Fantasy Baseball Today - Waiver Wire Adds, Big Pitching Performances & Max Scherzer Is Back! (6/24 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 24, 2024

Alec Burleson just had a huge weekend (3:10)! How do we rank Burleson, J.D. Martinez and Jarred Kelenic? ... Pablo Lopez tied a career-high with 14 strikeouts against the A's (10:12). ... Bailey Ober threw the first complete game of his career (16:00). ... Shota Imanaga and Carlos Rodon both got crushed this weekend (20:20)! ... Orioles at Astros was a wild game Friday (28:15). ... News (32:08): Edwin Diaz got ejected for a foreign substance during Sunday Night Baseball. ... Max Scherzer is back, kind of (46:42). ... What's going on with Kelenic (49:44)? ... Rank Luis Seveirno, Jake Irvin, Jon Gray and Reese Olson (56:58). ... Start or sit these five starting pitchers (1:03:51)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:07:52). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @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/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Hello, and welcome in Tough Fantasy Baseball today on Monday. June 24th. I am Frank Sample, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers today on the show. My condolences to those who started Show to Eman.

and Orr Carlos Rodon this weekend. I had both in my TGFBI lineup, so not even going to check the ratios after what happened there. We had big bouncebacks from the Twins pitchers. Max Scher is back, kind of. Lots of waiver wire moves, starter sit decisions, and much more. Let's jump in. Holy cow. How about that?

All right, we will begin with Scott. You are up. All right, I'm up. I'm going to talk about a hitter. And the hitter I'm going to talk about is Alec Berluson. Remember this guy? This was one of my like super deep sleepers who I always had to get a nice little word in about Alec Berluson because I thought between the quality and the quantity of the contact, you had a pretty good upside. Well, he's living up to that upside.

This weekend was the clear. the fairest case of him living up to that upside. So in his two games, because I believe the Cardinals, no, I got it wrong. This weekend, this weekend, sorry, Alec Berlison. So he went three for four with two homers and a stolen base on Saturday.

And then on Sunday, he went two for four with two stolen bases. So, you know, obviously two home runs, three stolen bases between two games. that's a lot of production. And for the year, it gives him now a 285 batting average, 12 home runs, five steals, a 78 OPS. I don't know where the steals are coming from because he's very slow.

I think it's 11th percentile sprint speed when I looked at it. 12. Don't understand. Okay. Sorry. Short-changing burleson, one percentile there. But the bat's really good. So 91st percentiles is expected batting average.

80th percentiles expected slugging percentage. I wish he walked a little more for those points leagues, but this is a guy who hit well over 300 his last full year in the minors. Like there's a lot of hitting ability. He has the fifth best line drive rate in all of baseball does Alec Berluson. And all of the guys ahead of him have a lower, I'm sorry, have a higher pull rate. So he's fifth highest line drive rate, four guys ahead of him all high. have a higher pull rate, which we talk about positively in terms of power, but if you're,

for batting average, you want to be hitting it more to all fields. And so Burleson, he's well set up for batting average, low strikeout rate, like I said. And because he's, you know, he's up to 12 homers now, even while not pulling the ball that consistently, it just seems like a formula that works for him. And I think, uh, I think we're to the point now where Alec Berlison needs to be rostered in most leagues. I, I'm not going to go. He's only like 53% or something, which is too low. Yeah. I, I know I just looked at some of my 12 team head to head points. Again, I say he doesn't walk much. And, uh, he was on the short list of outfielders to add. And I, I didn't put in a claim for him in every single one. So I'm going to stop short of saying Alec Berluson is

must add everywhere. But he's, you know, he's right in that conversation. Now, how about this? He had eight home runs and three stolen bases in 107 games last season. In June, he has seven home runs and three stolen bases. Yeah. That's pretty remarkable. He was a really big underperformer last season, 337, expected woe, only 300. So it might just be a case where he's starting to catch up to where he was.

was supposed to be all along. I'll admit, I kind of, you know, like the idea of like face blindness where people just like, they look at people's faces and they just don't register their facial features. I have that, but for Cardinals outfielders, maybe like they, they all kind of blend in to the same. Like Brendan Donovan and Alec Berlison and Lars Neupar, have they ever been seen in the same place? I'm not sure. I feel like they might all be kind of the same guy. And so I chalk up maybe me overlooking Alec Berluson and the gains that he's made so far this season to that, where I just kind of think they're all very similar.

And I kind of lump them in that way. But yeah, no, everything Scott said that there's a lot to like about this profile right now. And he's a left-handed hitter. But if I'm doing the math right here, he's started 32 of the last 33 games for the Cardinals. So like truly every day. Yeah. Yeah. That is the one place, though.

where if you were to poke holes in his game, he has a 582 OPS against lefties. Doesn't really strike out that play though. Yeah, he doesn't strike out that much against them. And the power's okay. So I'm not sure if it's like a huge liability. It's just he has not been good against them so far. Yeah.

So I think that might limit the overall upside. But even saying that, I mean, Berlin, Burleson's been so hot this month and especially at a position where we've been starved for some offensive production. So, Alec Berluson, 55% rostered. How would you guys rank Burleson, Jared Kelnick, who in eight games since being moved to the leadoff spot for the Braves, 324 batting average, three homers, 6 RBI, one steel. And J.D. Martinez, who had a pretty big weekend as well.

He's up to an 870 OPS this season. I know J.D. Martinez is not outfield eligible on CBS, but how would you guys rank those three? Martinez, Berluson, and Jared Kelnick. It would be Martinez Berluson Kellnick for me. Yeah, I agree rest of season. I do have Jared Kellnick as a sleeper hitter for this week, and he's the only one of those three I could say that about. Not that either of the others, especially J.D. Martinez would be a bad start.

Mets have pretty good matchups, too. Cardinals don't have such great matchups, so if you're looking for a short-term play, maybe Burleson isn't the best choice of the three, but I don't think he's somebody who is, going to disappear and remain on and off the way of where all season. I think he's I think he's earned a place on rosters. Chris, over to you, player of the weekend.

I mean, you know, I had to take the Olive Garden Breadstick because it's my boy, Pablo Lopez, who has been really bad this season. Hang on, I got to correct myself. I'm sorry, I've got a million notes in front of me because that's what happens every weekend. I pulled out the week 13 schedule. And so I got the strength of schedule all wrong now on what I just said. said, Kelnick,

yes, is my only sleeper hitter of that trio for this week, but the Mets actually have the worst

matchups of any team. They are playing just five games. Well, the Cardinals are playing seven games, not great

matchups either. So in terms of startability for the upcoming week, I'd go Kelnick, Burleson, Martinez, but rest of season,

Martinez, Burleson, Kelnick. That's annoying. Two out of the last three weeks, I think the Mets have only had

five games, right? That's kind of annoying. I don't even want say off the top of my head because I could be wrong. All right. For those who aren't watching,

the look of concern that came over Scott's face as soon as he realized that. It was pretty good. All right, Chris, back to you. Pablo Lopez, huge start this weekend. Pablo Lopez, 14 strikeouts over eight shutout innings.

Yeah, but it was against the A's. All right. That's fine. Three other pitchers have had a 14 strikeout performance this season. none have done it against the A's. I think it's worth noting that the A's have played like 80 games, something like that. And this was the first time anyone has had 14 strikeouts against them.

And I just, I want to reiterate what we have said about Pablo Lopez for weeks. I understand that it is frustrating when you are in the moment and he is putting up a 563 ERA or whatever it was coming into today. And that is really tough because two and a half months in the middle of the season, season feels like a really long time. It's not. Don't argue with me. I understand. Like,

ERA needs multiple seasons to have like any predictive value whatsoever. So when you're talking about a 16 game stretch, it just doesn't matter very much. Like, it matters for your standings and those are baked in and that stinks. I'm sorry that that happened to you. Pablo Lopez should have pitched better. He is going to pitch really,

really well moving forward. Of that, I am very, very certain. And the thing about Pablo Lopez, when you looked at where things had gone wrong for him this season, it was primarily just location. He was leaving too many fastballs in the middle of the zone, especially against left-handed pitchers,

is something that Lance Brosdowski posted on Twitter about last week. And when he posted that, my thought was, yeah, that makes me feel better about Pablo Lopez, because if you're talking about a skill change, you're talking about like he lost his feel for a pitch, pitch or he his velocities down or the arm angle has changed. None of that has really been true for Pablo Lopez. He just hasn't pitched well.

What we saw today is when that flips, he can still be one of the best pitchers in baseball. And there was a quote after the game where he said, something along the lines of, I'm not sure if any, like what I did differently. And so now the goal is to making sure that we sustain that moving forward. And you might take that as well.

This was just random then. But like that was always the case, right? It's just he wasn't, he wasn't broken. He just wasn't pitching all that well. And now we're seeing that when he pitches well, the results can still be outstanding. So I did move Pablo Lopez down in my rankings in my most recent update. I think he was still top 20 for me. Frank, I know you moved him down a little bit more.

Scott, I can't remember. Yeah, it's 17th. Yeah, he was 18th. He's 18th for me. Still a lot of really good pitchers out there. Still like Pablo Lopez a lot. I still think he can absolutely be an ace moving forward.

So I don't, you kind of gave the 30,000 foot view take and I don't necessarily disagree with it. But one observation specific to this start is how

dominant his fastball was and how much more he threw it. So 10 of his 19 whiffs came on the fastball which he threw 45% of the time, more like 39% of the time. It's what he usually throws it. And he entered the day

that pitch has a 186 batting average against. While the sweeper and the change-up, the two big whiff pitches for him last year, 289 batting average on the sweeper, 3-11 on the change-up, terrible. And maybe it is mostly location and just not pitching well

why those pitches haven't performed well, but I couldn't help but notice that he dominated in a way that's unfamiliar to Pablo Lopez, different from the way to Pablo Lopez dominated. And in fact, all of his pitches, like the fastball's been playing so much better all year than it did last year. And so maybe leaning into it

more is something Pablo Lopez should do. Yeah, I mean, he had a 32% whiff rate with the foursseamer last year. That's a really good mark. 30% this like that's one of the things that you really like about Pablo Lopez is on any given day he can have four different putaway pitches and for me it just mostly comes down to executing having the right mix on an even day identifying what the right mix is for that day clearly in this one fastballs you know fast balls up he avoided the middle of the zone better than he had been so far this season um and look part of that is just confirmation bias, right? I believe in Pablo Lopez, so I'm inclined to believe that Pablo Lopez putting up a good start

is indicative. There are a bunch of pitchers who had really good starts this weekend that we're going to talk about later on today, and I'm going to be like, yeah, James and Tyones, thanks, who cares? By and you rabbit, it doesn't matter. And so, like, if you want to accuse me of hypocrisy,

I contain multitudes, you know? Well, yeah. I mean, I don't think, look, you have a reason to think Pablo Lopez is a better pitcher than those pitchers. How have they pitched in the past? And that's, that tells you a lot of it, whether you're talking about this year or previous years. And yeah, I think that's, I think that's justified. Well, yeah, we'll get into Abbott and all of them later. Pablo Lopez is 78% started on CBS.

He's at the Mariners this week. Are you getting him back in your lineups if he was out for some reason? Yeah, I mean, it wouldn't have even mattered what he did in this start, a strikeout prone as the Mariners are, but even more so. Well, let's quickly talk about his teammate as well, because Bailey Ober was great, and they both faced the Oakland A's this weekend. He threw the first complete game of his career, four hits allowed, two earn runs, 10 strikeouts, 23 whiffs on 89 pitches, just incredibly efficient.

He had nine of those whiffs on the changeup, seven on the fastball, six on the slider, did a better job limiting that average exit velocity against in this one. And Chris, shout out to you. I know you said the schedule coming up looked really tasty for Bailey Ober. And so far, he has made good on that. It's back-to-back starts against the Oakland A's, but both of these were pretty awesome. Anything to add on Bailey Ober?

What's really interesting about Bailey Ober is the problem for him this season, has been his four-seeing fastball. It's just been getting crushed all year. And if you just look at June, it's still getting crushed. He's got a 93 mile per hour average exit velocity on it, a 370 expected Wobo with his four-seem fastball. The rest of his pitches have been awesome. And it's just the forcing fastball.

If you sort by month, you sort by start, that's the consistent through line is the forcing fastball is just getting hit really hard. And so it's weird because, well, he was awesome in April. We'll have that one terrible start, I think, in May, sub 2 ERA in April, ERA close to 6 in May, 360 ERA in June. And the through line throughout has been, he's had three awesome pitches and a fastball that gets crushed. And so my takeaway there is the 360 ERA in June is probably right. And it's just we saw the tail end on the good side for variance in April. And we saw the tail end of the bad side in May.

in May and June is probably more like what I expect from him. Bailey Ober, by the way, 57% started also gets the Mariners this week. I assume we are a go on Bailey Ober against Seattle. Yeah. It's not as automatic as Lopez, but if he qualified as a sleeper pitcher, Bailey Ober, he'd be at the top. I might have two-star Matt Waldron ahead of him, but he'd be near at the top of the sleeper pitchers list.

All right, let's quickly take our first break. And when we return, we will talk about Chota Imanaga and Carlos Redan getting destroyed right after this. Look, there are bad starts. Baseball season is really long, and then there is what happened to Shota Imanaga on Friday, because he got crushed by the Mets, three innings, 11 hits, 10 earned runs,

three homers allowed in that start, negative 16 and a half fantasy points on CBS. And we said this throughout, even earlier on in the season, heading into the season, he's a fly ball pitcher. The weather is going to heat up at some point. He allows hard contact. There are going to be starts where he gives up home runs and bad things happened.

That is exactly what happened here. The velocity was also down on all of his pitches in this start. So something to pay attention to more so moving forward. But when things go bad, they tend to go pretty bad for Imanaga. He has two starts with seven plus earned runs this season. Gives up some barrels. Any takeaways overall, just on this. and I guess your view of Shota Imanaga moving forward,

he's at the Giants this week. Oh, I got a few takeaways. So the biggest takeaway here is this was Shota Imanaga's first time facing a lineup for the second time. And his quote after the game was, I felt like their lineup when I faced them today, they were different. And the Mets talked about how they had a plan of attack against them.

Shota Imanaga said, definitely felt like they made an adjustment. He's got a fastball with great characteristics other than pure velocity, and he's got a splitter, and that's basically what he throws. So you do wonder if once the team gets a look at him, like once the league gets a look at him, if that might be a little too predictable, I'm not saying he's going to get crushed every start from this point forward,

but might he be a little less dominant, especially in summer months, the ball carries better, him being a fly ball pitcher, all that stuff he said. You know, I'm not saying now's a great time to shop him. And I still think he's a really good asset for your fantasy team. I'm not saying abandoned ship on Shodom, I, Managa. But he probably was overperforming the first two months. It goes without saying that he was, right?

Sure. Like, he wasn't the best, he's not the best pitcher in baseball. And the one thing I do think about when I look at Shodaymanaga is when he's facing a a heavily right-handed lineup. My thought is on a day when the splitter's not really working for him. Where else does he go? And it's not like the splitter was terrible.

It was his best pitch. But because his other pitches are the curveball and especially the sweeper, you know, if he has a third pitch, that's the one he goes to. But he's only thrown nine of them to right-handed hitters all season. And so it just,

I do wonder if teams are going to start trying to stack their lineup with Ritey's more against Shodh Mnaga to try to take advantage of that. And look, there will be days when the splitter is dazzling and it doesn't matter because that's a pitch that can nullify the platoon advantage. But it just, that's a potential red flag for me. But my view of Shoday Minaga has remained. I think he's lefty Joe Ryan. And that's mostly what I think. think. Joe Ryan, we have seen stretches like this from Joe Ryan before. And so I think you add it all up. He's got a 352 XERA. That's about where I think he's going to be. It's just, it's a 24 to 25% strikeout rate. Whip should be very good, but it's a sub-ace pitcher. But both him and Joe Ryan are, I think, top 25 pitchers for me.

So it's not like I'm out on show to Imanaga. Sure. Would you start Imanaga at the giant this week. Bigger ballpark to pitch in. They are good against lefties, though. Aethin Wobah against lefties. I would. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. I mean, he bounceded. He had one other disastrous start. And, well, I'm looking at it now. He actually gave a fair number of unearned runs. Yeah. So the line looked better than maybe he actually pitched. But, you know, then he followed that with two great starts.

Yeah. I think showed him in Managa. Until further notice, it still must start. The other one who had a pretty bad outing this weekend. And, you know, we had a few of these again. The weather's starting to heat up. I think, you know, I haven't looked into this yet if one of you guys want to check. But it feels like offense has been up even more recently over the past week or so.

Carlos Rodan has been hit hard. Two starts in a row now. He went three into two-thirds innings. 11 hits, eight runs. Seven of those earned three homers allowed in this start against the Atlanta Braves. He got hit so hard. He was seen tearing up in the Yankees dougar. I don't know what was.

going on. Like, he's a fierce competitive guy, Carlos Rodan, but there have been some weird moments since he's joined the years. Strong men also cry, Frank. No, that's totally fine. But in the middle of a game, I just found it a little interesting. I don't know. Did you guys see anything that specifically stood out besides the results in this one? Lots of hard contact. Well, I did see that he threw his change up in curveball a combined 35% of the time, which was the season high. And, you know, this started with him being mostly fastball slider. That's, that's been throughout the good stage stretches of his career, Carlos Rodon has really leaned on fastball slider.

And so he's been mixing in that curveball and change up more with some success. I don't know that it was the reason why he struggled because the fastball and slider both got hit harder than the curveball and change up in this start. So I may be barking up the wrong tree with that. But that is something that I noticed that was different. He's been mixing them in more and mixed them in most of all on this start. It might be a couple things. I mean, we've noted in Carlos Rodon's past couple turns that he was well outperforming his ERA estimators in a way that I kind of found head scratching. But nonetheless, he was.

And so due for some regression, you could argue, sure. Braves' lineup has been heating up. Yes, for sure. and still hits the ball harder than any lineup in baseball. And so he may have just run into a lineup that was hot, you know? I'm not abandoning ship on Carlos Rodon either, I guess. Long story short. How many lefties did the Braves have in the lineup?

Was it only two? It's just Kalanick and Olson? I'd have to look. Because that would be the thing if you're talking about like throwing the change up in curveball more, he never throws those pitches against lefties. And so, you know, maybe it was. something about the lineup configuration. He wanted to try to attack right-handed hitters with those.

Yeah, only Wilson and Kelnick. Yeah, and they did some damage against him, which is not usually what you see with left-handed hitters, especially against Carlos Rodan and also not what you see from Jared Kellnick against lefties. Hey, Jared Kalnick, forget this Rodon start. Jared Kelnick became the first lefty to home. off Nestor Cortez on Sunday. He almost homered against Carlos Redan.

He had a ball that was like 380 feet, I think. It could have been out in like a third of ballpark. So I don't know what to make of that. I still think Jared Kellanick probably can't hit lefties, but we're talking about Carlos Rodan. Yeah, I didn't necessarily see much in the way of, aha, this is why he struggled. So I don't know what to make of the Rodon start.

Do you start him at the Blue Jays this week? They are pretty bad against lefties. Yeah, I would. Mm-hmm. Yep. All right. Want to mention an oh my goodness gracious game of the weekend. This Orioles and Astros came on Friday.

25 combined runs, 32 combined hits. The Astros won at 14 to 11. And on Houston side, Jose Altuve, 3 for 5 with two doubles, two runs, 2 RBI. Alex Bregman, 2 for 5 with a double and two runs. Perhaps the most meaningful was that Joey Loprifito was recalled, and he played all three games this weekend, and he had a big game on Friday, three for four with two doubles and two RBI. He is 22% rostered. The Astros only have five games this week.

There's two left. He's on the schedule. So I don't think that this is a priority ad by any means, but I think it's something to pay attention to Joey Loporffito there in Houston. I was looking to add him in the 15 teamers again and ones where he was dropped. He wasn't dropped in all of them. but I think I got outbid in my efforts to reclaim Lopafito. I was not moved to Adam in my 12th team Roto leagues. On the Orioles side, Gunner Henderson, a huge game on Friday,

three for five with two socks and a shoe. That's two home runs, one steal in the same game, up to 24 home runs, 13 steals total. Adley Ruchman went five for five. Anthony Santander, three for five, with his 20th home run. He is having a huge June. and Cedric Mullins, picking things back up,

four straight multi-hit games, had one homer and three steals during that stretch. Still batting just 208, but it looks like maybe better things are coming here for Cedric Mullins. Which pitchers started in this game? Astros prospect, Jake Bloss,

three and two-thirds innings, two runs, two strikeouts in his major league debut. Turns out he went on the IEL the very next day on Saturday with a shoulder injury, and Grayson Rodriguez had himself a rough outing, five innings, seven runs allowed. Did have eight strikeouts.

He is 70% started. Anything to add, I mean, obviously a huge game here. Grayson Rodriguez got roughed up. He is home against the Guardians this week. I would start, Grayson. We're going to probably do a re-ranking for the second half or if we were drafting today. However, we phrase it.

Gunner Henderson's definitely a first rounder, right? I think, yeah. Has to be. Is he like top five? he's on like a 5025 pace with like I don't know 260 combined runs in RBI I mean you're you're putting me on the spot here because I haven't actually lined up the names yet I plan to

I will write that at some point around the All-Star break redrafting the first two rounds and as you said we'll probably do a podcast like that maybe July 4th or something I don't know but yeah off the top of my head I couldn't commit to top five, but maybe it's not crazy. I don't think he'll actually maintain his home run pace and exceed 50 home runs. I think what helps his case for being a top five player rest of season is that we have had

some pretty big injuries to big game play. Like, Mookie Betts is going to miss time. We're still waiting for Kyle Tucker to return. But yeah, off the top of my head, the Yankees outfielders, Bobby Witt, I think those names are ahead of him. Jose Ramirez, probably. I think in a Roto League, Juan Soto versus Gunner Henderson is pretty interesting.

Yeah, it's close. It's close for sure. But, yeah, I think after those that I mentioned, yeah, he's probably in that mix. Somewhere in like the five to seven range, I think, rest of the season. But yeah, awesome season for Gunner Henderson. Quick reminder, if you are watching us on YouTube

that you can scan that QR code, that will take you right to the website where you could sign up for the FBT newsletter. You can go to CBSports.com slash newsletters. And again, you punch in your email address and you get it delivered right to your inbox every weekday for free. So why not? Let's talk some news and notes.

A bizarre moment on Sunday night baseball as Edwin Diaz was ejected from the game after failing a sticky substance check as he entered the game, which I, normally I feel like it's when you're, it's between innings, right? It's like you're coming straight from the bullpen and still had something on your hands. It's very just weird, bizarre moment. And he'll get hit with a 10 games. suspension. Is that effective immediately? Because if so, people obviously can't use Diaz this coming week.

I don't know if you can, uh, what's the word? Appeal. Appeal. A sticky stuff, man. I would presume you can, but. I think I read that you can appeal it, but I don't, he hasn't said whether he will. Yeah. Yeah.

So, yeah, that's, that's something you're going to have to. I mean, go in planning to have a replacement this week and then just, See what happens. I love my one league with David Bednar and Edwin Diaz. My only two clothes was a great, great weekend for me. Gosh, my NL-only labor team. I have just lost so many players, man. Bednar, Bogartes, Wilson Contreras, Max Muncie, but enough about me.

Fernando Tatis left Friday after getting hit by a pitch on his left triceps, and he was out both Saturday and Sunday. Have you guys seen or heard anything regarding Tatis' status for this upcoming week? I mean, that doesn't sound like a especially serious injury. So I would plan on starting him. Let's see, I have the right schedule here. They are playing Monday. You know, we don't get that extra day off.

But yeah, you'll just have to monitor that leading up to game time. But I would think probably yes to Tati's. Kyle Tucker ran on a treadmill Friday, but still has not resumed on-field work. He's been out since June 4th with that right-chin contusion. Jesus Lazzardo was placed on the IL Saturday due to a lumbar stress reaction in his back. And then on Sunday, he was moved to the 60-day IL, which means he'll be out until at least August 18th. On top of that, the Marlins also placed Braxton Garrett on the 15-day IL with a left forearm flexor strain. So it is a rough go for the Marlins pitching staff.

I'm a professional baseball writer and a Marlins fan. and they have called up multiple guys who I had never heard of. And none of them were Max Meyer. That's true. Which is very annoying. But you got to think Max Meyer is coming. I don't know when the first rotation opening is.

I mean, literally any time right now because I think Trevor Rogers is the only guy. I know they're two star pitchers. So the pitchers starting Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday are Yanni Chorinos and Roderie Munoz Yeah

I mean it's they said soon Like Two weeks ago Do and a half weeks ago? Which could mean anything I mean that's that's the kind of answer I give my kids when I just want them to stop asking

And that's maybe how Skip Schumacher was treating the reporters I don't know Maybe would you guys rather Sash Max Meyer or Shane Baas right now? A shame, boss. Yeah, I guess so. I think the upside's much higher. Yeah, the upside is higher for boss.

Yeah. Max Meyer's been pretty bad on down in the mines. He has, but they, he hasn't. No, yeah. They might not be competitive. Yeah. Yeah. David Bednar was placed on the 15-day IL with a strained left oblique, retroactive to Thursday.

A roll as Chapman picked up his second save of the season on Saturday. Pretty clear replacement here. Chapman is 12% rostered. So if you lost out on Bednar or you're just in need of saves, I think Chapman could be a short-term fix here with the pirates. Jordan Romano experienced right elbow soreness after long toss from 120 feet on Friday and has been shut down from throwing. Yemi Garcia is also on the aisle right now, which means Chad Green is the Blue Jays top option for saves.

Would you guys rather have a roll-ish Chapman? Garcia has started throwing again too. So I don't, I mean, he could suffer a setback like Romano did, but I don't think Garcia is going to be out for long. Would you rather add Chapman or Chad Green for short term saves? I guess Chad Green, because they've actually said he's the closer right now. And Chapman, we presume he is, obviously he has a lot of history closing. And his ERAs have been better. His ERA, he only has one of them, has been better since April.

But they do have the massive strikeout rate. The walk rate is. out of control. Right. And they do have a righty who's been really good this year. Colin Holderman and throws the eighth inning a lot of times. 0.680RA, 10.1K per 9. I could see them go and match up with that. Okay. Clayton Kirshaw reported shoulder sorenness during Saturday's bullpen and could have his next rehab start pushed back. Nolan Aronado was removed Saturday with left forearm tightness. He received an injection to alleviate the pain. The Cardinals will wait to see how he responds before determining his availability this upcoming week.

Nick Ladolo was limited Sunday against the Red Sox as a result of a blister on his left index finger. Blisters can be tricky with pitchers. Would you maybe sit Ladolo this week at the Cardinals? Probably. It's probably a good idea. I mean, it's a really good matchup. But even the turn before this weekend when Lodolo had a lot of strikeouts,

got a lot of wits on. the curveball especially. The curveball still doesn't have its old movement. Like it's, it's, I believe its horizontal movement is down four inches pretty consistently since he returned from the IL. And apart from that one start two turns ago,

it hadn't been getting a lot of ways. So I'm not sure Nicola Dolo totally looks right, even without the blister here. So not saying you have to sit him against the Cardinals, but in shallow leagues where you can afford to, not a bad idea. Blake's now made his first rehab start at Triple on Sunday, one in two-thirds innings, two runs allowed, three walks to zero strikeouts, so not great.

He, the quote was, he was shocked to see he was throwing 95 because he wasn't using his legs at all. Says he's frustrated, he doesn't feel like himself, knows the team is desperate, but he needs at least another rehab start, likely multiple more. That's from Andrew Baggerly on Blake Snell's start today. Yikes. Yeah, not great. John Carlos Stanton was placed on the IL due to a left hamstring strain, and he's expected to miss up to four weeks. The Yankees did make a small trade in acquiring J.D. Davis this weekend,

so it sounds like he'll be a short side platoon at first base, but maybe he gets some starts at D.H. as well. Zander Bogartz has been a wrong. It's a shame Jason Dominguez is hurt. Ah, yeah. Right? We got that injury from Giancarlo's Stan. It would have been perfect.

You're right. But he's going to be out longer than Stan is. Yeah. That sucks. Zander Bogartz has been running the bases, taking light grounders, and doing one-handed drills in the batting cage. He broke his left shoulder back on May 20th

and is not expected back until late July at the earliest. Josh Young was shut down this weekend due to residual soreness in his wrist. U. Darvish is scheduled to return Tuesday against the Nationals. His first start since May 29th. Would you guys start or sit U.Darvish this week? I'm inclined to sit in the first start back from the IL.

Yeah. Gabriel Moreno was placed in the aisle with a sprain left thumb. Tucker Barnhart will take over as the primary catcher with Jose Herrera as his backup. David Fry was removed Sunday due to right elbow inflammation. Would you play it safe and plan to bench David Fry this week? David Fry may have turned back into a pumpkin. So yeah, I'm fine with that. Brandon Lau suffered a broken pinky toe on a hit-by-pitch Saturday and then was out of the lineup on Sunday.

He is not expected to go on the IL. Starly Marte was removed Saturday. with right knee soreness, an issue that's lingered throughout June. He'll receive an MRI on Monday, and I might plan to be without Marte for a few games here, maybe a little bit longer. Robbie Ray moved his rehab to AAA on Sunday. I did not see the results of that start,

but he is hoping to return by mid-July, 36% rostered. It was only two and a third innings for Ray here. I don't know how many pitches, but he's only thrown nine in the third inning, so I would think he's probably still a little ways away. Are you guys excited about stashing Robbie Ray? Not as much as Clayton Kershaw. I know he had some shoulder soreness and might slow down the rehab a little bit,

but I think he's a much more reliable pitcher. And not as much as Jacob de Grom, who's a further away than Robbie Ray. but Robbie would raise after them. I think he could have an impact. It's not as reliable overall. He's had some really good years. Always gets a lot of strikeouts,

but can be pretty hitable. Walk too many guys at times too. Max Muncie was transferred to the 60-day IL with that right oblique strain, which means he cannot return until just after the All-Star break. Eloy Jimenez returned Sunday after missing a month with a left hamstring strain and then reported hamstring soreness after the game.

And I just couldn't help. but think of that gif or scene in The Simpsons, you know, the guy's walking in. He puts his hat down, he picks it back up, he walks right back out, and I'm just like, Eloy Jimenez. The guy cannot stay healthy. The guy.

The guy. Is that just a guy to you? Just a guy? It's not a recurring character on The Simpsons or anything, just a guy. Would it surprise you if I said, I have not watched? I have seen episodes of The Simpsons, but it's not like, I did not watch a lot of Simpsons growing up by any means.

Okay. Yeah, to me, he's a guy. But yeah, I know I'm sure someone's going to, I'm going to get killed for that. Well, no reason to pick up Aralvis Martinez because he's been suspended 80 games for PEDUs. So not great there. Spencer Turnbull is moving back to the Phillies rotation after Taiwan Walker was placed on the IL. And in some of those deeper leagues, I was putting in bids on Spencer Turnbull. He's still pitched pretty well this season.

And his numbers since moving to the bullpen haven't been good for what it's worth. He's a starter. He's a horse. He can't. You can't just have him running on the short track. He needs to spread those legs. No, I remain fairly optimistic about Spencer Turnbull, but yeah, I noticed the same thing. Yeah.

Did he get RP eligibility? It's a 10 in season, right? It's 10 in season. Yeah, he's got RP eligibility. Yeah, that helps. Yeah. So for those in points leagues, you got an extra spark here with Spencer Turnbull. The Reds have not yet committed to activating Noel V.

Marte when he's first eligible to return. Later this week, on June 27th, he is struggling mightily on his rehab assignment as well. Very scary scene Saturday as Ahmed Rosario was hit in the face by a 99-mile-per-hour fastball from Jared Jones. Rosario suffered facial lacerations, but it sounds like he's avoided serious injury. And I said it last week, between all these recent getting hit in the hands and this is not the first time we've seen someone get hit in the head. I know it's not on purpose, but it just feels like something has to be done at some point. pre-tacking the baseball so they get a better grip, whatever it might be, because, I mean, this is, this is pretty scary stuff. So, I don't know what they're going to do, but they probably should

do something. Well, and I just look at the Edwin-D-S situation, Trey, and it's just, it feels untenable. Like the, these were the stickiest fingers I've ever seen or I, like, I know what Rosin feels like, and that wasn't it. It's like, why are we leaving that up to the, let's just, yeah, we need to come up with some kind of sticky thing to help pitchers. That clearly is not just rosin and sweat. The Philly signed Christopher Sanchez to a four-year extension on Saturday and then he pitched really well on Sunday. Robert Gasser is scheduled to undergo Tommy John surgery on Monday and other players who went on the aisle this weekend. Luis Camp Usano expected to just miss the minimum 10 days. Charlie Blackman with a right hamstring strain. Astros pitching prospect Jake Bloss. He pitched on Friday.

in his debut, went on the IL Saturday with right shoulder inflammation, Patrick Sandoval with a left elbow strain, Abraham Toro with a strained right hamstring, Yvonne Herrera with lower back tightness, Mike Ustremski with a left oblique strain, Keaton Wynn with right elbow inflammation, and Adele Amador with a right oblique strain. Okay, that was a lot of news. How much can we get to in the next 20 or 30 minutes? We'll find out right after this. Welcome back in and welcome back to Max Scherzer.

Kind of. He pitched well in his season debut up against the Royals, five shutout innings, one hit, zero walks, four strikeouts, seven whiffs on 57 pitches. And velocity was down to touch. I mean, I think that's something that can improve. You know, again, this was his season debut. I think that's fine. After the start, Scherzer on leaving after just 57 pitches said, quote, really trying to maximize what I can do five days out. I have to make the next start in five days.

He also made note of fatigue in his forearm, and the issue with his thumb is still looming. So that's why I say he's back kind of, because when I hear stuff like that, it just does not give me a lot of confidence in Max Scherzer. Here's a quote. Everything from a baseball standpoint was telling me to go back out there. I'm pitching well. I'm throwing the ball well. I just don't know how I'm going to recover from this. Weird.

that's a weird quote from Max Scherzer especially not a guy that you would ever think would admit to any kind of mortality really I mean he is one of the most insane competitors in baseball that's a positive statement yeah so yeah that that was a surprisingly candid I guess is the way I would put it Well, I'm sitting him this week.

Yeah, I will say that. He's at the Orioles, too. They're third in Wobah against Ritey, so tough matchup. You notice they push his start back a little bit. So the only, so how many pitches did he throw on this one, 57? 57, yeah. The only time he exceeded that on his rehab assignment was in his latest start way back on June 15th. So he had gotten more than a week off and they pushed it back,

which makes me wonder if he was having trouble recovering from that start. Yeah. So, you know, a lot of it, I don't want to read too much into it either way. It might just be he's not far enough long and it's not as far along yet in his buildup as ideally he should be. But he and the Rangers both didn't want him wasting those innings in the minors when he could be contributing to the major league. It might be as simple as that. I agree sitting him against Baltimore as the prudent move except in. very deep leagues where you've been having to start like, I don't know,

Albert Suarez instead. He got crushed a couple times this past week. We may be moving on from him. You know what the tell might be? If Jose Orania pitches in the next couple of days, he threw 42 pitches in relief of Max Scherzerer. They were the only two the pitched. I could see them looking at that as kind of a piggyback situation.

And if they keep Jose Arania on the same schedule as Max Scherzer, That might be the tell about how they're viewing Sherser, at least in the short term. Let's talk Waverwire hitters. And we already spoke about J.D. Martinez, Alec Berlinson. I had you guys ranked Jared Kellnick. Was there anything else you wanted to add on him? Because this is an impressive stretch from Kelnick. We've seen him have impressive stretches before.

But it looks pretty good right now. He's 51% rostered. Anything else to add there? I tend to think he's just hot. He is still doing less than, nothing against non-fastballs. I'm kind of surprised that his fastball rate, he's seeing 50% fastball so far this season was only 43%.

He has a 257-WOBA against breaking pitches, 225 against off-speed, whiff rate over 40% on both. He can only hit fastballs. I don't know what's going on with the way pitchers are approaching him, but it feels very unsustainable. Like I'm fine picking him up, especially in a five-outful. fielder league if he's available, but I think he has almost no value in a points league, even hitting lead off given the poor plate discipline. I think in the long run, he's not going to sustain the hot stretch. All right, let's talk some middle infielders. Jonathan India is hitting

well so far in June. 318 batting average, two homers, one steal in 845 OPS. He's got seven games this week. Luis Garcia had a big weekend in Cores Field, two for five with a sock and a shoe on Friday, then it added his seventh home run on Saturday. Willie Castro continues to hit two for five with his sixth home run at some point this weekend. I didn't write down which day, but he's having himself a pretty good June as well. And Josh Smith of the Texas Rangers has homered in three of his last five games. And overall, he's batting over 300. He's got an 869 OPS. He's a left-handed hitter who's actually hitting really well against lefties this season. Scott, how would you rank Josh Smith, Willie Castro, Luis Garcia, and Jonathan India.

Okay, so India would definitely go at the top in points leagues. Is Josh Smith playing every single game? I'm not... Well, whether he is right now or not is not really the question, right? Because Josh Young might be back this week. Well, Josh Young... Yeah, he has the wrist soreness, but... Yeah, they haven't said...

Yeah, but they haven't said he's not... coming back, right? It's just he got shut down. Like, I think the latest is that he's not coming back. There was some talk over the weekend that he could be back Monday, but I don't know.

I'd have to read more about it in real time here, which nobody wants me to spend the time. Maybe you could look it up while I'm talking. Josh Smith. I do think as long as Evan Carter is out, they have the D.H. spot open, too, so they can make it work. They can make it work. And he's been such an

integral part of the lineup all season. Okay. So getting back to rank. Josh is going to take batting practice on Tuesday to determine whether he's ready to return. Okay. Like Frank said, there's an opening for Josh Smith either way. So I'm going to go, Jonathan, for points leagues, Jonathan, India won, Josh Smith, two, Willie Castro, three, Louise Garcia, four, just, Garcia, four, just because he sits against lefties.

I might put Willie Castro at the top in Roto leagues just for the steals potential. Not that he's been potentially aggressive on the bases this year, but. We know he has that capability. I love what you did there, Scott. You literally threw Willie Castro to the top of the list. But it's weird how little he's running. Like, he has one steal in June. He had one steal in like the final 15 games of May, it looks like.

It's bizarre for a guy who had, what, 33 steals last year? Mm-hmm. The sprint speed only 68th percentile. So I don't know. That is a little. Weird. I don't know. Like, he's still hitting well, but yeah, he's just not stealing as many bases as we want to.

Yeah, I mean, he's been surprisingly useful for not running nearly as much as last year. But, you know, that could change. We saw a lot of guys pick up their steals production in the second half last year and then not carry it over to the first half this year. So, you know, stolen bases aren't an even distribution over the course of the season. Some names in deeper leagues. Isaiah Kiner Folefa had a big game on Saturday, two for three with a double dong. He is batting 279 on the season. Tyler Black has started four games in a row for the Brewers.

He picked up a steal on Friday, added a couple hits on Saturday and Sunday. Hunter Goodman is starting a hit for power. Last eight games, he's hit five home runs. Spencer Horowitz of the Blue Jays hit his first two home runs of the season on Sunday. Colt Keith also had a big game on Sunday, four for five with his fourth home run, three runs, three RBI. And Jesus Sanchez is hitting for power recently. Three homers in his past five games. And the expected sets really like Hazu Sanchez, 285XBA 506X slug.

Chris, were you looking to add any of these guys in some of those deeper formats when you were putting bids in here on Sunday? Did you guys realize the interesting thing about Hunter Goodman now? He has catcher eligibility on CBS. I tried. I've added him in a few spots because of that. I know they're on the road this week, but I believe all seven games next week are at course for the Rockies. So that's one where where I'm weak at my number two catcher spot, most leagues where I'm playing two catchers, frankly. I've looked to add Hunter Goodman, especially because there's a lot of hype around Ben Rice in the fantasy industry right now.

And I think there's a lot to like about Ben Rice. But I think Hunter Goodman might have just as much upside. And he's not being added anywhere, you know, as aggressively as Ben Rice. Yeah, I'm surprised to you. I didn't realize Goodman had been playing so much catcher. Of course, that was his primary position in the minors, but he wasn't considered a very good catcher, which is why. Now, well, Elias Diaz got hurt.

That's what he's been playing. The best tier, though, is Spencer Horwitz. And I was feeling bad that I had him as a sleeper hitter for this past week because of all the Riteys on the schedule for the Blue Jays. And then he ended up sitting against a couple of the Riteys for the first time since he got called up. What are they doing with Spencer Horowitz's playing time? He gets like two hits every game.

But then he made up for it on Sunday with this huge game, the two home runs, and hopefully that will convince the Blue Jays not to sit him anymore because he is a really good hitter who only got passed over for so long, 26 years old, and getting his first extended look in the majors, because he seemed like a, it seemed like he could only play first base.

But he always hit in the minors, was hitting 335 down there this year and always had great plate discipline and that is carried over to the majors now that they're willing to use him at second base. Not saying he's going to have two homer games very often, but I think he's going to be as useful as useful, as useful as Josh Smith at least

and potentially even more so. Let's talk Waverwire pitchers and we are kind of up against it. So I'm not going to read off all the stats and stuff. I'll just group these together and you guys can react. But some names in Shalder Leagues, Reese Olson, Jake Irvin, John Gray, and Luis Severino all had great starts this weekend.

Chris, how would you rank that group? Severino, John Gray, Jake Irvin, and Reese Olson. I think I would go Irvin, Olson, Severino Gray. And Irvin and Olson, I think there's a little separate at the top. Although, as we see in this one, Olson's got those amazing change-up and slider that he gets like 40%

whiffs on. And yet he's still consistently less than a strikeout per inning because he just doesn't get to the two strike counts where he can put guys away often enough. So, Irvin's tough, 10 strikeouts and six innings at Coorsfield. And he did it by going super curveball heavy, 45% usage,

got a decent amount. 11 whiffs with it. That's weird because it's Corse field and curveballs don't move as much at Corse field. And so I'm not quite sure what to make of that. He's someone who has not shown very much strikeout upside in the majors.

I think we probably shouldn't assume that this is a sign of strikeout upside just because I think Coors just doesn't really lend itself to analysis. So, my perception of him hasn't changed much, but I I do think he's a pretty solid pitcher.

Yeah, I like Olson and Irvin, top two here. I like John Gray, it sounds like more than you do. I know he got crushed in his previous outing, but there were a lot of reports about John Gray was convinced he was tipping his pitches in that one against the Mets, which would explain it because he's been great otherwise and got back to throw in six innings in this latest start against the Royals,

an offense that's been productive this year. As for Luis Severino, It's a great start, but I don't see anything to really seize upon here as Severino's turned the page or something. He's just a good ground ball pitcher who manages to keep a fairly low ERA because of that and got a ton of strikeouts in this start for some reason. Recurring theme this weekend was 10 strikeout starts that I don't think mattered. Like Jake Irvin-Louis Severino will talk about Andrew Abbott. Yeah. There was one other one that I can't remember.

Tyone. Jamison Tyone. Yeah, all of those guys is just kind of, yeah, I don't really believe in any of these. If you are looking for good matchup place for this week, I agree with you guys up at the top. Reese Olson is at the Angels and Jake Irvin is at Tampa Bay later this week. So good matchups for those two. Waiver Wire Pitchers Part 2, a bunch of names we just mentioned. But Andrew Abbott up against the Red Sox.

Right. I'm not going to read these because we're just up against it. But Abbott had a great start. Michael Waka returned from the aisle with a solid outing. Tobias Myers continues to pitch well and the aforementioned James and Tyone. Scott, anything here that stood out? Any of these guys, you're actually excited to pick up, Tyone, Myers, Waka, or Andrew Abbott?

Waka is the one I'm most excited to pick up just because he has such a good track record. And he's thrived in the way Jake Irvin is now. so not with the sort of strikeout total we buy into, but he's done it for long enough and was on a great run before he went on the I.L. I know his overall ERA this year's skewed kind of high from early in the season, but he seemed like he had gotten back on track before landing on the IL comes back as a good start.

I'm not saying Michael Waka needs to be rostered everywhere, but I think he's the most rosterable of these four. I do think it's worth commenting a little more on Andrew Abbott's start because it was so dominant. he had the 10 strikeouts in five in two thirds innings, 19 wifts, including 14 on the fastball. But that fastball is not normally anything close to a bad miss.

I mean, as a whole, Abbott himself hasn't been. I believe the swinging strike rate is below 9% this year. Yeah, his strike rate is only 20%. His fastball after this start ranked 61st out of 70 qualifiers. or 61st out of 78 qualifiers in whiff rate. It's still below 20% even with a 14 whiff game.

He's got a massive gap between his FIP and his XERA. It might be the biggest biggest one in baseball. 475 FIPP 318 XERA. He's been outstanding at limiting hard contact this season. I just don't really buy that. You have to bet on a guy pitching at Great American ballpark to be an outlier in quality of contact in order to believe in Andrew Abbott.

I just can't make that bet. It's like the complete reverse profile from what we were seeing from Andrew Abbott and the miners too, where nobody could touch him. In a way that was hard to figure out. Yeah. But then it gets to the majors and he's thriving on avoiding hard contact.

Yeah. I mean, I'm not sure that's going to work out in Cincinnati in the long run. as many fly balls as Andrew Abbott gets up. All right, WaverWire Pitchers, part three, and I had, well, there's like six names here. I'll just group them all together, but Jose Cantana, Drew Thorpe, Landon Nack, Carlos Carrasco, Trevor Rogers, and Joey Estes.

So again, there's six names there. Was there any performance here that especially stood out, maybe someone that you're buying, more so for deeper leagues? I mean, Thorpe remains the most interesting. here. Not that we've been crazy about him

on this podcast. His change-ups seem to regain its effectiveness from the first start after

kind of abandoning him in the second start. So he's probably worth considering with the right matchups at

least. But 11 walks to nine strikeouts to three starts is pretty messy. He hasn't been

walking too many guys, which again departure from what he was in the minors. Thorpe was a big time

strike thrower in the minors. And it's weird. We saw the same thing from Adam Major. And we saw the same throwing from like Tanner Bybee last year. But I think of the long run

strike throwing isn't going to be an issue for Thorpe. It's just, is he going to is he going to prevent enough hard contact to survive in the majors? Jury's still out. But he's at least worth

keeping an eye on with this decent follow-up start. Starter sit these five pitchers. They are either on the fringe or really good pitchers that are not pitching well right now. And Ryan Pepio is one of those at the Pirates. Three and a third, two runs, four walks to three strikeouts. He has a 576 ERA and a 138 whip over his last six starts. But he's home against the Mariners this week.

So it's a great matchup. What do you guys think? Start or sit Ryan Pepio. You know, I want to buy in on Ryan Pepio, but it's such a weird profile. He gets a lot of strikeouts, but it's all with the four seam fastball, which has a 35% whiff rate. But that has been in a steep decline lately. And we're seeing how exposed he can get if he's not generating outlier whiffs with the four seamers. So I would sit him.

I think we're going to have a conversation about whether he's dropable in Roto leagues if he has another bad start. If it was a different matchup, I'd probably say sit, but Seattle's such a good matchup. Not an automatic start for Pepio, but I'd try to get him in the lineup. Jordan Montgomery turned in a quality start this weekend and has looked much better over his last three starts. He is 82% rostered, only 39% started. He gets the twins this week there second in Wobah against lefties. Yeah, so I don't love the matchup. I'd lean against starting Montgomery.

But I do think he's trending the right direction overall. It's not just the performance, but the vertical and horizontal break on his curveball. It had been off all year. Like, his curve ball was not the same pitch. It's trending, like, it's getting back on track in terms of the movement profile. And it was the closest it had ever been. And this start against the White Sox, which is, you know, why he got six whiffs on it.

Yeah, I think Jordan Montgomery's turned to the right direction. Yeah, he was getting too much drop on his curveball early in the season. He seemed to have tightened it up over the past few starts. Eric Fetty has turned in three straight quality starts. He's allowed two earn runs or less in 11 of 16 starts this season. The problem is that he faces the Dodgers this week. So I think I would try and stay away. Yeah, I'm fine with that.

Dylan Cease's ERA has now climbed up over four. He allowed four runs over four and two-thirds innings this weekend. Seems like he was just pretty unlucky. He had a 600 bad-up against in this start. But last seven outings, a 669 ERA, a 160 whip for Dylan Sees. He is home against the nationals this week. The weird, this is the weird thing about Dylan Sees' struggles right now is it's not in the way we've seen Dylan Seas struggle in the past.

He's not walking anyone, really. He had seven walks in 35 innings in May. He has seven in 20 and a third in June. He's just giving up a lot of hard contact. Five home runs over the four starts in June so far. Four in May. I'm still starting him. Again, that was Dylan C's.

What about Bryce Miller? He has struggled since the start of May. 10 starts, a 505 ERA, a 114 whip. He is home against the twins. this week. I mean, he's been so hit or miss lately. Especially when you struggle at the Marlins too. Oh, gosh.

Yeah. I think I would try and stay away. Especially, I mean, the Twins lineup has been pretty hot. So, yeah, it's not trending in the right way for Bryce Miller right now. And, you know, you know if you have realistic choices or not. Mm-hmm. In some leagues, you're just not even going to have the option of sitting Bryce Miller, and that's fine. He's still, on the whole.

of worthy fantasy pitcher. It's just if you do have options, this is not the best time to use them. Hitters who are pretty hot in June so far. Yandy Diaz, Jaron, Jamer Candelario, Wyatt Langford, and Jackson Merrill. We've talked a lot about these hitters recently. Maybe the one we haven't talked about most

is Wyatt Langford, who is doing some pretty good things since coming off the IL, but anything to add on those five names, kind of turning it on in June. Yeah, it's weird. Wyatt Langford's been hitting better but his exit velocity during that stretch is way down his average exit velocity and so that's just confounding

and makes it hard to know if he's really turned the corner or not you know I believe in the profile overall and he's actually producing now so he's not actively hurting your lineup that makes me inclined to say okay white Langford get him in your lineup again even in those three outfielder leagues but I wish I could say

with more conviction I guess Yeah the average X velocity is down 87 miles per hour in June is his average But the expected Wobah is the highest it's been It's still not elite It's 331 but that's better than any other month So

I think even though the average is down There's still a lot to be positive about For Wyatt Langford I think him and Jackson Merrill are good examples of what we might be seeing in this new environment. Whatever's causing it, this might need to be more patient with our young guys. Maybe next year we don't draft James Wood with a top 100 pick. But we don't drop him if he has a bad April either. Yeah.

I think that makes sense. Last thing I wanted to add on Wyatt Langford is that he's kind of doing the ESOC paradeous thing right now while he's not hitting the ball hard. lots of fly balls, and the pull rate is way up to 46%. So I think that is something that is helping Wyatt Langford right now. Some other leftovers from the weekend. Josh Lowe had a big weekend, and that's a welcome site because he has not been very good. Double Dong on Friday, he went three for four with a steel on Sunday. Shohei Otani is on fire.

He homered each game this weekend, last seven games. He's batting 481 with six homers, 10 runs, 13 RBI, and one steel. He has been amazing. And Stephen Kwan, the slugger, hit two more home runs this weekend. He is betting 390 with seven homers and a 1023 OPS in 49 games this season. Quickly run through some pitching leftovers. And this first group, Zach Wheeler, Jared Jones, Ronell Blanco, Logan Gilbert. Chris, any quick thoughts on Wheeler, Jones, Blanco, Logan Gilbert?

Jones it was really nice to see him bounce back it's been a rough stretch for him the walks are still too high you know three and seven innings here it's been I think six or seven straight with at least two walks and most of them have had three so still not perfect still not the ace we hoped he would be but I think he remains a must start pitcher moving forward

only thing I'll add on Logan Gilbert is that He is leaning on his slider more over his last two starts, and it was his most used pitch in this one, 43%. And he was awesome. 19 whiffs on 92 pitches. He had the six strikeouts. Great matchup at the Marlins, but I do think Logan Gilbert is someone that is trending back up.

Pitching leftovers part two, Tyler Glassnow, Christopher Sanchez, and Paul Skeens. All had great starts this weekend. Scott, anything that stood out for this group, Skeen, Sanchez, and Glassnow. Well, Sanchez's average velocity, on his fastball was down almost a mile per hour. And lo and behold, he threw 68% of his pitches for strikes.

That's more like the Christopher Sanchez we saw last year. And, you know, the walks have been down in general, even lately, even as the velocity has fluctuated, sometimes it's been even higher than usual. Sometimes it was lower like today. I don't know. I'm starting to feel better about Sanchez. if he's back to being an elite control pitcher,

that that was his, that and the ground balls, I guess, both were what set him apart from pitchers in general last year. He's got the whip down to 115 in his last nine starts, 267 ERA on the year. Even with the walks, he's been good at keeping runs off the board, and I think Christopher Sanchez is somebody

you're pretty happy to have on your fantasy team. Pitching leftovers part three, Nesser Cortez, for Amber Valdez, and Sunny Gray. all pitched well this weekend. Chris, anything that stood out with that group, Cortez, Valdez, and Sunny Gray. So I feel like we're all,

maybe I'm just speaking for myself, but I feel like we're all just kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop with Sunny Gray. He's had like a three ERA for three straight seasons now, a strikeout rate way up this season. And yet nobody really ranks him as like a true ace. I've got him right at 17, so like a strong number two, but the performance has been ace worthy.

And I just, I guess I just wanted to acknowledge that. I don't know if I'm ready to just say, well, we're all wrong and Sunny Gray is an ace, but it's something that I think is interesting to note. He has a 31% had a 31% strikeout rate before Sunday. It hasn't really changed his approach much, so I'm not sure there's like a ton there, but it's also now going back to 2022, 387 innings of like a 291 ERA. Well, the concern for me with Sunny Gray was volume because, I mean, even May, months of May, he was struggling to go six innings. And I often say if you're not going six innings consistently, it's hard to be of much use in fantasy.

But since I made that case with Sunny Gray, it's a longstanding thing for him. He's often struggled to go deep into games. But since I really brought it up, three straight starts of seven innings or more. So he is doing his part to shake off that hindrance. All right. Let's get into some bullpen updates. And for the Tigers on Friday, Jason Foley, I know he hasn't been good for some time. I don't really know if they have anyone else that they can go to,

but he got the final four outs for his 13th save. So he's still the guy for now for the Tigers. For the Astros on Friday, Josh Hader and Ryan Presley were unavailable. It was Brian Abraeu who picked up his first save. For the Twins on Friday, Yohan Duran entered in the eighth with a one-run lead. He gave up a two-run homer to Shea Langelliers. He took his first blown save and third loss. And then on Sunday, it was Griffin Jacks who got the ninth with a three-run lead.

He struck out two for his seventh save. and the velocity was down again for Duran in this outing. Overall, it's been down a little bit this year. Any concern were you guys looking to add Griffin Jackson, any of those deeper leagues here on Sunday? He'd be behind Chapman and Chad Green for me. I've been, I have Griffin Jackson a couple of 15 teamers, and I've just held on to him this whole time.

Ever since Yon Duran came back, Duron hasn't looked the same this year. He hasn't. He throws very hard, but he's not thrown as hard as last year. He's not missing nearly as many of bats. The usage has been a little funny sometimes. I think if you're in a league that values non-closers at all, Griffin Jacks is near the top of the heap. For the Padres on Friday, Robert Suarez and Jeremiah Estrada were both unavailable.

It was Enel de Los Santos, who got the final five outs for his first six. And then for the Rockies on Sunday, Jalen Beeks got the ninth with a one-run lead. He gave up two runs on three hits, took his fifth blown save and fourth loss. The Rockies are a mess, and they cannot close out games. I don't think that you should really be looking at anybody

in their bullpen. To stream or not to stream on Monday? Who do we have? All right, so Spencer Schwellenbach at the Cardinals, I think is probably fine. Yeah, he's a pretty good streamer this week. I think it's the pirates later on, too. He does.

He's the cover boy. The other names here... Like, Luis Medina and Griffin Canning are facing each other. They're both... I don't have faith in them, but... Yeah. Good matchups, so I don't know. I don't like it.

I don't like anybody else. Don't make me pick somebody else, please. You want to make me pick somebody else? I was going to say, does that just mean you're not going to pick somebody else? I'm not going to... They all have bad matchups here, except for Luis. Medina. Carson Spears, okay?

If you want me to pick a second one for Monday, I'll take him against the Pirates. And on Tuesday, is it Spears or Spires? I don't even know how to say his name. I don't know either. I failed. Zach Letell up against the Mariners,

that is a pretty good matchup there. Spires, according to baseball reference. Spires. I think Letell is fine. Yeah, Lattel. Good old Tyler Anderson going up against Oakland. And anybody else? I could see a good start there,

but I'm not necessarily expecting it. I could see a good start from Kyle Hendrix for many of the same reasons. And then the Blue Jays aren't a terrible matchup. Brian Bayo, obviously has been pretty disappointing, but he's in terms of talent, probably at the top of the list here.

So that would be the one that would surprise me maybe least. And he's coming off a great start against the Blue Jays, which may be advantage. I managed Blue Jays, but it was a great start. So I will go, my priority for Tuesday would be Lattel, followed by Bayo, followed by Anderson. I agree with that. All right, we're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank.

Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, and we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.