Fantasy Baseball Today - Weekend Waiver Wire, Adolis Garcia Triple Dong, Shohei Ohtani Question & More (4/24 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 24, 2023

The Guardians have a new Logan Allen (1:40)! ... Sell-high on Graham Ashcraft (8:25)? ... Adolis Garcia hit three homers on Saturday (13:30). ... Max Muncy is that dude (17:42). ... Let's discuss all of the waiver wire pitchers (20:13). ... Should you drop these three pitchers (34:05)? ... News (36:40): Sandy Alcantara was scratched this weekend. ... Which outfielders are best to add for this week (46:20)? ... Do we start Shohei Ohtani as a pitcher or a hitter this week (50:00)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (54:16). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome 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. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. What's up and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, April 24th. Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we're going to recap all of this weekend's action.

Max Muncie. is indeed that dude. Alec Menoa bounced back in a big way. I have a question about Shohei Otani and much more. Before we get started, please like this video and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. And if you're listening on the

audio side, download, follow, and leave a five-star rating. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Apologies if my voice sounds terrible, if it sounds worn down. I went to the Knicks playoff game on Sunday and... Hey, I'm walking here. Hey! I went with that amazing.

Let's go Knicks. that amazing. It was a great time. But man, lots, lots of shouting. Not the smartest decision I've ever made in my life. Anywho, let's actually get into what matters. The baseball. All right. That is the Seattle TV broadcast last year calling Cal Raleigh's home run that sent the Mariners to the playoffs. Ah, big dumper. And I really liked it. It was great. Chris, let's stick with you here. Oh my goodness gracious from the weekend. Yeah, I will just recycle a joke that I made in my column. That will be up on CBSports.com.

I'm going with Logan Allen, starting pitcher Cleveland Guardians. No, not that, Logan Allen, starting pitcher Cleveland Guardians. Logan Allen, the... Logan T. Allen. I thought you were signaling for a timeout on account of... I saw all happen. I saw exactly what Frank was doing, and I saw exactly Chris's interpretation of...

Yeah, Logan Allen. Made his major league debut for the Cleveland Guardians against Miami. obviously not the toughest matchup in the world, but I thought he was very, very interesting. He got eight strikeouts and six innings of work, walked one, gave up one run on five hits. Fastball velocity actually a little higher than I think the scouting reports.

As a prospect suggested, he averaged 92, so still relatively soft throwing. It's still, as a person who grew up watching baseball in the 90s, blows my mind that a lefty averaging 92 with his fastball is a soft tosser now, but that's the world we live in.

And I thought his fastball was really interesting because despite being 92 miles per hour, despite not being a particularly high velocity fastball, he had nine whiffs with the pitch. And I think part of that is if you watch him, he looks, it's not a perfect comp, but he looks a little bit like Josh Hater in the way he delivers the ball. He's got a low arm slot. He hides the ball well. And it's the kind of situation where I do think the first few turns through the league, he could be, you know, able. to hide the ball and kind of deceive hitters. And, you know, the Scouting reports always suggested that the fastball played higher than the velocity might make you think. He's been around a 12 strikeouts per nine guy in the minors.

So I think there's something there. Got five whiffs with the splitter as well, a couple with the sweeper. I thought Logan Allen, starting pitcher Cleveland Guardians, was pretty impressive in this one. And someone I think is worth adding. He is very impressive. Scott, I'll come your way in just a second. 20% rostered. He's widely available.

Kind of took a step back last year in the minors. He didn't kind of. He took a step back last year. He was not very good. He's always been able to get strikeouts. That has always been the calling card for Logan Allen, Logan T. Allen in the minors. Scott, the question. Florida International University, baby, Golden Panthers, let's go.

Well, you got to make up your mind, Chris. Are you a New Yorker now? Are you still a Florida guy? Like, what are we doing? Hey, 305. It's a combination of both. Kind of sound like Coach Z there. I don't know who Coach Z is.

I don't know who Coach Z is. No idea. Somebody does. Scott, the question here is, does Logan Allen stick around? Because I think that there is a lot to like and just kind of blind faith in the Guardian's organization,

the way that they turn pitching out, but does not stick around? That's the question. I don't see why not. At some point, Aaron Savale is going to return, but I don't think that's on the verge of happening. and, I mean, Logan Allen was more impressive than Peyton Battlefield has been.

I mean, Peyton Battlefield's been okay, but, like, Logan Allen actually seems like a better pitcher. And, you know, Zach, please, that's pretty terrible. So, yeah, I mean, that, like, they've already pulled the plug. They've got Allen here now. He does this. His minor league track record, you mentioned, Frank, 2022, the ERA, he had a 475 year. The year before, 2021, he had a 226 ERA and a 0.93 whip. And then the three starts of AAA this year for Logan Allen, a 126 ERA and a 105 whip.

You mentioned like 12K per 9 everywhere he's been. It's a really interesting profile. It's one that prospect of valuers have a hard time with because he doesn't have like the eye-popping stuff. But he has, you know, he has that deceptive left equality. I think of it as like an Alex Wood thing. Alex Wood is a guy who didn't get a lot of prospect credit, even though he put up huge numbers in the minors. And he's gone on to have a really solid career.

You know, Alan, I think, could be better than that. Because the most valuable thing, like, I think if you just want to reduce pitcher upside to one simple measurement, to one simple stat, pay attention to this. And if a pitcher nails this, then he probably has good upside is the number of whiffs he gets with his fastball. And Alan got nine whiffs with his fastball today, even though it's not a very hard fastball. Like, the way his delivery is, it comes out of his hand a lot faster than it looks like it should.

And so I think that that helps it to play up too. So I'm excited about him. I think probably if he does stick around, Logan Allen's going to have more utility than Mason Miller. I agree with that. He doesn't have the durability issue, and he doesn't have the Oakland A's issue. of not getting any run support.

So I'd be more excited to pick him up of the two. Okay. Well, in case you're out there wondering, Fab, how much are these guys going to go for? Every league is different, obviously. But in my Tout Wars League, it's a head-to-pointe with Roto-style lineups. So we start nine pitchers every week,

seven starting pitchers and two relievers. Logan Allen went for $99. That's out of $1,000 budget, so right around 10%. And Mason Miller went for one, 88. So 19% of your budget and man, the Mason Miller bids are

all over the place. I want them in a few 15 team leagues for like 138 and 117. But I went through other leagues and I saw him go for like 300, 350 in some leagues. Like yeah, I kind of get the feeling the buzz has exceeded the utility

with Mason Miller. I mean, there's a chance like if everything goes perfectly right that he's a really valuable huge bat misser. But I, you know, I think, I think there's an 80 to 90% chance that doesn't happen. And he's like a four to five inning guy for that. And even there, like the upside is probably 100 innings the rest of the season.

Now, given the stuff he showed, it might be 130 strikeouts and a sub three ERA. And he could be really, really good. But even there, that's only so valuable. The leagues where I picked him up, I need ratio. help badly. So I'm already like far ahead and wins. I got some strikeouts, but man, I just, I really need ERA and whip help. And that's what I'm hoping to get from Mason Miller. Scott, let's go over to you. Oh my goodness, gracious from the weekend. Uh, yeah. So I'm going to go with Graham Ashcraft here who didn't really do anything that notable on Friday. It was a fine start,

two run runs in five innings at Pittsburgh. You know, he's been, he's had nothing but fine starts, Graham Ashcraft at a time when a time when pitchers on the hole are getting destroyed Graham Ashcraft is 2 and 0 with a 188 ERA and Graham Ashcraft was a pitcher

who I hyped pretty hard in the last couple weeks of draft prep season especially missing a lot more bats this spring was unveiling a new slider and look he's had success so good for me right I don't know if he can sustain this I'm pretty skeptical.

His swinging strike rate is 8.6%. Like the whiffs just aren't there. They're not there. And it's really hard for a pitcher to be more than just a streamer type if he's missing bats at that rate. And like that's the very best case scenario. That's like Cole Irvin last year was a streamer type with a whiff rate, like with a swinging strike rate,

I should say, like that. So I think given the pitcher market currently and given the likelihood of regression here for Graham Ashcraft, I think he's an optimal sell high candidate. And I tweeted that out over the week and the responses to it were a little intense in all different directions. How dare you say that about Graham Ashcraft? How dare you change your stance on Graham Ashcraft? Like nobody's going to give up anything for Graham Ashcraft. They were very all over the place, but they were very strong. And so, you know, on this longer form media,

I wanted the opportunity to set the record straight to clarify exactly what I mean by selling high on Graham Ashcraft. Basically, he has gotten good results so far in a very bad pitcher market. So if you put him out there, like it makes sense to put him out there just to see what you can get. And if you don't get anything good, then write it out. See what happens. No harm in holding on to him. It's not a situation where like you have to get rid of him before your house catches fire.

You know, like it's not that big of a deal. It's just I think he's performed over his head. And it hasn't gone like the way he's succeeded hasn't been in the way I hoped you would succeed. And so I'm ready to cash in. Like lucky us, he's delivered good results. So you may be able to get something good for him. but if you don't, whatever, just write it out. Would you take Ian Hap for him?

I haven't looked at what Ian Hap's done recently. He's been solid. That doesn't sound like a solid cell high situation. Okay. To me, that sounds like more of a lateral exchange, probably depending on need. Somebody suggested, what's a good suggestion? somebody suggested pairing him with Josh Ashcraft and James Outman, whom himself had a big weekend for like a Kyle Schwabber.

Sure. And I think I'd go for that. I mean, I think you might be able to aim higher than Kyle Schwerber with the way Outman started the year too. Like, could you do those two for like a mooky bets? Possibly. It depends how savvy your league mates are.

Maybe. No, no, I was shaking my head. I mean, look, it wouldn't happen. You're right, Scott. I mean, someone's league, it might happen, but I think in most savvy people's leagues, it probably not. It's probably not happening. This is a, and just to give a little more color to Graham Ashraf, like, he throws incredibly hard. He's got that cutter that averages 96 miles per hour.

He's got a slider that averages 89. Sliders are a decent swing and miss pitch. Cutter really isn't and wasn't last season. We were hoping, like, the slider, the changes that he made to the slider would help the, the, the, overall profile playup. He's done a really good job of limiting hard contact. 335 expected Wobon contact so far this season. It was 333 last year.

Those are elite numbers. Those are really, really good numbers. The problem is, of course, he gives up a lot of contact. And so when you, you know, 15% strikeout rate last year, 22% this year. It's about average now. But his control is not great. And so it all adds up. And like you add it, you know, you want to miss a lot of bats.

You want to avoid free passes and you want to, you know, limit quality of contact. If you do all three of those things, you're Jacob de Grom. Congratulations. You're the best pitcher in baseball. You ideally want someone who does two of those things. Gremashcraft right now only does one. That's not to say he can't get there,

but like this is not a guy who got strikeouts last season. And I'm trying to remember his minor league track record, but I don't remember him getting a lot of strikeouts in the minors. He had this strikeout rates in the minors. Oh my goodness gracious for me from the weekend is Adolice Garcia who, my gosh, if you were facing this gentleman in a head-to-head points league this week, Saturday, I think he put up 27 fantasy points. Like, he legit had a quality start and a win as a hitter on Saturday.

Like, that's how amazing he was. He went five for five with a triple tong, three homers, five run scored, eight RBI. I mean, that's like production you get from a really good hitter out of an entire week. He did that in one game on Saturday. And so far this season for Doli's Garcia, he's about 250. Strikeout rate is down to 20%. He's hitting the ball in the air more than ever before. Hitting the ball hard, as he always does,

93.1 exit velocity. And a career high, 52.5% hard hit rate. Now, I think we have to see where the plate discipline goes from here. It's still a very small sample size. But he's made these subtle improvements. And he kind of improved a little bit last year well. And, you know, if he takes just one more step forward, then I think that we're just talking about Adelis Garcia as a player who we probably just underrated again this year.

Granted, that's if he keeps up what he's doing. He is not swinging very often. It's the big change. He was incredibly aggressive last season in the 20-21, 54% swing rate each of those two seasons this year down to 44%. One thing I've noticed is statcast, you know, when you're looking at a hitter page, they'll do the stats versus fastball pitches, breaking pitches and off speed pitches, um, off speed basically just splitters and changeups. Um, he's seen nine off speed pitches this season. It's only 3% of the total pitches he's faced.

This fastball rate is down to 51.6%, which is one of the, I think that's the lowest I've ever seen, uh, a hitter get 40. 36% of the pitches he's facing are breaking balls. He's crushing them. 32% whiff rate is an improvement over last year. So you take that hitting 324 with five of his seven home runs off breaking pitches. And, you know, what we're seeing right now is just a more patient version of Adoli-Scarcia. He's pitching, he's swinging at fewer pitches in the strike zone down to 67%.

But his chase rate's also down to 25%. And so that helps explain the, uh, the, the, uh, the, lower strikeout rate. And he's not sacrificing anything for it. You know, it's not a situation where he's like choking up on the bat and trying to make contact and sacrificing all his power. His average egg's velocity is 90th percentile, hard hit rate, 89th percentile.

This is, you know, I wrote about Yandi Diaz and Matt Chapman last week. And what I said was if those guys were breaking out, this is what it would look like. If Adolese Garcia was taking a step forward, this is what you would expect it to look Like is, you know, becoming a more selective hitter, finding more patience, but still crushing the ball when he does swing. And it's a really impressive start. Now it's also entirely possible. He's just been hot for three weeks because that's what happens. Well, I mean, look at his numbers before three-home or get.

Like, we wouldn't be having this conversation if you didn't happen to have a three-homer game, you know. That's fair. That's. And I'm not like, yeah, it's great that a strikeouts are down. I had Adolice Garcia as a bust before the season. a lot of it was based on plate discipline. So if the plate discipline improves, then it's harder to make that case.

But I'm just pointing out, you know, fun with sample sizes, of course, is one day can change everything. Absolutely. And facing the Oakland A's can change everything as well. I feel like whenever a player has a huge game, I have to just, oh, disclaimer, it was against the Oakland A's.

So does it really matter? Because they're kind of like a AAA team right now. Anywho, one other thing on Adolius Garcia, only one steal so far the season and his sprint speed, according to stack cast, 39th percentile. That's kind of weird. So let's watch that. I would like to see Adolias Garcia. Yeah, that normalizes pretty quickly too. So it's interesting observation there.

Let's give a shout out to Max Muncie here, right? I mean, gosh. Double dong on Saturday. Another home run on Sunday. He is now up to 11 home runs. 16 runs scored 21 RBI. He is batting 254, but 18 walks to 27 strikeouts. He's giving you that OBP.

He's giving you the power. He's hitting the ball extremely hard, harder than we've ever seen before. 93.9 was the exit velocity entering Sunday's action. That's before another home run with a near 28% barrel rate. So, Scott, I know we had this discussion in the off season. Is Max Muncie back? And I think for the most part, we were like, yeah, we think, he's backed. Well, he certainly looks that way right now.

Yeah. And he does. And I think I was the highest on him, so I'm kind of disappointed. I wound up with him in only one league that matters. But this is Max Muncie at his best. Now,

it's probably worth stating. It's not going to sustain anywhere close to this pace. He would basically be Aaron Judge, if he did. Oh, we're taking the under 80 home runs? Yeah, we are. But what I think we can take from this is that he's back to being the best version of Max Muncie.

Like it's doubtful he's unlocked something new in his age 32 season. But is he going to get back to being the guy who hits 250 with 35 homers in a great lineup, getting on base a ton? Yeah, yeah. So, you know, expect him to slow down as some of, of these other cold starters heat up. Baseball, you know, everybody takes kind of an up and down path to their final stats. And sooner or later, Max Muncie's going to go in a slump.

And okay, that's just part of the game. But he's delivering you a lot of good numbers right now. And I think that's a good sign for the rest of the season. All right. Let's take our first break. And when we return, we'll talk about all the waiver wire pitchers. There are a lot to talk about. And we'll get to them right after this.

Welcome back. And for those who dabble on. the TikTok machine, you can follow us. We have an FBT TikTok. It's TikTok.com slash at FBTPod or just go on a TikTok app and search FBT pod and we usually post clips of the podcast. We cover it up with some highlights

and we're putting out some fun stuff. So make sure to follow us on TikTok if you do live in that world. Let's get into some waiver wire pictures. I don't really know what is happening with like, it's so inconsistent, Scott. I know you've brought this point up far. It's like we know nothing when it comes to pitching right now. Drew Smiley took a perfect

game into the eighth inning on Friday against the Dodgers of all teams too. So does not really sure. The dumbest way possible too. I don't know if you guys saw. That was hilarious. Yeah. Yeah. 30 foot swinging bunt that the catcher and pitcher ran into each other on. Pretty funny to watch. I'm sorry for a Cubs fans out there. Anyway, he went seven and two thirds shut out. One hit zero walks. 10 strikeouts for Drew Smiley. He is 16% rostered. And over his last three starts, he has looked phenomenal. How about a couple other names here? Kyle Gibson tied a career high with 11 strikeouts going up against the Tigers.

He is throwing a sweeper this season, which seems to be helping out the whiffs a little bit. He's going up against the Tigers again this week. Speaking of the Tigers, Eduardo Rodriguez, fantastic on Sunday at the Orioles. He went seven shutout, one hit allowed, six strikeouts in that performance. And over his last two starts, he has gone 15 shutout innings with six. 16 strikeouts. That is Eduardo Rodriguez. And then Andrew Heaney, three strong starts in a row for him. So this is our first kind of group, our cluster here. Scott, how would you rank them? Heaney, Erod, Kyle Gibson, and Drew Smiley.

I would rank them. Heaney, Erod, Drew Smiley, and Kyle Gibson. I mean, Heaney's obviously the one who came in with the stock the highest of the four. And I don't think he's done anything to lose that. He had a double-digit strikeout effort already this season and three starts in a row of his have been pretty good. So I think he and he has to be number one there. I'm really impressed with Eduardo Rodriguez what he's done.

Certainly we've known him to be a fantasy asset in the past. He doesn't have a lot of help from his team there in Detroit, the lowest scoring offensive baseball, worse than even the A's. But he is, you know, he pitches deep into games. He went eight innings, followed by a seven innings start with a lot of whiffs in each of them. And so I think after a couple of tumultuous seasons, Eduardo Rodriguez hopefully is back and probably needs to be added in most leagues, all but the shallowest. Smiley is interesting because if you remember during the pandemic shortened 2020 season, well, he was with the giants. He was one of those giant success stories where his numbers were just insane.

It was seven appearances, five starts, but he struck out 42 and 26 in a third innings. And, you know, got a little bit of sleeper buzz heading into 21 season with Atlanta. It didn't go well. And, you know, he hasn't been much of a fantasy asset since. But he's had now three straight starts, one and run or less. and, you know, it looks like he's getting whiffs again at a nice rate. He's always had a very impressive curveball. I think he's worth monitoring, if nothing else.

Drew Smiley's never been particularly durable, and as I just pointed out, had a lot of ups and downs over his career. But at his best, he can be pretty impressive. And then Gibson, you know, he's not going to have many double-digit strikeout efforts. He was facing the Tigers in that star. He's facing the Tigers in his next start. so you'll probably want to use him then too. But I think he's going to be a streamer type most of the year.

Pretty good at eating innings, but not delivering a lot of upside from start to start. Yeah, that new sweeper for Kyle Gibson has a 125 batting average against 43% whiff rate. So it's been a good pitch, but he's still allowing a lot of hard contact, and you see that in his expected ERA. So pretty skeptical of Gibson myself. Drew Smiley.

by the way, is the one that's widely available. He's only 16% rostered. So even if you're playing in deeper leagues, he could be out there for you. Chris, you get this next group, which includes Mitch Keller. We were talking beforehand, like, is he breaking out?

Is this actually happening for Mitch Keller right now? I'll let you decide. Domingo Hermann continues to get swinging strikes, but also continues to be somewhat inconsistent. He gave up four runs, two of those being home runs, six strikeouts, 15 swinging strikes against the Blue Jays this weekend. You say Kikuchi was on. the other side. He was at the Yankees, six innings, one run, but only three strikeouts for him so

far. And man, like, he's given up a lot of hard contact as well. So I'm not sure how much. Three strikeouts in this start, not so far. Just to clarify. Yeah, yeah, three strikeouts in the start. But I think that was supposed to be like an end of the sentence. And then I just kept saying so far. But, uh, yeah. So far. He has more than three strikeouts this season. Yes, yes. You see Kikuchi certainly does. And then Seth Lugo. He now has a quality star in three or four outings. And he's looked pretty good and, you know, finally getting an opportunity to start and he's always really wanted that and pitches for a good team. So Chris, what do you think about this group? How do you rank that Mitch Keller, Domingo Hermann, you say Kikuchi and Seth Lugo. I think Keller's by far the

best pitcher of this group because I'm not sure the other three guys are like pitchers. They're throwers. I think Kikuchi like Kikuchi is sort of following the Keller model of like just every year he's tinkering trying to find something that works and occasionally he'll stumble onto something but I think I have trouble buying in you know the 5-83-fip kind of tells the story there Lugo I think is interesting he's got that it's he's sort of a mirror image of Drew Smiley where he's been you know good out of the bullpen has shown some upside and I think he's showing some interesting skills out of the rotation Keller though I mean he's really become like a kitchen sync pitcher. He's got six different pitches that he throws basically between like 10 and 31 percent

or something. I think his highest used pitch is, I think it's the cutter now, which is the new pitch for him because he adds a new pitch every single season seemingly. And that is his most used pitch so far this season. And like, I don't think he's ever going to be a super high strikeout rate guy. He's at 24% right now. You'll take that because he does do a good job of limiting hard contact. And the control is good enough. You know, I talked about the three things, you know, the quality of contact, the strikeouts and the walks. He's like average or a little better in strikeout and walk rate. He's really good so far in quality of contact metrics. So I think he's an interesting pitcher and I think he's a fascinating story. Just the way he's gone from like hard throwing pitching prospect

who basically just had a fastball to now this whole throw six pitch. and see what works approach. I think it's kind of made him pretty useful. I don't know if it's like, I don't know if he'll ever be more useful than like a Marcus Stroman type, but I think it's, you know, there's still value in that.

Hey, you know, Marcus Stroman's made a career out of it, a mid to high three ZRA, just a dependable starting pitcher. So yeah, I think Mitch Keller would sign up for that right now. I did, have we addressed the sweeper thing? Like what the,

because we talk a lot about, about the sweeper. It's like a new, new pitch that like stat cast has added to, they used to classify sweepers as sliders. It's like a new pitch now. The distinction between a sweeper and a slider is basically vertical break. Sliders tend to have that two plane break.

Sweepers are much more just side to side movement. Am I explaining this well? Sliders tend to have more drop. Sweepers tend to be more like a just lateral movement. So that's the distinction there. I think there was an interesting piece on the athletic last week. We do this a lot with pitching where there's like this one weird trick to make every pitcher good. And it's like hitters are probably going to figure it out at some point.

So, you know, but it's just an interesting. We mentioned it with Kyle Gibson throwing the new sweeper. Mitch Keller is also a sweeper guy. So I just wanted to clarify that for the listeners. Shout out to Mitch Keller and the Pittsburgh Pirates, by the way. 16 and 7. Currently on a seven game winning streak and atop the NL Central.

April isn't over yet, but man, it's been a really fun story so far the season for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Absolutely. Scott, you get this next group. It includes Wade Miley, who had another solid outing this weekend. I don't know how much upside there is,

but it seems like he's kind of back to that high floor version of Wade Miley that we've seen. Braxton Garrett turned in another solid start. It was at the Guardians, five and two thirds, one run, three strikeouts for him. Tyler Wells was awesome against the Tigers, but they're the Tigers.

Seven shutout with five strikeouts for him. And then Joey Lucasey made his return to the mound for the New York Mets. He was at the Giants on Friday. And he looked great. Seven shutout, nine strikeouts for him. And he's got a really good matchup this week going up against the Nationals. How do you rank this group? Lucacey, Wells, Braxton Garrett, and Wade Miley?

I guess I will. You know what? I'll go Luckees, number one, I guess, followed by. by Miley Wells and Garrett. It's not an exciting group. It's not like you've got to rush out and grab Lucchasey. But, you know, good supporting cast there with the Mets, as many pitching issues as they've had.

I can see him carving out a more permanent spot there. He's coming back from Tommy John, right? Yeah. Yeah, fresh off Tommy John. So that's why we haven't heard about him in a while. So he was off recovering from that. I like that they let him go seven innings in this first start. He's not always going to strike out batters at this clip.

But he's another deceptive sort of lefty who can pitch beyond his marginal stuff. So he's interesting, if nothing else. Yeah. Joey with Casey. Wade Miley, what I said about Kyle Gibson, I could also say for Wade Miley. Just, you know, not a lot of upside there, but probably going to be streamable when he's facing bad matchups. I think they both happen to be facing the Tigers this week. So they're both among the top 10 sleeper pitchers for me this week.

Wade Miley and Kyle Gibson. And who does that leave? Tyler Wells. Yeah. I mean, the numbers are great for Tyler Wells. He didn't come into the season with the hype that Graham Ashcraft did, so it would be hard to call him a sell high. But, you know, 270 ERA, 0.690.

whip so far and just had a great start against the tigers. I don't think there's a lot there, to be honest. But, you know, 11.7 swinging strike rate, that's not bad. I don't think there's a lot there, but let's, you know, he's in a good ballpark for fly ball pitchers, which he is, I believe. Yeah. And if you're looking into streaming pitchers this week, Braxton Garrett, well, I think he's kind of interesting. He's got a terrible matchup

at the Braves and Tyler Wells is going up against the Red Sox, so while I think those guys, you know, have some slight intrigue, I don't really like the matchup for either one. This last group here, Chris, includes JP Sears. He had 11 strikeouts Friday, but also gave up four earned runs over six innings at the

Rangers. And the last two names, I mean, gosh, what is dead may never die, but they're kind of pitching well. It's, you know, Rich Hill has made three good starts in a row. He's got a 2.12 ERA during that time, up against the nationals this week.

And then Vince Velasquez on Sunday, seven shutout, 10 strikeouts for him. And I had 15 swinging strikes, 10 of those on the slider. He's throwing a slider more this year. I mean, I feel like we've been duped by Vince Velasquez so many times. But more so deep leagues than anything here, Chris.

Any thoughts on JPC or Rich Hill and Vince Velasquez? In my 15 team leagues, I did not look to add Vince Velasquez. I don't know if he's a very, in the 2014 Dynasty League that we're in maybe I would add him there that's about it but yeah

I'm not gonna buy in I don't really have much interest in any of these three guys weird things can happen in one start sample sizes and sometimes weird things cluster as they did this week with a weekend with

bad pitchers pitching well which I think is probably the best explanation here I will like if If we're combining this group with the last group, where the last group I put Joey Lucchasey number one, I'll put Vince Velasquez number two.

So it's rare you find a pitcher. It's rare you see a pitcher get 15 plus swinging strikes two starts in a row. And as you pointed out, Frank, he changed up his pitch mix a little this year. He threw a slider 49% of the time in this start against Cincinnati on Sunday. And, you know, he's been throwing that more.

that that is a way that marginal pitchers can kind of help their arsenal play up is to lean on their breaking stuff more. So I think it bears watching, if nothing else, but it is, I wasn't looking to add Vince Falesquez in my 15 team leagues either. I just, I think maybe there's more of a chance that he emerges as something than there is for like Tyler Wells. All right. Well, if we want to add some pitchers,

we need a few names to drop as well. And these three stood out to me this weekend. Michael Kopeck was hit hard once again. He gave up five runs over five innings pitched against Tampa. One of the best teams in the league right now. But he still had nine strikeouts, but, you know, four walks as well. Tyler Anderson has a 7.2-0 ERA through his first four starts of the season. And Drey Jameson, well, you know, I do think there is some upside.

He has some prospect pedigree. He lasted one inning on Sunday. He gave up three earned runs. had a couple of walks in there. He's 56% roster. I think people probably picked him up for the two-star week this past week. Chris, where was you where are you at in terms of dropping these names? Copac, Tyler Anderson, Dre Jameson. Drop a meter for Copac 10. He's got a fastball. That's his only good pitch at this point. If he shows something with one of the secondaries, maybe, but he's just been dreadful. Basically since, since joining the rotation, frankly. I do think it's interesting. He got so many swings and misses while throwing 72% fast. His fastball is really good. It's a really good pitch.

It's just the only pitch he has, and it's really, really hard to survive in the majors these days with just a fastball. It also seems like he's regained some of the velocity he lost last year with that move to the rotation. So that's just very small signs for encouragement with Kopeck.

I'm not opposed to dropping him by any means. But I'm not ready to like bury him yet either. That makes sense. I'm bearing him. I'm bearing him. Anderson, I'd say a nine. I think I have a dropout for him in one of my leagues. So hopefully I get the player I want to add.

And Jameson, I'd probably want to hang on to the most out of this three, but I think he's very droppable. The upside is mostly theoretical there. It's not like we're not even talking about like Logan Allen's minor league track record. You know, Trey Jameson's minor league track record is pretty bad in its own right. So, yeah, I think if you need to add someone, he's a perfectly fine drop. You do have to grade Arizona pitchers on a curve since it's a tough, such a tough system to pitch in.

And the strikeout numbers for Jameson were always very good. And like, you know, just the pure velocity, impressive, all of that. But if, you know, if Dre Jameson's who you need to drop to pick up Logan Allen, then I'm totally cool with that. And I'm ready to dump Tyler Anderson, too. I think enough is enough. It was good, well lasted. All right, fair enough.

Let's hit some news and notes before we get to another break. Sandy Alconso was scratched on Saturday due to biceps tendinitis, but is expected to start this week against the Braves. Do you guys risk it and throw Sandy out there? Yeah. Yeah, I would, he's supposed to throw, I think, a bullpen session on Monday. Hopefully, I don't know when lineups locked tonight, today, but, you know, 6.10 time is the first game.

Okay. So hopefully we get, you know, just just in case. Just keep an eye on that and make sure that there's not any kind of troubling setback. But as long as he gets out of that, fine. Yes, start him. All right. You Darvish left Sunday start with a right hamstring cramp, but is expected to make his next start, which is next weekend against the Giants. Same question. Do you guys trust you, Darvish?

I feel like there have been at least one or two situations this year where it was like, oh, it was just a cramp and then it ended up being more than that. So it's possible. but I think, you know, from I was watching that game, it looked like as soon as the trainer came out, he was like cramp. And so I think that's probably what it was. It's, yeah, so it's probably fine, you know, the fact that it's so late in the week if they decide to push him back another two days, oh, well, suddenly it's the following week, you know. Yeah. Yeah. But I would lean yes on Darvish unless you just have a great alternative.

Okay. This is the first time we've heard this about Bryce Harper, but apparently he could return as the Phillies DH as soon as. as the first weekend of May, which, wow. Okay, like, where did that come from? But that happens. Yeah, I was reading the MLB.com story on this, and he's about two months ahead of Shohei Otani's return from Tommy John surgery. And I think, like, if he did return the first week of May,

it would be about a month and a half before Otani did. So it's not, like, outrageous. You know, it certainly seems like since spring training, he's been well ahead of his timetable, but, you know, that was true. Like, he took batting practice for the first time a month and a half before he was expected to. So it seems like it's just been the best case scenario across the board. And he could turn out to be one of the bigger draft steals if that actually does happen. Astros GM, Dana Brown said Jose Altovae is ahead of schedule and will undergo X-rays in the next two weeks to see how he's healing.

Justin Verlander through 43 pitches over three innings during a simulated the game on Sunday. He expects to pitch in a minor league rehab start on Friday. So, you know, maybe he's back the following week after that. Yeah, I think it's just, he's just going to need the one if everything goes well. Is what Buckshaw Walter said. Tristan McKenzie began a throwing program on Friday. He's missed the start of the season with a muscle strain in his right shoulder and is eligible to return. I believe it's May 29th. Doesn't necessarily mean that he will be back on that date, though. Carlos Rodon played catch on Sunday. Aaron Boone says, the plan is for Rodon to continue with his throwing program this week.

Chris Bryant exited Saturday with an ankle injury and did not play on Sunday. Do you guys roll the dice and start Chris Bryant this week? I'd rather not. If you're in a five outfielder league, it might be hard to avoid. But I'd rather play it safe. They're calling up a hitting an outfield prospect named Trenton Boyle, who has some interesting-ish minor league numbers. And that could be a sign that maybe calls.

Chris Bryant might have to miss a couple of games. That's something to keep an eye on. Boyle, 144 games between AA and AAA, 31 homers, 24 steals, you know, course field. So although Randall Gritchick could be back relatively soon. Actually, he could be back this week, I think. I don't know if it's this week, but it's coming. It's getting closer.

I remember reading something about him last. It was, uh, he'll be re-evaluated Monday after playing in rehab games this weekend. He could be back this week. week. Okay. It was the one I saw. Nice. Michael Harris took part in batting practice Saturday.

He's been out with a lower back strain. Reisely, Glacius will throw a live bullpen session Monday, and he looks to be closing in on a rehab assignment. They need him too, because A.J. Mentor has looked very bad recently. Dodgers catcher, Will Smith, is not expected to return until Friday at the earliest,

which is a bit of a shock. He was talking like he was going to return this past Thursday, and now he's out until Friday. So you might need a, a catcher if you have Will Smith. Tim Anderson fielded grounders and ran a handful of sprints on Saturday. He could start a rehab assignment soon. He's on the aisle with a left knee sprain. Tony Gonsolin will likely return and start Wednesday against the pirates. Scott, we actually had some rumblings that, you know, maybe Gavin Stone would get called up this week to make

a start, but I think instead they're just going to, you know, Gonson will be back a little bit sooner. Would you start Gonson, his first? I wonder if Stone would have come up if he hadn't been so bad at AAA. Yeah. It's been bad. No, I mean, well, in theory, the Pirates are a good matchup. They've actually scored a lot of runs this year.

Yeah. But I don't think any of us expect out the last. But it's more the fact that Gonsolin only went three innings, I believe, on his rehab start. So I imagine he's going to have a pretty low pitch cap for this. And I'd rather give him a start, not use them. Watch how you talk about that lineup.

Scott. Conor Joe batting third on Sunday. So take that. Where did he come from? Where did he go last year? I was back. You know, all he had to do was get out of course field. And then, you know, apparently that's when you break out. Holding people back. Yeah. M.J. Melendez was removed Sunday due to lower back tightness. All of a sudden, you know, these catcher injuries are starting to add up here. We'll get to another one in just a bit too. Logan O'Hoppy. Yikes. It appears that Nick Martinez and Ryan Weathers have been shifted back to the Padres bullpen now that Joe Musgrove is back. Travis Darnow hit in the batting cage Friday, his first baseball activity since landing on the concussion IL. Chris Bubich will undergo Tommy John surgery. We'll always have that one start that he was in nobody's lineup for. I saw someone in the comments, dude, like, is Logan L. The next Chris Boobich? Like, we got to stop acting like Chris Bubich was a bad ad just because he got hurt. Like, it's unfortunate timing, but like the skills that he showed his first couple of starts were really intriguing.

And it's just really annoying. seen people do this on Twitter. I've seen people do it in the chat. Yeah. Chris Boobich got hurt, guys. It's like it wasn't, it wasn't like he was just bad. He was pitching with an injury that ultimately required Tommy John surgery. Let's calm down. Yeah, I don't like, are we not supposed to tell you when pitchers are doing new things and they look interesting? Like, yeah, I think we had every reason to be somewhat excited about Chris Bubich. But the unfortunate news is that he doesn't need Tommy John surgery. Jorge Palanco was activated Friday. And as a result, My heart has broke because Edward Julian was optioned back to AAA.

He was striking out quite a bit. A Greek god of walking back to Syracuse or whatever, wherever they play. He's a French emperor. He's not a Greek guy. Stop it. Don't do that, Chris. Come on. Harrison Vader will likely spend a couple of weeks on a rehab assignment before being activated.

Kyle Hendricks is set to begin a rehab assignment. He's working his way back from a shoulder injury and frankly has not been useful for fantasy in quite some time. Josh Donaldson will likely be out a couple of weeks with a grade 1 plus strain in his hamstring. I don't grade 1 plus. That sounds like grade 2. Why do the Yankees do this? I don't get it.

Mitch Garver will be out at least another month. Kentsa Maita is pencilled in as a probable starter Wednesday against the Yankees. We should probably avoid Kentsaimita for now, right? Yeah. Yeah. Alex Keroloff may be optioned to AAA after his 20-day rehab assignment ends this week.

I saw a tweet. Although, I saw a tweet. I saw your tweet, Scott. They reported that before his two homer game Sunday. I wonder if that. He's got like three homers in like six games on his rehab trip. Stent. He's still got like,

like 12 days left on his rehab assignment or something. So he's, you know, he could play life could find a way. Absolutely. Players that went to the aisle this weekend, I hinted at it, but Logan O'Hoppe has a torn laborman,

his shoulder, need surgery and we'll miss four to six. I wrote four to six weeks. I'm pretty sure it's four to six months, right? Yes. Yeah, you're going. Yeah, that one's a tough one. Trevor Rogers went to the IL

with a left bicep strain retroactive to April 20th, worth mentioning that Yuri Perez through five scoreless in his most recent start at AA. Just throwing it on your radar. Let's pay attention there. Sal Freelick was placed on the AAA IL

with a left thumb sprain, which is terrible timing because frankly, I think he probably would have been called up given the injury to Garrett Mitchell, so not great. And another prospect, Indy Rodriguez, catcher for the Pirates, was placed on the minor league IL with,

I think I saw right forearm tightness. Well, the Garum Mitchell injury sounds like it's probably a season ender itself. That's the most likely scenario, and he certainly won't be back soon. So, you know, jam thumb for Sal Freelick, he'll be back from that relatively soon. And I still think this will be his ticket to the majors. It's just not going to happen. I went ahead and picked him up and stashed him in a league, even though he just went on the minor league IL, because they're going to need Freelick pretty soon. Yeah, I think in five out fielder leagues or even just some deeper leagues in general, go out and add South Freelik while you can.

Let's take our final break, and when we return, I got some waiver wire hitters. I have a question about Otani. Alec Manoa bounce back. We'll do that right after this. Let's hit some waiver wire hitters. And Josh Lowe had another big game on Friday. He went two for four with another stolen base. And Scott, I do know he's on your sleeper hit.

hitters this week. It's all righties. All righties. The rays are facing all righties. They're kind of tough righties. But if you're not going to start Josh Lowe in a week, they're facing nothing but Ritees, then what's the point of even having it? Makes me think of the arrested development joke. Buster gets his left hand chopped off and the doctor says he's going to be all right. A great bit. Joey Gallo has two homers in four games since returning. He's 49% rostered.

Right after everybody probably dropped Joey Menaceous, and I wouldn't have blamed you if you did, he had a pretty big weekend, hit his first home run on Friday, and then a four-hit game on Saturday. Jaron Duran, very sneaky. Two multi-hit games this weekend, and he did sit on Saturday against a lefty,

but he is hitting the ball hard so far, and he's got six games this week, at least five righties on the schedule. There's one TBD mix in there, and Brian Dela-Cruz had a big double-heder on Saturday, five-for-eight with a sock and a shoe. His second home run, his first deal. He's got lots of outfielder's here. How would you rank this group?

Josh Lowe, Gallo, Joey Manessus, Jaron, Darren, and Brian Dela Cruz. Well, Gallo is one of my sleeper hitters for this week, too. Twins have second best hitter matchups and only one lefty on the schedule. He's number one, Gallo. Low's number two, not just for this week, but I'm talking, you know, just to roster, period. Gallow one, low two. I'll go Brian Dela-Cruz over Duran. I mean, De La Cruz's got a batting average up over 300 now. His stat cast numbers are looking pretty similar to last year and really seems to pick things up.

Hopefully he continues to play almost every day for the Marlins. Like, I haven't ruled out the possibility that Duran could still end up having, you know, a solid career as a fantasy contributor. He runs fast, has the potential to hit for average as he's doing right now. but has a lot more to prove than these other three and tends to sit against lefties

and probably not going to provide a lot of power. So he's definitely fourth of this. And his average exit velocity on 14 batted balls is 97.4 miles per hour garroned around. I hadn't noticed that, but 64% hard hit rate. Very, very small sample size, obviously tilted towards right-handed pitching. He's got 9.

Nine of his 28 plate appearances against lefties. That's actually a pretty decent ratio. So I remain very, very interested in him. Don't know if it's like at him everywhere interested. It's probably not, but interested it. Do you prefer De La Cruz to him as well? Probably, yeah. Yeah, I think maybe a floor versus ceiling thing there.

I think I trust the playing time more with De La Cruz for now. But Jaron, 85th percentile max exit velocity, 83rd percentile sprint speed so far. All right. He's kind of a post-hyped name. And if you play in deeper five outfielder leagues, I would actually look to add Jarant Duran now and just see where it goes. If you need a catcher, which, again, there's a lot of injuries right now. Gabriel Moreno had a big game on Friday, and he's coming around.

And Scott, I know the debacks have the best header matchups this upcoming week. They've got three games in Corr's Field next weekend. So absolutely. And, you know, shallower one catcher leagues, Gabriel Moreno, I think, is an ad. If you're playing two catcher leagues and you're desperate, Christian Betancourt is getting hot. He's got three home runs in his last five games that was following Friday. I have a question about Shohei Otani that I'd like to ask you guys.

And he was amazing as a pitcher once again. He did hit another home run on Sunday. So I think it was part of a back-to-back-to-back home runs. They were Taylor Ward, Mike Trout, and of course, Otani. But as a pitcher Friday, seven shutout, 11 strikeouts, 22 swinging strikes going up against the Royals. He's got a 0.64 ERA, 0.82 whip, 38 strikeouts, 15 walks, lots of walks so far,

but the strikeouts have been there, the swinging strike rate looks fantastic. I have a 15 team league, the Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational, where I have started Chohay Otani as a pitcher every single week. And I think the state of pitching right now, the way that it is,

and the way that Otani's performing, this is a first round pitcher right now, the way that he's pitching. I think there's like a legit argument to use him solely as a pitcher right now, and weekly line. I mean, he looks like the AL-Sai-ung frontrunner right now, right? I have not, I only have him in one league, and it is a points league, which would encourage

you more to start him at pitcher. I started him at pitcher the last two weeks, and I think I was the most opposed to that idea coming into this season. Like, he's a first-round caliber bat. You're not going to use him at pitcher that often, but I didn't expect the pitching environment to be so bad. And Otani's one who's shining ever. every single start.

So it's hard to take him out of that pitcher spot. It helps that he hasn't been amazing as a hitter yet. You know, he's on like, I mean, yeah, the standards are really high, but he's on like a 90 run, 90 RBI, 35 homer pace as opposed to, you know, 45 homers and 110 RBI and whatever we usually expect from him. So, you know, but, you know, he's made some changes. He, I mean, he's pitching like the best pitcher in the world right now.

Whether he can continue to like, he has a 228 expected ERA despite a 14% walk rate because he's got 36% strikeout rate, which is higher than what he had last year. He's yet to allow a barreled ball this season. His expected Wobon contact allowed is like 250. He's been outrageously good. He's throwing his sweeper 50% of the time.

He has a, 34% whiff rate with it yet. It's been real fun. Yeah, and he's going up against the Oakland A's this week. So I am in favor of, yes, probably starting Otani as a pitcher once again. But it comes down to your team needs. What do you need more? And I would imagine most people probably need the pitching right now.

So that's the way that I'm handling Shohei Otani in those leagues as of now. Yes? Can I bring up another hitter, a potential hitter pickup? Sure. That I see is only 43% roster in CBS Sports Leagues. Harold Ramirez of the raise who is he just hit his fifth home run on Sunday, which I think he had six all of last year and he's already up to five. Another, kind of like kind of a similar story to Yandi Diaz,

always hit the ball hard, but never high enough to get a good home run total. And his launch angle is up too. He started seven of eight games. You know, I think we've kind of been passing over Hailed Ramirez because we think of him as a the weak side of a platoon. He started 7 of 8, though. He's batting 373 with those five home runs. And I think at this point probably needs to be

rostered in a lot more than 43% of leagues. It's not, you know, a money-back guarantee. He's going to be this good all-season long. But he's sustained it for long enough that if I need hitting help and he's out there, I'm going to take a shot on him, you know? Imagine dropping a guy like that in a 24-team Dynasty League. I don't know anyone who would do that.

Anywho. Something you did, huh? Yeah. And you need a first basement, too. And I need a first basement, too. It's just, I lost in the Scott White Dynasty League by five points this week, and I lost last week by half a point. And, like, it's just very painful right now.

So I'm going to stop talking about it because it's making me feel bad. A few pitcher questions that I wanted to bring up. A huge bounceback performance for Alec Menoa. We really needed to see it. He was at the Yankees. Seven shutout with five strikeouts in that game. The fastball velocity was up half a mile per hour. The slider was up 1.4 miles per hour.

And the slider, that was the best that it's looked all season so far. And the other one I wanted to mention was Shane Bieber. I kind of feel like he's been underwhelming. And we haven't really talked about it much. But five and two thirds, three runs, four walks, four strikeouts, going up against the Marlins of all teams this weekend. He allowed eight hard hits, 92.4 eggs of velocity against. He has four strikeouts or less in four of five starts this season.

The strikeouts are down. The walks are up. The hard contact is up. He's got a 4.71 expected ERA. He's got two pitchers that maybe are trending in opposite directions right now following Minow's good start. Your thoughts on those two. Yeah, so I noticed the same thing with Beaver.

He's avoided the disaster start that so many pitchers have had. So I think that's why we haven't had an excuse to talk about him yet, but just like really underwhelming with the strikeouts. He's faded his curveball this year in favor of more cutters. Like his slider is his best pitch, but the curve ball, he would use them both quite a bit, and he hasn't been using the curveball as much. And I think that may have a compounding effect

of diminishing the effectiveness of his slider too, because the curveball and slider, I think, probably play well better off each other than the cutter and slider do, is my guess, anyway. And hopefully that changes, but I'm pretty concerned if I have Bieber right now. You know, he was already walking a fine line with the big velocity drop last year. And I don't think he's changed his arsenal for the better. So that's what I'd say about him, Alec Manoa.

You know, he just needed to start throwing more strikes is how it looked to me. Was walking four. I think he had four plus walks in. what, every start prior to this one? Well, it was too many walks, whatever it was. I have, let's see, he had four plus walks in his previous three starts before

Saturday. Okay, and then he walked one in this one. He had a nice strike percentage. I think two-thirds of his pitches were strikes. So, yeah, like, hopefully he's fixed now. I know the Blue Jays were saying they thought he was behind in the buildup and was

forcing things. That was their explanation. And And hopefully he's calmed down now. He did this against the Yankees, obviously, which is encouraging, especially encouraging. So I'd feel good about Menoa today. All right. Well, we're kind of nearing the end. So I'm going to just bounce around a little bit to just the other big performances from the weekend.

If anything really stands out to you guys, just feel free to jump in, interrupt, and, you know, obviously say whatever you need to. But Zach Gallen, masterful start, the guy has been awesome. His three past three starts, they're all scoreless starts, 29 strikeouts to 1. One walk during that time. He's, after a slow start, he's looked phenomenal. Garrett Cole has been the most consistent pitcher in baseball this season. Five and two-thirds shutout with four strikeouts for him. His ERA is down to 0.79 so far this season.

Shane O. Mack. Actually, yeah, he deserves this. Here comes the money. Here we go. Money talks. Here comes the money. Six innings, two runs, ten strikeouts to one walk against the White Sox. 32 swinging strikes.

I was trying to think if we've seen a number that high before. I think somebody had 35 swinging strikes last year, I want to say. I don't remember who. I feel like 32 is like two years ago there was a random performance from like Patrick Sandoval where he had 30 or something like that. Yes, Patrick Sandoval has had like a massive one like that for sure. Otherworldly, though. That's insane stuff, man.

Look, as long as that shoulder holds up, He absolutely looks like a top five starting pitcher right now. Joe Musgrove made his season debut. He was okay. Five innings, three runs, six strikeouts for him going up against the Arizona Diamondbacks. What else did we have? Christian Javier kind of had that first breakout game at the Braves. Six innings, two runs, ten strikeouts for him, 19 swinging strikes,

though the velocity was down a little bit. So let's just watch that for Javier. Jacob deGrom. He did Jacob deGrom type things up against the Oakland A's. Was the Oakland A's? Six innings, two runs, one earned 11 strikeouts to zero walks for him. And Jack Flaherty had nine strikeouts on Sunday, 23 swinging strikes for him. And he's kind of been trending in the right direction as well.

I don't know what's going on with him. This was everything you wanted to see from Jack Flaherty. But like, even though he's been trending the right directions, the underlying numbers didn't look great. Like, okay, so he got 23 swinging strikes in this one. but the start before, even though it was a positive outcome for Jack Flaherty, he had four swinging strikes on 90 pitches. Also got hit weirdly hard today. Yeah, and I think he's been getting hit hard every start, basically.

So it's a lot of contradictions. I remain skeptical, but if you're looking for reasons to be encouraged by Jack Flaherty, this was clearly the most encouraging start. By the way, that was the tied for the fifth most swinging strikes in a start in the statcast era

according to the McClain-Han. The Shannahan one, the 32. The highest swinging strike rate in a start for, I mean,

at least for players who've got that many swinging strikes because he only had 88 pitches. The four starts with more than 382 swinging strikes. 119, 110, 110, 108, and 132 pitches.

Clayton Kershaw got 35 whiffs on 132 pitches back in 2015. Oh, man, crazy stuff. Very impressive. Yeah, awesome, awesome stuff. A few hitting leftovers. Nico Horner might just be a stud. He had six more hits this weekend, two home runs. He's betting 355.

He's got nine steals, 20 runs scored. He looks fantastic so far this season. Ronald de Kunae picked up five more hits, and four steals. He had three in one game. He's got 12 steals already. The month of April is not even over yet. He's 20 runs scored, 3.74 batting average.

Acuna looks amazing. Fernando Tatis hit his first home run of the season on Saturday. Jared Kellnick, back-to-back games with a home run on Saturday and Sunday. He's batting 319, six homers, three steals, 26% strikeout rate. That's fine. He's hitting the ball hard. He's barreling it up. And he's five for 15 against left-handed pitching so far.

it looks really, really encouraging so far for Jared Kelnik and some positive signs for Masataka Yoshita, seven hits over his last four games, including a double dung with six RBI on Sunday. Let's get it. He changed his batting stance a little bit. I think he said he wasn't seeing the ball well, changed his batting stance this weekend.

And yeah, finally got his first barrel this weekend, I think. All right. First couple. Yeah. Good stuff there. Call to the bullpen. A few updates here for the White Sox on Friday, Ronaldo Lopez disaster outing. He entered the ninth with a two-run lead. He gave up three runs on two home runs, did not record an out. He's been very up and down. Times where he looks like one of the best relievers in the game and then others where he just does not have it. For the Phillies on Friday, Jose Alvarado picked up his third save of the week. And then on Saturday, Alvarado was

on available. Craig Kimbrel converted the save, but Alvarado is the guy right now, and he's 50% rostered. I thought so, but then on Sunday he did pitch and he pitched in the 8th. What was the situation there? I don't know. It was 4-3, I believe, when he pitched. No, it was 7-3, sorry.

Okay, yeah, and it ended up being an even more lopsided win, so it's not like, yeah, 93 was the final. final score. But yeah, I thought that was weird because I agreed with you. Oh, wow, they've clearly anointed Jose Alvarado to the closer role. And then, okay, Kimbril got the safe Saturday. Alvarado needed a day off. But then what happened Sunday? Then what happened Sunday? Exactly. I still think, like, of all the Phillies reliever, Alvarado's the guy you want and, you know, probably should be rostered everywhere. But there is that, there is still that seed of doubt.

Yeah, and last year down the stretch, manager Rob Thompson, he, you know, went closer by committee and really kind of mixed it up. So he could do that again. I hope it's not the case because Alvarado looks amazing so far. For the Braves on Friday, AJ Minter entered the game with it tied at the time. He gave up a two-run home run to Yoron Alvarez, and then A.J. Minter gave up three more runs on Sunday.

So they need Rieseliglis back soon. It wouldn't surprise me. Maybe Nick Anderson gets their next save opportunity, but he's been pretty bad. For the A's on Friday, Zach Jackson pitched the eighth inning with the game tied, facing the top of the lineup. He allowed a hit and a walk, but no runs. They took the lead. Yuri's Familia picked up the save in a one-run game.

I don't think that I want to chase the Oakland A's bullpen. It was a crazy weekend for the Angels. Carlos Estevez on Friday night pitched the eighth inning with a two-run lead. Then Jose Kihei got the ninth, and he picked up his fourth save of the season. Then on Saturday, Jose Kihade got the ninth with a two-run lead. He gave up five runs. Five runs, and he took the loss. And then on Sunday, Carlos Estevez, he got the ninth,

and he converted his third save. Scott, do you have a feel here for the Angels bullpen? I mean, I'm still, I think I'm leaning more toward Kejada still. He had worked a lot. And surely they'll give him a pass for that one ugly appearance. But I don't think it's a situation yet where there is clearly just one guy, Estevez is still in the middle.

I just don't think he's as good as Kehada. For the Royals on Saturday, Scott Barlow pitched a ninth inning with a three-run lead. He got his second save. Aroldus Chapman pitched earlier in the game in the seventh inning with the game tied at the time, six to six.

For the Astros, Brian Abrae, who picked up two saves on Saturday and Sunday. I don't know why he pitched both days. Yeah. So, I mean, Presley had worked a lot in the last week. So you're going to... Clearly, he needed a day off Saturday.

And that's why Abria worked then. They may have wanted him to take another day off Sunday, given his health history. It also may have been a situation where Abrae had just happened to be the one warmed up because entering the top of the ninth that was a tie game and then the Astros scored three runs, make you get a safe situation. I don't know exactly who was warming up when. I don't think Brian Abrae is about to become their closer, though. It'd probably be a good one.

He's a really good reliever. But I just, I don't, I don't think they decide to kick Presley out of that role unless he's hurt and they're hiding something there. For the Cubs on Sunday, Michael Fulmer pitched the ninth down two runs, you know, maybe get him back on track. Nope, he gave up two more. And his ERA is now 8.68. Chris, I know Boxburger got a few saves recently, but he gave up two runs over the weekend. I kind of think the name to watch here in deeper leagues is Brandon Hughes, who was very good down the stretch last year for them. Yeah, I think that's a name to watch, but I think Boxburger would have to fail first.

So I think he'll probably get the first opportunity. Speaking of Michael Former, by the way, I mentioned I lost by five points in the Dynasty League, right? Michael Fulmer gave me negative 11.5 points. That's pretty bad. Yeah, so if I just take a zero, I win. Great. For the Dodgers on Sunday, Bruce Stark Radarol picked up a two-inning save with Evan Phillips on the paternity list. Phillips is supposed to be activated on Tuesday.

and then for the Rangers on Sunday, Will Smith allowed a hit but picked up his second save. And Jose LeClerc pitched last pitched on Friday. He pitched Wednesday before that. I feel like he should have been available. Yeah, I wasn't sure because it's not like they were facing a murderer's row of lefties in the ninth. I mean, they were facing the A's. And I wondered if just the fact they were facing the A's with a three-run lead, they were like, let's give LeClerc another day of rest here.

we don't really need him to to nail this one down that that's my hunch but I don't really know I mean for what it's worth Smith has been very good yeah yes you know small sample size but the quality of contact metrics strikeout rate are all very good so far I feel like LeClerc has been pretty good too just quickly pulling it up to see well he hasn't allowed to run but man his strikeout to walk ratio is quite bad so far so We'll see. LeClerc versus Will Smith.

That's something to watch. To stream or not to stream, let's start with Monday. Calquantral versus the Rockies. That game is in Cleveland. I could stream him for that. I don't love it, but it's fine. Dean Kramer versus the Red Sox.

I don't love it. Don't love it. Edward Cabrera at the Braves. I want him on my team, but not to start. Yeah, I actually have him as a two-start sleeper. Yeah, because he's got the twins? No. Neither of his matches is good, but he's getting two of them.

But when you're going daily against the br-I don't know. I like them more than Kramer, even though it's a tough match. That's fair. Matthew Boyd at the Brewers. Nah. No. Ken Walde-Chuck at the Angels. Nah.

Jose Suarez versus the A's. Nah. Brad. Brad Keller at the Diamondbacks. Nope. No. And Tommy Henry. versus the Royals.

Get real. All right. On Tuesday, Peyton Batonfield versus the Rockies. Nah. I guess not. I mean, it's fine. It's fine.

It's fine. Yeah. It's, I don't think he's a very good pitcher, but it's a really good matchup, and he's pitched well so far. Kyle Bradish versus the Red Sox. I think I like Bradish more. Yeah.

Bailey Falter versus the Mariners. Nah. No. Josiah Gray at the Mets. Nah. Eric Lauer. I may be starting him this week, but... Eric Lauer versus the Tigers.

Sure. That's okay. Mason Miller at the Angels. In Roto, not points. That's probably going to know a Mason Miller answer most of the time. Griffith Canning versus the E's. I think that's okay, yeah. He looked really interesting as first start.

First two starts. First two starts, yeah. Velocities up. Ryan Nelson. versus the Royals. Nah. I'm okay with that if you're really struggling.

Yeah, he's not been great, but neither have the Royals. And then Brady Singer at the Diamondbacks. Not with how bad he's been. No, I agree. We're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today.

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