Fantasy Baseball Today - What's Up With Plesac and Castillo!? Worryometer & Buy, Sell, Hold (4/21 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 21, 2021

What is going with Zach Plesac and Luis Castillo (2:40)!? ... The latest news is headlined by Juan Soto landing on the injured list (13:12). ... Let's play a little buy, sell, or hold with some interesting starting pitchers (18:06), including Julio Urias, Patrick Corbin, Carlos Rodon and many more. ... It's time to fire up the WORRYOMETER (34:48)! What's going on with the Mets hitters, Zack Wheeler, and Dansby Swanson? ... Let's rank some stuff (45:30) Are we buying Nick Solak and Buster Posey? ... We recap the rest of Tuesday's action plus 'To Stream or Not To Stream'. 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank, @AdamAizer 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. I drive, center field, and swing. This is magnificent. 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, Chris, and Adam.

Happy Humpty, and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today. Frank Stample joined by Scott White. Lots to talk about. What is going on with Zach Plesag. Luis Castile will fire up the Worryometer, some buy, sell, and hold. I'm going to rank some things and recap everything else that happened on Tuesday. But first, Scott, how about those Bronx bombers taking it to your Atlanta Braves? Yeah, yeah, I wasn't so thrilled to see that, Frank.

Braves could use some wins too. But you know what? Everything's bad. I've decided everything's bad. I've been kind of dismayed at just how many of my predictions have been wrong so far this year. And I keep thinking, okay, it's early, you know, things are going to normalize, plenty of time to normalize. But I'm still waiting for the normalization to kick in. And I'm talking both macro season long predictions and micro, you know, for the week ahead predictions.

my sleeper pitchers for this upcoming week on Thursday when I first came out with the column my top sleeper pitcher was Brad Keller who got crushed tonight now I did Sunday night when I updated it I did take him out of the top spot because he had lost his two-star status over the weekend and instead I replaced him at the top with Griffin Canning

who relieved Shohei Otani so he's not even going to make a start this week. I wouldn't think. I guess it's possible late in the week he will. I'm feeling great, Frank. It's not fun right now. I'm not having fun. I want to have fun.

Can we have fun? Well, I don't know. We will try. It certainly won't come in the form of Patrick Corbyn, who we told everyone to drop last week, and now he's back from the dead as well. So look, it's still very early in the season. We are about a tenth of the way in.

Some teams sitting between 15, and 20 games played. So I still think things are going to normalize, players that are off to slow starts, that are proven talents. More often than not are going to get back on track. And we will talk about some of those players later on. But let's get things started with the,

oh my goodness gracious player from Tuesday. Oh my goodness gracious. All right. Want to get us started here, Scott? Well, after clearing my throat there at the top, I think I have to go with Zach Plesack as my oh my goodness gracious player another example of me being

quite dumb and I'm thankful Chris isn't here to rub it in my face so I will rub it in my own face he was it was another bad start against the same white socks team six earned runs in five innings

two home runs allowed but they're both solo shots so you know most of the six runs came on just uh just getting hit hit around, I guess, a double, a triple, or a couple doubles were hit off of them, no triples. Four strikeouts in those five innings, that's not greedy.

He didn't walk anybody, so the control has been good. And actually, I was encouraged by his pitch selection in this one. I don't think I'm straining to find something positive. I actually was wondering what was up with him throwing his fastball

so much again in his first three starts, only one of which was up to my expectations for him, right? But the pitch selection was more like we saw last year in this latest start against the White Sucks. He threw his fastball only 30% of the time when really heavy with the secondary stuff. The whiff rate overall was solid. He's had two starts with a good whiff rate,

two with a bad whiff rate, basically. I think if he continues down that path, he's probably going to be okay. You know, the last two, starts, obviously some home runs have been given up, but he's not a fly ball pitcher really. And I know heading into this start, his ex-fip was not actually that bad. It was below four. So I'm not ready to really say police sec is bad. Two good starts, two bad starts. One great start of those two-good ones. The good news is because he's a two-star pitcher, you don't have

to decide yet whether or not to start or sit him, unless you play in a daily league. But if you're like a normal person to play in a weekly league. You get to see how that next start goes, and then you can make the decision whether to bench him next week. And that, I think, would be the deciding factor for me. If he gets crushed again next time out, I'm probably going to have to remove him from my lineup until he shows signs of turning things around.

But again, I was encouraged by the pitch selection for PLEASC in this start. And it's worth mentioning his first two starts where he performed quite well. He delivered a quality start in both were against the Detroit Tigers and his last two starts where he's been crushed have come against the White Sox, and I know his start later this week will come against the Yankees

and offense that is supposed to be good, but is off to a very slow start. Even on Tuesday, I'm obviously kidding around with you here, Scott, regarding them. But, you know, they take, the Yankees take the lead on a, it was a pass ball and a basis-loaded walk. They're not hitting the ball. So it could be an opportunity for Zach, please hack, to bounce back. I was looking into him trying to figure out what's wrong.

He's not getting a lot of whiffs, a lot of strikeouts. 6.6K per 9 entering Tuesday. He is giving up a lot of hard contact. I saw on his stat cast page, PLEASC had a 4.74 expected ERA. And just watching the start, he's just missing his spots. And Command is supposed to be his calling card.

He's not walking anyone. He only has two walks through his first four starts, which is great. You love to see that. But he's also not getting a lot of strikeouts. And when he's missing within the zone, he's missing badly. And that's when he's getting crushed

by teams like the White Sox. who they have hitters who are, if you make a mistake, they are not going to miss them. So I agree, you know, we'll see what happens in his next start.

He's scheduled to face the White Sox again next week. So that would be, come on, give him somebody else. It's wild, right? And it's in Chicago, too. It's three of his, last four starts

are going to be against the White Sox. Two starts in the same week against the White Sox? It's, I think it's the way that the scheduling is right now. They're kind of, they're trying to make teams face each other a lot early on, Frank,

because I don't, I don't remember entering, White Sox, White Sox when I was filling in the two-star pitcher rankings. No, no, no. He faces the Yankees later this week. He's projected for the White Sox next week. Oh, okay. All right, yeah.

I got you. Like that. Somebody on Twitter did. See, I got something else wrong. Somebody else on Twitter asked, would you drop Zach Plesack for Nathan Avaldi? It's pretty tough. I mean, it's obviously a pretty shallow league if Avaldi is still out there. Right.

It's probably a 10-team league. I'm confident. I can tell you I'm not ready to move Pli-Sack. behind Avaldi in my rankings. So I could make a justification for it in a shallow league, but I personally wouldn't do it. I would do it. I don't think that I'm overreacting to just four starts,

but Avaldi has really picked up from what he's done, what he did last year, and the numbers across the board look phenomenal right now. So it could be looking at a mid-career breakout for Avaldi. I still kind of like Plysag. I think we need to see more, but ultimately I would drop him for Avaldi in, shallower leagues. I mean, it is worth

reiterating. Please, Sacks first two starts. He did not allow, or he allowed two earn runs in 13 innings. They were two good starts. And then the last two have been bad starts. I would say only one of those first two starts was great. That's, you know, I've already said all this.

But I think it is worth reiterating before people completely flip out about police sacks season. Oh my goodness gracious for me. It really wasn't that crazy of a start, but people are freaking out. And it's regarding Luis Castillo. So let's just jump in right away here at the top.

Four innings pitched. Seven hits, three runs. One of those are earned. He's had some bad defense behind him so far this year. Three walks, four strikeouts, 11 whiffs on 89 pitches. He averaged 96.1 miles per hour on his sinker in this start. So that wasn't the issue.

He only gave up four hard hit balls. So it seems like he kind of just got unlucky. Walked a lot of guys and the pitch count got up pretty fast. he is typically, at least he was last year, a slow starter, 4.10 ERA through his first seven starts, and for his career in the month of April, he has a 4.53 ERA Luis Castillo. So is he going to be the top 10 starting pitcher

that I had him ranked as? Maybe not, probably not, the way that, you know, Corbyn Burns and Tyler Glassnow have elevated themselves. But I kind of still think Luis Castillo is going to be fine and that he's just a slow starter. So what do you think, Scott? Yeah, I mean, that's my hunch too. My concern level is above zero, though,

because the velocity has been good since that start in the cold, but he hasn't gotten all the way back to last year, and the whiffs haven't gotten all the way back to last year either. And you mentioned he's had some bad defense behind him. That's not changing. One of the things that makes Castillo great is he's such a good ground ball pitcher. But when you have a Johani Oswar as a shortstop, is that something you really want?

So, you know, maybe if he gets the whiff right back up to normal, he's missing so many bats that it's not that big of an issue. But the way it's been going right now, he's relying on his defense a lot, and it's not coming through for him. And I just wonder if that's going to lead to a higher whip than we're used to see him from Castillo and maybe impact his ERA as well.

I think that's a possibility. So, yeah, I still have him as a top 20 pitcher. I'm not hitting the panic button on Castillo, but there are some concerning signs here. Yeah, it's a good point that you bring up because he walks so many batters. He gets usually over 50% ground ball rate, and that means a lot of the time he's relying on double plays because, you know, a lot of hitters get on base via the walk.

So it's a good point because defense is probably going to be bad all season unless the Reds make some kind of change, but I don't think that is going to happen. Would you trade Joe Musgrove for Castillo if you can do that? So I just did my weekly rankings audit. I try to update the rankings more often than that, but I do a full audit once a week.

And I moved Musgrove up to 19th in my starting pitcher rankings for rest of seasons. Pretty dramatic move up the rankings. still have Castillo 12th. I'd really hesitate to make that drink, though. I would. I agree with you. I would.

Just because, yeah, I mean, maybe that suggests that the gap between 12 and 19 is actually pretty non-existent. More than that, I need to switch those two in my rankings. You know, in between are guys like Walker Bueller, Kinta Maida, Jack Flaherty, some guys I've other guys I've expressed concerned about. So it's not like this is a slam duck group to begin with. Yeah, I

don't think I'd trade Musgrove for Castillo. I'd want like a second piece to sweeten that deal. And you could maybe get one. No, I agree with you. It's the way that Musgrove is pitching right now, there's a chance that after his next three starts, he could be ranked inside your top 15, your top 12.

There's, who knows what the upside is for Joe Musgrove. The other name, Sandy Alcantara. Would you trade Sandy Alcantara for Luis Castillo if you could? Yeah, I feel okay doing that. Sandy Alcantara, I currently have him 26th at starting pitcher and behind guys like Zach Wheeler and Kyle Hendricks. So we're a tier down from the Musgrove range. Fair enough.

The NFL draft is quickly approaching and there's no better audio outlet than the pick six podcast for your daily dose of draft. Join Will Brinson and a team of draft experts for the latest mocks, prospect rankings, player interviews, tips on how to gamble on the draft, and much more. From Trevor Lawrence to Mr. Irrelevant, Pick Six will provide a comprehensive breakdown of the 2021 NFL draft. So follow the always daily Pick Six podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, and wherever else podcasts are found. Some news and notes, the hits keep on coming for the Washington Nationals.

Juan Soto. This really came out of nowhere, too. Place on the 10-day IL with a left shoulder strain. Andrew Stevenson was in right field. And how about this? Leading off on Tuesday with Victor Robles continuing to bat eighth. So the experiment for Victor Robles did not last long. Also, oh, wait a second. Who said that was going to happen?

All right, Scott. I got something right. We got to prop you back up here. So anytime we get a good Scott White call, we'll try and prop you back. back up. Speaking of Juan Soto going on the IL, Scott actually just wrote an article on CBSPorts.com of the top IL stashes. He ranks all of them from, you know, Juan Soto to Noah's interguards, to Chris Sale, and whether or not you should be dropping these players or not, or if they are expendable. Yeah. Yeah, I went 35 deep and I actually updated it since the

Juan Soto news. So he's now number one in my IL stash rankings. For what it's worth, Dave Martinez said he just found out 45 minutes before the start. of the game that Soto was going on the IEL and there was an MRI that showed the strain. It seemed like an abundance of caution move early in the season, just let it get better. It doesn't sound like a long-term thing. So, you know, things should be okay. People who have Soto who are listening, things should be okay. But plan on going without him next week and, of course, the rest of this week.

Moogie Betz was not in the lineup for the Dodgers. he got hit on the forearm with a pitch late on Monday night. He is currently day-to-day. Ronald de Cuneo was not in the Braves lineup as he continues to deal with that abdominal strain. Ozzie Albies did return for the Atlanta Braves. He got hit by a pitch. I think it was on the knee, somewhere on his leg.

So Ozzy Albi's back in the lineup. Your Mean Mercedes left Tuesday's game after fouling a ball off of his left foot. Jorge Alfaro left his game, also due to an apparent leg injury. Gene Sigura left for the Phillies and was diagnosed with a strained right quad. Julian Meriwether is not expected to rejoin the Blue Jays

when he is first eligible to return from the IL. Jake McGee and Logan Webb were both activated from the COVID-IL for the Giants before Tuesday's game. The Twins placed Max Kepler, Kyle Garlich, and Caleb Thielbar on the COVID-IL. Jordan Alvarez, Alex Bregman, Martine Maldonado, and Rebell Garcia were indeed activated on Tuesday. spoke about that a little bit on yesterday's podcast.

Bregman and Maldonado were in the lineup. Hotei Al Tuvae has not passed protocols yet. Mike Mustakis was originally in the lineup Tuesday and then was placed on the 10-day IL with a non-COVID illness. Weird situation there for Mike Mustakis. Hope the guys are right, but I had a few leagues where I think he's still locked into my lineup

because I did not see that until later on in the day. So bad job, Frank. Kyle Lewis made his season debut for the Mariners on Tuesday. over three with a strikeout. Ty France was out of the lineup, dealing with a forearm injury. The Marlins recalled Lewis Brinson to replace Starling Marte in the outfield.

Brinson was starting in center and he was batting eighth. France did pinch hit and stayed in the game to play second. Nice. So hopefully we get a full game of him Wednesday and beyond. The struggling Yankees trying to shake things up.

No Aaron Hicks or Clint Frazier in the lineup on Tuesday, but they did have Mike Talkman and Brett Gardner in the outfield with Mike Ford at first base. Whoever's idea it was to put Brett Gardner third in the lineup between Aaron Judge and John Carlos Stanton,

just why? Who wakes up and thinks that that's a good idea? It's just, it's not a good idea. Mike struck me, I mean, we know whose fault it is, right? But it struck me as quite strange, yes. And you know, a lot of people will say that it's Aaron Boone. it's fault, but it's

Brian Cashman just, the lineup comes from higher than Aaron Boone. He's just a puppet and all this. Mike Soroka has really. Yeah, yeah, that's a little Yankee insider info for you. Brian Cashman sets the line if this is a known thing. I mean, it's kind of like known but not known kind of thing.

The lineup comes from like an analytics department in the front office. I'm sure Aaron Boone does not have a lot of actual input in the lineup, so. Okay. All right. Mike Soroka has yet resume throwing following shoulder discomfort from a few weeks back. The Orioles 2020 first round pick, Heston Kirstad, has been cleared to report to the team's alternate training site as he

recovers from myocarditis. It's nice to hear for anybody who has him in dynasty leagues, like me. Like you? That's right. Yassie L Puig signed with Verra Cruz of the Mexican League, trying to work his way back to the MLB. What do we do with these starting pitchers? All of these gentlemen pitched on Tuesday, and let's talk about them. They're interesting. Julio Arias, the best start of his career. He was at Seattle, seven shutout, one hit, one walk, 11 strikeouts, 17 whiffs on 88 pitches.

He has gone at least five and two-thirds in all four of his starts so far, Julio Arreus, and he has gone seven in two of those. So that's actually probably more than we were expecting for him. Buy, sell, or hold, Scott on Julio Arreus. I think I would sell Which maybe means you should buy the way things are going But Like this was a great start obviously

17 whiffs was a season high 11 strikeouts a season high And actually he has gone six innings or more And three of his four starts Which I thought was going to be the biggest issue for him The preservation of innings It is good that while he has a rotation spot They're letting him pitch deeper

his starts are able to be more impactful that way. But I also think it means he's going to make fewer starts in the long run because the innings are going to become an issue. And obviously they have a lot of alternatives. At some point, Tony Gonsolin will be healthy and his inning count will be at zero. And there may be some changes made somewhere down the line. I also don't know, well, the whiff rate is up for the season or for EREAS, but the strikeouts really hadn't been there until this start.

I would lean so But you know if you don't find an offer to your liking Then Reese should be plenty useful for you How about? Mentioned the name already Patrick Corbin he's back baby Going up against the Cardinals six shutout four hits Zero walks five strikeouts Eight whiffs on 76 pitches so he was efficient

But they didn't let him Throw you know many pitches obviously He averaged 91 miles per hour on both the sinker and the four scenes fastball, which is up almost one mile per hour from where he was last season and actually entering this start. You know, I wonder if we make too much of the velocity for Patrick Corby and Scott, because he averaged 90.8 miles per hour on the fastball back in 2018. He was a top 10 starting pitcher for fantasy that year. So unless he's just become too predictable because he throws a slider so much, you know, maybe that's contributed to it. But maybe the velocity just doesn't matter all

that much. Maybe the league is just caught up to that slider. So buy seller, hold, are you trying to sell immediately just based on the start? Well, Chris has made that case before about the fastball velocity. If you break down that season game by game, it

actually fluctuated quite a bit over the course of the season. To me, you see a drop in fastball velocity and you see a drop in production and it's hard not to link the two, you know? And your argument about predictability, well, he became less predictable in this start.

He kind of went back to his old pitch mix. He remember he was working in a change-up this spring and he had been throwing it more during the regular season two. He threw in this good start, he threw three change-ups. He threw a slider 41% of the time, which is what he was doing at his best. So he kind of went back to old good Patrick Corbyn in terms of what he chose to throw in this start

coming off that disastrous start. it got much better results and the velocity was up. Those are both encouraging signs. He still didn't get a ton of whiffs. He didn't get whiffs like he did back in his two awesome years. So I don't know. Obviously, not that many people listened to me when I said you could drop him after his last start

because he's still 92% rostered. So I don't know that the advice is go pick him back up. But if you haven't dropped him yet, this is reason to hold out a little longer. to answer your direct question. I think you shopping pretty hard right now, sure, but you want full return on your investment. You want to get back at least what you paid for Patrick Corbyn.

Otherwise, you're probably hold and see where he goes from here. And the price that you may have paid for Patrick Corbyn would be a 10th, 11th round pick, according to Fantasy Pro's ADP from before the season, and 125.4 was the ADP for one, Patrick Corbyn. So I actually agree with you. I think it's encouraging that he threw the slider as much as he did, but I still am not fully buying back in on Corbin here.

So try and sell. Carlos Rodon, he was at Cleveland coming off of his no-hitter. Five innings pitch, three hits, two runs. One of those were earned. Five walks, but eight strikeouts, still had 18 whiffs. How about this? On 110 pitches? he just threw 114 in his no-hitter.

Tony Laruso, I mean, turning back the clocks here. 224 pitches over Carlos Rodon's last two starts. So what do you think, Scott? Buy-Seller hold, Carlos Rodan. I think you hold him. Look, it doesn't hurt to shop him. I moved him into my top 40 at starting pitcher, which is, yeah, he's 35th.

35th for me at starting pitcher. He's in that Ian Anderson, Jonathan Luzardo range. Jesus. Jesus. I knew that didn't sound right. Jesus Lusardo range. Yeah. So, you know, if you want to shop him,

if you want to shop Carlos Rodon in the hopes of getting, I don't know, maybe you can get Hyun Jiu coming off a downturn. a down start this time out or there may be like a Jack Flaherty or Zach Gallen who was so-so and his second start back from the IL. Zach, please. Like I would...

Pleasek. Would you trade Rodon for Pleasek? No, I wouldn't do it for Pleasak. They're basically on the same level for me. And it's just unwise to make those trades generally. So if you could do something like that for Rodon, great. But I'm fine holding on to him too. I think he's probably going to have a good year for as long as he stays healthy.

He averaged 94.5. on his fastball in this one, which was more like what he was throwing in the middle of his no-hitter than in the early innings when he was more like 92-93. He got 18 whiffs. So he pitched really well again.

How about James and Tyone going up against the Braves? Five innings of one-run ball. He had five strikeouts, only 10 whiffs on 80 pitches. He hasn't thrown more than five innings or 84 pitches in any start. Scott, do we continue to hold Tyone,

who is still rostered in 91% of CBS Leagues. Yes, I think you do. I actually watched a lot of this start. It looked good to me. I know the velocity on his fastball isn't quite where it was prior to the second Tommy John surgery,

but he changed the whole way he throws it, right? Shorten the arm action. It's kind of just a different pitch altogether and it has a higher spin rate, which was the idea. The idea was to give it that rising action to then pair with his breaking balls. and I don't know.

I thought he looked good. The line, obviously, he only made it five innings, but it was good. I think we hold on tie-own. Sean Mania, up against the twins, holy. Seven shutout, six walks, six hits, rather, one walk, seven strikeouts, 17 whiffs on 94 pitches, three straight quality starts for Mania,

74% rostered, and as of now, it looks like he is on pace for a two-start week next week. versus the Baltimore Orioles and at the Tampa Bay Rays. So I feel like we've kind of just mentioned Mania in passing, Scott, a few times. Like, oh, you could drop Mania for one of these awesome starting pitchers, but he's actually been pretty damn good. Yeah, his velocity's been up.

It hasn't been up as much his last two starts as it was like in spring training. But it's up for the season, like a full mile per hour from a year ago, which is significant, and he's been getting a lot of whiffs. I think his 74% roster ship definitely needs to go up after this start. And I'm still skeptical of the upside, but, you know,

I think there's a pretty good chance. He's a solid pitcher all season long. Would you rather add him or Danny Duffy? Well, yesterday I would have said Duffy, but today I'm saying Mnigh. They're right in the same range there. Last question. Omaniya, would you drop Tristan McKenzie for him?

Yes. Fair enough. I actually have McKenzie pretty low, just because I'm not sure he's going to be more than a five-any pitcher. Oh, look, you even have him lower. You have him 97th. I have an 89th. Who is that, Trista McKenzie? Yeah, I haven't updated my ranking since last week, but I lowered him just because he's kind of weird to figure out right now.

Velocities down. He's walking a lot. He is getting a lot of whiffs. Triss McKenzie we're talking about here, but the way that he's walking batters, I think that only hurts his ability to go deep into starts. So I just,

I don't really know what he's offering you right now from a fantasy perspective in a points league. He's not going deep in Roto. Maybe he gives you strikeouts, but not really gonna get a chance at a win and he's hurting your whip as well. Who are you up to here? Eduardo Rodriguez,

the guy has been awesome. Going up against the Toronto Blue Jays in Fenway, six innings of two-run balls, six strikeouts, 13 whiffs on 90 pitches, and he has 18 strikeouts to just two walks through his first three starts of the season. Remember, Rodriguez missed all of last year. He was dealing with a heart issue because of, it was COVID-related, and he started the year on the IL with dead arm. Arm looks perfectly fine to me, so. Live arm. I don't want to, I don't want to overreact too much, Scott, but would you rather have

Eduardo Rodriguez or Zach Pleseck? I'd rather have Zach Plessack. Okay. But, you know, you asked me, Nathan Avaldi versus Pleseck earlier. And I said Pleseck there too. I've moved, so I have Avaldi 50th

rest of season. I have Eduardo Riggas 51st. So they're they're right there. They're right there. It's pretty high. 50 and 51 should not be available in any league anywhere. any size, any day, ever.

Eduardo Rodriguez, I love the control that we've seen from him thus far. So keep it rolling, man. We are rooting for you. Chris Paddock. Oh, Chris. Chris, Chris, Chris. Five innings pitch, five hits, five runs. Only one of those was earned.

One walk, seven strikeouts. And I was watching this start very closely. The error that they ruled an error kind of looked like a hit to me. So I don't know. it was the third inning. Every third inning, everything just snowballed for him. And he had a full count. He walked to Visail Garcia. Then he gave up, I think it was a two-run double to Travis Shaw, another two-run single to Omar Narvaez. And it just completely snowballed for him in that one inning. He looked good early on. What do we do with Chris Paddock, Scott? Yeah, he's kind of a tough one to figure out. I have no confidence in him right now. And if somebody wanted to take them off my hands with a good offer, I would probably take it.

I don't think you can drop them, though. I think it's just too early to take that kind of extreme action when, you know, especially the last two starts, the results have been decent enough. His XERA isn't bad, it's below four. And actually, you know, we talk about how the spin rate isn't back on the four-seam fastball

like he realized he needed to get it back. But if you compare it to 2019, you know, it's not like a, hey, had a high spin rate then either. It's,

it's, it's moving more in the direction of 2019 than where it was last year. And the whiff rate on the fat, forcing fastball is better than in, than in 2020 as well. Um, it's, it's closer to 2019 fastball than 2020's fastball.

I have no idea why, since that's clearly not his best pitch, why he threw it 73% of the time in this start against the Brewers. No idea why. He's not mixing the change up with him or.

Yeah, I still want to see more than from Chris Paddock, but I acknowledge that my level of trust is pretty low with him. Would you take either of the Red Sox pitchers

over him, of all the Erod? I might. It depended how much I was struggling without having Chris Paddock as that fixture in my lineup that I thought

he was going to be. And if I, if I was struggling, to fill out my pitching lineup every week, then I might have to do that. But if it's just for like, okay, Avaldi and Rodriguez would probably send out my bench anyway, then I think I'd stick with Paddock.

It's a tough call. The last one we'll mention here, Jesus Lozardo up against the Minnesota Twins, five and a third shutout, and he needed this because his past couple of starts have been dreadful. Six strikeouts to one walk for Lozardo, 15 whiffs on only 65 pitches.

I was watching the start too. It was another weird one because the power, like the lights went out in Oakland Coliseum and there was a long delay. And then I guess they brought them back out there. And that's why he only had 65 pitches. It was just a weird start because of that. But he still threw the fastball a lot.

The velocity was up for the fastball. So buy seller hold, Jesus Lazardo, Scott. Yeah, that was, it's, it was a good start, obviously, but it was weird that he's still throwing his fastball so much. Maybe just because it's early in the season and he doesn't have the feel for his secondaries yet.

That's all I can. figure because his secondaries are great. There's no reason for him to lean so much on the fastball. Yeah, I'm not sure I'm ready to stick him back in my lineup if I can help it obviously. You'd

have to have a pretty deep pitching staff, I guess, to leave Luzardo on your bench. But yeah, I want to see fewer fastballs before I'm totally back on board. And you just updated those ranks which you mentioned, Scott, and Lazzardo still sits at

SP 34. So still a good amount of confidence in him just ahead of Carlos Rodon and Trevor Rogers. I like what I saw from him on Tuesday. It's just, I would like for him to work in those breaking in off-speed pitches a little bit more. Right. Right. And that's tough.

That's a tough range. As we sit here right now, I kind of want to move him behind Rodon and Rogers. But it is rest of season rankings. So trying to, trying to be disciplined here. It's only been 10% of the season, Scott.

We've got a long way to go. You're usually the one that needs to tell me that, not the other way around, so. I know. Look where we are. In the end, I have to tell myself it too. We're going to take a quick break, but when we return,

we have the Worryometer. We're going to rank some stuff, and we have the rest of Tuesday's action. We'll talk about it here on Fantasy Baseball today. Let's fire up the Worryometer. As always, 10 is, I am freaking out about this guy. What is going on?

One, no problem. I'm all right. I still have confidence. This player is going to be just fine. How about all of the New York Mets hitters? Francisco Lindor batting 171. Michael Conforto batting 184. Jeff McNeil batting 162.

Scott, Wuriameter on each, all. The entire Mets team. What's happening? Well, I can tell you that I moved all three down slightly in my rest of season rankings. like I moved Lindor behind Corey Seeger, who we all know I loved anyway. But, you know, worryometer.

It's probably like a one for Lendor and Conforto, a two for McNeil. I think there's probably something to the fact that they sat out. Like, what, the first two and a half series of the season? It's been such a weird year for them to start. Yeah. I don't think you can really hold anything against them. They've had so many games postponed.

It's been such a weird season. Yeah, it has. And I think they're still, they'll get in a groove. They'll get in the groove. McNeil hasn't been striking out at all. They'll be fine. Francisco Lindora, this is pretty odd.

He is changing leagues to his first time in the National League. So I don't know if that matters at all, but maybe it does. Lindora is striking out 6% of the time entering Tuesday with a nearly 17% walk rate. So maybe he's being a little bit too passive, but he's walking a ton and he's making a lot of contact. Right. Right. Normally when you say somebody's too passive, they're taking a lot of called third strikes. And clearly that's not happening in the Dors case. Yep. So look,

if you have the Mets, don't freak out. If you can buy them on the cheap, I still, I think Jeff McNeil, especially, people are talking to me about dropping Jeff McNeil. He's a slow starter. This has happened each of the past two seasons as well. I think Jeff McNeil is going to be right. Zach Wheeler was going up against the Giants on Tuesday, five and two thirds, four earned runs, three walks, six strikeouts. He did allow three home runs in this game, which is interesting because he allowed three home runs all of last season in 11 starts. He had that really great first start of the season.

Zach Wheeler did. He has a 5.56 ERA over his last three starts. Worryometer on Zach Wheeler. It's probably only like a two. but I have a big investment in Zach Wheeler and he's somebody who who's been frustrating me the past three starts. It is worth noting that his

you combine the first start with the next three. His ERA is like 380 and his whip one three one, which sounds like a pretty typical Zach Wheeler season, doesn't it? I mean, I guess the whips a little, that whips a little on the high side, but anyway,

I just thought that was kind of interesting. the way it comes out to a 380 ERA and 131 whip. You know, velocity's fine. Whiff rate's fine. You know, I don't really see any cause for alarm. It's just kind of frustrating when you see your neighbor having this Carlos Rodon starts. And you're like, but I paid for Zach Wheeler. When is he going to give me that?

Yeah, get back to that. Zach Wheeler from the first start that we saw. I think he's going to be all right. The swinging strike rate's up a little bit. so far this season and actually entering Tuesday all of his underlying numbers according to fan graphs were quite good so I think exactly

he's going to be right. How about Dansby Swanson, Scott? You're sporting the Ronald Acuna, Atlanta Brave shirt. Danesby Swanson. Not that anybody can see it, like printed on the stomach. I don't know what that was about. Come on, guys. Danesby Swanson entering Tuesday was batting 194. Worryometer for Swanson.

Let me see. I haven't looked at Swanson. I think You know, it's going to be low, obviously. Let's see. The strikeout rate's a little high, but nothing crazy. He's actually hitting the ball harder. I guess everybody's hitting the ball harder. Yeah, expected stats actually higher than last year.

I'll see a lot of reason to worry here. I'll say three just because he's not like a super high-end player. So obviously, that gives you a little more wiggle room with him. I am here to tell you to buy Danesby-Swanson if you can get him for cheap. because yes, the hard contact is up for everyone, Scott, but 50% hard contact would be far and away the best for Dansby Swanson ever. He has a 266 expected batting average

with that 194 batting average. He's slugging 306. His ex-slug is 517, so he's making a pretty good contact. Yep. I am buying the bounceback for Danes Bandsby Swanson. Glaber Torres, we spoke about him a little bit the other day, Scott. You look at the numbers.

Is there anything that? stands out to you, he's hitting 182, Glaver Torres is 208 expected batting average. So there's not really much that say he's going that says he's going to be better outside of just, you know, he's had some pretty good seasons already. So we're waiting for it to happen again. Yeah, I mean, obviously my concern level would be next to nothing if he hadn't just had the disappointing 2020. I'm not looking to change my shortstop right now if I drafted Glaver Torres to be that guy. But I'm a little unnerved.

I'll say it's a 3.5 just to get it higher than Swanson. The biggest issue I've seen for Glaber is he's hitting 167 against fastballs. Last year, even when he struggled, that was 259. Back in 2019, that was 292. as a rookie 277. So if we see some regression against fastballs for Glabertoria,

I think he'll be all right. So, I mean, usually hitters dominate fastballs. So let's get it on track, Glaver. It's interesting to say that because I noticed he seemed to he seemed to have trouble catching up to Charlie Morton's stuff tonight.

So Morton was hitting 96, but still. All right. Well, we will watch it with Glaber Torres. Matt Chapman, Scott, 177 batting average. He has a 36% strikeout rate. And while the average exit velocity in baseball is up across the board,

that is not the case for Matt Chapman, who is coming back from, I believe it was torn labrum surgery in his hip. Not the torn, not the labrum in your shoulder. Yeah. Because of that, I probably go like four on the Worryometer, but he hit for power in the spring. He has a couple home runs already during the regular season. Like, he's still capable of hitting the ball hard.

I understand the average exit velocity. The hard hit rate is down. But I don't know that I read anything. He has three home runs already this season, and he had three in spring training. I think he's probably going to be okay, but I'll go four. A four for Matt Chapman. Would you be right benching him for now, Scott?

Insully figures it out. Depends who you have. of course. I'm not benching them for like Jonathan India. How about if you have Evan Longoria on your bench or waiver wire? Not that you would drop Chapman, but drop someone else and pick up Longoria and just throw them in there until Chapman figures it out.

Yeah, I don't think I'm ready to do that now. Okay. Longoria is off to a great start, so I just thought I'd show him some love. Lorda's Gurriel, off to a slow start. He's batting at 188 with a 208 slug. Wariometer on Lordas Gurriel. two. I think he started pretty cold last year too and obviously figured it out. I think he will again.

The expected stats for Lordus Gereal are much better. So he's hitting 188. His expected batting average is 264. I think better days are coming for Lordus Gareel. Let's stick with Toronto. A player that we were all worried about, Kevin Biggio, quality of contact, way, way down. And he has a 33% strikeout rate. Worryometer on Bigio.

That's actually higher. I mean, it's kind of confirmation bias, I guess, because I hadn't pegged as a bust candidate coming into the year. So I will say my worry level. And I lowered him quite a bit in the rankings today, too, though, not quite to the droppable range at either second, third or outfield. but I'll go I'll go six

my wariometer for Biggi I'll go six let's wrap up with these two and we'll tie in the dropometer right so 10 you can drop this guy anywhere Dylan Moore he picked up his third steel

but he's batting 115 he has a 35% strikeout rate he's 61% rostered it might seem crazy that I'm asking this but Keston Hiro Scott 122 batting average 36% strikeout rate What is the dropometer for Dylan Moore and Kessinjura?

So are you changing it to dropometer now? I thought we're doing Wuriometer. No, we are changing it to dropometer. Can you drop these gentlemen? I'm going to throw, I'm going to give numbers that aren't going to make any sense compared to the numbers I was. Because I was going to say, okay, Worryometer 8 for Dylan Moore,

seven for Kestan Hura. Okay. But now you want me to give a drop score to them. Oh, man. I'll go drop a meter. I'll put more at about a seven. I have dropped him in a shallower league. I dropped him for Marc Kanna and the podcast league, as a matter of fact.

One where it's a points league, so you don't depend on steals. It made it a little easier to do. Keston here, I'll put as a five on the drop a meter. Again, is a seven on the worryometer. We got all our numbers and meters straight. Does everybody follow that? Okay. My goodness.

Scott doesn't like my meters You're just crossing the meters Crossing the streams Those were the two that seemed the most dropable On the list of Wuriometer So I thought I would Throw them on the dropometer But all right Dylan Moore

In some shallower leagues Definitely I think in a points league Because it's not like stolen bases You're going to help you much there anyway Kesten here a five On the dropometer Let's rank some stuff Last week I told people

Hey you could drop Nick Solack in a points League, well, what a, what a dumb call that was. Nick Solek hit his fourth home run on Tuesday. He has 12 hits and three home runs over his last eight games. Nick Solek is 74% rostered. Scott, ranked these four second baseman in Rodo for me. Jazz Chisholm, Nick Solek, Nick Madrigal, and Garrett Hampson. Frankie. Scottie? You just did. No, you know what? I might go Hampson over Madrigal. I just don't have a... Yes, Madrigal's giving you an empty 300

batting average, which was never really in doubt that he'd hit for average, but he's stolen one base and hitting at the bottom of the lineup. Like, there's no runs, RBI product, there's nothing, obviously no power. So I think I would

rather have Hampson and Roto, even though Hampson, you know, he might just be a total dud in a long run. I just think Madrigal's impact is so low. So I'll go Chisholm, Sala, Camson, Madrigal for Rodo. Tommy Lestella went one for four

with a two-run ding-dong on Tuesday. His first of the season, he has let off four straight games for San Francisco. He's 49% rostered. Scott, if you are in a points league and you're looking for a second baseman, how would you rank Tommy Lestella, Jed Lowry, and Joey Wendell?

They're all kind of similar. Points League. Yeah, I would go Lowry, Lestella, Wendell. I think Wendell's going to run into playing time issues down the line. Lestella already has some, but I think Lestella is more likely to get consistent playing time as the year goes on,

get to where he's playing against more lefties. Well, Wendell might lose it, particularly I'm thinking when Wander Franco comes up. Buster Posey went three for four in that same game with Lestell. Of course, everyone was bombs away on Zach Wheeler, our boy. But three for four with a double dung for Buster Posey. He's 60% rostered, so he's still available.

Scott, how would you rank these veteran catchers? Yaddeir Molina, Buster Posey, Wilson Ramos, and Omar Nervaez. I would go Molina number one because he's still playing. Like, I don't, he's so cold, but he's still playing so much. He's dominating. Yeah. The thing about Posey I mean the expected stats look great

obviously is up to what four homers on the season Sounds right But he's he's sitting every third game Like literally every third game That's a lot That's a lot of sitting So I'm gonna go Molina Molina Ramos

Posey Narvaez And would you rank Miscarver behind all of them No I wouldn't I would put him behind Molina and Ramos. And I guess I could do Posey right now.

Yeah, after today's game. I'll need to update that from today's update of the rankings. All right. So Garver ahead of just Omar Narvaeis on that list. Some signs of life from Tuesday, Marco Gonzalez against the Dodgers C lineup, No Mookie Betts or Cody

Bellinger. Seven endings of one run ball. He had six strikeouts and only one walk. The one walk was key for Marco Gonzalez because entering Tuesday, he was averaging four, over four walks per nine, which is not really like him. Still 74% rostered is Marco Gonzalez. Trey Mancini went two for three with his fourth home run of the season. He now has six hits over his last five games, including two home runs during that span. So I think it's perfectly reasonable for Trey Mancini to get

off to a slow start, but now he's coming along a little bit. Adam Wainwright against the nationals, seven endings of one run ball. 10 strikeouts. Anything to see here, Scott? Adam Wainwright? Oh, he had some starts like this last year. I'm sure he had double-digit strikeouts a time or two.

Check that. You know, the whiffs weren't high, but he still goes really deep into games and just because he's... He never got to 10 last year. A couple nine strikeout games. Yeah, I mean, 11 whiffs on 100 pitches, so obviously that raises suspicions

about those 10 strikeouts, he can still go deep into games. He can still limit the scoring as kind of a curveball heavy pitcher now. I think he's pretty fringy, but he's not, he's certainly not, um, not some scrub either. Brendan Lau, we were waiting for this, two for three with his second home run of the season, a walk and two RBI on Tuesday, Carlos Santana, two for three with a home run, three RBI. He has four multi-hit games in a row for Santana. Austin Meadows, three for five with a homer, two runs and two RBI, and C.J. Cron,

hitting a home run late in that game for the Rockies, went two for five, and he is 46% rostered. Game was in Coresfield, so obviously we told a lot of people to drop C.J. Cron, and I'll stand by it. We said for Joey Votto, and Votto's been great so far.

But if he was dropped by someone else, should you get back on C.J. Cron's got? Well, it depends how much you need to first basement, obviously. if I don't have a need there, I don't think I'm going to pick him up just because he happened to hit a home run in this game.

You know, need to see a little more than that. But yeah, it's not a give up on Cron Forever situation. Obviously, half his games at course field. There's still a chance he delivers a good chance. He delivers career best numbers.

So we'll keep an eye on him. We'll keep an eye on him. Hopefully Brandon Lau gets hot now because when he gets hot, he gets really hot. Yeah, he's super shrieky. I remember that last year. It's like a roller coaster,

and that was in, what, just a two-month season. So if you have Brandon Lowe, especially in a Roto League, you probably just want to leave him in there and whatever the numbers are by the end of the season, fine.

But in a points league, it's going to get pretty frustrating with Brandon Lough at times. The rest of Tuesday's action, a few other names that popped up on the waiver wire that are available. Miguel Rojas went four-for-four with a triple. He is batting 327, 46% rostered. John Gray at home against the Astros,

which had Alex Breggman back in the lineup. Six and two-third, one earned, four walks, don't love that, six strikeouts. John Gray, 54% rostered, currently projecting for a two-star week next week at San Francisco and at Arizona. So, all right, those matchups are not so bad. Any interest in Rojas or John Gray, Scott? not in not probably not like a standard size league but rojas is ross is kind of interesting he already has three steals this year he had five and just 40 games last year

you know for the extent of his career stolen bases hasn't been a big thing for him but the last couple years he's shown that's something he wants to make a bigger part of his game and I don't I think the batting average is totally legit because he hardly ever strikes out he had 3.04 last year. Like, I might value him more as a middle infielder than Nick Madrigal, for instance, at this

point. I don't, like Madrigal, I don't see Rojas providing a lot of power, but batting average, and he's looking like the better bet for steals at this point. Nice. Yeah. I mean, the guy hit 304 with an 888 OPS last year, Miguel Rojasston. Not that we're expecting. The power numbers then were a little suspicious.

I'm not counting on him doing that again. But the batting average and steals, I could see it. Yep. In some deeper leagues, Freddie Galvis went two for three with his second home run of the season. He has nine hits over his last five games. He's 13% rostered. Pavin Smith of the Diamondbacks, three for four with a run scored. He has six hits over his last five games, a former first round pick in 2017 for the debacks.

Luis Garcia at the Rockies, five and two thirds, two earned runs, six strikeouts. and Guillermo Heredia had two hits on Tuesday night after hitting two home runs on Sunday. He has been starting in center field with Christian Pache on the IL. Galvis, Pavin Smith, Luis Garcia, Guillermo Heredia in deeper league, Scott. If, whatever, 15 teams are deeper,

would any of these names catch your eye? I think the most interesting is definitely Luis Garcia of the Astros who, for now he's, in the rotation. I mean, now that Jake Oterizzi is back, they don't have room for both Luis Garcia and Christian Javier. And you assume Javier's going to be back at some point. So that makes me a little hesitant to pick up Garcia in like a standard size league. But this is two starts in a row now with 14 whiffs. And that's 14 whiffs on 62 pitches and 84 pitches, respectively. And he seems to have a lot of different pitches he can get, uh, Get swings and misses on. Last year, well, not last year,

but the last time there was a minor league season in 2019, 168 strikeouts and 108 and two-thirds innings. So like bat missing is something he excelled at in the minors as well. That's interesting. That's interesting. Again, I don't know how they're going to have room for him if they want Javier back, and I don't see why they'd keep Javier out.

certainly to do anything to lose his job. Yeah, I don't know where the Astros go from here, but I'm interested in Garcia. A few other notes from Tuesday, Scott, the Brad Keller thing, can we just, you know, wash our hands and say no more? Because one in two thirds, five earn, three walks, he's just not good.

I feel like every time we recommend him, he makes us look terrible. So, can we? Well, I mean, he's not some rookie or even sophomore. I mean, he's had, you know, three major league seasons combined 350 ERA coming into this year. So, like, I don't think he's not good,

but he's certainly looking, as somebody who doesn't miss a lot of bats, he's always vulnerable to getting a blown out. And three out of four times this year, that's happened. So the trust level is, it's going to take a lot to regain the trust. You said that so eloquently and so nice, Scott. So.

I don't know that I did I'm not good I'm not good at anything Frank come on oh come on Scott stop no stop we're not gonna do that Will Smith

I just wanted to point this out he has started 11 of 18 games for the Dodgers this year that is a 99 game pace over 162 so it seems like that's where we're at with Will Smith Jose Abraeu had himself

a bit of a breakout game three hits including a double dong helps when you're going up against Zach Plesack of course Luis Robert three for four he's betting 310 on the year, only one home run, but three steals, and his strikeout rate was just 23% entering Tuesday.

So, love to see that for Luis Robert. What else do we have here? Zach Allen was fine. He walked too many guys. Bobauchette, two for four with his fifth home run of the season. Shohei Otani pitched but did not hit. So he was focusing on pitching on Tuesday, four shutout, one hit, six walks, which is always the issue for Otani.

And seven strikeouts. The call to the pen. Matt Barnes picked up his third. save for the Red Sox. Cesar Valdez, who's still out there in some leagues if you need a closer. You've recorded a four-out save. You had three strikeouts.

It's fourth save of the season for Valdez. Brad Hand got his second save. Chapman, Rolos Chapman, got his second. Liam Hendricks got his third save. Kenley Jansen picked up his fourth save and has looked much better as of late. His sinker and cutter velocity were both up almost three

miles per hour each in this appearance. Wow. So... Great news for Kenley Jansen. Wow. Not great news if you picked up Corey Canable. And for the Oakland A's, did he actually did he convert the save? I saw Jake Deekman

was in for the save. Did it actually happen? It did. Because the Oakland A's one one zip. Deakman picks up his second save of the season. Lou Trevino was used in the sixth. It was a seven-ending doubleheader. I think that was the first save for Deekman. No, it was, yeah, first save of the season, yep. Yeah, Trevino, yeah, he came in and worked that doubleheaders, so we're, you know,

sixth inning is like the eighth inning, seventh inning is like the ninth. So Trevino got two outs in the sixth. There was a runner on, and the two batters duo up were right handers. So Trevino had gotten the previous, what was it? Two saves for the athletics, and his, his last four appearances were all in the ninth inning, or the last inning of the game while Deekman's last four appearances were all the eighth or the seventh inning.

So like it seemed like a clear cut. Okay, Trevino is just the closer. But apparently, you know, if it's a murderer's row in the eighth inning of right-handers, apparently there's a chance Trevino will come and then instead, and Deekman will be in. That's how I read this anyway.

So I still think Trevino is the guy to have here, but it's not as clear cut as it seemed in the week leading up to it. To stream or not to stream, Scott, and we're going to do this a little bit differently. We will give you a few starters for Wednesday, and if you play in a league where you have to pick up a pitcher for the following day, then we will also hit on Thursday. What I'm going to do, Scott, to streamline this process,

I am going to read you what I think are the sixth, Five or six best options for that day, you give me your three favorite. Even if you don't really like them, just choose your three favorite. Okay. So we don't. It's a lot less grunting this way, probably. Although I kind of like the grunting. I found it comical.

So let's start with, for Wednesday. Anthony DiSclofani at the Phillies, Michael Fulmer versus the Pirates, Zach Davies versus the Mets, Jake Junis versus the Rays, Jose Katana up against the Rangers, David Peterson at the Cubs. Give me your three favorite. So I'll go Fulmer against the Pirates after the Tuesday game got snowed out.

I'll go Jake Junis against the Rays. And I'm actually going to go Zach Davies versus the Mets. This is my number three here. There's something going on in New York because the bats are very quiet for both, the Yankees and the Mets. so perhaps Zach Davies can continue to keep them quiet on Wednesday.

Then for Thursday, your three favorites here, Scott. And this is, I admit this is ugly. We've got a murderer's row of starting pitchers here. J.T. Brubaker at the Tigers. Jose Urania versus the pirates. Nick Povetta versus the Mariners. Alex Cobb at the Astros. Jeff Hoffman versus the Diamondbacks.

and Taylor Widener at the Reds. Your three favorites. So I'm actually going to go Cobb at Houston, even though that's the toughest matchup. I just think Cobb. I'm hopeful Cobb is a different class of pitcher. I don't really want to have to start him, but you're making me pick three here.

So Cobb at Houston, then Brewbaker at Detroit. It's been getting good strikeouts so far. And my third choice for Thursday will be Iranian versus the pirates. All right. That wasn't so bad? No.

No, not so bad. Just kind of bad. I'm going to be wrong about all of them. Oh, come on. You know it's a long season. Things will get better. For Scott, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching fantasy baseball today.

We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.