Fantasy Baseball Today - Welcome Back, Spencer Arrighetti! Buy-Low or Heck No? (4/16 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 16, 2026

Welcome back, Spencer Arrighetti (2:23)! ... Shota Imanaga might be back to 2024 form (9:57). ... Shohei Ohtani looks like an ace pitcher (13:58). ... It's Frank and Chris appreciation night (18:06)! ... News (27:15): the White Sox promoted another top prospect Sam Antonacci. ... Buy-low on these players or heck no (37:20)? ... These players might be leveling up (48:06)! ... Any interest in these waiver wire options (1:00:31)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (1:09:03). Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow our FBT team on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@FBTPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CPTowers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CBSScottWhite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@Roto_Frank⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join our Facebook group at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

On Thursday, April 16th, I am Frank Stanfield joined by Chris Towers. Today on the show, welcome back to. Spencer Araggetti, by low or heck no. I've got four players that will take a look at, seven others who might be leveling up. And much more. Let's jump in. Can you believe it?

Wow. All right, Chris, I will take the breadstick here tonight, and that is Spencer Arrogati, who had a pretty good landing spot here at home against the Rockies, six innings, one run, 10 strikeouts, did walk four, but 20 whiffs on 100 pitches, 16 on the curve, two on the sweeper, one on the fastball, one on the cutter. That curveball was amazing. He threw it a bunch, 38% in this one compared to 23% last year.

And it was a little bit different. The velocity was down, 1.4 miles per hour, and it had a different movement profile. Two more inches of horizontal break, one more inch of drop. And again, it was amazing. Reminder of what Aragutti did in the minors this year. Three starts, very small sample size. 126 ERA.77 whip, 12.6K per 9. He is 44% rostered, and it looks like he lines up for two starts next week at the Guardians

and home against the Yankees. So he will be challenged a little bit more in those matchups there. Chris, what did you think of Spencer Arrogatti's return? Well, he'll be challenged against the Yankees. I think at Cleveland is, I mean, look, famous last words, right? Anybody can get rocked on any given day. And Spencer Arredi is not such a dominant pitcher, at least not yet, that we can say he's just going to go out and dominate any old matchup.

But I'm pretty optimistic about Spencer Arrogatti because, remember, he was like the pitching breakout pick last year going into the 2025 season. He had that second half. run in 2024 where I think it was a 318 ERA it was like 76 strikeouts and 65 innings in the second half he looked awesome um the the curveball was a a great swing and miss pitch I think the change up also got a lot of whiffs in the in the second half that season just looked like everything was coming together for him then he what made three starts got hit did he get hit like during pregame warmups or something when he broke his hand I can't it was like a weird injury it was

like a broken hand or something. Yeah, it was weird. And then he had an elbow scare late in the season. He only ended up making a handful of starts. He was terrible, but I don't think things have changed all that much. And the reasons for optimism were still there. We saw it in the minor leagues this season. We saw in his first start.

Yes, it's against the Rockies. Yes, you should be skeptical about Spencer Arrogetti. I am definitely not saying that he is an ace or a must start pitcher. But, you know, yesterday, I think you guys talked about Reid Detmer's and Mick Abel, who were both rostered in right around the same number of leagues. I would guess they're both higher than Samar and Serragutti after last night. But, you know, if I was ranking the three of them, like Detmer's would be last for me. Just because we've been here before. We've had our hearts broken by Reid Detmer's.

New change up. New change up. Sure. There are reasons for optimism. but I think generally speaking, I'll default to the guys who haven't hurt us as much in the past and just haven't failed in their opportunities as much as Reed Demers has. Abel versus Detmer's, I think, is very close.

Abel versus Arroghetti. Abel versus Argeti, yes. So I think both Abel and Arrogetti, based on the upside we've seen in their last starts, should be rostered pretty much everywhere, just in case. right? Because that's the whole thing with pitching at this point in the season is, look, we, Nick Pabetta, I don't know if he's going to pitch again this season. Kind of feels like he may not. We had Hunter Brown go down. We've had a bunch of injuries so far because that's what happens with pitchers. They get hurt.

And so you need to avoid landmines. Well, you probably already have a couple of them. And so you need to find guys who can replace them. And you should be focusing on the highest upside options possible. And I think, when a guy comes out and strikes out 10 in his first start after dominating in the minors, yeah, let's go ahead and add him anywhere just in case. The likeliest outcome is Spencer Argetty's like a four ERA pitcher who has bouts of wildness and is just a headache all season. I think the same is probably true of McAbel and Redembers. But I'm going to take the chance on pitchers who have this kind of upside over, I don't know,

the Bryce Elders and Chad Patrick. and Carmen Majinsky. Maginsky. Maginskis of the world who are getting decent results and aren't like totally worthless, but I don't think there's much upside with any of those guys. And I think there's potentially upside with Aragutti and Abel. So I will prioritize those types.

A reminder of why we liked Arrogati so much heading into last season, his final nine starts in 2024, a 272 ERA 11.4K per 9 in the second half of that season. I do agree the control is something we really do have to watch here because as good as this start was, he did walk for. 61% of his pitches for strikes is not great. It's like passable-ish. Yeah, and even his time in the majors so far,

he's thrown 180 in a third innings. It's 4.2 walks per nine. So that is something that gets Arrogati in trouble at times. His breaking pitches have a ton of movement too so it is kind of hard to command those pitches. You said you like both Abel and Aroghetti. But if you had to choose one, Chris,

who would you go with? I think I would go Able and I'm not even sure if this is like the right thought process but part of it is just both were pitching for rotation spots this spring. Abel went out and took one and Arrogatti needed

three injuries in the Astros rotation to get a chance. So, you know, if nothing else, their respective organizations, which are different, it's not like they were competing against each other, but, you know, Abel did more to earn his role. So I'll give him a slight edge, but I think they're both high upside, likely very volatile pitchers. Would you take both of those and Reid Detmer's over Noah Schultz, who we wax poetic about on our weekend recap and his debut was not very good.

It was like the first inning was really bad. The first inning was a disaster. Shaking off the nerves and then like he did settle down after that. But would you take those three over Noah Schultz? I think so. Yeah. But look, we're at the point in the season and I mean, really it's every point in the season with pitchers. But especially right now, you should just be cycling through everyone who shows something.

and hope that you hit on, you know, one or two guys who can be useful for a stretch. Some of them will get hurt. Some of them will, you know, struggle. But you're, you're aiming for upside right now and hoping you can get a difference maker. And those three guys have shown upside and Noah Schultz didn't. But that's not to say I think Noah Schultz should be dropped everywhere. I still think there's a lot to like about him. But I do. think it would be okay to drop him if he's your worst player.

All right, Chris, let's go over to you for your player of the night. I am starting to think that maybe Shodi Minaga just wasn't healthy last season when he struggled in the second half because he came out this spring with the velocity up. He has been pretty dominant so far in his majorly, in his first four starts in the majors. he struck out 11. He had a season high for any pitcher, 26 swinging strikes today, including, I believe, 16 on the splitter. He was just absolutely dominant.

And I looked it up. He went on the IL in the beginning of May last season. So I just took everything after that off the board. Maybe this is dumb. But I just thought it was interesting to highlight how good Imanaga has been when he's been at his best. And that is 40 starts. So all of 2024.

I think it was like the first eight starts of last season. And then what he's done this season. It's 40 starts of a 285 ERA, a 101 whip, 25% strikeout rate, 5% walk rate. What if he's just really good and he just wasn't healthy last season after the hamstring injury? Or he just wasn't right. You know, it could be that there is a very, slim margin for error for showdiam and agri because he does not have overwhelming stuff right it's

92 mile an hour fastball right now last year it was more like 9091 um it's a great splitter the rest of the arsenal it's deepish but i don't think anything's like super dominant um so he could be a pitcher who when things go bad they go really bad for him but when he's been right he's been really really excellent at the major league level. So I don't know. I have a few shares of him this season. I'm happy about that. Wish I had more.

Yeah. And if you just look at what he's done in the past two starts combined, 12 innings, one run, 20 strikeouts to two walks. So he has been great so far. He looked really good in spring training as well, which you mentioned there with Shota'Imanaga. I have a segment plan for later on.

Players who might be leveling up, would you put Imanaga in that category? Do you think this is kind of a level up for Imanaga? Maybe even better, I don't know if he could be better than what he was two years ago. But I mean, even getting back to that level, I mean, that would be a level up from last season. I think he's got a pretty good chance of being the guy he was in 2024. Maybe not a sub three ERA. Maybe it's more like 330.

But the whip should be excellent. The strikeouts should be helpful. I am more or less viewing showdeme. I got as a must-start pitcher moving forward. Did you move them up in your rankings at all yet, or just kind of status quo, like top 30? I moved him up a little bit, but that was early. I spent, I mean, Tuesday and most of Wednesday working on my rankings after missing last week. So he moved up a few spots in the pitcher rankings.

After this started, it does look like it should be a little more. Like, I'm looking at him, him versus Jerusalem. very similar pitchers, but Imanaga's probably going to give us 20 more innings in a best case scenario. Yeah, more volume for sure. I think more strikeouts too. Than Rasmussen, so yeah, I think

I'mauga might need to go ahead of Drew Rasmussen there. Yeah, I have Eamonaga at SP30, and the names I have just ahead, Chase Burns, Trevor Rogers, Sandy Alcansera, Kevin Gosman. Yeah, I don't think he can get ahead of those guys. There's just, those guys would have to fail spectacularly get hurt for them to move behind Imanaga.

But I just think given the skill sets involved, I would rather have all those guys than Imanaga. All right, a couple other players I want to mention up top here who just had fantastic nights. Show Ye Otani. I mean... What was special about this? Like, I don't know.

No, no, seriously. He didn't even hit today. Why are we getting excited about just, oh, he. was a starting pitcher. Ooh, there's lots of starting pitchers. Call me when he's D-Hing while starting. I'm making a joke.

I believe this is the first time that he's been healthy with the Dodgers, that he hasn't been both a D.H and starting pitcher. He's incredible. He's so good. It's the first time he has pitched without being the D.H since 2021. That's what I saw there. Otani, the line here, six innings, one run, 10 strikeouts, 22 whiffs on 95 pitches.

13 of those came on the fastball. And while his starts will be spaced out, and he won't give you two start weeks. He is three for three in quality starts. He is allowed one earn run total over 18 innings pitched so far this season. And he is incredible. I moved him up to SP 17 earlier today. That's not a huge jump. I think I had him SP 23 or 22 coming into the season.

But he's entering that like pseudo-ace legit SP2 territory, which doesn't help anybody. if he's just one player in your league. I totally understand that. And that is the CBS standard. Though, if you play in commissioner leagues on CBS, we have a setting where you can make Otani two different players. And I had this conversation with Scott. I think it was last week or two weeks ago.

You weren't on the show. And basically up until recent years, I was pretty much against like the two player Otani. It's kind of, I don't know. I thought it was a little wonky and me, maybe a little silly. Now I'm all for it. I feel like he should be two players because the ability to gain all of this,

like his pitching production, right? I hate having to choose one or the other, and 99% of the time you're going to play him as a hitter. And then you just miss out on all of this production. My kind of dumb guy take on this is, okay, fine. But that should apply to everyone. And I don't know if that's smart. but I don't I think it's it would be kind of silly to just say he's the only one you get that for and so what I mean is like on the rare occasions when a hitter is pitching in mop up duty I think that should count too but nobody wants that oh nobody because hitters are terrible pitchers and so that that's my compromise position but like I said I think that's kind of a dumb opinion I'm aware of it I just

just think for consistency state. Um, I don't have him quite as high as you in my starting pitcher rankings, but he's 24th. It's, you're splitting hairs there. The difference in the overall ranks between that would be, you know, 10, 15 spots. So it's right in that range. Must start pitcher if he's eligible at starting pitcher in your league. Um, he's incredible. He's so good. He's a unicorn. He has changed baseball. I think he should change. fantasy baseball. And obviously he has for the most part. And on Yahoo, he's two different players. I believe on ESPN, you just get all of his production. I think it should just be that way across the board. And I understand that that would break fantasy baseball. And if that were to happen,

where you just get all of his production as one player, then, A, there would have to be a third round reversal in drafts because- I don't even think that would be enough. It probably would not. And the fairest way to measure it would be an auction. and he would probably be like a $70 or $80 player just because... Yeah, I think he'd be a $50-55 hitter and a $20-25 pitcher. It's just so...

It's frustrating in the leagues where you start him as a hitter and you just see all this happen and there's nothing you can do about it. Well, and especially today, you didn't even get hitting production out of him today. Right, exactly. Before we hit our first break,

I want to do a little... We don't do this often, but Frank and Chris Appreciation Night, a little pat on the back for our... ourselves here because some of our calls, not all of them, obviously we'll get stuff wrong, but Sal Stewart for me, Yordaun Alvarez and Mike Trow for you, who I know you were higher on. I mean, these guys are just off to tremendous starts, man. Sal Stewart, uh, Sal Stewart, uh, Sal Stewart, y-hoo.

Two for four with two more homers, six RBI. He's batting 323 with seven home runs, 17 RBI, three steals with an 1160 OPS on the season. He's, crushing the ball, he's barreling it up, he's only striking out 17% of the time. Play discipline looks really good, yeah. It doesn't mean that this will just be the case all season long, and someone could make the case for a sell high if you could sell really high. But this was a top hitting prospect, and I think that there's a real chance that he's just kind of, he's not there yet, but if we get to midseason and we're talking about Sal Stewart

as a top 50 player overall, like that would not surprise me one bit. So if you're going to sell high, make sure that you are selling really high. Personally, I would not be doing it on South Stewart. And then the other two, Mike Trout, can we just get him out of the Bronx? He is killing my Yankees right now, man. Another home run, three games against the Yankees, four homers, eight RBI. And the other day we spoke about his underlying metrics, just off to an awesome start. Crossing the ball and his plate discipline much improved so far.

Yordan Alvarez, Chris, I mean, we always knew. And really for him and Trout, it's like, if they can stay healthy, that we can't answer right now. Yeah. They're healthy right now. And Yurdan Alvarez hit his seventh home run with a 1250 OPS this early in the season. Anything else to add on those three studs so far? Yeah, I'm the only one of us that keeps in season overall rankings because I do the trade values chart. and so I'm the only one that can say, you know, how much I've moved guys overall.

And these were three of the biggest risers inside of the top 150 for me so far. Now, Yordon, in large part, I'm not surprised that Yordaun Alvarez is a great hitter. Nobody should be. He's always been a great hitter. He moved up nine spots in the overall just because he gained outfit eligibility this week, which is no small thing. You drafted him as a util only player. I think if you had known Yordon Alvarez was going to be outfield eligible,

18 games into the season or whatever we're at. Easy second round pick. Second round pick, yeah. And he probably should have been that anyway. But now I think you make a case if we were redrafting right now in a 15-team league. Is he a borderline first rounder? Might be. Would you take Yordaun Alvarez with outfield eligibility or junior Camerara?

I think I'd take your on. The injury risk is there, but he's a better hitter. Third base is still so bad. Sure, that's fair. I'd take him over Nick Kurtz. Yeah. I'd take him over Kyle Schwerber. So I think he's in that conversation.

Yeah, he would be. And then Trout just looks healthy. That's the the slippage that we saw in his skill set last season was mostly with his contact skills. and those have improved across the board so far. All the swing and miss that was there has largely gone away. And he's crushing the ball and his sprint speed has gone from, I think he was 62nd percentile last season to 90th percentile. He looks good. He's healthy.

And then South Stewart is the biggest riser within the top 150 for me. Well, yeah, I guess because Jordan Walker's not quite in my top 150. Don't yell at me. It's fine. I'm more conservative than most people. It's fine. Um, but South Stewart, I, I haven't moved him up at first base yet, only because he was like in a tier of his own before the season. He was around 170.

And then there were like, I think Michael Bush was the next guy ahead of him at like 100. Yandhi Diaz, maybe, unless you had chance behind him. I think I had Diaz ahead of Bush, but they were right around 100 overall for me. And so I've moved, uh, South Stewart to around 130 in the overall rankings. And I'll grant that that might not be. be high enough. But that's still a super aggressive move for me, someone who's very conservative with my rankings changes early in the season. If you want to pull one hole in his profile, it's like a 10% pulled air rate. Six of his seven home runs have been hit to the opposite

field. But if you're going to do that, Great America Ballpark is the place to do it. Remember, Nicholas Castellanos underperformed his expected stats for years. And then he got to Cincinnati and was a top 10 outfielder. So that's the kind of ballpark that can overcome that. And yeah, he just looks really good. The other thing is there's like a gap between his bat speed, which is actually pretty low and his exit velocity, which right now is elite.

I don't know what to make of that, though. There's some correlation between bat speed and exit velocity, but it's not perfect. So the one thing, I noticed the pole to air rate as well for South Stewart, and I mentioned this with Jordan Walker. I mean, the fact that he has seven home runs already and he's not pulling the ball in the area, I almost kind of look at that as a positive. And I also think, like, this is just a reminder that he has power to all fields, right?

Nick Kurtz is not a big pulled air rate guy either, but his power is just extreme to all fields. He can go, you know, opposite field almost as good as anybody in baseball. So I think that's encouraging for South Stewart. Like, pulled air rate, I think, me personally, I like it more for guys. that don't have true raw power, but I think South Stewart does have true raw power. So overall, I'm not really worried about that, and he's off to a great start too. I did want to mention on the other end of the spectrum,

Yordaun Alvarez's pulled air rate is 37% early on, and his previous high was 20%. That's pretty terrifying for a guy with 70 grade raw power and like a 70 grade hit tool. Yeah, it is scary. I mean, you have called this out before, Chris, but if he can stay held, healthy and he's pulling the ball in the air that much with that much back control, the ability to make contact and that much raw power. This could be a 50 home run season for Yard Island. He has 17 walks to nine strikeouts so far. He's amazing. Just stay healthy. It's ridiculous what he's

doing. Just stay healthy, please. Now before we hit our first break, reminder, sign up for the FBT newsletter if you haven't already. If you're watching on YouTube, scan that QR code that will bring you right to the website where you can sign up for free. CBS, sports.com slash newsletters, and you will get Chris's work delivered right to your inbox every day for free. Let's take that break, and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Let's hit the news and notes, and the White Sox called up another top prospect, and we spoke about him over the weekend. There was a report that Sam Antinacci would get called up, and then differing reports. We weren't sure, but he was called up here on Wednesday. He started at second base,

hit fifth in the White Sox lineup, went one for three with a walk and a run scored. And just a reminder of what he's done in the minors last year, hit 291, five homers, 48 steals. And then this year in 14 games at AAA, 313, two homers, five steals. And we saw the power increase in the Arizona Fall League in spring training in the World Baseball Classic. 27% rostered is Sam Antinachi. Chris, what size leagues would you be looking to add him, if any? it's less the size of the league and more the style of the league.

I think categories, leagues, I'm looking to add him. Points, probably not. Although there is maybe a path to third base eligibility here, which would help. He, I think, debuted at second base. They played Colson Montgomery at shortstop. But he has played every infield position and left field in the minors. This season, it's been second, third, and left field, I believe. So I think he's going to play a little bit everywhere.

And that could end up being super helpful. I think it's very strong bat to ball skills, you know, maybe 10 homers, a bunch of steals. He stole 48 bases last year. I think the upside could be Nico Horner-esque. And the downside could be Andres Jimenez or Bryson Stott, you know, still useful-ish players as a middle infielder. I think he's definitely someone in categories leagues. You should be looking to add. Points leagues, I don't know if there's enough juice in the bat for that, but if the plate

discipline's as good as it was in the minors, he could matter in all leagues, but right now it would just be roto leagues. All right, Juan Soto has started a running progression. He's working his way back from that calf strain. Nick Povetta has been diagnosed with a right flexor strain. Manager Craig Stamman believes that Povetta is looking at, quote, weeks, maybe months of rest and rehab. So timeline is up in the air.

Not sure we'll even see Nick. Povetta again this season, but if I had to guess, I think we're probably a couple of months out here. Maybe like June or July at the best year for Nick Povetta. Yeah, I would think June would be a best case scenario. Dave Roberts confirmed that Edwin Diaz was available on Wednesday. I don't believe he pitched in that game. Not really necessary. Apparently, he's been dealing with a minor right knee issue.

Minor right knee issue. I do, sorry, want to go back to Povetta because I thought I remembered this and I did. He did have a strained flexor tendon in his right elbow in 2024. He missed exactly one month. So if you're looking for a reason to be optimistic, that would be it. But the reporting, or what the GM said here makes me think it'll probably be long in that. As we mentioned last night, Brewer's manager, Pat Murphy was weighing a potential change at closer. And then boom, what do you know?

A save opportunity here on Wednesday night. and it went to Abner Arebe, who came in in the ninth inning with a one-run lead, clean inning, struck out one, and you could tell he was pumped up. The velocity was up. His sinker was up to 99 miles per hour in this one. Slider velocity was up 2.4 miles per hour.

Abner Arebe is 60% rostered. Chris, I think anywhere where he was dropped, even in a points league, if he is just the closer for the Brewers, he has top 12, top 10 closer upside. Absolutely. Top six. closer upside with the strikeout rates that we've seen from him.

He's basically had two elite seasons. I think he's had two seasons with the ERA below two, if not even better than that. And then one that was an absolute disaster sandwiched in between them. So I think it's volatile. I don't think Trevor McGill is an automatic drop. But anywhere where saves matter, certainly Adner Yerebe should be picked up. And even points leagues, yeah. Would you drop Trevor McGill to add Abner-Ibe?

If that's the one player you can drop, I... So there was, I think, Pat Murphy after Wednesday or Tuesday's game, today's Wednesday, right? I'm really struggling with the days of the week, right? After Tuesday's game, when McGill blew the save, there was a quote that was something like, we have to consider making a change there. We're going to talk to the coaches, blah, blah, blah, everything we already talked about. But he also said, you know,

this was a guy who saved 30 games for us last year. And he's really good. And so it didn't sound like Pat Murphy has totally lost faith in Trevor McGill. So I would try to hold on to him. But yeah, I think if you have to make that call between Uribe and McGill, I think you'd have to give Uribe the edge right now. Yeah, I think it's shallower leagues. I would be all right making that move.

In 12-team, Roto leagues are deeper where you have a bench. I would try to hold on to Trevor McGill if you can. And look, we mentioned what Abner Reba's upside can be, but it is a little bit of a tricky situation because if he were to struggle at all, again, they have Trevor McGill there waiting in the games. They have an all-star closer. Yeah, so it's not just, oh, Abner Reba is the closer

for the rest of the season. That could be the case, but it's not guaranteed to be the case. So I had a lot of people asking me on Wednesday night, should I drop Emilio Pagan? Should I drop Pete Fairbanks? I mean, I think Adner Not looked great. Yeah, I think Arribes has higher upside than those guys,

but like those guys are closers right now too. They're definitely the closers, yeah. Yeah, I was thinking more your, your Clayton's beater. And, you know, those guys who just aren't very good, but are the closer for bad teams, I think you can drop them. What about Jordan Romano?

Jordan Romano, yeah, I think that's two blown saves in a row. Is that three in a row? It's two in a row and both. He had another one. The Yankees have just owned him over the years too. Yeah. And today was there was the dumb dropped pop-up that there was a miscommunication between the shortstop and third baseman.

It was pretty unfortunate for Romano. Yes, but he has lost it, it seems. I think anyone who still hang on to Kirby Yates in your I-L spot, you're feeling pretty good about that. Yep. Moving on, Garrett Cole will begin a rehab assignment at AA on Friday. He recently built up to 42 pitches over three innings in a simulated game. And Chris, as soon as I saw this, I purchased my ticket to AA Somerset on Friday night.

So if anyone's going to be there, hit me up. I will be in attendance watching Garrick Cole and George Lombard Jr. The Tigers signed Kevin McGonigle to an eight-year $150 million extension. Yet another top prospect signs a massive deal here, Chris. And what I've seen, and I think Buster-only report on this, is that teams are signing prospects to these deals ahead of the CBA negotiations, hoping that they get grandfathered into whatever if something is agreed upon this offseason? Yeah, that makes sense. I think you would have to. I know when the NBA changed their CBA in 2010, I think this was before I started

working at CBS or 2011, they had some grandfather clauses when they changed the CBA. I think that their specific version was like they had the Amnesty Clubs. You remember that? Where teams could get out of one contract for free. There's going to have to be something like that. Because, you know, you look at a team like the Dodgers or the Mets, the Dodgers especially, all those guys are signed to, Will Smith has like, what, eight years left on his contract?

You're going to have to have some kind of way to ease teams into the, if there is some kind of limitation on salaries, which I don't think is guaranteed yet. Emilio Pagan played catch on Wednesday and would not categorize his hamstring tightness as an injury. So hopefully he's good. If not, Tony Santian would be the next name up there for the Reds. Blake Snell tossed a live BP on Wednesday. He got up to 31 pitches over two simulated innings.

Carlos Rodon will join AA and face hitters in a live BP session on Saturday. Trey I Savage made another rehab start at AAA on Wednesday. Four and a third innings, seven hits, three and runs. two homers allowed in that one. One to Dylan Cruz. His velocity was down between like 1.5 and 2 miles per hour. So something to watch there with Trey is Savage. Not too concerned, but yeah, something to watch.

Cotell Marte was back in the lineup after missing Tuesday with lower back tightness. Jorge Polanco was not in the lineup due to renewed pain in his Achilles. We finally got an update on Jorge Soler. His suspension was reduced to four games, and he began. serving that on Wednesday. Troy Johnston left Wednesday night after getting hit by a pitch on his right leg. It was like in his thigh area,

so I don't think it's a big deal, but just something to watch because we are on Charlie Condon watch. He is crushing it in the minors right now, and if anyone gets hurt for the Rockies and has to go on the IL, Charlie Condon might be the next name up. So just something to watch there.

The Brewers are expected to push Kyle Harrison start back a few days due to knee and wrist issues. It turns out Martin Perez will start Friday for the Braves. There was some speculation that Didier Fuentes or J.R. Richie would make that start, but it'll be Martin Perez, which is infinitely less fun. The Padres are expected to activate Matt Waldron and have him start this weekend against the Angels. Baseball, just much better when there's a knuckleballer, so we're rooting for you, Matt Waldron. And another pitcher goes down for the Astros, Cody Bolton to the IL with mid-back inflammation. Bilo or heck no.

Jesus Lazzardo. I don't know, is he tipping his pitches again? Because he's kind of off to a terrible start. He was up against the Cubs, five in a third innings, 12 hits, nine runs, eight of those earned, four strikeouts to one walk. He has allowed five or more earned runs in three of four starts. His velocity was actually up in this one.

It's been up all season. All the underlying numbers still love him, Chris. So what do you think? Bilo or heck no on Hesuzon Zazardo? By low. I think this is just life with Jesus Lazzardo. It's just when it goes bad, I think it tends to go really bad for him. And I've watched a lot of him. He was with the Marlins for what, four years. I've watched a decent amount of Hazers Lazzardo. And there's just some days when he doesn't have it. The stuff usually looks pretty good. But the margin for error here is really slim. And I think it's probably a combination of he doesn't have great. command and he he's got like the lowest extension in baseball on his pitches nobody releases the ball further from home plate than hazers-lz-z-z-z-z-a-believe or he's in the you know single-digit percentiles for sure so i i think there are just some days when badders are seeing the ball well

and he's not he doesn't have it and i think you just have to live with the the bad starts and he's probably not going to be a low 3 ZRA guy because the bad starts are going to blow up. But I think on the whole, I still expect a mid-3ZRA and a bunch of strikeouts from him moving forward. He had a 524 babbip against in this start. He did also allow 10 hard hits. So perhaps that was deserved. It's just life with Hazers-Lisdh. But a 417 bad-hip on the season so far, last year it was 324, and for his career, it's 304. So yeah, I think this is a prime bi-located. It, it's a, It doesn't help the people who have him. I mean, I have him in a few spots and nothing I could do about it.

I'm not getting rid of him or anything or selling low. His, despite a 794 ERA, 290 FIP, 1-97 X-FIP so far for Hazus Lazzardo. So it feels like a prime by-low candidate right now. Kyle Braddish, not great once again, up against the D-back, six innings, eight hits, four runs, four strikeouts to one walk. It wasn't as bad as other starts, and it was nice to see just one walk. after three walks in each of his first three starts. And I was watching a little bit of the start.

There was a two-run double off of the glove of their left-fielder, Weston Wilson, who obviously has not played a lot of left field in his career. And originally it was ruled in error, and then it was changed to a hit. So that was, you know, obviously ruined Kyle Bradish's line a little bit more there. His velocity was up here. The underlying number is still buying it, too. What do you think about Bradish, by low or heck no? By-low, for sure.

Maybe we got a little overzealous with him as a top 15 starting pitcher, but the thing I keep coming back to with Kyle Bradish, you know, when I was writing about him earlier today, just thinking about this start is we've never really seen a bad version of Kyle Braddish at the major league level. I guess his rookie season wasn't great. But other than that, he's been uniformly excellent when he's been on the field. I know the last two years prior to this one were very limited. but he was phenomenal in those two seasons. He finished in the top five in Say Young the year before that. So I just, we don't really have a track record of Kyle Bradish not being good. So I think at the very least he'll be good.

Whether he'll be the top 10 guy that we thought he might be this season. That's a fair question. You know, the velocity's been down overall on the season. It was up today. But if you looked at the start, if you watched it, he was like 97, 98. in the first inning, and he was down to like 92, 93, by the end, at least with the four seamer. So he's not locked in right now, is the best way to put it. But I don't really think your opinion of Cabrattis should have changed by now.

Yeah, much like Jesus Lazardo, it's a 549 ERA for Braddish, 321 FIPP, 367 XFIP, and he's almost at like five walks per nine. It's just he doesn't typically have that bad of control. So I have to, this was a good first step, you know, one walk here and through 66% of his pitches for strikes. And I have to imagine the walks will improve moving forward for Kyle Bradish. This one's a little bit more tricky. Austin Riley, he's on the board with his first home run of the season. He had two hits here on Wednesday.

But he is hitting just 229. Does have the two steals, which is nice. They said he wanted to run more coming into the season. The plate discipline so far on the surface has improved, but his zone contact is actually down, and typically it's not very good, and his whiff rate is up, despite an 18% strikeout rate. And he hasn't been as good the past couple of years, Chris. So I'm not exactly, I'm not exactly sure what to do with Austin Riley. Buy low or heck no?

Yeah, I mean, you do have to go back to 2023 for a great Austin Riley. season. 2024, he was mostly great after a slow start. Last year, though, there was some sign of decline in the skill set. The strike guy rate was up to 29%. The quality of contact was down a little bit. This year, strike rate's up or down, sorry, to 19%, but he's done very little with the contact he's made.

So I Austin Riley was not someone I actively moved down in the ranking. So yeah, I still think by low here We got the two steals He's one away from his career high So that's showed up As we hoped for

I'm still inclined to be positive about Austin Riley In part because what are you going to do otherwise? Yeah At third base. Oh you've got a good third baseman besides Austin Riley? Okay, yeah, trade Austin Riley, I guess. But

no, I don't think that that makes any sense. It's very unlikely that you have an over abundance of third baseman that you love. So I think you just got to hold Austin Riley. Last name here is Jack Caglione who is much

less proven than all the other names we've talked about. But there was a lot of hype coming into the season. I've been getting lots of questions, Chris, about whether people could drop Jack Caglione. He did go three for three with a triple and a walk here on Wednesday. Would you be looking to buy low on Cags if you can? Yes.

I guess. He's given us very little to be optimistic about this season. And it's 18 games or whatever, 16 games for him. The optimism that started building in spring training was less that he had fixed his swing and was really productive. I actually don't think his numbers of spring were all that good. It was that he was showing off, you know, 70-grade raw power. He had the, I think, 120-mile-an-hour batted ball.

That put him in, I think it was the eighth player in the Stackast era to hit a batted ball that hard. That upside is still there. But the swing is just not grooved for power yet at all. And I still want to believe in him. I'm certainly trying not to drop him. it's not a guy that I would give up a ton to get either. Yeah, it does hurt that he doesn't play against left-handed pitching so far this season. And the expected stats are not good so far, but his quality of contact has been.

93.1 average EV, 13% barrel rate, 19% pulled air rate. That's an improvement because he hit a lot of ground balls last season. So, you know, the underlying plate discipline stuff still looks pretty good to me. I think as the weather starts to heat up and, you know, they're playing more games at home or the dimensions have changed in Kaufman. I mean, that whole lineup has been brutal so far too. So it's like, how much are we putting on Caglio? Pasquantino has done nothing.

Salvador Perez has done nothing. My cockercy has been good. He's been all right, but like Bobby Witt, but look, Bobby Witt's going to get going. He has eight steals. But like he hasn't done much yet either. So I think as time moves on, like, I think the Royals lineup will just get better together. So I would be looking to hold Cags. And if you can buy on the cheap in like a deeper league, yeah, like a five outfit

of league, sure. Cags is the only qualified hitter without an RBI this season. That's just wild. It was him and Francisco Lindor until Lindor's Homer on Tuesday. Yeah. Yeah, I'm inclined to buy, especially because it'll likely come extremely cheap. There's a chance he's been dropped in some leagues. All right, let's take our final break.

When were you returned? Are these players leveling up? We'll discuss right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. These players might be leveling up. Shout out to my Final Fantasy fans out there. We already spoke about Chota Imanaga, who looks like he is leveling up to the player

that he was back in 2024. What about his teammate, Nico Horner? He is off to an awesome start. Three for five with a sock into shoe, his second home run, his sixth stolen base. He has let off nine straight games here for the Cubs. He's hitting 324. He's got 18 RBI, which is like unheard of for a leadoff guy,

especially like the Cubs lineup hasn't been great so far either. and what I noticed, a career high, 22% pulled air rate so far and a career low 35% ground ball rate. So what do you think, Chris? Is there a chance here, Nico Horner is leveling up? Yeah, so there was a piece on MLB.com from today, actually, it was published 45 minutes ago as we're speaking. Horner's minor swing adjustments paying major dividends for Cubs.

There's talk about some like, tweaks to his mechanics in the lower body to help increase his rotational speed and, you know, trying to not turn his hips, uh, as quickly. Nobody seems to think it's been like a sea change for him. But maybe there's something there. I,

I'm inclined to say with a player of Nick Horner's track record that it's just a hot streak and that we're seeing the high end of his outcomes over a 20, 15 to 20 game sample size and he'll just, the numbers at the end of the season are always what they are with Nico Horns. It's always 280 to 290, 6 to 10 home runs,

80 to 95 runs. I think that's probably what it is and what it will be for him, but there's a chance he's taking a step forward, but I don't think it's particularly likely. Yeah, he does not have really any raw power. So this is the type of player where if we want more power, I'm not sure we want more power from Nico Horner,

but if he pulls the ball in the air more, it could result in some more home runs. Now, in Wrigley, it's a little bit tougher to hit the ball down the line. But, you know, in road games or whatever it might be, I believe this game was a road game here on Wednesday night. So I think there's, I agree with you. I think it's most likely who he's been. But is there a chance he can get to like 12 to 15 home runs and maybe? Back to 40 steals, which he only did one other time.

It's a possibility. I'm not saying it's something that I would expect, though, from Nico Horner. Sure. What about Shea Langaleers, 2 for 5 with his sixth home run? He is batting 304-974 OPS so far. And the quality of contact has been really good early on. He seemingly has gotten better every season, Chris. What do you think about Shea Langalear's potentially leveling up this season?

Yeah, this is another one where when you dig into the underlying stats, it seems to be mostly that he's hitting the ball harder. His play discipline has actually gotten worse. His strike rate is up to 33%. And I feel like there was, there was a little bit of a cold stretch for him because he hit six homers and there were five homers in the first six games.

Yeah. And then, you know, not a ton after that. So I, again, I think this is probably just a hot streak for Shea Langaleers. He's crushing the ball. 93.2 mile per hour average exit velocity. But if that comes with 33% strikeout rate, I think that's probably a trade-off that would level out

if either of those proofs sustainable. So the thing about Shane Langleyers is he doesn't need to be significantly better to be one of the three best catchers in baseball. And he might just be that. Yeah. Yeah. Let's move on to Emerson Hancock, who had another strong start. This one at the Padre, six innings, two runs, six strikeouts to one walk here.

quality start in three of four outings. And nice to see him bounce back after a meh start last time out against the Astros. Didn't love what he did with the pitch mix here, Chris. Kind of went back to using that sinker a lot. But what do you think? We now have four starts under our belt here. Obviously, Mariners really strong pitching organization. Is there a chance that this could be for real? Do you think Emerson Hancock is legitimately leveling up? Yes. I can say a much more definitive yes here because Nico Horner and Shea Langaleers were top 100 picks. And if you drafted Emerson Hancock, I mean, my God, what league were you playing in?

So, yeah, it's really easy to level up when you're going from a guy that I don't think anybody really thought was a major league caliber pitcher to a guy who, yeah, might be slightly above average. I think that's a reasonable outcome. There was a piece on fan graphs, I think yesterday or the day before about Emerson in hancock he has lowered his arm slot and added a little bit of cut to his fastball he's become less efficient with spinning the fastball but it's changed the movement profile it's allowed him to really lean on this sweeper that he's throwing i think he threw it three percent of the time last

year it's been more like 25 percent of the time this year eight of his 10 whiffs or were on that pitch on wednesday so given the home park and given the solid supporting cast i don't think Emerson Hancock is a must-start pitcher, but I think we're in firmly must-roster territory. That all being said, I have been playing fantasy baseball a long time, and I've been professionally analyzing fantasy baseball for a slightly less long time, and he's got like dream matchups next week. It's the athletics at home in Seattle and then at St. Louis. And, And boy, doesn't it feel like setting us up for heartbreak? Yeah, yeah.

Like just, you know, everybody's skeptical. Everybody buys in ahead of the dream to start week. And it just, it just feels like nine runs and five innings is coming. I'm not, like, I'm just being a negative Nancy here. I am not actually saying that's what I expect. I do think he's pretty good now. I think the tweaks that he's made have helped. And I do fully expect him.

him to be good in his two-start week next week. I've just seen this before, and I'm scared of how this is going to go. He is up to 86% rostered, so not really someone that you can go out and add, but if you picked him up, obviously, in those matchups, you're going to use Emerson Hancock. Starting him with confidence and. Yeah. And pray. Yeah.

Although you shouldn't. I mean, he's been good. No, the underlying shoes are legitimately good. Everything points to this being a. phenomenal week to start Emerson Hancock. It's just baseball, you know? Yep, oh, I know. Ryan O'Hern continued his strong start,

three for four with a steel. Not something you should expect much from, but 333 batting average, three homers, 937 OPS so far. Expect the stats really good, underlying plate discipline really good, and he's finally getting the chance to play every day for the Pirates.

So what do you think about Ryan O'Hern's hot star, Chris? Is there a chance this is legit? and he has leveled up. No, I think he's an 800 OPS bat. That's useful. That's good. It's great for the pirates, but I don't, I don't, like, how old is Ryan? Ryan, Horne's got to be 30?

He is 32. Yeah, like, it's pretty unlikely that Ryan Hearn has taken a big step forward. I think this is just a hot streak, but that's useful. I think it's a slight step forward, and I think what will make this his most valuable season is just the fact that he is mostly going to play every. day now. He just didn't really get that opportunity in other spots. So assuming he stays healthy if he gets, you know, 150, 155 games this year, I think we could see low 20s home runs and a 2 80-ish batting average and solid counting stats. And it doesn't blow you away. But man, by the end of the

season, you might just look up and realize, wow, Ryan O'Hurne was like a top 15 or top 12 first basement. Like, how the heck did that happen? And, you know, just being solid all season long. That's how it could happen for him. Liam Hicks from your Miami-Marlin State. hot one for four with his fourth home run. Last three games, he's picking things back up. Five hits, a homer, five RBI, one steal. He's obviously off to a tremendous start. He has leveled up from what he has been.

How much of it is sustainable? He's 73% rostered. That means people are starting to add him in one catcher leagues, Chris. What do you think about Liam Hicks? I don't really think he's a one catcher league guy. So my number 12 catcher right now is Francisco Alvarez. I would rather have Francisco

Alvarez than Leon Hicks. You could make, I know Yiner Diaz has been very bad this season. I haven't really changed my opinion on him very much, but I guess you could make the case that just played the hot hand, but I don't really buy that. So I would still,

I don't really think there's room for Jordan Hicks to be, or Liam Hicks to be a top 12 catcher, but a number two catcher, Look, this guy was not on anyone's rosters coming into the season, and there are real changes here. Yeah. He has changed his swing and his setup. He's added a big leg kick that, you know, seems to have helped his timing. Like the max EV is not any better this season.

It's actually slightly worse, but it's a small sample size. The bat speed is very similar, slow. Makes a ton of contact, though. And so this could be a situation where just being, you know, genuinely for a catcher, an elite contact hitter, and maybe, you know, he's pulling the ball in the air more. He's hitting the ball harder, more consistently. These could be the kind of changes that take him from the 30th best catcher in fantasy to the 19th best catcher in fantasy. I think that's within the realm of possibility, but not someone in a one catcher league that I'm looking to add. I think it's, you're hoping it's a

750 OPS instead of a 690 OPS. Last name on this list is Bryce Elder who's off to a nice start. This one up against the Marlins 5 and 2 3rd shutout innings with seven strikeouts and his slider was really good in this one. All nine of his wifts came on that pitch.

We have seen stretches from Bryce Elder before. Chris, what do you think about Elders' chances of actually leveling up this year? I don't buy it. I just don't think he's good is what it comes down to. I think he just has one pitch, really. Yeah, like the slider's good.

He has implemented this cutter this year, and someone sent me a story. I believe he was working with Greg Maddox to kind of figure out that cutter. There's a great quote from that story where it was something like, the cutter's not a swing and miss pitch for me, I think was the quote,

and Greg Maddox said something like, oh, you're a swing and miss pitcher? Yeah. I saw that. His strikeer rates up a little bit, his walk rates down to 78-fip through four starts. He's pitching well. I think it's just that he's pitching well, though. I don't think this is a sustainable thing.

There were several other pitchers on Monday who are more widely available that I think were more interesting than Bryce Elder moving forward. 74% roster for Elder looks like he does line up for two starts next week at the Nationals, Home Against the Farms. Phillies. So obviously Phillies, tough lineup. Nationals have actually been off to like an okay start offensively. Not sure that I... C.J. Abrams is the best shortstop in fantasy right now. Yeah, he has been amazing. So look, with a two-star next week

as a in a head dead points league, I think it'd be fine to play. I still think there's a little bit of blow-up risk there if you do play in a Category's league with Bryce Elder. Getting into some waiver wire options from Wednesday's action, Jake Berger hit his fifth home run. and he likes hitting in Sacramento, apparently. He has three home runs in his past three games. I think we know who Jake Berger is.

49% rostered if you need power in a categories league. I don't think you really need to add him in a points league at all. Any interest in these other names, Chris, they're more widely available, more so deeper options. Luke Rayleigh continued his great start, four for five with his fourth home run. He is hitting 339 early on. Jeremiah Jackson hit his fourth homer,

one 10.4 exit velocity on that one. His last five games, 11 hits, four homers, 10 RBI. Dalton rushing is off to a great start. He has four homers in 18 played appearances. I just don't see how he's going to play. It's just not playing time. And Adrian Del Castillo,

two for five with a triple and his first homer. Five RBI started at catcher and hit cleanup in this game against a right-handed pitcher. I think he's going to get some run as long as Gabriel Moreno is out. Also, Jake Freilly. How could I forget about Jake Freilly? One for three with a sock and a shoe here.

Very deep league names, but what do you think about Rayleigh, Jeremiah Jackson, rushing Del Castillo, and Jake Freilly? Are we sure Jake Frailey and Luke Rayleigh are different players? Yeah. I mean, like, if their names sound similar, they also are just the same guy, really. Like, they're platoon bats who can get hot, and I don't really think they matter for fantasy. I think if Will Smith gets hurt, Dalton Rushing would probably be ranked at least as a top 20 catcher. I have not lost much faith in him.

I still think he's a super talented player. There's just absolutely no path for real fantasy value here. Like, I would take Gary Sanchez over him. Yep. And I don't really have much interesting Gary Sanchez. I would take Adrian Del Castillo over him. I think Dalton Rushing is the better player, but Adrian Del Castillo, has a legit opportunity to play a lot moving forward.

He has had really big numbers in the high minors. I think if you take everything that he's done it, let me make sure. I don't want to give the wrong stat here. 158 games at AAA. He's a 26-year-old, so he's a little older, 158 games, though. 32 homers, 292 average, like a 915 OPS. across his AAA career,

I think there's a real chance that Adrian Del Castillo can be pretty useful when Gabriel Moreno is out. So he's by far the most interesting here. Jeremiah Jackson, outfield's second base eligibility is an interesting combination. I'm okay using him when Jackson Holiday's out. I don't think it's a long-term thing, though.

Yeah, the Dalton rushing thing is just, it's unfortunate because a reminder of what he did back in the minors in 2024, 271 batting average, 26 home runs, and 896 OPS. It was like a top 30 prospect in baseball. I think if he was on another team, he might be a top 12 catcher, Chris. I think we might rank him that high. He is, he was regarded as high as these other names that we've talked a lot about,

the Carter Jensen's of the world, and Francisco Alvarez, and even Kyle Teal once he's back and he's healthy. So it's just, I don't really see how it can happen either, unless there were an injury to Will Smith. I do just wonder a little bit if Will Smith gets a little bit less playing time this year. And he's already someone that doesn't get, you know, added playing time because Otani's the DH.

But I just think maybe Will Smith can sit a little bit more this year as a result of Dalton rushing getting off to this hot start. So I don't love that for Will Smith's value. Smith will probably be fine, but... The other thing is, like I mentioned earlier, He's under contract until 2033. It was always crazy when they signed that deal too. Yeah, it was a it was a luxury tax thing.

I think they wanted to extend him. My view of that was it was a six-year deal that they gave him nine years to flatten out the AAV. But that, you know, I don't think that means they're just going to bench him. No, no, no. I think, yeah, Dawn Rushing is going to just struggle to find playing time. Unless Otani gets hurt and then maybe he's the D.H. Don't even say those words

How loud, Chris? Or Freddie Freeman gets hurt because he played first base in the minors as well. Yeah. Yeah. Some waiver-wire pitchers here. Ret Louder turned in a quality start

against the Giants, six and two-thirds innings, three runs with four strikeouts. Looks like he lines up for two next week at the Rays home against the Tigers. Chad Patrick, a solid outing here against the Blue Jays, six-and-two-thirds innings. Kept runs off the board, one run,

but only two strikeouts here for Chad. Patrick, and it looks like he lines up for two at the Tigers, home against the pirates next week. Can I interest you at all in two-star streamers, louder and Chad Patrick? Kind of think Chad Patrick's good. I know it's only nine strikeouts in 19 innings so far, but the whiff rate is 10.6%. League average is 11. I think what's happening right now is he's not getting strikeouts because he's generating so much weak contact early in counts.

And so when that changes, he'll get more strikeouts. And I think he can be an average-ish strikeout pitcher while limiting hard contact. I think Chad Patrick's actually decent. It's just I don't think he's much more than decent. So useful in the two-star week against the Tigers and Pirates. I think so. I think that's okay. But probably not someone who needs to be rostered everywhere.

And then some deeper names, Dustin May, a quality start against the Guardians. Carmen Maginsky pitched well in bulk relief, six shutout innings with five strikeouts there, and J.T. Ginn. He was okay against the Rangers, but also a little bit wild. Two runs over five and a third innings,

but four walks here. Any deep league interest in these guys, Chris, Dustin May, Carmen Maginsky and J.T. Gin? Not really. I think Maginsky has the Rangers in Texas and the Brewers next week. So as a spark in a head,

to head to head points league. I think that's okay. Carmen Maginsky. It's spelled M-O-L-M-L-D-Z-N-Ski. He's probably the only one I have all that much interest in. Dustin May in a 15-team league at Miami could be useful, but I just, I really don't think he's all that good. Right.

And not a waiver-wire name, but is he a drop? Randy Vasquez, did he hit us with the fooled you, struggled with control against the Mariners? winners, four innings, four runs, four walks, six strikeouts. The good news is that the velocity remained up and the underlying numbers still like Randy Vasquez quite a bit. What do you think about Randy Vasquez? That's another one that I think it probably just depends largely on what the next start

looks like as far as the matchup, whether you hang on to him or not. Let's take a look. He's in Colorado next week. So one start week at the Rockies, I lean towards sitting Randy Vasquez or potentially dropping him. I do think what he showed that the stuff has clearly leveled up. Even in a bad start, I saw the pitcher list, PLV had him as like a B minus for stuff in this start. So I think he'll be useful moving forward. And the start after that looks like it's probably.

Against the Cubs, I don't love that. At San Francisco after that, you might be looking two weeks from now at San Francisco versus St. Louis at a two-star week for Randy Vasquez if the rotation lines up that way, that could be pretty useful. But I do not think Randy Vasquez is the type of guy heading into week five that you say, but his matchups are week seven are great. He is 70% rostered, so people were buying in. I think he's an okay name to just hold on to, but if he's the worst pitcher on your team and you're looking at, Reed Detmer's, Make Abel, Arrogating. Any of those three for sure, I'd rather have. Yep.

Some leftovers here on the pitching side. Dylan Sees pitched well at the Brewers, six shot-out innings with six strikeouts. He had 15 whiffs on 106 pitches. Seth Lugo pitched very well at the Tigers, six and two-thirds innings, one run, seven strikeouts to zero walks. Jack Flaherty pitched well on the other side, six innings, one run, seven strikeouts. to three walks. He has three or more walks in all four starts the season. And Connolly Early, his first quality start of the season, six innings, one run, five strikeouts for him. Anything that stood out to Chris on Connolly Early, Flaherty, Seth Lugo, and Dillon Cese.

This start was more what I expect from Connolly Early than what we've actually seen from him in the majors because before this, it's been massive strikeout numbers and a lot of walks. And I think it's probably going to be more like pretty good strikeout numbers decent control um but on the whole i still think he's a must roster pitcher set lugo it's interesting because in 2024 it was you're an idiot if you don't think set lego's a top 20 pitcher forever and i was raging against that because i didn't think he was a top 20 starting pitcher and then this year he's like 3 50 and 80p or later like nobody had any interest in it was like i don't think he's done for forever. So he was hurt last year too. He was pitching through injury. He was pitching through the

back injury, right? So as long as we don't get back to the point where people are screaming that Seth Lugo is one of the best pitchers in baseball, I think he's a perfectly useful pitcher for fantasy. And he's like 78% rostered right now. I think that's a little low. And I think it could be really good in points leagues too. Absolutely. He gives you a lot of volume. Seven strikeouts here, but typically you shouldn't expect too many strikeouts from him, but more often than not a guy who will give you six innings per start there is Seth Lugo. Some hitting leftovers. Trevor's story had him a big game,

two for four with his second home run, five RBI. He's coming alive a little bit, and Ellie De LaCruz off to a great start, one for four with a walk, and his sixth home run, 109.3 exit velocity, 442 feet for Ellie De LaCruz. The call to the bullpen for the debacks with Paul Seawald unavailable. It was Juan Murillo who picked up his first save of the season. For the Cardinals, Riley O'Brien struck out two for his fifth save and looks to be settling in as their closer.

For the Pirates, Gregory Soto pitched the eighth inning with a two-run lead. He faced the top of the Nationals lineup that featured two lefties. He struck out two. It was Dennis Santana who got the ninth inning. He hit a batter with a pitch. and then he got out of it for his second save. Believe he has pitched a ninth inning in three straight games for the Pirates there. I think that's right, yeah.

That was one that I got the question, would you drop him for Abner Arebe earlier? And I actually said yes. I feel a little more confident about Santana's role. I think Uribe is just a much better pitcher, though. Right, yeah. So it is a little bit tough to just to kind of rank Arribes. We don't know exactly which way it's going to go for him.

For the Tigers, Kenley Jansen got the ninth with a one-run lead. He picked up his fourth save. For the Angels, we mentioned earlier, just a rough week for Jordan Romano. The Yankees just have his number, man. I understand, like, the... His numbers at Yankee Stadium, especially, are just horrendous. He did get a pop-out to the infield or what should have been an out, but it was just a miscommunication.

And then as a result, he kind of imploded after that. But that should have been the second out of the inning. And then, you know, could have just been a pretty easy save there for Romano. But as Chris mentioned earlier, if you held on to Kirby AIDS, don't drop them just yet. For the Braves, Reisel Iglesias picked up his fourth save. For the Astros, Brian Abrave recorded four outs across seventh and eighth innings. He walked one, struck out two, and probably the best he's looked all season. Eniel de Los Santos got the ninth inning with a two-run lead.

He struck out two for his second save. and he has saves on back-to-back nights. Career numbers are not very good, but in the deepest of leagues, while Josh Hater is out, I don't know, he might get like three more saves or something. I don't know. Yeah, in a best case scenario, yeah,

I think there's some room for that. But Hater sounds like he's pretty close to a rehab assignment. He's faced hitters already. I think he'll be back in a couple of weeks. And for the athletics, Joel Kuhnall got the, Final four outs for his second save. Mark Leather Jr. pitched the eighth inning.

He gave up a three-run homer. And I don't know. The athletics bullpens kind of musical chairs right now. And then for the Mariners, an ugly outing here for Andres Munoz. He entered the ninth with a four-run lead. He was charged with five runs. He took the loss. He was actually relieved by Jose Ferrer, who gave up a walk-off two-run double to Jackson

Merrill. I saw people in the chat talking beforehand about Don Orsillo's call there. I have to check it out. I haven't heard it yet. I'm sure it's amazing after his holy sheets call last weekend. To stream or not to stream on Thursday, we have not a great slate. Foster Griffin at the Pirates, Landon Rup at the Reds, Stephen Matt's at the White Sox.

Anybody else catch your eye? Ryan Weiss against the Rockies. I don't know how deep he's going to go. I think he's been pitching primarily in relief so far. The last time he faced the Rockies, it was in Colorado, he got destroyed. Brandon Sprote, I don't love the matchup against Toronto, but I think he might be the most talented pitcher of these.

So I could see things going okay for a handful of these guys. Jacob Lopez, if he locks in, but based on how the season's gone, and there's no way you can trust it. So yeah, I don't love the options on Thursday, but there are some interesting names here. It's just more scout team guys than guys I actually want to use. I like Stephen. I actually legitimately like Stephen Mats.

I like what he's done so far. So at the White Sox, I think it's fine. If I had to choose two others, I probably say, like, Land and Roup, but, I mean, we just saw what happened to Tyler Malley on Wednesday. And then Foster Griffin at the Pirates, I guess. But not much confidence in those two. I actually am okay with Stephen Mats at the White Sox, though. And then on Friday, it somehow gets worse. Aaron Savali against the White Sox, a revenge game.

Jansen Junk against the Brewers I do not have any confidence in any of these guys Davis Martin at the Athletics I don't know man Brandon Williamson but it's been pretty rocky for him I think his last start was pretty good right The twins are the twins are crushing lefties Twins are crushing lefties

Yeah I don't like any of them But if I have to pick one I guess junk But I'm not excited about that at all Yeah Agreed I would say Savali or Jansen junk, but I am not very optimistic about that. We are going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank.

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