Fantasy Baseball Today - White Sox Promoting Noah Schultz, Injury Updates & More! (4/13 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 13, 2026

Jordan Walker stayed hot this weekend (3:40). ... Oneil Cruz is hitting lefties well early on (12:35). ... Sandy Alcantara got crushed (18:03)! ... Jose Soriano looks like a true breakout (20:15). ... The White Sox are promoting Noah Schultz (26:21). ... News (35:35): Nick Pivetta left Sunday with elbow soreness. ... Willson Contreras is heating up (47:04). ... Braxton Ashcraft is off to a nice start (54:53). ... We might've been wrong about these three hitters (1:02:33). ... What do we do with these pitchers (1:07:24)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:16:55). 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. Hey there, welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Monday.

April 13th. I am Frank Stample joined by Scott White and the returning. Chris Towers. Good to have you back, man. How's everything going? How you feel it? Good. I'm good.

For anyone who doesn't know, I was in the hospital for four days last week. I had a, I don't know, diverticulitis. If we got any doctors in the house or people who know watch a lot of house, I don't know, probably came up there. It's a stomach or intestinal infection. I'm fine. I mostly just didn't get to eat for like eight days and that sucked. Yeah, but.

That's rough. I had two foot long subs. for dinner today. I'm not hungry for the first time since like last Friday. So I'm alive. I'm feeling good. Well, it's good to have you back, man. We were talking beforehand and we're like, yeah, 24 inches worth of the subs.

Like, that'll get it done, man. Yeah, that's a lot. Today on the show, we have lots of injuries to talk about. Weekend, Waverwire ads, start or sit decisions. I know it's early in the season, but I have four hitters we might have been wrong about. And the White Sox are calling up one, maybe, two prospects. We'll get to that soon. Later on. Let's jump in. Early leader for call of the year. Just one of my favorites. That is courtesy of the Padres TV

broadcast. That's a risky call in the moment. Yeah, that really is. Gavin Cheats walk off home run Friday night, his second of the game, and that was amazing. Let's talk about the players of the weekend. And Chris, why don't you, why don't we get you caught up? Who's your player of the weekend? So what happened? We're talking about baseball. Okay. Jordan Walker is the best hitter in baseball all of a sudden. He had five home runs last week, three or two this weekend.

He leads the majors with seven. If you look at the baseball savant circles, it is just bright red everywhere that hitting the ball counts. Not so much, not hitting the ball, but that's fine. He is absolutely crushing the ball. 97.9 mile per hour average. Exit velocity, 770 expected slugging percentage, 27% barrel rate. I mean, these are all like top three marks in baseball.

And it may surprise you to learn or to be reminded that Jordan Walker is still just 23 years old. And he might just be figuring it out. He has always had absurd physical tools. He was once one of the three or four best prospects in baseball. He had a pretty good rookie season, if you can remember all the way back to the Halcyon days of 2023. And then injuries and swing changes and I think poor management and coaching on the Cardinals side kind of mess things up. But he looks awesome right now.

And I don't know how much I believe it. I believe it a little bit. But not a ton. Like I saw someone earlier today in a Discord group I'm in, say that someone offered them Pete Alonzo for Jordan Walker. Yeah, do that. Yes. Like, don't hurt yourself.

But yeah, run to your phone or computer to accept that offer. Definitely. If you can turn Jordan Walker into a third. round pick, that's great. But then I think about like, let's say Teoscar Hernandez, who was going like 140th in ADP, I think, that's about 200 spots ahead of Jordan Walker. And that's a really big jump for three weeks. And if I haven't updated my rankings in a couple of weeks, I don't know if you guys heard, I was in the hospital, so I didn't have a chance. But I will update them in a couple of days and I will probably rank Teoska Hernandez ahead of Jordan Walker. I don't think I would

accept Teoska Hernandez for Jordan Walker in a trade. I don't know about you guys. I agree with that. Yeah, I think I'm still going to rank Teasca Hernandez ahead, but if I'm quote unquote cashing out or trying to sell high on Jordan Walker, I think it would have to be for someone higher than Teosker Hernandez. It's not just for a guy. Right. You know, it's got to be like even like Tyler Soderstrom, you know, like good player. I think he had two homers on Sunday. Saturday, yeah. Saturday? Okay, yeah. I guess I would probably be willing to give up Jordan Walker for Tyler Soderstrom, but I wouldn't be like thrilled with it because I think the higher end outcomes for Jordan Walker might be better than Tyler Soderstrom. Certainly, I think the physical tools are better for Jordan Walker. And it's just a question of how likely it is that he figures this all out.

And how likely all of this is real. There are some reasons to believe it's really. real and a lot of reasons to believe it's not. I think that the reasons to believe it's real would be the the swing changes that he's made. He has managed to further increase his already elite bat speed while actually shortening his swing ever so slightly. There are, you know, if you dig deep into the stat cast stuff, there's these stats like attack angle and ideal attack angle percentage. and he has gone from pretty poor in those metrics to pretty good, which just means that he's getting his bat on plane with the ball a little more consistently. He's also still swinging and missing a lot.

His strike rate is still 30%. His pulled air rate, Scott, I'm sure you were going to bring this one up. 5.9%. That's really bad. I almost look at that as a positive, though, Chris. The fact that he has seven home runs and he's not pulling the ball in the air, like once he starts pulling the ball in the air, just because I feel like that number has to go up at least a little bit.

Yeah, I mean, so here's the one of the other conflicting factors. I did find this story from MLB.com earlier this spring. It was March 15th from Bill Ladson and MLB.com. Walker hoping break from spring games will help sink up his swing. And if you're kicking yourself that you didn't see this Jordan Walker thing happening, I will point you to this article. the Cardinals, his swing was so out of whack this spring that the Cardinals pulled Jordan Walker out of games

for three days to work on his swing. There was no sign of this coming. And he went to drive line this offseason. My understanding was the way he put it was he wanted to get back to the swing he had as a prospect. Well, the swing he had as a prospect was not a swing that generated huge pull percentages. You know, that was never his game.

And I think trying to chase that and then trying to go all field, like they've just been kind of all over with his approach. So the way. I don't think, though, I mean, if Jordan Walker is going to be, I'm not sure I've spoken on the podcast yet. Hi, everybody. I'm here too. Sky well.

Yeah. Polaro rate is obviously very important for producing home runs. It matters less the more power you have. Yes. And it seems like Jordan Walker. might have the highest end power, which makes it, makes you wonder if the Cardinals should have just not meddled

with his swing so much in the first place. Probably. It is, it is interesting because last week, you know, last week was basically Jordan Walker hype week. Because at this time, a week ago,

he was rostered in 60, 65% of leagues. So a lot at that point, it was just like, yeah, Jordan Walker, this might be happening, pick him up. But now obviously,

I would imagine he's rostered everywhere, certainly on CBS, but I would imagine on even some of the shallower platforms out there. He's rostered everywhere since he leads the majors and home runs. And so now it's more like, okay, how sustainable is this? What are you willing to give up for him? And so that's why it might seem like you're taking more of a negative stance on Jordan Walker than we were a week ago. I mean, it's totally fair. Like Pete Alonzo, yeah.

I mean, Jordan Walker could be anything. He could even be Pete Alonzo. And obviously, I agree, Tyler Soderstrum. I'd rather have Soderstrum than Walker. I think Walker has put himself probably in the top 30 outfielders. And there's absolutely top 15 upside there, but he is striking out of 30% rate. The polar rate is very low.

Again, I'm not saying, I don't think either of those factors is disqualifying on its own for how hard Walker hits the ball. If it was a lesser batter in that respect, they didn't hit the ball that hard, then yeah, those would be huge red flags. I think they're just kind of yellow flags. But, you know, obviously we got the history of failure with Walker. He's 23, so maybe he's just coming into his own. I could see it going either way.

And so if you get a, if you get a, if you get. like a proven asset, a proven must start type of player for him who has a track record backing it up. I don't think you hesitate to do that. Yeah, I kind of think

comp might just be like Joe Adele as far as like what I'm expecting moving forward. You know, like wide range of outcomes, but we got a what, 250 average, 37 homers from Joe Adele last season, I believe? I don't know if the batting average was there, but yeah, I was like

close to 40 home runs. So yeah, I think that's a good just like post hype example of it could take a couple of years, but with someone who has just massive raw skills like this, like it takes a little bit of time, but it might be happening right now for Jordan Walker. He is 92% rostered on CBS 77% on Yahoo. So if you play on Yahoo, man, just go add Jordan Walker because there's, you know, still about a quarter of leagues on Yahoo where he's available. That is crazy. 25% of leagues asleep at the wheel. Change that immediately.

Scott, let's go over to you for your player the weekend. Someone else who hits the ball really hard. Someone who hits the ball really hard, somebody who may have needed a few years to figure it out. He is older than Jordan Walker, to be fair. And it's O'Neill Cruz, who had a monster weekend for the Pirates. Across the three games,

he went six for 11 with a double, a homer and five stolen bases, which brings his totals for the year now to five steals, I'm sorry, six steals, five home runs and six steals. It's batting 339. The strikeout rate is still high. It's always going to be high. It's up over 28%.

But it is a little better than last year. And I think more notably, two things. One, the pole air rate has doubled for O'Neill Cruz from a year ago. So, yes, he hits the ball harder than probably anyone, certainly in terms of peak exit velocity. But the home run output had always kind of underwhelmed because he wasn't angling the ball properly. Well, he's been angling the ball properly so far. But then probably even the bigger change is I know one, an issue you guys harped on throughout the preseason, and fearing O'Neill Cruz could potentially even lose his everyday status because of it.

He is crushing lefties. So he barely hit 100 against him last year, 4-71 with three of his five home runs against lefties this year. So he worked on something there from going against lefties, clearly, and it's paying dividends. Does it mean, like, all concerns are gone at this point? Again, the strikeout rate is still high, and there are repeated, disappointments, but I think of nothing else from this start, particularly from the way he's performed against lefties, he buys himself a lot of leash as an everyday player.

And I know we were worried, especially on opening day, he had those two back-to-back plays where he just looked awful in center field. And we were thinking, man, this might not last long. I think it's going to last. I think he's got a lot of leash here. I bet those people who had O'Neill Cruz as a bust, and especially those people who had O'Neill Cruz as, say, the cover boy of their bus column are feeling real stupid now. And yeah, we are a little bit, but I'm still pretty skeptical.

He's chasing more than he did last season. He's actually swinging and missing more than he did last season. His whiff rate is up to 40%. it's over 45% on both breaking balls and off speed pitches. When you dig into like the bat tracking data, there's not really much to back up the, like he's not hitting the ball out in front of the plate more often than he was, which you would expect for someone pulling the ball more.

I don't know. I remain skeptical, encouraged, certainly, especially with the performance against lefties like that. If nothing else, you have to be encouraged by that. But I personally remain pretty skeptical. I would say O'Neill Cruz is a sell high candidate for me, but who am I? You know? Jordan Walker or O'Neill Cruz?

O'Neill Cruz still. If for no other reason than the stolen bases. Like Jordan Walker's actually has a higher sprint speed than O'Neill Cruz, but I don't think he's ever stolen more than like seven bases in a season. Yeah, but I had 10 last year. Okay. I think it was worth asking because you're, you're like one of the. biggest O'Neo Cruz skeptics.

And so just to further contextualize how you're valuing Walker, if you're still taking him, well, and part of it, part of it for me is the way I'm viewing Walker is like, he is a, a guy who if he's good, it's going to be a big win for you. And so I need to, the guys I'm targeting need to be big win guys as well. I can't get Taylor Ward, you know, that kind of like, that kind of guy who's just like, yeah, he's going to be a top 30 hours. fielder, but like, you're not excited about having them on your team. Well, O'Neill Cruz is also one of those guys. Where if you're right, it's a huge win. And so I do think, you know, the floor is probably

higher for Cruz and the ceiling is probably higher for Cruz than Walker. One thing that I will remind people, O'Neill Cruz got off to a great start last year. Yes, also that. March and April, he hit 253 with eight home runs and 12 stolen bases. And from May 1st on, hit 185 with a 3rd, 33% strikeout rate and a 614 OPS. So he's gotten off to good starts in the past. This was one of the players I was going to bring up later as like one of those four hitters we might be wrong about early on. The biggest thing to me, what you pointed out, Scott, is against lefties.

If he's even adequate against lefties, that that's just a game changer for O'Neo Cruz. So even if he's like a 700 Ops guy against lefties, like that helps him tremendously all around for his fantasy skill set. So that is the thing that I am most encouraging. with early on here from O'Neil Cruz. Also very encouraging. He's healthy right now, which there's not a lot of players you can say that right now.

A lot of injuries. We've got injuries coming up a little bit later on. How about a player from the weekend who was very bad? And that would be Sandy. Come on. Right in time for you to return, Chris. I'm sorry. But at the Tigers on Sunday, six innings, 10 hits,

seven runs allowed, three homers allowed in this one. His first three starts were spank. spectacular. We pointed out at the time, all three were at home. All three were pretty good matchups. Like the Reds are kind of a middling matchup, but the first two were obviously great matchups there for Sandial Concerra. He just got crushed here. He allowed 15 hard hits, 94.4 average exit velocity against. And for as great as he has been, it's not like he's missing a ton of bats. So that's like one thing that you could point to on the negative side for San Diego Contra. I kind of lean towards this just like being a really bad start for him. Like

he was never going to be as good as he was in his first three starts, but I still lean towards him being more of that pitcher in the second half of last season, and this is kind of being a blip on the radar here on Sunday. And I pointed it out in the second half of last season a couple times. What started to make me think that Sandy was back was even the bad starts were six innings. And what did he do on Sunday? Six innings. It was maybe one of those situations where you might have preferred him not get into the sixth inning,

because I think he gave up two or three runs in that sixth inning. But that's like when this dude's on, even the bad starts are still give you something, you know? And I just think that's a sign that, yeah, this stunk. The tigers were all over him from the word jump, from the word go. But I don't know, 2607 ERA through the first four starts. Take that every time. Scott, was there anything that stood out to you on Sandy? No, I don't really see something I can point to to say, here's what went wrong, here's what I'm worried about.

I think it's, I think it was that that's baseball season kind of start, and I wouldn't be afraid to use Sandy Alcontra next time out. Yeah, one other thing, he only threw 59% of his pitches for strikes. So I didn't actually watch the start, but I can imagine if he was a little erratic and falling behind in counts, like, okay, you got to throw in the strike zone to get back into it. and obviously hitters taking advantage of that here with Sandial Ocantra. So overall, not worried about that. Someone who I am very excited about, and we have all been excited about, just wanted to give him a shout out of top because, man, he looks like one of the true breakout so far this season. That is Jose Soriano, who is off to an awesome start.

He was at the Reds seven shutout innings with 10 strikeouts. He has allowed a total of one earned run over his four starts, back-to-back-to-back-10 strikeout outings. and him just diversifying his pitch mix a little bit, throwing that four-scene fastball more, mixing in a few more splitters. Scott, it seems like this has so far taking Jose Soriano to the next level.

Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest key was pairing that four-seamer to go with the sinker that was already great. I already got a lot of ground balls and made him one of the best ground ball pitchers. And this has just taken, it has turned him into a bad messer. This is back-to-back double-digit strikeout efforts, which equals the total number.

number Soriano had for his career entering 2026. He only had two. Both were last year. They were actually in a three-start span, strangely enough. But now he's got two more. And big strikeout totals every time out, basically, five of his whiffs came on that new four-seamer that he's been emphasizing so much. But he had multiple whiffs on four different pitches,

which is not something I imagine seeing from Jose Soriano, at least the one we knew prior to this year. So with every start, it looks more convincing that he's turned the corner here. And hopefully he's going to be somebody you can slot in your lineup basically every week. The two things I would say is, one, the good starts have never been the problem for Jose Soriana. It's been the consistency. And that's the one thing that makes me struggle to buy in fully is just we've seen really good stretches from him before. and it has never lasted.

And unfortunately, I can't tell you that it's going to last this time. I hope so. The other thing is his walk rate is down to a career low 8.5%, which is awesome. He's actually throwing fewer pitches in the strike zone than he did last season in the year before, which I always think is interesting. I don't even know, like, I don't actually have anything to say about that because he's also generating more chases, so it's like significantly more. So it's like, maybe,

that four, the addition of that four seamer is just making him harder to pick up and generating weaker swings and allowing him to work effectively out of the zone. This could be a splitter. Splitters. Yeah. Are not often a called strike kind of pitch. But command and control are impossible to to quantify. And so you can throw more pitches out of the strike zone and have better control. As weird as that sounds, because if you're generating bad swings, swings on them, that's great. Those kind of strikes too. And especially if that's what you're trying to do. Yeah. So, look, I'm sure we'll get questions similar to Jordan Walker with Jose Soriano's like, do you try to sell high right now? And I think it's a similar answer. I think

I wouldn't trade him unless I'm getting a top 30 starting pitcher in return right now. Not that I would, not that I'm going to rank Jose Soriano as a top 30 pitcher this week, but it would have to be a very high end return if I'm looking to make that deal. So I'm thinking I'm going to rank I'm top. 50 though. Yeah, I don't think that's crazy at all. Before we hit our first break, reminder, sign up for Chris's newsletter if you haven't already. The FBT newsletter, CBSports.com slash newsletters. 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.

And Chris, people miss the newsletter. You know, some people hit me up with Twitter like, where's the newsletter? I'm like, Chris is in the hospital. Cool, but where's the newsletter? I'm like, he's in the hospital. What do you want me to say? I didn't bring my laptop, sorry, guys. But look, that means, you know, people like what you're doing, Chris.

Love to hear it. Love to hear. So, sign up for free if you haven't already. 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 are calling up one prospect, maybe two. The one that we know is coming for sure is Noah Schultz, who is expected to make his majorly debut on Tuesday. He is 22 years old, first round pick back in.

2022 has struggled with control in the past and was limited to 73 innings last year, but he has looked like a man possessed so far in his first three starts at AAA so far this season. Scott, I know you wrote an article about him. What do you have on Noah Schultz? Very excited. I was looking forward to featuring him in the next prospects report, but the White Sox didn't give me that chance, which is part of the reason I'm excited. Like, they didn't have to do this. There was, no clamor. There wasn't any clamoring for Schultz to come up.

Nobody was expecting him this quickly, given how disappointing he was last year. They had plenty of other boring ways they could have filled this rotation spot. Remember, this is the spot that was vacated by Shane Smith, him getting sit down somewhat surprisingly since he was their opening day starter. So like the White Sox, a non-contender decided, look, Schultz is ready. We just can't hold him back anymore. And you mentioned how well he's pitched there, Frank, four hits in 14 innings at AAA, striking out 19 while walking just two. This is somebody who the whole world was very high on two years ago. Baseball America had Noah Schultz as their number 10 prospect overall.

I thought he was the best left-handed pitching prospect in baseball. He just dominated the minor leagues that year to the tune of a 224ERA. 0.90 whip 11.7K per 9. And then struggled last year. Was dealing with Pateller tendonitis in his right knee all season long. It seems like it impacted his mechanics because he spent three months this offseason at, I believe it was the sky. Boris athletic facility in Miami,

working on those mechanics, and it was, much was written about it in spring training. The little bit he pitched for the big club in spring training, he looked dominant then too. Big, six foot 10 guy, really low arm angle, about a 20 degree arm angle. It's,

it fits right into this type that the white socks have. You know, Chris Sale, going all over all, back to Chris Sale, but also Garrett Crochet, big left-handers, big hard-throwing left-handers with low-arm slots. They love that. And Noah Schultz is the biggest of all of them. And with the exception of last year, he hasn't had any control problems.

So that is looking like the outlier that was brought about by the knee injury and the control problems that came along with it. He seems like he's back on track now. And I think he could be outright dominant. it. The biggest question is just how much volume he'll be able to take on, because you mentioned only 77 innings last year. I think it was 81 or so the year before. So is he equipped to go five right away? Well, he went five. I think at his last two starts of AAA. Could he go six? I don't know, probably not with that much frequency, but enough if the ratios are. dominant that I think you'll be happy you invested in him. It could be like

Jacob Mizzerowski last year. It could be. I mean, with the exception, like, I think Schultz will be a lot more efficient than Mizzerowski because I think strike throwing is going to be a strength for for Schultz the way it's a weakness for Mizirowski. Or the White Sox could do what they did with

Garry crochet two years ago, where they just kind of let Schultz go for the first half and then do this kind of soft shutdown in the second half. There are a lot of different ways they could go about it. But the upside is so high here. I think you need to pick them up everywhere. I'd pick them up over Emerson Hancock was one name people were asking about or, uh, what about like Grant Holmes or Joey Cantillo? Yeah, yeah, pretty easily, uh, I'd do that with them. I think they're, I think there's a hard cap to their

upside because their control is so shaky. I think you might prefer them in a points league, but it's not like those guys are likely to go particularly deep anyway. Yeah, I mean, it might turn out they finish ahead of Sanchez, sorry, Shultz in the long run. It might turn out that way. Of course, things could go wrong for Shultz. But I don't think their upside as such, Holmes and Cantillo, I'm talking about. Their upside is such that you pass up an opportunity at a guy who on an inning per inning basis. I could be ace-like.

I think you pursue the upside. Yeah, so Shultz is 49% rostered on CBS, still out there in a lot of leagues. and how much did he go for in leagues where Fab ran? So you can't pick him up in the NFBC yet because he hasn't actually pitched yet. But in my Tout Wars League, for example, 15 Team Roto, he went for $256 out of a $1,000 budget. So I had like a $123 bit on him,

and I was all right with, you know, like 12%, but 25% is quite a bit on Noah Schultz. So there's... It's 207 in mine. Okay. There's what's appropriate, like what's reason, and there's what it actually takes to win him.

This kind of goes back to the famous Andrew Friedman quote from 10 years ago, actually, where if you're, to paraphrase, if you're reasonable about pursuing free agents, you'll end up third on every free agent. I actually ended up third on Schultz in my Tao Wars League. And also, Jacob Junis, who I needed a lot, I finished third on both. So I felt justified by that quote. But anyway, I didn't see Schultz go for as much as a quarter of people's budgets in any of my leagues, but over 20%

it was the actual winning bid. I was more like you, Frank. I was going to do 12 to 15%. But, you know, it just depends how desperately you need to have Noah Schultz, I would say. And the other White Sox prospect we heard about this weekend was Sam Antinachi,

who we originally heard was being called up and then there was a conflicting report on Sunday afternoon that said the team is discussing it, but they haven't actually decided that they're promoting Sam Antonacci just yet. So he is 16% rostered on CBS, off to a great start at AAA, hitting 317, two homers, four steals, 997 OPS. Chris, would you be looking to add Sam Antinacci right now as well?

I've been putting in some low dollar bids for him. I think Sam Antenacci is a pretty exciting talent. He's got like statistically looks like a Caleb Durbin type. Yeah. But Caleb Durbin is 5'7 and kind of hits like he's 5'7. no offense to anyone to my short kings out there, but he's not a guy with a lot of pop. St. Mentanacci's actually,

like he only had five home runs last season, but the exit velocity readings have been closer to like league average for him, and it's just more of a question of, can he tap into them, can he find the right approach? Well, if you take the Arizona Fall League, the World Baseball Classic, spring training, and then what he's done at AAA,

look widely diverging levels of talent here, but I believe it's eight homers in 46 games across those. samples that's since the end of last year. And I bring that up just to say that in reading baseball prospectus's prospect right up of him entering the season, that was what they noted, that he started to

swing in a way that was tapping into that power more consistently at the end of the season and into the Arizona Fall League. He stole 48 bases last year. He's got phenomenal plate discipline. If there's even 10 homer upside here, I think San Antonio could be really interesting. It's like

what if Chase Midroth did think that helped you in fantasy, you know? Like, because like I think Chia's my drop is actually a pretty good hitter. It's just not in any way that helps you in fantasy. And Sam Antenachi could be a 30 homer guy who gets on base at times, or a 30 steal guy who gets on base a bunch and and maybe hits 10 homers. Yeah, I think Antanachi is going to be a better base dealer than either Durbin or, uh, who is the other one? My dross.

I, like, part of what impresses me so much about, about him and we saw this in a couple instances of the World Baseball Classic was just how his baseball IQ is off the charts. I loved all those deeks at second base on both lies. And his like I think he's kind of a throwback prototypical lead off hitter with great on base skills and great base stealing ability.

And if he develops power too, it's is gravy. I don't think he needs to. I think he could be, obviously this is, you know, as a rookie is he gonna amount to this? That's hard to say, but could he have a Nico Horner like career even without power for fantasy, I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Again, the name there is Sam Antinacci, and it's not a guarantee that he's getting called up, but the fact that they're discussing it, I think he's probably going to be up pretty soon here with

the White Sox. Now on to all the injuries. Nick Pavetta left Sunday start with right elbow stiffness, and he also had arm fatigue this spring, which is very scary. And the Padre said they're going to see how he feels on Monday, not sure if he'll get imaging done or make his next start. So, If we don't really have an update, I guess you'd just have to play it safe and not use him this week in fantasy. And it's especially scary for the Padres because their rotation is already incredibly thin. Yeah, it's not good for anybody.

It's certainly concerning for Pivotta. I'm a little scared here. Yeah. Edwin Diaz is being treated day to day as the Dodgers look to determine why his velocity has been down to begin the season. He allowed three earn runs on Friday. He took the blown save in that game. he is averaging 95.8 miles per hour on his fastball

last year that was 97.2. So Tanner Scott is off to a nice start. I think in deeper category leagues or in leagues where you have Edwin Diaz, adding Tanner Scott as a handcuff, I don't think it's a bad idea right now. Yeah, I put a few, like, you know, 3% bids on him, yeah. George Springer was placed in the aisle

with a left big toe fracture, John Schneider, indicated that Springer could be back close to the minimum amount of time here on the IL. Eloi Jimenez was recalled from AAA and was in the lineup as the team's DH on Sunday. Jimenez had a solid spring, hit 286 with two home runs, 94.2 average exit velocity. So in the deepest of leagues, AL only, I guess Eloy Jimenez could be an option for you. Brent Rooker was officially placed in the IL Friday with a right oblique strain. Zach Gelloff was recalled from AAA. and if you need outfield replacements for this week.

So losing Springer or Rooker, some names on Scott's sleeper hitters list for this week. Cam Smith, Ryan O'Hern, Owen Casey, and Troy Johnston. I will bring up a few other outfield replacements a little bit later on as well. A really, really, really deep option that I think is worth looking into is the guy who's actually replacing Rooker for the athletics. I like that. I like that call.

Carlos Cortez, who, I think, I think he's, you know, he's in his late 20s. I think part of the reason he's gotten passed over is he's only 5 foot 7. But the numbers in the miners last year, especially, were pretty impressive. We're taking a lot of shots at 5'4 7, guys. Yeah, it's not. It's not great. Catcher injuries this weekend.

Adley Ruchman placed in the IL Saturday with left ankle inflammation. Bad news for him, but good news for the Samuel Bessayo fantasy managers out there. Basayo actually homered on Sunday. and Gabriel Moreno went on the aisle with a back injury and some of those deeper two-catcher leagues. I think James McCann could, you know, he's going to play. I don't know that he's good, but he's going to get some playing time. Christian Yellich left Sunday with hamstring tightness.

Have you guys seen any updates here on Yelich? Yeah, let me find the quote. It was not good. They're expecting bad news was what the manager said. That was what it was, yeah. Yeah. So get him out of your lineups this week, and yeah, they've suffered quite a few injuries to start the season as well.

I guess I don't know who this would help directly. Gary Sanchez. Yeah. Yeah, I guess it's actually been awesome so far. Yeah, two catcher leagues. Other than throwing a ball at his pitcher's knee and that wasn't great. Kyle Harrison on, what was that, Saturday? Yeah, he's okay.

Not great. Well, Royce Lewis is hurt. So the answer to when will he get? hurt was April 10th for this season. Oh, the over hit. He went on the IL Saturday with a left knee sprain. Wyatt Langford missed Saturday and Sunday with a right quad injury. What do you guys think about Langford for this week? Start or sit? I thought I had seen that it was going to be a multi-week injury. I guess I don't know. I imagined that. I mean, that might be true. I don't remember seeing either way, but if he's already missed a couple games, I'd play cautiously. Yeah.

Definitely in three outfielder leagues might be harder in five. Corbyn Carroll missed Thursday and Friday with a tight hip flexer, but return to the lineup on Saturday and Sunday. Juan Soto could return for the start of the Mets next homestand on April 21st. He's on the aisle with a calf strain. Jackson Trio's fractured hand is showing signs of healing, but still has not been cleared to resume hitting. Tatsuya I. Mai traveled to Houston Saturday to be examined for his, quote,

tired arm, and it's been a brutal start for Astro's pitcher. injuries. I mean, Hunter Brown, this is my thing. Christian Javier went on the IL. So I do think that Spencer Arredetti will be up soon, probably even start this week, and he's looked really good in the minors. He's been great in AAA. I'ma went through, I mean, a whole gamut of explanations slash excuses for that bad start. It was the mound was too hard. The weather was too muggy. And now we've got the dead arm. So, I mean, I guess that explains why he was so bad. I don't think he got out of the first inning in his most recent start.

But, yeah, that's a bad start. Bad start for Tetsu, EMI. But I would, I mean, they gotta call him Spencer Getty, right? He struck out like nine in his most recent start at AAA. He's been very good so far. Yeah, I would think so. And obviously with Amai, I would not risk it and play him this week in fantasy. How about this one?

Fernando Tatis Jr. made two starts. Well, let me ask you this, because this was the one I was asked about most when I was telling people to pick up Noah Schultz. Would you drop a Mai, Tatsuya Mai for Noah Schultz? I just avoided answering because I wasn't sure. I do have a Mai still ahead of Schultz in my rankings, so I kind of let the ranking speak for me. I would not. I would not drop a mile. Yeah, I don't think I would either.

I would prefer not to. Yeah. Fernando Tati's Jr. made two starts at second base this weekend. did we have, I didn't see any inkling anywhere that this was even a possibility. I don't think he'd ever played second base. He came up, if I'm remembering currently, he came up as a shortstop, right? Yeah, and he's a gold glove right fielder. And they played Jake Croninworth at shortstop on Friday, or Saturday next to him.

That was real weird. But I'll take it three more times. That'd be awesome. That would certainly help second base for sure. Speaking of which, Sal Stewart made a start at second base as well. yeah, let's get four more of those. That'll be nice. Spencer Strider will begin a rehab assignment on Thursday. He's working his way back from that oblique injury. Trey I Savage is scheduled to make another rehab start Tuesday or Wednesday. Nick Ladolo threw a 10-pitch bullpen on Thursday at less

than full intensity. Jeremy Payneya left Saturday with right knee tightness and was not in the lineup on Sunday. Start or sit Jeremy Payneya this week. Lain sit. Yeah, I'd lean sit. Dave Roberts said Friday that Mookie Betz is symptom-free in regards to his strained right oblique, but I mean, just please don't rush this because obliques are very tricky. Cole Regens has been confirmed for his next start Tuesday in Detroit. He left his previous one after taking a comebacker off of his pitching hand. Louisa Rize left Saturday due to a right-risk contusion. He did not play on Sunday.

Start or sit Louisa Rize this week. I would try not to, I would try to sit him like Chris said. Maybe in ESPN leagues. He's really good there. Yeah, he's pretty fringy, except in leagues that severely penalized strikeouts is what that's getting at. Blake's now through 15 pitches in a live BP on Saturday. Carlos Rodon is scheduled to throw a live BP early this week. Merrill Kelly is set for his season debut Tuesday in Baltimore.

But we spoke about this on Friday, Scott. It's a sit the first time out for Merrill Kelly, right? Yeah. Yeah, I think even in, 15 team leagues where I have him. I'm going to try to avoid using him because he just, you never know how that first start back's going to go, how much rust there could be.

Even if, or even if he looks the same coming back from injury, you're playing with fire by starting Merrill Kelly right away. Matthew Boyd will make a rehab start this week. He went on the I.O. with a left bicep strain, but is expected back in the minimum amount of time, assuming no setbacks. Andrew Painter was listed as a scratch on Sunday due to a migraine,

but then he wound up pitching as the bulk. reliever and actually pitched well five innings one run seven strikeouts 14 whiffs on 80 pitches so nice little outing there from maybe uh maybe saved his job there actually so I was going to ask

um I know you guys talked about Wheeler last week but did you talk about the timetable I think he has one more start left right two more rehab starts got it they they confirm that they're going to take it all the way to the end of the rehab time so they added they're saying the 24th through the 26th. They have a series in Atlanta. That's when Zach Wheeler's likely to make his

return. As you guys talked about him, I know his velocity was down significantly. Yep. I don't know. I'm hopeful, but I'm not optimistic. I'm hopeful for Painter after this non-start where he went a starter's length, you know, even dealing with the migraine. 14 whiffs on 80 pitches. And he he's kind of been figuring out his arsenal since he's He doesn't have the dominant four seamer that he had prior to Tommy John surgery, adding different pitches and experimenting with the usage. Cut his sinker in half in this one and featured a lot more breaking balls. I think that's the way.

Thanks serve to make them all more effective. And yeah, I agree that. Painter may have stumbled on to something because he still has good stuff. He just doesn't have the good fastball anymore. Yeah. Kirby 8 is expected to go on a rehab assignment at high A soon. and a prospect to watch. Robbie Snelling struck out 12

over five scoreless innings at AAA on Friday. 30% rostered. I don't know, you know, it would have to be an injury or maybe like a couple more bad Chris Paddock starts, although they gave him $6 million, so I'm not sure. I think he needs two. Yeah.

Because Braxton Garrett's on the 40 man. That's true. And he's been good at AAA too. So this is, unfortunately, I think Robbie Snelling's second in line. That's just my take that's not based on anything, but just with, The 40 man thing, I would think they, unless it's a serious injury to someone and they, oh, the 40 man opens up. And other names who went to the aisle this weekend, Joe Boyle with a right elbow strain, Tyler O'Neill to the seven-day concussion aisle.

Christian Javier with a grade two strain in his right shoulder. Parker Meadows with a fractured arm and a concussion, nasty collision. Like 12 stitches, yeah. Yeah, nasty collision in the outfield on Thursday there for Parker Meadows. Some waiver wire hitter. Do you have something, Scott? I do have something because, you know, who's at AAA toiling away, the Tiger's top remaining prospect.

Max Clark? Max Clark, exactly. Could this be Max Clark's ticket to the majors? Might talk about that in the next prospects report. All right. Max Clark had all 12 of his chains that he was wearing in spring training. I don't know if you guys caught that, but it was something for Max Clark. It's a lot of chains.

Waiverwire hitters from the weekend. And for my shallow leaguers out there, Wilson Contreras is heating up four for five with his third home run on Sunday, back-to-back games with three RBI, 73% rostered. And Scott, I know he is on your sleeper hitters list this week. Yeah, feels dirty to call him that after he kept putting it. He actually improved his numbers for the month of April with his performance this weekend. Very hot. I think everybody should know to start, Wilson Contreras. If you play on Yahoo, I know we mentioned this last week,

but just continues to hit well. Mickey Moniac, three for four with a double-donged, four RBI on Saturday. He's all the way up to 89% rostered on CBS, but only 20% on Yahoo, which I think is his better format, a daily lineup, Head-Head Category League

where you could play him at home against right-handed pitching. That is the way to utilize Mickey Moniac. So I think he's undervalued on Yahoo right now. But no left-handers on the schedule again for the Rockies next week. He's more than 80% rostered in CBS League's, So I couldn't call him a sleeper hitter. But if you're on the fence about starting him, it is a good time to start.

There's been some some weird skill like have you noticed the tigers have not faced a left-handed starter yet this season. Yeah. And the Rockies have only faced one, right? I noticed like Colt Keith and Carrie Carpenter, I think have started every game this season. I was like, oh, that's weird. Maybe they're everyday players.

And it's like, no, they just have not faced a lefty starter yet. And the twins, I think, have faced like eight or seven. It's been real weird. I believe the Tigers face. the Royals this week and the Royals have a bunch of lefties. Yeah, they'll probably, it'll even out and we'll get a better sense of what Kerry Carbner and Keith Colkeet's actual roles are. But I just, I noticed that today and I was like, that's weird.

And it's also not a great sign for Carrie Carpenter that he's kind of not been that good and they haven't faced a lefty yet. Yep. Catcher replacements in a one catcher league. Again, if you lost a Gabriel Moreno or Adley Ruchman, Francisco Alvarez continued his nice start, hit his fourth home run. He's batting 300. He's 74% roster.

Dillon Dingler off to a nice start as well, hit his third home run on Sunday, has 11 RBI and 830 OPS early on. I think we all take Alvarez over Dingler pretty easily. Who do you guys like more between Alvarez and Jensen, Carter Jensen, in a shallower one catcher league? Alvarez for me, but it was nice to see Carter Jensen getting his wake-up call. Yeah, I think at this point I'd have to take Alvarez. But look, I think Jensen's awesome And he's playing pretty much every I think he's gotten two days off out of the last nine Since the bench the three aim benching

But Alvarez is playing every day pretty much Yeah, other outfield replacements I think these are more so names for five outfielder leagues But Evan Carter homered twice this weekend He had a sock in his shoe on Friday He has started nine straight Jorge Saler stayed hot two for four with his fourth home run on Friday He homered in three

straight games at that point, but he does have a suspension coming at some point. He's appealing it, so we don't know how long it's going to be or when it's going to start. Probably this week, though. We're just this week. Yeah. Anheil Martinez is so hot right now for the Guardians. Four straight multi-hit games before going 0 for four on Sunday. He also had a steal in three straight heading into Sunday. And Jake Bowers has taken advantage of his playing time. He homered on both Friday and Sunday. Chris, how would you rank these four outfield replacements? Evan Carter, Jorge Saler, Anhele Martinez, and Jake Bowers. Carter-Bowars-Solair Martinez. And the Saler one being low is just because I don't really think you want Jorge Saler the rest of the season. It's just kind of a hot hand

play. And he's facing a seven-game suspension at some point. I don't think you can really look at Jorge Salaris someone with longer than a seven-day timetable anyway. So that's... Makes sense. Martinez, I'm pretty sure we did this at the exact same point last year. He had a hot stretch. The skill set is just not very good there. I don't see anything, really.

All right, some deeper names here. Jose Fernandez of the DeBacks has multiple hits in three of his last five games. He has also started five straight and seven of the last eight. He's 19% rostered, has shortstop, and now first base eligibility on CBS. Just a very unique positional eligibility shortstop and first base there for Jose Fernandez. Casey Schmidt is picking things up with the Giants three for four with a homer on Sunday, three for five with two runs scored on Friday.

He has started three in a row and four of the past five. And then the aforementioned Carlos Cortez, which you mentioned, Scott, hit a three run, home run off of Kodai Senga on Saturday. He has started three straight. And my guess is we'll probably play against Ritees with Brent Rooker Hurt. The numbers in the minors last year, 322 batting average, 17 home runs, OPS over 1,000, and a pretty good plate discipline too. So kind of interesting. What do you think here?

I know you like Cortez, but any thoughts on Jose Fernandez or Casey Schmidt in Devere leagues? Well, they're more versatile than Cortez. Cortez, you can only play in the outfield. I think all positions being equal to Cortez is the most interesting of these three. I don't really see Jose Fernandez or Casey Schmidt graduating from deep league status. I don't really see Cortez doing that either, but it's a little more of a mystery box there. Fernandez, he's playing more.

He still hasn't walked yet. Ex of velocities are pretty blah. I think his, the main thing that makes him useful is he shortstop. He's shortstop eligible and might be available in the sort of leagues where you just can't find a shortstop on the waiver wire. but I don't have a lot of hope for Fernandez developing into something more. One more thing here on Carlos Cortez.

The athletics have seven home games this week. Sacramento, great park to hit in, and just one lefty on the schedule. So if you play in a deeper five outfielder league, I think Carlos Cortez is in play for this upcoming week. Let's take our final break. When we return, I've got some waiver wire pitchers. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Let's talk some waiver wire pitchers.

and for my shallow leaguers out there, I'm sure most leagues these guys are rostered, but for those who might play in like 10-team leagues or shallower. Parker Messick, another strong start. This one at the Braves, six and two-thirds, shutout innings with five strikeouts for him. Michael Waka, just an awesome start against the White Sox.

Eight shutout innings, seven strikeouts. And Braxton Ashcraft is off to a nice start. He was at the Cubs, five innings, one run, nine strikeouts. Chris, how would you rank these three? I think, you know, Messick and, And Ashcraft, we like as guys with upside coming in. And Walker's just kind of boring, but he's been really good so far. So how would you rank those three?

It's Messick, then a gap. Then I'd go Waka Ashcraft. Ooh. Down on Ashcraft. I think Ashcraft's version on Must Start. I really like his skill set. Sell me on it. Okay.

Well, I mean, great ground ball skills. We've been talking those up all along. Once he entered the rotation for the Pirates Down the stretch last year Final nine appearances at 223 ERA 113 whip 10.7K per 9 So we saw the strikeouts come up And the strikeouts have been there so far this year too

The biggest issue The biggest cause for skepticism When he was dominating in that nine appearances Late last season was that There were shorter outings They were four or five inning outings But he's given us legitimate starter's length here.

Showing the strikeout ability that came on. I always had the good ground ball skills. Weak contact being generated too. I think there's a lot to like here for Ashcraft. I haven't even mentioned the RP eligibility for points leagues, but I think he's just good. So he would be my top choice of these three even ahead of Messick. Yeah, I think Messick versus Ashcraft is very close.

I would probably lean Ashcraft. I think there's a little bit more swing and miss there. I do like both quite a bit. And Michael Walker is just, he's usually pretty reliable and he's he's off to a really good start there if i could yankees this week not great matchup if i could mention for waka because this did come up too in the shultz discussions can you drop waka for shultz if you picked up waka for the two-star week he gave you two great starts is is that okay i think we know who waka is in the long run i mean he could give you a

load of mid three zara potentially but it would that's the best case scenario and there wouldn't be a lot to go with it would be pretty boring i i think if you you can hold on to him great he'll be serviceable but i i think that's the best you can hope for there and if you have a shot at a actual exciting pitcher i think it's worth making the exchange he's the kind of pitcher you're not likely to like really regret dropping if you do i do wonder in a in a points league it feels like that's probably walk his best format just because he goes pretty deep in a start so again it's like him versus schultz in a points league like i just don't know how much volume you're going to get so I could see that being a closer call yeah but you gotta like their walkas are a dime a dozen

you know there there's always another walk out there you could stream I get to me it's like you can get in your head who's more likely to rank higher but in leak with a ample waiver wire like I'm less concerned about that than who can be an actual difference maker potentially and I think it's clearly shult it's like what we talked about with with Jordan Walker earlier like like Michael Walker is more likely to be a top 50 starting pitcher, but like Brady Singer finished as a top 50 starting pitcher last year. You know, that doesn't really tell you much. You still want, even if Noah Schultz gives you a month of impact, that's probably more valuable for your team than Michael Walker. Next group of Waverwire pitchers here.

All had good outings this weekend. Stephen Matt's, Landon Rupp, Davis Martin, Foster Griffin, and Aaron Savali. Scott, any of those names stand out for you? Matt's, Rup, Davis Martin, Foster Griffin, Aaron Savali. Matt's because he is with the race and his pitch selection has changed a little bit. He's thrown his best pitch to change up more. That's the main thing I've noticed there. He's head back-to-back good starts with decent strike at total. He's RP eligible.

I don't even think he's in Waka's class right now. I think he's just somebody who, you know, I was throwing a couple bucks on him in the 15 teamers. and he has the RP eligibility. But I think he's the most interesting of this group. Rup, you know, he's had two good starts, one bad. I think he's worth monitoring still. I don't have a great read on who Rup is yet. You know, I think he's worth monitoring,

but I'm not to the point where I'm really that interest in pursuing him. I think these guys are kind of all as good as their next matchup. Yeah. And Stephen Hats at the White Sox this week. At Cincinnati, unfortunately. Yeah. Matt's at the White Sox this week. It's pretty good.

Yeah, has that RP eligibility on CBS as well, so as a spark. Yeah, I'm a little intrigued by Matt's. Again, it's like the raise of it all, 16 whiffs in this outing, throwing his best pitch more. It's just slightly intriguing there for Stephen Matt. A couple deep league names here. Kade Air Montero, Jack Kohanowitz, J.T. Gin. Ginn, Kade Povich, all had good to great starts this weekend. Chris, any of those names stand out to pretty deep names.

Catera Montero, Kohanowitz, J.T. Ginn, and Kate Povich. Maybe it's because I've just been hangary for eight days, but watching the Marlins at bats this weekend was so infuriating. They looked like they had no plan against any of the Tigers pitchers. I think that was what happened against Cater Martero. I do not think Catero Montero was great in this. start. I don't think any of these guys are particularly interesting at all. Kate Povich, I think it was his birthday. Great start on your birthday. Congratulations.

Yeah. That's all I have to say, really. I think Povich is one to watch just because he had some prospect pedigree, 17 whiffs on 97 pitches here against the Giants. So it was a good outing. So I think just a name to watch there. And Scott, you and I spoke about J.T. Ginn. We've always kind of been intrigued. It's like, you know, he's got a good slider. He's got a sinker that he's like throwing a little bit harder, so I think he's just a name to watch. Are you guys okay dropping any or all of these names in 12 team leagues? Eric Lauer, Jacob Lopez, Lance McCullors, Roki Sasaki, Andrew Abbott. I don't know, man. Yeah, I think it's fine to drop any of those guys. I think Abbott would be the one I'm most likely to hang on to, but I don't think it's a must

roster. I don't think I could drop Abbott yet in the 12th teamer as good as he looked in his first, was it two starts or three starts? Was this his fourth start or his third? I think this was his fourth because he started opening day, I believe. Yeah, I thought so. And obviously he was good last year. It's a sort of profile where you're sometimes going to get ugly starts like this. But I think he still needs to be rostered in typical 12 teamers.

The rest I'm fine dropping. I've continued to hold out for Jacob Lopez and, 15 teamers, but he's right on the cusp, and I obviously don't want him in my lineup right now, as high as the walks have been. I still think there's a lot of strikeout upside there, and it could all click into place, but not a 12 team or not worth waiting Lopez out. We spoke about O'Neill Cruz earlier on. Three other hitters we might be wrong about. Still early in the season, but man, they are off to great starts. James Wood, opening day seems so far away at this point.

Four-hit game on Friday, a sock in the shoe on Sunday. His last, last seven games. He's got four homers, 11 RBI, two steals, and has the strikeout rate down to 28%. Andy Paix, three for three with a home run on Friday, one for three with a steel on Saturday, moved all the way up to third in the lineup for the Dodgers on Sunday, up against Jacob DeGrom. He is off to an amazing start. And Chandler Simpson, man, he continues to rake three for four with a triple and his seventh stolen base on Sunday. I believe leading baseball in batting average. so far, 4-11 with seven steals here for Chandler Simpson. I believe he's let off the last two games for the race, too.

Two of the last three. He was out of the line. He was out of the line. He was out of the lineup twice so far. One of them was on opening day. So yeah, awesome start for Chandler-Simson for sure. And his defense has actually rated out really well. It's such a small sample size that it's almost not worth.

mentioning, but that was as big of a concern as anything for Chandler Simpson as far as the playing time. So the fact that he hasn't been a disaster defensively, I think is a good sign for his chances of staying in the lineup. I've seen him make some good catches already this season. I also saw him make an awful play on Saturday where he like dove for a ball that had, like, he had no chance of ever catching it. And it should have been a single and it wound up like a triple because it just like rolled past him. But I have seen some other really good catches from Simpson, too. early on. I just like that we can have a Juan Pierre type player in baseball again.

That's what it feels like Simpson is. I don't know. You know, the kids out there wouldn't understand the allure of Juan Pierre. But he was a legend in his own right. Yeah. I mean, that was he had,

I think, it wasn't a stand-up triple. He had to slide in, but the triple he had, I think, on Saturday was very impressive. There is no juice in this bat whatsoever. I mean, he is just the prototype.

Like, you look at the spray chart. He's got a ton of hits. All of them are ground balls, basically. But that's the skill set, right? Like, he's got phenomenal back control, elite speed. He's making it work for him right now. And like I said, as long as the defense isn't a disaster, I think he's going to be an everyday player for them.

So Chandler Simpson, I think, is the one I've, who's, done the most to improve his standing in my eyes. Everyone else is kind of the, this is just, we have seen these stretches for Andy Pahas. We have seen these stretches for James Wood before. James Wood still only has one batted ball in the air to the pull side for the season, a single one. And Frank, you mentioned the last seven games, four-home runs. Before that, I think his OPS was like 400. And his strike rate was 40%. So we are still at that stage in the season where one good week can dramatically alter how your overall line looks. I don't think anything we've seen from James Wood,

Andy Paa has less so for O'NL Cruz, but even then, I think it's mostly still fitting in with what we know of these guys. And I also don't want to make, like, I also don't want to overstate the negative on Wood. Yeah. Obviously, he was a, we all would have taken him in round three of a proto league.

It's just when you're looking at the early round players, who has obvious red flags that might make you wary and Wood had, I think, the brightest red flags of anyone in those first three rounds. It doesn't mean he can't be great. I mean, he was last year. It's just kind of front-loaded. And, you know, hopefully he is again. He certainly has the ability to be.

I do think it's funny that James Wood was the one we were almost scared off of. and I think we all kind of walked off our Pete Crow Armstrong bus calls a little bit. And Peekar Armstrong is the one that's been a disaster so far. Yeah. It is funny how that works. But it's 15 games, right? Like it's just, unfortunately, I know that annoys people when we say, but it's 15 games. It just, it's, if Peacre Armstrong has three good games in a row, his numbers are going to look good.

If James Wood has a bad week, his numbers are going to look bad. That's just kind of where we are right now. Yeah, it's a drop in the bucket. Like when you just think about it, it's one-tenth of the season. There's still a lot to play out. What do we do with these pitchers? Kodi Senga had a rough outing against the athletics. Two in a third inning, seven runs loud, two homers loud.

His first two starts were good. I noticed the velocity has been trending down, though. He was 97.4 miles per hour on the fastball in his first start. It was 96 in his second and then 95.6 here in his third. He is at the Cubs this week. and the other name is Tanner Bybee here who got rocked at the Braves, four and two thirds, 11 hits, eight runs allowed, and lots of hard contact against him in this one.

He is home against the Orioles. What are you guys doing with Kodi Isanga and Tanner Bybee right now? I'm dropping Tanner Bybee for Noah Schultz. I think he's below the Schultz threshold. I would rather have Tanner Bybee than Noah Schultz, but I totally get it and I think that's fine. It would be, it's not just, so to make sure people don't think I'm being inconsistent here, it's not just Bybee's been bad to start this year, which he has.

I mean, this was obviously the worst start, but he wasn't working deep into starts, wasn't getting strikeouts, look bad. I got a 422 ERA last year. We were giving him a lot of leeway for that because his first two years were good. But when he follows up a very disappointing season, that just, by face value did not deserve to be a must roster pitcher and he follows it up with this start like I and he's not really even giving us anything beneath to to like be reassured about like no I don't I don't need to hold on to this guy just because his name's Tanner Vivey he did

finish the season well last year three good starts at the end but good starts and there was some like he storing his cutter more and that was the hard we were looking at but yeah this is like I've talked a lot about like Michael Harris over the past like year and a half where like when you're talking about young hitters, they generally don't just lose it at 24. That just like it happens sometimes, but generally speaking guys who are really good don't just stop being good at all. Hitters. Pitchers, it happens pretty regularly. And this is like what is so frustrating about pitchers is Tanner Bybee coming off his age 24 season in 2024 was. Like, not an ace, but a, like, a really good number two starting pitcher. Fringe number one. A guy, if that was your first starter in a playoff series, you felt okay about it.

He didn't get hurt as far as I can remember. He just kind of stopped being good. And that happens with pitchers sometimes, man. Like, that's just, that's just the nature of the game. Like, you just, you lose a little bit and it just cascade. And the opposite is also true. I was talking to someone this weekend about Kevin, we were talking about Jansen Junk.

And I was talking about how 30-year-old with a career 470 ERA, he's probably not good, but like you can look at the underlying numbers. And that person reminded me, Kevin Gosman had like a 430 ERA for his career until his age 30 season. Sometimes guys just figure it out. Tanner Bybee clearly has talent, has done it in the past. If the light goes on and Tanner Bybee, becomes good again, I wouldn't be surprised, but it's been a long time since we've seen that

from Tanner Bybee. I mean, Michael Waka's career followed that trajectory. He was great at the start, lost it, and then became pretty good again at the end of his career. Yeah, it's just pitchers are weird, and sometimes this happens. So yeah, I'm not saying Tanner Bybee is a must drop, but it's definitely not a must roster pitcher, either. Starters sit these pitchers in 12-team leagues this week.

Ranger or Ron Herr Suarez, excuse me, had his first strong start with the Red Sox. He was at the Cardinals, six shutout innings with six strikeouts. He's only 50% started home against the Tigers this week. What do you guys think about Suarez? I'm probably starting him.

Yeah, I agree. Real quick, did we have any concerns about Kodi-Sanga? He didn't throw enough strikes in this start, but other than that, I don't see. I would not want to use them. against the Cubs. Yeah, I think I'd lean towards

sitting him, but I'm not dropping him. Sure. Yeah. Swara, Scott? You good with... Yeah, I'd be fine starting Swaras. Ranger Swarres. Ron Hare, Swares. Emmett Sheehan's velocity is ticking up a little bit here. He turned into quality start. Six innings, three runs, six strikeouts,

and his fastball up to 95.2 in this one, last year, 95.6. So I thought that was pretty encouraging here for Sheehan. He is at the Rockies this week. What do you guys think about that machine? And the velocity did fade as he went deeper into the start. It was down to like 94.5 in the final two innings. I could be wrong, but doesn't that happen to most pitchers?

Yes. But when we're talking about a guy who has struggled with his velocity, I'd prefer especially because he only threw 77 pitches in this game. It's not like he was up to 100. So it's just like we've talked about, There's just a lot of weirdness with MSShean. So I'm not giving up on him, certainly. I still think he's good.

It's just I want to see, I want to see like one great, I would love to see a 90 pitch good start from MS Sheen to feel really good about him. Probably don't want to play him in Colorado this week, though, right? I would be okay with it. I'm not, I'm not that scared of course field these days, to be honest, just because the Rockies lineup is so bad. Troy Johnson would like a word, Scott.

Yeah. Just some respect to Edward Julian. Lead off hitter. Rough weekend for Troy Johnston, I'll point out. No, I mean, obviously things could go south, but you miss out on a lot of good starts if you just reflexively bench everyone at Corse Field. I think I'm not saying you have to start Emishy in there. I would obviously weigh my options.

But if it was him or, you know, Koraa Senga, I'd probably start she in. They were 12th in run scored at home last season. I think that's probably above average offense at course field, but not for most of the Rockies time, it was top three offense at worst. Yeah. Luis Castillo had a stinker here against the Astros,

three in a third innings, 10 hits, seven earned runs, and typically he's really good at home. That was not the case this weekend. 62% started on the road at the Padres this week. What do you guys think about Castillo? I liked what he did in his first start where he went four-seam slider and just kind of simplified things.

It seemed to go really well. But then he got away from that. His last two starts and the results have been a lot worse. And I don't know. He's, I don't know how long, obviously I'm getting ahead of myself here on purpose. given the way Castillo's career has been trending, how bad would has April have to be for you to say at the end of April,

yeah, this is somebody I might just drop for the waiver wire pickup du jour. Mid-fours, mid-for's ERA with estimators that don't really say he should be much better. That's it. That doesn't sound too crazy. I mean, he's got a 692 ERA right now. Right.

Yeah. Right. There are some things going on with Luis Castillo. I don't know how real any of them are. He's getting more vert on his fastball, but that's also coming from a higher arm slot. It's only five degree difference, but it's something that I think Lance Brutthowski noted in one of his newsletters recently. You should subscribe to that. I don't know.

I'll give him a little more time, but I think. I think Luis Castillo is closer to Michael Waka than he is to a must-start pitcher, I think. Mm-hmm. Last name on this list is Tosh Bradley, who a little bit wild in this one, four walks, but one run over five innings had seven strikeouts at the Blue Jays. He is 67% started home against the Reds this week. Are you guys good, rolling Tosh Bradley out there? If I can't trade him first, personally, I'd view Tage Bradley as one of the more obvious

sell high candidates but i also have never really believed in taj bradley this was clearly his worst start of the year and it was still pretty good it was mostly just the walks that bit um that splitter was not splittering scott well it had it had the it had the drop it didn't get any whiffs coming in with a 58% whiff rate so that was a little weird but it it it had significantly more dropped than last year like we were seeing before i don't know it's one start of that so i'm not gonna have a major reaction either way. I'd be okay starting him against the Reds. I think I would start Shia and at Colorado over Bradley against the Reds,

but it's right in the same tweener area for me. Let's get it to the rest of the leftovers. I've got pitchers, part one, Chota Imanaga, an awesome start Friday against the Pirates. Six no-hit innings with nine strikeouts. Chris Boobitch was amazing. Seven shutout with 11 strikeouts against the White Sox. Joe Ryan, seven innings, two runs, five strikeouts at the Blue Jays,

and Max Freed, another strong start. This one at the raise, eight innings, three runs, six strikeouts to zero walks. Chris, anything that stood out here for you on Freed, Joe Ryan, Bubich, or Imanaga. How much longer does Chris Boobich have to do this to be a top 30 starting pitcher? I think he's really good. Not too long. I don't think. Yeah, I mean, this is one of those ones where it's like,

It's hard to do that before the season, given the injury concerns, and the injury concerns will never go away, I think. But when he's doing it, like, this dude's awesome. He's really good. That, like, this fastball's only 91, but guys just can't hit it sometimes. Really deceptive fastball, yeah. I think Chris Boo is just really good. Yeah. I don't.

I think there's definitely some sell high potential here, but that's mostly just because I don't know that he can stay healthy. But I think he's awesome. Imenaga, I find it positive that his velocity remains up so far. His fastball 92.2 in this start or on the season last year was 90.8. So a nice little jump up there for Imanaga. Leftover is part two. Freddie Peralta took a tough loss against the athletics. Six innings, one run, six strikeouts.

Terrick Scuba bounced back against the Marlins, six and two thirds, one run, seven strikeouts. Drew Raspison, a great start against the Yankees. Six shutout with seven. strikeouts and Brandon Woodruff pitched well against the Nationals, six innings, two runs, one of those earned with six strikeouts. Scott, anything on Woodruff, Raspison, Scoobel, Peralta. Enjoy those six inning. Rasmussen starts when you get him because they're not. They're not very often. He threw only 76 pitches getting through those six innings. So that's also really hard to do. He's good, but he is as limited.

And how deep he goes into games is any pitcher in baseball, I would say. So that is my take on Rasmussen. And I think that's probably enough for these four. And if I just say Woodruff is like this felt like he can't keep getting away with its start for Woodruff. I don't want to be too negative because being too negative about Brandon Woodruff was really stupid last season. But I don't know, man.

The stuff is not even where it was last. year I think but this is a good start the velocity was up a little bit like half a mile per hour I guess that's one positive here for Woodruff but I know a couple of his other starts were in cold weather too so that might have been affecting him so what specifically did you not like about the stuff because he got a lot of whiffs on his fastball which is where we want Woodruff to be it's the the various stuff metrics have not been very positive on Brandon Woodruff in a way that they were last season at least from what I've seen maybe I'm maybe I saw the

wrong thing, but that was. Okay. And the velocity's not quite where it was even last year. So yeah. Just it all feels a little precarious. I will also point out, I don't think we've mentioned it, Freddie Peralta's velocity has been about a mile and a half per hour down so far this season. He's had like two extra inches of induced vertical break on his fastball.

So it's an interesting tradeoff there. And something we've also seen fluctuate with Emerson. in Hancock, where the harder festival has less induced vertical break. Which happens just because there's less time for the ball to break along the way to the home plate is my understanding that like 18 inches of IVB at 92 is worse than 18 inches of IVB at 96 is my, that's my understanding at least. Last group of pitching leftovers is Logan Gilbert's great starting at sea Astros, seven innings, one run, seven strikeouts for.

him. Jacob de Grom, great start at the Dodgers, six innings, one run, nine strikeouts, and Chris Sale picked up the win against the Guardian, six innings, one run, six strikeouts. His velocity was up a little bit in the start as well. Chris, anything on sale, DeGrom, Gilbert, Studs. Yeah, you guys are awesome. Jacob de Grom first pitch fastball home run to Shoha Tani, and then he shuts down the Dodgers the rest of the way. That's pretty cool. I believe Chris Sale, this doesn't matter, but he threw his hardest pitch in 12. 2019. And this one, he had 99.4 miles per hour.

That's neat. Good for him. Some guys just don't age, man. He liked those city connect jerseys. Didn't, didn't cut them up with scissors? You got to take the scissors away, right? You can't have scissors in the clubhouse when you introduce a new uniform around Chris Sale. It was a comfort thing, though, right?

With the jerseys that they were the ones that had the, they had the collar, I think. It was like those weird white socks jerseys. It wasn't an aesthetic. thing. Wasn't a stylistic critique. Some hitting leftovers. Elie De LaCruz had himself a nice weekend. Homeward on Friday, two steals on Saturday, homered again on Sunday. And I noticed four of his five home runs have come against left-handed pitching so far. And like O'Neill Cruz, he's been much better against lefties this year than he ever has been in his career.

So we'll see if Ellie De LaCruz could keep that up. Dalton Varsho is heating up. Last four games, seven hits, two home runs, and a steal. Gunner Henderson off to a great start. had two homers and two steals this weekend. Yordon Alvarez also stayed hot, two more home runs. He is up to six, and he is hitting 340 on the young season. Max Muncie of the Dodgers for three.

Four for five with a triple dong on Friday, including a walk-off home run in that game. Tyler Soderstrom had the double-dong five RBI game on Saturday. Ramon Luriano, I hope you took your own advice, Scott. Ramon Luriano is a sleeper. Homer, both Saturday and Sunday. He's off to a great start. Four homers, three steals,

and he has hit lead off in the last seven games that he has played with the Padres. Kevin McGonigal is on the board, his first career home run on Sunday, and he has let off three games in a row as well. And the batting average has not been there for Jackson Merrill so far, but the power and the speed has three homers,

three steals one year after having just one stolen base. So nice early signs there from Jackson Merrill. The call to the bullpen for the pirates on Friday, Friday, Gregory Soto pitched in the eighth inning, facing the heart of the Cubs lineup. Dennis Santana got the ninth. He struck out two for his first save. Then on Saturday, Dennis Santana also got the ninth

with a one-run lead, and he blew the game, took his first blown save. Do you guys have any rhyme or reason to the Pirates bullpen right now? Well, it's not just Gregory Soto. Just like it's not just Dennis Santana. Frustrating. Will it eventually be one of them? I think the chances are better than not,

but I couldn't. No, I think the odds are better. It'll be Santana because I think he's, I think he's better. I'd lean 60-40, Santana. But I think if you're in leagues where saves are scarce, you've got to just hold both. And if you're in leagues where saves aren't scarce,

probably don't bother with either. For the debacks, Paul Sewell picked up his fourth and fifth saves this weekend. For the Tigers on Friday, Kenley Jansson picked up his second save. For the raise on Friday in a save situation, it was Griffin Jacks, who was used in the sixth inning, Ian Seymour and the seventh. Hunter Biggie in the eighth.

Brian Baker in the ninth. He allowed two hits but picked up his second save. Then on Saturday, Brian Baker was used in the eighth inning with a one-run lead facing the heart of the Yankees lineup. He allowed two earn runs, took his first blown save.

I think Baker is just the highest leverage guy right now. I'm closer to saying Baker is the race closer than I am to saying anybody's the Pirates closer, I think. Which doesn't mean I'm especially close, but... All but his most recent appearance has come in the ninth inning. Like five of his first six appearances in the ninth inning,

including three times to finish out the game. So, like, that is his inning, it seems like. So, yeah, I think Baker, I think Baker's a priority at in league where saves are scarce, and I saw that happening in some of those 15 teamers this weekend. For the Royals, Lucas Ers, picked up his fourth and fifth saves on Friday and Saturday. For the Brewers on Friday, Trevor McGill got the ninth inning with the game tied.

He was charged with four runs on a hit by pitch and two hits took his second loss. For the Cardinals on Friday, Riley O'Brien struck out one for his fourth save, and he just seems to be settling in as their closer. 68% rostered on CBS. Scott, do you think Riley O'Brien is a must roster, even in, let's say, Head-10 points leagues? there are always some closers out there in head-to-head points leagues

since there are only two relief pitcher spots to fill in a lot of spartes filling them so 68% given the number of head-to-head points leagues that exist on CBS is probably about right I mean Riley O'Brien's more rosterable than anybody in the Pirates bullpen or Brian Baker or I'd take them over Paul Seawald's

at this point I think so probably about on equal footing with Jordan Romano, I would say. Riley O'Brien is. So hopefully that gives you enough context. For the Yankees on Saturday, David Bednar got the 10th inning with a one-run lead. He allowed two runs on a walk

and two hits. He took his second loss. And he's looked pretty shaky early on. 540, ERA, 225 whip, and his fastball is down 1.6 miles per hour early on here. So definitely something to watch, but it's not like anyone else has really stepped up in the Yankees

bullpen either, so I don't... Like, Doval has experience, but he hasn't been it's very good either it's got to be far be it for me to express sympathy toward yankees fans but it's got to be so frustrating every year to think you have a set closer and he comes out of the gate looking like this you know obviously bednar's been through it before so it's not no way to see it coming for bednar it's not totally surprising and it wouldn't be totally surprising if he just figures it out again but it's it's impossible to say where it's going to go from the year.

Yeah. Something I just needs a trip to AAA for the third year in a row to figure it out. Something I thought about on Sunday with you being back, Chris, was, uh, I was close to a Yankees rant coming into today. Our first Yankees ran of this season. Here we go. Sunday, April 12th. I mean, Yankees and Mets fans are really having a miserable off competition right now. Both teams have lost five games in a row. So it's, yeah, they both started out pretty well.

Yeah, that's, uh, that's, uh, It's not going great right now. For the nationals on Saturday, Clayton Beater got the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He allowed a solo homer but picked up his second save. Then on Sunday, Beater was unavailable. It was Gus Varland who picked up his first save. I feel confident that Beater, I would rank Beater behind Brian Baker and all the Pirates guys. Yeah?

Is that fair to say? I don't know that. Yeah, I guess Beater's the closer. in Washington, but very tenuous. For the athletics on Sunday, with a one-run lead, it was Joel Kuhnall, who got the ninth inning, and he picked up his second save of the week. Any deep league interest in Joel Kuhnil of the athletics? I think he has an 8% strikeout rate right now.

His career numbers are terrible. Yeah, they're telling him. He's probably bad. They're a mediocre team. It's a horrible home ballpark. I think only 15 team leagues. And then for the Rangers on Sunday, Jacob Junis picked up his third save of the season.

Scott, how much did you see Junis going for in your 15 teamers? Well, I dropped 144 on him out of 1,000, and I finished third in Tat Wars. Really needed him too. So Andrew Friedman did again. There. He went for...

I got him for 11 at my TGFBI. for what this right. Jealous. I think Frank got him in Tao Wars and you didn't even need him. Yeah, I got it for 88 and Tal Wars and 93 and TGFBI. So it's like, this is why, like, why even bother to share fab figures? Like, it, there's no consistency. It's just like if somebody wants them bad enough, he's going to plop a lot of money on him.

And that's always what it is. You just throw out, you know, oh, I saw the top guys go. for $80 last week, so I'm going to go $120 and hope that's enough, and then it's not, or you win them by $90, and either way, it's like I felt like I should have known better, but there's no standard. It's pointless. I'm sorry, Scott. I'm sorry you didn't get you.

That's my rant. Because I know what's going to happen. I know the next time there's a pop-up closer in Tout Wars, okay, 144 wasn't enough. I'm going to go 160. and then the backup bid's going to be $39. And I'm going to be like, wow, that was stupid. To stream or not to stream on Monday, we have Will Warren up against the Angels,

Michael Burroughs at the Meriters, Grant Holmes up against the Marlins. Does anyone else stand out like Kate Cavali at the Pirates? I don't know. I think it's probably top three. Warren's, well, Burroughs at Seattle is probably my favorite. But Warren, I like the combo of like, he's got a high floor as it is

and then the Angels are a high strikeout team so I like that combo that you could get an unexpected couple of extra strikeouts from Warren so I think those two are well then the Marlins were awful Angel burned us a couple times this weekend

yeah that's true not that I mean look any team could burn anybody at any time but it was frustrating I think Holmes against the Marlins is the top choice Monday I like all three of them yeah I'd probably rank them Holmes, Burroughs, Warren on Monday. And I might like them.

I don't know if I like that. I might like them more than anybody on Tuesday. Let's talk about Tuesday. Mitch Keller up against the Cardinals, Max Meyer at the Braves, Fernando Lopez against the Marlins, Mick Abel against the Red Sox, Noah Schultz in his debut against the Rays,

Joey Cantillo at the Cardinals, and Jeffrey Springs, home against the Rangers. So Lopez's suspension, that's done already, right? Yeah, they, yeah. It was a six-game suspension, and I think they just flipped

flopped him in Holmes to not have to bring in an extra starter. I think it drops it to five too. So yeah. Lopez I think is clearly the best here, but Cantillo against the Cardinals is pretty good as well. Yeah. I think Springs against the Rangers, although it's in Sacramento, but he's pitched well so far. And I don't think the Rangers lineup is that. Yeah. So yeah, I, I think I'd actually go Cantilla one. Springs to Lopez three. But, and I like that top three better than Mondays. All right. Yeah. Holmes, I like best between the two days, but that top three on Tuesday seems a little stronger.

We are going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to 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.