Fantasy Baseball Today - Unlucky Players, Week 7 Sleepers & Two-Start Pitchers (5/13 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 13, 2022

Josh Winder was a letdown on Thursday (1:08)! Giancarlo Stanton and Yordan Alvarez both hit double dongs! ... What should you do with Tyler O'Neill and Spencer Torkelson (10:05)? ... Which hitters have been the unluckiest thus far (18:11)? ... Which pitchers have been unlucky (23:50)? What's going on with Logan Webb? ... News and notes (34:36): Bryce Harper has a partially torn UCL. ... Let's get you ready for Week 7 (43:40)! Which two-start pitchers should you play? Which hitters should you target?... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (56:35). Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on May 13th, Friday the 13th. Spooky. Ooh! Let's get weird. Frank Stample joined by Scott White and Chris Towers today on the show. We're gonna recap all of Thursday's action. Not really much going on. Week 7 sleepers, two-star pitchers, and players who have had bad luck so far this season. Of course, for Friday the 13th, courtesy of Scott White. Great idea.

All right, but first, let's jump right in. My goodness gracious. Come on, Scott. Take a little credit. You know, you're just... Well, I came up with the idea. I have no idea what list of names you were about to present to us. All right, so obviously I make a rundown every day.

I think Scott might look at one rundown per week. Is that accurate, Scott? At least one, maybe. When are you done with the rundown? Like, right before we start. Exactly. If I started preparing then, I... Oh, no, no, no, of course.

I always throw some little notes in there in case you want to. Anyway, oh my goodness gracious. Who do you got, Scott? Let's start there. Okay. I can't remember who I told you. Oh, yeah, Josh Winder. Josh Winder was not so good this time.

Not so good this time after I hyped him to the hills and even recommended him as a streamer sleeper, a Merrill Streeper. Even after I recommended him as that against the asses, Well, it didn't go so well. He gave up three runs on six hits and three in a third innings, three earned runs, four runs total. Had more walks, three, than strikeouts two. And some other weird things going on.

Like, a velocity on his fastball was down 1.3 miles per hour. He actually threw his fastball a lot more than usual in spite of that. Normally, he's almost even with the fastballs and sliders, which has obviously been a more successful formula for him than this. and actually at one point during the game Raucco Baldelli came out with the trainer and I haven't seen any kind of follow-up as to what was going on there they didn't take them out

but raises a little concern that maybe there was something going on physically I'll just chalk this one up as a misfire for him, not for me and especially the fact that he walked

three and three in a third innings. His minor league track record with walks is just so good. And the fact that his pitch mix was a little weird, you know, I don't think we saw the true Josh Weinder in this start. He is scheduled next week to face the athletics. So he's one of my top sleeper pitchers for this upcoming week coming off this bad start. He's only 57% roster now. So there's a chance he gets dropped in some leagues

and you'll have another shot at him after this bad outing. And I would recommend you pick him up, both for next week and beyond. I will note, though, that if it turns out there was some kind of injury and we find out about that in the next few days, obviously that changes things. So just keep an eye out for that. Fantastic matchup, as you mentioned, Scott, going up against the Oakland A's who are 30th in weighted on base average

against right-handed pitching and just over the past two weeks in general. They are dead last in Wobah during that time. Oh my goodness gracious for you, Chris. Who you got? Giancarlo Stanton. He, as of about three days ago, was having a pretty mass start to the season, and he's got three home runs in the last two games, and I think four in his last five and five in his last, I want to say eight,

but that was just eyeballing the game log, so anyone, wants to check that feel free. But the point is he's hitting the ball really well right now. He crushed a couple today. Two batted balls over 115 miles an hour. I think he had three over a hundred. Two of them were obviously home runs. Three over 102 miles per hour, yeah.

Yeah. And yeah, all of a sudden he's got an 840 OPS. And in this context, that's a pretty good OPS. And, you know, it's just, it's fair to wonder if in a time period where home runs may be harder to come by than ever if Stan is once again a true outlier because you know he hit nearly 60 home runs before the juiced ball was ever a thing so there's never been a doubt about his power hitting abilities and even when he has not been as good as he was in that MVP season he's still been an outlier among outliers in terms of

his exit velocity. I mean, 95.1 mile per hour average exit velocity. He's routinely, he has not hit a ball at 120 miles per hour yet this season. That would be the first time ever in his career. He's usually the only person who does that. So the raw power is still one of one, I think. And so, yeah, there's a chance that he's just, you know, one of the three or four best power hitters in baseball again because, you know, when everybody else, you know, drops a little bit, he might just still stand out. Yeah, I mean, in a way that's meaningful because, like, as you said, he never stopped being just in terms of pure, a raw measurement of how hard somebody impacts the ball. He never stopped being that. It's just that that didn't mean as much during the juiced ball era

because you didn't have to hit the ball that hard to put up a John Carlos Stanton-like home run total. But yeah, if others are going to drop off, Stan for sure isn't. And he's not going to, he's not going to 207. Right. You know, he's not going to strike out 23% of the time. And like, that's not going to happen. But being a reliable 35 homer guy. Could mean more now than it has in the last four seasons.

Yeah, that's exactly what we said on, I think it was Tuesday's podcast. Scott, when we took a look at offense in May, we mentioned guys like Aaron judge and Pete Alonzo, they might stand out for the next couple of years, for years to come as, you know, if this is the real environment that we're dealing with now. So, same thing for John Carlos Stanton. Chris, you mentioned how hard he impacts the ball. I mean, he's doing something this year that he's even never done before. 97.7 miles per hour is the average exit velocity. That is the highest in the stack cast era, just in terms of average exit velocity. I went back and looked at every year's leaderboard. That's the highest. So obviously, there's a lot of baseball to

played. It's probably going to drop, I would imagine. But right now, he is just absolutely crushing the ball. He's second in fly ball line drive, exit velocity, and first in ground ball. Exx of velocity. So, yeah, he's hitting the ball hard pretty much whenever he hits it, wherever he hits it. So, yeah, pretty impressive stuff. And overall, I think just the team context for the Yankees, obviously last year was kind of a weird season for them. It was a down year. But a lot of these guys are getting back on track. DJ LaMayhew, three more hits. He's betting two 95. We've talked a lot about him recently, how he's impacting the ball much better. Josh Donaldson hit his third home run of the season.

Would be nice to see him get going. And obviously, Aaron Judge. I mean, another solid game here, a couple of hits. Hit his 11th home run, his league leading 11th home run, 456 feet. They score 15 runs on 15 hits on Thursday, the New York Yankees. So everything looking good for Stanton and Judge, please just stay healthy. We need you. From one double dong to the next, your dong.

Yor, pause. Double don for Yoran Alvarez. He went three for five, two homers. He's now up to 10 home runs overall. And his barrel rate, average average exit velocity, hard hit rate, all 97th percentile or better. He's just absolutely crushing the ball. What's up, Scott?

His Stackatz page looks like, like Urkel's report card. It's like 98s and 99s all over the place. It's insane right now. I just wonder if... Scott, you have the best references. I always tell people. I always tell people. You've got the best references.

Well, thank you. I just wonder if Alvarez stays healthy for another entire season. Obviously, look, it's early on. It's May 13th. But if he keeps this up, I think he's kind of just entering that Freddie Freeman kind of territory

of just perennial, like, borderline first round pick, maybe even a first round pick because he looks like he's on pace to just have an absolute monster year, big batting average, lots of power as well. Again, that is Yordon. Alvarez. I don't know if you guys have anything to add. He's just awesome. He just hasn't had the batting average yet. That's the only thing. You know, 288 for his career, that's very good. But it's not, you know, Freddie Freeman, we typically think of more of a 300 guy. But I'll also say Yordan Alvarez is very, very capable of 300 or whatever 300 looks like in this offensive environment. It might be 295.

Yeah, so he's got the batting average up to 276 after today, and his expected batting average is 319. So if we can get there, that would be awesome. Yeah. Let's take a look at a few hitters that are not performing well right now. What do we do with these two? I guess, oh my goodness gracious, on the other side here. Tyler O'Neill goes one for four with two more strikeouts.

He's now batting 200. The strikeouts are actually down a little bit from last year. He is just kind of lost right now, It's not impacting the ball nearly as hard as he did last season. Scott, what are you doing with Tyler O'Neill? I don't think we're dropping him, but somebody's probably wondering if they can. Yeah, no, somebody was just asking me about it on Twitter today,

and I don't think I responded because I'm just so tired of trying to have it to talk people out of dropping people. But the thing, you mentioned Tyler O'Neill isn't really impacting the ball hard yet. and in kind of an odd way, I take that as a good sign because we know how he's capable of impacting the ball and it is elite. It is something few players can do and it's the sort of impact

that is going to continue to thrive in this environment whenever he starts making it again. And when there is that question hanging over every hitter who's off to a bad start, like, is he still going to be good with the way the ball plays now? I think that counts for a lot. If Tyler O'Neill,

unless he's just lost all year, as you put it, Frank, and I think that's unlikely it's going to last all year, then I feel confident saying O'Neill is somebody who's not going to be not going to be ruined by the environment.

He's still in my top 36 outfielders. I haven't moved. turned down yet. I'm giving him enough of the benefit of the doubt. The one thing I will say is like we had seen him in the majors before 2021 and for all the raw power and physical ability that we've always known he's had, he didn't put it into games very often. I mean, his hard hit rate in 2020 was 39%, 37% in 2019. Those are pretty good marks, but a far cry from 52% where he was last year. Average eggs of velocity was 88 and 89 miles per hour those two seasons. And, you know, we weren't talking, we're not talking about huge sample sizes, but they were, you know, it was about

450 combined plate appearances between 2018 and 2020. So it's possible that he just had one really great season and had one of those years where, you know, Giancarlo Stanton is the kind of power hitter where even if he's not making a lot of contact, the contact that he makes tends to be pretty good. But there are guys with a lot of raw power who just, for whatever reason, don't have the swings tuned right and only make really good contact occasionally. And maybe Tyler O'Neill's that kind of guy. He's got that kind of swing and miss potential or risk profile, I guess.

But I'm willing to give him more of a benefit of the doubt based on how good he was last year. But I'm not ruling out the possibility that he's just a one-year wonder. Yeah, the quality of contact way down. As I mentioned, average exit velocity down four miles per hour year over year, hard hit rate down 16 percentage points. And the home run to fly ball ratio. Last year was 26% this year. It's 7%.

So just down dramatically. But just to put it into perspective, you say the average exit velocity is way down. It's way down to the 50th percentile. So it's down to average as opposed to superlative. Yeah, but that's what he needs, right? For someone who strikes out as much as he does. Yeah, if he struck out 30% of the time. Oh, I get it.

I'm just saying that goes to show you how, like, we're ringing our hands, we're, yeah, ringing our hands over it. And it's, it's something half the players in the league would like to have as their average exit velocity. Yeah. I mean, it was a real skill for him last year, the way that he was absolutely crushing the ball.

It's just, we're not seeing that right now. All right. So we'll hold Tyler O'Neill. How about Spencer Torkelson? The prospect with the Tigers just looks completely lost. Hitless in five straight games. He's batting 146 with a 33% strikeout rate. And I wonder how long before we see a demotion there

because he just seems completely overmatched right now. Chris, the roster rate for Torkelson is 75%. Do you think that should continue to plummet? Yeah, I don't see much reason to view him as a must roster. player and outside of maybe, you know, even 12 team roto leagues. I think he's fringy, but I would try to hold on to him. But anything shallower than that, I think you can probably drop. The one thing I will say is like, he's striking out a ton, which is bad. Um, his whiff rate's not as bad as his strikeout rate. His strikeout rate is six percentile. His

his whiff rate is 36 percentile. He's not really chasing a lot of pitches outside of the zone right now. He's mostly just, he's swinging and missing at a relatively high rate, but I don't know, it seems like a profile where the strikeouts could improve moving forward, and the quality of contact for Tarklson has been, I don't know if superlative would be quite the right word, but he's 80th percentile or better in hard hit rate, average exe velocity, and max exevalo. So, very good at the very least. So I do still think there are enough promising signs in his profile, Like, he looks better than Andrew Vaughn did at this point a year ago. And I feel like that's a, that's a pretty good comp for the type of player we were hoping both would be.

You know, maybe Torkelson was a little better as a prospect. But I think they're fairly similar in like guys that we hoped would be good power hitters who made a lot of contact. So, um, I still have faith in Torkelson figuring out. I do too. I think long term. Yeah, I just, I'm, I'm kind of worried right now. Go ahead, Scott. I did drop Spencer Torkelson in a head-to-head points league

because I can't devote in that kind of format I can't devote a bench spot to waiting for a player to figure it out because as with Andrew Vaughn last year it may not happen in his rookie year at all so something deeper than that like a roto league holding on to Torkelson

but you got to keep your you can't necessarily bank on him bouncing back or having a rookie breakthrough. Okay. I agree that I would like to hold him if I can, but say he's just the worst hitter you have, Scott in a Roto League. Would you drop him for a few first base players emerging right now?

Juan Yuppez, Josh Naler, Luke Voigt, under 60% rostered. Would you drop him for all three of those? I think if I had to. I would. Yeah. I think so. Yeah.

Void is the one that I would most be willing to do it But I would start Naylor and Voight ahead of him for sure And probably Yuppaz right now But I would prefer to not have to drop him if I could I'm pretty big into Ypez The dispenser So we should call him

I like that It's just dispensing hits and home runs I think Thursday was actually the first game he didn't get a hit unfortunately But, I mean, he's been amazing up until then. So he'll be fine. And he's been bad in cleanup, too, Wanyapez for the Cardinals. I mean, the cart, like, he's a defensive liability.

That's why he wasn't high on prospect lists, because, you know, the right-handed hitter, corner guy who can't run tends to not have a, tends to not be viewed favorably by Prospect Towns because it's hard for that guy to break in. But the Cardinals have started them literally every game since he got called up. Some in the outfield, a lot of DH.

Yep. They seem to really really want his bat in the lineup. All right, let's take a look at some of these hitters with bad luck so far. Friday the 13th. Unlucky players, and we'll start with some notable hitters. Chris, all right, Chris, your job for if you can find

or come up with any kind of spooky names for these hitters that we're about to mention. Okay. That's your job. Notable hitters with bad luck. Whitmeryfield, of course, batting 164, his XBA is 266. Jesse Winker, 204 batting average. His expected batting average is 302. Glaver Torres, 222 is the batting average. 314 XBA. Nelson Cruz 170 batting average,

251, expected batting average. And then two White Sox hitters rank very highly. Luis Robert, it's very interesting. 284 batting average. His XBA is 362. He is crushing the ball, and he's not striking out very much. So we could just see a massive batting average takeoff for Robert at some point. And then, of course, Jose Abray, we've mentioned a bunch recently, 211, batting average 279 XBA. Scott, is there a name or two on this list that you are especially interested in buying low on right now? I would say, I mean, the two who were drafted highest,

which would be Louise Robert was on this list, right? Yeah. But he hasn't necessarily been bad, but... Right. So are you saying how low could you buy on him? I guess that's a fair point. Yeah, probably not. I think Whitmeryfield you could buy for...

Like, as much freak out if we're getting for people on Whitmeryfield, I think there are probably some Whitmeryfield drafters, particularly if it's not like a Roto League where you're depending on those steals. who are on the verge of dropping him. And I don't think that's justified. I think in a way, because he's historically been such a good line drive hitter,

I think he might be well suited for this environment. His line drive rate is way down this year, so he's obviously not going on line drives. But historically, he's been one of the most bankable hitters as far as that goes. So I expect him to get back to that. The others I have my doubts. One follow-up.

Witt Scaryfield There you go Solid That's It's it's almost a slam dunk when you hear it Yeah I'm not sure about the others I guess Like I

We all had some doubts about Jesse Winker coming in He might be the top choice in a points league Just because the plate discipline But otherwise I guess it would have to be Nelson Cruz because of the track record I mean there's a chance he's just Fallen off because of age But I'm willing to give him the best

benefit of the doubt. It's still early enough for that. I think he's the one I'm least likely to buy. And it's just because of the batting average. I mean, because of the age, rather. His ground ball rate is a career high 56%, which, I mean, that should normalize, I would imagine, for most players over the course of a season. He's never hit that many ground balls before. But I just wonder, maybe he's having trouble lifting the ball at this age.

I mean, it's, you know, a little bit harder to get out of bed nowadays for Nelson Cruz. I don't know. It's just, he's the one that. least likely to buy, I guess. In theory, I mean, just looking at the data, he seems like, he seems like the sort of like true power hitter who should continue to hit for power in an environment where power suppressed. So obviously he hasn't yet, but I worry more about the hitters who, like,

could he just be real, as I was saying at the top of the show, could he just be ruined now because the ball plays so differently? And I don't think Cruz fits into that category. I just think he's off to a slow start. That may be related to age, and maybe he won't bounce back from it because of that. But that's not the highest concern for me when I'm assessing hitters right now.

Luis Robert, by the way, the strikeout rate is now down to 13%. Remember the short in 2020? He came up. He was striking out over 30% of the time. 13% is now the strikeout rate. That's what I will say. He's still, his chase rate is still really, really high. You know, relative to even, like, last season,

it's about the same as it was last. season. He's making contact on pitches in the strike zone actually at a lower rate than he was last year. He's making contact on contact on pitches outside of the strike zone at a much higher rate. So that's kind of made up for it. But that's one where I could see the back, the strikeout rate, uh, taking a step back or getting worse as we move forward. But yeah, I mean, I still, I don't know if he's a by low. Like, I don't know if I buy Luis Robert as like a 320 true true talent level hitter. So 284 seems pretty good, if not a ceiling outcome. But yeah, I think he'll be very good moving forward.

I certainly haven't seen any reason to doubt Luis Robert. Jose Ibray was someone we haven't really talked much about this year. He is batting 207 now overall. After today's game, he only has three home runs. And his line drive rate is just 9%. For his career, it's 20.6%. he's hitting a lot of ground balls. But Jose Brie was also someone that typically starts very slow

and he gets better as the weather heats up. Chicago, colder weather earlier in the season. So I know he's 35 years old. You know, really this was not the year to draft old hitters because a lot of these old hitters are just him and Vado and Yuleiguriel and Nelson Cruz. It's not looking great right now. But I would still be looking to buy.

Let's move over to the pitcher side of things. Logan Webb has an ERA of 3.82 as peripheral standards. Sats look much better. 3.14 X-Fib 3.29 Sierra. And a couple others here, Tyler McGill, of course, after yesterday, the ERA skyrocketed up to 4.41. Peripheral numbers still look good there.

Shane Bieber, he's been a little bit unlucky thus far. And Aeronola, just doing what Aeronola has done the past two seasons, which has been very unlucky so far. Chris, Logan Webb, which I guess in itself is kind of a scary name. Yeah, Logan Spider-Web, for sure, was one of the ones. I was thinking of. The other one I was, I'm struggling. I'm trying to keep up with the conversation while coming up with stupid things in my brain. And the only other one I've come up with so far and it's really bad. So prepare yourselves. Jose, Abray, oh, woo, like a, like a werewolf.

You know, um, so that, that's the other, that's the other one I've got. I like it. I appreciate the enthusiasm. Yeah, Logan Webb, it's, it's weird because I was a little skeptical of Logan coming in and he's still doing a lot of the things that we liked that he did last season. The problem is the strikeout rates collapsed. And that was probably my biggest concern about him, was just that he had never really been this strikeout guy. All of a sudden, you know, even going back to the minors, he wasn't really a strikeout guy.

All of a sudden last year he's a well above average strikeout rate guy. And now he's back to 18%, which is the lowest of his career, but in line with where he was in 2020 and a little bit below 2019. And so, you know, I'm not sure. Like the slider hasn't been quite as effective as swing and miss pitch for him as it was last season. And he's throwing his change up a ton so far, which is really interesting. He's throwing it a ton to righties as well as lefties. Last season he threw, what, 35?

353 of his change-ups to left, he's only 170 to righties. This year it's even 100 to 100. So he's clearly making some adjustments, but I don't know if that's necessarily, you know, an adjustment that's going to pay off in the ways that we want it. Because I think Logan Webb can still be a good pitcher without the strikeout rate, but it's unlikely he's going to be a, you know,

well above average pitcher if he's a below-average strikeout rate. It's just really hard to do that, even if you get a lot of ground balls. So that's the concern there. I wouldn't necessarily say he's a buy low, but I would take the under on a 382 ERA moving forward. I agree with that. The fastball, something that stands out to me,

down exactly one mile per hour year over year for Logan Webb. And he dealt with a shoulder thing last year, but he returned and he was awesome. So I don't know that the shoulder actually matters at all here, but I think it's worth bringing up when the velocity is down a little bit for him. Yeah, I have concerns about Logan Webb, and he's probably, well, there's only one of these pitchers that I think I'd be that likely to buy on,

and that's Aaron Nola. We can get to that in a minute. Logan Webb's swinging strike rate, the strikeout rate is way down. The swinging strike rate is actually much closer to last year than in previous years of his career. It's a solid swinging strike rate. It's a swinging strike rate of a guy you would expect to strike out a batter per inning. and he is throwing his change up more this year, which at times has looked like a really good swing and miss pitch,

though the overall whiff rate isn't as good as the slider. So there's also this thing going on with a lot of high-end pitchers where their strikeout rate is down significantly. Like we've talked about Robbie Ray a lot, but there are most of the high-end pitchers their strike. strikeout rate is down. And the league strikeout rate is down. So that, you know, that kind of goes hand at hand, except it seems to be even more down for some of the highest end pitchers. And so I'm, I'm not really sure how to reconcile that with anything yet. It's just something I've noticed. And,

and of course, Logan Webb fits in. Let's talk about Aranola, who has a 3.83 ERA. His XFIP is 2.62. and the issue for me last year was that his ground ball rate was much lower. He was giving up all these fly balls, and it seemed like he really was unlucky. It was just some starts where just like hit after hit and things would snowball and get out of control for Aranoa. The ground ball rate is back up. A 52.5% ground ball rate for Aranola thus far,

but it's just like once again it's happening. He is the anti-Marco Eshrada. But what do you do? I mean, prior to this most recent start, he had a 3.308 ERA. You could argue he was actually one of the luckier pitches because his fifth was higher than his ERA and one start. One start in which he didn't allow a home run and a lot of hits on balls in play flipped that. So that now he looks like one of the luckier pitches, all of which is to say, the three starts prior to this last one looked amazing. And then in this last one, he got Babbitt to death, which may have had something.

to do with the Phillies defense being bad. You mentioned the groundball rates up this year with a bad defense. That may not actually be the best thing. But his home run rate is suspiciously high, especially given the league context. And it was front-loaded. Like he gave up four of his six home runs in his first three starts, then had three amazing starts,

then had this start where he got bad bit to death. So all in all, I feel like Aaron Nola is on the right path. Isn't that just Aaron Nola in a nutshell, though, Scott? Like the way you just described Aranola, I'm like, just look at his year over year ERA. It just feels like that is Aranola. He's, he's frustrating, if nothing else. Go ahead, Chris. In this, it is worth noting he has the best expected Wobon contact of his career.

And that's, you know, within the context of last year's expected stats. So in this context where the ball is not traveling as far, it would likely be an even better expected Wobah once, you know, we have a better understanding. of what the context of that is. So it does look like Aeronola is, if not, you know, pitching better than he has in the past, at least certainly no worse. And, you know, obviously we told, we thought that he was going to bounce back this season just because there wasn't really a good explanation for his struggles last year. You know, he gave up too many home runs. His ground fly ball rate was high. But even then, his peripherals were all really good.

And maybe he's just at the point where he's a guy who underperformed his peripherals moving forward. There are a handful of pitchers like that who over or underperform. But generally speaking, I think you would bet on him pitching to his peripheral. And his peripherals are mostly very good. So I'm still in on Aaron Nuller for sure. All right. So those are Friday the 13th. Unlucky players.

Friday the 13th, by the way, of course, classic horror series, Jason Vorhees. if you guys had to choose one series to watch, would it be Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street with Freddie Kruger, or the Halloween movies with Michael Myers? I don't really love any of those. I don't love like a jump scare movie. The old school slasher is not for you, Chris?

So yeah, I don't love a slasher movie. I think if I had to watch any of them would probably be Nightmare on Elm Street. That's the right answer. I think that the first couple of those especially are quite good, but I always liked, always been a zombie movie guy. Love, love zombie movies.

Love slow zombies. I don't love the fast zombies. I feel like the fast zombies take something out of it, you know? Yeah. There's something too like, oh, I could outrun these guys, but like, can you?

Yeah, like when it comes to a matter of your carelessness as much as anything. If you think about it, the Walking Dead are really us. So, yeah. Also, there you go. Also, are you ready for this one? I'm ready.

The Akeel Babaduke. Oh, geez. All right, I think that's a perfect time to read a promo. Fantasy Baseball Today is here to help you dominate your league all season long, but now you can represent your favorite podcast with official fantasy baseball today gear only found on the CBS Sports Store. Discover T-shirts, mugs, sweatpants, laser-engraved pine glasses, hats, like the one I'm wearing right now.

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and we'll be back right after this. The news and notes, tests on Bryce Harper's elbow revealed a small tear in his UCL, and he will not throw for four weeks and is expected to remain the team's designated hitter. It did not matter much on Thursday where he picked up two hits and hit his seventh home run of the season. But Scott, it does add an extra layer of risk, obviously, with this slightly torn. Yeah. I'm kind of torn by not being worried at all and being kind of worried. Ah, I didn't even mean that.

I'm not intended. More accurately, you're partially torn. Yes. Well, see, that's why I'm torn is because a partial what does it take for a partial tear to become a full-blown tear and if they're planning on him returning to the outfield eventually the thing about the partial tear is like it just kind of depends on whether a team wants to give us that kind of information because sometimes a partial tear is just a tear because a partial tear is a tear you know right and you're saying sometimes it's more like a sprain well a sprain is a tear right yeah and so the we always we try we draw these distinct between like well it's just a partial tear versus a tear but it's like sometimes we have we only

have those distinctions because the team gives us details in one instance or another you know i i just say that it may be enough it may be a small deal or it may be a big deal i feel and and there may not this may not be on any actual clinical uh metric or anything but like i i feel like when they call it a sprain versus a partial tear like i i i i i i i i i i i i i i presume there's, it's a little bigger when it's a partial tear as opposed to just a sprain. But maybe that's, maybe that's awesome. It is like a tear, a sprain is a tear. Yes.

Correct. But why do they sometimes call it a sprain and sometimes call it a partial tear? Who's on first? I presume there's a distinction there. The fella's name is who? Okay. I kind of think you're on to something, Scott. I agree with you.

My medical background cannot confirm nor deny, but that's what I think. Chris Sale will resume throwing within a few days. He recently had a non-baseball medical issue which caused him a setback. Jeremy Pena left Thursday's game due to discomfort in his right knee. He is unlikely to play on Friday. Please be okay

because Jeremy Pena is one of 10 hitters who are actually hitting right now. He has been awesome. A rookie who's performing well and it wasn't even anybody that hyped. We just have to not hype them. That's the key. Maybe they're like, maybe they just get stage fright, you know?

Right. It's possible. Zach Wheeler returned from the COVID-I-L on Thursday making a start against the Dodgers. He went five in a third innings. He allowed three runs, seven strikeouts to one walk. He had 12 swinging strikes. He was cruising. Yeah.

Up until the sixth inning. I think he had just given up a solo home round to Cody Ballinger. And his velocity appears to be fully back at this point. Yeah. Yeah. So that was very encouraging. Fastball Velo, nearly 97 miles per hour, two starts.

a row. So you do like to see that. Speaking of that Cody Bellinger home run, by the way, I was watching the game. This was super interesting. And they were talking about it at the time. Bellinger had four hits in his career going up against Zach Wheeler. All four were for home runs. His fifth home run, uh, his fifth hit against Zach Wheeler in his career on Thursday, a home run. How about that? That means he's got a zero babup. It's just bad luck. He actually hit another rocket that was right at Reese Hoskin. So you know what, Chris? I think you're on to something too. Dodgers pitching process. Ryan Pepio was optioned back to AAA on Thursday.

He threw three scoreless in his debut, but he walked five, which Scott told us, was the issue for Ryan Pepio, that lack of control. So next time there's an opportunity, I have a feeling we'll see him once again. Nicola Dolow. I just traded for him in the Scott White Dynasty League, so.

By the way, Scotty, Scottie Dealing out here, making like three trades at once. I made a four-team trade, basically. Wild, wild. Yeah, it was, it's cost me sleep this week, negotiating. I can confirm this too, because after each podcast, I would be like, well, here's the update, man. He's like running on fumes. He's trying to tell me what's going on.

I'm blowing it up. I had an actual dynasty. I won three straight championships, but mooky bets, Corey Seeger, and Alex Bregman, kind of my hitting core there. They're getting too expensive to keep. So I blew it up. blew it up series of three trades

landed me Grayson Rodriguez Wolf landed me Miguel Vargas landed me a free to keep Josiah Gray and landed me Ryan Pepeyo so that's

hopefully the start of the new dynasty What's up Chris Did you watch Grayson Rodriguez today? He was on a They had that game available on MLB TV today for some reason So I watched a little bit of it

Probably because there was not much other actual baseball going on on Thursday. But yeah, Gracer Rodriguez is one of the top pitching prospects in baseball. Good job, Scottie. Good job, Scottie. Tigers outfield prospect Riley Green had an examination on Thursday.

If all goes well, he could be cleared for baseball activities. Chris, are you looking to stash Riley Green right now? He's 47% rostered. Um, I mean, given how rookies have played, I think you could make a case that it's a little risky and he's probably still, I mean, even if he comes back, you know, even if he's cleared to return to baseball activities.

Is it a guarantee he comes just straight to the majors? I would say it's probably pretty unlikely. So I would think you're probably looking at at least another month and a half. So I think he's tough to stash. All right. Nick Ladolo was playing catch ahead of Thursday's game at Pittsburgh. He was expected to be activated last weekend, but his back injury flared up. Speaking of those, Reds, Lucas Sims, placed on the aisle with a bulging disc in his back. I think our natural inclination will be that Art Warren or Tony Santian will get an opportunity to close. Art Warren pitched in the ninth inning on Thursday in a 4-0 game. But Alexis Diaz, just someone I wanted to mention, he's got a 0.59 ERA, 18 strikeouts in 15 and a third innings pitched a 16.4% swinging strike rate.

You know the fun thing about Alexis Diaz, brother of Edwin Diaz. Is that true? We could have those Diaz's. Yeah, yeah. All right. It's 100% true. That's even more of a reason. Like, absolutely rooting for this guy.

Yes, let's get the Diaz brothers closing on two separate teams. That would be fantastic. Adam Wienwright, rejoined the Cardinals. Sorry, there's a, there's a throwaway line in. Scarface where the Diaz brothers are mentioned

I don't know if you guys know that one Never seen Scarface There's a mountain goat song about it That I love Scott So there's a lot of movies I haven't seen Scott

I've seen Scarface come up I think Scarface is awesome I believe the line is Not one we could say In the in the show Because I believe the line is bleep the bleeping Diaz brothers But that's not how we feel

About these Diaz brothers No, no. We like to do a Scarface. It's not quite critically acclaimed. Like, the subject matter doesn't really interest me. It's not. And it's not quite critically acclaimed enough to overcome that for him. I'll tell you this.

It's not a good movie. No, it's, I don't know, is it considered a... It's entertaining? Is it a cult classic? Technically, Chris, is it a cult classic? Would you call it that? I don't... Yeah.

Yeah, it's a cult classic. But worth watching, for sure. I'm about it. Mitch Hanigur may not return until July because of his grade two right ankle sprain. Orioles closer, Jorge Lopez, is expected to return Friday, but I've been very impressed with Felix Bautista in his absence. Doesn't mean anything, but if Lopez struggles, there's someone there waiting. Scott's boy, Alex Fayato, is expected to be recalled and start Monday against the raise.

Chris Paddock was moved to the 60-day IL. The twins haven't revealed whether he will require elbow surgery, but that move does not sound good. Jordan Hicks was scratched Thursday, but we'll start Friday against the Giants instead. They wanted to give him an extra day of rest. Brian Anderson began a rehab assignment at single A on Thursday as he returns from the COVID aisle.

Tyler Beattie was claimed by the Pittsburgh Pirates could get an opportunity to start, for those of you in NL-only leagues. And Terry Francona is one of seven staff members currently in the health and safety protocols for the Cleveland Guardians. Hope everybody is okay there. Week 7 preview, the schedule.

Once again, pretty spread out. Two teams have five games, the Reds and the Guardians. I think the only must-start hitter is Jose Ramirez on both of those teams combined. 15. I just hate that it took off the table. Tommy Fam, it took off the table. Josh Naylor.

Josh Naylor. Yeah. Somebody else for Cleveland, right? Stephen Kwan. Kwan. Yeah. Owen Miller, like some guys I would have would have liked to call sleeper

hitters this week and I just couldn't. Yeah. 15 teams have six games, 10 teams have seven games, and then three lucky teams have eight games next week, the Diamondbacks, the White Sox, and the Royals. Before we get into two-star pitchers to add, let's take a look at some fringe options,

a little rapid fire with these, and we will start with you, Scott. Noah Cindergarde, at Texas, and at the Oakland A's. What do you think? So I love those matches. There is a question whether he actually makes two starts because the angels like to insert that sixth guy. They do have a day off in the middle of the week, though, that makes it so they don't have to. So yeah, I like Cinderguard as a start this week.

All right. Chris, should we start Luis Severino at the Orioles versus the White Sox kind of Jekyll and Hyde matchups there? Yeah, I don't love the White Sox matchup, but I don't hate it enough to go away from him. So, yeah, I'm starting him. I will mention the White Sox have actually been terrible. offensively so far, though I agree. I don't expect that'll be their true form.

But like at Baltimore now is pretty good. Oh, yeah. I think I saw an analysis from, I want to say, I was one of the MLB writers. I think he said they're, the stackass data indicates they've lost nine home runs at Camden Yards so far,

which equates to about 50 over the course of a season, which was right in line with what they expected prior to the season. So that's a lot. Yikes, that's not great. The White Sox, by the way, 26th in weighted on base average against right-handed pitching. So an okay matchup, actually, four Severino there. Tyler McGill, coming off a rough start going up against the Cardinals and at Corse Field. What do you think, Scott?

I mean, it definitely makes him less than must start with the two starts. But I think that last start was kind of fluky. and even with the core start, I'd lean yes on McGill. All right, Chris, Merrill Kelly, at the Dodgers and at the Cubs. One good, one bad. I think that's fine. I don't think he's, yeah,

it makes him like less than a must start, but I think that's pretty good. All right. Miles Michael is pitching well right now. Another one at the Mets, at the Pirates. Scott, one good start, one bad. Yeah, I think you got to keep rolling with Michaelis. All right.

Tony Gonsalind versus the Diamondbacks, and at the fifth, Billy's, Philadelphia could be a tough place to pitch. Gonsland doesn't really go too deep into his starts. What do you think, Chris? Yeah, that's what I was thinking is like you might get like nine innings out of him. And he might walk nine hitters in those two in those nine innings. He might give up zero runs.

That's rough. But yeah, I would start him. Yeah. That was a weird way to go about that. But okay, let's start Tony Gonsland. Scott, Alex Wood at the Rockies and versus the Padres. Kind of rough. Yeah, I'm actually not even

In my two-star pitcher rankings here I have him outside of even the points league only section He's just a flat no for me With two rough matchups, one at Coors Field Hasn't been that effective this year anyway Okay, Chris Flexen That's Alex Wood by the way Just repeating the name

Chris Flexen at the Blue Jays at the Red Sox And Chris this one might seem obvious But he's 55% rostered so he's on a lot of teams I really only like him at home for the most part, so I would probably go away from him here. All right. And last one, Madison, Bumgarner. He's pitching well, but he's at the Dodgers and at the Cubs. What do you think, Scott?

It's a no for me, despite the low ERA. Don't trust him. All right. So with that, who are some two-star pitchers we can look to add and stream next week? Who do you have, Scott? Well, barely making the cut is Garrett Whitlock, who I think I told everybody would be making two starts this past week. It worked out that way.

Matchups against the Astros, against the Mariners. Astros actually haven't been great offensively so far. We don't believe that's going to continue. But I think Garrett Whitlock, I just like him enough as a pitcher that I say yes to that. Jose Orkitti, he's more, I think, with the two starts at Boston versus Texas. Boston, another team that we think of as having a good lineup, but actually hasn't produced that well yet. I think I'd leave her kitty for points leagues.

Jameson Tyone gets the Orioles in Baltimore and the White Sox. I like that as a sleeper. Probably still lean more toward points leagues just because I don't think ratio-wise he's going to be spectacular. But good enough matchups to call him a sleeper. Jordan Hicks gets the Mets and the Pirates. He's probably not a two-star guy, right? Jordan Hicks? Yeah, since he got bumped to Friday.

Yeah, he's pitching tomorrow. Well, technically, I may not have seen that. I may have to change that. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. Scratch join next. He probably wouldn't start until Wednesday at the earliest. You say Kukuchi gets the Mariners and the Reds. Those are two pretty good matchups.

Revenge for Kukuchi. His last two starts have been good. Like, I just think he's always, there's always the potential for disaster with you, say, Kikuchi. But if there's ever a time to start him, I think now is it. And I'm interested in this, like, slide. cutter hybrid that he's throwing now rather than having two separate pitches. So I think that could work out for him.

Going a little deeper here, I actually have both of these guys in the no-thanks section of the two-start sleeper rankings, but if you're less risk-averse than I am, Brad Keller against the White Sox and Twins, and Martine Perez against the Angels and Astros, I don't really like,

I don't really think the skills are there to sustain what they're doing, but they're both ground ball pitchers, stream ground ball pitchers and they're both off to good starts and they're making two starts this week. So have Adam if that's your thing. All right. So dad, if you're listening, Brad Keller and Martin Perez, those are two names for you. He will start any two-star pitcher. Doesn't matter what the name is, what the matchups are. Not me. My pops is he starting them. And with that, let's talk about the fortune favors the brave two-star

pitchers of the week. These are pitchers that you probably should not use. But if you're feeling just brave, just bold enough. Maybe you want to take the shot. Kyle Braddish, for me. I'm going with Kyle Bradish. He's got the Yankees and the Ray's. Tough matchups, not great, but he's coming off in 11 strikeout performance, some prospect pedigree. He's 12%

rostered, so out there in deeper leagues. You said for me, but you don't actually mean for you. You mean for your dad. Yes, for my dad. We're talking to Frank's dad during this segment. I love how we just want to make it clear. Frank's dad is named Scott? Is that what's happening? No, he actually has the same. Name, Frank.

Oh, he's a Frank as well. Yeah. Okay. So I am... My dad's name is Scott. What do you know? Look at that. FS2.

S-dub-2. Chris? Are you Frank? Are you Frank Jr.? Are you Frank Jr.? I'm just junior? I'm the second. Okay.

Not the third. All right, Chris. Fortune favors the... My dad's name is my middle name. So we kind of have that. Paul? Yeah. Fair enough.

There you go. All right, Chris. Do you have a fortune favors the brave two-star pitcher? I wish the match. Matchups were better, but if we're throwing caution to the wind, how about Zach Logue for Oakland? He's got the twins and at the Angels. I don't love the Angels matchup especially, but Zach Logue's got some interesting minor league numbers.

He's been above a strikeout per inning. He's got good control. The problem is he can't keep the ball in the yard. But he's been okay so far in his first 13 in the third inning. So that's my fortune favors the bold. Brave, but... What's the real one? What was the one that Matt Damon said in that way?

So it's actually Fortune favors the bold, but Matt Damon said Brave on the crypto commercial. And actually, since then, crypto has crashed completely. Fortune has not favored the bold nor the brave in the time since then. Yeah, that's like everybody who bought crypto started Kyle Braddish. Like, you don't want to do that. That's the last time I take financial advice from the writer of Goodwill Hunting. Listen, it only counts if you sell it. Just put that out there.

All right, Scott. Give us a two-starter. Yes. I already mentioned him. I'm going to say Martin Perez just because he has a 0.68 ERA and is allowed less than a hit per every other inning in his last four starts. So maybe he'll do that twice more this week against the Astros and Angels. I doubt it.

but it's a brave play. I actually do kind of like you say, Kukuchi. I don't know if that was brave enough, though. No. No, it's not. But I actually, I really do like him too. Revenge game, end up against the Reds. I'm about it.

All right, some single-star streamers, Scott. Give me, give us a few names here. All righty. Aphrodite. Okay, so single-stared streamers. I mentioned Josh Winder against the athletics. Then we have Jordan Montgomery. I feel like he's on this list every week, right?

Is he always starting against the Orioles in Baltimore? That's, he's going to help your ERA in that start. I'm pretty confident. Drew Rasmussen against the Tigers. I like him. These guys are all pretty rostered. Yeah, that's about it. I mean, Josiah Gray against the Marlins, I guess, is okay.

He's even more rostered. I would, I was kind of liking Tyler Anderson against the Diamondbacks. if you want somebody less rostered, but he just got throttled here on Thursday. Yeah. So that makes me feel less good about that. He was not facing the diamond. Who was he facing?

The Phillies. Facing the Phillies, yeah. And he had been great up until that start. So, you know, if you really need a true streamer, a guy who's only 50% rostered, I'll toss Tyler Anderson's name out there too. Let's move over to the Sleeper Hitters with a solid minute left in the podcast, Scott,

we have for this upcoming week. All right. So Andrew Vaughn has been out with a hand injury. Manuel Margot has been out with a hamstring injury. They're both expected back Friday. If that actually happens, I like the White Sox and raise matchups enough to go ahead and call them sleepers. Hunter Renfro, he's been on a home run binge of late and has pretty good matchups this week. So I'd get him in the lineup. Like Juan Yippez, as I mentioned, like Alec, Tom.

too. The Diamondbacks are one of those teams playing eight games. And there are four lefties on the schedule, but he actually crushed lefties as a left-handed hitter. Alec Thomas last year. So I don't expect that to be a problem, and they've kept him in the lineup against lefties. So I like Alex Thomas as a sleeper. Cubs have the second best matchups. So Ian Hap and Patrick Wisdom are both on the list for me. By the way, part of the reason I like Vaughn is the White Sox have the best matchups of all. And let's see, anyone else? I guess A.J. Pollack would be kind of a... He had a couple hits today. He's been cold. But with the White Sox having the best matchups, he makes the cut for me as a sleeper. Darren Ruff, he's only 11% rostered, but he's really picking it up at the plate lately, and the Giants begin this week at Coresfield, play three games there. So I like him as a sleeper as well.

I'll also mention this is the first week. where the Rockies are at home the whole time. So the pitchers, you know, it's not especially favorable matchups as far as that goes, but they are course field for the full week. So, you know, probably a good idea to start your Rockies too. All right. So Rockies, I know the Giants are going to Coorsfield, and I believe the Mets are going to Coorsfield as well.

The best hitter matchups, Scott mentioned the White Sox, and then the Cubs, the Diamondbacks, the Royals, and the Astros, the worst hitter matchups, the Nationals, the Braves, the Padres, the Phillies, and the Tigers. A few leftovers here from Thursday's action. Chris, I saw that the Tyler Stevenson Hive was coming for you on Thursday. Three for four with his fourth home run. He's betting 3.49, a 1036 OPS.

What do you have to say for yourself? There's nothing to say. He's so obviously preferring over his head that like, best of luck. I hope he keeps doing it. That's all I can say is like, I'm pretty confident Tyler Stevenson's not an above average major league hitter, but he's doing a decent impression of one right now, as long as you don't look under the hood at the underlying numbers.

All right. Doubling down. I love it. Each of Jose Altuve and Kyle Tucker hit their fifth home run in the season. Juan Soto hit his eighth homer. Yama Makata hit his first home run since returning from the IL. A few pitchers worth mentioning, Taiwan Walker's seven-shuterns. out innings. He had one strikeout over those seven shutout

innings, so not overly excited about him. Connor Overton. He has allowed two earn runs or fewer in all three of his starts. He pitches for the Reds in case you didn't know. He's 1% rostered. Scott, is there anything to know about Connor Overton? Well, the Reds are gonna get Mike Miner back soon, so the Overton window may be closing here. I was gonna make the same joke. Yeah, or maybe they'll send down Hunter Green instead, but I don't think, I don't think Connor. Overton is, there's much to see here, talent-wise. All right. Luis Garcia, back-to-back starts with exactly nine strikeouts. This one was at the

Twins. I've noticed he's just throwing his fastball and cutter a lot more this season. And it's working well for Luis Garcia. Dylan Cease, not his best. He allowed six earned runs on six hits, but of the 12 outs he recorded, 11 of them were via strikeouts. So I saw a lot of like, oh, this was like either a really good start, a really good bad start or a really bad good start or like I don't know if Dylan Sees was good or bad in this start on Twitter and like he was bad. Right? Like he had a 13.5 ERA and a two whip like that's bad just because he got a lot of strikeouts like he was bad today. It's okay. But if I have him in a roto league you know, I'm not I'm not worried about it. No, no, no. I'm just I feel I feel a little bit I feel a little bit better.

The start makes you feel better about him, even if the result was bad. I don't know if it makes it. It doesn't change my view on him. He just didn't pitch well today. Yeah, I just think overall, like the ratios, they stunk in the start, but the fact that he gave you 11 strikeouts,

I mean, that's a pretty good consolation prize. Yeah, that's a, yeah, that's, sure, perfectly fine. The call to the bullpen. It was a bad start. I don't know why people were unwilling to say that. All right. Danny Jimenez for the Oakland A's picked up his sixth save. He is 43% roster.

Just kind of looks like the closer right now if you need one of those in a Roto League for the Orioles. Felix Bautista recorded the final four outs for his second save. Bautista has a higher strikeout percentage and a lower walk percentage than Jorge Lopez this season. And he throws hard, 13% swinging strike rate. Just saying, if Jorge Lopez falters, Felix Bautista looks kind of interesting. Was there a reason why Lopez wouldn't have been available? He's on the berean list. Yeah.

Okay. All right. And then for Texas, Joe Barlow allowed a hit and a walk, but picked up his sixth save. He is 72% rostered. Could be out there in some leaks. To stream or not to stream for the weekend. Let's start with Friday.

Mitch Keller versus the Reds, again. Marco Gonzalez at the Mets. Aaron Savali at the Twins. Drew Smiley at the Diamondbacks. Zach Davies versus the Cubs. Jordan Lyles at the Tigers. Nick Povetta at the Rangers and Jordan Hicks versus the Giants.

Paveeta and Keller if I had to start someone I don't feel great about starting either of them at any point and Jordan Hicks just I kind of just want to keep watching him and see if he can figure this out but I don't think he's thrown more than 68 pitches in a start yet so I don't think there's any way

you can trust him. All right and Scott's giving a big old head shake so let's stay away. Saturday we got Jacob Junis at the Cardinals Michael Lorenzen at the A's Bruce Zimmerman at the Tigers, Michael Paneda versus the Orioles, and Christian Javier at the Nationals. Yeah, this is a little more interesting. I could get behind any of these five, to be honest. I think Javier would be my top choice. I think so. And Jacob Junis might be my second choice. They're both Sparps for what it's worth. I kind of like Zimmerman too.

Yeah. I like Lorenzen. But like I said. said like I was writing about him for my weekend preview piece. It's going to be up tomorrow morning. And when he gets to two strikes, he has just a 37.5% strikeout rate. League average is 43%. And so that kind of sums up the whole thing. He's got like good whiff rates on multiple pitches. He just hasn't been able to come up with one to like go for strikeouts with especially against lefties. He has a 10% strike rate against lefties. So he's still, I'm interested, but not starting yet. Michael Lorenzen. All right.

And then we got Sunday. Hunter Green at the Pirates. Jose Katana versus the Reds, Tyler Wells at the Tigers, and Austin Gomber versus the Royals. That start is in Corse Field.

Ugh. Not feeling as good about this group. Don't love it. But you know what, Scott? I'm okay with Hunter Green. Some people need that streamer on the last day of the week on a Sunday. Hunter Green would be the one for me.

The Super. high slider usage in the most recent start. I think that's a promising sign. So yeah. The Pirates, obviously. I would take Tyler Wells. Tyler Wells at the Tigers, I kind of like. I'm going to go with Gomber,

even though he wasn't good in his last start. Homeaway hasn't seemed to matter for him. So, Coors is always scary, I know, but at least it's the Royals. I'm going to say Gomber. Don't love it, but yeah, if you need it, that's my pick. All right, we're going to wrap there for Scott. Chris.

I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching. fantasy baseball today. We'll be back again on Monday. Bye-bye.