this plays out. But obviously, the upside is there for him to be an impactful player

if he is able to get a sizable enough workload. And frankly, I was encouraged he threw 81 pitches. in his major league debut. And I don't think walked anybody. So, you know, there were some good signs there, even though the final line wasn't great. Jose Ibrahim left Monday's game with a hip issue, a left hip issue.

Manager Rick Rensoria said he's hopeful that it's not, that it is a minor issue. So something to pay attention to you. That just stinks because he's already locked into your lineup. So we'll see what happens with Jose Abraeu. One walk. One walk for Howard. One walk for Howard. Last but not least,

Luis Arias, the Milwaukee Brewers, was activated and was batting seventh in the lineup Monday. He won for four with a run scored just last season in AAA. He batted 315 with 19 home runs and seven steals in just 73 games. Chris, I know Arias was someone that you were excited about. What is the level that we need to get Arias on our team? What is the urgency level here for Arias? Oh, it's low. I had him stashed in like, I think, a 14 and a 15 team league, maybe 2 15 team leagues.

And so that's probably the only league. He's been really overmatched in the majors, strikes out a lot. He doesn't strike out a lot, but he has, yeah. Yeah, he's not supposed to, and he has a ball heart. It hasn't been like a Kesterhero situation where he's made. Like, even today, he had his hardest hit ball out of the three was 81 miles per hour, and it was a 63-foot single. So the AAA numbers suggest there is a very viable fantasy profile here, batting average power.

At least he grew into some power last year and some speed, but not someone. He needs to hit first. Yeah, and he's in a good position to do so if he gets the opportunity to play every day. It's a really good ballpark to hit in. And we've kind of talked about how the Brewers are off to not a great offensive start, so they could definitely use some help there behind Christian Yellich. Kesten Hiura. Guys, some leftovers from the weekend,

some stuff that, you know, I wanted to get to talk about some players that are hot right now, specifically some hitters. And we talked about them a lot. Scott, kudos to you. I mean, you were talking about Kiner Foleva for the past two months.

And I think at some point Chris laughed at you. Who's laughing now, Chris? Ha, ha, ha. That doesn't sound like something I would have done. Kiner Folefa is up to 65% rostered entering Monday Night's action. He was betting 333, tied for the American League lead with four steals.

Definitely not something we saw coming. Scott, would you be okay in a one-catcher league dropping someone like Wilson Ramos or Will Smith for a kind of Philefa, specifically for either guy? I mean, Ramos is just off to a slow start. And Will Smith, I think he's going to get better, but he just doesn't play enough.

So it's kind of frustrating. Yeah, I don't think, like neither of those guys was going to be such a difference-making. for you that I'd be afraid to cut them loose for the hotter hand. It is worth pointing out that Kiner Folefa, well, he's certainly been good. The only way, you know, it hasn't been quite the way that I expected it to be good.

I thought he had, I thought he had remade his swing to tap into a lot of power, which he showed both in spring training and summer camp. And look, maybe it'll come around. But so far, one double, two triples, no homers,

a lot of singles. So, you know, that's not what I was hoping to see. Obviously, I wasn't counting on stolen bases. I was counting on a lot of playing time, and that alone can be a difference maker at that position specifically. So, yeah, I'd be fine dropping either of those two for Kynar, Folefa.

I would not drop like Mitch Garver for him. He's one of those 46 players who's off to a miserable start and was out of the lineup for a second straight day today. So clearly they are on Monday, I should say. So clearly they're looking to give him a little extra rest, hope to get him going that way. But that's, to me, that's the potential for more impact there. And, like, if you can afford to roster both and you want to go with Kiner Folepha

because he's the hot hand, that's fine. But I would not, like, I'm not moving Kiner Folepha over Garver in my rest of season rankings. I do think Kinear Folefah should probably be rostered in every league, though. I mean, obviously every two-catcher league, but given the fact that he is playing every day, I just, it's going to be hard for him not to be a top. 10 catcher given the playing time gap. And that's also why I've made a point of adding Victor Karatini in a lot of

leagues. He's basically playing every day for the Cubs as either a catcher, a DH, or I think he's played a couple times at first base. That can give you a big edge, even if they're not that good. And both might be like average hitting catchers anyway. Karatini might even be a little better than that. Yeah, Victor Karatini is betting 313 to start the season. And he started the past two games for the Cubs, but set the three before that. I think he started 10 out of 13 overall or something like that, or nine out of 30.

But it's something I've noticed that they are consciously just trying to get his bat in the lineup any way that they possibly can. The one thing I'll say about Wilson Ramos, I agree I would drop Ramos for Kinerfalefa. But if you have Ramos in a two-catcher league, I think better days are coming. Something we wanted to see out of him entering the season was that he lowered the ground ball rate. So far this year, it's 45.7%. Last year was 62%. And his launch angle, we've referenced it before, was zero. His average launch angle was zero, Wilson Romo's last season.

And this year, it's 10 for his average launch angle. So that's 10 more. I think better days are coming for Wilson Ramos. I would still make that swap, by the way. Guys, four outfielders that are pretty hot as of now. Anthony Santander, he's batting 24 with three home. 14 RBI, which is like top 10 in all of baseball right now. All of a sudden, I mean, we joke about the Marlins being a juggernaut offensively.

The Orioles offense is actually swinging the bats quite well as well. Alex Verdugo. He had three home runs late last week, and he has now played six straight games and has batted either first or second in the lineup three games in a row. A.J. Pollack was batting 311 with four homers entering Monday night, but he sits too often still. I mean, he's played, he's sat three of the last six games for the dollar. Dodgers. And then Jacoby Jones. Like, we brought up the name before. It kind of feels like we're

still kind of not taking him seriously. He's batting 333. He hit his fifth homer on Monday night. It wasn't inside the Parker. But Scott, how would you rank those four outfielders? Santander, Alex Verdugo, A.J. Pollack, Jacoby Jones. Specifically, the last two are likely more available. But I've still seen Santander and Verdugo lying around in some three outfieler leagues. Yeah, I'm mostly reverting to my pride. with this ranking, but Verdugo would be a distant number one for me. And followed probably by Pollock just in the hope he starts to play more regularly.

And then I'd put Jones third. Like I don't have, I'm still skeptical of Jones. He's striking out as much as before. He's not, like, his quality of contact hasn't vastly improved. His launch ankle hasn't vastly changed. Like, I'm not seeing a lot of evidence that he's a different player. He's just barreled up the ball a lot, which, you know, seems like a hot streak to me.

But I understand in leagues of a certain depth where you always have players you can burn, you might want to take a fly around him just to see where this goes. Did you, where did you have Santander on that list? Was he last? I only ranked my top three Verdugo Pollack and Jones. Wow.

Is that... Damn. That leaves Santander fourth by default, right? I believe Santander is like 15th in the majors. in RBI since the All-Star break last year. When I was looking up the Asdruble Cabrera numbers, that one also stood out to me with his 283 on base percentage. Yeah, he does not walk.

So that is not going to be helpful there. He puts the ball in the air, 47% fly ball rate this year, 43% last year, and he's got a 45% hard contact rate thus far. So, I mean, it's kind of a similar situation to Renato Nunez. He just does what you want, hitting in Camden Yards. He puts the ball in the air and he hits the ball hard. I agree that I would put Verdugo first on that list.

I think I would put Santander second, actually. Chris, what do you think? I might go Pollock last, which if you could guarantee me, Pollock was going to play something like every day. He might be top two, but yeah, I'm, it's just hard for me to buy into someone who's not playing that much.

I would take Santander and, Jones over him. It took me a second to get to that last name. Scott, I'm just going to throw a few names your way. And for each one, you could just say, yes, I'm dropping this player for all of them or just Verdugo, whatever it might be. Justin Upton.

How many of those players are you dropping Justin Upton for? I dropped them for for Dugo. I'd probably drop him. I'd probably drop them for any of them. I might hesitate on Santander if it was just for a bench spot, see if Upton can figure out a way to stay in the lineup close to every day. But if it's not, then obviously I don't feel like Upton's in a good spot to play

on your fantasy team right now. How about Oscar Mercado, Scott? Yeah, he's not doing much of anything. and I question that skill set from the beginning. He is somebody who can provide steals when he's going well, and those are hard to find. Definitely drop him for Verdugo. It would be mostly a needs thing after that.

I think I'd be more likely to hold on to him for the others. Just a few other names that I'll rattle off for you here quickly. Okay. Willie Calhoun. I think we're, are we holding on here, Scott? I am. Yeah, he had a big game Sunday, right? Yeah, he does have...

I think he's going to come around. He has two hits on Monday. I'd rather have Verdugo, but that's it. He has two hits on Monday, including a triple and two RBI. So hopefully, sign of things to come. How about Scott Kingery, Scott? Someone who's off to a very slow start.

Yeah, I mean, obviously the Phillies lost a lot of games at the start of the year, and he was talking about having some shortness of breath coming back from COVID-19. So I'm not sure where he's at physically. I'm not sure he's gotten a large enough sample to really know. And that speed is so important. Versatility.

He's now triple eligible, picked up second base. Verdugo be the only one. And it's drop him four. Like we should note he was awful in 2018 and wasn't that good in 2019. Like Scott Kingery just may not be good. He was a 2020 pace. So for like 400, it'd be. Right, but like over, like as an overall hitter, he was pretty mediocre.

Yeah. Still strikes out a lot, but. I'm not, I kind of went away from him. Like he was someone I went into the season kind of thing. Like, oh, maybe I might have a lost cat, Kingery. And then I just, every time I looked at it, I was like, I'm, I sure he's good. There's no reason to bother with Kingery in a Points League. It's just, he's a special.

He's a unique player and that he has, he brings unique eligibility. and he brings the speed that's so hard to find in the formats where you need it. I will say, him and Nick Senzel were kind of similar in my mind. I think Nick Senzel has clearly passed him so far.

His quality of contact has been really impressive so far. Yeah, I know Senzel is, I believe, dealing with something, an injury of sorts, so he hasn't been in the lineup. I think it was, though. He was was supposed, at last report, he's supposed to be back in the lineup tomorrow. I didn't trust it enough to play him in the league where I

have them, but it's supposed to have. Yeah, his batted ball data so far. He was one that stood out to me when I was looking at some stuff earlier today. Scott, what do you make of your boy, Garrett Hampson, playing five days in a row, only has four hits during that span. He has one homer. He actually stole another base on Monday night. He still 44% rostered.

All of the starts that he has made have been against left-handed pitching. Yeah, I think so they've faced five lefties in a row. Look at that. They have. He's been betting lead off. when they faced lefties. And, yeah, back-to-back days with a stolen base. I mean, those roto leagues would be difficult to cut him loose.

Not clear when you'd be able to play him, but he's capable of stealing a lot of bases, as he's shown the past two days. Yeah, I did. Sorry, I do think it's basically just the lefties thing. Like, Sam Hilliard has started one of those last five games, I believe, and that was only the second game a double header. So it does seem like the Rockies do have some pretty clear platoons.

And yeah, I just, I think that could change at any moment. Hampson has a big game and the platoon's over. Yeah. They're just honestly, and the way that lineup looks right now, if anyone has a big game, they could be it because like nobody is hitting for them. It's like the Charlie Blackman and Trevor Story Show, and that is absolutely it, except for today. They've had a good day. Yeah, there's a slobber knocker going on in Colorado right now. Matt Kemp has been serviceable in deeper leagues. Chris Owings has randomly been playing for this team, so yeah, you're right. Nolan Aronado, three hits, so that's good to see.

Get the batting average up a little bit there. Chris, have a question for you from over the weekend. We mentioned the name, but we didn't mention what to do with him. Matt Boy, we've been getting a lot of questions regarding him. Against the Pirates, this was supposed to be the game that got him right. Eight hits allowed, seven earned runs, three walks, four and two thirds innings pitched. Last year, on the slider,

he was allowing a 167 batting average against and a 500 slug. This year, 400 batting average against and a 1,000 slug. Are you okay dropping Boyd for, let's say, the Astros guys? Framber Valdez, Bialik, or his teammate, Spencer Turnbull.

What do you do there, Chris? No, I probably wouldn't drop him for those guys. There's been at least a little bit of bad luck, involved. Obviously, we said that last year, and maybe he's the kind of guy who just gets hit so hard that everything's bad luck.

But, like, the slider's good. So the fact that the slider's been hit hard so far, that, you know, you're only talking about 16 balls in play, I believe. Maybe even less, 11 balls in play. So, you know, the average edge of velocity on the slider, 84 miles per hour.

I think that's mostly just a fluke. I don't think Matt Boyd's going to be the ace that we were hoping for because a lot of the interest there was predicated on him getting better, but also on the curveball and changeup that looked really good in spring training that really haven't been there so far. But I think there's still too much strikeout upside. So I would stick with him. It's not a Madison Bumgarner,

situation where like velocity's way down and like how is he going to muster anything at this point like the stuff appears intact it just hasn't gotten results yet and it's it's worrisome especially after the second half he had but i don't know not i doubt too many people listening are in a position where they can dump starting pitcher upside some trade targets guys trade target tuesday that's what i'm dubbing this so creative i know uh obviously any top 25 player who is underperforming right now is of interest. And again, we're going to have a Wuriometer tomorrow. So email us some players you want us to talk about for the Wuriometer.

Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. And surprise, surprise, guys. One of the hitters that I would be trying to buy right now. Manitra. Oh. No, I mean, I don't think you could buy him low. I mean, he's batting average is still low. He's still kind of hitting for power and has some steals.

But Eloy Jimenez, the other guy that I was touting heading into. of the season. He's batting 214 with a 411 slug. His XBA is 266. His ex-slug is 552. He currently has a 229 babb. Last year that was 308. The launch angle is god-awful, and I'm not going to defend that. He's hitting too many ground balls, and he needs to raise the ball a little bit. But I think there's enough in the underlying numbers here, and especially with the prospect pedigree, where if anybody is kind of worried about Eloy Jimenez to start, I would be trying to pounce on that. I would sell guys like Mike Yostremski for him,

which I know, Sky, you're a Yazman. I am. I rank amen as a head rest of season. I mean, this is how fortunes can turn the other way so drastically at a stage of the season where the sample is still very small because a week ago, So Jimenez was batting 333 with the 1045 OPS And everybody was taking victory laps right

And he's gone one for 23 since then And now this is the way his overall numbers look It's just Yeah I mean this is why for the most part My opinions haven't changed on any hitter Is it's just not enough time And I understand we're a quarter of the way into the season But that really shouldn't change your process

You can't treat 15 games differently just because there's only 60. We talked about that yesterday. And you can change your opinion on a pitcher because they have a new pitch where they're throwing the ball harder. Exit velocity doesn't work that way. Like batting stats just don't work that way. They don't change that quickly. You don't get, unless it's Eric Cosman or some kind of extreme change like that, where you're going from like the worst in baseball at a thing to one of the best or one of the most extreme.

An obvious skill change. But if you believe the skills are still intact, then the day he turns it around is always potentially tomorrow. And there are still too many tomorrows to cut bait on that now. So I know I'm not, I'm talking to the person who already has Aloi Jimenez and not necessarily the person looking to buy him, but obviously the person looking to buy him.

Yeah, if you can get him for a discount, Yistramski, I think would be fine. Scott, would you try. I'm afraid Kyle Lewis for him because I keep wanting to say sell high on Kyle Lewis but again on Monday 3 for 4 3 RBI, 2 runs scored another Homer

Kyle on Kyle action he took Kyle Gibson deep I mean I am keeps mash I am going to die on this hill Kyle Lewis is not that good he's not that good his strikeout rate is slightly better now than it was last year still 30%

yeah and like he's not He has a 525 Babbip. Is that good? He's not making the quality of contact to get away with that kind of high strikeout rate. It's not nearly as good as last year. It's nowhere close to like judge your Gallo level. And yeah, the Babbib stat.

That pretty much says it all right there. That probably could have ended it. I think he can be good or at least like a useful fantasy option. But yeah, if it was possible to get someone like Ilo Jimenez for him, I would do that in a second. wouldn't even think about it. He's getting hyped like he's an up-and-coming star. And that's, like, he may be Teasker Hernandez.

He's probably better than T-Oskar. I'm a little bit more excited. He's 207 homers last year. Come on. I'm a little more excited about what Kyle Lewis is. I would obviously make the swap too. But every day that goes by, I buy in a little bit more.

Just a little bit more on Kyle Lewis. Chris, the last name I'll bring up is Will Myers, who's off to a great start. his barrel rate is 24%. His ex-slug is 665. He is destroying the baseball right now. If you could swap Will Myers for Eloy Jimenez, would you do it? Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, I would easily do that. And look, I liked Will Myers quite a bit coming into the season. I would have hoped for more than one stolen base through the quarter mark. But he's a decent hitter, but he still strikes out way too much. this is another situation where there's just obvious regression coming. And by the way,

Kyle Lewis has a 100 Babbitt tonight with those three hits. Well, that's because they don't count home runs, right? Home runs are not included in Babbitt. Well, yeah, but it's still... Oh, no, that's right. Okay, one of the hits was a home run.

Okay. No, it's still 100 because it was a strikeout in a home run. Yeah. Kyle Lewis, everybody. If you could swap him for Eloy Jimenez, make it happen. Scott, who is a realistic trade target, one or two names that,

you know, outside of the top, obvious names that we're looking at struggling right now, that you actually think you can go out and acquire right now for cheaper than we entered the season. Well, somebody I've been getting a lot of questions about and they brought him up earlier is Mitch Garver to the extent that you're looking to trade for a catcher. I don't know how much one home run from J.D. Martinez

is going to change the math there, but it seems like people are starting to get worried about him. Josh Bell, I mean, he has kind of some of that, that one-hit wonder vibe to him that, you know, I can't guarantee he's going to bounce back, but it's, I don't see any reason to assume he won't either. And if you can get him for, obviously, at extreme parking, you've got to do it. I don't know, there's so many hitters here. Let me see another good example.

like, I don't know, any of the Astros guys, right, Jose Altuve or Alex Bregman? Like, there's, and like, the person who has them, you might be doing him a favor by ridding himself of the stink of an astro, a stench. Like, I'm all for that. George Springer would be on that list, too, but he's dealing with a bit of an injury. so I'm not sure how that's impacting his start to the season. Those are a few names there. I mean, I still have, I'm still not ready to punt on Marcus Simeon, and he's off to a terrible start.

Brian Reynolds, I still think he's going to be a good source of batting average. Of course, that's a little on the lower end. Yeah, on the lower end, a name that I was looking at, and he's having a good game tonight, too, is Nick Solac, who has started 11 games in a row for the Rangers. He stole his third base tonight, and he entered this game betting 227 with a 306 XBA.

I don't even know that you need to trade for him necessarily. He's only rostered in 32% of leagues, but if you're playing in Roto and someone just is like, oh, well, it's Nick Solac, whatever. I think that better days are coming for him. He's making a lot of contact, the strikeout rate is down,

and they're clearly, they're letting him run in Texas this year with Kiner Folefa and Nick Solac. He's definitely someone that I am interested in. Chris, any names that come to mind in terms of buying right now? I would buy high on Eric Cosmer, who did finally hit. He has two ground balls on the season now. So that... Lost it all.

The dream ended. But, yeah, I believe in the changes he made. I think he's going to be really good. And, you know, he's been really good when he's been in the lineup. But the fact that he's missed so many games may have hidden that. And I would buy Kyle Tucker. I think he's much better than he has been so far. I think there are, like the strikeout rate is concerning,

especially because it was a pretty high last year as well. I think he's probably not a 30% strikeout rate guy. I think he's probably more like a 25% strikeout rate. And he hasn't gotten the results that he probably deserves. I'm still very bullish on what we've seen from Kyle Tucker, especially the fact that he's been mostly playing every day. All right. So I skipped over some names here I want to mention.

I had a chance to organize my thoughts here. Glabra Torres might be the underachiever who makes the least sense in terms of his underachievement. So that's an easy buy low. Carlos Santana, he's been walking a ton but doing nothing else, but we know who Carlos Santana is. That's easy. Trey Turner, the fact he doesn't have a stolen base yet. I think his owner might be freaking out and you could get him for quite the discount. I still think, you know, he's pretty good odds of leading the majors and home runs.

Leading the majors and steals. Would take the under on the home runs. Yeah, me too. We'd take the field for sure. Yeah, we'll just leave it at those. I mean, go ahead and throw Anthony Rendon. Like, he's an incredibly good hitter. And, you know, the fact that he got on base three times and hit his first home run today,

maybe it's a little too late for that. But Anthony Rendon is not going to struggle this season. he's way too good. A few pitchers that caught my mind. Luis Castillo, I think, is just kind of the poster child of trying to buy low right now. Don't know how realistic it is, but I've seen some crazy things

where people are very reactionary in the short and season. I've heard of people dropping, like, star players in their leagues because they're off to slow start. So if anyone's worrying about Luis Castillo, he's a 476 ERA, a 173 FIP, and a 215XFIP,

with a 19% swinging strike rate, which is just other. otherworldly and his velocity is up. So if someone's... 62% ground ball rate. Yeah, there's just everything to love about Luis Castillo right now. If, you know, if someone's looking at

Brandon Woodruff was off to a nice start and you can flip him for Castio, don't know how realistic it is, but something I would try to do. And Jose Berrios, I'm a little hesitant here. I like that the velocity is up. I don't like that he's been walking more people

thus far. But the swinging strike rate is basically where it's been at, throughout the course of his career. He's going to have some nice matchups coming up where they face the Tigers a few times. I have a few series left with them. I just think better days are coming for Jose Barrios.

Scott, if you can flip someone like to Nelson Lamet or Dylan Bundy for Jose Burrios, is that something that you would do? Because that seems like a classic sell high, buy, low situation. It does. And, um, I think so. I try to get, like I'm all about Bereos as a buy low.

It's just, I'm mostly buying into those two, their breakouts. And if it, you know, if it ends up being just a lateral move, you know, that's not really improving your team's bottom line. So I would try to get Barrios another way. But if push came to shove, I think I would make either of those deals. Bundy's a lot easier for me to say, yes, I would rather trade him. Lament, obviously, I had higher expectations for him than Bundy coming in. On the other hand, like, Berrios is not someone I would necessarily, like, be trying to chase down just because he's not, he's not a particularly high upside guy. I'm still, I'm sorry, did I interrupt the thought?

Well, no, no, not really. I was pretty much done. I just, like, Burrios is like the quintessential, like, number two slash number three fantasy starter. And I don't see much room for him to improve on that. Yeah, he was attractive more for his floor than a ceiling, which is interesting that we're talking about and getting off to a slow start. But I'm still in the mindset that anytime I can trade hitters to get pitchers,

I'm pretty much going to do it. So that would probably be more the way I'm trying to get burrios if I have spare, if I have hitters to spare, or like a hot starter, like, I don't know, Trent Grisham, maybe pair Trent Grisham with some lower end arm and you can get him that way. Classic Frank two for one, right? Yeah.

Now you're learning, Scott. Yeah. Yeah, I think that makes sense. You know, even a name like Dansby-Swanson kind of comes to mind, although I do like Danesby-Swanson quite a bit. But in one shortstop leagues, I mean, shortstop is a very deep position. So something else that comes to mind there.

Quickly promote that you should be dropping a five-star Apple podcast review. If you can and leave a question, we'll answer it on the pod on a future podcast. I understand. We've been slacking here with the, questions. We're going to take a quick break and we're going to come back and answer some of your questions here on fantasy baseball today. And I want to give a shout out to Lamont Williams and a few other dedicated FBT listeners who formed the CBS Pod Listener League from some obscure circumstances.

He sent this in earlier today. So Adam, remember four years ago when you used a selection for the listener league on the NCAA basketball tournament and there was a deluge of emails because someone asked a question and everyone kept replying? so much so that you had to shoot a shouting email telling everyone to stop replying all because there was so much email traffic. Well, from the ashes of that email, dumpster fire was formed the CBS Pod Listener League, a dedicated group of now 12 owners from all over the U.S., two from Australia, one living in Taiwan, and one who worked frequently in South America. It's just awesome. And I've said this before when you guys sent in your Listener League song submissions.

it's just, I'm blown away all the time. We really do appreciate all of your support, and I thought it was worth giving a shout-out. So shout-out to you guys, we really do appreciate your support. When we come back, we'll give you an update on Lance McCullors, Dustin May, what they did tonight. Is Chris going to have to grow a dobb-knack? We'll find out more after this.

We're back here on fantasy baseball today, and Chris, I don't know if you know about this, but apparently you're almost, You're one half of the way to growing a dobbnack on your face. Yeah, you keep doing this. You asked on Sunday, I think, if I would be willing to shave my face into a Randy Dobnack-esque-asc facial hair setup

if he had both a quality start or a win in each of his starts today this week. And I told you flat out, no, because my wife would leave me if I shaved my beard. she does not like the way my face looks unless there is hair covering it and uh you have a beard

I mean that you can that first of all you haven't put that much work in like I'm on several months like I condition this thing I blow dry it I got a curl brush this is all I'm capable of Chris and like you've got so much less to lose

I have a fiance you don't have any facial hair compared to me It just wouldn't look as good on me. Like, all right, whatever. I tried. Look, you were the anti-Dobnack guy, so I was trying to make things interesting. You were the anti-Dobnack guy.

It was just you. Yeah. I picked up Domnag and started him in multiple leagues. You can't expect me to remember conversations that I've been out of. All right, well, I tried, guys. We'll give you an update on Lance McCullors, who wound up going seven innings against the San Francisco Giants, allowed just one hit, zero walks, five strikeouts,

10 swinging strikes on 86 pitches. So Scott, I know we had the conversation last week, whether or not we should get him in the lineup after his horrible start last time out. This is exactly what you needed to see, I think, in a bounce back. Sure. I mean, it was favorable matchup. I think his next one is also in this two-start week.

He's still not throwing the curveball as often as he did briar to Tommy John, and it wasn't impressive in terms of the whiffs he was getting. he was fine. It was fine. Yeah, I don't really know what's going on with him, but he said after that last start when he got knocked around that he didn't feel like it was the start where his stuff was actually bad,

and I guess this backs up what he was saying. Yeah, I mean, the color certainly looks like a hold now. I just... Go ahead, Chris. I don't have a problem with him throwing his change up more because in 2018 it was a really good pitch for him, and, you know, that's fine. The curveball, I think, is still his best pitch.

I just wish it was coming more at the expense of the sinker rather than the curve. He's throwing the curve like 33% of the time now. It was 47% before. His upside is so much higher, I think, when he's focused on the curveball. And that's not a change that I necessarily love. And it was still there tonight. You know, he threw the sinker more than anything else tonight. So that's something that I am watching because he didn't.

only have 10 swinging strikes in this one. And Lance McCullors is someone who I want to see a lot of whiffs from. And that curveball and really the change-up are the two ways he's going to do it. Scott, you mentioned that McCullors is a hold for now. Someone who also might be a hold is Dustin May, who has now gone six in back-to-back starts. He's allowed exactly two earned runs in each of those. Both starts came against the San Diego Padres.

Not a lot of swings and misses tonight. Only five whiffs total. Two strikeouts. What do we do with Dustin Mee? because Alex would believe either just had a bullpen session where he threw 30 pitches or he has one coming up. So he's on the mend. What do we do with Dustin May? Well, we follow the Dodgers lead for now because we don't know exactly what they're going to do with Dustin May. If he's in the rotation, I mean, there's no reason to give him up in fantasy. He's trending the right direction.

I wish he missed more bats, but he gets a ton of ground balls. He throws strikes. He's shown between this year and last year that he seems to have a knack for running. prevention. And I mean, the strikeouts have been decent. It's not like they've been non-existent. So, you know, he's somebody you want for as long as he has a rotation spot. And I'm not saying if he gets bumped from the rotations, he's necessarily

a drop either. It would depend what the format is, but he'll have a lot of bulk relief appearances, I assume. I would at least consider trying to sell high. He has a lot of hype around him right now. You know, there's a lot of jiffs flying around baseball Twitter. And I don't think

he's going to be someone who's routinely going six innings, even if he does stay in the rotation. He needs kind of that perfect storm of outcomes to get there. And so, like, I agree he's good. But I think you might be able to get more from him than he's going to give you moving forward. Yeah, that's fair. That's a fair point. By the way, you mentioned Dobnack inspiring facial hair here, but did we point out the start

he had? Dobdak went five innings, one run ball, one walk, three strikeouts. He was very shaky early on. I watched his entire start and then really, really settled down from the third through the fifth inning against a meh, a mediocre brewer's lineup. I thought it was a serviceable start. Scott, if you picked him up as a two-starter. Yeah, I'm just, I'm not sure how anxious I am to drop him if I picked him up as a two-start streamer.

two earned runs allowed now this season and between the majors and minors last year I believe he had an ERA below two so he's still interesting in a boring way and that goes a long way in you know at a time when so many pitchers

are going to make you pull your hair out I'm not saying he's ever going to be must start but like he might be handy to keep around He might be a better Dallas Kiko. So that's the guy I was going to say. This is the kind of thing, though, where when like a new guy comes in and starts doing Dallas Kikell things, we would probably,

and not necessarily us as a podcast, I think you're being pretty measured about it, but just as like a baseball world, we're in a fantasy baseball world. We're going to be more interested in the new guy, especially if he's got a mustache and Rexpex, doing Dallas Kikl things than we ever actually are about Dallas Kikl. And, like, I think a Dallas Kikele outcome is probably pretty reasonable.

Like, he throws like Dallas Kikell from the right-hand side, and you look at the pitch chart, and there is literally nothing in the strike zone, basically above the belt. He worked, he had a theme, and he executed it really well. But there's limited upside there. The one thing that I've noticed is he's not really going deep into games so far. he's gone four, five, six, and five in his four starts thus far,

and he has been below 80 pitches in three of those. So not really going deep in starts. That might be measured. They might not want him third time through the order as much as he pitches to contact. That's something they consciously did with Jake Oteresey last year. So somebody to pay attention to.

I'm probably not dropping him yet either. Let's see what happens with his second start in the week, but so far so good for Randy Dobnack. On the other side in that game was Freddie Peralta who came on a relief four innings, one hit, one walk, eight strikeouts. I mean, Chris, we spoke about this with Corbyn Burns.

What do we do with these guys from a fantasy perspective? Because it seems in a points league, it's a little bit tougher to figure out, are they actually going to be bulk relievers the fifth time through the order every single time? It seems like they're more suited for roto roles right now. Yeah, I mean, when you come, Compare Freddie Peralta and Corbyn Burns, I think there's much more upside with Corbyn

Burns. If he does figure it out, like he has the kind of pitch mix that could actually allow him to pitch deep into games. Freddie Peralta is basically a two pitch pitcher. And, you know, there's kind of this like new slider that he's thrown in there, that's slider and curveball that now he has. But, you know, for the most part, it's all fastballs. And then he's mixing in the breaking balls. And I just, I just, just, I, I think this is the Freddie Peralta role. Yeah. Come in, throw as, throw as many fastballs as you want, because he is a very fastball heavy pitcher, come in as a change of pace after a starter and just give us as much as you can out of the bullpen. I think that's the best role

for him. And I, I have trouble seeing him succeeding as a starter in a way that I don't with Corbyn Burns. So I separate the two in terms of, of value too. I mean, you were talking about in terms of upside, but I think in terms of role, like Burns has been linked with Brett Anderson the past two turns. He's just followed Brett Anderson. Brett Anderson has been kind of like a three-inning opener

and then Burns came in through five and a third his most recent outings. He gave a starter's workload. Obviously, he can't get quality starts if he's doing that. I'm not sure how often he was going to go deep enough to get a quality start anyway. It might be better this way. He's more often in line for a win. So I think Burns is

usable in points league still and maybe even attractive. But, you know, Peralta in those deeper categories leagues where you're using middle relievers anyway, last two appearances, 14 strikeouts, two hits, and seven innings. I mean, that'll play

if this is the role for him. Ten swinging strikes on 61 pitches on Monday night as well. So, I mean, there's some stuff there, and they gave him a contract extension back in spring training. So there's something the Brewers like about Freddie Peralta. Guys, want to get to some questions. And of course, I haven't done

this in a while. Team name Tuesday. Continue to send these in fantasy baseball at cbsi.com. These two are from Tanner. McMahon Cave and McMahon of War. Maybe he's related to Ryan McMahon, but... Thumbs up, thumbs down. No, yeah, that's a team name. All right. These are from Richard.

I don't know. Maybe this is supposed to be flattening the curve ball. Fattening the curve ball? It's probably flattening the curve ball. Oh, flattening the curve, yeah. Yeah, that's what he's going. Boobitch, get out of the way. That's very good. I like that a lot. Yeah, that is good.

Karen, check yourself before you wreck yourself. Both of these are in the in the mold of Yasmani, money, Tomas problems, but are so much better. Are you some kind of moran? Yeah. This one's from Alfonso, and I'm just going to preface this while I'm editing, because if I have to edit this out, I know where it's at. Can I get a, can I got a puck you? A lot of moving parts on that one.

Yeah, I get that one. It's just too, it's just too many names. Yeah, four names at once. Can I get a what, what I think just works better? And we definitely don't have to bleep you out if that was the team name. All right, some APR questions that we've received from Timmy Neutron. Apologies, I think you asked this like last week while he was still slumping, but what are your thoughts on Jorge So Ware?

Maybe we should have Chris answer this. Chris, what are your thoughts on Jorge Salair? So it's been a couple days since I've looked at him, and this is always a struggle when you're doing this early in the season because someone can have something going wrong two days ago, and all of a sudden, yeah, Jorge Salar looks awesome right now. So he hits the ball really hard. And he, like, I didn't expect the strikeout rate from the second half to materialize,

and that hasn't been the case. So I'm not expecting, you know, like the huge breakout, but he's clearly a very good power hitter. Would you take him over John Carlos Stanton rest of season? Yeah. Yeah. He finally won you over. Yeah.

Yeah. All it took was John Carlos Stanton actually getting hurt. Yeah, so far, Salar... And being better than Jorge Saler before getting hurt. Solair looks... Saler looks a lot like the player he was last year. So far, 286 batting average. 925 OPS, 5 homers, 10 ribbyes, good walk rate,

strikeout rates right in line, he's still hitting the ball extremely hard. I think Jorge Saler kind of is who you drafted him to be. An outfielder, too, who's going to provide a lot of power. This one's from The Train. Who would you rather stash? Which doesn't really make sense at this point, but who would you rather own?

Let's ask this way. Spencer Howard or Mackenzie Gore, although we don't know when McKenzie Gore is coming, Scott. Yeah, and that's, I, I have, have no reason to believe McKenzie Gore's on his way soon. I know they just opened up a rotation spot, but their beatwriter, I forget his name, the Padreys beatwriter for MLB.com, you know, was talking about how, like, Luis Patino came up because he was one of their most impressive pitchers in camp, and Gore wasn't. So, you know, we don't know what's been going on at the minor

league camp, but they have a lot of arms they could put in that spot other than Gore. I'm not saying Gorsen, absolutely no way to stash him kind of guy, but Howard has a job and is pretty exciting in his own right. So definitely Howard. And they had a weird situation. Perdomo opened on Monday, then Strom, then Quantril. So they really kind of just pieced together with a bullpen on Monday night. That may have been the spot, right? I can't even remember that was coming up. If Patino had pitched well in his relief appearances, I think they probably would have given him the opportunity to start here. But so far, he's made two relief appearances and hasn't looked very good.

Well, my understanding it was he was just getting called up just as a reliever. And that was my understanding. I could be wrong. I saw over the weekend that he was in consideration for this next turn in the rotation that was available if he had pitched well.

And to this point, he hasn't. As Scott said, I haven't really said anything about Smithsler-Hauer. He looked really good. And that change-up looks like it could be a really, really special pitch. He's got like 16 miles per hour

of separation between his change-up and fastball. which is one of the factors that has been shown to correlate with change up effectiveness, and it moves a lot. So I think he can be a very good pitcher. The last one we'll get to here from KD. Joe Hansen. I've been offered a $10 Kyle Tucker for my $3. Brandon Woodruff in a 5-5 Dynasty League. I'm getting a little thin on offense.

My pitching staff is Strasbourg, Lynn, Bueller, Hendrix, Alec Mills, and Tyler Chetwood. Also have Spencer Howard and Yudan Alvarez, so it feels like insurance for Yurdon. But at the same time, I'm worried about playing time. No. Thoughts. No, no.

You already have a proven high-end player in Woodruff. And he's cheaper. Yeah. Yeah, it's a no way. I think you're overthinking the insurance aspect of having Tucker and Yudan Alvarez together. And there's upside for Tucker, no doubt about it. But Brandon Woodruff is a proven top 25 closer at this point.

Starter. And Alvarez could be back in a week. He could be back in a week. less than a one. Right. So let's see what happens for Scott and Chris. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today on our YouTube channel. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.