Fantasy Baseball Today - Week 1 Overreactions! Sandy Alcantara IS BACK! (4/2 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 2, 2026

Sandy Alcantara just tossed a Maddux (2:30)! ... Gavin Williams can be one of the best when he's on (8:22). ... News (15:55): Konnor Griffin and the Pirates are deep in extension talks. ... Cam Schlittler and Jacob Misiorowski look like aces early on (25:15). ... Shea Langeliers is this year's Cal Raleigh (40:13)! ... Justin Crawford is hitting well, now he just needs to run (50:37). ... Mike Burrows had a solid second start (56:10). ... It was a weird day for these ace starting pitchers (1:00:25). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:11:30). Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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, watching. 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. Sandy Alcantara is back.

Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, April 2nd. I am Frank Stample, joined by Chris Towers. Today on the show, we have a full week of baseball in the books. Now it's time to overreact. We'll do a little buy or sell. It was a weird day for aces. Strikeouts were down. For most of them, some of them, not all of them.

But yeah, just weird day for some big names. Lots to talk about only one place to start, Chris. Your Miami Marlins. Sandy. Tell me about it. Stud. Is he back? Or what?

Uh, Sandy was back in the second half last year. I, we talked about it all spring and I couldn't quite understand why nobody really bought into it. But Sandy O'Connor and the second half of last season had like a 313 ERA. His strikeout rate was relatively low, but it's never all that high. But his walk rate was well under control. His command looked much better. And I was drafting him as a number two starter for most of the springs. So I have no trouble buying that he's back.

And look, it's 12 strikeouts in 16 innings. Okay, that's a little low. It is one of those ones where it probably looks a little better. Like 675K per 9 sounds terrible, but he's been so efficient so far, seven hits, two walks allowed in 16 innings, that it's actually a 21.4% strikeout rate, which is right around average. You'd like a little more. And then when he was at his best, he was more like 23.

24%, so there's still some room to improve there. But this was a classic Sandy O'Connor start. I mean, there is nobody in baseball that's capable of pitching like this consistently. You'll see a Maddox ever once in a while, but I think the stat I saw was the only team with more complete games than Sandy Alcantra in the last like four seasons is the Phillies. Teams. Team, team, yes. Team. Like the Phillies have Zach Wheeler. That guy's pretty good. They've got, you know, Aaron Nola was good for a big part of that stretch. Like that is, that is bonkers. He is on a

a level all in his own when it comes to the volume you can get. And I don't see any reason why Sandy Alcounterer shouldn't give us 200 pretty good innings this season. I don't think it's going to be a sub three ERA like it was in 2022 when he won the Salyang. But I think he's going to be really good. I think he is really good. So I, um, yeah, I have no trouble buying into Sandy O'Connor's hot start. I think he's good. Yeah, let's put some numbers on this right here. Three hit shutout against the White Sox.

Seven strikeouts to zero walks, had 15 swinging strikes on 93 pitches. I saw this tweet from Sarah Lang's. This was Sandy's 10th complete game since the start of 2022. That's two more than anyone else in Major League Baseball during that span. and his last complete game came in 2023. And he missed an entire year. So again, just to display the level of volume that Sandy gives you when he is at his best.

And his secondary pitches, I mean, those are the things that really stand out to me, Chris, is early on last season, he really struggled to throw strikes, location was off, you know, the first half coming back from Tommy John's surgery, clearly did not look like himself. You read off the numbers

that he produced in the second half of the season. but so far it's only two starts. His change-up and his slider have looked really, really good in each of these first two starts here for Sandy. He tore a lot of strikes in this one. 74% of his pitches went for strikes. And I will point out we have to do this that the matchups, you know, he has faced the Rockies

in Miami and the White Soxie-Maiami. So it's really, really good matchups here for Sandy Alcanser. but I don't know that he'll get all the way back to the Sy Young pitcher that he was. But he was really good down the stretch last season. I think there was trepidation around the fantasy industry, just like what version of Sandy we were going to get. And I know projections didn't really love him. So I think that also pushes value down a little bit.

But I think we can get like a borderline SP2, SP3 version of Sandy Alconz for this season. Yeah. I mean, he was SP44. in Fantasy Pro's ADP. He was behind McKenzie Gore. Now, I liked McKenzie Gore, but there was no world in which I was taking McKenzie Gore over Sandy Alcantra.

So, yeah, I think Alcantra was just being undervalued. And it sort of makes sense why he would be undervalued. It's kind of like Luis Castillo, you know, who was awesome in his first start, where the likeliest outcome for those guys is they are just must-start pitchers. but you couldn't really talk yourself into Luis Castillo and Sandy Alcantra being huge breakouts, right? Like I had Alcantra on my breakouts list, but more as a bounceback candidate. But when you're talking about like, you know, Nick Lodolo, who should be back in the next week,

or Cam Schlittler, who's been awesome, or Chase Burns, who look great, you can talk yourself into those guys taking a huge step forward and being significant difference makers. Whereas Alcantra, Luis Castillo, they're older, they're more well established. You sort of know what you're going to get, but I think even in that context, Alcantra was being undervalued. And I think this goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, because there are a lot of people who panic this time of year. If you can turn San Diego Contra into a top 15 starting pitcher who has struggled so far, Cole Reagan's, or even somebody hired than that. Yes.

Garrett Crochet struggled today. He's looked a little weird the last month since the spring. I don't think Sandy is just like, hey, we got to sell high before the wheels fall off. I think he's actually going to be really good. But if you can turn him into one of those top 15 starting pitcher ace type guys

that we were talking about before the season, go out and try to do it. Or you could just keep Sandy. Again, I think he's going to be pretty darn good this season. Let's talk about somebody else who, man, one of the best starts of his career, I would say, up against the Dodgers. Gavin Williams, and this is

this is what makes Gavin Williams so frustrating because you know it's in there, man. You know the talent is there with Gavin Williams. He was rated as one of the top pitching prospects when he was climbing throughout Cleveland's organization. But he's been erratic through up to this point in his career. And last year for most of the season, the surface level numbers were,

Good. The underlying numbers didn't completely buy it, but he did legitimately get better down the stretch. Man, up against the Dodgers, seven shutout innings, 10 strikeouts here for Gavin Williams. 16 swinging strikes on 85 pitches. His first start was wacky. He had six walks over five innings. He allowed three runs after that start. He said that he figured out a mechanical fix, and I guess he was right because look what he did in the second start. He changed up the pitch mix. He threw a lot more sweepers in this one. 27% usage and that pitch was great. It had six whiffs, a 60% whiff rate, 30% CSW. The pitch itself was a little bit different.

The velocity was down a little bit. It had more movement in this one. And his curveball was also great. It had six whiffs as well. So the breaking stuff just really working for Gavin Williams. And I feel like Chris, that was the catalyst for him down the stretch too, was kind of leaning more on those breaking pitches. I understand breaking pitches are harder to command.

so that's how he can get himself into trouble at times. But man, when those breaking pitches are on, this is what Gavin Williams is capable of. Yeah, I mean, here's the frustrating thing about Gavin Williams, though, is just because he was awesome in this start against the Dodgers in Dodgers Stadium, do you have any confidence that he's going to be good in his next start? And two fifths of people that have him benched him for this game. Yeah, I mean, like...

And I think that's totally defensible. Like, if I had him, I probably would have... I probably would have benched him too. Coming off a five-walk start against the Dodgers? Six walks. Yeah, like that, that, it makes perfect sense why a lot of people benched Gavin Williams. And the thing that's tough about analyzing him, the thing that's tough about having him on your fantasy team, everything is this. The upside has never been the question.

And the great starts have never been the question. It's can he string them together? He started to do that towards the. end of last season. In the month of September, he had a 188 ERA with 30 strikeouts in 24 innings in the month of August. It was 34 strikeouts and 33 innings with the 243 ERA. So he did start to string together good starts for the first time.

But even in those stretches, you know, it was, you know, three or more walks in two out of four in September. He had multiple four walk starts in August. It's just, it's really tough. tough to trust him. I think you should just leave Gavin Williams in your lineup because, yeah, this is one where I don't know how much the matchups matter. It's just, does he have it on that given day or doesn't he? And if you drafted him, you drafted him because you believe that he's going to have it more often than not. And

I think that's perfectly reasonable. So I think you probably just, you're going to drive yourself crazy trying to figure out when the good and bad Gavin Williams starts are. You should probably just keep him out there and hope that the good overwhelms the bad and I think it will. Yeah, I think that's spot on, Chris. I think you just kind of have to live and die

by the Gavin Williams sword and just leave him in your lineups at all times because again, you can just, even in a tough matchup, you can miss out on a great start like this. I think it's well said. It's not really the, the opponent you worry about.

It's just Gavin Williams. Does he have it that day or not? And obviously he did have it here against the Dodgers. Rest of season, who would you rather have Gavin Williams or Sandy Alcanswer? Oh, it's Sandy for me. Maybe it's not for everyone, but it would definitely be Sandy, who is a top 24 starting pitcher for me. I did a rankings update today, but I didn't really move anybody inside of my top 50 at

SP, except for, I don't know, guys who were hurt probably. Yeah. I still do have. Gavin Williams is around 36, so it's not like I dislike him. But yeah, I would take Sandy. Yeah, I agree with that as well. We all have Sandy as top 30 starting pitchers. And even Scott, who is the highest on Gavin Williams, has him at SP 33. So I think Scott would agree with that one as well. Sandy over Gavin Williams' rest of season.

Next week, Gavin Williams gets the Royals at home again. Like the matchup. Should be great. Just leave him in the lineup and hope you get good Gavin Williams. before we hit our first break, if you enjoy the podcast, and if you listen on audio. So Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen, please consider leaving us a five-star rating and review.

You can do that on Apple, and if you listen on Spotify, just a five-star rating there, it really does mean a lot, and it helps the podcast grow, and the bosses like that kind of stuff. So leave us a five-star rating if you enjoy the podcast. Let's take a break, and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in Fantasy Base. Today we will overreact to the first week of baseball just a little bit later on, but let's go over the news and notes here from Wednesday and

another day, another rumor about a prospect extension. This time, Connor Griffin and the Pirates. Buster only said the two sides are deep into negotiations. The Pirates reportedly offered eight years $11 million, which is comparable to the Corbyn Carroll contract that he signed. Connor Griffin is seeking eight years $130 million, which is closer to what Roman Anthony signed with the Red Sox last year. So that doesn't seem too wide of a gap. I know, look, I don't have $20 million to just give up, Chris, but that feels like something that could be bridged, hopefully, quickly, and lead to Connor Griffin being up on the Pirates roster pretty soon.

Yeah, just do 8, 125, and, I don't know, two, options for 35 million and that that probably gets it done right yeah i like me in the middle 8. 820 and it's like throw incentives in there right like if you think he's going to be a stud then you know he has a chance to kind of meet a higher potential within the contract so i think it's good news obviously that they're talking about this and i'm hoping that we see Connor griffin sometime in april i know he's off to a great start in the miners already if you drafted him i know we wanted him up on opening day but continue to hold uh Scott and i I put out a top prospects to stash video earlier today last night.

And no surprise, Connor Griffin is the top prospect to stash in baseball right now. Speaking of prospects, Chase DeLauder, not in the lineup Wednesday, but Stephen Votes said DeLauder was always going to get this day off as a scheduled day. And we know that he left Tuesday night after fouling a ball off his left foot, but X-rays were negative. I think we're in the clear, Chris, but I don't know. Yeah, I hope so. I mean, look, the x-ray didn't show any breaks.

Obviously, sometimes there are situations like the Kyle Tucker and Gorda Averis situations in recent years where an MRI would show a fracture that an x-ray didn't. Maybe that's the, but I can't assume that's the case, right? Like, that's, I have to go with what the medical professionals who are being paid well by the, you know, know, a hundred million, multi-hundred million dollar team are saying. So hopefully it's fine. That was real deflating. I'm glad he seems to be okay because that would have been such a bummer

if Chase DeLotter got hurt four days in. Especially the foot that he has had multiple surgeries on, right? Like it's just, man, you couldn't make that up. Three different ones. I didn't want to lead, like start the podcast with that. last night is some kind of like sick April Fool's Day joke, but I mean, it was real. It wasn't a joke. So we had to talk about it. Yeah, I did see like a baseball Twitter account do a like, oh, Chase the Lotter on the IL. He's out for the season. Yeah, it's so. And like, my thing is like, April Fool's Day's jokes still need to be jokes.

Like when did April Fool's just become like lying day? It's just a day where people lie. And I don't like that. I'm not a opposed to a joke, but like there's got to be a punchline there. You know, like that's just, you know, just saying a thing that's not true is not an April fool's joke is my mini rant, okay? We deserve better. Did you get got at all on April Fool's Day here? Yes, yes, I did. And my, my, my, my, my lovely wife was very nice about not making fun of me for it. I excitedly told her that the next season of Ryan Murphy's love story

they just did the John Kennedy Jr. season. I very excitedly told her that it was going to be about Fleetwood Mac and I was very excited about that and it turned out to be total fake. Embarrassing. Embarrassing stuff. Oh, man. Did you see that Lid's hat? that was going around where you could be a like a front runner and you could change which team is on the front of the cap.

See the actual joke, because they did the Yankees and Dodgers, swappable logos, the actual joke would be like Yankees, Lakers. Cowboys, Duke. That would be the funny joke. Version of that. Let's continue on with the news.

Zach Wheeler will make another rehab start at AAA on Friday. He's expected to throw 50 to 55 pitches. We'll see again what the velocity looks in that one. It was down in his first start, but again, that was his first start since, you know, having major surgery, so we'll continue to track that. Blake Snell will likely face hitters once the Dodgers return to Los Angeles from their upcoming six-game road trip. I believe his timeline is still like mid to late May at some point there for Blake Snell.

Shoahe Otani's next scheduled pitching start will come Wednesday, April 8th against the Blue Jays with the Dodgers pushing Otani start back. Justin Robleski will get a start somewhere in between in the, I don't know, next week or so. It looks like the other shoe or boot has dropped here. Carlos Estevez was placed on the aisle with a foot contusion. I saw some Royals beatwriters saying that they'll also use this time to work with him on his mechanics and his velocity,

which makes a ton of sense. Lucas Erseg is the guy. In fact, he just picked up another save here on Wednesday. He is 51% rostered. I moved him up to RP 26 in the rankings, Chris, but if you wanted to take him over Griffin Jacks or Abner Arebe, who are not closers right now, I wouldn't blame you for that.

Yeah, let me see where I moved him up today as well. It was RP 24, so I moved him ahead of the Brewers guys. That was a tough one, but I just, I'm not sure. Yeah, maybe that's wrong. Maybe I need to have McGill ahead of those guys. I think McGill is the guy for now. I don't know if he could stay healthy, but I do think he's the guy for him. I do have him in the same range as Riley O'Brien and Jordan Romano and

some of those other Paul Sewell, some of those other late risers. So, yeah, I, you know, I would much rather have Lucas Erseg than Robert Suarez or, you know, Rebae, probably, but I think that one's closer just because if the brewers went with their rebate for a couple of saves in a row, it wouldn't surprise me. It would be very surprising if Robert Suarez got some save opportunities before I rice helliglasis injury. So yeah. Continue on here, Sayas Suzuki will begin a rehab assignment at AA on Friday. Jeremy Payne could be ready to play in back-to-back games this weekend. They've been easing him in after that fractured finger during spring training.

Jordan Westberg was transferred to the 60-day IL, which means the earliest he can return is May 21st. He's working his way back from a partially torn UCL in his right elbow. Carlos Rodon threw on flat ground and a little bit off of a mound on Wednesday. He's recovering from elbow surgery, also had some recent hamstring tightness. Zach Evelyn was officially placed in the IL Wednesday with right elbow discomfort. We are still awaiting results there, MRI results. Cody Ponce will visit Dr. Neil Eletrage on Monday to determine whether he needs ACL surgery or not.

Kirby 8th threw an abbreviated bullpen session Wednesday. He said afterward that his knee felt healthy, but that he still needs to sharpen his stuff before he pitches in a game. Martine Perez may replace Jose Suarez when Atlanta next needs a fifth starter, which would be this Sunday against the debacks. Chris, how about they just put Didier Fuentes or J.R. Ritchie in there? would be infinitely more fun. Yeah, I think that's one where, like, the, they're what, four and two right now? Did they lose today?

No, they won today, so they're four and two. I think if they were, like, one in five, like last year, terrible start, I think there might be more pressure to get those guys up, but I think they're going to try to avoid feeling that kind of pressure as long as they can. and I think there's a pretty good chance Flontes is just back in April though. You know, given, okay, Strider might be back around the same time,

they still have a hole in the rotation, I think. So there's still a chance for Fentz to be in this rotation fairly quickly. And Tristan Kossis has been shut down from hitting after sustaining a left intercostal strain. It's just been a tough go, man. I feel for Tristan Kossis, who was, you know, one of the top prospects in baseball,

just a couple of years ago and it's just been one injury after another for him. So rooting for the guy, hoping he can get healthy and eventually make an impact here with the Boston Red Sox. Week one is in the books, Chris. Let's overreact. I've got some buy or sell questions for you. And we will start with the Miz, Jacob Miziarowski and Cam Schlittler. Both look great once again.

And buyer sell, the breakouts are. are happening for both. I think I buy it more for Schlitler, but I have them ranked pretty close. So it's not like there's a huge difference between where I have them ranked. I think I have waiting for the page to load, but I think I have Schlitler ranked a little bit ahead.

I think he was SP 25 in my update. And honestly, that is probably too low for Cam Schlittler. I am starting to think with this, it's not a new cutter, but it's a new better version of the cutter, that he might just be an absolute ace. He just seems like such an uncomfortable at bat for hitters. You've got to try to figure out which of three pitches in the 95 to 99 mile an hour range that all have different movement profiles are coming. like his four seamer gets 17 inches of induced vertical brake and six inches of horizontal break.

His cutter gets 12 inches of induced vertical brake with five inches of horizontal brake. So you think four seamer and he throws the cutter, it's got a very similar movement profile. It's just five inches lower if he throws him to the same spot, right? And then you've got the sinker, which has the same induced vertical brake as the cutter, but has 15 inches of horizontal break as opposed to five.

So it just, I don't know, man, I don't know if human reaction times can can hit that. His velocity was down a little bit in this one. It was 47 degrees in Seattle. One and a half miles to two miles per hour across pretty much the entire arsenal. But yeah, everything looks really good. And I don't know, we've had our conversations about the injury risk here. And yeah, that's real. But I kind of think it's dumb to hold that again.

against a guy who's not currently hurt, hasn't actually gotten hurt. And, like, he's a pitcher. Yeah, of course there's injury risk. That's not really telling me anything, you know? I kind of think it, I'm leaning towards just throwing caution in the way and just, like, ranking Schlittler as, like, a top 15 SP. Wow. Look, I was going to come on here, and I didn't want to be the one as the Yankee fan say, like,

I might be overreacting, but, man, he, he, he, he, he, just looks like an ace. Camp Schlittler looks like an ace, man. It is... Overwhelming, yeah. Three different fastballs where, and I know Pitching Ninja does a good job with these where you see the tunneling, right? And it's like, as soon as the ball leaves your hand,

you don't know which way it's gonna go. And he has like three different really hard fastballs. Like, one is going to go straight and like ride up. One is going to cut. One is going to like fade. And it's just, what do you do with that as a hitter? It's just incredible stuff.

from Cam Schlettler. The curveball and sweeper are good pitches too. He's barely thrown them this year. Right. He hasn't had to. Yeah, but those are good pitches for when he needs them. So it's just there's a lot to like here. There's very little to dislike. The Yankees are going to win a bunch of games.

They let him pitch deep into games. Yeah, I don't know. I'm not making that move yet for Cam Schlitler, but I wouldn't be surprised if I had. ended up having him as a top 15 SP by the end of the month. Yeah, and I saw this stat too via the Yankees Twitter. First pitcher in Yankees history with zero runs, zero walks, and 15 plus strikeouts in any two gamespan.

The Yankees have been playing baseball for a long time. They have a pretty illustrious history. That is, so to follow up what he did in the playoffs against the Red Sox with these first two starts, it's just how can you not overreact with what we've seen from Camp Schlittler? I just want to quickly touch on Jacob Mizzi around. I don't want to just bury him here because he was great. 13 whiffs over 94 pitches.

And the thing that stood out to me, Chris, 90 plus pitches in each of his first two starts. And he's mostly been efficient. I know it was three walks in his first outing, two walks here, but through 66% of his pitches for strikes, that to me is the main key, right? I mean, it always is.

Is the control? How many strikes is he going to throw? Can he limit the walks? But the brewers are kind of treating Miseries. like an ace, man, letting him throw those 90 plus pitches right from the jump. I think it's really, really encouraging for him. Yeah, he was a guy who threw, it was 129 in a third innings in the regular season last season.

It was probably, he made at least one start in the postseason, probably only one starts. He probably got to about 135, I would guess. He's 30th in my SP rankings right now. That could end up being way wrong. Like, Mizierowski's got some of the best stuff in baseball, obviously. and he might pitch 165 innings this season with like a 325 ERA and 200 strikeouts. I really would not be particularly surprised. So, yeah, I think part of it for me and why I'm just a little more hesitant is just there's a little bit of the Gavin Williams thing there where Jacob Mizorowski's primary competition in any given start is Jacob Izirowski.

Yep. And I need. to see good command for longer than just a couple of starts. And even, you know, the first start was, what, three walks and five innings? Yep, yep. So I do need to see more before I buy in, but I think I'm more bought in than Scott was. He was pretty skeptical even after the first start. I do think Mizorowski is a must-start pitcher, obviously.

Mm-hmm. Next up we have Kevin Gosman and Matthew Boyd. Kevin Gosman is off to an incredible start. This one against the Rockies on the road. It's obviously one of the best matchups in baseball. Six shutout innings, 10 strikeouts to zero walks, had 19 whiffs on 89 pitches. Gosman is the only pitcher since 1900

with 10 plus strikeouts and no walks in his first two starts of the season. And the other name here is Matthew Boyd, incredible outing against the Angels, five and two thirds innings, two runs, one of those earned, 10 strikeouts, 20 swinging strikes. That is exactly 20 swinging strikes in each of his first two starts. I know the line in the first start was not good against the nationals, but the whiffs were there, including at least 11 whiffs on his fastball in each of his first two starts.

So really interesting stuff here from Matthew Boyd. Chris, by yourself, we were all too low on Kevin Gosman and Matthew Boyd. Yeah, I ended up drafting a decent amount of both of these guys just because there would be so many stretches, especially Boyd, just like he'd fall to like 200 in some drafts. And I don't think he's going to repeat what he did in the first half of last season, but his overall numbers where it was like, I think it was like a 320, 330 ERA, decent but not great strikeouts.

Like it all felt pretty sustainable to me, mostly because that defense behind him is really good. I don't think he's suddenly an elite strikeout pitcher, but he's getting a lot of strikeouts right now, and he's missing a ton of bats. It's about limiting hard contact, but the defense behind him will help overcome that. And I think, yeah, I think we were too low on Boyd for sure.

And then Gosman, I ended up having him ranked around SP25, and I think his ADP was around SP25. So I can't argue that he was super, undervalued, let me make sure where his ADP, at 26, okay, so yeah, right around there. And I think that's probably where he belongs. I have him up to 23 now. He's picking up where he left off last season. Remember, he kind of started off pretty rocky last season,

and then it locked in with the splitter. He threw the splitter as his most used pitch today. And that's really just all it comes down to with Gosman is if he can throw the splitter consistently for strikes, and get chases with it, he's really, really hard to hit. And I think that's where we're at right now. The feel for that pitch for any pitcher comes and goes and certainly has for Gosman in his career.

But I think there's a lot to like about a veteran who's going to throw 190 innings and get 200 plus strikeouts and probably be a low 3 ZRA. So yeah, I think Gosman looks very good right now. Worth noting, this was against the Rockies, away from Coorsfield. His first start was against the Giants, the athletics who have been the most strikeout-prone team in baseball.

So, yeah, you got to take it with a little bit of grain of salt based on those matchups, but yeah, I think Gosman's awesome. I am buying that we were all too low. I mean, both of these guys, they just kind of suffered, not suffered, but people often pass them over just because they're boring veteran types. It's the same thing I talked about with Sandy earlier. Yeah, Kevin Gosman in the second half last year. 281 ERA, 0.94 whip over a strikeout per inning.

And for those who care about this, contract year. Contract year, Gossman. And then Matthew Boyd, you know, he was showing some signs of this in the spring where he was getting a lot of whiffs this spring and during the WBC as well. So, look, he's not going to maintain, you know, 20 swinging strikes every start. But this is really encouraging stuff from Matthew Boyd, who, again, is on a really good team and has a really good defense behind him. So his ADP was around SP45 to 50 somewhere in that range.

Wouldn't surprise me if Boyd just performs like a, you know, SP3 this season and just kind of an easy profit in fantasy this year. It's just really easy for these types of guys to be underrated in drafts. Yep, yep. Because, you know, you're not going to get 200 strike outside of Matthew Boyd. Like, did he get to 160 last season, I would guess? In what was pretty much the best season of his career. You know, he had a very good ERA for most of the season, but the estimators weren't quite as good.

So 154 strikeouts. Yeah. It's very easy to talk yourself into Kate Horton, who we all like a decent amount or looking below him. Like, you can talk yourself into Shane Boz or Shane McClanahan or, you know, I don't know, Gary Cole. I'm trying to identify who we were actually passing up on Matthew Boyd for. his ADP and Fantasy Pros was 60th at SP. I think at that price, yeah, we were clearly underrating this dude. Yep. Let's talk about Nathan Avaldi, who's off to a rough start here.

Six earned runs over four innings at the Orioles. The WIFs were still there, had 13 swinging strikes on 88 pitches. Velocity, pitch movement, all looked fine to me. He has allowed 11 earned runs in two starts. He allowed 25 earned runs in 22 starts last year. So just so funny the way things, I guess it's not funny for people who have them, but so funny the way things could change so quickly. So Chris, buy or sell? Nathan Avaldi is toast.

Sell? Probably. Yeah. But I do think he's clearly searching right now. He threw the four seamer and sinker about 21% of the time in the first start. It was 17% of the time in this one. He spiked his curveball usage in this start. I think he's clearly searching for something that works for him right now. And right now, nothing seems to be working all that well for Nathan Avaldi.

But he does have a solid enough track record that as long as you keep your expectations in check, right? As long as you don't view him as a 173 ERA guy like he was last season, but you look at him as more of like a 360 guy, I think he'll be that moving forward. But if you've got the depth and you don't want to trust him against the, the Mariners last next week. I think that's perfectly reasonable too. I, hmm, yeah, the Mariners' offense is kind of off to a weird start. Obviously, Cal Raleigh has not done much so far.

That start is at home. Texas is a great ballpark to pitch in. I think I would still use them there. He's 84% started. Obviously, it depends on, like, who the rest of your starters are. But I think in most, like, 12-team leagues are deeper. I'd probably just continue to roll Nathan Avaldi out there. I'm obviously selling this one as well.

And if anyone in your league is freaking out, I would try to buy very low on Nathan Avaldi right now. Let's take our final break. When we return, I've got some hitter by ourselves. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Week one of the season is in the books, and let's overreact.

Shea Langalears, he did it again. He hit his fifth home run, this one off of Chris Sale. He is batting a cool 375 with a 1400 OPS through his first. I don't know how many games they've played five or six games so far. By yourself, Shea Langalears is this year's Cal Raleigh. I don't think he's going to hit 60 home runs. Six games so far for him, right? Yep.

Hey, five homers in six games, can't beat down. That's very impressive. I just want to make sure last year he also had a six-game stretch where he hit five homers in August, beginning of August. Now, that being said, if you... If you said Chey Lang Lears will outperform Cow Raleigh this season, I mean, I would certainly take Raleigh,

but I don't think it's totally unreasonable. My guess is, and this is just a guess, but my guess is, Shea Lange Ler's has been better than Carl Raleigh since the second half of last season, because remember Raleigh looked more like himself in the second half, and Langa Lange Ler's had a great second half in 2025.

So it's possible. that we're seeing a real breakout yet 1018 OPS for Langaleers in the second half of last season. It's possible that we're seeing a level up here for Langaleers, although I think the likelihooder explanation is that he's just hot and had a great six games that he's done before and will have great six game stretches before in the future. But it's not changing my view of Shea Langleyers. Yes, I think that is totally. fair. You're right. Shea Languiliers did out produce Cal Raleigh in the second half of last season.

And Shay Langalears does have a strikeout so far, a 32% strikeout rate. He has improved basically every season he has. He had a huge spring too. It's worth outing. He has improved basically every year he's been in the league. So I think there's a chance that he could take another step forward. He's done all this on the road so far. And Sacramento is going to be one of the best hitter environments in baseball this year. So. And his bat speed is up a little bit, which is one of those very, very early small sample things you can track.

Yeah. Like, what is a better, like, he can get, he can get to a 40 home run season this year. That's not out of the question for Shail Langa. It's not the expectation, but it's possible. It's like in the range of outcomes. It's within the realm of possibility, yeah. Yep.

Let's talk about Liam Hicks, Chris from your Miami Marlins, three for four with his third home run. He had four RBI. His 12 RBI are the most in baseball in the first week of the season. He is seven for 15. He's got a 1659 OPS. He has started four of six games, has hit cleanup in all four of his starts,

but he has never really showed much upside as a hitter. So buy or sell, Liam Hicks is a dude. This is a dude that needs to be added in two catcher leagues. I probably sell, I think. Now, look, you set the bar low enough. set the bar at two catcher leagues. Okay, yeah, I think Liam Hicks should be added in two catcher leagues. I've got a two catcher league where I started Nick Fortez so far this season.

I've got Victor Keratini in a couple of leagues. I'm starting Tyler Stevenson in one. Like, when you're talking about that level of number two catcher, your policy should always be, I'm just going to add the guy who's hot and see if it turns out to be real. It probably won't, But Liam Hicks has always had a very, very good eye at the plate. Dating back to his time at the miners, last season, his chase rate was 17.6% in the 98th percentile. His whiff rate was 15% in the 91st percentile. He's got a very good approach and bat control combo. He just doesn't have a lot of bat speed.

Well, didn't. But last year, his average bat speed was 67.4 miles per hour. This year, it's up to 70 miles per hour. Okay, maybe there's something there. Maybe there's, you know, you can trade a little bit of contact, although that hasn't been an issue for him so far, but you can trade a little bit of contact for a little bit more damage when you do make contact,

and I think that would be a reasonable trade to make. So it's in your two-catcher leagues, if you don't have someone you feel good about it, I think it's totally fine to add Liam Hicks and just see if it goes anywhere. It probably won't. But he's going to play every day against Ritey's, sure.

So yeah, let's take a look. Yeah, I think in two catcher leagues, you know, look, some people are talking to me about like one catcher leagues and like, let's not do that. There are enough catchers. There are enough players to be excited about at that position. But in two catcher leagues, like, yeah, you look at the back end of the top like 24. I moved them up to catcher 26, which is. It's 24 for me, yeah.

Right ahead of like Freddie Fermin and Carson Kelly and Danny Jansen. And it's not really me believing in Liam Hicks, just more so like, I don't think any of those guys are really good. Yeah, so it's like, yeah, if you have one of those scrubby guys and as your second catcher, sure, like take a shot on Liam Hicks there and see what happens. I want to remind you, kind of a cautionary tale here. Carson Kelly last March and April hit 360 with seven home runs, 21 RBI, and a 1347 OPS.

From May on, he hit 232. with 10 homers and a 6.63 OPS. So they're not the same player, but we have seen kind of a out-of-nowhere catcher get off to a great start just last year. So let's talk about O'Neill Cruz who homered off of a lefty again. That's two days in a row.

And he had four hard hits in this game. The home run, 107.4, exit velocity, 407 feet. So far against lefties, he's five for seven with two home runs. Chris, buy or sell. O'Neill Cruz is good. against lefties now.

Sell. But it's a good time. You should be open minded to the possibility because it's one of those things where if it is true, it's hugely impactful.

Like if he can just be like a 730 OPS against lefties, 700 would be fine. That would be a huge improvement for him. What's funny is he's been dreadful against righties to date. He has nine strikeouts and 17 plays. late appearances against right-handed pitching so far, only one and seven. These are

meaningless sample sizes. It is good to see O'Neill Cruz homering on consecutive days off a lefty. I think that's about as far as you can take it, but you'd rather see this than the opposite. You'd rather see this than him struggling against lefties. So yeah, I'm, uh, I wouldn't say I'm worried about all my O'Neill Cruz bashing from this spring, but I'm on edge. I'm taking notice of what he's doing, certainly. He got off to a great start last year, too, and I was fading him last season, and I did not feel good about it that first month. I was very scared about fading O'Neill Cruz, and then obviously from May on, I think he hit, like, sub-200 for the rest of the season. So, look, it's a very,

very long season and things will change. But this is a good sign. This is a very good sign for O'Neill Cruz that he is hitting well against lefties in a small sample size so far. Last one that I have for you, Chris, Yandy Diaz. One for four with his second home run to RBI. He hit this home run off of the Miz, Jacob Mizziarowski. And so far Diaz is hitting 429. He's got 8 RBI. He's hitting the ball hard. Ground ball ball rate is 45%. buy or sell

this is finally the year Yandy Diaz keeps that ground ball rate down I mean he kind of did it in 2023 right that was the year that he was really good um I feel like it's always

it starts like this every year for Yandy Diaz and then usually it winds up over 50% yeah 2023 was the best year of Yandy Diaz's career but his strike his ground ball rate was still 52% now. The last two seasons, it's been 56 and 54%. So even getting back to 2023 levels would help a little bit. And I point that out because I saw a report the other day that Yanni Diaz has reworked his batting stance, paying more attention to film from 2023 to try to get back to that.

He's, I think the way they described it, he's holding his hands higher in his setup to get back to that. And, you know, 2023 was not like a sea change in terms of his approach. He hit the ball in the air a little bit more often. He's always hit the ball very hard. He hit the ball in the air to the pull side, maybe a little more often than he usually does. But the thing about Yandy Diaz is he hits the ball so hard. And I apologize. I think I've said his name three different ways in the past minute.

Yandy Diaz. The thing about him is he hits the ball really hard. He's got a phenomenal approach to the plate. even small optimizations to his swing can make a big difference. And I thought Yandy Diaz was someone who was underrated for a lot of draft season. I'm pretty happy with the start that he's off to, but I don't think I expect him to suddenly be a 25 homer guy. I know he was last year, but I think the home park helped.

But if you get 18 to 20 homers out of Yandy Diaz with his plate discipline and his batting average, you're going to be really happy that you have him around. And I think he was an underrated starting first base option this season. Yeah, especially in head to head points leagues where that plate discipline plays up or OBP formats. Yeah, for sure. Really the best format for Diaz. But even in a standard category as league, as batting average is usually good. If we can get to 20 plus home runs again, I think that would wind up being a pretty successful season here for Yandy Diaz.

Let's continue on with some waiver wire hitters here. Justin Crawford quietly off to a nice start. We just need him to start running. Three for five with a double and an RBI. He had the walkoff hit in that game. He's batting 412 early on. No steals, but it's, you know, 63% ground ball rate, Chris. I was like, all right, well, he's living up to what we expected so far.

He's just pounding a bunch of balls into the dirt. 77% rostered, so it's really just a shallow league name. I have to imagine that you, rank him behind DeLauder and Benj. What about Crawford versus Owen Casey? Very different players, but what do you think? Yeah, very different players. The coward answer is probably just depends on what I need. I think Crawford's going to be a better bet for batting average and stolen basis, certainly, but Casey is going to have the edge in power and run production. So I think I would give Casey the edge overall, but kind of depends on what you're looking for. But they're all in the

like 45 to 55 range at outfielder for me. Yep. I think I have all those names in the same range as well. And I think that's probably the right answer, the way you laid it out there. I think in a points league, like Crawford probably profiles as a better points league player, but...

His strikeout rate is, even in the minors, was a little higher than you would think for this type of player. He's not like a Chandler Simpson, like, you know, 10% strikeout rate guy. He's been more in the 19 to 20% range. Now, Casey's been more in the 28 to 30% range. But Casey's also going to walk more.

He's going to hit higher, so he'll get more played appearances. So even in a points league, I think I would lean Casey over Crawford. I think so. But your three outfielder points leagues, these are, none of these guys are really guys you should be spending a ton of time on right now. I have a bunch of platoon outfielders here who had nice games on Wednesday. Dylan Beaver is three for five with his first home run. He had three runs scored three hard hits in that game. Dom Canzone continues.

his nice star two for four with his first stolen base. He also has two home runs already. Garrett Mitchell, two for four with two RBI. Already has three stolen bases. And he had a hard hit in this game. One 12.6 exit velocity. That is the hardest hit baseball. Garrett Mitchell has ever had in the majors.

He also is striking out 39% of the time. And Kyle Isbell, usually defensive stalwart. Now hitting the ball in the first week here, four for four with his second home run. three runs, two RBI. So far, he's eight for 14, two homers, three steals. I don't know what to make of that. Chris, any of these platoon outfielders stand out to you,

Dylan Beaver, Don Canzone, Garrett Mitchell, and Kyle Isbell? I just think the fundamental problem with Dom Canzone is that he's not going to play against lefties. They've had three games against left-handed starters so far. He hasn't started any of them. Same with Luke Rayleigh who's actually had a solid start. And the Orioles actually haven't faced a lefty yet. But Dylan Beavers has only started for their first six games.

That's actually a little more concerning that he's sat two games and they haven't faced a lefty yet. They have to find ways to get Tyler O'Neill in there too. That's the problem. Yeah, I think in Beaver's case, this was a very good game just because he needs to start doing something. He needs to start giving them a reason to put him in the lineup. And I think he has the upside to make himself indispensable. You know, if he's a 2020 guy who's getting on base a ton, Dylan Beavers could play his way into an everyday role.

He just forced the Orioles to get there. He just hasn't done it yet. So this was a good start. But I think Canzon, it's just he's never going to play against lefties. Not literally never, but, you know. So I think that's like, like, I see. the things that people like in Dom Canzone. You know, the quality of contact metrics last year were nutty, but it's hard to make that

matter. Like, Carrie Carpenter's put it together really good quality of contact metrics for years. We know who he is as a fantasy option, and it's a pretty limited one because of the platoon rule. Yeah. That would be a nice outcome for Canzone if he can get there, though, like a 260 hitting 25 home run guy. I mean, that's definitely usable in a five outfielder league.

And those are the only leagues where I think Beavers and Canzone need to be rostered. But yeah, you do have to pay attention to the schedule and make sure, look, if there are weeks where there's like two plus lefties on the schedule, you probably just don't want to play Canzone there. Yeah, like Garrett Mitchell next week, four games against righties, two against lefties. Yeah. I don't think you, I don't think it makes a lot of sense to go at him when that's the case. Yeah. And I think Mitchell is really just a 15-team-5 outfielder play for now. I think he's always had talent.

He's a great athlete. He's going to strike out a lot. I feel like that's always been a thing for him. But a couple of years ago, he went to drive line. He was working on the bat speed stuff. And obviously, it's capable of hitting the ball hard. But, you know, good speed could steal a little bit. So, you know, if he could stay healthy, can you get a 240, 250, like 10-homer 20 steel season?

Like, yeah, maybe that could work out here for Garrett Mitchell. So in deeper five outfieler leagues, I think he's a name you could look at. Kyle Isbell, I don't buy it at all. I think it's, uh, I think it's probably just AL only. And, uh, that, that's probably about it for, uh, Kyle Isbell. Waiverwire pitchers. Mike Burroughs was okay in his second start against the Red Sox.

Five innings, two runs, six strikeouts, had 14 whiffs on 84 pitches. Completely changed up the pitch mix once again. So, uh, kind of feels like Burroughs is searching a little bit. He's at the Rockies next week. You don't love that. Cade Cavali. a quality start at the Philly six innings, one run, three strikeouts here, and Matthew Liberator was able to shut down the Mets, six innings, one run, two strikeouts for him.

Liberator at the Nationals, Cavali up against the Cardinals, they could be facing each other, and Burroughs at the Rockies. What do you think about these three, Chris, the matchups for next week, and if you like any of them long term? Yeah, I wonder if Burroughs, it's just the, the, The pitch mix change here was just because the Astros had a righty-heavy lineup, 55 of the 84 pitches he threw were against righties today. You mean the Red Sox? The Red So you would expect him to throw more sinkers because guys use their sinkers more against righties.

Obviously the change-up, use that more against lefties. So I do wonder if that's just the pitch mix change and that's just going to fluctuate from start to start because he's going to change. his approach depending on the lineup. I think he's the only one of these three that truly matters. Unfortunately, it's at the Rockies next week, and I don't think Mike Burroughs is someone we've reached the point. You can trust him at Corr's Field, so I think you go ahead and add him if he's available,

but don't start him next week. Cavali and Liberator were both due to, like, coming into the season, I wanted to see what it looked like, because I know Liberator made some changes to his arsenal or his fastball shape this spring that I know some people were getting a little excited about, but I don't really think these were quality starts today,

but I don't think we really saw anything from either Cade Cavali or Matthew Libertor to suggest that they are likely to be must roster pitchers moving forward. I think it's just, is the matchup good enough to use them next week if you're desperate? Well, Cavali gets the Cardinals, Libertore gets the Nationals. So it could be. You could use either of those guys.

next week. But if you've got someone more interesting on the wire and you need to make a decision, I think both Libertor and Kay K Kovale are really easy to get rid of. I just don't think there's much long-term upside there. Do you think Shane Smith is easy to get rid of? He is off to a brutal start. He was at the Marlins here. Seven earned runs allowed over three innings through two starts. He has a 1929 ERA, a 321 whip. And I know some people liked him as a sleeper this season. and obviously he finished strong last year. Chris, would you continue to roster Shane Smith? Or, you know, this is the time where we kind of had to be able to react quickly.

And, you know, guys are kind of emerging. And we've talked about like Parker Messick the past couple of days and other interesting starting pitchers. Where you at on Shane Smith? I think he's a perfectly reasonable drop right now. I'm not saying he's like entirely devoid of upside. But he's given up 10 runs in his first form. and two-thirds innings.

I think we need to see something from Shane Smith. It's a bad, bad defense behind him, bad lineup backing him up. I know the lineup, it's not horrible, but it's not great. But the defense in Chicago looks like it's going to be pretty bad. So I think Shane Smith is a fairly easy drop, even heading into a two-star week because I don't know, I guess in a points league or head-to-head categories league, there's so little downside to starting a guy in a two-start week that, sure, versus Baltimore at KC, you could use him,

but you probably shouldn't, certainly not in a roto league. Yeah. Yeah, I would be alright dropping him for either of Parker Messick or Jose Soriano, who are both, you know, 10 percentage points lower than him in terms of roster rate. So, yeah, I would be all right making that swap there. Shane Smith for either Soriano or Parker Messick. I mentioned earlier, Chris, it was kind of a lot of. a weird day for these specific

aces here and we can move pretty quickly through this unless there's something that really alarms you but Chris Sale six innings one run only one hit a lot, three strikeouts to zero walk so like the whiffs weren't there and his velocity was down like three miles

per hour on all of his pitches can't blame the weather in Atlanta what do you think here about Chris Sale? He was sick oh yeah I didn't see that Walt Weiss mentioned after the game that Chris Sale was feeling under the weather and they were, I think the way he put it was like they were hoping he could give them three or four

innings and they got six out of him. So obviously I can't say that's 100% of the reason why his velocity was down three miles per hour, but it seems like a good enough excuse to me. So I'm definitely willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for this one. Yeah, and we'll point out that in his second and third starts of the season last year, his fastball averaged 93 miles per hour and 92.7. And then in the fourth start, it was up to 96.5. So, uh, I, I think he kind of understands his body and knows like when he needs to kind of turn things on there. That is Chris Hale. Garrett Crochet was not at his best at the Astros, five innings, five runs for those earned.

Did have seven strikeouts to zero walks. The fastball, Chris, has just been weird for Crochet so far. The usage was down. The velocity was down. The induced vertical break on the fastball has been down as well. I don't want to like overreact to it, but it's something we need to watch here with Crochet. No, the lead of tomorrow's newsletter is me talking about how Garer Crochet is just not quite right right now. I don't think that means Gary Crochet is going to be bad or that you need to worry about it even a little bit.

Well, maybe a very small amount. A smidge. But this was something that I noticed in the spring. He was talking pretty openly about how frustrated he was about his foreseemar specifically. There was a start this spring where his velocity was fine, but he said, it's ironic. The ones I feel good with are the ones that are moving, but the one that is going straight is the one that's toughest to locate. That's what he was saying about his pitches. His feel for his foreseamer isn't there right now.

We saw it. He went from throwing it 38% of the time in the opening day, which is pretty typical, to just 15%. And only five of the 14 were in the strike zone. So I don't know what the explanation is. Gary Crochet was experimenting with, you know, he's a tinkerer, and he was experimenting with a couple of different pitches this spring, most notably a splitter that he abandoned at the end of the spring. And that's something you can see occasionally when guys are working on new pitches.

It can mess up their ability to throw out of their pitches. I know Carlos Rodan, when he introduced to cutter, it just kind of screwed up both his foreseamer and slider. I don't know if that's the case with Garikers. crochet, but his four seamer isn't where it needs to be. It's not where it usually is, and this has been going on back into spring training. So again, I'm not worried. I'm not saying you should be worried, but he's working through it right now, and I think he'll figure it. Terrick Scoobble took a tough luck loss at the D-back, seven innings, one run, but again, only three strikeouts.

It was a weird day for ACEs here. Only seven swinging strikes on 87 pitches, and allowed 11 hard hits in this one. Chris, did you notice anything weird about Terrick Schuble here? Changeup shape was a little off, I think, but I don't really, in one start where there were no other reasons to be concerned, I think you can just chalk that up to not having the feel for it in a given day. And his track record, I don't think you need me to tell you this, but his track record is strong. So I think Terrick Scoob was a good bet to figure it out. both Terrick Schoolboy and Gary Crochet, still top three starting pitchers for me. Yeah, by the way, I'm not like noting that about Crochet does not mean that I've moved him down at all or even thought about it.

For Yoshinov Yamamoto, he took a tough loss against the Guardian, six innings, two runs, but only two strikeouts here. Did you notice anything with Yamamoto? Splitter feel wasn't there. His command on his foreseamer wasn't there. I think it's just another day where he didn't have it. and that's fine. He, maybe Yoshinova Yamamoto got too worked up yesterday, getting to meet Yoshi. The Yoshi multiverse, I love that.

And the, did you see the Spider-Man meme that they did? Yeah. They had the voice of Yoshi, Donald Glover. They had a guy in a yo, it was Yoshi. It was not a guy in a costume. It was Yoshi. Yeah, it was Yoshi. He's a real dinosaur who exists.

And he is Donald Glover and Yoshnovi Yamamoto's friend. Yeah, I don't think there's any reason to be concerned. here. Lots of dinosaur talk on the podcast this week. How about that? I mean, Jurassic Park and Yoshi? Let's go. Dinosaurs are the coolest. Have you been to the, they got a new, like a new stegosaurus fossil at the natural history museum in New York. It's the biggest in the world, apparently. Dinosaurs rule. This won't surprise. I wrote my college entrance essay about how when I was a kid, I wanted to be a dinosaur when I grew up. I did not get accepted to that college.

Not like a person who studies fossils or anything. I just wanted to be a dinosaur. Yeah. Yeah. Christopher Sanchez, an inefficient outing here against the Nationals. Five and a third innings. One run, like, he was fine. He had seven strikeouts, but four walks here. You know, a little bit weird

for Sanchez. Anything that stood out to you for Christopher Sanchez? No. No. Only 362% of his pitches for strikes. I think he was a little bit off. It's weird that a bunch of the best pitchers in baseball weren't great today, but I don't think there's anything there.

But also, were you about to say you've never been to the Natural History Museum in New York City? I probably have. What is with you? I don't know. Native New Yorkers. I'm not a museum goer. You live in the greatest city in the world. You've got like 10 world class music.

This is a bugaboo of mine because I have a lot of friends who grew up in the city or outlying areas. Like I had a friend. I took him to the main. Met last year because he'd never been to the men. It's like you've lived in New York City for 35 years and you've never been to the Met. It's like one of the three greatest art museums in the world. Come on, guys. Natural History Museum's amazing. I've never been inside of the Empire State Building. I don't know if that's weird or not. I just mean either, but I'm terrified of heights. So that that's just like like my friends were in town a couple years ago. They went to the World Trade Center.

They did like the thing where you get a drink and you go up to the top. And I'm like, cool, They got beer on the ground, so I'm going to, that's where I'm going to stay. I'm good. I'll wait for you down here. Yeah, you guys, you guys have a great time. Let's talk about George Kirby. You got roughed up late here by the Yankees, six innings, four runs, three walks to six strikeouts. I mean, obviously we're used to pristine control there from Kirby.

And he had allowed one-earned run through five and then gave up a three-run homer in the six. So that kind of messed up his start here. Chris, I know that you've been following George Kirby very closely. What have you seen here through two starts? Um, so I did actually notice we do have the arm angle data now for the first starts. And Kirby's was actually pretty close to back to where it was before last season. Okay. And he did throw the change up in this one?

I don't think he did he throw the change up at all in the first start? I don't think he did. Uh, he threw it 8% of the time, I guess. Um, but he was up to 20% today. I think he probably just didn't have it. And I don't really see any reason to think that there's anything to be concerned about. But among these, the guys we've mentioned, Kirby was by far the one I had the most concerns about coming into the season. So, you know, the fact that this was a shaky start, got hit really hard.

You know, I'm not moving George Kirby down, but, you know, when I was updating my rankings, I think I did move someone ahead of Kirby. Let me see if I can identify it. It wasn't Cam Schlittler, was it? No, no, not yet. No, I didn't move anyone above Kirby. really touch anyone inside my top 20 yet. Same. So I'm still, I have Kirby at 16.

I'll leave him there. But yeah, it's, it certainly feels a little shakier than the guys you mentioned before. But that's just because everyone else we talked about were top six pitchers. And George Kirby's more like top 20. Joe Ryan had a rough outing here against the Royals, four innings, nine hits, five runs aloud. But Chris, I don't know if you're watching this game. The conditions were terrible. It was so foggy.

It was raining. It was 55 degrees. It was a nasty night out there in Kansas City. And there was also a pop-up in the infield that just wasn't caught because they couldn't see the ball because it was raining and it was foggy. So I don't know. Anything here from Joe Ryan? No, I think the weather is a pretty good. His first star was really good against the Orioles.

So I'm not worried about that. The bouncebacks that we needed to see Paul Skeen. five innings, one run, five strikeouts. Still want more from him, obviously. You know, first round picking a lot of drafts, but it was a solid bounceback for him. And then Nick Povetta, five shutout innings with eight strikeouts. Chris, anything stand out here from Paul Skeens and Povetta bouncebacks?

The Povetta one was weird, actually. I don't know if you noticed, but he threw 68% four seamers in this start. His velocity was up one point. one miles per hour and his induced vertical break was up an extra inch from an already elite 20 inches of IVB to 21. So it seemed like he just had the fastball working and was going to spam it until it stopped working and it never really did. So that was a good sign for a guy who, you know, had an ugly first start and had some concerns this spring. I still think we are likely to see a pretty big step back from where he was last season, but that doesn't mean he'll be bad. I think

Nick Povetta will still be a mid-3s ERA type of pitcher. Yeah, and I brought this up on yesterday's podcast. I think that these pitcherless stat cards that they're putting out over on X, I think they're fantastic. So if you don't follow, it's pitcherless PLV on X. Great work from our buddy Nick Pollack over there. And Nick Povetta's stuff grade in this start was A. And I have to imagine it's a lot of just that fastball doing the heavy lifting because

again, for the reasons you mentioned Velocci was up. Obviously the IVB was incredible on that pitch for Povetta. So all around, nice bounce back and his sweeper had a lot more movement too. So it was exactly what we needed to see there from Nick Povetta. Some hitting leftovers, Drake Baldwin continued his

hot star two for three with a walk, a double, and four RBI. He was also robbed of what I think would have been a home run by Denzel Clark who is just one of the best defenders in the game right now. It was hit 401 feet and it would have been a home run

in 11 of 30 ballparks there for Drake Baldwin. So could have been up to four home runs by now if it wasn't for that pesky Denzel Clark. Corey Seeger continues his nice start. He hit his third home run of the season. Nico Horner, 3 for 5 with his fourth stolen base already

so he is off and running. Corbyn Carroll looks like himself so far, man. Like this hamate thing that kind of pushed him into the second round. I mean, everyone might have got a gift here from Corbyn Carroll. Two for three with his second home run. And that Homer came off of Terrick Scuba. He also had a 109.5 exit velocity single. That hit also came off of Terrick Scuba.

So just incredible stuff here from Corbyn Carroll. Ramon Luriano off to a nice start as well. Hit his second home run. He is hitting 389 with his steel as well. Ben Rice, two for three with a walk, a double, and his first home run of the season. 108.2 exit velocity, 427 feet there for Ben Rice. He's the ball really hard so far. Just play him every day.

Don't. Hey, Boone, don't mess with this man. Paul Goldschmidt hit a homer off of Ritey today. Yeah, that does not help us, man. That does not help the case. And Jack Caglione woke up a bit here. Three for four with a double and three run scored. Really hadn't done anything up to that point.

but it's very early in the season here. Some pitching leftovers, Trevor Rogers, another quality start, six innings, two runs for him, up against the Rangers. Freddie Peralta, look good here, his second outing with the Mets, five and a third, one run, seven strikeouts. Drew Raspison, pitched well at the Brewers,

five innings, two runs for him, eight strikeouts to one walk. Zach Gallin out-dued Terrick Scoobel, six shutout with two strikeouts. I just, I couldn't really figure this start out for Zach Allen. it seemed like a pretty weird one. And Noah Cameron, his first start of the year, five innings, one run, five strikeouts for him.

Chris, anything here on Cameron, Gowan, Raspison, Peralta, Trevor Rogers. I was interested in Zach Allen as kind of a sleeper type when his velocity was up in the spring, and it's been up a little bit in the first two starts. So there is something there, but he hasn't given a ton of reason to think that he's figured everything out and gotten back to the level he was,

at when he was an ace. In this one, I think he had six batted balls with a batting, expected batting average over 600. Two of them were outs, including a double play. You can't really rely on that very consistently. So,

yeah, I think there was definitely some good luck in Gallin's favor. Rogers, I don't know. I mean, look, the results have been awesome, and I think you're going to be happy. drafted him. Strikeouts haven't been there. But he did get a lot of whiffs in this one, 12 whiffs on 91 pitches. So I think they were fine in his first start too. Yeah. So I think he'll be

fine. He's obviously pitching really well. The command has been great, which was the biggest thing that changed for him last year. So I'm not really worried there despite the lack of strikeouts so far. I know we were talking beforehand about Drew Raspison and you kind of had an interesting note on him. Yes, that was one with we talked before the show and then I forget, did we talk about it on the show or not? But no, yeah. The one I wanted to point out there was Milwaukee has the second highest park factor for strikeouts in baseball. And this is one of those things that we've realized is that the home park impacts strikeouts for whatever reason, whether it's the way the ball moves, like in Tropicana or the way the lighting is, like in Seattle,

there's something that makes certain parks harder and easier to get strikeouts in. And Miller, American Family Field in Milwaukee has the second highest strikeout park factor. Well, that's basically identical to what Tropicana was prior to last year. So when Drew Rasmussen was in the rotation in 2023, he had a 26% strikeout rate. maybe we downplayed the strikeout upside for Drew Rasmussen just a little bit. Now, the problem is it's still going to be five, five and a half innings per start every time out. And so the distinction might be, yeah, he goes from four and a half strikeouts per game to five and a half. It's probably not a huge difference, but it's not nothing.

And it's something that I, we talked about the impact of Tropicana Field and a lot of pitchers. And I think with Rasperson, we just kind of, yeah, He is what he is and he's limited because of the short starts and all that's true. But there could be a little more upside there than we saw last year. All right, let's wrap up with the call to the bullpen for the Reds. Emilio Pagan got the ninth inning down one run. So they wanted to keep this game close and it did not wind up being close. He allowed four earned runs on three hits, including a home run.

He's given up runs in two of three outings so far. Sketchy history with Emilio Paghan. Obviously he was great last year, but he's kind of been inconsistent for year to year. I think Tony Santian is just a name to watch there if Pagan continues to struggle. For the Nationals, this was not a fun one. Clayton Beater came on with one out in the eighth inning, two runners on, a two run lead. He did get the next two outs. He started the ninth inning. He got the first batter out. He allowed a single to Trey Turner. Clayton Beater was then pulled for a leftie. I looked up how to pronounce his name and I couldn't find it. So we'll go with PJ.

Pooling? Pulling? Pulling? Poulin, I don't know, who walked two, he recorded one out, and then right-handed pitcher Cole Henry entered the game to try and get the final out against Edmundo Sosa, who hit a game tying to run single. The Nationals would wind up losing in the extras. This is Palin? Palin?

Sorry. I don't know. The point here, Chris, is that the Nationals look like they're going to mix and match. They're going to play matchups. I think they're going to be a pretty bad team. Mm-hmm. So outside of deeper category, League's. Like, I think

Beater should be rostered there just in case he gets like, I don't know, 15 saves over the course of the season, but anything shallower than like a 15-team Roto League, I don't know that Clayton Beater needs to be rostered. Now, when I updated my rankings earlier, I moved Paul Sewell into the top 30, I move Riley O'Brien

into the top 30, Lucas Ersa, Jordan Romano. Clayton Beaters just barely inside of the top 40 for me. Okay. For the E. Rockies, Victor Vodnik came on in the eighth inning with the game tied. He faced the heart of the Blue Jays lineup. He allowed a hit but tossed a scoreless inning. The Rockies took a one-run lead in the 10th.

It was Jimmy Hergut, who came on and closed it out for his first save. I still think Vodnick is the guy, and obviously that was a pretty high-leveraged situation there in the eighth inning. But, you know, they could potentially mix and match there as well. For the Cardinals with the game tied, Ryan Stannick got two outs in the seventh. Jojo Romero got four outs across the seventh and eighth. And then Riley O'Brien came on for the ninth. He allowed a hit, but struck out two.

The Cardinals wound up winning in extras. I do believe Riley O'Brien is the name to roster there. For the raise, this has been the week from hell for Griffin Jacks. He entered the game in the eighth inning with it tied. He allowed five runs, three earned on a walk and three hits. He did have a bad error behind him as well, but still, man, through four appearances, it's a 22.5 ERA, a 3.5 whip for Griffin Jacks. Chris, I think in head-to-head points leagues

where basically you just need closers who get saves or you need sparps, you could drop Griffin Jackson a points league. I think you could drop him in shallower categories leagues where saves are a category and someone like Lucas Ursaig or Paul Seawald is out there. Anything deeper than that,

I think you still need to hold Griffin Jacks, but I understand why people are frustrating. Oh yeah, I mean it's an unclear role for a pitcher who's really struggled so far. And, you know, it's worth noting. We don't care that much about ERA, but his ERA was not very good last year. You know, he actually wasn't like a shutdown reliever.

It's just the peripheral suggested he should have been much better. I think they still probably will, and I think he'll be fine moving forward. But yeah, I think it's head-to-head points. Like, it's very easy to drop Griffin Jacks because he's probably not going to be all that useful there anyway. And yes, if Erseg or Seawald are available in Shower, I think I'd be willing to make that swap even if I do have Jacks ranked ahead of them right now.

For the Astros, Brian Abrayu got the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He allowed a solo homer, but he struck out three for his first save, and his velocity was up to 96.1 miles per hour in his fastball. Last year, it was 97.3. So, still down a little bit. That's a good sign. While it's improving, it's, yeah, it's still down from last year. For the debacks, Paul Seawald was unavailable.

Jonathan Loisigua. Johnny Lazzania, he is back. He got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He allowed two hits but picked up his first save. For the Padres, Mason Miller, entered with two outs in the eighth. One runner on, two-run lead. He got out of it.

And then the Padres tacked on four more runs. They kept Miller out there for the ninth, and he picked up his second save of the season. And I mentioned this earlier. Lucas Ersig came on in the ninth and picked up his second save as well. Again, he is 51% roster. If you've got Ersig in your lineup this week, just say a real big thank you to the Royal's bullpen ahead of him in this one. Because I think they were winning 13 to 1 heading into the 7th inning, 12 to 1.

And then it ended up being a save situation because they allowed 3, 2, and then 3 runs after that. So, yeah. Works out. Works out for Lucas Erseg, at least. To stream or not to stream on Thursday, we have ourselves a four game slas. late, Chris. So time for me to start thinking. Short newsletter. Time for me to start thinking about a creative podcast for Thursday night.

Tage Bradley at the Royals. Ronaldo Lopez at the D-backs. David Peterson at the Giants. You like any of them? How would you rank him? I probably go Bradley and Lopez Peterson. Peterson is boring, but it's like a good ballpark. But he goes six innings pretty regularly.

It's a good matchup in San Francisco. I think he's the highest floor of it. these three. Yes. I think Bradley and Lopez, you know, have higher ceilings for the long run, but I think Peterson actually might be the best streamer here. Yeah, I think I would go Peterson, Bradley, Bradley, Lopez in that order. And then on Friday, there are a ton of options. We have Will Warren against the Marlins, Michael McGreevy at the Tigers, Brady Singer at the Rangers, Joe Boyle at the Twins, Mitch Keller against the Orioles, Chad Patrick at the Royals, Michael Waka against the Brewers, Reed Detmer's against the Mariners, Grant Holmes at the D-backs, Tyler Malley against the Mets.

I think I would go Warren Patrick Holmes from Friday's slate. Mm-hmm. I would go Warren. I like the matchup for Joe Boyle, and he looked really good in his first start. And it might be the last time that you could use him while he's in the rotation. Not that that should influence you, but I'll go Warren, Boyle. Singer in Texas, too. that's kind of,

it's kind of interesting too. But I like Chad Patrick. I'll go Warren, Boyle, and Chad Patrick there on Friday, but lots of solid options there on the Friday slate. We are going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to Tamp 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. Mount Podcasts.