Fantasy Baseball Today - Weekend Recap! Waiver Wire Moves, Injury Updates & More! | Fantasy Baseball Advice

Episode Date: June 9, 2025

Chris Towers and Scott White recap this weekend, focusing on waiver wire standouts, injury updates and the rest of the news. 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. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. With fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Hello and welcome to Fantasy Baseball today. I am Chris Towers.

I'm here with Scott White. It is Monday, June 9th. And we got a big show for you. Unfortunately, we got a Corbyn Burns injury update. It's not good news. We are going to recap the weekend. We got a bunch of waiver wire targets. And we are going to start with the big news,

which is that Corbyn Burns will miss the rest of the season and probably the first couple of months of next season after having Tommy John surgery to repair the UCL in his right elbow. I believe he's also having the internal brace on top of the Tommy John, which is kind of becoming the standard lately. And it's a big blow. Obviously, it's a big blow for the Diamondbacks. He's in the first year of,

was a seven-year, $210 million contract with the Diamondbacks. It's a big blow for fantasy players who likely drafted Burns to be the ace of their staff. And, you know, there were some ups and downs along the way. But on the whole, he pretty much pitched like an ace or at least a high-level pitcher this season before the injury. And now you've got a big hole in your rotation to fill. And unfortunately, you know, the previous couple of weeks, we've had a lot of pretty interesting. pitchers come around on the waiver wire and unfortunately two of them got hurt this weekend as well as that'd be Matthews going on the aisle with a shoulder injury.

Ryan Weather's not on the IL yet, but he did leave Sunday's game. He's being evaluated for a concussion or Saturday's game, excuse me. And yeah, not really a ton of obvious must add pitchers on the waiver wire right now. But Scott, I'm going to give you five that are six that I identified in my waiver wire column. Sunday and just want to see how you feel about these six, who you would add in what priority. We've got Ben Brown, who struck out seven against Detroit this weekend.

He is throwing a new kick change that he threw a career high nine times. In this start, he is 38% rostered Michael Soroka, seven strikeouts against the Rangers this weekend, 19% rostered. He is a spark for those of you and head-to-head points leagues. Edward Cabrera didn't actually have a great start this weekend, although it wasn't bad and he was pulled after 63 pitches

and I'm not sure what was going on with that. I haven't seen any kind of sign of an injury, but he's 33% roster. He's been very good lately. Nick Martinez just continues to be very solid, six strikeouts and six one run innings against the Diamondbacks. This weekend, Bryce Elder, one of the most shocking performances of the season,

maybe 12 strikeouts in eight innings against the Giants on Friday or Saturday. And Adrian Houser has been really solid, weirdly, for the White Sox. He's 11% rostered. Who's your favorite of this group? It's Ben Brown. Yeah. I mean, when in doubt, when it's a bunch of guys who I don't have a lot of faith in to begin with.

Go with the guy who throws 98? We'll go with the upside. Yeah. And I mean, these back-to-back starts for Ben Brown now that have been excellent. not just good in the way Edward Cabrera's been good where it's like, oh, yeah, if you look at the ERA over that however many starts stretch, it's a good ERA, but then you look at the game log and none of the starts really are that impressive.

Ben Brown has a couple of starts in a row here, seven strikeouts and seven innings, two runs loud at Detroit Friday, and then prior to that, six one-hit innings with nine strikeouts. That was against the Reds. his swinging strike rate on the year is 13.6%. Pretty good. The fact that he is, let's see. You said he had a new kick change up, right?

Yeah, he's been like toying with it since the spring, but he's throwing it a lot more. Certainly in this one, it was a career high nine times. In the past, Ben Brown has basically just been a two pitch, pitcher. And yeah, I think for the first time, he might not be just a two pitch pitcher, although he's probably still mostly a two pitch pitch. The curveball is so good.

Yeah. And the fastball is, well, the fastball, it has good velocity, if nothing else. But yeah, now that we're seeing some length that have been Brown and the strikeouts are adding up, and I just see the potential here that maybe he is starting to put it. together and I think after back-to-back starts like this you have to you have to pick him up and see where it goes I wouldn't say I'm totally confident in this like we may be dropping him a week from now when he gets bombed next time out it's what's one of those situations but I think he's the most interesting of this group with Edward Cabrera who you might could argue has similar

upside I just I don't know it seems like we keep trying to make fetch happen here and So there are He has 30 Breakouts to 10 walks over his past 31 innings since the start of May 2.03 ERA For the most part in that stretch He's been swapping out his four seamer for his sinker

For the most part He didn't have the most recent Backwards in this one and he was pulled after Four innings 63 pitches he gave up Six hits and two walks in those four innings So it's not like he was Great, but it's not like he was laboring that

So I don't know what led to the early hook. It still seems like trying to make fetch happen. Sure, you could squint and say, oh, look, he swapped out this pitch for this pitch, three of the last five starts. And, and, you know, that five and a third inning start was halfway decent. But like, after as much misery as this guy has put us through for, what, the last three years, Like, I need like seven, seven innings, 10 strikeouts, you know, to really be, I need to be wowed like that to. He is third on this list, right? I would assume you have Nick Martinez second.

Yeah, I guess maybe. There's not a clear second. If you want to put Edward Cabrera second or third, that's fine. I think Adrian Hauser's definitely last because he's. There is some kind of interesting stuff going on here. He is throwing harder than he ever has. He's got like elite extensions. So he does, you know, 95 mile an hour fastball plays up a little bit.

I'm not saying he's good. But it is, I think, six strikeouts and three straight starts. He's moderately interesting. And I think he is a spark. But obviously it's the white socks. A lot of these guys are on bad teams, which holds them back. Yeah. I do want to talk about Michael Soroka, who.

He is also, I think he actually started throwing a new changeup for the first time this week. I was reading Lance Prostowski's excellent newsletter. And Michael Soreko was throwing that pitch harder and getting six inches of drop more on it than he had his previous changeups. And he threw it like 38% of the time against lefties. Lefties have been a problem for him this season. He's a four seamer slurve guy. And he's been much better against righties. So, like, if that can help neutralize the platoon advantage,

maybe there's something there with Soroka, who actually does have decent underlying numbers, but yeah, it's not the most exciting group. For Week 12, it might be Bryce Elder, who at least gets the Rockies this week. I don't think he's good. I think this is one of, like, the biggest outlier performances of the season. He had 12 strikeouts and eight innings,

three hits, one run against the Giants over the, weekend no walks i have no idea how he's doing that uh he's he's been pretty good over the past like month i don't think it's real but he gets the rockies in atlanta this weekend this week this week uh and i look he's not on my my 10 sleeper pitchers for this week uh that is a good match up and i could see using him if if you know some over some of these others um but yeah probably the best over the others just because of the matchup for this week. But yeah, there's not, there's been around a while,

and we know he's not a strikeout guy, and I don't see anything really that he did differently. I mean, obviously the slider played well in this one. It got a ton of whiffs. It was a little more horizontal, a little less vertical than usual. But an isolated start like this, it just, I don't want to read too much into anything.

you know and and sinker slider is a tough profile to make work um you're going to have big platoon splits i know uh nick pollock over at pitcher list he wrote something today where he compared him to brady singer and like brady singer's been a useful pitcher at times and i think that's probably like the ceiling for brice elder so not not a particularly exciting pitcher but unfortunately we're just at you know the the pitching waiver wire ebbs and flows over the course of the season. And right now we're on an ebb. Would that be the right way to use that analogy?

I'm not sure. I'm not sure whether the ebb or the flow. When the ebb tide is when it's moving out. I don't know. Either way. It's not a great time on the waiver wire. Unfortunately, there's a lot of like, like Davis Martin is not totally uninteresting.

Chad Patrick. We'll talk about some of these other guys later in the show. But I think they're less interesting even than the pretty on interesting guys we've talked about so far so no obvious replacements for carbon corbin burns so let's move on to the oh my goodness gracious players of the weekend and scott you're at first i am going with christian incarnation strand he is back and you couldn't ask for a louder return than he has given us over the weekend uh homered in each of the three games and not just that,

but he has been hitting the snot out of the ball. Christian Ancarnassion Strand has had seven batted balls over the three-day weekend hit 103 miles per hour or hard. Yeah. Pretty good.

So he's been crushing it. Obviously, we know we know there's power there. By the way, the actual, let's see, seven for, seven for 14. So hit 500 Half of his or seven of his battle balls over

Seven for 13 Oh yeah you're right Just three yeah seven for 13 Walk off double in there too Big weekend Yeah it was a huge weekend And we know he can hit the ball hard And has a lot of power

But We haven't seen him deliver on it In a long time He wasn't doing much before going on the aisle this year He missed Most of last season with injury but didn't do much for the time he was healthy. We're really just looking at minorly track record.

We're really just looking at the impact he made down the stretch in 2023 and hoping he can recapture that. But this is no, early indications that it's in there still and that maybe now he's ready to tap into it again. First base has been a pretty crowded position this year, but certainly in Roto Lee, where you got that extra corner infield spot to fill. Look at a points league,

Christian and Carnasian's play discipline's probably going to scare you away regardless, but then you look at the roster size and, okay, tough to make him fit. But I would say in Roto leagues, he needs to be picked up. Maybe you can't make a spot for him, but somebody in your league could definitely use him. He's 42% rostered. I will point out he did appear in one game on his rehab assignment at third base. Could be just a sign that the Reds do want to get

his bat in the lineup somewhere. So that's something to keep an eye on if they do give him that opportunity. But yeah, I agree. Any 12-team league with a corner infield spot, you should probably be taking a chance on Ankharnassee and Strand. My oh my goodness gracious player of the weekend is George Kirby, who looked like George Kirby for the first time this season. Actually, one of the best starts.

Even better than George Kirby. From him, two hits, two earn runs, seven innings, 14 strikeouts, classic zero. walks from George Kirby. That's what you expect. That's more like it. Eight whiffs on the four seamer, five with the slider, 14 overall on only 96 pitches. And the angels have actually not been a terrible team lately. The team-wide strikeout rate has gone down since they sent Kyron Paris down, I think, is what happened. So this is exactly what we wanted to see. The stuff has mostly looked there for George Kirby. I think his three prior starts to this.

velocity was fine movement profiles all looked fine he just didn't wasn't getting the results i think probably just rust but this is what we wanted to see and it makes me feel i i felt pretty confident that george kirby was going to be himself moving forward i think i'm just there now i'm just it's short it's just i mean he couldn't have more emphatically uh stated his case here and i yeah i agree nothing nothing appeared to be wrong with him except the results themselves and his first two starts. So thankfully he's coming around and yeah, you can just treat him like a must start pitcher

going forward. Yeah. I think the the whiff rate on the slider had been way down, but the movement profile, everything looked fine. So yeah, I think he's, I think he's going to be fine. And then this start confirms it. So that was good to see you from George Kirby.

We are going to take a break. We'll be right back. Continue breakdown. Everything you need to know from this weekend. First, thanks to all those watching live on YouTube. Make sure you hit the like button and subscribe to YouTube.com slash fantasy baseball today. You'll get notifications whenever we go live. We got FBT Express on here. You can join the chat. We got all kinds of fun stuff going on. So make sure you do that. And we will be right back right after this. Welcome back to fantasy baseball today. I'm Chris Towers here with Scott White. And let's break down the news and notes that you need to know from this weekend.

And we start with another big name going on the IL. This one's much less serious. Harper placed on the 10 day at 10 day IL with wrist inflammation doesn't sound like it's too serious but he won't be available for the upcoming week at least and the Phillies did recall auto kemp from triple a to take Bryce Harper spot in the lineup he has some speed and power has put up decent numbers in the miners he'll play third base with alec shifting to first with Bryce Harper on the aisle any interest in kemp in deeper leagues I've written about him a couple times in the prospects report this year, even though he's 25, because, like, he has put up huge numbers in the minors this year. And basically every respect, 14 home runs, 11 steals in just

58 games, reached based at a 416 clip, average exit velocity, 91.2, max 113.4. And other wrong with either of those. It's one of those, gosh, why is this guy, why is Auto Kemp never been mentioned as a prospect before some zone contact issues, some chase issues, but they're both kind of mild nothing egregious there and he's very, like, he can play all over the

field and I think what I read before is not a bad defender. So it seemed like Auto Kemp's time was coming and I imagine you know, might be a Tim Tawa situation where he starts for now and then sticks around as a utility player after that and doesn't end up having a huge fantasy impact. But, no, it kind of depends on how it performs.

I think Auto Kemp's definitely interesting. And I did pick him up in a deep roto league. And the Phillies are, it's hard to say they're struggling. But right now, things have not been great for the Phillies. They just got swept by the Pirates, which I don't think anybody expected was going to. to happen. So, you know, there's a little, a little discontent among the Phillies fan base that I've seen. And there, there could be a spot for him somewhere if he forces the issue. He has to force the issue. There's no guarantee of that. It's not especially likely necessarily, but it's,

it is a name to keep an eye on over the next week or so for the Phillies. He could replace Max Kepler and left. Yeah, that's the, that's the biggest one. He's played a little bit of little bit. He's played like seven games in left field this season. It's a new position for him, but clearly the fact that they've played him out there suggests that's part of the thought process, I think. Ryan Weathers, we mentioned, they haven't announced whether he's going to miss his next start, but he is being evaluated for a concussion or being evaluated for a head injury. They didn't use the word concussion, so I don't want to put that out there. But before his start against the raise on Saturday, throws his final warm-up.

up pitch. Nick Fortez does what every catcher does and goes to throw down to second base. Ryan Weathers is in the way and he gets hit in the head. They checked him out. He stayed in the game. Velocity was down a couple miles per hour. He left after three, three innings. It was, I think, initially reported that he was being checked out for an arm injury, but the Marlins manager, Clayton McCullough did confirm he's being evaluated for a head injury. There is the seven-day concussion IL, so we'll see what happens. there, but this is one of those situations where he probably just shouldn't have been in the game at all, and they just didn't do a thorough enough check. So it's unfortunate that that happened. Hopefully it doesn't end up being serious. Julia Rodriguez got x-rays on his ankle after being hit by a line drop. It looks like Ryan Wetweathers has cleared the concussion.

Okay. I don't know if that would, that seems like it would be. a weird explanation for why his velocity was down so much, right? Or does it? I have no idea, honestly. I mean, who knows? Do we even know where the human brain is in the skull? You know, who knows these things?

No, I genuinely have no idea. Like, yeah, watching him, like, make his final warm-up tosses after he got hit, they had the pitch track or the pitch effects, not pitch effects, geez, I'm old. The statcast on the broadcast, I was watching the game. game and he was hitting like 91 in the after throwing his warm up pitches so you know obviously he wasn't going full tilt but it was I was shocked they kept him in the game so I have no idea hopefully it's nothing hopefully it was just the the effects of that you know feeling dazed I don't know but that um you know we do have that explanation at least yeah yeah be be something to

monitor for the next start if the velocity's back because if not then maybe there's something else going on there. A lot of our excitement about Ryan Weathers has been because of the velocity being up. So yeah, that would be obviously the thing to keep an eye on. Moving on, Julio Rodriguez got x-rays on his ankle after being hit by a line drive while sliding into third base, which is just a freak injury, but he was fine. He got x-rays that came back negative and he was back in the lineup playing center field on Sunday. Shohei Otani will throw a live bullpen session Monday as he continues his very methodical return from elbow surgery. I'm still basically expecting nothing from him as a pitcher, but I imagine we will see him

on the mound at some point. It's going to be very difficult for them to bring him back because he can't go on a rehab assignment. So I'm not exactly sure what the timetable is. Yuri Perez is starting for the Marlins on Monday, as we expected, right back in your lineups. He's Scott's number two sleeper pitcher for. He's been surpassed.

Just behind Shane Smith. Yeah, because when we did the show Friday, remember, Eric Perez was number one. But since then, Shane Smith has picked up two-start status, and it is two favorable matchups against, I believe, yeah, the two Texas teams, neither of which rates well offensively, believe it or not. So Shane Smith has now leapfrog Deread Perez for the sleeper pitchers. but Perez is two. And, you know, that's, that's obviously, it's obviously a gamble coming back from Tommy John surgery. It's not my fault. He lines up for two starts.

But I think because of the upside and the fact he was throwing at his usual velocity in the miners, it's a gamble worth taking in most leagues. I think you're hoping for 10 good innings, which you'll take in a two-start week. Francisco Indore went three for five with two doubles on Saturday at Colorado and his first start since breaking his pinky toes. So that's a good sign given that injury. Zebby Matthews, as we mentioned earlier, placed on the 15-day aisle with a right shoulder sprain. I haven't really seen any details on what the expected timetable. I would guess it's at least until the end of June at the earliest that he'll be out.

Jung-Hul-Lee missed Saturday and Sunday's games while dealing with back tightness. Are you starting him this week? Not if I can help it. Shailang Lears sent to the aisle with a strained oblique. Shodi Imanaga, who's coming back from a hamstring injury, will make a rehab start Tuesday at the Arizona Complex League. He's been out since early May and we'll probably need several starts before he is ready to be activated.

I think he threw 40 pitches in a bullpen session last week. So probably at least another couple of weeks before we see Shodon Imanaga, although the fact that it's a hamstring injury and not an arm is a good sign that hopefully it won't be a difficult return. turn. Tyler O'Neill began a minor league rehab assignment this weekend and could be back this week for the Orioles. Things are going to get a little crowded there, but Ryan Moutcastle, his injury will require an 8 to 12 week IL stint. He's dealing with that hamstring injury, I believe. So eight to 12 weeks is August or September.

Yeah, that could be the season, basically, for Ryan McAustle. So he's a very easy drop, but also like this might be Kobe Mayo's. like only real shot to stick with the Orioles. He's not playing every single day, but he's going to get a shot now. Yeah, better take advantage. The Dodgers activated both Michael Kopeck and Kirby 8th from the IL on Saturday. And interestingly, on Sunday, they went Kirby 8th in the 7th, Tanner Scott in the 8th, Michael Kopeck in the 9th. It was a four-run lead.

It was not a save. Don't want to draw any major conclusions there. But Dave Roberts pretty notably did not say Tanner Scott is his closer the other day. So I think this one's kind of open. It's definitely open. You said it was for a run lead, not a safe situation. And yeah, I guess that was true for both the eighth and ninth inning. So they knew that when they brought in Tanner Scott in the eighth.

Michael Kopeg's velocity was down in his first appearance back. with relievers, you know, they throw so few pitches in their appearance that I don't know that we want to make a huge thing of it in just one outing, but it was down one and a half miles per hour. So we'll need to see that return to normal. But they were using him some as the closer last year

before he got hurt. And, you know, the White Sox obviously used him as a closer. It's very likely Copac will be in this. saves mix yeah uh yates still could be himself i think it's like it's probably like 45 25 25 15 5 i don't i have no idea if that actually adds up to 100 my guess is tanner scott will still get the most he was the 45 okay copec was the 25 yates was the 15 i may have already screwed up the numbers again Alex vessia could sneak yeah someone someone else will get Yeah. And I don't know exactly.

You know, it's funny. This was kind of what we expected it to be when they signed Scott and Yates. Because remember, they signed those guys like back to back in like January or something. And our initial reaction was like, oh, this is going to be a mess. And then Scott got, I think, the first two saves or the first save. And everyone was like, oh, nope, Tanner Scott's the closer. Oh, not just that. I mean, Dave Roberts said Tanner Scott was the closer.

Yeah. And then he seemed to follow through on it for a couple. Yeah, it's been messy for a while. It's getting messier. And I don't know that. If Tanner Scott is an RP2, he's a low end RP2, I would say. I think that's probably right. Yes.

Let me see. Okay. Tony Gonson's UCL is intact. He's on the aisle with an elbow injury, but unclear how long he'll be shut down. when the good news update is that his UCL is intact. I think you take that as this is probably going to be more than a minimum stay at the very least. Here's into one, Marcelo Meyer said all four games against lefties this week. Is he a must roster player?

Uh, no. I would say Marcel Meyer. Uh-oh. Oh. Sorry, Scott. We got an appearance. It had been a while. It had been a while.

You sound okay now. Now I said it was a very brief appearance from Robo Scott after a long absence. He's just, just toe in the water. You can't keep him down. You can only hope to contain him. Marcelo Meyer is not most roster. I think initially, because you never know how prospect callup is going to perform, a high-end prospect call-up, there's a lot more urgency to add him and just see how it plays out.

but he's kind of got to hit the ground running, I think, to sustain that enthusiasm. It fades quickly. Very quickly, the air comes out of the balloon, particularly when he's not playing regularly. So Meyer, if you want to cut him to free up a roster spot, it doesn't mean he doesn't have a bright future. It doesn't mean that bright future couldn't begin later this year.

But roster space being finite, I don't think he's going to attract a lot of attention if you drop him. same is true for Tony Gonsolent if you don't have an IL spot to stash him in. Yeah, I think that's a fairly easy drop given how bad he'd been. Right. Yep. All right, Kerry Carpenter left Sunday's game with a lingering hamstring injury, but he doesn't expect to miss any additional time.

Logan Gilbert won't be returning from the IL this week. He'll make at least one more rehab start, rehab start before returning from the flexor strain in his right elbow. He threw 60 pitches. His velocity was down in his previous rehab outing. So hopefully it's just one more. but it feels a little tricky right now. Matt Chapman jammed his hand diving back into first base Sunday.

X-rays came back negative for a fracture. Carlos Correa returned to the twins lineup Saturday after missing three straight with back tightness. Ricell Iglesias will not be the primary closure for the Braves moving forward. I just don't know if anybody will be because remember how they promoted Craig Kimbril last week? He's already gone. He made one appearance. He was averaging like, what, 92 miles an hour on his fastball? and they let him go.

The whole thing about that was weird. Resigning a franchise legend, having him spend two months in the minors, and then having him make one appearance. Did he need a day on the roster to get his union card or something? How does, I don't know. I heard or saw three different explanations from people who covered the Braves. Okay.

Which makes me believe they're all just coming up with their own explanations. Or they're talking to, different people and and hearing different things. And nobody actually knows. But one of the explanation was, yes, it, it, it triggered a certain salary thing for him and was just kind of a courteous move on the Braves part. Another explanation was, oh, yeah, did you see he was only throwing 91.5? They decided he wasn't going to be any good for them. And the other explanation was they planned to keep him around.

but they just, the bullpen was so taxed, they needed a multi-inning guy and Kimberl was the easiest one to let go. Anyway, that was probably boring to hear about. But the point was it was weird and there isn't a clear explanation for why it happened. But clearly, Kimbril is not going to be entering the saves mix anytime soon. The guy who seemed to get the first shot to replace Reisel Iglesias, two days in a row was Pierce Johnson. But the first of those days, working the 10th inning with the tie game, wild pitch to allow the winning run to score, took the loss. The next day.

To run, walk off home run to match. To run, walk off home run with two runs in the ninth. Granted, these were all, this was a stretch of three consecutive games, the first of which was the Braves blowing a six-run lead in the ninth inning. So just a brutal three-game stretch for that team. But Pierce Johnson, the fact he failed as a closer two, two days in a row. I don't know that it's going to be him next time.

It's obviously not going to be Kimbril. Would they go back to Reisel, Glacius, Dylan Lee, Diannella Santos, Aaron Bummer. Like, it's a lot of bad options. Yeah. I think he'll be right, Ryssela Glacius before long. Yeah. I mean, if nobody else can,

if nobody else proves to be any more reliable than he was, then that would make sense. I think Dylan Lee gets a shot first. I'm not totally ruling out Pierce Johnson again. I saw people who needed saves in deep leagues throwing low dollar amounts at both of them. But if, and leagues were saves are scarce, I wouldn't be so quick to cut a glacius either

because I'm not sure anybody else is any more reliable. Jorge Saler will undergo further testing on his groin, which he first heard on Wednesday, came back on Friday, but left Saturday's game. So that's concerning. Kyle Stowers missed four straight games with a sore hand. He was able to pinch hit and play in the outfield on Sunday, I believe.

So hopefully he's okay. Jordan Westberg looks like he'll be back from his hamstring injury on Tuesday. That's a good sign for him. Although, again, Orioles starting to get crowded again. Andy Volpe missed Saturday's game after being hit by a pitch on the elbow on Friday, but he was back on Sunday, so hopefully he's okay. Josh Naylor returned to the lineup on Saturday. Gabriel Moreno missed Saturday and Sunday's game with a hand contusion,

but I did notice the Diamondbacks sent their third catcher down after calling him back up, so I assume Gabriel Moreno is good for this week. Jordan Walker has been able to hit and lift weights in recent days. He comes back from that wrist injury, but he will require a minor league rehab assignment, which feels as much about giving him some low pressure reps as anything else. given that the injury doesn't sound too serious. Rees Olsen through a bullpen session on Saturday without incorporating his change-up,

something he will try to do in his next session as he works his way back from that finger injury. After that, we should get an update on what the next step is. Hopefully it won't be more than one or two rehab starts. The Blue Jays were called Spencer Turnbull from AAA Buffalo with the expectation that he's going to start on Wednesday. He has a 713 ERA and a 181 whip at AAA, so no, we are not interested. and the Angels acquired Lamont Wade from the Giants for a player to be named later or cash considerations. Don't expect Lamont Wade to matter much for fantasy this season,

although he was solid in previous years. So maybe there's something left there. This is what the Angels do. They get guys who were interesting in the past and hope they can find something usually doesn't work out. And with that, we are going to take one more break and we'll be right back right after. Welcome back to Fantasy Baseball today.

we are recapping the weekend getting you ready for week 12 and I'm just going to go ahead and put it out there. We're going over an hour today. It's probably going to push like an hour 15 because we have barely gotten into weekend performances. And Scott, there are people who need pitchers. There are pitchers available. Are any of these pitchers actually worth adding? Let's go through part two and three of the waiver wire starting pitchers. We got Chad Patrick who had another great start, six innings, four hits, one earned run, three walks, six strikeouts. He has a 364 XERA and a 284 actual ERA. Do you have any real sense of how he's getting it done?

It's a little Andrew Abbott-E, extreme flyball pitcher that generates a lot of extreme fly balls, if that makes sense? Sure. Fly balls that are hit at an extreme angle. Yeah. So it seems like home runs are going to catch up to him eventually. his home run rate is 0.7 per 9 innings, which is very, very low, and for a fly ball pitcher,

who allows a lot more contact than Andrew Abbott does. It's worth noting. Yeah, I would say there's been some good home run luck there for Chad Patrick. That being said, he's going six innings with more consistency lately, picking up a lot of quality starts.

If you're desperate, you're desperate, it and you got to just hope you can continue to beat the odds with the home runs. I mean, sometimes that's the best you can do. And I know I'm doing that with Patrick in a couple of deeper leagues, but not getting too attached. You know what? I want to rewind to the last segment.

If you don't immediately need a starting pitcher, there is one name that you absolutely need to know because we could be talking about the best pitching prospect of baseball coming up relatively soon. I don't know, maybe he's not actually the best pitching prospect of baseball. I think Chase Burns is the best pitching prospect in baseball. He has been utterly dominant. I think he was the number four pick, number two pick in last year's draft. He has a 1680RA and he was promoted to AAA on Sunday.

Just throwing that out there if you don't actually need someone right now and you're just looking to stash someone, now that he's at AAA, it could just be, I mean, what if he goes out and strikes out like 17 and his next two starts? And the Reds are just like, get him up. Who cares? He, he, he, I don't know if it was on the show or something I wrote, but I said if you're actually looking for someone to be this year's Paul Skeens,

I think Chase Burns might actually be the best choice. He's just unbelievably talented. Yeah, I think he has, we didn't see him pitch at all last year after he was drafted second overall right by the Reds. Yeah. So that kind of, I think that kind of restrained some of the rankings for him. But I think the consensus now, having seen him pitch and dominate AA like he did, is that he is the best pitching cost.

Yeah. Yeah. So it could happen this year. I mean, obviously Paul Skeen's got, came up the year after he was drafted. Yeah. Yeah. So that's a name to keep in mind if you don't. Like we've talked a lot about some pretty boring pitchers.

He could potentially be not at all boring. He could be really, really exciting. Chase Burns. Just to repeat the name. Yes. Repeat the name. Chase Burns. Cincinnati Reds pitching prospect.

Some other more, much less exciting pitchers, at least now. Clayton Kershaw, he was pretty exciting at one point. And he was very good on Sunday. One earned run, seven strikeouts, five innings, six hits, no walks, nine whiffs on his slider. It was his first good start of the season. 52% roster rate is still way too high, right? who are we talking about Clayton Kershaw

Okay yeah it's too high Yeah I'm not even won over by this start It was his best start It equaled his longest start Five innings But he doesn't throw as hard as he did Even just last year It's the velocity's way down

The slider, it's a good slider And it'll give with sometimes But I don't think you want to I don't think you want to stake your season on that uh, Zach Lattel had a good, another good start against the Marlins. He has a 283 ERA over the last 10 starts. He is 66% rostered and I don't know how much higher that needs to be because he's probably about as good as whatever his next matchup is, but he's got elite control.

The problem is it's just 537 walk, walks per night or strikeouts per nine. So don't know how much more rostered he needs to be kind of the same thing with Andrew Heaney. He is, uh, in that same range, I think around 66%. six innings pitch, one-er-run against the Phillies. It's a very good start against the tough matchup. Leftist game with the calf cramp. Has his season ERA down to 324, but 446 XERA don't have a ton of confidence in that.

Yeah, I like Letell a little more than Heaney. I think Lettel is comparable to Jameson-Tyone. Jameson-Tayone is just, he's been more consistent this year, so he seems a lot better. I think they're going to regress toward each other. And it's the same sort of profile, basically. A guy who can deliver quality starts consistently because he's very efficient with the strikes he throws, the economical with the pitch count. But there aren't many strikeouts there.

They're both backed by pretty good offenses. Obviously, Tyone a great offense. And so that gives him an edge. But I think Letell's plenty streamable. you're not going to like it when it goes bad and there's only so much upside when it goes well but there are long starts typically speaking all right landa rupe for the giant six innings five hits

three on runs two walks two strikeouts quality starts in four of us past five but it's also only 21 strikeouts and 28 innings in that stretch 10 walks are we still excited about him and Hayden Birdsong Birdsong also had a pretty mediocre start this weekend. I think it was five walks.

That was concerning just because walks were a big problem for him last year. Do we still have excitement about those two Giants pitchers? I have excitement about Birdsong. I think Birdsong's really talented, and he had a combined two walks in his previous three starts. So I'll give him a pass for this one where the control kind of got away from. He did allow only two hits. So, you know, he showed some ability there, too, even as he was walking, too many guys.

Rup has begun to mix things up a little more. So not, hasn't been relying as much on that curveball. And I know the results have improved as a result for as good as that curveball is. it just seems like it's really hard to throw a curveball 50% of the time especially he's got a big looping slow curveball that's going to be a tough

pitch to command yeah and so the change up to help his fastball play better and to not have to throw the curveball so much it's helped it hasn't made land and roop like a stud or anything but somebody who can turn in quality starts with some regularity I think he's

there and in leagues where you can take advantage of the relief pitcher held really had points leagues namely i think he's at least on the level of like a nick martinez okay uh let's talk about some more waiverware starting pitchers and i'll just ask i'll present you five names and then ask brana walter jose cantona davis martin colton gordon so two astros brandon walter and colton gordon jose kentana of the brewers davis is Martin of the White Sox and Mitchell Parker of the Nationals. Do any of these guys need to be rostered in even like 20% of leagues? And that's a noteworthy question because Jose Cantana and Mitchell Parker are both

rostered in more than 20%. I mean, maybe Cantana. He's pretty, he's pretty reliable in a boring way. I don't think he needs to be anywhere close to universally rostered. But in leagues where you have to go deep into the pitching pool, I think he is, I think he's good enough not to sink you. These others, though, Brandon Walter, Davis Martin, Colton

Gordon, Mitchell Parker. I mean, Mitchell Parker's kind of already run out of steam, even though he bounced back a little against the Cubs, surprisingly. But he had like an eight ERA in his previous eight starts or something like that. So I think we're done with him. This seemed like a, I think this was just a spot start

for Brandon Walter to give Lance McCullors an extra day. So I don't know that he's even sticking around. Some interesting numbers in the minor. but he's 28, 29, something like that. He's not really a prospect. I don't see anything with Colton Gordon. Davis Martin's been going six innings with surprising consistency, but it's... I think he's like sneaky okay, but probably not much more than okay.

And when you're on the white socks and you're just okay, it's... Why bother? It's my feeling. All right. Let's fire up the dropometer for this next handful of pitchers. Bryce Miller, just a... another bad start, five earn runs, five innings. And look, we know he's pitching through bone spurs in this outwell. Velocity has looked okay, but it's down about a half mile an hour across the board. Fastball's just been getting crushed.

He has four strikeouts and nine innings since returning from the IL. Do we need to roster Bryce Miller? What's the dropometer on him? Just knowing that he's hurt. Well, I haven't dropped them in any of the few leagues where I have him. I think they tend to be, I think they're all on the deeper side though. I'm going to go, I'm going to give him about like a six on the dropometer. I think, is that too high?

Should I go five? I was inclined to go like eight. Oh, you're all the way. Just because we know he's hurt. Just because we know he's pitching through an injury that like if he keeps struggling like this, I just don't know how long they can keep him in the mess. majors or or even just to have the surgery like it seems like a scenario where he's going to have to have surgery at some point anyway and so i just i just have a hard time seeing how this gets better when we know he's pitching through something yeah i mean people have pitched well through bones burrs before and the velocity's most it's he's down about half a mile per hour yeah it's mostly there though it's probably the cause of his struggles don't give me wrong, but I just, you know,

what I'd rather hold on to Bryce Miller or pick up Chad Patrick, unless I needed to start somebody tomorrow. That's fair. I'd probably just keep my fingers crossed on Miller because I'd hate to see him come around for somebody else, you know? I don't think we're dropping Zach Allen, Luis Castillo, or Spencer Strider. So maybe we're not doing dropometer on any of those guys,

but just, I mean, Zach Allen's got a 453 ERA over the past calendar year. he gave up he actually pitched well for six innings in this one and then hit two outs in the seventh gave up a single gave up a home run kind of ruined the whole line but even before that three walks five strikeouts and six innings just not very impressive um where are you out on Zach Allen I did see improvements in his previous star there was higher VLO there was more curveball and change up and I wondered if he was on to something but he gave all of that back in this start and the results were terrible so So he's, I think wherever you want to put Bryce Miller on dropometer, I have Zach Allen just like a number behind that. Less dropable is what I mean, but not by much. Luis Castillo, velocity continues to trend up, but fastball, 15 balls and play with a 94.2 mile per hour average X velocity in this one.

And he threw three changeups. Remember when that was the pitch for Luis Castillo? it's so weird how that's just like he's throwing it like 9% of the time this season he's been okay for the most part though he's been fine so i think you hold on to him you obviously recognize that he doesn't have the same upside he used to but i don't think we're anywhere close to dropping louisquez to you now i could see some people kind of rage dropping spencer shreder i think that would be a mistake but it is weird that his best start of the season.

So far is three earned runs over six innings. And honestly, it felt worse than that watching it. I don't know if you agree, but it felt like it could have been a lot worse. The slider is still good. He had seven whiffs on the slider, but the fastball is just a problem. Right.

Well, he only gave up three hits. Yeah, in the six innings. I think the defense helped. Okay. Yeah, I wasn't watching it intently. I had it kind of in the background. Yeah, he So it was interesting about this being his best start

Is he said to heck with the change up in curveball Which he'd been mixing in more And they played pretty well for him But he just went fastball slider Which is kind of getting back to his roots And they both He got 11 whiffs on 90 pitches Really the swinging strikes haven't been a problem

for strider. He's not at his best in league rate before he got hurt, but it is a very good rate that he's missing bats at, even with the fastball being down a couple miles per hour.

He didn't give up his, the contact wasn't as hard in this one, 86.3 miles per hours. Average Texas velocity is not bad. But, I mean, until that fastball is back, and it may never come back.

Until it's back, I'm not sure how trustworthy Spencer Strider is. Yeah, must roster, but not must start is where I'm at. Yeah, not must start. I agree. I don't know. I mean, I was asking you before the show, would you trade Spencer Strider for McKinsey Gore in a dynasty league? Because I think we'd both do that.

Yeah, I think the rest of the season, I think you'd have to do it for. You'd have to take Gore over Strider, but even in a dynasty league, like, are we worried about Strider? What's going to change a year from now that helps them get his velocity back? Well, any number of things could, but we're just, it's just kind of, it's just, it's more hoping than having a clear explanation for why it will. I think the, the problem is we are in mostly uncharted territory when it comes to guys coming back from, the internal brace procedure. There have been a lot of pitchers who have had the internal brace surgery.

But most of them have had the hybrid where they've had a UCL reconstruction, Tommy John surgery, and an internal brace on top of both. In terms of guys who have just had the internal brace, it's a really short list of guys who have had it as major leaguers.

Brian Wu did in college. So that's one of the biggest success stories, but he was like 20 or 21. So, you know, who knows how different that situation is. You've got Rich Helen 2020. He continued to pitch effectively after coming back. Zach Britton, his career is basically over. Nick Anderson, his career was basically over.

Jurasmussen has looked great. And his velocity is back to where it was pre-surgery. And then you've got this year, Lucas Julito, Jonathan Loisigza, Garrett Whitlock, and Spencer Shrider all coming back. And we just two starters who look pretty bad, right? now, but it's very small sample size. I think Jolito and Strider have both made like, what, four or five starts. And then Whitlock and Loisigar are pitching out of the bullpen. So I just genuinely don't know. We just don't have enough data.

You know, next year we'll have Bubba Chandler or not Bubba Chandler, Jared Jones and someone else. So, you know, we'll get more data every year. My hunch is that Strider isn't right mechanically. And they just haven't identified it yet. And it's just a hunch. Like, I'm not a pitching coach. I'm just, I'm kind of going off memory. It doesn't. Like, he's Quadzilla because he's learned to incorporate his lower body and his delivery so much.

And I don't see him driving as low with his legs. His arm angle is way lower. It's like seven degrees lower from two years ago. There's a pretty big drop. And that might coincide with not getting as low on the mound. So that's my hunch. that's what I'm kind of clinging to but I have nothing to back that up

than just kind of my own observations and I don't I don't trust those enough to say strider's going to be fine some other Walker Bueller is still 73% roster just get this guy out of here 5 run runs in two innings he's got a 518 ERA a 477 XERA

529 FIP it is fine to drop Walker Bueller it's been a long time since Walker Buehler was good. Like, 2022 was the last time he was like a must start pitcher. Yeah. Tos Bradley. Someone asked me, like,

someone on Blue Sky was like, oh, Taj Bradley, if we can't trust him against the Marlins. And it's like, I think that's the wrong way to think about Taj Bradley. I don't think matchups matter for Taj Bradley.

I don't think Taj Bradley's opponent is not the guys in the batters box. Todd Bradley's opponent is Todd Bradley. Like, I think there's just no rhyme or reason to when he's good and when he's bad. He's just frustrating because he's so volatile and so inconsistent. I just, you know, the stuff metrics have taken a step back for Bradley this year. He's continued to struggle. There will be big starts.

I just don't think I want to chase them anymore with Taj Bradley. I'm not saying he can't be rostered, but I really don't have a lot of interest in Tage Bradley. Agree. Tomi Yuki Sagano man even when he doesn't pitch well I still look at the line and it's like how was this not worse he gave up three runs in four and a third innings

which is not good but it was eight hits and only two strikeouts it feels like it should have been worse maybe there's something magical about Tomi Yuki Sagano but he has like a 460 XERA I think he's just a streamer at Sacramento you should probably not

have been starting him anyway. And then this is the problem with the hot hand. From May 3rd until his previous start, Ryan Yarborough had a 208 ERA. That was awesome. It was so much fun. Ryan Yarbrough, new changeup. He's pitching great. Yankees figured something out.

And then he gives up eight runs and four innings against the Red Sox this weekend. And all of a sudden he has a 420 ERA since the start of May. He just completely undid whatever positive. he did before this start. This is the problem with, yeah, he's hot, just go until it doesn't work out is, well, sometimes it doesn't work out and it undoes, undos, undos. Undoos, the good stuff.

You know what? I've got my niece, they're nine and seven, visiting this weekend. I think it's just completely ruined my, my vocabulary and syntax. That'll happen. I was going to make a point, and now I don't remember what it was. Oh, yeah, writing the hot hand. I like it more for hitters. Yeah.

And I like it more for points league. Yes, agree. Head-to-head points league specifically, because, yeah, you have to be very, very, that's, it's why I have a whole separate tier in my two-star pitcher rankings for head-to-head pitchers versus Roto. Because in Roto leads, you have to be very, very careful who you entrust, which pitcher you entrust a spot, too,

because, yeah, one ugly line like this from Yarbrough can mess up, mess up weeks and weeks of work. All right, let's talk about some Waverwire hitters. Kyle Teal started all three games this weekend. That's a great sign. One of them was at D.H. Henry Davis hit three home runs this weekend. The pirates have both Andy Rodriguez and Joey Bart on the IL.

So Henry Davis, cheap power from your number two catcher spot. If you need it, Jack Caglione, four hits on Sunday. day. Good sign for him. Jeff McNeil. Kind of good this year. 888 OPS for the season. And Scott, you will love this.

Huge increase in his pulled air rate. I think it's up to like 27%. He, the fat speed from the second half of last season still up. And it seems to have primarily impacted his ability to pull the ball. I don't know. Jeff McNeil might be something here. Yeah, I mean,

it looks a lot better. after a two homer game. Yeah, and I think a homer on Saturday as well. The playing time has been tricky because Brett Beatty is fighting

for more Ronnie Maricio who came up. He's played a little DH even. Yeah, and you know, he's up because Mark Viantos is on the IEL, but if if Maricio shows

he needs to stick around when when Viantos comes back, then I don't know, that's going to make things even tighter. Maricio had a 456-foot home run on Saturday. He hit 110.3 miles per hour. He had a stolen base on Sunday going two for three with two walks. Walking's not something he does, but stealing bases, hitting the ball very hard.

Remember, when he came up in 2023, I believe it was, at the end of the year, during that short time he was up Ronnie Maricio had the Mets hardest hit ball of the season I think it was his first appearance his first played appearance the hardest hit ball for the Mets all season harder than any Pete Alonzo hit

there are discipline issues, plate discipline issues but a lot of raw talent here for Maricio and he seems like he's getting some run while he's healthy so I like the talent of Beatty and Maricio more than McNeil. I think in, I don't know that any of these guys you're bothering with them in a head-to-head league

because you just don't have to go that deep into the hitter pool. But I think I think I'm gambling, particularly if it's for a bench spot and I'm betting on upside. I think I'm gambling on Maricio or Beatty over McNeil. All right. We talked a little bit about Ryan Ritter on Friday's podcast. He did get called up. They placed Zizucova on the aisle with an oblique injury. Ritter should get a bunch of playing time with Tovar out. And across 140 games between AA and AAA the last two seasons, he has 23 homers and 20 steals. So just an interesting name to know in your deeper categories leagues.

Matt Walner, since coming back from the IL, is doing the Matt Walner thing. He's got three homers and seven games, a 391 OBP, and a 222 batting average. That is the Matt Walner experience right there. Joe Adel has been pretty good lately, six homers over his past. 15 games cut his strikeout rate to a career low 23 percent to 77 expected batting average he's always underperforms his expected batting average but if he can be like a 250 hitter i think joe adele matters in some five outfielder leagues right yeah i added him to the sleeper hitters list for this week with the angels having the second best hitter matchups and kyle stowers not being

available with a hand issue needed a replacement joe adele with as hot as he's been And yeah, I was surprised at how good those expected stats are, 265, 502 slug. Maybe he's not going to reach those because he's shown himself to be somebody who underperforms his expected stats. But, you know, the pull air rate is good. The strikeout rate is much lower than in the past. I think Joe Adel deserves better than he's gotten so far. And that's part of the reason why, oh, you. with his full season stats being so bad,

you know, maybe you already missed out on this hot streak and shouldn't gamble on him now. But I just think, I think better days are ahead. I think there's more correction to come looking at those underlying numbers for Joe Adele. I agree.

Mike Talkman is 8% rostered. He started 14 and 15 games, hitting 278 with a 394 OBP and a 119 run pace in that span. He's basically hitting leadoff or second for the White Sox. This is deep. league stuff but Mike Talkman's always been decent you know usually just a platoon bat but he's he's a useful guy in deeper league so that that's a name to know and then some

other hitters to highlight Pete Alonzo he's going to be opting out of that contract at the end of this year I think because he is having his best season ever I'm not going for the franchise record I mean I think he only needs like six more home runs to set the franchise Got to overtake Darrell Strawberry. Yeah, he's just very close. It's very close. He just worked in the second place best David Wright. Yeah.

He has a 990 OPS. He has a 301 batting average and is actually underperforming his expected stats. Peter Lonzo's average active velocity, 95 miles per hour. Barrow rate is 20%. Strikeout rates down to 21%. Basically career best numbers in every possible regard. He's not going to be this good the rest of the way, but yeah, Pete Alonzo looks locked in and has basically.

I mean, he was a little slow in May, but has been outrageous in June again. So he looks awesome. Trevor Story had a good Saturday and Sunday, five for nine with five RBI, three runs, one home run. That's mostly notable because just, we kind of want Trevor's story to just get out of the way,

more than anything, I think, at this point. You know, clear up some room for all those, young guys and doesn't seem like it's going to happen. Then Marcus Simeon continues to turn things around 10 for 23 with two hits, six RBI, five strikeouts in seven June games, plus he had five hits in his final two games of May. So that's a good sign. Scott, you seem like you wanted to say something about Trevor Story. Yeah, I mean, the only one who hasn't come up is Roman Anthony, who, by the way, hit a 497 foot brand slam, 115 miles per hour. 497 foot I think I saw that would have been the fifth longest

home run in Statcast history That sounds right yeah At the major league level You remember before Stackass When we were like When we thought like 500 foot home runs happened Like with somewhat regular Occurrences and

Turns out no it's like once every three years And he was right there Three feet away Roman Anthony So They really really the easiest answer would be to stick Sadan-Raphael at shortstop, but they just don't seem to want to do that.

I think it's a defensive hit at two positions that they're taking, because he's okay at shortstop. He's great in center field, and they just don't want to do that. I think if Trevor's story is bad enough, long enough, they'll eventually relent. And he had been terrible for well over a month,

37 games prior to him going 5 for 9 this Saturday and Sunday. 37 games prior, 142 batting average with a 34% K rate. So he was close to, I think, slumping his way out of the lineup and maybe for Anthony's benefit. But this weekend buys him a little more time, Trevor Story, I think. All right. Let's move on to some pitching leftovers. Like I said, we're going to go over the hour. But let's, you know, we got to move fast.

There's a lot to get to still. Aces being aces and just the pirates beat the Phillies with Paul Skeens on the mound. And so you figure, oh, Paul Skeens must have gotten a win, right? Well, no, because he made it through seven and two-thirds innings, and they took the lead in the eighth inning. He has one win since the start of May. In that time, he has a 118-ERA, 51 strikeouts, and 48 in the third innings, and he has one win.

This is just dumb. This is like I'm not a kill the wins guy. I think you should just play fantasy baseball however you think is the most fun. But it is dumb that Paul Skeens has one win in the last like month and a half. That's all. Garretre Crochet, nine strikeouts. I actually give up five earned runs against the Yankees. This is interesting.

His extension was closer to where it was last season. That's been down all year. He's not releasing the ball quite as close to home plate. The whole arsenal looks deeper. generally, just what do you think, like, do you have any concerns about Gary Crochet just as the innings pile up just because he hasn't pitched this, he hasn't pitched into July competitively, you know?

Yeah, they're low concerns. He's been so good this year that I don't think you, when you get a true ace like this and second straight year of him being a true. ace obviously it was only for half last year that was a what that was a decision thing from the white socks it wasn't like he lost crochet's performance yeah um yeah he's he's my number four sp and i think it's a pretty clear top four all right those are those are the those are the like true true aces there's just four of them and then others that are you know kind of semi-aices

Oh, okay. I, this, I'm not going to get into it. I update my rankings by uploading a spreadsheet and then it always puts Shohei Otani at the top and I need to remember to remove him because he is technically SP eligible and it slots them in in their overall ranking and we don't need to get into it. Jacob de Grom, eight strikeouts over seven innings against the Nationals, 212 ERA for the season.

He had just four strikeouts in his previous two starts. So it was good to see him. getting back to being a strikeout pitcher. As long as he's healthy, he's an ace. He's not like Jacob de Goat anymore, but he's still one of the best pitchers in baseball. Christopher Sanchez was good to see only two walks. Great matchup, obviously.

But only two walks against the pirates, two on runs, nine strikeouts over seven innings. Is he a top 24 starting pitcher for you? DeGrom. No, Christopher Sanchez. No, DeGroar. I think it's closer to top 12 at this point, right? Yeah, DeGrom's easily top.

24 and top 15, around top 15. But yeah, Christopher Sanchez, I like that he got back to throwing strikes. He walked two still, but 67% strike rate. His previous eight starts, he had just a 60% strike rate, which is very low. Previous seven starts, 60% strike rate, very low. So that was encouraging. Obviously, just one start against the pirates. I have Sanchez 28th currently.

So outside of my top 24, but not by much. And a couple of injured guys are ahead of him. All right. And then Jack Flaherty, six innings, nine strikeouts, three walks, 29 strikeouts to eight walks over a four-start quality start streak. Slider's still not really there, but he did get eight whiffs on 16 swings with the knuckle curve. Whiff rate on that pitch is almost 50% this season. It's been bonkers. So I still have a lot of confidence in Jack Flaherty, even if he's not quite where he was last year.

He has been his last three starts. Yeah, he's been, yeah, eight hits in 18 innings over the last three starts. All right. And then just real quick, because we are up against it. Where are we at on Tanner Bybee? Good start here against Houston. Obviously, that's a pretty good matchup right now. Leading with his sweeper lately, he had six strikeouts and six in the third innings.

It's been an up and down season for him. He feels like he's been like a crisis of confidence, like trying to figure out who he is. And he's settled on throwing a lot more sweepers. lately. Where do you add on Tyner Bype? I mean, I guess he has like six pitches and he's mixed them up quite a bit even in recent turns. So it's one of those that's frustrating for me to try to analyze because it's like, oh, he's throwing this pitch more. And then I look at the previous game and it was completely upside down, the pitch usage.

Yeah, the cutter had been getting phased out lately and he threw it a bunch in this one. Yeah. So it's, I mean, maybe just the variety like that. is part of the point with Tanner Bybee and that he can mix it up from start to start. Bottom line is over his last nine starts, Tanner Bybee has a 307 ERA, a 110 whip. 7.6K per 9 is lower than you'd like. But for a guy with his track record, I don't know.

I'm inclined to just kind of let it ride because he's been good enough. Yeah, he's around 40th for me, which feels a little low, but that doesn't mean I don't like him. I have 40 third, so I'm there. Clay Holmes, another good start at Colorado. Good to see him pitching in a bad environment and pitching well. Seth Lugo, better in his second start,

still kind of underwhelming coming back from the IL. Any concerns there? Sorry, who was this? Seth Luga. Seth Lugo. Not really. he's been fine just the outings have been a little short

since returning outings have also been short for Drew Rasmussen who did get through six innings in this one but they just keep pulling him at around 80 pitches this time it was 74 it's just he can be really efficient he can go six innings but he's got to be

super efficient it's just frustrating part of me just wants to trade Jerusalem just to have it be someone else's problem but if not I think he's just start You know? Yeah. I mean, obviously, if you've started him this whole time, it's worked out.

And I think he's good. Yeah. But his season high is 86 pitches, and that's the only time he's gotten to 85. And so that just seems like it's built in. Yep. He's lucky whenever he goes six innings in that case, which has happened three of the last four starts. But he's been lucky to do that. As a ground ball ball pitcher, he should be a higher BAPIP guy.

And in the past, his BAPs have run. you know, 280 to 300, I think. It's around like 220 this year. Yeah. So I think there's some correction coming

and how many hits he gives up. And if he's only going 80, 85 pitches consistently, I don't know, that he may not end up looking so valuable or so useful if that regression comes. So, I think you cash in now,

and you don't have to worry about it anymore, obviously cashing in means getting something good for him. Tanner Bybee? I have Bybee ranked a little bit higher. You're aiming higher? You might be able to aim higher. Yeah, I mean,

a target somebody who needs ERA and WIP help, especially. Or, you know, if it's a points league, somebody who just really likes collecting sparse. and yeah, you may you may be able to get something pretty good for Drew Rasmussen. I also think Khoda Senga is likely to be a sell high candidate. His ERA is down to 159.

His XERA is 330. That would still be pretty useful, but he's also not a guy who goes deep into games very often. Strikeout rate has been a little disappointing this season. So I think Kodaisanga is a sell high candidate. I always think it's funny to talk about like, you know, Tomoyuki Sagano has been like 70% rostered lately, if not higher. And no Cameron, I think is up to like 50 to 60% now.

And then you have like Chris Paddock who's like 37% rostered, who's basically been every bit as good as those guys, except he had two bad starts at the beginning of the season. He has a 225 ERA over his past 11 starts Chris Paddock does. I'm not saying Chris Paddock needs to be much more widely rostered than he is. I just don't think he's significantly worse than Sagano or Cameron. or, you know, those types of guys, Ryan Yarbrough. It's like that first start just left a bad taste in everybody's mouth

and they haven't been willing to touch Paddock since. And I don't think he's that good. Yeah. His IRA hasn't been pretty. So, yeah. Yeah. It's been pretty since the first start. Yeah, that first start kind of skewed it.

He's usable. Aces not being aces, but I don't think we have any concerns. Joe Ryan gave up. He actually, it was only two run runs, but it was three walks, four hits against the Blue Jays. Four Seamer was awesome. everything else was terrible. He had a 15% CSW rate on the rest of his pitches. That's really bad.

And then Carlos Rodan gave up five earned runs over five innings against the Red Sox on Sunday. He's earned the benefit of the doubt for a bad start, right? I would say so, though it's funny that we like were just as soon as we were noticing that Carlos Rodon has been, what, is it the top pitcher in fantasy heading into the weekend? then he goes and has a stinker like this. It seemed like he didn't have his change up in this one. So if that becomes a recurring issue, that would be bad for Carlos Rodon, but there's no reason to believe it will.

All right. And then call to the bullpen. We talked about the Braves. We talked about the Dodgers. Tony Sintian got the save for the Reds on Sunday. Amelia Pagan had pitched on Friday, not on Saturday. Seemed like he should have been available. I have no idea what was going on there.

there were only 11 pitches in the game too. So, yeah, that was, I've been saying all the long, I think Santian is their best reliever and that Paghan's home run problems will eventually cause them to switch there. But Pagons, last couple outings have been fine. There had been a rough stretch in May, but he kind of had already gotten out of that

seemed like they were sticking with them. So I don't know. I don't know what happened there. All right for the Phillies. Pitching in a tie game, Jordan Romano gave up three hits and a run to cause the Phillies they lost. Like I said earlier,

they were swept by the Pirates. That's a tough look. Robert Garcia got the four-out save Sunday against Washington. So still seems like he's the guy in Texas and then for the White Sox on Sunday, I believe. Dan Altavilla got a save.

Cool. All right. On Chris Martin real quick. Yep. he had just appeared. So, yeah, they went back to Robert Garcia for the safe Sunday. Chris Martin had just come off the IL the day before Saturday, appeared in the ninth inning with a five-run lead, perfect inning, got a strikeout.

It stands to reason they want to use them on back-to-back days fresh off the IL. It seemed like sort of a closer spot, is my point. It wasn't a safe situation, but it was only a five-run lead. it was the ninth inning. I was adding Chris Martin in leagues where saves are scarce. I think he's better than Robert Garcia. I think he's better, yeah. So I don't know.

We'll see. Robert Garcia's been pretty shaky lately. And I thought the usage for Martin Saturday was notable. All right. To stream or not to stream? Mike Burroughs versus Miami, I think is okay. I don't hate. Jeffrey Springs against the Angels, but I don't love it.

I don't hate Luis Ortiz at home against the Reds. That's probably it on Monday, right? Yeah, I do have Springs as one of the higher ranked two-star pitchers who might be available. I know we're doing a daily league thing here. But that first matchup at the Angels is not bad, and then he gets a matchup later in the week against the Royals, which is even better. There are some interesting names on Tuesday, but I don't know. how many of them I actually want to start.

We got Sawyer Gibson Long at Baltimore. He missed a bunch of bats in his first start, but only went like three innings. Cade Povich has flashed some upside lately, but I don't really trust it. Slade Cicone. Good matchup. Red's on the road. Mick Abel, but it's a tough matchup against the Cubs.

Wish it was anyone else. Yeah, Shane Smith, excuse me, at Houston. Kyle Harrison's at Colorado. Jose Soriano is home versus the athletics. I think Shane Smith at Houston and Jose Soriano versus the A's are probably my favorites here. Realistically, I'd only do Smith, I think. All right.

I was going to do it for fantasy baseball today. We will be back tomorrow. Frank is back tomorrow, right? I mean, if anybody would know, it'd be you because he's doing his job for him. It's a lot of work. We're very excited to Frank to be back. We will see you tomorrow. Bye-bye.