Fantasy Baseball Today - Wednesday Recap! Players to Add, Drop & Target via Trade! | Fantasy Baseball Advice

Episode Date: June 5, 2025

Chris Towers and Scott White recap Wednesday's action, go over the latest news and preview streamers for the next two days! Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow FBT on TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow our FBT team on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@FBTPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CPTowers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CBSScottWhite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@Roto_Frank⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join our Facebook group at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. And first pitch, rushing. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Welcome to Fantasy Baseball today.

It is June 5th. And I am not Frank Stample. I am Chris Towers here with Scott White. We're ready to Recap everything you need to know from Wednesday's action. We're recapping Wednesday's action. I've got some questions for you, Scott. It's been a while since we've spoken, like a week minus the like 20 seconds I was on yesterday's podcast for my little cameo appearance.

And so I've got some questions for you. We were going to recap everything you need to know from Wednesday. We've got an injury update for Pablo Lopez. But first, oh my goodness, oh my goodness gracious, a player of the day for Wednesday. Scott, who do you want to go with? Ah, we didn't talk about this beforehand. We did. So I'm going to, I'm just going to.

Do you want me to go first? Because I have a question for you as part of it. Oh, that's great. Go for it. All right. I'm going to go with McKenzie Gore, who had another exceptional outing. And he actually got a win against the Chicago Cubs. It was his first win in like a month and a half.

The nationals have scored zero runs effectively for him. Seven innings, three hits, no earn runs. one walk seven strikeouts. We've got a segment coming up later on today. Just wondering. That's what we're calling the segment. It's a little folksy aside. And just wondering, is McKenzie Gorge just an ace now? He has a 27, 287 ERA for the season. A 258 FIP. That's really good for a FIP. Leads baseball with 108 strikeouts. That is seven more than Garrett Crochet in second place. That's a lot of strikeouts on June 5th.

That is like, I don't want to like overstate it, but that's pretty close to a 300 strikeout pace there. Is McKenzie Gorge just an ace here? I mean, I'm leaning yes. I don't want to totally commit to it. I haven't

moved him up that high in my rankings. I hadn't noticed he led the majors and strikeouts. That's even more impressive than the stat I was going to offer, which is that he has the second best swinging strike rate among qualifiers behind just Terrick Scoobel. You know how much I like that statistic. The home run rate's kind of high. The batting average against is kind of high.

The walk rate is, it's not high anymore, but it's a little less than Ace-like. So I would say whip concerns exist here for Gore still in a way that's unbecoming. of an ace maybe. And then, of course, he has to prove he can take on an ace workload, which he hasn't yet. He got to 166 and a third inning, so it's not like they're going to shut up down or anything.

It's just... And he made 32 starts last year. He just wasn't efficient. Yeah, when the innings begin to pile up, does he start to lose something? He's close enough. Like, he's must start. We can go that far with Gore, at least.

And it's... It's upsetting to me because he was a big part of a dynasty trade in the Scott White Dynasty League last year. I had him for about as cheap as you could keep McKenzie Gore. And I included him in a trade to get George Kirby thinking I was upgrading at starting picture. Yeah. I'm not even from a dynasty perspective. I'm not sure that's an upgrade anymore. Yeah, I, in my most recent rankings update before this, this was last. last week. I had in 26th, that starting pitcher. The five names ahead of him, Robbie Ray, Spencer

Strider. I don't know about that one. Jesus Lazzardo, Brian Wu, and George Kirby. Pablo Lopez was also ahead of him. He's clearly behind. We'll talk about that shortly. So McKenzie Gore, at least 25th. Yeah, McKenzie Gore or Spencer Strider the rest of the way. I am inclined to say, as of today, McKenzie Gore. I want to move McGar up a lot here, I think. Mackenzie Gore or Jesus Luzardo. Kind of very similar pitchers.

Yeah, Gore. I've had them kind of right next to each other all season, but Gore ahead. And now I think a gap is opened up between them after Luzardo kind of blew up all his ratios last start. Yep. What about Robbie Ray or McKenzie Gore? So that's the range I want to move Gore to.

I think I'll have him behind Ray, but maybe right next to each other. So it's, it's, I'm looking at a group of four pitchers, Carlos Rodan, Chris Bubich, Robbie Ray, and McKenzie Gore. I think Gore belongs right there in that foursome. And those are the almost aces, I guess. They're all kind of breakouts this year. Obviously, we've seen this from. Rodon and Ray before, but not in a couple years. Different versions of both, too.

One more question in that range. What about Christopher Sanchez? Control's gotten a little wonky since that forearm injury. Is he behind those guys now? Yes. Now, I've had Sanchez ahead of Gore all season, and that's, I'm looking at it now. I'm seeing I have Gore two spots behind Sanchez, and that's where I'm like, eh, that doesn't need to be that way anymore.

Yeah, I think the key thing. for Gore is he has just become dominant against lefties, which had always been a problem for him, but he has that new harder slider. And all of a sudden, he's got like a 40% strikeout rate against lefties so far this season, a 108 whip. They have not been, teams have been even less willing to put lefties in line up against McKenzie Gore. And it's really helped him take a big step forward. So yeah, there's a lot to like about what he's doing right now. He has one pitch with worse than a 45% whiff rate. His foresemer?

Yeah, his foresemer, which nobody's has a 45% whiff rate. And even a 23% whiff rate on a four seamers, not bad. Yeah. It's not great, but it's average or above probably. So that's pretty good. Did that give you enough time to find an, oh, my goodness, gracious performance? No, because I was answering your question. I'm sorry.

let's go with you know there weren't a lot of good options tonight in terms of performances i think uh i think meryl kelly probably deserves that was another one i was going to ask you seven one hit innings against the braves um oh man did i write this number down right well what i have is since that nine run outing against the yankees on april third he has a two 555 ERA with 68 strikeouts and 67 innings over his past 11 starts. I don't know if that was the stat you were going to give or not. No. No, it wasn't.

It was a pretty good stat. It's a pretty good stat. So thank you for that. No, I was, I wrote down that he had one with. He didn't. He had 14 whiffs, which is actually a good number for Merrill Kelly. Well, a good number for anybody, but especially Merrill Kelly. He had a similar start.

to this another seven inning one hit outing a few turns ago and then since then i think there was a couple of rough starts in a row and you know i i i think he's probably overachieved this year on the whole but does he deserve to be a regular part of a fantasy rotation 343 are a point 99 whip now um i'd stop a little short of calling a must star but But certainly he feels like he's must start right now and is going to, and is going to be a regular part of your fantasy staff. Like I don't think it's going to be an on and off the waiver wire situation for Merrill Kelly this year. Just wondering, is Merrill Kelly a sell high kid?

Yeah, after a start like this. And it depends on what you, like, I have a hard time. seeing somebody eagerly buying Merrill Kelly because he's in his mid-30s and very well-known commodity at this point.

Aesthetically, not not somebody anybody's going to get excited about. So I think to really pull that off it would need to be a league with mostly casual participants

and somebody's really hurting for pitching and you just like, hey, I'm going to save your season with Merrill Kelly. Give me, I'm trying not to do a combo by a low-sell high situation here. So, I don't know, give me... Like Kevin Gosman?

Yeah, except I was... The person's getting... The person is unwilling to give a pitchment because that's where they're struggling. So I was thinking, like, I don't know, Christian Yelich or somebody like that. Okay. Well, Pablo Lopez is hurt.

Pretty seriously, unfortunately. We will talk about that after this break, but that's a person who you might be able to target in a Merri-Cully sell high because whoever has Pablo Lopez is going to need some starting pitching. So we'll talk about that right after this break. All right, we are back on fantasy baseball today

and Pablo Lopez will miss eight to 12 weeks with a grade two terrorist major strain in his right shoulder. The earliest he will be cleared to throw is in four weeks, and the twins said that they will try to provide an update in four weeks. So we probably won't hear anything until then. David Festa was scratched from his start at AAA on Wednesday and seems likely to join the twins' rotation on Thursday to replace Pablo Lopez. And we'll start there as far as the Pablo Lopez,

replacements because David Festa did have a 139 ERA, 27% strikeout rate in three starts with the twins in early April. But he gave up a lot of loud contact, didn't finish five innings in any of the three starts. Is he a must add pitcher now that he's got some runway in the twins rotation? I don't know that I'd go as far as must add, but I think in most leagues, somebody's going to want to add him. He was, we were disappointed to see him get optioned when he was.

and he, you know, he went to AAA. He was obviously pitching well there. The short outings are a concern. It's kind of a feature of the twins management, I think. But I will note now Zebby Matthews has had back-to-back starts of at least five innings, one of them was seven innings. The most recent here Wednesday was five innings. So it's not unthinkable.

And Festa has. enough of a swing and miss arsenal that uh you'll want to gosh he had nearly 18 nearly an 18% swinging strike rate at triple a this year it was 11% in the majors which is pretty pretty mid but there's upside for more I think and uh yeah there's there's enough upside here to be interested all right the most added starting pitchers on cbs fantasy right now are gonna be honest kind of underwhelming they're they're not exactly the most interesting names, but we'll talk through them.

Lance McCuller's 76% rostered. Do you think that needs to be higher? I didn't hear what you guys talked about yesterday. I think it does. The two starts he's had back to back. They were both dominant in different ways. The most recent one was against the pirates. It's unlikely that he's going to be this good with a three-month,

mile per hour drop and velocity. But when there are two starts as good as those back to back, I think you just, you have to take a shot and let it play out. If him and Fest are both available. Yeah, I'd rather have the colors. Okay. Yeah. Ryan Yarbrough, um, I don't have a lot of faith in McCullors.

I get your point that like my thought on him is mostly just, I expect it to fall apart pretty quickly, either through injury, unfortunately, or poor performance. But like you said, the two starts have been so good. And the one before the two starts, it wasn't a great start, but it was a lot of strikeouts from remembering correctly. He had like an eight strikeout in five innings or four. I think you're right.

Yeah. That, yeah, it's been impressive enough that you kind of just have to take the chance and see. But I think I have a little more faith in Festa. Okay. We've also got Ryan Yarbrough, who's 41% rostered. Noah Cameron, 61%. McAbel 55, Sawyer Gibson Long, 19%.

Well, I'm planning on talking more about McAbel and Sawyer Gibson Long later. If you want to get into them now, we can. They both pitched. They both made their returns to the majors. Neither was terribly impressive. Well, but obviously

Able was very impressive in his first start. Yeah, and I think a lot of people will look at Mick Able's start and say, oh, what are you talking about? He was impressive again. He allowed one and run in five in a third innings. He walked nobody. Struck out only two.

The zero walks is a big deal for a guy like him. Yeah. And he didn't have any walks in his debut. That was part of what was surprising because at AAA this year, 4.1 walks per nine. And he went down. That's a significant improvement. Yeah. It's still bad, but it's not as bad as before.

And he went down after. that first start and walked seven and two starts. So to see him come back and walk nobody again, it's like, okay, well, maybe, maybe, maybe there's something to it. But here's what I noticed that is of greater concern for Mick Gable. And I think it gets to what you're saying about it not being that impressive. All of his pitches were down two miles per hour or more from that debut. and they

he basically reverted to his minor league velocity. Everything was up in that debut. His control was absurdly good like a 75% strike rate.

We saw, I saw multiple tweets from people who cover Philly's minor leagues and they said they'd never seen that version of McABLE before. So I think he just,

I don't know if it was adrenaline-fueled or what, but it was it was not a standard he can live up to. I feel like this start confirmed it with the velocity dropping that much across the board and he only ended up with five whiffs on 78 pitches. The average exit velocity in this start,

97.4 miles per hour. So he got hit hard. Yeah. Only five whips, four on the four seamer, only one on the rest of his pitches. And just managed to avoid damage. And so if his, if, okay, so he managed to get.

get zero walks for a second straight start if the control reverts too yeah what is there to get excited about that's not to say mcabel shouldn't be rusted he absolutely should because yeah prospect pedigree i mean the overall even though the walks were high in the miners the overall numbers there there's a lot to like there too uh but i do think it's i think it's similar to lance mccullers where you're you're picking them up hoping for the best and expecting the worst i think we were hoping after that first start and then him getting recalled that he was going to give us something to get really excited about. And so I think what we're saying is not that he's bad, that there's not talent here,

none of that. It's just it wasn't as exciting as we hoped it would be based on how that first start went. I do think, you know, Sawyer Gibson Long, Detroit Tigers starting pitcher was his first start since 2023. He had Tommy John surgery and hip surgery. since then he's 19% rostered and I'm not saying he's a must roster player by any means but I think Sawyer Gibson Long is kind of interesting

there's a little bit of Reese Olson in his game where like the fast falls are not great but he gets a lot of whiffs with the secondaries yeah I liked him when he came up in 2023 I felt like he wasn't getting enough appreciation I actually included him in my top 100 prospects the following year, very low on the list. I didn't see him in any other top 100 lists.

And I noticed the same thing. I think because the fastball isn't great, evaluators just weren't giving him the time of day, but he got a ton of strikeouts in the minors, and he came up and did the same in the majors. I did not like that in this return to the majors, he threw his fastball 43% at the time. Because one thing, Olson has always been good about Reese Olson

is he knows not to throw that four seamer too much. And I think if Gibson Long is going to be successful, he'll need to do that as well. I don't, wasn't this just a spot start for Sawyer Gibson Long? Or am I remembering wrong? I think Rees Olson is too bad. Jackson Job's on the IL. Jackson Job's on the I.

But Reese Olson is dealing with that thumb injury or that finger injury. He's still, he had an injection. a couple of yesterday maybe. So he still, I think has just been limited to playing catch. Okay. So there's a little bit of runway here. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. We'll see if. And it was three iron runs and three point two innings, three strikeouts, one walk, five hits. Yeah.

It was not the sort of start that would make anybody rush out and add Gibson long, but it's, it is worth monitoring how he does for however long he has. Now, I've got five other pitchers who are, four of them are interesting, and then a couple are not so interesting,

but have been pitching well lately. So, we throw David Fest in here, but I want you to rank the following five pitchers. David Festa, Zabby Matthews, who pitched somewhat well on Wednesday. Yuri Perez, who will make his return from Tommy John's surgery next Monday. Edward Cabrera, who I have not been inclined to believe in,

because that's made me look dumb in the past. But I saw, you know, Saras pointed out, he's lowered his arm slot over the past five starts. He's traded his four seamer for his sinker. And he's had the best location plus of his career over those five starts. And then Shane Bieber, who is likely going to start a minor league rehab assignment, I think on Friday. And or we'll make his first, I think his first one was in a complex league game.

so he's going to double A, I think, on Friday, and is probably a couple of weeks removed from coming back from Tommy John surgery. So David Festa, Zebby Matthews, Yuri Perez, Edward Cabrera, Shane Bieber. They are all rostered between 31 and 75%. How do you rank those five? Yuri Perez is easy number one.

I agree. He's in my top 45 already. I've said this multiple times, and I've written it multiple times, And I just, is it crazy to say that Yuri Perez has best pitcher in baseball upside? Not the likeliest outcome, but upside. It's my, am I putting the teal colored glasses on? I would, I would prefer to say top 10 upside because there are some really good pitchers at the top.

So I, I'd want to hedge my bed a little there. But he has a ton of upside. There's, there's no disputing that. And yeah, I think his roster rate has been too slow to climb it. I guess it's up to 75% now, but it probably should have been that high two weeks ago. Yeah. If not sooner. And Shane Bieber, like, if you missed out on Yuri Perez at this point, Shane Bieber's your next chance because, yeah, he's very close to returning.

And he could be an ace when he gets back. He looked like he was trending toward becoming that when he went down last year. So those I think are the clear numbers 1 and 2. None of the others I'd go as far as to call must roster. I probably give Zebby Matthews the edge over Festa just because we have seen him give a little bit of length. And the twins obviously gave him priority over Festa at the last rotation opening. They're near equals in my mind. But I give Matthews the slight edge.

and then who else are Edward Cabrera yeah so what are the actual numbers during that time I thought I had them written down here because I did see the Eno Sarah's tweet as well Edward Cabrera

has he finished May with 28 strikeouts to eight walks in 27 innings while putting up a 2.00 ERA so eight walks and 27 innings that's good for anyone. For Edward Cabrera, that's like Prime Clayton Kershaw command. Yeah, so I had not really paid much attention to him

because he had yet to go six innings in a start. But that is interesting to make those kinds of changes. And if you're just looking at percentages, they look pretty good. Yeah, maybe Edward Cabrera, what do you think? Does he need to go ahead at the twins duo there? I don't think so because it's, I think both have team contacts working against them. But in the twins case, it's just can they convince Rocco Baldelli to let them go 90 pitches regularly?

And that might just mean they have to pitch well. I don't think there's anything Edward Cabrera can do to convince the Marlins to be a good, team. Right. So I think that's the, his, his feels more intractable than the twins hold, what they're being held back by. So I, you're, you're, you kind of filibustered there to help me calculate that during that same stretch, the five starts since the beginning of May, Edward Cabrera has a 65% strike rate and a 12% swinging strike rate. It used to be baseball reference if you just did the first game and the last game, it would show those percentages, but for some reason they did away with that and they just showed totals now.

So I have to calculate it. Yeah, those are good percentages. They're not amazing percentages, but they're definitely improvement for Edward Cabrera. Amazing for Edward Cabrera. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Okay.

And then Bailey Falter and Charlie Morton have been. both had good ERAs for like a month. Bailey Falter, I think, had the lowest ERA in baseball in the month of May. They're 25 and 24% rostered. We don't really. It's a clear step down even from Edward Cabrera with those two, right? Yeah, I would have to be under duress to bother with either Fulter or Morton. All right.

If I had to choose, it would be Morton because at least he can get some strikeouts. Yes. All right. Let's move on to the other news and notes from Wednesday, but unfortunately, like we said, Pablo Lopez out eight to 12 weeks with that shoulder strain. So that's such a bummer because he was actually having a good start to the season after being really frustrating the past couple of years. So we're just never going to get a non-frustrating Pablo Lopez season, I guess. All right, news and notes, Logan Gilbert coming back from that flexor tendon strain through 60 pitches in his second rehab outing on Wednesday,

allowing two runs over three innings at AAA Tacoma. He will likely need, I would guess, at least one more rehab. start but probably only one more if it goes well before he's being able to be activated. J.T. Riyomuto left Wednesday's game after being hit by a foul ball in the groin area. He left late, didn't see any updates. That's one of those injuries that you just kind of have no idea. Sometimes it just happens and guys are back tomorrow. Sometimes guys have to go on the IL. So I hope he's okay. Carlos Correa was scratch Wednesday with back tightness. Brooks Lee took over for him. Correa had started 11 of 12 games since that concussion had been hitting really well.

So this is frustrating. Hopefully it's just a one day thing. Mark Vientos, hamstring, strain is a low grade one. And he will be shut down for 10 to 14 days before moving himself back up and trying to get back in. Do you think there's any way he just doesn't have a full-time job waiting for him when he gets back? I think there's a way. Yeah. I mean, Brett Beatty's been better, certainly.

since returning from the miners. And I believe... They're really all season. I believe you've been playing more consistently than Viantos had. In the field, yeah. 10 to 14 days, I guess that doesn't necessarily mean he'll be returning after that. But it doesn't look like a lengthy absence for Viantos. So I don't know if Bady will have enough time, especially since Ronnie Maricio is probably

going to steal some of bats during that time. but yeah, Viantos playing time had already been trending down, so he didn't need this. I dropped him a pretty good amount in my third base rankings with this entry. I'd kind of been waiting for an excuse to do so. Yeah, Sean Mnaya will pitch for High A Brooklyn on Friday in his first rehab appearance, coming back from that oblique injury. He'll likely need, I would guess, three or four starts before he's promoted. Is he?

Got a lot of shares. I got a lot of shares. He's about 60% rostered. Is he below Shane Bieber? Yeah. Below Edward Cabrera? I don't think, I mean, now that he's starting rehab assignment, with that knowledge, I think I'd rather have Manaya. Like if, so Chris Bubich was my most drafted player.

I've talked about that a few times. Sean Mania may have been my second most draft. drafted player. That sounds right. He was your player you loved, right? Yeah, going back four months now. That was four months ago. Yeah.

All right. Tommy Edmund has missed the past two games due to an ankle injury. Michael Kopeck faced hitters for the first time in a live batting practice session as he continues to work his way back from a shoulder injury. That's relevant just because Tanner Scott has been shaky and they've kind of declined to name him the official closer in recent days. but Quebec's still got a ways to go. Jordan Westberg will play Wednesday and Thursday at AAA Norfolk

before determining the next steps, which will probably be a return to the majors as soon as this weekend from his hamstring injury, so that's a good sign. Kyle Tucker missed his second game in a row due to a jammed right ring finger, but he is still expected to avoid the IL. Kerry Carpenter was scratched from Wednesday's lineup with right hamstring tightness.

Were you going to say something? Nope. Okay. Jason Dominguez was out of the lineup yet. Again, on Wednesdays, he considers to deal with swelling in his left thumb. He was available off the bench and sounds like he will be back in the lineup Thursday or Friday. The Yankees will decide what the next step for John Carlos Stan is in the next 24 hours, which is a weird way to phrase it.

He's recovering from issues in both elbows this offseason, but has been playing in simulated games at the team's complex, so a rehab stint seems like the logical next step for him. Tyler O'Neill will begin a rehab assignment at AAA this weekend, could be back next week from his shoulder injury. Jorge Salere was pulled from Wednesday's game to do groin tightness, but manager Ron Washington told reporters, he hopes Salair will be fine for Friday's game against Seattle.

Cutter Crawford was pulled from his rehab assignment due to right wrist inflammation. He's been working his way back from a knee injury that dates back to the end of last season. Don't really have much expectation for Cutter Crawford at this point, right? He would be behind every pitcher we talked about, probably including Charlie Morton and Bailey Falter. That is damning. Max Muncie, the other Max Muncie, we've got Maximum Max Muncie back in the majors

because he was recalled from AAA. This is the guy in the Oakland Athletics, the Sacramento Athletics. He hit just 176 and 21 games early in the season, but did have a 901 OPS at AAA. Alec Manoa coming back from Tommy John surgery, could throw a live batting practice next week. Ben lively had Tommy John's surgery with a right flexor tendon repair and will be out 12 to 14 months.

Xander Bogart's left Wednesday's game with shoulder soreness and Kyle Harrison, who was not very good on Wednesday, left with a bruised elbow after getting hit by a comebacker. Five run runs, four and a third innings, nine hits, three strikeouts just remains two hitable. Kyle Harrison does. So hopefully the injury is not severe, but not sure it matters too. much for fantasy and we are going to take one more break and then we'll be back to talk about the rest of what you need to know from Wednesday's action right after this welcome back to fantasy baseball today I am Chris towers I'm here with Scott White we're going to talk about some waiver wire stuff some guys to add some guys to some hitters to add some pictures to add but first you got

to drop someone so I've got a list of six names we're going to call this segment go ahead and drop them question mark and we'll start with Lucas Gialito who is still somehow 47% rostered and he got bombed again today by the angels his ERA is up to 642 he gave up seven earn runs in one and two thirds innings on eight hits go ahead and drop Lucas Jolito everywhere so this is a guy who had one whiff it wasn't Merrill Kelly who was Lucas Gialito one whiff on 43 pitches it's a bummer you know I feel like we're kind of getting

jerked back and forth here with him because he'll have a start where there's some reasons for optimism and then he'll follow it up with it just gets bombed like this. I think we need more than reasons for optimism at this point though, you know? Like we need like, not just like

oh, we need like, oh. Yeah, I mean, he doesn't need to be rostered. Like that's the bottom line. I'm just wary of totally writing him off well yeah what if he what if he throws six innings one earn runs

seven strikeouts next time out that's where I've been with like sandy alcantra all season it's like i get it and i don't really see anything there but it's sandy alcatra yeah it's just and gilito it's been longer since he was good so right right the the main thing

you know in between the oh that start was actually good those moments is that his velocity is, it has remained back to where it was since he was last good. So maybe there's something for him to put together here, but it's, there are more interesting pitchers. Both of the Twins guys, Zeb Matthews, and David Fest are more interesting.

And I just think. I think Charlie Morton might be more interesting at this point. I wouldn't go that far. But yeah, I think most leagues, He doesn't need to be rostered 47%. All right, Tony Gonsolins, still 61% rostered. This wasn't a terrible start, two earn runs and five innings. It started out pretty bad, and then he righted the ship.

Three hits, three walks, six strikeouts. The problem is he'll have five earn runs in his first three starts combined. He has a 675 ERA and four starts since then. 17 strikeouts, 14 walks, and he's still 161% rostered. it's fine to drop Tony Gonsulin, right? Would you rather have Tony Gonsland or Edward Cabrera at this point? It's not unthinkable to drop Gonsolin, but I do think I'd prefer him to Edward Cabrera if only.

And it's not only, but if only, because of the team context. So the main issue I see here with Gonsolin is that he's just walking too many guys and that's uncharacteristic during his best seasons it was really good control so the fact that Gonsolin is now issued

three walks or more in four straight starts it just seems like something he's going to get past because he has the history of it and so I look at this start he had 17 swinging strikes on 90 pitches they did the the pitches still look good

and he has the best supporting cast you could ask for and so while I think our initial enthusiasm for Gonsolin when he you know those first couple stars were so good and he was must add across the board.

Okay, we've cooled on that. I would still prefer to hold on to him if it's possible. Okay. Jordan Romano, we can just drop him, right? It wasn't a safe situation on Wednesday, but he lost the game for the Phillies against the Blue Jays, gave up one run on two hits. He had a 253 ERA in May overall.

It looked like he was turning around, but 736 for the season and has given up five runs in his past 4.2 innings of work. The Phillies have still showed faith in him lately, but I think they've got to make a change, right? I don't know. I mean, they've been so since Alvarado went down and really before then. They've been pretty consistent about using Romano as their closer, and for a while there, it looked like he'd figured things out. But yeah, five run runs in his last five innings.

That ERA is not coming down fast enough. Do they change to Matt Strom? Until they show that they are, Romano has to remain, he's the Phillies closer right now. So he has to remain rostered in leagues where every closer is rostered. Does he need to be rostered over like Will Vest or Emiliano Pagan or Daniel Palencia?

Yeah, no. The one I'd hedge on maybe is Pagan. who has also looked vulnerable recently. But I would definitely take Palencia and vest over. I think the thing that hurts Romano more than Pagan is just I don't know who the Reds would go to. Whereas the Phillies have at least one other viable alternative. Ryan Kirkring's been a little shaky as well. So I don't know if he's.

Yeah, I think it would just be strong. Yeah, I think so. This one's easy, but he is 34% rostered, so we'll just get it out of the way. Kumar Rocker made his return to the rotation for the Rangers, three and a third inning, six hits, five earned runs, two walks, five strikeouts. He has an 887 ERA for the season. He was throwing harder in this one, about two to five, four miles per hour on everything. His slider appears to have been reclassified as a cutter by baseball savant, which is weird because there was a stretch where it, might have been called a curveball too.

It's just a weird pitch. Yeah. And he got 16 whiffs on 66 pitches, but I think Kumar Rocker's going to end up in the bullpen before long. Like if they had the healthy arms, I think he'd be there already. And look,

maybe he'd be an awesome closer right now. I could see that. Just like go out and air it out for 14 pitches. He could be the Rangers closer, but right now they're not doing that. He's too highly. rostered at 34%. Yeah, there's no reason to roster rocker

outside of like dynasty leads, I would say. Shane Boss, this wasn't a terrible start, relatively speaking, three run, five innings, one walk, five strikeouts. But it's not like it was super encouraging. Like it wasn't quite as bad as Max Meyer against the Rockies, but three and runs and five innings against this Rangers lineup, it's not very promising, given how bad Shane Boss has been.

He doesn't need to be a hundred percent roster, does he? No. No, I, I dropped him. What was that? Drop him for Yuri Perez? Oh, yeah, not even close. Dropping for Sevy Matthews or David Festa? That is a closer call.

I actually have Boz just a few spots ahead of those guys. But it wouldn't hurt my feelings if you dropped them. You say it wasn't super encouraging. It was through four innings. I was like, wow. Shane Boz's back. But then it all kind of fell apart. He got a ton of whiffs on the fastball,

but I don't know if there's any explanation for that. It's not like the induced vertical break was up or anything like that. So it's, I think I think Shane Boz has more upside than both Zebby Matthews and David Festa.

And I think he has less downside than both he hasn't been sent down to AAA yet it's just will do I have right now this very moment do I have more trust in Zebby Matthews and David Festa than Shane Baws and that's

probably pretty close if not Baws being behind them so you weigh all those factors boss comes out slightly ahead for me but again I wouldn't break my heart if you drop them All right. And then last one.

Is it time to just drop Christian Walker? I've been hesitant. He's remained in my top 12 first baseman. His track record is so strong. He's just not getting any better. He's hitting 208 with a 630 OPS for the season. He went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts today. He is three for 19 with 10 strikeouts in his past six games.

It's just not getting better is my, is my biggest concern. Yeah, and he's old, and there have been a number of emergent first basemen. So if it's a non-corner infield league, it's like a standard head-to-head lineup league, it's not unthinkable. I actually finally did move Walker down my rankings. I dropped him to 16th at first base, so that put him behind Reese Hoskins and Jonathan Oronda. Torkelson.

Torkelson. Yeah, Torkelson's up to 10th for me now. to Ben Rice. Ben Rice is behind Walker because it's playing time. Soderstrom. I do have Walker. Soderstrom's ahead of Walker. I do have Walker just a little ahead of Nick Kurtz and Jack Caggleone.

Torkelson has been losing a little bit of playing time lately, but I don't know if that's like a pattern or if it just happens to be a couple days off in the past week, I think. But Torkelson? Yeah. But I don't think it's been like a long-term thing. He's just, he's slowed down. just like Soder Shr has a little bit. Not as much as Soderstrom.

So I brought up Walker being ahead of Caglione. I think, how am I going to explain this? I think Caglione needs to be more rostered than Walker. Like if surely Caglion's rostered virtually everywhere at this point, right? So it's not even going to be still available. 89% of roster. Yeah, that's kind of a moot point, I guess. but if you have the choice,

I got to free up a roster spot and I have Walker and also Caglione. You got to see it through with Caglione, I feel like more than you do with Walker at this point. All right, let's talk about some players to add and there weren't a ton of hitters or frankly pitchers on Wednesday that I felt super confident in.

But I will point out, Sano Raphael hit the cheapest home run of the season. today. I believe it was a game winning 308 foot home run for the Red Sox. Uh, 308 feet. That's a very short home run. That will literally only happen in Fenway Park. He got to the one spot in the one ballpark. But he does have four homers over his past seven games. And said, our Raphael is straight, right? Three straight with a homer. That you, you, you sound confident. So I'll say yeah. It is. Yes. Three straight with a

Homer. 347 expected Woba is much better than it was last season. His plate discipline's been a little better. Is he a must roster player? So I'm going to turn this into a Pete Crowe Armstrong discussion because during the height of Pete Crowe Armstrong skepticism, one of the things I kept saying was that the profile looks very similar to Seidon-Raphaela.

So why would you not show the same fate in Raphael? If you have it in Crow Armstrong. And if you look at the expected stats, that's still true in a good way. Like P. Crow Armstrong's expected stats look good now, and so do Seidon-Raphaelah's. 274 expected batting average, 491 expected slug.

Those are really good, expected numbers. Here's the difference. P. Crow Armstrong's pull air rate has become one of the best in baseball. It didn't start out that way this year, but it has become that. Raphael is one of the worst. And I'm not sure how much those expected stats account for it. I feel like... Not very.

I don't think they account for direction left and right. And it seems like that is a key ingredient that's missing because pull air rate is like the stat du jour for me and that explains why Raphael I think has fallen so short of those expected stats so I would say he's far from us roster

especially given the context of that third home run in his many days all right some waiver wire pitchers and again none of these guys are particularly interesting so I think we just moved past them pretty quickly but Mike Burroughs was pretty good for the first time for the pirate

five and a third, five hits, zero and runs, zero walks, six strikeouts. He's got a decent minor league track record. He's got a little bit of prospect pedigree. So I think it's a name to keep an eye on. We talked about sorry Gibson Long. Cade Povich has been better lately, but still not very good. Still gives up too much hard contact. Emerson Hancock, he's got a 291 ERA over his past four starts, but 16 strikeouts in 21 and

two-thirds innings. I don't think there's much beyond. deep leagues for any of these guys, right? Agree. All right, let's move on to our segment called Just Wondering. Dot, dot, dot. Just wondering. We'll start off with an easy one. How embarrassed should I be as a Marlins fan that they just got swept by the Rockies? How embarrassed should I be as a Braves fan that they just got one hit by Merrill Kelly?

The Rockies. You should be embarrassed. It's bad. All right. just wondering, Nick Povetta, he gave up five earned runs and six innings, five strikeouts,

one hit or one walk, five, six hits on Wednesday against the Giants. He's got a 463 ERA since the start of May, but home runs really haven't been the issue. I don't think he's had allowed a multi-homer game. He's had three quality starts in three straight quality starts, and it would have been four,

except they brought him out for the seventh inning. He gave up two more runs today. It's just wondering, any concerns here for Nick Povetta? I think that's kind of the 463RA since the start of May is kind of a fun with sample size thing. Oh, yeah. He had one really bad start, and then this one was a kind of bad start, and then the other starts were all great. The other four starts were all great. Hey, look, I'm just wondering.

Yeah. I'm just asking questions. His previous three prior to this were really, really good. So I think he could stop asking questions. I think Nick Pivet is good. All right. The Reds placed Hunter Green on the IL on Wednesday with a groin strain. It's the second time he's dealt with this injury this season.

The previous one was pretty much a minimum stay on the IL. I would expect they will be more cautious this time around. Just wondering, are we sure he's still a top 20 pitcher when he comes back? No. He was top 12 pitcher at one point for you, right? Yeah, and I've kept him there, though I may need to revisit it now that he's back on the IL. In fact, I probably should revisit it now that he's back on the IL. Are we sure he's top 20?

I mean, look, we're not sure of anything. We're not sure we were giving Hunter Green. He kind of forced his way in there despite our... lingering concerns about him, we just couldn't ignore how dominant he was being. So we found ways to get him that high pitchers

that we could justify moving him ahead of. But then he comes back from that growing injury the first time looks pretty shaky. Yeah, I mean, he didn't look as dominant. Shaky might be a little strong. The control was pretty bad, right? I'd have to look at the game log. That wasn't my recollection of it,

just that he wasn't as overpower. But, uh, no, I guess no. You're right. Yeah. I was overstating the case there. Yeah. So I still have so 20th top 20. Mm-hmm. That that's kind of that group before I was talking about at the start of the show, Carlos Rodan, Chris Bubidge, Robbie Ray and now McKenzie Gore that they're all around 20th there. would I take Hunter Green over all of them? Yeah. So right now or when he gets back? I'm assuming it won't be that long of an absence for him. So right now.

Okay. Unless you disagree. I mean, even if you do disagree, we might just disagree. I just have no idea how long he's going to be out. I don't either. I'm not sure he's so much better than those guys that I'll take him when he's currently hurt. Yeah, I'm not sure either, but he was when he was healthy. Yeah.

Okay. Andrew Abbott versus the Brewers finally had a bad start after I started to buy in. Of course. Five earn runs over six innings, six strikeouts. Still 13 whiffs on 100 pitches. Still 85.6 mile per hour average exit velocity. Still only five hard hit balls. Still has a 218.

ERA with like a 3xERA. Just wondering, what do we make of this guy at this point? What's Andrew Abbott's deal? He's 46th than my starting pitcher rankings. Yeah. He's 49th for me. So that's, you know,

we're not buying into him like he actually deserved a 151 ERA or now 218 ERA. But, but I think there's something here. I think the extreme fly ball rate extreme fly ball rate well and extreme fly balls

which are there there's two different things there he gives up a lot of fly balls he has an extreme fly ball rate and the fly balls he gives up are hit really high okay yeah you know what I mean like it's not necessarily pop-ups but it's it's harmless flyballs

for the most part yeah so weak quality contact quality. In fact, I would like to look up. Well, so since the start of last season, out of 108 pitchers who have thrown at least 2,500 pitches, he has the 14th best expected Wobon contact. Okay. And he has sustained that from last season while getting the strikeout rate like nine points higher than it was last year. That's what I'm buying into here.

Yeah. So it's the number I was looking up, 79th percentile for average exit velocity. And then the very high fly ball rate. Like if he pitched in a big park, it'd be much easier to buy. That fly ball rate, even with the week contact, it's scary at the most homer-friendly ballpark and baseball. It's a slim margin for error. So between that and the fact that I think this was now his fourth start of six plus innings, he hasn't been working deep into games.

This is the fourth start of that length. So those are the main things holding me back on Abbott, not buying into him as more than a top 50 pitcher, but look, top 50 is... Top 50's pretty good. Top 50 puts him at the same... Like, he's one spot ahead of Drew Rasmussen for me. And I think there are similar concerns for him, even though the ERA is great.

Okay, let's be the only national baseball podcast to spend like seven consecutive minutes or whatever it is, talking about the Cincinnati Reds this season. Matt McLean has been batting in the bottom of three of the lineup, almost

exclusively for the past four weeks. He has an OPS below 500 in that span. Just wondering, is there any reason to keep him around at this point? Yeah, well, it depends on the league. Yeah. I think in middle-in field leagues, yes. I think in like a head-to-head points league, no. You could probably do better.

I can come up with 12-second baseman that I'd rather have than him. at this point, and he's doing you more harm than good, keeping him in your lineup. Is that true? I thought I lowered him. I'm not sure my rankings are right here, because I feel like I lowered him. I'll have to check that again.

I think he's better than this, is the bottom line. I don't think he's as good as he was as a rookie. And we've talked about that a lot since then. but I was not expecting him to hit 175 either. And I, you know, I understand if he's killing you, having to swap him out for somebody else. But I think in the long run, he's going to be, he's going to be top 12 at the position in the long run,

or at least from today forward. I still haven't ranked that way, but man, we got to see something at some point because we haven't seen anything in, I don't know, like 21 months because he got hurt in like August of 2023 and that's the last time we saw him before this season. All right.

Hunter Goodman continues to stand out, finish the series in Miami with six extra base hits including three homers in three games. Just wondering, is he just a top 12 catcher in all formats? He is for me. Yeah, I've dropped J.T. Real Muto behind him now. And I think I still have a good, Augustine Ramirez ahead of Goodman. I have as well.

Those two are the ones that I'm looking at askance, if that's the right usage of that word with Hunter Goodman. Yeah. Yeah, I could see moving Goodman ahead of him. I think Ramirez is more talented. Mm-hmm. But he's slumping. Yeah, I mean, Goodman has been productive.

all year and he plays a ton and he's only sat like one or two games. I mean, Ramirez is playing a ton too. So I think that's the main reason I kept him ahead. But they're both top 12, top 11 technically for me.

All right. Let's see. The Giants DFA Lamont Wade on Wednesday, which doesn't really matter for fantasy. Just wondering, is Bryce Eldridge, the next big name to stash? He was called up to AAA yesterday.

The year for the first base prospect, apparently. You know, I know there are some people who have a ton of enthusiasm for him, and I'm not saying he's not a talented guy, but it doesn't, the numbers don't slap you in the face the way they do for the other two have got called up. Nick Kurtz and Jack Caglione, and he's still so young. A little more swing and miss, a little less in-game pass. hour yeah he's just 20 i mean both of those guys were making their pro debut not their major league debut they're pro debut they were older than eldridge is right now and so it it

wouldn't surprise me if eldridge debuted this year i don't think it's i don't think it's on the cusp of happening so um i have a prospects report coming out may already be out by the time you're listening to this i don't have eldridge eldridge brys eldridge in my five on the verge All right, and then Matthew Boyd, good again. Seven and third, two earned runs, six strikeouts, one walk. Just what do we make of this? That's the question. I don't really get it.

I don't understand. Maybe you have a better sense for what Matthew Boyd is doing and how he's doing it. Well, it's looked a lot better since the start of May because early on, it really didn't make sense to me. And people were pressuring me to buy in and I wasn't doing it. But basically all my concerns have been answered since then his last six starts. So again, that goes back to the start of May. Boyd has issued three total walks in those six starts. 10.3K per 9.

It wasn't missing bats early. 10.3K per 9. A near 12% swinging strike rate is pretty good. Near 70% strike percentage. So control has been great. He's been missing more bats. He's been working deeper into games, all but one of those six starts. six plus innings.

That's basically every concern I had about him in April. So he's been around a long time and hasn't been particularly useful in fantasy for most of it, but he's useful right now in every way you could want. Top 60 starting pitcher? Where did I move Boyd when I last updated? I don't have him that high. but I could. He's not far outside of that

and rearranging enough of these names. I could see getting him there. Okay. All right. We've got some pitching leftovers. Chris Sale. Pretty typical Chris Sale stuff. Six innings, one earned run,

10 strikeouts, four walks. That's high, but who cares? Still like a 11-whip because he only allowed three hits. He's awesome. Jose Barrios, five strikeouts, one earn run over six innings pitched versus Philadelphia. That's a good start.

Luis Ortiz, five and two thirds shut out, seven strikeouts, three walks, three hits against the Yankees. That's also a good start. And Clark Schmidt looked like it was going to be a really bad start. He gave up three run runs in the first inning, but he settled in, almost got the quality start, fell one out short, five and two thirds, eight strikeouts, one walk. Anything to add on these four pitchers?

Barrios is doing his thing again. he now has six quality starts in his last seven and is probably just going to end up having a typical Jose Barrio stat line when all said and done. Yep, yep. Three 60-ish ERA, kind of not great whip. Yeah, that's who he is. Luis Ortiz has become a really good batmisser,

and I want to buy into him more. I just, I'm not sure he's good in anything else. and efficiency issues exist with all the walks. And so, you know, he remains more of a streamer type for me. And I would say the same is true for Clark Schmidt. All right. Let's do the call to the bullpen. Justin Martinez blew a multi-inning saved chance on Wednesday.

Allowed one run on four walks, also recorded four of his five outs via the strikeout and got the win. How are we feeling about Justin Martinez right now? I was feeling better before today. Yeah. Four walks and two innings will do that. But the main thing is that we haven't seen the velocity slip like it did before he went on the I.L. It's been fine ever since then. And there are really no impediments to him closing.

So I think, look, I like him more than Jordan Romano. Yeah. All right. The Camilla Doval had pitched two of the previous three games, so probably wasn't available for the Giants. They tried to get Ryan Walker a save and he allowed two hits while recording one out before being pulled for Randy Rodriguez, who got the final two outs. Deval's been a teeny tiny bit shaky lately and the strikeouts haven't been there. Walker obviously I think is kind of out of the picture. Do we need to be picking up Randy Rodriguez as a speculative ad just in case?

He has been absurdly dominant, like sub one whip, sub one ERA, like 38 strikeouts, 24 innings. It's been one of the arguably the best reliever in baseball so far this season, Randy Rodriguez, for the Giants. He sure has. I'm not quite sure where it came from. This is news to me because I was thinking Tyler Rogers would be next in line, but now probably would be Rodriguez. I don't think they're going to pull the plug on Camilla Duval anytime soon,

but maybe in an in L-only league, a preemptive stash of Randy Rodriguez. I mean, he might help in ratios of nothing else. All right, Felix Bautista allowed a hit and a walk but got the save. Still seems just a little bit shaky. Detroit, Will Vest work the seventh and eighth on Wednesday, and Tommy Canley got the ninth. I don't know. Look, Will Vest previous four appearances were all for a save.

So I think it's just, it's sort of like what was happening with Yon, Duran, and Griffin Jackson, the Twins bullpen last year. Duran was the closer, but, you know, occasionally he didn't close. And I think that's what's going on with Vest and Canely. All right. Jeff Hoffman allowed one hit, but needed just seven pitches for the save for the Blue Jays. David Bednar struck out two for the save. Dennis Santana hasn't had a save since May 21st.

Is this just David Bednar's job now again? It would seem so. But the irony is I think Dennis Santana's better now. Like, he's actually good, I think. The strikeouts weren't there early on, but the swinging strikeout, the swinging strike rate was always good. And the strikeouts are really big. to pick up lately.

So I don't know if Petnar can hold on to it after saying for most of this year, I don't know that Santana can hold on to it. All right. And then Tyler Kinley got the save for the Rockies. I think Zach Adnos got the previous save, but we don't care. I don't care. It's not worth trying to figure out. Not worth it.

Maybe if they got to play the Marlins 50 or 60 more times, they might have no saves to matter. I am done caring about Rockies, White Sox. and I think even the Marlins bullpins because Clayton McCullough just he's he's he's he's he's coming's level of trollery I love that I love that um all right

to stream or not to stream we got David Festa likely to start against the athletics but that's in Sacramento Slate Ciconey at New York Yankees uh Miles Michaelis versus the Royals Jack lighter at Tampa Bay not not very many good options on Thursday huh Nope, nope, that's what Frank and I were saying yesterday.

I think lighter against the race maybe is probably the best. Maybe Festa, but I just don't like either park. Yeah, I would prefer not to, but those aren't the best. All right, Friday, we've got Edward Cabrera at the raise. Patrick Corbyn revenge game against the Washington Nationals. He's got a sub-4 ERA somehow. Bailey Falter versus the Phillies, Ben Brown at Detroit, Davis Martin versus the Royals

Chad Patrick versus the Padres and Dean Kramer against the athletics again not a lot of great options on Friday who's your favorite yeah I think we got to say Combrera based on

everything we've been saying about them all show and even though it's not a great venue I believe his ground ball rate's not as good as he used to be so that's not going to help Carrara but yeah I still think you'd be the first choice Friday and I put Chad Patrick second.

All right. That is going to do it for fantasy baseball today. For Scott, I am Chris. We'll be back tomorrow. See you then.